Lambing is almost over...

Yes it is great to be almost done with Lambing.  I prefer the lambs to be born early and will try and get everyone lambing in Feb and Mar next year.  The lambs and ewes do better in the cooler weather before it gets to hot.  It would be nice to wean the lambs by the end of May.  We wean all our lambs at 3 months of age.

Today it is in the 80s and a nice breeze is blowing.  It has been dry with low humidity, so it is nice.  We still have 3 ewes to lamb.  One is old Luthien who is bagging up, but probably will not lamb until May.  The other two are 2 year olds, one is the lovely Ulani and the other Blackie.  Neither one lambed as a yearling and Ulani may be pregnant, but Blackie I do not think so.  We will have to wait and see.

The barn is finished and we have put in over half the garden.  To date, we have tomatos, lettuce, cucumbers, sweet corn, collards, sweet potatos, squash, some herbs, and green beans planted.  I hate to say this, after all the rain this winter, but we could really use some rain.  The pastures could use some rain to get the grass to jump a bit and we hope to cut our first hay in May.  The garden could use a bit of rain as well.  We are watering from the well to get the crops going.

We will be skirting fleece and sending it off to the processor.  If there is enough, I would like to have socks made.  I am thinking large and extra large socks, mid calf height.  Let us know what you think.  We will only be able to carry a couple of sizes and right now, everyone we know has big feet like me...

We are experimenting with raising some turkeys.  They are Broad Breasted Bronze Turkeys.  We have six turkey poults, which are baby turkeys.  They are straight run, meaning both male and female.  We have had them for a week now and they are growing quickly.  We are feeding chicken starter 18% plus a bit of soybean meal to up the protein to 22%.  We will make a moveable pen out of an old trampoline and place wire around it.  It will keep them safe, give shade and shelter, and can be moved daily for them to free range on pasture.  We will keep everyone posted on how it works. 

We took the two lambs I bought from a friend to the processor and we have had lamb chops and steaks the last couple of nights.  Wow!  They are good, not as sweet as the Icelandic, but pretty darn good.  We grilled the steaks on the grill and boy, they were worth the effort to run to the other farm and carry feed and water over there as well.

Oh, Mr Paul has fixed the water lines and we were able to move the cows to the back pasture.  I had been fusing at Mr Paul for hitting the line with a trencher.  When we dug it up, it had been crushed, more then likely by the fence builders when they put in the cross fencing.  No matter...  We now have water to the back pasture and several water access points to fill water quicker and finally put in the auto waters.

My little lamb Baby Girl is sooo cute (the picture above and to the right is of Baby Girl.)  She is a shetland ewe lamb.  She is black now, but will gray out.  She is a pure Shetland ewe lamb and is my baby.  She follows me everywhere and hollars if I get out of site.  She even helped me catch a yearling Icelandic Lamb with her newborn by hollaring and getting the young mom to follow her up to the barn.  She is more help then the herding dog.  Baby Girl is now at the farm.  I wanted to pen her with Hill Billy, who is now a nigerian wether and have him teach her to eat better.  Hill Billy wanted to knock the baby around and be mean, so Baby Girl is by herself until we come up with a solution.  She is nibbling grain & eatting some hay, but needs to learn to eat more.

Spring has arrived...

We have been busy with spring Lambing and Kidding.  The ewe to the left is Blackberry with her twins by Phanom. 

In between we did some shearing.  I had a pro come in to shear the sheep and was not pleased with the results.  The picture to the left are the four new Mini Cheviots and what they looked like after the Pro Shearing.  Yeah, a picture is worth a thousand words...

I am still not sure if our Shetland Ram will be able to breed.  His penis was cut and he developed an infection and then had trouble urinating.  I think we finally have him straight and hopefully he will be able to breed this fall.  We also had a really nice Icelandic ewe lamb who lost a teat.  Yeah....  and that is not all.  I will be reshearing most of the flock due to the uneven, chunks of wool left behind.  My disappointment in the shearing can not be expressed and the stress of almost loosing my ram is not worth bringing in another to shear.  The young ewe had the tip of the teat cut off, which means I will be raising bottle babies off of her, which is added stress and work. I have put in for two weeks of Vacation in October and will be shearing the entire herd myself.  I did it last spring and no one was missing any body parts. The awful weather last fall caused us to loose most of our prime Icelandic Fleece, which felts by spring.

