Devonviolet Acres

[Mini Horses]

I know I had thought about breeding them in September, for a February birth, so I guess that’s what I did.

Appears so!

Wonderful....easy birthing. I've "found" last few with kids. First couple this year I watched since I was there and they were going at it. Love when it all goes well.

More cuddlers. Yeah!

 

[Baymule]

Beautiful boys! I love the black and tan, reminds me of a hound dog. LOL

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Reminds me of a doberman

 

[Devonviolet]

It has been a while since I have had the time to keep up with BYH. A lot has been going on, and it seems there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.

On March 18th, my dear, sweet sister (who lived in California) passed away from lung cancer. She had been sick for several months, having an increasing difficulty getting enough air into her lungs, but the doctors seemed to be dragging their feet doing a biopsy and getting the results to her. On the 17th she ended up in the ER, where they sedated her an intubated her. The next morning she went into cardiac arrest. They revived her, but the ER doc called me and told me her lungs were full of tumors, which were not “survivable”. After talking with my brother (in Northern California) we decided to have them take the breathing tube out, and within five minutes she was gone.


This past month has been long and hard, because my sister did not have a will or power of attorney, which is causing me to keep running into brick wall, as I try to settle her estate. I finally got her death certificate in the mail on Friday, and I am hoping that it will make it easier to get things done. I hope this will be a warning to any of you who have not gotten a simple will in place for your loved ones, in case something should happen to you. My sister didn’t even know she had cancer, and had nothing in place. My husband and I are both still very healthy, and we have had both wills and power of attorney’s in place for the past 20 years.

In light of the fact that I am allergic to goat milk, and everything else that has been going on, my DH and I made the very difficult decision to finally sell Rosemary and April and their kids. They both sold quickly and we got a semi-decent price for them, and they went to good homes. I really miss them both.

I have had Danny Boy listed on CraigsList, but am asking more for him since he is purebred, with papers, and no one wants to pay what I am asking. So, rather than give him away, we have decided to keep our eyes open, and use the stimulus money to buy a couple of Kiko does, and raise a few meat goats every year, to either sell their meat or put meat in the freezer, for our own use.

In addition to all that, I have been planting seeds in flats, to get a head start on the garden. We need to till the garden before we can do that, but we have had so much rain so far this year (26” ), that the ground is too wet to get the rototiller to work without clogging up with mud. We tried about a week and a half ago, and were only able to get the tiller to go in about 1”, which didn’t accomplish anything. I was just starting to think the ground was getting to the point that we might try it again and we got 2-1/2” of rain in the past two days.

I do hope everyone is staying safe with the coronavirus going around. DH and I have managed to stay healthy, by staying home, except for occasional trips to town for prescriptions and food. Our area of North Texas seems to have remained fairly free of the virus - at least there haven’t been any reports of it around here. I pray it will remain that way and that y’all will also remain safe.

I pray that you all are having a Happy Easter, and that everyone remembers, that the reason that we celebrate Easter, is to remind us that Jesus died on the cross and rose again, that we all might have eternal life!!! God Bless you all!!

 

[B&B Happy goats]

.....sorry for the loss of your sister ...and parting with your dear goats

 

[Devonviolet]

Thanks B&B. Life can be bittersweet sometimes!

 

[Mini Horses]

You have had more than your share of unhappy events. I am so sorry for the loss of your sister.

I think your Kiko does sound like a good idea. We all need to eat! Those meat goats are less of an issue since the "have to milk" portion is out of the equation. Of course, you don't have to milk dairy....dry them off, don't have kids, etc. But, then why

Even with bad news, glad you posted. Good to hear from you and know you are both well.

 

[Jesusfreak101]

Oh D i am so sorry.

 

[farmerjan]

@Devonviolet ; it was so good to see the post from you. Very sorry for your loss of your sister, and having to do things long distance just makes it difficult enough.... on top of this C-virus mess. I am glad that you are in an area that is not overwhelmed with cases. It is difficult to have to deal with the "distancing" and all, but so far, we are also faring pretty well. Not near as much problems with being on the farm/homestead as people that are in cities and such. Plus, even with many having some health issues, I do think that many that are on farm/homesteads, and work out in the air and in the soil, and with animals, do have a healthier lifestyle and therefore have more strength to their own immune systems too. I know that you seem to be very knowledgeable on "healthy" things so that is definitely a plus even with the allergy problems you deal with.
So good to know that things are doing okay for you and your husband.

Sorry to hear that you did finally have to sell the dairy goats, but you had said that you were having issues awhile back. Maybe having a few meat goats will work out better for you. I don't blame you for not wanting to "give away" the buck, and he will put back into the kinkos some added milk in the off spring if you keep any females, or offer someone a chance for some better milk in the females that you might be able to translate into some sales of breeders as well as have some to put in the freezer. You have always impressed me as having thought things out before you "make any moves". I hope that it works out and it will give you something to also help keep the weeds down and the grass grazed. Once all this craziness ends, there still might be someone looking for an exceptional buck because I think that there are going to be more people with small "mini-farms" that are going to want to become more self-sufficient.

Hope that you can get going into the garden. We have had such crazy temp swings here and much warmer than normal overall, that it is hard to know what to do. I am just hoping that the way too early peach trees blossoming here will survive any possible cold weather and give me some fruit again. They will be getting moved to my son's property this fall if I have not found a permanent place to move as I have no intention of staying here in this house through another winter. The saga with the landlord, and my ankle replacement, is on my thread. I will be moving come he// or high water. Not going to even have a garden, will take advantage of a neighbor that way over plants and offers to "everyone" to come pick stuff.... and I will trade off some of the meat chickens I raise. My chickens are going to my son's property also sometime this summer, where I have been raising the meat birds.
It will get better......
Have you ever gone any further with the possible hydroponic gardening?

The best to both of you.... please stay in touch here.

 

[thistlebloom]

So sorry to hear about the loss of your sister . I can relate to the difficulty of sorting out a loved ones estate, and harder still with no will and long distance. My parents died 57 days apart with no will and out of state. It was very tough settling the estate, and that was without the extra hardship of lockdown. My heart truly goes out to you.