Junkprospectors - mini-farm journal

[junkprospector]

I suppose i'll start with a little about me: 37 Years Old, married, 3 kids. This year we have 14 hens, 1 turkey (BBB Tom), 2 goats, and 1 dog. We live within the city of Boise and have our little "farm" on a typical city lot, maybe 1/2 acre on a good day. The whole livestock think started with chickens about 5 years ago. I had been wanting them for some time, my wife was borderline on them... one weekend she was out of town, so the kids and I took the plunge, built a chicken tractor, and went and got 4 chicks while she was out of town on a weekend. each year the chicken flock has grown, with our kids now selling eggs. With the number of chickens needed to sell eggs, i thought we should just throw in a turkey with our chick order in March - so thats how we ended up with him. Our goats came along in August 2013 at the state fair - after wanting some Nigerian Dwarf goats for 2 years, we took the plunge. So far they have been great! they are extremely friendly. Both our goats were born in June 2013, so at this point our doe isn't in Milk. We plan on breeding her in January and starting the milking process after her freshening.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Welcome and good luck with your farming adventures....I have found goats to be very addictive. Something along the lines of potato chips...you can't have have just one...or 2.....They are the naughty children of the animal world and terribly fun.

 

[junkprospector]

Last night my son and I were out working on reclaiming some wood to make our Milking stand so we let the goats out with us. They really made us laugh! Its so funny watching the nigerian dwarfs try to run - with their short little legs, their fastest run is just a scamper, but it is pretty cute watching them zig and zag all around you as you work. They were bolting from place to place, climbing up piles of logs, bounding off the tops and just having a fantastic time. It was around dusk - must be a favorite time of theirs... it was great!

 

[elevan]

I miss watching my goats play. You're right they seem to get frisky around dusk and it's party time

 

[lovinglife]

Welcom neighbor! I am outside of Twin Falls! So, now you know you will have the pleasure of constructing some toys for your goats, nothing better than watching them bounce around their playground!

 

[junkprospector]

Yeah, we've built some toys for them... currently i'm busy building a milking stand & a milking machine for them, so thats been pretty fun.

 

[OneFineAcre]

Yeah, we've built some toys for them... currently i'm busy building a milking stand & a milking machine for them, so thats been pretty fun.

You're building a milking machine? Tell us about that.

 

[junkprospector]

i'm just using an older surge milker as the milking unit. I just finished rebuilding the pulsator. I'll run the unit with a 1/4 hp doeer motor running a gast 5.5 CFM rotary vane vacuum pump. I've still got to run the electrical to the pump, then the vacuum lines from the pump to the regulator tanks (made from pvc) > Lines from the tanks to the milker, put some inline filters in place, gauges, some regulators to control the vacuum draw to the teat cup lines, and order the goat milking lines from an online store i found that carries them... i think it should be done at that point. i don't think it should be too bad to make, but we'll of course have to get another doe at least if we have a milker... i'll get some pics as i'm putting everything together...

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

Welcome to Journalling!!!! I am looking forward to reading your up an coming journal entries!!!

 

[junkprospector]

last night was a little restless. around 6 in the evening (after reading quite a bit about bloat in goats & ND's...) i went out to check on the goats, and see our little doe with her left side substancially larger than the right. I couldn't believe it... after reading about bloat and how serious it is, the casuality rate, etc... i was a little freaked out. I think my wife and kids were wondering about my sanity... maybe a little.... but having just read all these stories about bloat and what to do and not to do, treatments, etc - i was worried. to compound my worries, i then went out to check on the chickens and turkey - i had just filled their 30 lb feeder at noon yesterday - and about 2/3 of the feed were gone!!! knowing the goats LOVE the chicken feed and seeing the bloat - i used by awesome deduction skills and assumes that the goats made the chicken feed into their own "Golden Coral" buffet and feasted, hence causing the bloat. We were pretty much worried and up every few hours to check on the goats... the funny thing is that they didn't even seem to notice. They were a little gassier than normal though. whenever we were out there checking on them, someones rumen would rumble and they'd pass some gas. since they weren't acting uncomfortable, just acting totally normal actually, and they were taking care of business as normal, and we can't figure out when/how they would have gotten into the chicken feed - we decided that all would be well and they were just goats being goats.

Also - here's some pics of our goats and the 1 turkey we have...