Vickir73 & The Chunky Dunk!! - pics of first show

Vickir73

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The name of my farm is The Chunky Dunk (TCD). This comes from the sign I have hanging above my stove - 'We don't skinny dip, we chunky dunk!!!'

'Course my city friends like to make fun of me and say I've got Texas' next chicken ranch :)

My first love is my two children - my next love is my flock and I've found that affection is growing stronger and stronger each day for the newest addition to TCD - goats. A few months ago I got a call from my mother. "You have to call this lady! She's wanting to give away her goats and I told her we (what she really means here is YOU) would be interested in taking them." GREAT!! . . . I have no way to haul them, no place to put them, no fence, no food, no knowledge about goats, no anything - but what the heck! why not??

So I call the lady, who seems like a very nice lady. Her kids have gotten into steers and they don't have time for the 3 does, 2 of which are pregnant. Oh and the momma goat has a double teat - no problem there, right?

Well, after borrowing my brother's truck (he had a large animal crate we put 2 of the goats in) and putting one of the goats in the back of my small SUV (yes, that was an interesting trip) we finally got the goats to their new home. The girls were a bit skittish at first; however, I've worked with them everyday on the stand - brushing, petting, talking - they've calmed down quite a bit.

We have named them - Momma Goat, Daisi, and Dafni. Daisi and Dafni are Momma Goat's twin does. They were her first. Since coming to TCD, Momma Goat has dropped twin bucks, Stripe and Oreo, and Daisi has dropped a single buck, Pikachu. I've discovered I need more girls :) I've milked Momma Goat a couple of times - still nothing serious as her kids are only a few weeks old, but I've discovered her double teat is big PITA!! REALLY????? I can see that wanting to duct tape it is going to be very tempting some days . . .ok, fine, most every day - jeez, I'm hoping I'll warm up to it, but right now . . . .


Anyhow, I live in a small town about 100 miles north of Houston and I work in Houston. Yes, I drive this far everyday and I've been doing it for over 2 years. I tell people that I've been blessed with a great place to work and a great place to live and they just happen to be 100 miles apart.

I live on 15 acres. My family has owned the property for about 35 years. My 89 year old grandmother and my 60 year old mother also live on the property - luckily not in the same house as me and the kids, but close enough on some days, not far enough away on others :) Yes, I love them dearly, but I know there are people reading this that understand what I mean. Although there are days they drive me crazy, moving back home (I lived in Houston after graduating high school) was a great blessing. I get to see them everyday and my children get to know their grandmother and great-grandmother and will hopefully have a lot of memories of them when the kids are older.

My children are just turned 10 (DD) and just turned 6 (DS) and I already know that my daughter will be encouraged to go to college somewhere outside of the state - some of you will probably remind me of this in a few years when I'm telling her she needs to stay at home - but I'll right now, I'm searching for colleges over seas . . .My son will be President one day and I'm hoping he won't still want to be sleeping with me :ep

The kids love the animals - they really enjoyed going to their first chicken show early in the year and winning blue ribbons - they weren't as happy when they discovered they didn't get to keep the $3 "we" won as prize money :hit

Let's see. What else - well, I've had to rebuild by flock twice from dog attacks and I've started gardening this year. I've canned my first green beans and beets - super yummy!! I'm looking forward to planting more stuff this fall. I love be able to provide for the kids and myself knowing where the stuff came from and what it's be treated with (so far, in my case I haven't treated with any chemicals :celebrate)

I grew up raising animals for meat and show (rabbits, goats, pigs, broilers, 1 lamb, and 1 steer) and forgot how much I missed it. For me, it's very rewarding and relaxing (although there have been moments I've wanted to throw my hands up in defeat). Until I attended my first poultry show this year, I'd forgotten how that "high" feels and I look forward to becoming more and more active in poultry showing and learning more and more about my flock. This, in turn, is of course, flowing into my small herd of goats. I look forward to learning more about them and increasing my herd size. I would love to be able to provide cheese, milk and meat for my family. I'm also very interested in adding a few cattle to TCD too, for milk, but mainly meat purposes. A pound of 80/20 beef is over $3 !!!!! Can you believe that ????!!!! It's horrible.

I'm gonna go back and reread some of the questions I could post and answer on here. If any one has any questions, please let me know, but when it comes to me, just so you know - my mind is (1) either in the gutter or (2) not far from it - I'll try to remember that I've got to keep my pages "family friendly" but it's gonna be really, really hard :duc
 

Vickir73

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1. What state/province/country are you in and what is your climate like? - Texas / Polk County / USA

2. How many people are in your family? Marital status? - myself, 10 year old daughter, 6 year old son. divorced.

3. How would you define your farm? - a heinz 57 farm - a little bit of everything :)

4. What would you do with your spare time if you had any resources you needed? - scrapbook / prepper stuff / read

5. Have you ever built a house, barn , or other types of building? Do you want to? - yes, my chicken coop

6. Can you weld? Steel, aluminum, MiG, TiG, stick, Oxy-Acet? - nope

7. Who or what inspired you to be a farmer/rancher, hobby farmer? - grew up doing it

8 Is it a hobby or an occupation? - hobby

9. In what areas are you knowledgeable and in what areas would you like to learn more? - not much / pretty much everything

10. In what types of farming will you never choose to do? - organic

11. Are you interested in providing more of your own food supply? - yes

12. Where do you end up when you sink into yourself, away from the outside world? - doing something with my kids or animals

13. Can you drive a farm tractor or a semi? - does riding lawn mower count?

14. Do you make crafts or useful items? Would you want to teach others how to do these? yes - no, I don't have very much patience

15. Can you legally have all forms of livestock where you are at? Do you have any? What kinds? - yes, chickens, goats, 1 pig, rent the pasture to "the horse man"

