Beautiful Moth

I'm seeing a lot of these this year.  I don't remember seeing them around here before.  Don't know what they are, but when I get time, I'll look it up.  I think the chickens might be eating them up beause I've seen a wing here and there, too.

Cannas Anyone?

I thinned out my yellow cannas this week, separated and potted them up.  If you live nearby and want some for free, come and get 'em.  They are supposed to be a dwarf variety, so said the label, and only get about four feet high, but they actually grow to at least six feet high.

They are beautiful, but beware, they spread like crazy.

In June of 2010, I planted this sparse row.

By August, they looked like this.  In the summer of 2011, they doubled and pretty much took over the whole bed so that the dwarf ruellia (the pink row of flowers) could hardly be seen. 

Sad Pony

About a week after we got Pony, I had the farrier come to trim her hooves.  He told me that she was close to foundering and I should take her off all feed and just let her eat the grass in the pasture, which I did.

A couple of days, she foundered anyway.  I called the vet and he told me that miniature horses were prone to foundering.  Turns out our pastures are just too rich for her and she's gorging herself on all kinds of goodies.  He told me to put her in a stall and give her only hay, which I did.  She got better right away, but she absolutely hated being in the barn by herself.  I only left her in there about two days, then moved her out to the pasture that had been grazed down the most. 

She was fine for a while, but after a couple of weeks, I could tell her feet were getting sore again.  So, back into the barn she went.

This picture isn't out of focus, but it looks like it is because Pony has paced round and round stirring up dust.  The dust has caused a deep cough. 

 "Let me out!"

After about four days in exhile, she was much, much better.  I put her out in the round pen for about an hour on the second day, then a couple of hours the next day, then I had Tom mow the pasture as short as possible.  Back outside she went.  Mustn't have her coughing.  She was running around kicking up her heels and tossing her head, so happy to be back outside.

If keeping the pasture trimmed short doesn't keep her from foundering, I don't know what we're going to do to get through spring and all the new growth.  I read up on miniature horse websites and they recommend not letting them graze until about July when the grass isn't as rich.  I really can't imagine how we could manage that.  I  just can't keep her in the barn.  The only thing I can think of to do is to make a smaller pen within the pasture to keep her in and let it go just about bare.

Oh, and she lost all that extra weight she was carrying around.  Looks much better.

Straw Bale Gardening

I'm experimenting with something new in the garden this year.  I heard about straw bale gardening a few months ago and thought it sounded great.  We have a bunch of bales of old hay, our first cutting from our first year here, that I've been wanting to use up.  This seemed like a perfect way to do it.

Of course, straw and hay are not the same thing, but I did some reading on it and hay will work as well as straw.  The problem with hay is that it will have more seeds in it that may sprout lots of weeds.  Theoretically, straw has already had most of the seeds threshed out of it.  But, there is a benefit to using hay and that is, that it has more nutrients in it.

I liked the idea because it gets the garden plants up off the ground like a raised bed. With that, the benefits of keeping the weeds from encroaching and not having to bend over so much to reach the plants.  Of course, if my hay sprouts a bunch of weeds, then my weed problem may be worse than it is gardening the conventional way.  I may totally regret this, but I thought I'd give it try.  Besides, I really like the look of it, the neatness, and I get great satisfaction in making things look neat and orderly...and beautiful, if possible.

This gives me great pleasure to prepare and look at.

I'm only doing three rows

And the raised bed that Tom built last year (not so much pleasure looking at this because I need to get out there with the weed whacker).

I've had the bales set out for a few weeks now and have been watering them.  I plan to start planting in them in about 10 days or so.  For more information on straw bale gardening, you can google it and lots of sites will pop up.

I'm supposed to be able to put potted plants directly into the bales.  To plant seeds, I have to spread a thin layer of soil over the tops.  The plants are supposed to get all of the nutrients they need from the hay or straw because the watering has caused them to start to compost.  Eventually, the hay will completely disintegrate.

