First Chicks of 2012 and the Kids Learn the Ropes

This morning I moved 11 eggs to the hatching incubator....the first one was already starting to pip...

As of this evening the first chicks of 2012 have begun to hatch!  These are more of the meat chicks, but it looks like the first one may be a blue.

And this afternoon we started teaching the kids the "ropes" aka leash/collar training them.  The easiest way to do this is to attach them to a fence with a bungee cord.  When training this way you must NEVER leave them unattended.  They did pretty good for their first time.  I also took this opportunity to weigh each of them.  Genesis was a natural....she didn't struggle and relaxed within just a minute or so.  She is now 33# at 47 days of age....

Next up is my favorite, Glory.  She was less than impressed with the whole exercise, but she is getting the object of the lesson.  She is also 33# at 47 days of age...

And the not so little princess made her feelings clear.  She is the heaviest of the girls at 35# at 47 days of age...

Being a typical boy, Beaux was a bit slower to catch on.  He preferred the tugging method of protest.  His growth is catching up, he is 29# at 48 days of age...

The Way it Ought to Be - Chixperiment Continues

One of the most rewarding things that we do is raise our own food.  It's rewarding from a number of perspectives.  First and foremost, our food is supplied by God; without Him nothing would be possible.  Sometimes we take credit for our accomplishments but we never forget the One that gave us the opportunities and abilities.  We have been richly blessed.

Second, by raising our own meat we know what was fed to the animal, how the animal was treated and cared for, and have the assurance that the butchering and processing was done humanely and with respect.

In 2009, we began breeding for a meat chicken that would reproduce on it's own and yield consistent results.  Here it is 3 years later and so far we've been happy with what we're producing.  Last fall we had a Bantam roo develop a crush on the fat white hens and sometimes when we incubate our meat bird eggs we get a surprise.  These are 2 of those surprises, they are half meat bird half bantam which means they are kind of small.  They hatched a few months ago, and now that we can determine they are roosters, it's time to go to freezer camp.  In their case, they became stock. 

We go through a lot of our home canned chicken stock.  I use it in most recipes that call for water or broth.  It's not really difficult to make, and the flavor difference in the dish you're making is unbelieveable.  PLUS no part of the bird is wasted.  These birds were free ranging, so they ate very little grain or commercial feed.  First they are killed and plucked.  Unfortunately the barred bird was in a molt and there were a lot of pin feathers to contend with.

From there we gut them, and remove the heads and feet.  Next they are thoroughly washed in cool water, and I do a butterfly cut (split the bird down the back) and flatten them out on a roasting sheet.  I rub each one with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast them for about 40 minutes in the oven.

Next I remove all of the meat, and put the bones, skin, necks all into a stockpot...along with the pan drippings from the roaster.  The bones and skin are what is used for making stock.

The meat is packaged in 2 cup packages and vac sealed and put in the freezer.  I'll use it later in soups or casseroles.  Do you see all that dark meat?  You can not get that beautiful color and flavor from a grocery store bird.  That dark meat is created when the bird gets plenty of exercise.

Next I gather the ingredients for the stock.  Celery, carrots, onions, garlic....

All of these are rough chopped and put into the stockpot with the skin and bones; then covered with water.

Allow it to come to a boil and maintain a low rolling boil for about 6 hours.  Then strain and put into sterilized jars.  Cap the jars and process them in a pressure canner for 25 minutes at 11 pounds and you've got 7 quarts of the finest stock you have ever tasted!

The strained bones and veggies can be fed back to the chickens, or ground and turned into dog food along with the heads, feet, and offal.

The Old Split Oak is Down

About 30 feet out our back door stood an old oak tree.  The tree actually had 2 trunks so I'm sure they were actually 2 trees that had grown together.  The right side of the tree died years ago, but was still standing firm and providing nesting areas for squirrels, birds, along with many assorted lizards. 

Back on July 19, 2009 a storm took off the top of the right side of that old tree....and put it onto the house.  You can read the story and see the pictures here.

The other side of the old tree finally died during the drought last year.  The tree has been coming down a bit at a time, but it was time for it to be laid to rest.

Here's how it looked when we began...

The first side came down without a hitch, after all, it had been dead for a few years...and it didn't have much height...

The second side was going to be a bit more difficult since it was leaning toward the house.

After locking up the goats and taking down a fence; we attached a chain with a come-along to keep tension on the trunk and prevent it from falling on the house, greenhouse, or anything else we needed to protect.

We are blessed with friends that do this for a living, so we learned a lot from the whole experience.

After a few hours of preparation and work, the old tree was down.

The landscape changed so dramatically when we lost the first half of the tree.  It looks even more vacant now.  We guestimate that it was about 40 years old.

Hard Workers

Most of the critters here have a job to do, and do it well.  We are not typically "cat" people, but we never take for granted the importance of good barn cats.  We have two.  Both are rescues, both neutered toms, and rarely ever seen together.  Except for yesterday.

And when you are a hard worker it's important to get your rest when the opportunity presents itself....

And all babies need their sleep...

Of course it's handy on a sunny day to have a sleep mask...

Meet Apache and Reserve

We LOVE Anatolian Shepherd Dogs as Livestock Guardians and family protectors.  After owning and training German Shepherd Dogs for over 20 years I never thought I would find a working breed that I loved training and working as much.....but that was before Aegis (ASD 1).

We bred Aegis a couple of years ago and kept the litter pick, Koruma (ASD 2).  After raising and training Koruma for about a year, we placed her in a very good working home; where she is now a sheep guardian.