We have had two sets of triplet Nigerian Dwarf kids from first time fresheners.  They are both producing plenty of milk for the kids and all are doing well.  All the yearlings we have For Sale have kidded.  We will be selling some with their kids and some without.

Our barn is being built today and will look like the picture to the left.  It will be 60 x 80 and we will have an area to put the entire flock, no matter the weather, to get everyone shorn and be able to put them up to grow some fleece if the weather turns cold, like it did last year.  We will add the sides over time and enclose part of it for kidding and lambing and have a nice milking area.  With the hot climate of Alabama, we will leave it open for the summer and enclose the North side this fall.  The pictures below are of the building in progress.

We will be storing hay and this year plan to do all square bales, which are easier for me to handle.  We have purchased a square baler and are ready to bale when the fields are ready.  I hate round bales and really hate unwrapping them.  I find they waste a lot of hay and the goats, forget it, they waste 50% of the bale.  The goats climb on and have a field day tearing it up, urinating and deficating all over it.  You can also bet whoever may have a bit of loose stool will have a blow out all over the bale as well...

We have also cleaned out the goat shed and put crushed ashfault down in order to keep the goats dry and out of the water if we get weather like last fall and winter.  I had let the bedding build up to have a dry spot for the herd.  The bedding is in a huge pile by the garden.  We tried to burn it, but there is enough manure to not burn well and it has been smoldering for a week now.  It will need to compost this year and maybe next year will be able to use it in the garden. 

I am getting spring fever big time and am ready to start digging in the garden.  We still need to add dirt to build up the garden and keep it out of the water.  I do not want everything to drown like last year if we get a ton of rain again.  Hopefully the garden will be ready by the end of the month.  I have onions and garlic from last fall which never got into the ground and want to plant some lettuce before it gets to hot and bolts.  Sweet corn of course and this year I want to try some potatos and sweet potatos as well.

We have also worked the rams, trimming hooves, worming if needed and we trimmed some horns as well.  Snow man is pictured to the left and below.  His horn was growing into his face on the left.  We decided to take both sides because the other was so close as well and would eventually need to be cut.  Duncan the Shetland Ram and Snow man one of the Icelandic rams needed horns trimmed.  PJ, Mr Paul's son helped us by using the saw.  DO NOT USE A CUTTING WIRE TO TAKE OFF HORNS!  I tried this in the past and it was a horrible bloody mess and took me almost 30 minutes to cut the horn off as blood flowed.  Both myself and the poor ram were a bloody mess by the time the horn cut through.  A reciprocating saw is ideal and takes a couple of seconds.  Unfortunately the horns have a vast blood supply and bleed like crazy. 

We wrap the horn end with vet wrap and then put blood stop on the vet wrap as the blood soaks through.  It does not work the other way because the horns bleed to much and wash the blood stop away.  I usually leave the vet wrap on until it falls off.  We have cut Saxon's horns, Snow man and Duncan.  Duncan had the horns growning into his jaw and he was having difficulty eatting and had lost weight.  Once they were removed he was doing great, gaining weight and having a brighter outlook, until his penis was cut by the careless shearer.  Bless his heart...  he has had a tough year so far.

PJ is shown to the left with the saw to remove the horns.  PJ is a BIG FELLA and is a huge help around the farm.

Mr Paul went to Missouri to pick up 4 more Mini Cheviot ewe yearlings.  We will breed them this fall for more spring Mini Cheviot Lambs.  The demand for these little darlings has been really great and worth the trip to purchase some nice stock from Show-Me-Sheep-Farm.  Thank you Russ & Gwen Jackson.

Spring has sprung and we are all enjoying the warmer weather.  There for a week or so, it was a bit hot, but as long as the humidity is low and a breeze is blowing...  all is well.  This week we are back to normal temps for April in the south with more babies to come.

The picture on the right is Posie with her new ram lambs by The Trump.  She lambed today around lunch time with Dorie/Valarie right behind her.

