On Sunday, Wally and I brought the mare we had leased back to her original owner. He simply didn’t have it in him to ride again. There was no sense in keeping a horse that wasn’t going to get ridden. Not that my horses are getting ridden much, but I’m hoping to change that this week.
We got over four inches of rain Sunday and Monday with more to come today. Why can’t we get it in smaller batches?
When we returned the mare, we dropped off two goats that I had sold to a woman in South Carolina. The one adult doe that we sold was the one I bought when we went up to the mountains a few months ago. This doe was a horrible irritation and a danger to Gel. I’m so, so, so glad she’s gone.
I am no longer bottle feeding Spot. He gets his milk directly from the source. That’s okay throughout May, but beginning June 1, he’ll need to live in the chicken pasture until Gwen is dried off. Hopefully by the time she freshens again, he’ll have forgotten about nursing, but I’m not holding my breath. We’ll see how it goes.
It frequently seems like you get one thing in order and then several more things fall apart. Sometimes it feels like running this farm is a constant struggle. One of the ducks that was sitting hatched out a chick. That may not seem to be such a big deal, but chicks hatch seven days sooner than ducklings. The chick was too small to go in with the batch that I had in the brooder so I had to figure out a way to feed and water the chick without loosing a limb to the mother duck. Two ducklings hatched out yesterday and I had planned to keep them up until the ducklings were a bit bigger, but the mother duck got out of the pen and who knows where they are now. Most likely they won’t survive.
Keeping the chickens that are in the brooder from getting washed away in the heavy rain has been difficult.
Split has killed two ducks in two days. Her days here are numbered.
The goat shelter has turned into a muddy, shitty mess thanks to Gwen. I went and bought four bales of straw to lay down in there and we put a chain link panel with a gate on the front of it. The gate is too narrow for Gwen to come into the shelter so it is now a cow-free zone. There are other shelters available for Gwen and she’s thriving here.
Gel has been nothing short of magnificent every morning by search for Gwen and bringing her up for milking. On Sunday Wally and I made a drop-down milking stall for Gwen. It seems to be working relatively well.
The last goat to kid is due in 13 days. I’ll be glad to start milking her again. She’s such a nice goat. Hopefully we won’t have any problems getting her to conceive this year.
Well, I guess that’s about it for now.
Until later …