rachels.haven 2026 kidding,lactation&farm journal

[farmerjan]

The sad thing is that the original purpose of lots of different breeds has been totally ruined by the "show/pet" vs the true measure of the breed as a PRODUCTIVE REPRESENTATIVE of that breed.
See it in the chickens..... BEAUTIFUL show birds that don't lay 50-75 eggs a year, when they are supposed to be in the 150-200+ eggs as per the breed standard... or little teeny tiny perfectly shaped and colored ones..... like O.E. Game bantams that lay 4 dozen eggs and you might actually get 10 chicks a year from...
At least with dairy animals, there is the milk measurement/testing the quantity and quality of the milk.... no way to actually "test" and guarantee egg production from chickens in purebred backyard flocks ... Few have the trap nests to daily record who laid and who didn't...
Look at dogs and how the "working breeds" have been turned into useless "PETS"....and dangerous ones with dispositions and such that are bad......

Pets have their place... but not as representatives of a breed if they are not able to produce; as any breed does not need poorer and poorer reproduction bred into it.

 

[rachels.haven]

I'm waiting to see if the 2f daughter of this buck has milk this year. She was due yesterday. Then I will proceed. The doe that kidded already does not look like she will have the udder support I want as it comes in as she slightly increases.

I should hold my ND and Lamanchas to the same standard and the ff is not socked on so she will likely go.

 

[SageHill]

The sad thing is that the original purpose of lots of different breeds has been totally ruined by the "show/pet" vs the true measure of the breed as a PRODUCTIVE REPRESENTATIVE of that breed.

That's true in dogs as well.

 

[rachels.haven]

She's out of a self sucking swing bag doe and she's a little thing, but she made it up to a cup tonight. This is what I'm working with. Horrible clip job, sorry. We had fun doing that dance.

 

[Baymule]

"Show" animals often do not live up to their original purpose. "Show" has done more to ruin all sorts of animals and livestock. I think I'd let this line go....

 

[rachels.haven]

People are doing that "strip the shelves" thing they do pre snow storm. I did a normal Walmart delivery and my delivery person was a tiny, not even 5', young, timid, hijab wearing, very soft spoken, barely a woman shopper and she got beat up and her already scanned/checked out cart got robbed and she showed up at my house barely speaking English after waiting for her husband who did speak english (probably barely 21, generously, maybe) so what happened could be explained because she didn't even seem to understand the English she did speak at that point-she needed to be done for the night. They were both terrified and she had been crying. People are really weird and nasty lately here. (I've been staying out of town, especially during peak hours lately to avoid this.)They kept the children's cold meds and the cold weather sleeping bag safe-the kids are sick AGAIN and ice storms mean we can lose power and one of us has to stay and care for animals.

The stuff that survived that trip was kind of random and goofy. The celery and normal vanilla bean ice cream did not. I noticed the lady put her coat over the ham in one of the pics she sent which is nice because it was one of the costlier items (pics were how she said "out of stock" with as little English as possible)There will be ham sandwiches on home made bread and ham salad on food storage macaroni noodles. I don't like ham, lol. There were other things... More ham for the men, I guess. One of the kids asked for chocolate so we got conversation hearts and strawberry truffle balls instead, lol. Sleeping bag and kids meds were picked up last.

A similar thing happened at Christmas when I stayed home here, except I was my own shopper after my order failed and I saw it all myself. This area has SERIOUS supply issues and a serious lack of community/empathy (I got into my shelf stable gluten free bread stash and ate a lot of PB&J and rice noodles ramen and was just fine). People are scary and aggressive. No meat, no bread, no produce, no dairy, even snack and junk food bought out...this is why I'm excited to buy meat from the neighbor's cows and put it in the freezers. I wish we had our own garden too, but I can keep veggies frozen too.

One million+ people and one Walmart is too few. Costco is better stocked but variety is limited and it's all bulk. A Sam's club exists here. They also get stripped every holiday. No Aldi, Kroger, Meijer, Giant. Definitely no discount groceries. A couple of higher end grocery stores but I don't like the quality of the food there especially when compared to the price.

