SBC/GW's Journal- Spring shows DONE! & Update

[babsbag]

You are indeed a woman after my own heart. A few years ago I decided to put in a new kitchen sink for DHs birthday celebration and I started on it 4 days before the party. The sink ended up being too big and I have a granite counter top, boy was that fun and messy. But nothing like a deadline to stay motivated. Good luck and I hope it dries, you can always get out the hair dryer to speed it along.

 

[Southern by choice]

Brief update-
I will post pics soon... Table and buffet look great! Some of the chairs needed repaired, they are but it delayed the finish. We had a great time. I did not paint the DR yet. I am not settled on the colors... so I will wait for now. I want to plan the kitchen cabinets and counter top first I think.
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So... we had been talking about how to put round bales in the field. We never do that because of the mess and no way to control it, so we tear off the hay and put it in hay feeders all over the place. Well, since the lil goats (babies from earlier this year) have taken it upon themselves to open gates and go all over and the goats are going from one place to another and everyone eating everyone else's hay we cannot monitor who is and who isn't in need of more. Usually we fill hay feeders and when it's gone we refill... it gives us an idea of how the different groups are eating. Well... goats are goats.
We have a 16 ft gate on the one end in the front field, we have another gate adjoining the front /back but it is too wet and soggy for the tractor to get through. We talked with our hay guy and he gladly took it to the field. We looked at the Premier 1 panels but ouch! Expensive.
So we got 2- 16 ft cattle panels (4ft high) cut them into 40" sections and clipped them together. We will get the Premier 1 Connector hinges next week. For now we just clipped the panels together around the bale. We can remove a panel, or so, easily as the bale shrinks. We just need to cover it if it is going to rain.

The goats were so funny. EEEEEEEkkk "we are scared, what is that? Why? Hmm smells like hay, but it isn't in our feeder"
Of course a few went to the other feeder so we threw a little hay in it... of course that hay must be better even if it is coming from the same bale.

Mommy come with us- it is so scary! Then there is Blue- Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy mom

Of course the babies have no fear... nyum nyum nyum lol one is even peeing while eating

Love how much space is around the bale. Blue and Chunk getting some love. Of course Prynne and my mini girl are underfoot as always.

My lil adorable black mini working her way in (center)

Mariah trying to guard her side! Goofy girl. Charlotte (rt) stuffing her face

Dogs all getting love from their people while the people ar ridiculously amused by watching the goats eat.

Two of the boys with "Dad" so content to have their head scratched. And then there is Prynne again

Chunk- my love! This was taken after about 30 minutes of him being in my lap. I was kissing his face and giving him hugs and everytime I stopped he'd nudge me for more. Chunky will always be my boy... he is still my heart, such a soulful dog. He even nudged the goats away ... it was as if he just wanted that really special time. After I got up he went to dad.
Of course I loved on Blue and Pete... but I am the apple of this boys eye so he got the bulk of the attention. He is never demanding so when these moments come I try to not miss them. I knew at 3 weeks he'd probably be a keeper, by 5 weeks- yep- not going anywhere- that bond was far too strong.

I have to come up with names for the following two mini's. GW wanted me to sell these girls. I procrastinated hoping she would forget about it.. she never does. I really like these girls. They are out of Trouble. They are delighful! I love them. Super sweet! They are 2nd gen grade mini's... I need 4 generations just to get to 1st gen experimental because the Granddam is NOA. I don't care- it is a line worth developing.
The best milk on the farm, the easiest as far as production, longevity, parasite resistance, hardiness, feed conversion... yeah- they are worth developing. This one is elf eared( one ear up and one down- so cute) the other (pic to follow) is eared. Trouble had trips, the buck had gopher and I cannot register him as he is a grade. UGH. These girls will be. I may have to sell them after they freshen so I can keep their doelings and progress forward, but for now they stay.
They are the sweetest goats! This one is under my feet all the time. LOVE her!

