Random Farmness

Ugh! It's been a hot sticky couple of days here. The girls and I are are currently piled up on the couch watching Transformers Beast Wars in the dark trying to stay cool.  Ahhh, cheesy old cartoons- fun! Joining us today is Babbity Rabbity. She's the lucky keeper from Foxy's last liter. Last Sunday, a farmer from Lincolnton bought the rest of the liter for breeding to her current stock. Since Madison worked so hard to make them all friendly we let her keep one as a pet. Babbity is a blue Silver fox, and her silver is starting to come in- very pretty.  Now we just need a visit from someone experienced at trimming bunny nail. Brenda?

Babbity Rabbity

Yes, she has a bald spot- Chuck trimmed some fur so we would know which one to keep. 

 On the way to the lake last weekend we were delayed by this little guy- a baby praying mantis. He was hanging out on Chuck's car and we wanted him to stay on the farm.  He bravely launched himself at Chuck's giant paw, trying to defend his territory, but was soon scooped up on a leaf and deposited on a tomato plant.

Baby Mantis

Coming up, and I must admit I'm ridiculously excited about it, is the new Disney/Pixar movie Brave. We're going on Saturday and to add to the fun I made the girls custom Brave outfits. I love that embroidery machine. 

Brave skirt and shirt

Let's see what we can find to do today to keep the kid's from fighting and everyone cool.

Grow, Grow! GROW!

The rains came this week and boy has it made a difference in the landscape. All the corn fields on our driving route are noticeably taller every time we pass them. Here at Lazy Danes, our little raised beds have taken off, too. This first picture was taken June 6th, of the tomatoes and okra, and the second tonight. Mmmmmm....fresh tomatoes soon!



Our corn is looking a little rough. It's not the weather, or insects or disease- the culprit?

Silver.

See that guilty face? I ran her out of the corn bed again. It's the only one without hot wire around it and she's determined that it's hers. Next years plan calls for the electric mesh around the garden area. The stalks that we have left are doing well, and hopefully they're rooted and strong enough to withstand Silver's attacks.

The ducklings are continuing to grow. Mama duck is herding them off. She's so fun to watch.


The bucklings are doing well, too. The disbudding took better on Forrest and Bubba, but Rio and Mushu are going to have stout little scurs. Hopefully, wethering will help. That's coming up soon, as well as weaning. It's gonna be loud around here.

Rio

Forrest and Bubba

And while Spaulding has already reached his mature size, his spurs continue to grow. Can you see them there? Lucky for him, he's not very aggressive. I've booted him once (love my Muckboots Chore steel toe boots) and that seems to have cured him for now. He'll forget in a few weeks and get stupid again I'm sure.

Spaulding - Delaware Rooster

Lastly, we had a visitor last week. Our friendly black snake is back, or at least one of his relatives. He's hanging at the swingset in this picture and slithered off under some bushes when the chickens took notice of him. I'm glad he's around, Mimi and BeepBeep found a copperhead on the way up to their house one evening. He was near the creek, sunning on the drive. Hopefully, with all chickens, the black snake and activity here, they'll stay away.

The girls are officially out of school for the summer and it's time to start planning some activities for them. It takes so little time for the bickering to begin. *sigh*. So far, I have a trip to the new herpetarium in Charlotte scheduled, and some sleepovers with the grandparents. We're really looking forward to the new Disney Movie Brave opening next weekend.   

I've done a little sewing- I had a couple more shirt orders from the school and then made this outfit for a birthday present. I ordered the T from jiffy shirts, the skirt I got from a consignment store, then added the embroidery. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Play date tomorrow- better get rested up...

Another Day in the Life

There are some things around the farm that words themselves don't do justice to. These are my current favorites.

Here we have Mama Duck. She very carefully set and hatched her 5 little ducklings and is a super mom. I love to listen to her call orders to them constantly- and they listen! There are alarm quacks for they need to stay close, follow me quacks, eat this quacks and of course her quacked warning to all that wander near- "i'm gonna kick your ...!" Today I happened to get between her and her brood in the coop. Now remember, I'm in there a lot- food, water, clean up ,etc and I have never hurt her or her ducklings. This happens frequently... 

Next up, bottle fed baby goats. They're beginning to eat grain along with the hay they've been munching so they're down to 2 bottles a day. Hooray! This is what bottle time looks like.

We did have a bit of a scare Tuesday. Bubba didn't want to get up, and wouldn't take his bottle, had a low fever (barely above normal) and his sides were distended. I got him comfortable and planned to call the vet as soon as I got back form the girls school where I was volunteering for a couple of hours. Luckily, by the time I got home it had passed and Bubba was hollering for his bottle. According to the internet he had bloated and managed to pass the gas on his own. A little vegetable oil would have done the trick if he hadn't gotten it worked out himself. He's 100% now, yay!