16. Can you operate a lathe? Metal, wood? - nope

17. Do you like to garden? If so, what do you enjoy growing? - yes, this is my first year really, so I'm still figuring out what I like to grow

18. Do you fish? Bait or explosives? - yes, neither - I use a gun :)

19. How much space/land do you have or rent? City farm? Country? - 15 acres (family land) - country

20. Are you a Novice, Technician, degreed? - Associates degree

21. What is your farm specialty? Or what one would you like to learn? - no specialty, would love to become an expert with cheese / butter, anything to help me become more self reliant

22. If you could create a degree and curriculum, what would you major in and what classes would you take? - I don't have enough self discipline to create something like that - or at least something that could be listed on this forum :duc

23. Do you do wood work? framing, finish, cabinet? - nope

24. Are you interested in herbal animal medicine? - yes - to a degree.

25. If you could live any place you chose, where would it be? - I'm not sure, I wouldn't mind living somewhere that has actual climates.

26. Do you use a wood stove for heating or cooking? - no

27. What would your ideal super hero/villain be? - probably couldn't be listed on this forum :duc

28. Are your family or friends also interested in animals? - yes, but not to the degree that I am :) my friends think showing chickens is crazy.

29. Do you like to cook? Are you interested in whole foods and natural foods? raw milk? farm fresh eggs? - yes, yes, yes, yes

30. What was your best animal experience? Worst? - you would think that I might say watching an animal bring life into this world would be the greatest thing, but that actually makes me want to hurl, so the closest I could get to that without losing my lunch would be to see the new babies after they are cleaned up. I don't really have a worst experience. What makes me feel the worst is when I get lazy and have to talk myself into getting up and taking care of everything.

31. Do you forage or hunt for part of your food needs? - no. I have absolutely no hand/eye coordination. I would shoot the neighbors house (even if they were several miles away). I wonder how I ever learned to type (and I have to say it's an impressive 90 wpm :)

32. What skills do you have that help you be more a self sufficient farm? - I'm learning to can - I canned using a water bath for the first time this year. I'm also learning how to keep seeds.

33. Do you process your own meat? Can or preserve? - I know how, but have not canned or preserved anything. We usually just freeze it.

34. Do you use alternative energy sources on your farm? Would you like to? - no, I would like to, but right now don't have the time to learn something else.

35 What is on your to do list? - finishing this damn list so I can try to get some work done before leaving the office for 3 days.

36. Have you ever lived completely off what you produce? Would you like to? - no, yes

37. In what do you trust? - God and my family

38. Do you make and fix things yourself to save money? - yes, my proudest accomplishment so far is making my own laundry soap

39. Has the experience with animals changed your attitude or habits? - I wouldn't say so. I think having kids have caused me to have the biggest changes in attitude and habits.
 

marlowmanor

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I made my own laundry detergent a couple times. Found it didn't work as well as I wanted so just went back to store bought. :hide I always wash with cold water and it didn't dissolve right with that.

I grew up farming, now I am just trying to get back to it. My dream is to have 3-5 acres of my own that I can farm on. Goats and chickens mainly. Maybe I can get my DH to one day get on board with this goal! He's a country boy, but there is a huge difference between a simple country boy and an actual farmer as I have found out! :/ DH just doesn't totally understand my love of animals and desire to have a farm.
 

Vickir73

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I've had a lot of luck with the laundry detergent. My kids used to complain about their clothes being "hard" when I'd forget to use softner. I haven't had to buy softner since I started making my own soap, so not only am I saving money on the detergent, but not spending money on softner either.

I love the thought of being able to provide food for my family, my big constraint is time. I work 100 miles from where I live, so I leave the house at 6:30 am and don't get home until 7:30 PM. That doesn't leave much time for chickens, goats, garden, laundry, dishes, and, oh yeah, kids :) - forget dating - who has time for that - unless I meet him at TSC or the feed store :love

This evening I've got to stop at the local convenience store and get a bag of ice. I've got several quarts of tomatoes that need to be blanched and frozen. I wish I could find a freezer bag smaller than a quart. I'm also learning the difference between water boiling and pressure canning.

I've been blessed in that the kids really enjoy the animals and the garden too. I wouldn't be opposed to either of them showing, but it's something I'm not going to push them to do.
 

marlowmanor

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We did some canning last year. We did some tomatoes. I have plans to do some new things this year but my garden isn't producing as well as I hoped. Likely I'll have to buy some things or get them from my dad's garden. We freeze alot of things too though.

My kids love the animals and they like going to check the garden and pick it too. I'm hoping mine get interested in 4H, it's a good program and it'd give me another excuse to have more animals! My oldest isn't quite old enough yet to get into 4H though so we have a couple years to get him interested in it. I won't push the kids into it but if they want to try it I won't hold them back.
 

Vickir73

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here are some pics:

of some of the chickens - yes that one is a Turken - of all the chickens that dogs have gotten - the ugly has survived thru it all!

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Dafni & Momma Goat (Dafni is in the front, Momma Goat, and then Pikachu is in the background)

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Momma Goat's buck, Oreo

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Momma Goat's buck, Stripe (was the runt, but has caught up with Oreo)

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feeder I designed and help build (I found 2 different designs I like and just sort of combined them together)

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bjjohns

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Looking at the sides of the hay part of your goat feeder, is that wire horse panel, or woven wire fence, or ????
 

marlowmanor

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Is your turken black? We have a black turken here. She isn't laying age yet though. Do you have any other pictures of your turken? I like the odd look of them, though the one I have really fallen for in the batch of chicks we got in March is our polish. The polish is so cute and the most docile of the flock. She lets my ODS pick her up when he goes in the coop. I was thrilled when it turned out to be a pullet.
 

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