About a year or so ago I was offered another ASD puppy, this one is the nephew of Aegis.  Epoch came here at a couple of months of age and we've been training him for about a year.  He is our 3rd experience with the breed.

This week we had the opportunity to aquire 2 female ASDs....related to Epoch on his dam's side.  They are about 6 weeks old, and are already very promising pups.

This was taken just a few minutes after their arrival.  That's Reserve on the left, and Apache on the right.  Reserve is smooth coated, Apache is a long coat.

They settled in nicely last night....they got a good bath (just to make sure they didn't bring in fleas), a dose of herbal wormer, and a big bowl of dog food mixed with goat milk and fresh eggs.  I think Reserve approves of the new menu....

Today they have been busy wrestling each other in the sunshine...

There is nothing like watching puppies playing together....

Can you feel the love?

Apache will get a bit of training, and a lot of fresh goat milk....before going to live with her new owner.  She will be Rylan's dog when they get into their new home next month.

Not only are ASDs excellent livestock guards, they are wonderful family protection and companion dogs....

Reserve will stay here and we'll train her to watch over goats, poultry, and people. 

I have no doubt that the road that led me to this marvelous breed has been a work of the Lord.  It is not a breed I would have chosen, it was a breed that was sent to us.

What a Difference a Day Makes...

We have had a lot of this lately.....

Which leads to this....

And NO one likes muddy feet!

But today we had lots of warm sunshine....which leads to this...

And some of this....

And sunshiney dry feet are happy feet!

Par-Tay Lights and Valentines

For those of you that know me, you know I have night blindness.  It's not a huge obstacle if you look for ways to work around it.  One of the issues I have is early morning milking and chores.  Our out buildings have lights....but getting across the paths surrounding them in the dark can be a bit tricky without a flashlight.

This is what I see stepping out on our patio first thing in the morning....

And here is the same view using a flash...

Years ago I found these little chinese lantern kindof lights...and I loved them for around the patio.  Bob nearly had a stroke when he saw them.  Eventually I wrapped them up and hid them in the milking barn way back under the milking stand where they'd be safe.

Yesterday I cleaned the milking barn and guess what I found!  Yep, my trailer trash lights are now hanging around the outside of the milkroom....I think they look good.

They really are practical for what I needed.  They were easy to put up, cheap to run, and don't look like I forgot to take down Christmas lights.

They fit nicely from the front door, around the corner to the window....

And most importantly they add enough light behind the kid barn for me to sneak in the back door in the mornings...(behind the barn = storage area for lots of junk)

Ditto sure was surprised to see me pop through that door...

He is feeling much better, by the way...although he is having a minor procedure done today....

And I didn't have to wade through my adoring fans to put milk in the bucket...

And despite my new barn decoration, he still loves me enough to surprise me on Valentines day with a beautiful Azalea topiary...

The hound pup was his special redneck touch.  He's been telling me for months that he wants to get a hound dog.

Aren't the flowers beautiful?

We've been married 26 years and he still brings me flowers.  :)

Bad Behavior

As much as I love my goats, nothing will make me more mad at them than bad behavior.  There are certain rules for the goats to follow.  No putting feet into the milk bucket.  No grain raids.  Stay out of the garden.

Today they broke all of them.  Bad goaties.

Challenge and Personalities

One of the challenges this time of year is keeping/getting bucks in good condition.  It is down near impossible while they are in rut, so by the time they are getting back to normal they look something like this....

All scruffy looking and hairy...most of the time reminding me of Chewbaka....oooo that would be a good buck name Chewbucka!  Anyway.  Their hair all grown out, stinking up a storm from months of applying their own special blend of cologne.  By the way, you may notice big patches of very short hair on the back of their necks.  That's because they squeeze their heads through the fence pannels to get a bit closer to the girls and blubber at them.  It breaks their hair from rubbing so much.  Not attractive on Manny at all since he tends to have a very fluffy head in the winter, and very nice shoulder width.  It kind of makes him look bizzare with that naked neck.

In this picture you can see how big Frodo is compared to Manny and Pete.  Frodo turns a year old this week.  All 3 of these boys are on special feed and getting several small meals a day to get some weight back on them.  I've already done their after rut hoof trimming; and once the weather is warm I will give them a day of beauty that will include a haircut.  Until then, they will just keep bonking heads and blubbering at the girls.

Ditto really took a beating from Frodo, which is why Frodo got moved to the big pen.  Ditto has graduated to the day spa.  I let his copper get away from me (black goats tend to be copper deficient, especially when on iron rich soils) and he stressed out pretty bad.  So for now he is getting room service, plenty of herbs, and gets to go to grandma's house to feast on honeysuckle and dandilion during the day.  He is such a sweetheart and such a gentle boy.

The babies will be a month old tomorrow and already have such fun personalities.  I have officially picked my favorite.....Glory.  One thing you can count on with Glory is that if there is food around, she will eat it.  She will even eat non food things, and take food from the big goats....

Can you see her spots?

Just wait till she gets her haircut.  Because she is so good at eating her hay pellets, hay, and grain she has developed her rumen giving a lot more depth of body.  I think she will be a big girl.

Genesis is a ham.  Pull out the camera and she will pose....

It doesn't matter if you were actually trying to get a picture of her.  She'll be there even if she has to just jump into the scene...Notice she only has 2 feet on the ground.

And of course our 2012 barn princess Gidget needs no introduction...

And let's not forget the greatest goatie of them all....Faith has recovered from the difficult kidding and is producing nearly a gallon of milk a day.

And she seriously needs her nose cleaned.