Now if I could figure out how to blog the smell of my magnolia tree.

New Home for Sage and Peppermint

As with any endeavor, plans change. Last year this time, the plan was to grow the goat herd to begin production of soap. We were going to drink the Nubian milk and make soap and butter from the Nigerian milk. Well, after attempting to milk Sage, and really feeling the difference in the two breeds- I decided that Nubians were the only way to go. The children were also key to the soap plan and they didn't have much success with milking either.  Yesterday, we decided to list Sage and her daughter on craigslist and in 30 minutes we had a couple lined up to come get them.

Congratulations to Crystal and Brian- the proud new owners of 2 Nigerian Does. They are very nice and are new to the adventure of milk goats. Hopefully, they will all get along well. They may also be interested in one of Scarlets bucklings when they get old enough to go. Awesome!

Last picture of Sage and Peppermint

In other goat news, I milked Ebony last night and she was a dream to milk. A little apprehensive at first, but settled into her grain quickly. Hooray for two milking goats!

The garden is doing well- we've had an abundance of rain and nice sunny days. Seems like everything is about 3 weeks ahead this year.  That's good for now since my freezer is about out of corn and blueberries frozen from last year, but his summer may be pretty miserable in the weather department.

Now we're off to celebrate Memorial Day with the family!

Mid-May and All is Well!

It was questionable, but all is indeed well. The goats have been high maintenance this year! Scarlett was passing blood in her milk- of course, the first panicked thought is MASTITIS! However after spending a lot of time on the internet doing research, taking her temp and comparing signs, it appears she only had some congestion that had to work itself out. It lasted about 3 days, I massaged her udders and milked her out twice a day and it cleared up. We do have the California Mastitis Test, but it's a strange way to test, and the reaction that occurs when there is mastitis is described as gelling. Never saw gel, and I'm still assuming it would have been dramatic. Anyway...whew!

The bucklings are finally all doing well. Bubba progressed so much slower that the other 3- even Forrest who has also been getting bottle fed. He seems good now, but definitely has some catching up to do. The girls came up with names for the other two- Ebony's little guy (with the sticking out ears) is Rio and Scarlet's is Mushu.

Forrest and Mushu under the hay manger

Rio and Bubba cuddled up

The black runner duck hatched 5 ducklings. No pictures yet as she is being very protective. That little 5 pound duck can be scary when she wants to! The only other animal news is Dinkey the Donkey managed to get out of his paddock and went to visit our neighbors barn. She caught him and put him in a stall until I could get over there. Then, I spent 30 minutes dragging him home because he wanted to go through the woods (prickers and thorns!) and I wanted to go by way of the road (beer truck!). I prevailed- luckily he's a mini and I'm pretty stubborn myself. The beer truck only derailed him for a minute and I got my workout for the day. Silly donkey.

All our other critters are doing well. We need to thin the herd a bit very soon- rabbits and goats for sale- cuddly or delicious! I think we'll be selling Sage and her doeling also. Suddenly, making soap doesn't sound nearly as appealing...

All the raised bed crops are in and sprouting -corn, tomatoes, peppers, herbs, carrots, lettuce, chard, peas, and we're trying okra this year, too. I'm not a fan unless it's in soup and tastes like all the rest. Chuck loves it fried. Maybe I can come up with some new recipes that we'll all eat. In the field dad has planted cucumbers, zucchini, green beans and will soon be putting in sweet potatoes. I must say I'm most looking forward to fresh goats milk mozzarella with basil and tomatoes straight for the garden. MMMMMmmmmm!

Last Saturday I set up a booth at WRD's Spring Fling (kid's school). I had several people interested in my WRD shirts, and 10% of sales of them are going to the school. I sold 3. Hopefully, more orders will come and at least I got some exposure. I sold 1 head band and 1 wallet, too. There just weren't a lot of people there. REALLY need to get the webstore going. It's on the list. 

The list is calling- need to feed the children, then the rest of the farm. 

More babies!

 How do you get baby goats? Go out of town. Poor Scarlett has been looking like she was going to pop for the last 3 weeks, plus we have 3 others that should be expecting. I've been waiting and waiting for her kids, but Chuck and I had planned a weekend in Banner Elk for our 15th anniversary (awww!). Naturally, I got a call from Madison Saturday morning while I enjoyed the coffee and view- courtesy of The Banner Elk Winery and Villa. "Mom! Ebony had her baby-What do we do?!" Of course, having to be the welcome wagon for one kid is not enough.  Scarlett had 3 more Saturday night so Madison, Willow and Mimi could get in plenty of practice tying umbilical cords. They did a great job, and we have 4 new bucklings! Ebony's kidding went great, and her buckling is doing well. Scarlet has one buckling that is thriving but the other two are currently being bottle fed since they haven't been able to latch on and the little brown fellow had contracted tendons so we had to splint his front legs. We're calling him Forrest since Chuck had to make him his special walking shoes and the little black one we're feeding is being called Bubba. The other two have not been named yet.

