Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

[Bruce]

I meant I'd wait that long to let them be nose to nose and bring him inside their pen.

I wouldn't wait that long. @Southern by choice told me not to worry about Merlin and the alpacas, they would work it out. Let them see each other up close as soon as they wanted to. She was right.

Merlin was actively with sheep and maybe that makes a difference. Still I think taking Mel up to the fence so the goats can come over and check him out wouldn't be a bad thing. They already know LGDs are their friends and size probably doesn't matter all that much to them.

 

[Baymule]

Hey LS! I just checked Craigslist and found this;

https://easttexas.craigslist.org/grd/6090131838.html

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Nope - that trailer won't work for LS - it has a gap above the back door, lol! (but otherwise looks pretty good!)

 

[Pastor Dave]

That is pretty close to what I imagine I want "when the time comes".

 

[Baymule]

Nope - that trailer won't work for LS - it has a gap above the back door, lol! (but otherwise looks pretty good!)

 

[Mike CHS]

That trailer looks like ours but ours is closed at the top.

 

[Latestarter]

No gaps allowed going forward... nope, nada, no more, never again! There shall be no more flying pigs or other flying livestock in my future, while being transported! I do however fully intend to have a decent selection of legitimately flying livestock at some point to include chickens and turkeys. I was expecting to go out and remove all the tie down straps and cattle panel pieces from the trailer today but it's miserable weather for it so I'll postpone it till later. By the time I got the girls settled in last night it was late and I was tired so didn't feel like messing with it. I still keep in mind that Big Tex trailers is 10 miles from me and when I got my trailer lights repaired there they told me that they rent trailers as well. I can rent a 16' livestock trailer for ~$65 a day... that's a lot cheaper than paying 5 grand for it plus yearly taxing/registration on it. For the most part, any movement I'd need to do could be done in a day, and I don't "need" to do it on a weekend forcing multi day rentals and I won't need to do it more than a couple of times a year. It would take almost 80 move days to cover the cost of the trailer alone. 4 moves a year would cover me for 20 years

Bruce; Mel has direct fence access to them and they him. The one boundary fence is to my back yard. When I went out this morning to give them some food, both babies were still sleeping snuggled up inside the crate. I pulled one out and brought it over to the fence for Mel to sniff all over. He was very interested Mel hasn't been up close and personal with goats in almost 2 years. He's been strictly a companion dog for me. When he was last with goats, he had his 9 brothers and multiple trained/experienced adults with him/them to keep everything well grounded. He hasn't seemed to display a huge amount of interest in them yet aside from them being a novelty. It's going to take a little time to get him back to where he was prior to me taking him home with me.

The girls aren't so happy this morning as it's gray, dreary, damp, and has been raining off and on. It started lightening flashes around 3:30 am and I got up and closed up the house and turned on the AC for the humidity. When I went out to feed them around 8-ish (not raining), they came out to eat but other than that, they've spent most of the day so far inside the hoop shelter.

Bang is being a really good mom and I've seen her feeding both kids simultaneously so her udder is staying really even. Those kids are really drinking! I think herd queen is in process of being determined between Bang and Dot... The little one, April, is gonna be the bottom of the ladder and I think I'll need at least 2 and maybe 3 feeding buckets as the 2 kept pushing April away from the feed this morning. I'd feed her directly, but she's too skittish and runs away from me so as soon as the feed bucket hits the ground, the other 2 are all over it.

I'm a little nervous about the cattle panels as I've seen the kids stick their heads through to nibble outside and I think if they really wanted to they could still squeeze through. I hope they don't try for at least another week, by which time they'll be too big to go through. So now I need to think it through before Dot has her babies in a week or two. They will almost definitely be small enough to go through. I think I need one of them shepherd's crooks...

 

[CntryBoy777]

A cheap temporary solution for the gaps, is a roll of 3' wide poultry wire and zip strips I would put it outside instead of inside the fence. It not only keeps them in, but could aid in keeping predators out, or at bay til Mel or ya get there.
That trailer rental sounds like a really good solution to that situation.
It really is a shame ya didn't get to spend the day with your girls...and the rain doesn't put them in Welcoming mode. That mess started coming thru here about 11:30, we had just got back from a trip to town when it started...no "Goat Walk" today, had to use the inside feed room. Which brings me to my question....how many CPs are in your "Hoop Hut"? If ya don't mind me asking....

 

[Devonviolet]

Wow! What a bummer about your flying pig!!! I was shocked when you said it got out and you watched it run down into the woods. I can only imagine how upset you were!

So instead of the king's new clothes, I'll be eating the king's tasty bacon... MMMmmmmm boy does that taste good...

IDK, doesn't sound very satisfying to me . . .

So excited for you! This is really cool and GG is such an amazing person so happy you and DV got her goats!
I am a bit jealous though.... y'all have gotten to meet her in person!

Yes, we are both so blessed to have gotten @goatgurl's goats!!!

And GoatGurl is a treasure, for sure. It has been a pleasure to get to know her. She is a real sweetheart and SO knowledgable about goats and other related topics.

 

[Latestarter]

I used three cattle panels and overlapped one square on each side of the center panel. Since (the bottom) one side has 2" gaps for the first 2 rows I had to line those up with the same on one of the outer panels. I also did it so the raised vertical wires faced each other... Not sure how to explain that but when I started and laid out the center panel I had it so the vertical wires (50" lengths) were facing up. I then turned the outer panels so the vertical wires were facing down. That way the outer panels lined up perfectly and laid right over the top with the vertical wires right next to each other. Made it a breeze to use large zip ties to lock them together. When I was done, a 16' x 12' tarp fit perfectly over it and the grometted ends had room to fold inside at each end and get zip tied inside to the CPs. The grommets on the 16' ends got screws through them into the 2 x 6 PT bottom board. I didn't put the screws all the way in... left about 1-2" out so the grommets wouldn't get loose and slide off them.

Still undecided if I should have put a wire backing on covered by more tarp. Had I done so, I would have attached the back side tarp first since it would have been a really odd shape, then just cut small holes for the zip ties to go through to attach the top tarp. They seem to like it the way it is and go in and out both ends. and it gives plenty of protection against rain. Don't know how it will turn out when we have one of those big Texas blows though... might wish I'd chained it to the ground or something. It's pretty heavy but I can lift one end and drag it and that tarp will give a huge amount of lift.

@goatgurl and her sister @jackiesme are awesome folks! Just down to earth good people... So glad I met them and was able to get some animals from her.