More lamb love

These are Darla's new ram lambs. Born this afternoon. I had to go to town again and when I got back, i noticed Darla in the stall. She was in there this morning too. But then back out in the field when I left. I didn't really think she'd have lambs this early. Anyway, #7 was still wet and covered in slime. So I ran to the house to grad some things. Got back out and was drying him off, when out flew another lamb. I think he came out backwards because he was facing Darla, who was standing up. Strange. So got them both dried off as much as possible. Got them over to the milk bar. They both had some think warm colostrum.

#7 was a little weak. He laid around a lot. I gave him a few squirts of Nutridrench. He looked a lot perkier later. I still had to rub them some more. They were still wet. It sure takes a long time for that wool to get dry.

They are both so cute. #7 is in front and #8 behind him. #8 had a lot more energy than 7 did. He was already trying to bounce.

SO far the 2 ewes to lamb are pretty consistent. Leelah had a single ewe lamb last year. Now Darla with twin ram lambs after a single ram lamb last year. I hope Gracie and Fiona have twins too. So far Leelah is the only animal to have a single. All goats have had twins so far. I have 2 more to kid. And 6 more ewes to go. But 4 will be May or June lambs.

And please remind me to never breed for so early. What was I thinking anyway? It's COLD out there!

So a pretty good weekend here at Outback Farm. With twin kids and a single ewe lamb and twin ram lambs. And we are at 4 bucklings and 4 doelings so far!!!!!!! But we have Sandy to go yet. And she usually has more bucks. Which this year, since I bred her to the Boer buck, I don't mind if she has bucks.

Good night, y'all!

Look at this beautiful sunset tonight! A perfect ending to a great day. 2 goat kids and a ewe lamb, all cute and healthy and raring to go! Good night, y'all! I am tired.

Lamb love

I had a feeling Miss Leelah Belle would have a lamb or 2 today. I remember that her and Zarah were bred the same day.

I had to go to town to get some more hay and when I got back, I counted the sheep, like I always do when I come home, and only saw 7. And Leelah was not one of them. Then I saw her in the middle stall with a little cutie in front of her! And it's a GIRL! Outback farm #6. It's a B year so need some cute B names. I am wanting to keep 2 ewe lambs and I have decided to name one of them Beatrix Belle. But I won't know which one til I see them all. #6 is mostly a hair breed. Leelah is half Katahdin and half Dorper. And she was bred to Alfie, who was Fiona's ram lamb. Fiona is the same as Leelah. Alfie's sire was Earl, who was Hampshire, Suffolk and Finn. So she's got a lot of sheep breeds in her. She's pretty big too. But only a single. Again. I was so hoping they would all have at least twins this time.

I am worn out. Having to go back to the goat barn, through all the slippery mud, hauling water and feed and hay to the new momma. Then up front to the sheep barn doing the same for a new sheep momma. Then loaded and unloaded 32 bales of hay and got them all put away. I am kind of tired.

SO here we go with lambs now! I can't wait to see more of them. Gracie and Fiona and Darla are next. So get ready for some lamb love!

Zarah Belle and her clones

Went out this morning to feed the animals and milk a few goats. Zarah wasn't there, so I figured she had already had kids or was getting ready. And sure enough, there she was in the back corner of the barn, laying down and pushing. I went ahead and put her in the back stall. Did all the chores. Came back out with some feed and warm molasses water and a few towels.

I had to pull that big John Henry Jr. out. Zarah was screaming like a banshee. Why are bucks so big? And of course he had to be first out. So got him out and cleaned off Zarah went over to the other side and looked back, like she was thinking, what the heck just happened here? I kept waiting for more to come out, but she just stood there. I got the buck cleaned and put him over there with her. She started licking him then. I figured that might stimulate the labor again. And then she laid down, I saw another water bag, and plop, out came another kid. And it's a girl!!! Looks just like her grand mother, Abby.

Then I saw another water bubble. But nothing happened. So I got her up and it it broke. Got the kids to the milk bar and the girl latched on. It took awhile for the boy. I had to leave.