One can also create raised beds with the bales but using them as "walls".  Just line up the bales to create an enclosure, then fill the enclosure up with soil.  The bales hold the soil in place and bring the garden up to non-back-breaking level.  Googling brings up some very nice pictures of straw bale gardening and raised beds.

Wish me luck.  I might end up with a great pile of weeds and no veggies. 

Barn Workshop Cabinets

Tom has been planning a workshop area in the barn ever since we got it built.  He needs a place for all his tools and projects.  So, since our nephew is here, we're taking advantage of his considerable talents.  I think that was Tom's ulterior motive in getting him here anyway.  *wink*

Yesterday, this wall looked like this.

This morning, it looked like this...

Wow!  he is fast.

This is going to be far nicer than I envisioned.  Those cabinets have a quartz top...free.  I was at an antique/junk shop several months ago and this big slab of quartz counterop was leaning up against the wall.  The shop owner asked if I knew anyone who would want that slab.  She just wanted to get rid of it and was giving it away.  I didn't want it, but I mentioned it to Tom when I got home.  He went and got it, had it cut in half and ended up with two six foot lengths.

Sweet!

And More.

I went to check on Pansy and Buttercup (the Boers) this afternoon because I thought Pansy was pretty close to going into labor this morning when I gave them breakfast.  Sure enough, she was busy cleaning up twins.  She still looked big and she kept laying down and getting up, so I wondered if she might have another baby that hadn't been born yet.  She's never had triplets before...just two males every year, but I watched her for about 20 minutes or so, then I went off to do some other things.

I went back some time later and there she was, cleaning up another one.  Tom had just gotten home and Jordan was driving up, so I enlisted their help in getting Buttercup, Pansy, and the triplets into the barn.  I probably would have just left them out if it wasn't supposed to get cold tonight.  Pansy was very upset about moving her babies and we had a hard time getting her to follow us to the barn.  We ended up having to play "leap frog" with the babies.  I took one, Tom took one, and Jordan took one.  I'd set mine down and Pansy would run to it, Jordan would set his down several feet ahead, and she'd run ahead to that one, while Tom was setting his down several more feet ahead and she'd run to that one.  We did that all the way to the barn.  Buttercup followed sedately along.

Now all the babies are safely ensconced in the barn and I'm waiting on Buttercup to deliver hers.  I'm so relieved that everyone is in, safe, and healthy and I can finally sleep soundly at night.

Boy, girl, boy.

Wide load.

Kids, Kids, and More Kids

I needn't have lost all that sleep over Daisy.  After several nights of getting up at all hours to check on her and even sleeping in the barn apartment a couple of nights so I'd be nearby in case she had triplets and needed help, of course, she had her babies while we were at church and didn't need me at all.

\

Girl.

Girl.

Girl!

Four out of six kids are girls this year.  We usually have all boys with a girl thrown in here and there.

Yay!

Udderly Ridiculous

Hyacinth's udder is, once again, as hard as a basketball and bigger than ever.  At least I rememebered this year and started the babies on a bottle right away.  Since her udder had gotten hard about two weeks before kidding, I started giving her Vitamin C back then in the hope that it would soften up quicker and be ready to feed the babies, but it didn't work.  At least, it hasn't worked yet.

I'm torn about what to do about her.  On the one hand, she has this same trouble every year and it makes life difficult for all of us since she can't support twins at first.  I can't, in good conscience, sell her to someone unless it was to someone who wanted only a pet and didn't want to breed her because they'd end up with the same problem.   On the other hand, I have so much time invested in her.  When her udder softens up, she's a good milker.  She has calmed down on the milk stand and hops up on it willingly.  She's a leader and the other goats will follow her and she will follow me, so that makes it easier to handle the other goats.  It doesn't seem fair to just toss her out because of a few weeks of udder problems.  But, is it fair to continue to breed her?  Is it a genetic problem that will pass to her babies or is it something that was caused by the mastitis she had the first year?

I really just don't know what to do about her.  It's too difficult to have a doe that can't be bred because it makes pasture rotation too complicated when I have to keep the does separated from Billy.  That's the reason I sold Rosie last year and I thought I had finally simplified matters.

