rachels.haven's Journal

Wow, sounds like you have a lot of "sick" trees. They shouldn't be breaking over without some serious wind.

I think they're water logged, but I'm not sure if we have serious wind or not. I think today's gusts were supposed to be between 10-20 mph with a max of 25. It does make things interesting though.

Here's for mentioned tree top now in pond Sick
again. Same thing. Apparently need different antibiotics. To console and distract myself I began work on the chicken run. Probably wasn't the best thing to do in long run (run is quite long though). Also still sick son and I will try to go in tonight. Phone byh-ing is tricky. So. Tiny.

I used my phone when I was in MS/FL for a week. I don't know how people manage to one finger type in a forum. At least the word guesser was pretty good though for the life of me I don't know why it thought I wanted to type 'hygienist' with great frequency.

So sorry you are sick again! I hope what they give you this time will knock it out for good.

Lol, hygienist. I love autocorrect.

Especially since I don't think I ever WANTED to type hygienist when it kept making that suggestion

Miss @rachels.haven,

I really hope you get to feeling better, along with anyone else who may be sick.

Is your DH still having to work overtime? I hope he gets to slow down soon. Long work days make for time off days where all he will want to do is rest.

How big and how deep is your pond? I didn't even know (or at least remember) that you had a pond.

Hi @Senile_Texas_Aggie ,
Thanks for asking. Yes, the antibiotics are doing their thing. I'm hoping they knock it out for real this time. Today I feel better and have my voice back and last night I didn't keep myself awake with my own snoring so it's PROGRESS.

DH is still having work issues. Long hours are annoying. Things are not terrible though, I keep telling myself. He could have another job very quickly if he wanted to. At this point he is staying because he wants to and isn't terribly emotionally invested anymore, which I am hoping will ward off burnout. It looks like a lot of his team mates are burnt out and want to quit now though, which might make things interesting. Maybe things will change if they can't keep enough tallent?

I do have a pond. It's by the driveway. I think it's more of a drainage pond. It fills when it rains and the water level slowly drops as it rains less and less often. I still have trouble thinking of it as mine. I also have a creek BUT the town wants permits pulled and $$$ if you do anything within 125-150 feet of any water (including the pond), and the state says 50 feet and has its own $$$ that you have to pay and permits to apply for, so the area around the water and the water is kind of not mine. I think you can get waived fees if it's ag related so I may not be as limited as I think, but I will have to check when the time comes. I'm not sure how deep the pond is. I think there will be a time it is empty and I will be able to know. I think it's probably not deeper than 4 feet at the deepest, but would like to confirm that.

We did go see a bigger pond today to look for fishing in the area. Unfortunately I think it was a little marshy for shore fishing, so we're either going to get a canoe with an attach-it-to-the-new-van apparatus, or going to have to scope out another pond. There are plenty of them around here so I'm not too down. The hike was fun.

I hunted for hay on craigslist yesterday. Going to go see some 1st cutting hay from a farmer in Lunenburg. Looking for a local supplier that isn't a third party hay selling feed store (nice store owners, but hay can vary in quality and is a little higher in price, so I'm curious what's around). Hay should be cut and baled over the weekend if the weather holds. I love hay hunting. First cutting will not be perfect for the goats, but might be a nice fresh treat and then I can stay in touch for second cutting later.

Btw, I'm seeing little udders on my two younger does that I bred earlier this year. I'm excited. Its either August or September.

Not much new to report this week.

I got some hay from a dairy farm nearby earlier and it looks nice, and meant to get an analysis out so I could decide if I want to fill up on more but I ran out of checks (which is probably good, because they have our old address on them). I don't think they take cash. The goats are crazy about the hay, and I'd like to get some hay from one of their cuttings BEFORE they put manure on the field this year. It's been 6-8 months since last application so I think the hay is safe enough to feed.

Looked at a 3/4 lamancha, 1/4 saanen FF up for sale in milk with a butter udder and I was interested enough to pull a blood sample and send it off for testing. Owner has an old attitude towards CAE, so even though she says she thinks her goats are clean I'm not super hopeful. Pen was a bit of a mire and at least one goat not up for sale seemed to have respiratory issues, so if even one goat has CAE I feel like this one is definitely going to have issues too. But now I know I feel like I can handle a slightly larger breed goat. The check for the blood test was the last one in the book.

Someone's been getting into my barn and moving stuff and feeding my littlest buckling herdsire that I bought earlier so that he's as round as a basket ball by the time I come in to milk. Last night I locked as much of the barn as I could (I don't have the hardware to lock windows yet) and this morning he had a normal hay belly. I think I need to hurry up and lock those windows. I can not say this did not make me want to get a dog to sleep in and guard the barn and a game cam. Locks are the first step in my opinion.

Angel's baby, Woodland Haven Sir Finnegan, sold on Saturday. He's off to be a herdsire for someone looking to start with registered goats from unregistered. Angel's udder leaves a little to be desired-it's a little meaty and could use slightly better attachment in the back (and bigger teats)-but she still beats 95% of the CL does I see listed, plus Finnegan's dad had very strong good udder and teat genetics so Finnegan will probably be a good herdsire for them especially if their herd is full of Craigslist does. He's got a lot of improvements to offer there.

Despite being bred, I don't think Olivia took. Avalon did though. She's due Sept 6th-my oldest's birthday. Both sons are hoping for does to spoil and call their very owns. Avalon single handedly tore up the guard I put up and ate the magnolia in their pen, so I'm hoping that if she ate someone's baby girl's tree that she'll have all does. Wishful thinking is fun.

I got my last order of chicks for this year. I have about 40 chicks to grow out and pick my favorites of, then sell the rest. 6-10 out of all the batches together will be roosters. I really want a good couple of roosters to help the hens survive and not hunt partially blind husbands or kids (I know what to do with those). Growing out and culling down/selling is exciting for me. I get to pick what future chicks will look like by picking the parents.

It is time to start pounding posts and digging in the rocky soil for my front yard pen-one post at a time. I have a van now, so I CAN haul rolls of fencing and t-posts home.

That's all I can get out of this week's happenings. We're making ice cream tonight out of goat milk and cream I skimmed. I guess there's never "not much going on".

rachels.haven said:

Someone's been getting into my barn and moving stuff and feeding my littlest buckling herdsire that I bought earlier so that he's as round as a basket ball by the time I come in to milk.

Click to expand...

That is beyond bizarre.