Dorie/Valarie is lambing for the first time.  She had a ram lamb and an ewe lamb.  She has a lovely udder and I may just try and milk her down the road.  She has teats like my Nubian goat does.

Yes, it has been a busy day...  Time to hit the hay...

Elmore County Goat & Sheep Expo...

We had a great time at the Expo, March 13th, selling some wool, making Goat and Sheep sales contacts and generally having a good time.  We took a momma Icelandic ewe and her ram lamb by Phantom.  We also took little Hilly Billy, a Nigerian Dwarf bottle baby.  It rained most of the day, but the event was indoors.  Like last year, the weather was not great, but the turnout was good.  We enjoyed free Hot Dogs and Goat Burgers.  The cook off had some great goat dishes as well.  There were guest speakers and the Goat Show for kids.  The costume class is always fun to watch how the kids dress up their goats.  Every year the Expo gets better and next year there will be more farm products to see and purchase. We will have Sheep milk soap and eggs for sale as well as poultry.

The pictures below & above are of some of our Icelandic Roving and Saxon in full fleece.

Sunday after the Expo one of our horses, Dawn, an old Arabian coliced on us.  We called all the Vet clinics in the area and the one on call refused to come out.  The Farm is 1.5 miles and no more then 4 miles from any area Vet Clinic.  The Veterinarian on call said he did not work on horses at Northside Animal Hospital in Selma.  We could not reach our regular vet, so Dawn received Banamine, an injection for pain and inflamation.  We tried to walk her, but she did not improve.  By Monday morning she had twisted a gut and Dr Lawrence from Selma Animal Clinic examined her and put her down. 

Old Bertha, Mr Paul's Belgan Draft horse seemed to be doing better after a week of treating her for pneumonia. Bertha was close to 20 years old, which is old for a draft horse.  After the ordeal with Dawn, I came over to Bertha's stall to check on her and she was laying down and looked as if asleep in the stall.  Well, she was not asleep and had passed away. 

The rest of the morning was arranging a back hoe to come out and dig a hole large enough to lay the two to rest at the back of the farm.  I must compliment the men who dug the grave and placed the two old mares together.  They were able to use the back hoe to position them in a resting posture.  It is not easy to get large animals into a grave without them becoming contorted.  The extra time spent to respect the old mares was a comfort to us.

Lambing is in full swing and the Cheviots are finished with one more Shetland to go.  We have 5 of the Icelandic ewes who have lambed with many more to lamb anytime and into April.  I will get pictures of the new babies as soon as I can.

We have one bottle baby Shetland ewe lamb we call Tiny Baby Girl.  Her mom had mastitis in her udder and we needed to pull the baby for mom to recover.  Mom is recovered and Tiny is rotten spoiled.  We are feeding her goat milk, good old Ariel has raised 6 kids and now a lamb.  Ariel is a Nubain doe and if her daughter can not reach her udder, we milk a gallon a day.  Her daughter is an escape artist, long necked, half nigerian brat.  I have even considered taking her to processor, but I know she will milk like her mom in a smaller body with a bit higher milk fat.  I have added some Nigerian milk to the lamb's bottle as well and will soon be adding Lamb replacer to make the goat milk richer.  Tiny is black now, but will turn gray as she grows and ages.  Her mom is gray and so is her dad.  Tiny Baby Girl knows her name and comes a running when called.  This is the first lamb we have had to bottle feed, with this being our 4th year.  We will see if she turns into a hudlum like the baby goats and so far has not tried to jump on the furniture.

The weather has been better then expected, but still below average temperatures and this morning, friday, there was frost on the ground, when the weather perdiction was for the 40s.  We are preparing for our Sheep Shearing day.  We have finally been able to get a professional shearer to come and the date is March 27th.  We are cleaning out a part of the shed to pen up the sheep to keep them dry because rain is forcasted for Thursday and maybe Friday, with shearing on Saturday.  The wool must be dry to shear.  We will put the rams into one shed and the ewes with lambs into another.  We will put the lambs in a pen during shearing, which will be a loud protest session from the moms and babies, but the babies will not be trampled and safe.

The picture to the left is a friend of mine, Gary who has helped us shear in the past.

WOW! We have been busy, busy, busy...

