MuldrowHomeFarm-Our journey into Farming (little did we know this is where we were going....)

MuldrowHomeFarm

Loving the herd life
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In Harvey, yes the property was completely flooded. Thank God we had NO animals at that time. For Imelda, we were going to Auction on the 28th of September and Imelda hit us on the 17-18th. We had a lot of clean up to do before we brought the goats home. We have built burms so the animals will always be out of the standing water and we plan to have loafing sheds built by next summer. We do have a way to transport everyone and a place to take them that doesn't flood so we do have that covered, just in case....
 

MuldrowHomeFarm

Loving the herd life
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It has been too hot on the farm lately! A few small showers made the humidity soar! Chicken coop is almost finished! Baby Guineas are getting big!
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Baymule

Herd Master
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I love the baby in the water trough! That is classic redneck fun! Earlier this summer, we bailed out the horse trough to scrub it and our two little grand daughters went mud swimming. Then they got sprayed with the water hose, made pools in the mud for more mud swimming and had a wonderful dirty time.
 

MuldrowHomeFarm

Loving the herd life
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When last we met, I was regaling you with the story of our lost goat....Skye. We have never seen or heard from her again and we pray that she merely got out and was "rescued" by someone who thought she was lost or dumped....though it would hard for her to be "dumped" in front of a fence with goats on the other side.......but oh well......not much we could do. I did post it on Facebook (which I do not participate in but my DH does). There is a community page so I listed her on there but to no avail. So.....we have one missing goat......and 31 present goats, 3 Female donkeys (one standard and 2 mini), 1 male donkey (now gelded), 80 or so chickens.....and 3 Alpaca. So DH brings me 3 female Alpaca, all the way to Texas from Minnesota. They are older girls. The oldest is Miss Gwen, she is 14. The other 2 were 10, one being, Cass, Gwen's daughter (cria) and Maia of Rum River, who sadly, we lost 3 days after shearing. We believe it was a combination of travel sickness and shock, then she developed pneumonia. I believe we could have saved her if it had not started raining for 3 days and we couldn't walk her around in a dry space. The girls arrived home on May 5th. We had them sheared on May 13th and we lost Maia on May 15th. It was raining so hard that our property had 4 inches of standing water on it. And our beautiful Maia crossed Rainbow Bridge......it broke my heart. I felt such guilt. If I had never wanted her. If I had not asked for her. The pain was terrible. I knew I did not deserve this beautiful soul and yet, just moments after she left us, River.....our dear little donkey came into the world.......souls crossing over the bridge.
I stayed home and grieved our loss of Maia, claiming that I would never get out of bed again.......and an hour later DH sent me a photo of our newly storm born boy. Baby Donkeys are just too precious for words. They are so gangly and long. So sweet faced and fluffy! DH said, "God wants you to come to the farm, my girl. He has sent you a gift." I cried and said, "I do not deserve it." DH said, "Oh but you do. Come see." So I went and saw.......and God did indeed send me a gift. DH said, "It is a girl. What shall we name her?" Of course we all thought of Maia (which I would have spelled Mya but what do I know?) and it just didn't seem right....but Rum River......yes, that sounds just right and we will call her River. So there she was..........and just 2 weeks later, I was sitting down with River and "she" produced a little wiener and peed on my leg. So........River was a BOY.....NOT A GIRL, AFTER ALL!!!! I laughed and laughed and laughed.......when the family came upon me, laying on the ground, next to River, who was attempting to roll for the first time, they were astonished. Why was I on the ground? I proceeded to explain to them what had just happened and JM (son) picked River up and said, "Yup, penis!" And set HIM back down. We all had a great laugh about it but then I remembered, we will have to geld Little River one day.....so I stopped laughing.
River's Mom, Mavis, has been a true joy to us. She has let us touch and play with him from the first day he was born and we love on him often (daily). He is too precious.
We were told at the time we brought the Donkeys home that both Mai'zee and Mavis were pregnant but we had not really seen any signs until River was born. Now we were on baby watch with Mai'zee, who is a standard donkey. And not friendly. River is now 3 months old and just 3 days ago, Mai'zee gave birth. She did not come when called and did not show up for food. DH and JM went in search of her and low and behold, BABY! All cleaned and perfect! However, Mai'zee did not believe that we should be shooing her into the pen at the front of the property. She was in the farthest back corner she could get. DH received a solid kick when he tried to check the sex of the new addition. We believe it is a girl but we shall see! They did get moved into a birthing pen for the last 3 days and all seems to be very well with both of them! We are very pleased with our little family.
Here comes a time jump.......
Once we lost Maia, our other 2 girls seemed very lost. We have been told that Alpacas need a herd and 3 or more is considered a herd for them. I contacted a farm much closer to us, one here in Texas and found that they indeed had several older girls for sale. We drove up (a quick 4 hours, instead of 22 hrs) and took the trailer, just in case.......what we found was wonderful and the couple we met were just awesome. Older and downsizing. Cut us a good deal as I only had money for 2 girls but he needed to rehome 4. He dropped the price if we would buy 3 and gave us one for free, because she is 18. Honestly, she was the one I really wanted. I know.....an 18 year old? But seriously, this lady is misnamed. Although her name fits her......Sihu (Pronounced SHE WHO) , Kopavi Sihu, which means Flowers in Japanese, does fit her....but to look at her face, she should have been called Cleopatra. Her make up is divine!
We brought 4 new girls home on May 26th and it was magical. We had penned up our 2 original girls and led the 4 new girls into the pen, they immediately ran to the gate and reached over to our girls and began to rub necks and hum to one another. Almost like they were saying, "Hey, you guys are Alpaca! We are Alpaca, too!" They all rubbed and hummed for 20 minutes. We decided to keep them separated overnight but they could reach each other. The next morning, our 4 new girls were still standing by the gate where the other 2 girls were locked in. We released them and they were very affection to each other. It was very interesting to see their immediate bond. I admit, I was surprised.
Well, soups on, so more later!
 
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