**sigh**

On another note, I've been checking on Daisy every few hours, for the past few days because I'm sure she is going to have triplets.  I don't want a repeat of last year, so I want to be present at the birth.

"Just put me out of my misery."

Intuition? Goat ESP?

Whatever it is, I need to learn to listen to it.

Last Friday (it is now Wednesday) I felt like Hyacinth would be having her babies soon, so I got the stall all ready to move her into.  I debated with myself if I should put her in that night or leave her out a few more nights.  I refreshed my memory about the gestation period for goats.  It is roughly five months or 150 days.  If Hyacinth (and the other goats) were bred on the first day they were exposed to Billy, Friday would have been day 142.  So, I decided to ignore what my gut was telling me and leave Hyacinth and Daisy outside for another night.

So, at around three in the morning, I just woke up and my very first thought was, "Hyacinth is kidding."  But, it was pouring down rain (of course) and I didn't want to go out there.  I laid awake for an hour and a half worrying about Hyacinth having babies outside on a cold rainy night (Even though all of the livestock do have shelters to be out of the wind and rain, it is still cold).   I finally was able to go back to sleep.

I went out to feed extra early on Saturday morning and when Hyacinth didn't come out of the shed for her breakfast, I knew she had kidded.  I ran down to the shed and sure enough, she had twins, both alive and apparently healthy. 

Tom and I spent the morning, out in the rain, moving goats around.

So, even thought the babies are healthy, Hyacinth once again has a congested udder and can't support two until it softens up, which is several weeks.

This picture was taken yesterday.  They are four days old.  The one in the foreground is the female and the one closest to Hyacinth is the male.  On the second day, it was clear that the male was not getting enough to eat.  He was lethargic and huddled up just like the twin that died last year was.  For some reason, the female was perky, running around, and  playing.  Maybe the difference in who lives or dies is that one learns to nurse faster and gets all the milk first, then there is none left for the baby who is less adept at finding the teat and latching on.  That is what I observed with these two.

I remembered that I had some frozen goat milk left over from previous years - four quarts from 2010 and one from 2011, so I thawed those and started bottle feeding the male right away.  The female was not really interested and it has remained thus.  The male guzzles the bottle down and the female has to be forced to take even an ounce.  They both are still attempting to nurse...successfully, I guess since the female hasn't starved to death.

She has become slightly smaller than the male.

But they are both active and playful and neither seems to be starving.

Curious Donkeys

Round Pen

I'm very excited about this.  I've needed a round pen to work Henry, Kip, and Pony in.  I plan to use Monty Robert's methods ( http://www.montyroberts.com/ ) with the pony and the donkeys.  Pony has been a pet for the past few years and has developed some bad habits, like crowding me when I lead her, or her trying to lead me, and being too greedy for treats.  I want her to be as safe as possible for little children, so she's going to need to break those bad habits.  I haven't seen Monty Roberts work with a mini or with an older horse (Pony is almost 11), but I'm assuming that the same techniques work on all horses. 

Donkeys are different from horses in several ways, so all of the techniques might not work, but I'm going to give it a try.  Monty Robert's philosophy is pretty much the same as mine and from what I've seen, a lot of the things he does, I do naturally anyway.  Now, mind you, I have never  in my life "trained" an equine.  Every horse I've ever had came to me already trained and I never gave it much thought.  But, hey, until we bought this farm I'd never milked a goat, never halter broke a donkey, never grew a garden, never built a fence, never trained a livestock guardian dog, etc. etc.  My list of "never dones" is pretty long, so why stop now?

Anyway, I've been searching for either livestock panels or portable dog kennel panels to make a round pen with.  In his TV programs, Monty Roberts uses what looks like dog kennel panels.  You can buy a 50 foot round pen from his website for about 4,500.00.  Many ranchers around here use the livestock panels that you can hook together in whatever shape you need.  I could get a cheap round pen new for 750.00.  Looking on craigslist, I could buy up every dog kennel I could find for about 150.00-250.00 for a 10x10 pen. 

But,  I found this guy on craigslist that was selling all of his dog kennel panels  - 15 6' panels and 6 10' panels for 400.00!  That makes up a round pen that is just a little short of 50 feet.

