It’s kidding season here at the farm for the first time! Lisa our older Nubian doe kidded last week and had 2 buckling kids (though only 1 survived), and our other doe Aega had her buckling kid this morning. It was Aega’s first kidding so she only had one baby. I hope next time she has 2 doe babies! In the meantime, we are now getting into milking. Lisa’s baby is only nursing from one side so we need to milk the other side out so she doesn’t get too uncomfortable until the baby figures out there is another side he can drink from.
 Aega and her 2010 buckling kid |
 Lisa's 2010 buckling kid |
 Lisa and her kid |
 One tall baby, he has to lean down some to nurse. |
It’s been a busy few weeks at the farm lately! We decided to attend the Wetaskiwin Rabbit and Poultry show last weekend to see what shows were like and took a couple of our rabbits there and entered them in all the classes. Our Jr. Flemish Giant buck Argent won 2 Best of Breed ribbons and a Best of Breed: Opposite Sex ribbon! We were thrilled since we hadn’t gone there expecting anything other than to learn alot and meet new people.
Davin posing with Argent in the Youth Show w/. their Best of Breed Opposite Sex ribbon
Yesterday was “D” day (dinner day) at the farm for 3 of our 6 month old rabbits! It was the first time we’ve done the full process of processing from cage to table. After a goodly amount of researching all the various methods we got on with it. Darren helped me with the dispatching to make sure we got it right on the first try and so he could also learn how it’s done. Then he went off to his work in the city, leaving me to get the next steps done.
Rabbit Buddies, both from the same litter
Earlier this week I blocked a section of fence where the goats and sheep were regularly crossing to get at the hay bales. I had to come up with a solution using what materials we have on hand so tried weaving branches into the existing fence and give it a top rail. The goats came and gave it a thorough inspection and decided they didn’t like it very much so moved over to the next low section of the fence and jumped there. Here is a pic of the experimental section:
Normally weeknights are usually un-eventful being school nights for the kid and short evenings before heading into work the next day. Our monday night this week took a complete sideways slide. It was really icy with the new snow that had fallen the night before and was our first really yucky dump of 4-8 inches of snow depending on what area you are in. We had upwards of 8 inches by our farm. I was heading home after work and hit a nasty section of glare ice just south of the hwy 19 & 60 intersection south of Devon and the truck spun out on me and landed me in the ditch. Considering that it spun clockwise into the oncoming traffic, completed a 360 back into the south-bound lane and then continued into a 2nd spin narrowly missing a phone pole before stopping with me facing crossways in the ditch, I have no idea how I didn’t hit anything or have anybody else hit me during this as it was during rush hour traffic! Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s some pics of the animals today enjoying the warm, dry weather. Also some other pics from the past week and a bit. Milking Lisa our Nubian – SaanenxBoer cross goat is going well and we’ve built a milking stanchion which makes the job a snap. I don’t even have to catch her anymore, just show her the pail and call her to the barn and she comes running! Our pullets have now started to lay eggs which is great! Soon we’ll cull about 6-8 of our older chickens and put them in the freezer and then move all the chickens into their winter coop which I need to build still.
We were finally successful after a few fits ‘n false starts with moving the llama shed out from behind our house into the field where all the critters need it to sleep in. Maybe the goats will jump our middle fences less now!
Here are some pictures of the shed where it was sitting behind the house. 
Read the rest of this entry »
Well it’s been an insanely busy month, and we were called away for a family emergency for the first half of october. By the time we got back, the first snows had already fallen! Ack!, now we’re looking at finishing the fencing and moving the llama shed and doing a number of maintenance repairs to the shop and the lean-to in the colder weather. It was sleeting yesterday for awhile and too miserable to even think about going out to work in it, plus we were babysitting so just got stuff done in the house.
Today is another day though and we should get a good amount of work done. Poppy, one of our rabbit does had a litter on the wire on friday morning, we saved one kit of the 4, but by the time we got home from work/school at end of day, the baby was nowhere to be found in the nest and cage. Presumably this means Poppy ate the baby, or it spontaneously teleported somewhere. Sunny is due to kindle any time now and I hope it goes better!
Here’s some pics of the new critters, and it’s outside to get work done for the rest of the day!
Well today we picked up our 5 month old Nubian Lamancha cross dairy goat Aega. Sweet thing she is being coloured beige and white and has a sweet temperament. I got her home and took her to meet the others in our little flock. They were quite interested in her, though Moose the goat butted her a couple times when she got too noisy. They look like it may take a few days to get her used to them and vice versa before they will accept her into the flock.
So we left her in the field with them while I took Davin to his first Pony Club session where he learned some groundwork with the ponies and got to ride bareback for a bit with me leading the pony. He was scared up on the pony at first, and likely none too comfortable as he had gotten “the runs” just before we arrived there so he spent the first 20 minutes of class in the bathroom. Unfortunately he didn’t make it to the bathroom in time and got his underwear dirty so he had to do the class with just his jogging pants on. But he was a trooper and quickly forgot his crampy problem once started working with the ponies.
I was very impressed with how well he listened to the instructor and he followed the directions really well for his first time working with an animal his own size. He was of course at the end of the night really wanting to get back on and ride some more as one of the little girls his age there vaulted onto her horse from the ground right in front of him. She really impressed him with that power move and he wanted to immediately try it out, but the sun was going down and we had run out of time, so next week it is.
When we got home, it didn’t take us long to realise all hell had broken loose. In fact a complete disaster. Read the rest of this entry »