We have been Busy Bees to say the least.  We had a bit of snow early Febuary, but it was just a bit and did not stay long, even with warning of 5 to 7 inches, we were disappointed to say the least.  We have been waiting for the rain to dry up enough to put in a road at the farm.  Finally, it was time and after 12 truck loads of crushed pavement, we have a dry road!!  Hooray!  I can actually wash my truck.

The picture below is the road to the farm, minus the mud holes and sloppy areas.

Febuary 20th we had a surprise of our first Icelandic Lamb being born to Sarah, one of my ewes.  I had put the rams in with the ewes in September hoping they would breed and lamb earlier.  The thought is to breed earlier and wean before the parasite season of June, July and August.  The little ram lamb is sired by Phantom and is jet black now, but may gray out and doing very well.  The picture below is a week later and he looks as if to say...  Watch me, I am special....

While messing with Sarah, I noticed one of the cows, Beauty with some mucus on her tail.  The next morning she calved a large black bull calf  Feb 21st.  (left) Then on Feb 25th Christy calved a dark brown bull calf.  (right)We have one more cow, Daisy the old cow to have her calf.  We are not sure if she is bred and will wait and see.  We have not noticed her coming into heat and Brutus is with the cows.

Both daughters of Angel, sired by Buddy have kidded as well.  Babette and Alexis both had single doelings.  Both are blue eyed.  One sired by Flash out of Babette and the other by Mr General out of blue eyed Alexis.  The sisters have really nice udders and I am milking them once daily and hope to show them this spring.

We have also been busy building lambing pens out of treated wood.  Mr Paul and Billy put together 4 pens before the rain last Sunday and will finish 6 more this Saturday.  After messing with hog panels and looking into pricing for metal now, wood was the option.  We can fold up the lambing pens when not in use or use them to wean Nigerians in.  The wood is close enough not to allow kids to stick their heads through and continue to nurse their moms.  Cow and hog panels have enough room for a long neck to reach mom's udder and cow panels are large enough for the Nigerians to squeeze through until they are 5 or 6 months.

We hope the weather will improve and be a bit dryer and warmer.  We are still above average for this month's rainfall and the temperature has averaged 15 to 20 degrees cooler then average as well.

The Saga Continues...

Yes, another 3.1 inches of rain... and the usual foot or so of water to slop through.  You all can see where I have to park the truck and walk into the water to care for the livestock.  Sometimes I wonder why we do this...  I know we have a major screw loose, if you know what I mean.  Instead of a 4 wheeler, perhaps an air boat would be useful for getting around the farm.

We may need to put the feed room up a bit higher...  The water is over the blocks we put it on, but at least the feed is dry for now.  The square bales of hay are in the semi trailer shown above.  The goats have enough bedding in the shed built up to be on their little island inside the sheds.

We have considered moving the buildings to higher ground, but since the property is flat, that really is not an option.  The sheds are car ports and can be moved by removing the pins and taking the sheds apart.  But the ground gets compacted and that is where the pooling comes in.  So, we have decided to raise the buildings and add fill and gravel, that is, when it drys up enough to get the gravel and equipment in.  We want to build a road as well, but again the weather has not been in our favor.  The ground is so saturated, the water just sits there until the wind evaporates it.  The flooding in the pictures has been an ongoing saga since October.

The poor ram taking shelter (picture below) in the hay feeder is a perfect example of the awful fall and winter we have had.  March is our wettest month of the year and we cringe to see what is yet to come...

If the chickens do not drown (just kidding), we will be offering Free Ranged Eggs this spring.  We are getting some eggs now, but not enough non muddy ones to sell.  We are offering a limited supply of free stained eggs if you want to try some to see the difference for yourself.  The mud gets on the eggs and stains them and does not always wash off.  We usually eat or give away the stained eggs and sell the pretty ones.  We will be offering the eggs for $3.00 a dozen.

If anyone in Selma knows of a farm close by to move some of our livestock to, please let us know.  A large barn with several horse stalls which is high and dry would be perfect.   We would like to rent for the next 3 or 4 months until we can get into and fill in our barn yard and raise the barn areas.  Our phone number is:  334-327-9252.  Our email is:  oldesouth@charter.net .

Wet Sunday...

