Springtime animal husbandry and gardening chores

Yesterday, my stepfather and I made a pretty (and tasty) breakfast for my mother of homemade waffles (from scratch) with fresh blueberries, strawberries and whipping cream, scrambled eggs (from our chickens) and pork sausage (from Krista's pig).  I very nice meal- if I do say so myself.

Next I drove home to attack the gardening chores first.  It was a warm, sunny day so I decided to plant the last of the garden beds.  I planted green and purple beans, corn, cucumbers, broccoli and umpteen varieties of squash.  In the greenhouse I transplanted my started sunflowers, tomatoes and red bell peppers.  Tom built shelves in the greenhouse with recycles cedar hot tub wood.

Here's the garden:

Here's the greenhouse shelves:

While I was doing the gardening I took a break and noticed our 10 year old hot-tub.  It had over the years sunk into the ground and started to rot on the bottoms of the walls.  We had already put it up on blocks to get it off the ground. We then tried a trick I read about on the internet of adding cedar sawdust to the hot tub with a small amount of water in it.  The theory is that as the water leaks out the sawdust gets trapped in the leaks and seals them.  Initially we did not think it works but gradually I noticed that the leaks seemed less.  Yesterday I noted that the hot-tub was still 2/3 full after many weeks.  I thought I should top it off to keep it moist.  Then I thought I should probably change the water.  Then I thought if I am going to change the water I might as well clean it and then we can go tubbing.  So I got started- when I did it was sunny and warms after a gorgeous clear night with a full moon (that's what Tom said- I had to work).  By the time I got the hot-tub cleaned and refilled it had become cloudy and cooled.  Tom got a fire stoked up in the hot tub's stove and by evening we had a hot tub.  We took a dipand stayed in until the rain got heavy.  It helped both of our muscles quite a bit.

The resurrected hot tub:
So today Tom went to the feed store to pick up feed and supplies while I did the usual animal chores.  When he came home we had spent $700 on one month's feed and supplies.  We had finally ran out of the 16 tons of local hay we bought last July.  The feed store had run out of local grass hay so Tom had to buy orchard grass hay for $20 per bale!

Here's the hay:

Here's the feed shed:

Here's the chicken feed:
I had to take this photos of Saphy and her kids:
Then we started giving the lambs their shots and worming medication.   After doing half the lambs I was running out of the vaccine and syringes.

Here's some of the lambs who received their shots:
Then we tattooed the bunnies ears and clipped their nails.

Here's the bunnies I am going to sell:

Here's the bunnies I am going to keep:

We ran out of tattoo ink and will not have the letter needed to tattoo the goat kids this year.  So it is back to the feed store to spend more money.

Then we gave the donkeys their annual West Nile virus vaccine.  This is afterwards where they are not coming near me again:
These are lamb butts walking back toward the barn:
Then I cleaned out the larger goat kid pen and put down new straw.  The kids enjoy playing with this straw:
Here's Shorty and PeeWee playing around a dog house:
Then I went into the house and took a long, hot, candle-lit, bubble bath in my renovated bathroom.

The back of the property

This last weekend Tom used an excavator and dug a pond in the back of our property.  It rapidly filled with water.  The soil there is mostly clay so hopefully it will retain the water well through the dryer months.  He built steps on one side in case it doesn't.  I am hoping to build a fence around it- either woven wire or electric netting- and put the ducks and/or geese back there.  They would really like a bigger pond, I think.We also have the majority of the sheep, a few goats and a llama grazing the woods out back.  They really enjoy browsing a variety of plants, and all are looking very well fed.  It is nice that they keep the brush down and clear the trails for us too.  

Random spring animal photos

Pheasant chicks (Chinese Ringneck and Melanistic Mutant):

Zeus on Cally:
Shaun and Shirley:
Lambs:
Goats in front of stove:

Lambing is finally over with new life and death yet again

(Warning dead animal photo below)

So lambing is finally done, and tonight we will get to sleep 8 hours for the first time in over one month.  Sheila, our shaela older ewe, delivered her final set of lambs at 1 AM.  She delivered twin black lambs with some white markings.  I am assuming that they will be modified like she and the sire (Jocko, our mioget ram).  But the ram lamb has a few white hairs in his ear and a spotted tongue.  His scrotum is dark though.  I am wanting to keep one of them, and I would prefer it be the ram if he is in fact modified.  And I need to decide quick for potential buyers too.  Anyways they are being called Shaun and Shirley- Shaun the Sheep cartoon characters.

