Why is she doing what she is doing

The youngest member of our family is doing fine Here he is giving Medium a tongue lashing. The Kid seems to be a little slow, of course husband has been walking around calling him special in that Church Lady voice. He seems a little weak, but is alert. He is also flat footed on his front feet. Can't find info about this problem.

I also had to look up why Sam was lactating. If she is pregnant she should drop her foal today at the latest, according to the horse pregnancy calculator. Unless she was tagged between fences by a Shetland, then she would have had to been expose right before we got her. But I did find some info that it could be menopause (which I think she is a little young for, but what do I know) or it could be a false pregnancy.

Almost forgot to mention, A few more vendors have been added to The Homesteaders Way. If you are in Southern Illinois you can find a soap and cheese making class. I will be adding yet more vendors today.

Bring me some Shrubbery

We have finally named the first little boy. His name is. . .

Ni.

He is coming along nicely. Growing fast, and attempting to rear up and has managed to jump on the furniture.When he jumps around, it reminds you of an human infant's involuntary jerky movements.

He also believes that he is a dog.

Just about all the goat books I have read, say that goats are not social animals, that's why the mother will walk away from the young and only going back at feeding time or if they might be in trouble.

LIES! Lies I tell you. That or I just have some very bizarre goats. I think part of the leaving them alone isn't so much about not being social as it is must the time they are born twins or triplets and carry on in that manner. Playing with each other rather than needing affection from mommy.

Ni on the other hand is an only child now, and behaves like a needy little brat. Don't even thin for a minute that you can leave him alone. He will run through the house desperately searching for me. He lies at my feet, between the stove and me, while I am cooking.

He is not very happy about the newest little one taking his playpen. He now sleeps with our not so much a puppy. He is showing a little bit of jealousy when I am feeding the new guy. He will be a spoiled little brat.

No name for the newest member of the family, yet. It was amazing watching him be born yesterday. I was worried at one point because I didn't know how long she had been in labor, and at fist all the pushing seemed like it was doing nothing. I saw the little bubbles around his nose while he was still in the membrane. And then when he broke through and gasped his first breath. It was snoopy dancing time. The only reason I even had the camera was because I was going to take pictures of the motorcycle engine we got back (shovel head), otherwise I would have been out there sans camera. That would have been a bummer. Guess I should always carry the camera with me.

His umbilical cord was about 2 ft in length. I had to tie it off, snip it to 1 1/2 inches in length and dipped it in to iodine. Been watching it for bleeding

He wasn't standing within the few moments, nor as he standing after 3 hours. He would try, then stop. It seemed like there was something wrong with his right hind leg. Betty kept running from him, wouldn't let him eat. I brought him in and gave him a sugar/molasses tit and he took right to the bottle. I held it a little high so that he would have to stretch for it, and annoyed him until he stood. I took him to Patch, but she wouldn't allow him to nurse either. I will take him out to Betty this morning, she is probably uncomfortable by now, and we will see what happens. He has taken to the bottle very easily.

He is wobbeling around this morning.

The Yucky Miracle of Goat Birth

I had to watch it, now you do.

It was actually quite interesting to watch. I grew concerned, found myself clenching and pushing a bit in sympathetic memory for Betty.


I was waiting with Small for the bus, when I heard Betty being rather vocal. Once Small was gone I went out to the barn to check on her. She was gone! I looked out in the field and saw Jack laying in a pile of straw, and there, making strange stretching movements was Betty. Well that didn't look good. I really really hoped she hadn't already popped that kid out, there in the middle of a group of cows. She's a slick one that Betty, she escape when she wants to. I ran out there and found. . .



















Welcome to the world baby boy!



After he was born, I gave them a minute, but Betty wanted nothing to do with him, and Patch came running to take over.....mmmm....not what I want happening. They have been re-penned away from everyone and closer to the house. I will check here in a few minutes and see if we have twins or not. But I doubt we will.

Give Away!

Starting today, and running until March 10th, you can enter to win a $25us gift certificate to a participating vendor of your choosing from The Homesteaders Way.

I realize that there are currently only a few vendors to choose from, but before the deadline, I am confident there will be a few more vendors.

Entering the contest is simple, if you have a blog. Those of you that don't, if things go as planned, you will get a chance to win something else later in the year.

You can get the details of the contest here, at the News page of The Homesteaders Way.

Good Luck!