As it pours down rain outside, we are reflecting on the Year so far and above are pictures of new kids.  The left shows the lovely Silver Queen with her triplets by Mr General and other kids to the right by Mr General as well.  We have been very pleased with Mr General's Kids, showing beautiful toplines, width and nice straight legs.  His first daughter is Oldesouth Summer and she will not be freshening until late summer.

The nice Nubian is a buckling out of Raisen, sired by Blake.  He is very colorful with a nice topline.  His mom has a nice udder and very good milk production.  We will be retaining his sister and offer him For Sale for $250.  He is a registered Nubian.  He is being bottle fed and is very tame.  Email us at oldesouth@charter.net or call us at:  334-327-9252 if you are interested in him.

The picture above is Mr Paul's tractor.  This was taken in December and I was a bit slow at getting it published.  Mr Paul was moving a large dog house for me to put out for the rams to use as shelter.  With 11.7 inches of rain in December, it was a bit wet to say the least.  Anyway, on returning from placing the dog house, the tractor bogged down and sunk like a stone.  It was close to dusk and was dark when I took the photo.  The tractor had to be pulled out by a large tow truck.  Mr Paul has friends in the right places and the tractor was pulled out the next morning.

The weather went from wet to cold and now back to wet.  We received 2.5 inches of rain Wed/Thurs and now we are being drenched again.  I have been waiting for the weather to clear a bit before slopping through the mud to care for the herd and mik.

The picture below is our new feed room, which by the way, the old room is under water once more.  We had this 12 X 14 building moved in and put on blocks to keep us high and dry.  We had electricity run to it and moved the small Frig and a heater into the room.  I can keep my cold meds in the frig and regular meds can be kept from freezing with the heater.  It was nice to have a warm place to retreat to when we had that Artic Blast.  The goats of course could not help themselves from exploring the building and tasting it.  So far they have not been able to figure out how to open the doors.  We have a latch and double turns to keep them out.  Eventually we will put up a fence to keep the brats out of the area all together.

We had a friend of ours who had purchased a new incubabtor.  One of those fancy high dollar ones to breed and hatch their pure bred chickens.  At the time, their chickens were not laying and mine were laying like crazy.  I have some Red Production, Black Production and my favorites, Americaunas.  We have two Americauna Roosters and I gathered up some eggs to hatch and we set them according to the Old Farmer's Almanac, December 29th.  I had 23 eggs and had put them in a turner until we had enough to try a hatch.  When the date to hatch came, I was a bit surprised to see that 22 of the 23 eggs hatched!!!  They are a combo of Red Production and Americauna.  They all have the beard and sideburns of the Americauna and we will see what color eggs the hens lay come July.  We plan on eatting the roosters, but it will be a bit before we figure which are which.  The Americauna's lay blue and green eggs.  I picked nice blue eggs to hatch.  The pure Americauna's have strips down the length of their bodies, so they are easy to pick out.  Some are pure white, which may be the roosters (production reds are sexed by the red hens and white roosters) and the rest are redish.  But we will wait and see what is what.  Some of the white ones have black speckles.  Will get a picture to put on the blog. 

I am itching to plant a garden, but the mud puts all that on hold.  Would love to grow some lettuce and collards and plant some carrots.  Even with the added soil, the garden spot is under water.  I think we are going to move it, but have not made up our minds.  I like the location now and it is close to the water.  We will have to run water to the new spot and that is what we have not decided to do yet.

We are also looking at barns and want to build a 40 by 80 barn to store hay in and the sides would be good for livestock and lambing/kidding pens.  We have decided where to put it, now it is gathering up the $$$ to do it and get it done.  Hopefully by the end of 2010, it will be a reality.

We have a few nice Nigerian Yearlings still available who are bred to Mr General For Sale.  We are also going to offer Oldesouth Christmas Eve and Oldesouth Blue Dawn For Sale as well.  They are both proven does with nice udders.  Eve has the lovely black and white pattern so popular and she is blue eyed.  Blue Dawn is a daughter of Blue, sired by Ceasar and is blue eyed as well.  We are offering them after their current kids are weaned for $300 each.  Give us a ring if you would like more information.  Both are AGS and NDGA registered. 