This is the sister. Everyone gets annoyed because she jumps up on you. No, she shouldn't but it is just a lil baby...
Love her so much, she is so super friendly. She was suppose to be sold... I couldn't do it. I love her and she has some great dairy qualities.

Name suggestions for the last two?

 

[babsbag]

About the feeder...how big is the bale? Are you worried about it getting wet on the bottom? I used to use panels like that but I would get goats put their head through it and then another one try to get in the same hole and then start screaming and sometimes it was babies and they would really get smashed. I use panels with 4x4 squares but it does rub a raw spot of their nose. I like the premier panels but the are $$$

Are you going to paint your cabinets? If so, look at the rustoleum cabinet paint. I was very impressed with it. What are doing with the counter top?

 

[Bayleaf Meadows]

Names- Ebony and Pepper?

 

[TAH]

Mosaic

Glory

 

[CntryBoy777]

I have actually found a different animal that dislikes change more than goats....Ducks!!.....
Sure glad ya got to spend some time giving your Boys some love and attention.
As far as names go....here are 2 that go together....
Midnight and Oasis....course Midnight could be Middie for short....

 

[misfitmorgan]

Amore and Tresna
They both mean love, amore in many languages and Tresna is Javanese for love. I had those names picked for our next doe kids we keep but we never get to keep any because something stupid always happens.

Be careful with those cattle panels, we lost a goat and a sheep using a similar set up for our round bales, Though your design does look safer and your goats have no horns. We have had the same problem as babs more then one goat trying to cram their head in the same square. Also had kids stuck trying to go thru the square and then one of the other goats going to town on them, lost two kids that way.

I finally caught up!

 

[Southern by choice]

Thanks guys, yes we may cut a few pieces out to make it more like premiers.
The idea for us is to keep it tight up against the bale, by removing panels as it gets eaten down... the panels are 40" wide but I may cut the other panel for a few 20" sections, so we can have more flexibility in putting just the right size in place to keep it tight. Once the nale gets eaten down considerably it will just get knocked on it's side.
The bale is sitting on a pallet @babsbag

This is really just suppose the be for the big girls to munch on all day- they will still get their fru fru hay.
The kids are still separated so they get their own hay and feed... of course we clip the gates so they can't open it... once they have finished their stuff we remove the clip so they run everywhere now... so there won't ever be that many goats at the bale like you see in the pics.

I like the name suggestions.

Oh Babs- not sure what to do with the cabinets. I may do an overlay...

 

[babsbag]

I am still looking for a feeder for the 3x8 bales that I can slide a bale into right off of my dump trailer as I have no way to move the bale once it is out of the trailer. Also thought about a trailer that I can just leave in the field and put panels around it, I think I have thought of every possible way to feed them and most them require buying a bigger tractor. I looked at a feeder called a HAY BOSS but too much $$$

 

[misfitmorgan]

Yes as i said your's definitely looks safer, we just had ours wrapped around the bale and a rachet strap holding it and then we would ratchet it smaller as needed.....worked pretty good until we ran out of round bales and were just refilling it with a couple square per day.....thats when the accidents happened because were the panel overlapped itself the holes could become smaller after an animal had their head thru it. It never even occurred to us that that would happen.

You can buy very similar panels to what premier uses at most farm stores(TSC) they are called sheep/goat panels. $60 for 48" x 16ft locally which means you can get just shy of 5 of premiers panels out of one of the TSC panel. Premier panels are 48"x 40" each. TSC panels are a bit heavier gauge, premier panels are 000ga verticals and 3ga horizontals, while TSC are all 4ga. Cut the panel into 5 sections and then cut in your 8x12 eating holes are shown. I would so rather pay $60 plus hinges to make one of those feeders then $265.

One of the TSC panels will also make two of the single sided feeders or one double sided feeder. Building those types of feeders is on the very long to do list.
Panels at TSC https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/feedlot-panel-sheep-goat-16-ft-l-x-48-in-h