Tom and I drove over on Tuesday morning to get them, then he and our nephew, Jordan, put them together for me.

Now I have to get serious.  No more excuses for not training the donkeys.  Ack!

Winter Gardening

I haven't done much in the garden this winter.  In fact, I only just got the old asparagus and tomato plants pulled out of there.  Winter weeds love the garden and I'm barely keeping them from taking over.

I planted some broccoli, but only three seeds germinated. They are just now starting to produce. 

And my lettuce in the greenhouse is coming up.  So far the winter has been so mild that freezing hasn't been a big issue.  I put that little heater in there on a timer so that it comes on if the temperature gets below 65 at night.  I don't think it would keep the whole greenhouse warm if we had a big freeze, but it's working for just this small area so far.

An old man with a green thumb and an amazing garden told me this weekend that it's time to put onions in the ground, so I'm trying to get that done this week.

Rest In Peace, Hilde

We had a sad death at the farm today.

At full gallop, Hilde ran head first into the fence and broke her neck.  She did not die, but couldn't get up, could not breathe and had to be shot.  It was horrible to watch and makes me very sad. 

All of the donkeys have turned out to be good guardians and have done their jobs well.

Pony!

I've been searching for a gentle pony for the grandkids to ride when they come visit.  Finally found this little one.  She's very gentle and I'm hoping she'll be a good horse for little ones.  I'm going to work with her a while to get a feel for how she'll be.  She's cute as she can be and when I go out there she comes running to me and follows me around.  She's wet in this picture because It rained all night and she's been standing out in it even though she has a shelter.  I hope she didn't stand out there all night, although rain doesn't really seem to bother horses.  She's very interested in the goats and donkeys and the neighbor's horses so she's standing out there looking at them all.  She even found the hole that we cut in the fencing for the goats to get through and eat the grass in the alley between the pastures.  That's where she was this morning when I went out to make my feed rounds.

She's actually a miniature horse rather than a pony, but who wants to tell the grandkids, "I got you a miniature horse!"?Sounds so much more fun to say "pony".

Now I just need to talk Tom into building me a round pen to work her in.  He thinks she's cute, so maybe he won't be hard to persuade.

Heat...Sort Of

We finally got the furnace hooked up.  It took the guys about four hours to run the pipes up through the ceiling. hook them up to our existing ducting, and install the return air vent box.  Tom lit a fire in it right away even though the temperatures have been in the 60's and 70's this week. 

I guess this week is not a real test of the furnace's ability since it's been so warm outside, but it does heat the house adequately so far.  The reviews that Tom read said we should be able to keep the house warm enough by burning just three pieces of wood a day.  I don't know how that is possible because right now, we're burning at least that much every few hours.  Supposedly, we'll learn to regulate it just right so that it burns hot, but not fast.  I don't know.  Seems impossible to me.  And we're having to get up at night to add wood or we'll wake up to a cold house.  That is not fun.

One thing I was extremely disappointed about is that it is NOISY.  One of the reasons I thought this furnace was a good idea is that our regular heater, installed in an inside closet, is very loud.  I thought having the furnace outside with little fans would be very quiet.  Wrong.  It's horrible.  Another thing one of the reviewers said was that you don't even need to install the fans.  I think that's wrong, too.  If there were no fans blowing, the heat would barely come out of the vents.  The way to get optimum heating is to run the furnace and the inside heater fan, which I really, really don't want to do because that's a double-whammy loud.

My opinion of this thing so far is...not worth it except for the savings in propane costs.  Maybe I'm just a whiner and need to get over the noise aspect and be grateful that we have heat.

Wood Burning Furnace

This is supposed to be our future heat source for the house.  It is a wood burning furnace that is made to be hooked up into the existing HVAC ducting of a home.

Our regular gas heater is inside the house in a closet that is right on the other side of the wall to the left of this furnace, which is sitting on the back porch.  The furnace has a chimney pipe that goes up through the ceiling of the porch and through the roof.  There are two pipes that come out the top that will be hooked up to the ducting that is above our current heater and there are two blowers attached to the back of the furnace that will force the air into the ducts and out the vents in the house.