We apparently also had bunnies born last night.  Ma Bell was supposed to deliver today, and I forgot to tell Tom to check the nest box yesterday while I was a t work.  So this morning I found 6 cold bunnies in the nest box.  Their tummies appear full so I am not sure what happened.  I warmed them, and one of them came to life but no such luck with the others.   So naturally once again I feel horribly guilty about screwing up and having a newborn die because of it.  It is hard to get used to this feeling and really is a downside to this farming thing.

Even though I got almost no sleep last night at work I had to bring the goat kids to the vet to be disbudded.  I have him do it with sedation and local anesthesia because I feel he does a much better job than I and it is more humane.  So to me it's worth the expense.  So right now I have 10 sedated goat kids laying around my living room, and I am making sure they keep breathing and wake up OK.  It is very much like a recovery room in here.  

More animal troubles here at Schoonover farm

So we made it through the night and the surviving ewe lambs are doing well- nursing off their mother.  Tom had checked on Shortcake, the smallest of Saphie's quads, with the early morning barn check, and he said she was up and around, doing well.  I had been worrying about her since she was the smallest of the quads, and I did not think when they were born that Saphie would have enough milk for all four of them.  I fed her a bottle yesterday just because her stomach was not quite as full as the others, and she was a little hunched looking.  When we went to feed animals this morning I found her curled up like usual, but she did not get up to come for grain.  In fact she could not stand at all, and her stomach was quite thin.  So I scooped her up and took her into the house.  We had brought Pee Wee out for her daily goat visit (although she does not seem to like it- does not cuddle or play with the other goats).  Right when I found Shortcake, Pee Wee decided to jump in the water container and soak herself.  So I ran off with Shortcake while Tom tried to dry and warm Pee Wee.  Shortcake was cold.  I was able to feed her some milk, then warm her in the dryer (not running!) and then finish feeding her.  She was still cool, and Tom then came in with still shivering Pee Wee.  He could not get her warm again inside his coat.  So they both went into the pre-warm dryer for a little sauna session.  Now they are both in the house with diapers on.  Pee Wee is fine, running laps and performing acrobatic jumps, but Shortcake is still having troubles staying warm- she's in the 80 degree bathroom now and still looks a little hunched.  She's crying for her mother too:

So it is looking like we will have two bottle babies to feed.  So Tom went out to run errands and I asked for goat milk.  I meanwhile tried to milk all the does who have only 1- 2 kids.  My Udderly EZ milker gave up the ghost because it got caked in colostrum earlier, and I had forgot you are not supposed to put it in water to clean it.  So I got to try to hand milk three very uncooperative does- one 10 year old Nigerian doe, one Angora doe and a Pygmy doe- none of which are great milk producers.  After all of this I got maybe 1/2 cup of goat milk:

So I called Tom back and asked for A LOT of goat milk.  In addition Patches escaped from her hog panel enclosure leaving her four kids behind.  So I let all the lambs out of their pens except Jenny's and moved Patches and her kids into one of the pens.  She should stay put in there.  The lambs enjoyed their first taste of freedom,

their first try at the hay feeder,
to look to their mothers in a scary world,

to check out tires,
to eat grass,

and get totally wore out in the process.
I did find some time to check out my newest lamb in the sunlight.  Introducing Jemima.  She is one of Jenny's triplets, but she has appears to be a mioget katmoget ewe lamb.  I am so excited to have this color and pattern combinations!  I am also thrilled to finally be able to name a lamb Jemima- I have been wanting to since I met a wonderful ewe named Jemima at Amy Hauser's place when I bought my first Shetland sheep.  I was wanting Shetland sheep, and Jemima was a large cross bred ewe, but she had lovely wool and a wonderful deep voice.  Plus I always thought it was a great sheep name.  So now I have my very own Jemima!