Forrest - see his special shoes?

Bubba

Un-named buckling and Scarlett

Ebony's buckling

All the other animals are doing well. the baby bunnies will be ready for new homes in about 2 weeks. Anyone looking for Silver Fox pets or breeding stock? The chickies and duckies are together in a larger playpen and the rabbits are enjoying their new hutches as well. We'll have some more baby ducks soon- I thought Willow was gathering the black runner duck's eggs- nope.

Chickies and Duckies

Laying flock enjoying some leftover cake

New rabbit hutch- we have 2 of these now, plus the tractor.

Bunnies-we hold them a lot so they'll be good pets

Black Runner on her clutch 

We also have some baby plants! I have chard, carrots, lettuce and pea plants peaking through the soil. The strawberries are beginning to ripen - now to cover them so the chickens leave us some.

peaking plants

Strawberries

Wisteria in bloom

 For my inside projects- I've been sewing like mad! I'm so excited because I'm putting in a table at the WRD Spring Fling! I'm making plenty of shirts with WRD logos, but I'll also have a couple of ruffle purses, hair things, luggage tags and what not. Still need to get an e-commerce spot going. I'll be shopping around web designers if anyone has recommendations please send me an email.

Baby Taggie Blanket

Shorts with pockets and a sting ray

That's all for tonight- the new blogger interface was not playing nice.

Spring 2012

We've been busy, really busy. Sorry for the long-time-no-post. A brief run down of what's happened then current state.

Last summer was a doozie! Luke (Dane) got bit by something- we're leaning toward brown recluse, but it could have been a copperhead. He made many trips to the vet for bandaging and removal of the necrotic tissue but he's fine now, with just a small scar. Next, Angel (horse) choked on hay and had a couple of vet visits, and he was back to normal. Next up - it comes in 3's, remember - I broke my foot, and spent 8 weeks in a boot. In case you were wondering, doing farm chores in the rain with a garbage bag wrapped around your booted foot is not fun. I, too, am back to normal. The only other hurdle has been a fox picking off chickens and my Sasha duck, but that's life on a farm.

Fall and winter passed with no big changes; just waiting on spring. We made or pilgrimage to Disney World to escape the cold and had a great time. Once we came back it was time to start getting ready for all the newbies.

The newbies started arriving mid-march with our first doeling. Sage gave birth to one blue-eyed, blonde doe (so much for Flash adding color). The girls settled on Peppermint for a name. She'll be ready for her new home in mid May. Next up for kids should be Scarlet- she's huge and looking miserable.

Peppermint Sunning

At the end of March, we had a litter of bunnies born. We have 6, 3 grey and 3 black. We're trying to keep them friendly and will offer them as pets when they get old enough. We also successfully incubated adn hatched about 20 chicks. They're barnyard mixes- all the roosters will be dinner and maybe even some of the hens depending on the ratio. It was really fun and educational to have them inside to incubate. The girls were excited to candle the eggs to watch the chicks grow and they even got to watch a few as they came out of the shell. Next we'll try hatching some duck eggs!

Baby Bunnies- 4 is the most I can keep together.

Chickies

The garden is about to go in. We've been adding compost and soil over the winter. Willow is helping out with that, as she has started her own worm farm. It's been running for almost a month now. She started with 2 pounds of red wigglers in a worm factory 360 and they're supposed to double in volume in about 90 days. Between the goats, the chickens and now the worms, there is very little food waste from the kitchen!

Willow has also taken over the egg sales. She gathers them, then helps wash and package. Chuck takes most of them to work, and Willow gets any money above feed and packaging costs. Egg customers will notice we've switched packaging as well. The plastic cartons, while very nice looking, were a pain to deal with. We've gone to recycled/recyclable cardboard and are still using the 3x4 design.

Willow turning bread into eggs.

As for me, I have a new hobby (since I have so much free time), sewing! Who would've though? I really enjoy it and am hoping to start selling on the website soon.

Circle Skirt and Appliqued Shirt

Luke- modeling a reversible bandana

Reversible Bandana

Pillowcase Dress with Minnie applique

Ruffle back skirts(fronts are flat) for Animal Kingdom

Humming Bird Ruffle purse

Custom Ruffle UNC purse for my Sister-in-Law

That's all for now- more to come soon!