hard decisions...

These handsome guys followed me home from the Fiber Frolic yesterday, meet Bear and Shakespeare. I had absolutely no intention of bringing anybody new here but like most of the other animals that live at From the Country Farm these two little boys are here because of some hard decisions that needed to be made. Welcome Bear and Shakespeare, though I certainly see a name change in your future, never was a big fan of Shakespeare....

As you may know Venus and Spice are here as milkers because Strawberry and Katie didn't take this past fall or deliver the year before. Don't get me wrong, Venus and Spice are great and I adore them but that is how they came here. Two years ago I tried to breed Strawberry and Katie and feel that at least Strawberry took, but it was never confirmed, but feel that she did. Katie I'm not really sure at all, like most things with Katie it was an odd situation all around. Well a few months into gestation Blackberry started beating on the other goats especially Strawberry, the one whom he'd been with from two other farms!) and I mean beating on them so I took him out of that pen and put him by himself for a bit in an attempt to figure out what happened and re-group. I think the beating they took caused them to abort the pregnancies.  I then put him in with the llama and alpacas figuring they are bigger and the llama is guardian of the alpaca herd so he wouldn't take crap from a 60 pound goat, that worked - for a while. After a while when that herd was fed he'd go lay down in the middle of the pile of hay and toss his horned head at the llama and alpacas and prevent them from eating. Not cool. So he was separated from them and with no other animals for him to be with I was out of options. Feeling badly for him because he is a herd animal but cannot be with a herd I decided to try putting him back together outside where there was room for the other goats to escape if need be. Venus was not out at that time, I was not going to jeopardize another pregnancy. It was a disaster. And back into solitude he went. It was then I knew what needed to be done. He could no longer stay here like this, it was a hard decision to make but one that needed to be made. It's not right for him to be by himself because he is a herd animal but it's not fair to the other animals to be beat on, running away from him in fear or starved because he won't let them eat. It's just not right. It's also not responsible of me to just ship him off to some unsuspecting farm so I have made arrangements for him to be sent to "freezer camp." It sucks, but it's the humane and right thing to do, he's never showed aggression to humans, but terrorizes other animals and it needs to stop. There is no place for that on our farm.

You may be wondering how the two little guys at the top have anything to do with Blackberry or hard decisions well, let me tell you. At the Fiber Frolic this weekend during the lull while it was pouring some of the vendors had a chance to get together and chat. My children had seen an older woman trying to bring in a couple goats and a sheep and had seen her struggling so they offered to help her. Then they stood there for a while and were asking about the animals, she chatted with them and answered questions and off they went. Sunday morning comes around and she and I were talking during a lull and she asked me to take these two boys. As it turns out her ailing mom with dementia lives with her and is requiring so much of her time she has to find new homes for her flock. With a quivering voice and teary eyes (this I understand) she said she just cannot do it all and only has her 6 year old grand-daughter to help so new homes must be found. She'd found homes for a couple animals and a few more were in the works but it takes a while sometimes to work out the details for others. It is a hard decision for her as well but one that must by made, so these two little boys with fleece as white as snow, shiny and lustrous as a pearl and as soft as cashmere joined our farm. They are pygora goats who are nearly full grown and are roughly 40 -50 pounds each, not at all like the large milking does. :-) They are a bit freaked out be all the changes right now but have started to relax and walked up to me tonight cautiously, but that's a start.

Montana called and they're missing a cowboy!

Snapshots from the farm

Handsome B

This is one of my favorite pictures, it's uncropped, unedited un-anything. It's just how I took it. It's very hard to take a good picture of Blackberry, his fiber doesn't usually show up as beautiful as it actually is and his eyes don't come out nice, but not this time!

Meet the Cast - Hyacinth

Here's the newest addition to From the Country Farm, Hyacinth.
She's an angora cross, my friend thought it was Nigerian Dwarf. Before arriving at my friends home she had been in a place that had abused her, I don't know what happened, but my friend said it was quite a while before she could have anything in her hand and walk near the goat.

So she's here now and will not have anything but love here. Yes, it's possible to love a goat, they are awesome animals! I say that honestly, but with some partiality towards them; I have to, we have 5 now, and started with only two... (grinning like a fool.) I was warned though, I was told that you cannot have just one, as they are herd animals and they need to be with other animals, like kind is good, what I think they meant was you can't have just one because the are like potato chips and you'll need more.

