Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Where has the year gone.

So.. half the year is gone... I guess that is my half assed part.

We went up to 7 goats and are back down to 4. Hopefully more on the way. Up to 30 chickens at one point now back down to 15. NO MORE.

Life got in the way of blogging but that is the way it is supposed to be.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

And THIS time Turkish, I do mean it.

I know I said THIS TIME I was going to post more. Yeah, well, maybe this time.

We are going to be turning a .49 acre property w/ 5br house, 2 car garage, 2 sheds, and a semi-functional fence into a backyard homestead. We will have a total of 10 fruit trees, a rasp/wineberry patch. A blueberry patch. An herb garden. A veggie garden. 6 chickens and 4 goats. Eventually we will have a smoke house, a greenhouse and a canning/processing kitchen in the garage. Other projects are to include a solar water heater for at least 1 of the hot water tanks. A wood stove for the living room. Various useless ornamental plants will come out and edible ones will go in. Oy. I might be insane.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Busy week

On Tuesday my 15 minutes of farm related stuff was spent with baby goats. They were just born that day and I managed to check everybody out and get one of the mamas corralled in with her own babies. The other doe was determined that all 5 belonged to her. Um no. You have 2 nipples you are not allowed to have 5 babies. Nice try.


Wed: I worked with the house plants today. Taking some cuttings and checking on my rose cutting that I started from a bouquet rose. It appears to be rooting but I'm not going to pull it out to check. Right now I'm just hoping for the best.

Thurs: Back out to the goat farm. Checked on the babies (they are CUTE) and worked with the fence to try to keep Dulce the pain in the arse escapist from getting out. She simply doesn't seem to care about the zott from the fence.

Friday: Headed back out to the farm to put more fence posts in. Hoping that this solves the escaping goat issue. We shall see. I sense a freezer in her future. And of course to play with the bebee goaters.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Vicarious Spring Fever

My 15 minutes today was spent researching goat breeds. I like my Nubians. What I'd really like is to start a line of polled mini Nubians. If I start with my 2 big girls and a grade ND polled buck... I might have some luck. We'll see. First I have to fence in the yard a bit more.

The reason I like polled goats is that goats with horns simply ARE more dangerous. Not to say that you are guaranteed to be badly hurt by your goat but it certainly adds to the potential for an accident to happen. I dislike the dehorning process though. I think it is cruel and that if it can be avoided by selective breeding then why not.

The problem with this is from what I read the genetics do not work out because there is a link between breeding polled to polled goats and having a higher chance of producing a hermaphrodite, which for breeding purposes is sterile and useless.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Blog Redeux

My grand plan, HAHA, is to catalog a year of half-assed homesteading. What works for me, what doesn't, and what is a catastrophic failure. This will be while working, going to school starting this fall and generally attempting to do housework at least once a month. It should be interesting as I am definitely not a type A personality.

I'm starting with 15 minutes of farm activity every day and no less than 2 hours every week. Yes this seems light... Baby steps.

Today's task
Sorted all the seeds I forgot to plant in previous years. I tossed everything that said "packed for 2007" and earlier.

The keepers are in random order.
2 84g packages of Kentucky Wonder Green Beans
1 1 oz package of Alaska Peas
1 pk Chamomile
1 pk National Pickling Cucumber

Partial packets of
Lemon Basil
Cilantro
Sugar Snap Peas
Thai Basil
Fennel
Chives

I started with 22 packages of seeds and am left with 11. Not the end of the world. I will use all the old seeds around the compost pile and anything that comes up can be harvested from there.

Need to acquire as seeds or plants:
Spinach, Tomatoes, Squash, Melon, Peppers, Eggplant, Onions, Potatoes (or I could plant the ones growing in my cabinet), Starflower (I want to make a wreath this year), Lavender, Zucchini, Carrots, Bamboo, um I think that is all.


Current Livestock: 3 goats Daisy (3-4 yr Nubian) Mama (8 yr Nubian - Great mom, has had twins or trips every time) Dulce (3-5yr Lamancha mix - No back history but currently bred to a Nigerian Dwarf. She's due late April.)

2 Labrador Mixes : Primus is a lab/pit/chow cross and was born in my car. He likes naps. Elsa is a lab/chaos cross and was found in a field. She likes couches and bunnies. For lunch.


Our living situation is kind of up in the air so I am boarding my goats at a friend's farm. She's SO thrilled with this :) Hoping to get everybody and a garden all in once place in the near future.

Goat news: Old Mama scratched her face somehow and is now on an antibiotic. My first time injecting a goat was interesting and I basically had to lash her to the gate to do it. She didn't care about the needle but damn if I was going to be allowed to pull on her skin. Funny old girl. Getting ready to do a CDT booster on everybody in another week or so. Trying to time it with Dulce's kidding but who knows when she was actually caught.