I'm so glad I have my own milk and eggs and neighbor beef. If we lived in the city we'd be in trouble. Mr. Mean Rooster is going to be looking tasty after a few days of "snowcation" ham.


In contrast to that, my landscaper hay man delivered 6 more very soft second cutting round bales of "mixed grass" (fescue probably) by driving a landscaper dump truck over and shaking them out of the dumper. They're the big ones. I had to get the mower blocks to wedge and push the upright ones on their side. Hay, I can get. They weren't super cheap but the goats think they're candy. Fork feeding season. The first cutting orchard bales are still being fed too, I have 5 left. They are kind of course and the mice like them, which isn't great, but other than the straw I'll be fork feeding them out too. And we still have plenty of feed from our last "The Mill" delivery. Mr. landscaper hay man is also a plow man and he and his son will be plowing all night until the snow is done and beaten back into submission.

I wonder if we could put in a bunch of raised beds. I need to stew about how to turn the hay and feed I CAN get into a food supply I can't always get.

I'm probably going to put in some raised beds for sure and see if I can get some cow poo and rabbit poo to go with my goat poo and bedding and let it rot together and LATER we'll have a tiny garden. I halfway wonder if a cow making beef and cow milk/butter in this context makes sense and I've been barking up the wrong tree all these years. That might also be crazy talk.

Oh well, back to caring for sick kids and doing dishes (the five year old brought this cold home from church, almost done)

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wow - that's awful. That poor girl/woman.

People are really weird and nasty lately here.

I'm afraid it's not just there.

Sorry your kiddos are sick - hope it runs its course quickly!

 

[rachels.haven]

High of 43 today, low of 7 tonight. Winter storm, here we come. (tomorrow's mission is to fill up the troughs and pull in all the hoses before they get covered and due to the mundane nature will not be covered)

Killer migraine on and off all day today. I recently learned a new migraine tip. Try giving yourself a brain freeze while having a migraine. Personally I can not give myself an actual brain freeze while migraining no matter how much teeth/roof of mouth to frozen stuff I do. Instead for a lot of people it stops it dead for several hours, as in no more pain, nausea, and no more ring of sparks aura. It returned tonight and I don't want any more ice cream but if it gets bad enough.. After researching apparently it's a thing. I've even seen someone burying their whole face in snow. So, you know, make sure you have ice cream on hand (this is probably going to cure me of liking it). Slurpees/slushies also have worked for me, but we don't live near a place with those. Eating snow...is not recommended traditionally but I bet it would also work and it would be less nauseating ice cream. Cold beverages are not cold enough. It has to normally be normally painfully cold to shock things back into balance and bring those blood vessels back into what they should be.

 

[rachels.haven]

That ff's udder is starting to develop now. She actually looks okay. Late coming into milk is very annoying.

Clover kidded today-one very big chami doe, a chocolate and tan buck, and a black and tan buck by Kastdemur's Intimidator who is in turn by a rockin cb buck. I was considering letting her keep the bucks but we're going down to zero and when i went to go milk her her udder was full of this with a little colostrum (i had to strain and dump because this would clog my sink).

I had to break it up in her udder and force it out her teats. Poor, tolerent doe. By the end she was crying but not once did she kick me. There will be more clump extrusion later. Not all the clumps came loose.

She came back to me in the fall "dried off". I brought her into milk again on arrival and there was a few clumps and strings at first so i put her on milk test and got a very low scc, then i cultured her and the other doe she came with and she was clear of bacteria (other doe had mastitis). The clumps cleared and she power milked as her genetics call for and didn't want to dry off just as she should...and now this-so much chunks. I don't even know if i can get them all or what this is. I guess we'll find out.

More bovine colostrum, coming right up.

This kidding season...man.

 

[Baymule]

all those chunks came out of her udder? That poor girl.