Summer days

With warmth comes work around here. The end of Rog's school year meshes right into the start of his summer job leaving little time to work on our ever growing to-do list. 

Weeding, mulching, replanting, transplanting and planting some more has taken up most of my free time. And holy crap does the grass seem to grow faster then ever this year??

Summer 'bicker' #1 involved the garden. We love fresh veggies, we have plenty of fertilizer, plenty of space but we seriously lack ambition, time and have a complete absence of love for gardening. We also have plenty of neighbors with farm stands full of quality produce at very tiny prices. But as always, we've already bought seeds, no one sells beets or salad greens or squash blossoms and it's tough to grow pumpkins on someone else's poop pile.

So here's my garden. We pulled out all the raised beds and tilled it up, dug out and moved the asparagus, probably killing them in the process. Waaaay behind schedule and we keep using our upcoming ( and long awaited) vacation as an excuse not to finish the job. Gardening, to me, is boring, repetitious, wearying yet considered a measure of status to those who feel differently. Pull the weed, smother it, suppress it, cover it up, yet it rises again. Dig a hole, plant something, cut it back, pull it out.  Ick. We'll get the plants in the ground someday, hopefully someday soon. We're late, very late...and once again dysfunction trumps good intent. We will over plant, I will over cook. We will under water, we'll mow and weed whack, sending weeds and seeds into the beds to start the cycle again. Again, ick.

 

We picked up 10 new laying hens to add to the flock. We had butchered and given away some of the older hens so it was time to build the numbers back up. 2 of them promptly committed suicide by trying to stack themselves into a 4 inch gap between nest boxes. And then there were 8. Ever wonder where the term 'bird-brained' came from? I think I know...

The meat chicks are at the gross in between stage where they don't have enough feathers to cover their rapidly expanding bodies. 3 more weeks.

To add to our daily stress, we thought we should bale some hay. The weather has been exceptional and our supply was dwindling dangerously low. We usually work with our neighbors and tackle both fields at once. To ease into the season we did half last weekend and half this weekend. Last weekend was fraught with broken strings, dull blades and broken pins. Our allotted afternoon for baling lasted well into the night but ended well with dinner on the grill and a bottle of wine to toast the season. This weekend we thought, let's start a little earlier in the day so we aren't having dinner at 10 pm. So we did. 50 bales, 60 bales, 80 bales...like clockwork. Then bam, everything went to hell. Naturally it was Sunday when parts stores are closed and Mennonite neighbors are huddled down with family on their day of rest. One part broke. Then another. Then another. 

The knotting mechanism seemed to be the problem so we all put our heads together. My job was to fashion a lever to press on one of the gears with a bottle opener that was just the right thickness. A few wrenches, a saws all and a grinding wheel later we had a new lever. 20 bales later it broke too. Next we made another one from a letter opener. Then a knife. Then we were swearing. Then bolts started breaking in another area. We finally got it working so that every 3rd bale was a good one with 2 knots. The other 2 would get pulled out of the baler and re spread by hand to be bales again....and again. 

Our pockets were full of twine and more than likely my brain is full of metal shavings too. The rain was coming, so what choice did we have?? Day 2 of baling, dinner at midnight. Day 3 of baling after some light rain and maybe a few tears, we scrambled from the bottom of the empty fridge and threw together another late night meal, this time 9 pm. 

It's been a rough week. Exhausting, physically, mentally and then there's our real jobs! But the end result is hay. Happy goats, happy llamas, happy alpacas and a large pending parts order at the New Holland dealership. Already counting the days until we do it again.

Sometimes when I overwork myself I get a little nuts. So I went to Target to get cat litter and I stumbled upon this painting that I just had to have. 

I had just the spot for it. But it would only look nice if I replaced all of the throw pillows on the couch so 3 stores later I found those too. After I rearranged all the artwork  in the great room I realized none of it was my own so I framed an old painting from college and hung that as well. And then I decided it would look better if I rearranged the furniture. And moved the piano. And steam cleaned the floors. 

A few hours in to the project Kaelyn got really pissed at my antics, all the chaos and moving was cutting into her nap time so she threw herself on to the love seat in protest. 

Can't you just read her mind? 

Eventually she gave up entirely and squeezed herself into the chihuahua's bed.

Oh...and I forgot the cat litter.

Busy busy busy

We started the week with a bust. Literally. 

We incubated our first batch of eggs last month, it was a particularly warm day which made our rooster quite 'active' and we thought it'd be a sure thing. The eggs were supposed to hatch at 21 days. We listened for peeps, nothing. We watched for movement. "Did you see that?" "Did that blue one just twitch?"

Day 21. Nothing. Day 22. Nothing. Day 23, Rog's birthday. Nothing. So we weren't ready to throw in the towel quite yet so we did some research. Low humidity, low temps can slow things down so all bets are off until day 25 passes. 

Day 25. Nothing. 

We cracked the eggs, carefully awaiting the stench. Zero development, zero embryos, zero signs that they even started to do something. Hatching fail #1. We candled them but had no clue what we were seeing. Incubator 12. Us zero. 

Rog's birthday had an up side though. Or is it a down side. He grew up working with Nubians. Our first goat, Avery was a Nubian. A loud, obnoxious Nubian. So dummy bought him one as a birthday gift. Dummy being me. . . 