The kids and I arrived home last night about 11:30 and before we even went into the house to pee we got the goat unloaded and into the stall. I decided not to put her in with the other goats last night as 1. she thinks she's a horse I'm told, 2. I wanted her to get settled from the 1 1/2 hour ride home in the crate to a new barn, people, animals, life etc... and 3. a period of quarantine is always a good idea. So we put her in the stall in the crate, gave her hay and water and figured she'd come out when she felt safe. I felt awful this morning when I went into the barn and she was still in the crate we brought her here in, horrified would be a more accurate term. Had she spent the entire night in there? Like I said, it was a tight squeeze but manageable. I had to have the kids help me get her out because I couldn't do it myself, the crate is very large and bulky, we managed to do it but it wasn't her favorite thing to do. Now that she's out she's eating, drinking, pooping and peeing, so far so good. Dakota, our llama looked over the stall wall this morning and liked what he saw. He's intact, for now...... but they'll be on the chopping block shortly. My vet likes them to be a bit older before she gelds them for the health of the animal. I'm good with that.

So there you have it, our newest addition, I'm sorry the picture is a bit blurry, I only took a few pictures, I didn't want to freak her out and this was the best one. Oh, I almost forgot, she (and Blackberry for that matter) is already starting to shed her wool! I'm excited about that for two reasons, 1. hopefully it means an early spring and 2. I get to spin it, an oooo-la-la is it soft. Now for the spinning wheel......

Just a note for future farming/homesteading reference... don't wear chapstick to the barn during shedding season.

I'll give it a whirl!

Often I've had people say to me "Oh, you're so talented, I could never do that." (Before you think I'm tooting my horn, let me say, I'm not and please keep reading.) Personally I don't think I'm any more or less talented than anybody else. I'm just willing to try something and fail at it or succeed in some cases. Lots of people are not that willing. Best I can figure I'm only getting one go round in this life and I don't want to end up at the end of it saying, "Damn! I wish I'd tried this or that..." I've tried lots of things in my life and I'm interested in trying more, (Sorry Ron!) that's how I live, learn, grow, laugh and love, I try it. (I just reread that last sentence and sound like a play-school commercial!) I don't know if I'm capable of walking on the moon or not, I've not done that yet and it's sad to think I'd miss out on the opportunity to do it just because I thought I couldn't. I don't know if I'm capable of changing a tire on my truck as I've not done it, yet. I do know that I am capable of pressure canning tomatoes fresh from my garden, I've tried it and will add they are mighty delicious! Truthfully it saddens me when people say they couldn't do what I do when they have not even tried, I totally understand that people would not want to do some of what I do, but that is not my point. For trying most things my attitude is 'ok, I'll give it a whirl!'

My latest project, (because it is a sitting down project which doesn't require much lung or sinus activity which is a good thing considering Im still tring to fight off this ridiculous head cold) is having a go at spinning the pygora fiber I harvested from Blackberry, (our pygora wether) this past spring. I'd like to try spinning it on a wheel, but am happy to be able to start off on a drop spindle. It's only about a pound of fiber, thankfully, otherwise it might seem too daunting a task to bite off; for sure I'm not attempting the nearly seven or so pounds of llama fiber I have to do next, I'll send it to the local spinning mill! Actually it's really quite fun and I'm looking forward to having a finished project; that down the road a bit, I still need to finish spinning, then ply it and then knit something.... His fiber is so silky soft to spin and is a nice charcoal gray, my husband keeps telling me that he needs a scarf to go with his black jacket, so we'll see, one step at a time. Baby steps even. So my hope for you is that when something comes up that your first reaction is to think you cannot do that, try this instead, 'ok, I'll give it a whirl!"

B the black nosed reingoat

There are no words.......

Blackberry - after shearing

He was SO happy to get his wool off, I think he felt like a new man! Er, well a new goat at least!

Meet the Cast - Blackberry

Blackberry, because when he's in full wool he looks like a blackberry or so the kids think.... He came to From the Country Farm as part of a package deal with Strawberry. He's a Pygora (a cross between a pygmy and an angora) wether and yes, his fiber spins like a dream!! When he first arrived he just stood in the corner of the barn and shook, he was so freaked out, he was in his 4th home and he's only 1 1/2 years old. I was told that he'd not been handled much by any of the previous owners (because of time constraints and his young age) and thought it was unfortunate given the fact that he's adorable as all get out and people want to touch him. We took it slow with him, we figured we had time, he's not going anywhere. we started out by going out to the barn and just sitting in the stall with him one at a time. Strawberry was fine, she's kind of nosey and an in your face type of gal, if you let her. Many times we'd just sit for a few minutes and avoided eye contact while he shook(he's a prey animal and did not want him to think we were going to eat him, we're vegetarians!), as the time that he shook got less and less, we could start talking to each other and to the goats and he really started warming up to us. This summer in fact he's started approaching us if we're outside and sometimes even follows us around like a dog! In fact he was so comfortable with a friend of ours that he walked right up to her and checked her out! He's come a long way and I'm so happy he's comfortable around us now. It was so upsetting to inadvertently be the cause of stress to him. I mentioned in a post about watching chickens run being very amusing, well when Blackberry (or B for short) runs it is equally amusing. He'll run and kick up his heels and toss his head like he's... I just cant think of an appropriate term other than to say ...like he's B.