White Trash at their finest (pic heavy)

The Hay Spike Trailer will be hence forth known as The Husbands Bale Spear Dolly

This is the core of the project. It is not finished, but it is at it's primitive yet functioning level. To get to this point you will need

a detached truck bed trailer
Hay spike
Pipe
couple pieces of angle iron
Harley Davidson front axle 3/4 inch (any solid of that size will work)
piece of chain
3/8 inch bolts to hold chain together
BFH (Big Frickin' Hammer)
Saws all
welder
come-along

A torch if you got em' other wise heat up the corners and whack it with the BFH

First remove the bed from the frame of the truck bed. Make sure that it is below freezing outside and it is only you and your wife. Yell at her when she complains that the bed just fell on her hand, tell her to suck it up and ask her if she's a PIONEER WOMAN!?!

Place the hay spike on the frame, calculate the approximate center of your bales (5 foot bale, theoretically 2 1/2 feet from the ground) The lower it is the better leverage you could have. You might have to lower your rails on the frame. Our frame has zero suspension, all the springs have been removed, so it is sitting on it's bump stops. Blink bars have been welded to the sides of the frame then down to the axle in a V shape to stabilize the axle to the frame, welded directly to the bump stops.

Take two 3 inches of 1 inch steel pipe, heavy gauge, we used the HD axle spacer, cut 4 pieces 2 1/2 inches long out of 3 inch angle iron. Weld the pipe using two pieces of angle iron, opposing in an S or lightening shape, welding it square and flush to one end of the top outside of the angle iron. When done it will look like a P with a tail. Stand it up , clamp it down and weld top and bottom. Take the other piece of iron and box in the P to make it look like inverted T with a dot on top, creating a pivot point with two flanges going forwards and back. Clamp to another piece of angle iron for alignment, weld the top side, cool, flip and weld the bottom side. Now you have an assembly that can be mounted to a flat rail of the frame. Do that twice, to create pivots for both sides.







Calculate your height at plum, make sure your frame tongue is level with the scars on your knees, to get that height. (level to your hitch). Slide your spear lower to points or the pivot pins into your newly made pivots. Clamp down your pivots and weld them onto your frame at the predetermined spear height. Use corner gussets that were cut scraps, 3"x4". Put vertical gussets in the center of the angle iron pivots, weld them.

Ladies, go out and take a photo, while it is snowing and he is welding. Call him silly and run away.


Next, measure for a 4x4 "kick stand" up to the bottom side of the top mount to a frame structure to buck it, wrap a chain around the cross member and link the top mount, come-along to the chain. From there, double check measurements for the 4x4. Measure twice cut once, give yourself a little room to cut again. Then cut the wood, put under the mount wedge in the cross member, then pull everything tight with the come-along. Spear should be relatively horizontal, come-along tight, board wedged in place. At that point you are ready for application.



On the weld, turn it up and burn it in.

Now for the photo part of our show, because the above is all Greek to me (more like very bad English). This is why Husband doesn't run this blog, but he said you should understand. If not, he is here for you.

Get your Good Neighbor's truck to try it out on first (This should hook up to our tractor as well)



Line it up and . . .


Shove it in



Start ratcheting it up











oops, it's sitting on the tires. But it took less then 30 seconds to get it there.




Place the "kick stand" under the spike. Re-bar should fix this.



Now put your Good Neighbor to work, that is after all why he lives next to you.

Listening to the Turkeys sing

I went to our local farm store yesterday to buy a Skil saw. They had baby chicks out. And I noticed that there was a few bronze turkeys available.

Remember that 42 lbs dressed out turkey we had a few years ago? This is the same place I bought him.

There wasn't a sign proclaiming how much they were. But from the past, I knew that they were around $5 a piece. I told the part-timer that I would take all 8 of the turkeys they had left. He scooped them up and realized there was no price. He asked the guy that was cleaning the brooders. I had thought the guy had said $3.59 a piece, but the part-timer wrote down $2.59 a piece. ~giggle fit of pleasure~.

I took my feed, Skil saw and turkeys to the counter. The lady asked me what I had, I told her, and she scanned it out of a book. The price came up to over $6 a bird. Heart sinks right about now, but they had a sale price of a little over $5 a bird. Now I was disappointed. But if that was the real price. . . Wait! I mentioned to the lady what the guys wrote down on the box and pointed it out. She was a little confused, then said that she didn't know if she could refund it because it was livestock (no return policy) I shrugged and said, that's ok.

her: you sure?
me: yes.
her: wait, let's try it.

I saved $30. She got me the refund and I paid $2.59 a bird. ~giggle fit of pleasure~

So this morning I woke to the sounds of turkeys singing to me. And I like it.

Sad news

The little brown kid didn't make it.

We had the same problem last time, Patch smothers one of them. It's always difficult when you lose a little one, no matter what the plans for that ones future may be. It is the hardest part of homesteading.

We are taking steps with the white one, and any future kids to prevent her from doing this (purposely or accidentally) again.

Betty should be having her wee ones soon. Or one, I am not sure how many to expect as this is her first birthing. I'm just hoping they are not all boys.