She is fantastically cute. And he loves her. She is Rock-E-Timber ET Sabine. She came home with us during a tornado and we couldn't find anything catchy related to the gods/goddesses of wind, storms, etc. so we settled on an ancient Roman name, Sabine which means the calm after the harvest. Pretty fitting, I think!

So we have sold most of the available kids, chores are smoother and easier, and I had to go and buy a freaking newborn Nubian. Sheesh.

More fatty fat meat birds joined the crew yesterday. 20 this round, 30 more coming in July.

The chickens are being inundated with birds. Starlings in particular. This year more than ever, nests appear overnight, poop covers every available surface. Yet another reason I hate birds. Dirty messy listeriosis carrying pests. This nest WAS quite lovely though. 

Blessing did remarkably well through kidding season. She adores the babies and lets them climb and bounce all over her. She is not fond of visiting dogs and voices her distaste, repeatedly. In other words, she is doing her job...well.

She earned a spa day after completing her first kidding season with us. We are much more comfortable with her now, haltering, catching, feeding, even trimming her feet have gone pretty well. But for shearing I thought I'd leave it to the professionals. A neighboring alpaca farm had hired a service to come out so I simply had to walk her next door and watch them get the job done quickly and efficiently, she handled it like a trooper. I think she looks creepier now. Tail is up all the time and I am definitely not interested in seeing the goods. She looks tiny now, but she tips the scales at about 280. 

Say cheese!

Week in Review

Is that the sun??!?!?!

Still hibernating. They're in therapy. Housecats really come in handy sometimes!

The birds moved in to every nook and cranny over the winter. This one is ingenious, a toppled over watering can was full to the brim with 'nest'.

We're going to need the seed spreader very soon...

What the hell is this?

Soooooo hungry! Outdoor time makes for ravenous babies. . . 

I leave town for a few days and come back to 10 new trees to plant.

I lost my garage space to the lawnmower.

We're getting there!

A blogging "funny"

When you manage a blog, you can track pageviews, browser types, most popular posts, etc. On any given day I can see that I have visitors from the US, Australia, Italy, China and the Ukraine. Cute "kid" pictures are popular as are gardening (failures!) and cheesemaking. A nice feature of blogger is that search terms are tracked, ie how do visitors find my blog? Do they type in a specific pedigree? Or breed name? Or Capra Lane? Today I had a unique search request:

Boy oh boy. Somewhere in the world a teenage boy is disappointed that all 'teats' aren't created equal. . .

No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow

Which do you prefer??

There- up in the tree? The first redwing blackbird of the season, a sure sign spring is near. 

Our new haybine. Another piece of equipment graces our lawn. Another step on the path to self-sufficiency.

Well, hello!

Mom, what is that bright light? Its new to us. . .
The sun, of course- you'll see it again soon. 

Luna is exhausted. She licked a lot of baby goat lips today.

End of the 2014 Kidding Season!!

We made it. Barely! I generally prefer to have kids clustered together, and although this leads to a lot of short term chaos, having births spread out over many weekends isn't ideal either. This year's kidding season spanned about 6 weeks which coincided with an unusually busy season at work, making it that much more painful. It feels good to drop the calendar of vaccines, inductions and births in the trash- yay!

Sage decided to put on a show for our guests and make a grand show of trying to deliver a very large and very stuck breech buck kid. At the same time, Lark thought it would be a good idea to lie down and push. Lark easily delivered twin girls, one saanen type and one solid black with a white splash. They are petite, cute and thriving - the little black doe reminds me of Stella, one of my favorites that I sold a few years back.

After much pushing, pulling and sweating, Sage's buck kid was successfully extracted. I was certain he was a goner, simply because of the length of the struggle and was shocked to see him gasp for breath. He had a weak start but is doing well now, topping the scales at about 12 lbs. What a beast! This was a breeding to Roeburn's Limerick Shamus, a pairing from which I was wishing for a girl...maybe next year.

Now its time to celebrate small miracles - the does jumping on the milkstand without assistance, keeping the inflations on their teats without spastic freak outs, putting away the disbudding iron and tattoo kit and finally, sending kids off to their new homes.

A Final Tally for 2014 ~ 27 kids

Alpines

Luna - 1 doe

Sage - 1 buck

Cammile - 1 doe, 1 buck

Charlotte - 2 does

Claire - 1 doe, 2 bucks

Lark - 2 does

Saanens

Masquerade - 2 does (3rd stillborn)

Luciana - 2 does

Mona Lisa - 2 bucks

Toggenburgs

Elina - 1 buck

Emilene - 2 does, 1 buck

Macy - 1 doe, 2 bucks

May - 1 doe

Emmette - 1 doe, 1 buck

Nearing the end

What do you get when you cross a saanen buck with a toggenburg doe?

One of each, of course. Emmette had a togg-colored doe kid and a saanen look buckling. Another 5 minute labor, for which Rog was very thankful for given he was home alone. 

The doe has a little white frosting on her coat and the buck is all saanen except for darker colored horn buds. 

Two more to go, Lark and Sage next weekend, then we're done with all this madness. D. O. N. E. 

A few kids have already moved out to their new homes and one of these days I have to post a sale ad for the two available doe kids I'd like to move along, one from Luci and one from Charlotte.