The reviews that Tom read said they didn't need the blowers.  We'll try it with and without to see what works best.  This should end our dependence on propane heat and it's supposed to burn far less wood than our fireplace does, although I do like using our fireplace because it feels so cozy.

We're waiting on the AC guy to come hook it up.  Tom could do it himself, but our home insurance company insists on a professional install or they won't insure us.  It's a pain waiting on the AC guy because he's the same guy that did the barn apartment HVAC system and he is notorious for not showing up when he says he's going to.  We've already wasted weeks on him, not to mention having to run our heater.

Bah.

Like Black Friday at Walmart

I sold some goats today, listing them on craigslist.com last night. 

I listed our four girls born this spring, 50 bucks each or 160 for all and within ten minutes some guy texted me (at midnight) that he wanted them.  After a string of texts, we agreed that he'd pick them up at 10:00 this morning.

Then, this morning I had e-mails and phone calls galore.  When I told the responders that the goats were supposed to be picked up at 10, they each made me promise that I'd call them if the buyer didn't show up.  One woman even got a bit miffed at me telling me that she emailed me last night and "didn't you get an email from Ruby?" like I purposely ignored her email so I could sell the goats to someone else. 

I guess I priced the goats too low.  Tom told me after the fact that female goats are going for 90+ at the sale barn.  Oh well, the guy, who was willing to drive an hour to pick them up, got a great deal and I probably made his day.  I didn't make a profit, but I just wanted to shrink the herd and not have to feed them all through the winter.  I really would like to have polled the responders to find out exactly why they were so anxious to buy my unregistered goats.  Was it the price?  Was it because they were Boer/Nubian crosses?  Did they want them for resale or for their own use?

We're down to two Boers, two Kikos, and two Nubians.  All are pregnant except for the Kikos because they're too young still.  And we just had the three boys butchered, so our freezer if full.  I definitely am going to have to start cooking more.

At Long Last...Wedding Pics!

Been waiting to get my copy of the CD from the photographer.

All flowers by Meagan.  Her beautiful bouquet.

We put tea lights in mason jars and hung them from the rafters.

We made this flag bunting to section off this area of the chapel and we also strung it up in different areas.

Beverages...

...served in mason jars.

We froze berries in star-shaped ice cube trays for the drinks.

And this is what we did with that old farm sink that Tom made the stand for.  There were outhouses on the grounds, so we made the signs, "Ladies" and "Gents", made a skirt for the sink, provided soap and hand towels, and used a watering can for hand washing.

Meagan and I went to the flea market and found these vintage lapel pins.  We pinned them in a cluster for her hair ornament.

Meagan used huge round balloons as part of her decorations and to take photographs with.

Afterwards, the kids had fun playing with them and whoever could convince their parents to fit them in their cars could take them home.

Blue checkered tableclothes with burlap runners and loads of flowers in old crates, milk glass vases and mason jars adorned the food tables.

We had THE greatest band.  They played the processional, then all through the reception.

Part of the tables with burlap runners.

Dreamy.

Goings Ons

I moved these mandevilla and bougainvillea into the greenhouse last week because there was supposed to be a freeze.  I was under the impression that a greenhouse would protect plants from freezes.  Apparently, that is not the case.  The plants are now completely dead.  Somewhere I read that I should put a barrel of water in the greenhouse.  Theoretically, the water would heat up during the day and then the heat would dissipate during the night and help, at least a little, to keep some warmth in the greenhouse.  Also, not true.  The water in the barrel remains cold at all times.

I wanted to grow some veggies in the greenhouse this winter...maybe some lettuce or tomatoes.  So, the question is, what is the trade off in cost?  Is it cheaper just to buy lettuce and tomatoes at the grocery store or to heat the greenhouse during the night with heat lamps or a space heater?

This is our new propane tank.  Think it's big enough?  After we get it taken off of the trailer, Tom is going to hook it up to a generator so that if we lose power, the propane will run the generator, which will power the house.