Blue had two daughters by Buddy who are spectacular.  One was drop dead and had a baby doe by Mr General who is blue eyed.  All of blue's kids are blue eyed.  Anyway, I was excited to show her with such a nice udder and perfect topline.  Then, one morning I go out to milk and feed and she is dead.  We still do not know what happened to that lovely doe, Oldesouth Blue Annabelle.  Her sister, a week ago miscarried and thankfully she decided to mother Annabelle's daughter.  We have named the daughter Reba.  She is a blue eyed pistal.  She is half bottle baby and nurses off of sister Anna Lynn.  Anna Lynn just decided to take over Reba and is very happy.

We are going to keep back several doelings and bucklings from the breedings to Mr General to grow them out and see what he produces.  We have so many nice ones, it is hard to just pick out one or two.  We will need to make room for the young ones and sell off a few of the older favorites.

We will be offering Buddy (blue eyed) and Bubba For Sale probably next summer or fall.  I want to breed Bubba to Brat once more and Buddy to Blue once more.  We will keep the Politician and several young bucks.

The Arctic Blast

We hope everyone had a great Holiday Season.  Now we are awaiting the Arctic Blast.  It has been real cold all this week and we have had several days of 18 and 17 degrees at night.  The mud is all frozen and we are having to deal with frozen water buckets and troughs, which is my least favorite thing in the world.  We had been breaking ice for the livestock to drink and yesterday the temps went above freezing so we could thaw the hose and  fill the troughs.  I pulled out the ice and refilled.  We may end up ordering warmers if this weather keeps up.  We have not had to deal with this before.  Usually it is cold at night and warms up during the day and we just wait to refill water.  It has been almost a week where temps are not getting much above freezing.  We are some 20 degrees below our normal temps.

We have had several kids with snotty noses and our buildings are open, not equipped to deal with the cold north and west wind.  We have put up some tarps to cut down on the wind chill.  Deep bedding and extra feed is about all one can do.  We have lost a few kids due to chilling at night.  We do not use heat lamps due to the fire hazzard.  It is better to loose a baby, then loose the entire herd due to a fire. Our well is covered with a light to keep it from freezing.  We have underground pipes to pipe water out to the pastures, but that is all turned off for the winter.  This cold would only bust them.

We have had several Nigerian Kids born and my Nubian Raisen is due to kid shortly as well.  She will more then likely have a purebred Nubian sired by Blake, my huge black Nubian Buck.  Brat had twins by Mr General, a buck and a doe.  Thundersnow had twins, a buck and a doe by Mr General.  Blue had triplets one cold night and lost one of the bucks.  She was acting strange and did not want to take care of her kids this year.  I guess the quintuplets did her in.  I pulled the kids and one went to her new home as a Christmas Angel present for Christmas. We still have a buckling available who is Blue eyed, sired by Bubba and very colorful.

We sell a lot of babies for Christmas.  They are great gifts and easier to deal with then dogs.  If they are bottle babies, they are very tame and follow one around like a dog.  Some folks put diapers on them and dress them like children.  I have put oneseys on The Rock, when he was a Boer baby with a diaper.  Oneseys are like a tea shirt with bottom snaps.  You put it on back wards and snap over the back.  It will hold the diaper in place to catch urine.  When the diaper sags a bunch, you know it is time to change.  The Rock is over 2 years now (200 pounds) and is as tame as any dog and knows his name.  Bottle babies are the best...  If the baby is for a child, they learn to feed them and care for them like a baby.  The goat bonds to the caregiver like a child and will even ride in a car and learn tricks.  There is nothing cutier then a baby Nigerian Goat.

We have set eggs from our chickens to try a hatch.  A friend of mine has a fancy incubator.  I have never had much luck with the incubator I have and will let her try to hatch some.  I would like more Ameraucana's and as soon as I decided to collect the eggs for hatching, they stopped laying all of a sudden.  Before, there were eggs everywhere.  What is with that???  Maybe it is the cold weather.  I am a good detective and have found all their laying spots.  We did get some and will hatch them and the Ameraucana mixes.  I have two Ameraucana Roosters.  The Ameraucana are the chickens which lay blue and green eggs.

Got to go for now and will try to get pictures of the cold snap.