So we have a John Henry clone and an Abby clone. Just stinkin' adorable! I'll put an album on my Outback Farm FB page. So if ya want to see some adorable goatie cuteness, come on over there. I'm the one with the sign on the header, in Chickamauga, Ga.

Looking forward

I am done with my whining now. I sounded like a baby. I am now looking forward to nice warm spring days, lots of sunshine and blue skies. Flowers everywhere. And trees with pretty new green leaves all over them. I love bare nekked trees, but I have had enough of them for awhile. I want some leaves now. And I am looking forward to getting my seeds and tilling in the garden and planting the seeds. I am looking forward to seeing new baby plants coming up. And then picking the yummy fresh veggies again. Just to play in some DRY dirt would be great!

I am also going to be getting some bees about the middle of March! I am SO excited. I have a friend who has hundreds of hives and he's ready to downsize soon. I'll be getting 2 nooks (?). And I really am not sure about where to put them. I'll also be taking a bee class in April. There's a blogger not too far from me who is having a workshop. Sounds like fun. I will learn as I go, I suppose. I'll ask the guy I'm getting the bees from where is the best place to put them. And if they are near the gardens, can I mow near the hive? How much noise can they handle? I will soon find out!

And baby lambs will be bouncing all over the place soon! Another sure sign of spring to come. And more goat kids too.

So there are a lot of good things to look forward to. It's not all mud and slime and mess. It'll be better soon!

What are you looking forward too?

Crappy day

This is my arm. Does it look like I just might be a little allergic to sheep? I have 2 of my ewes with cracked hooves. I've been trying to get them trimmed, which means I have to wrap my arms around their necks and try to get the right foot and then get the trimmers and all the other things I need, while trying to hold them still.  Then this happens. Big whelps all along my arms. I wash my hands and arms as soon as I can with soapy water. But this happens every time I have to do anything like this.

I did get some Kopertox from the Co-op after calling the vet just to make sure I was doing all the right things. I still smell like that stuff. And it's supposed to start in raining again. When my friend comes to shear, I am going to do all the trimming of hooves then. It's just really hard to do by myself. I would really love to have a trained Border Collie to help out. (And they are going to lamb in a week or so too.)

Anyway, it's just been one of those crappy days for me. Last night I gave all the kids their CDT shots. Then went out later to put the kids in another stall by their selves for the night. I felt wet on my pants but didn't think anything about it. Just thought it was some urine. But this morning, one of the buck kids has diarrhea. His whole back end is a wet mess, poor thing. I think I must be feeding them too much? The past few days I've been giving them a full baby bottle in the morning and evening. Plus they have been getting some milk from Abby. So tonight I didn't give them a bottle. I just don't know what to do anymore.

And, this morning, I had to get Abby out f the barn to come in to milk her. But she just stood out in the holding area, panting really heavy like a dog. I called the vet. He told me to take her temp. It could be pneumonia. But her temp was only 99.9. Well, he said that was too cold, I needed to get her warmed up. And to give her Red Cell and a shot of B Complex. Did that. Plus she went outside in the sun. And this afternoon, when I got home, she was way up in the back, eating grass, kids hopping all around her. I so wish I could sell these 2 bucks. I just am at a loss as to what to do with Abby. She has a good day, then a bad day. And she looks horrible too. And, I have noticed when she poops, there is a lot of grain in the poop, like she's not digesting it all.

So any advice or suggestions about any of this?

More milk

I didn't put the kids up the night before last. I didn't feel too well. But I did last night. This is Penelope's milk this morning. Some of Abby's is in the bottles. I added some of P's milk to them to feed the boys.

The family that wants Ursula is going to go ahead and get her probably tomorrow. I am probably going to keep Phoebe. I'll be getting Trudy's buck kid when he is weaned. So I will use him to breed any Boer cross does next year. I think this is what I'll be doing. Not totally sure about it though. I have hopes of selling goat meat soon. There are several people interested in it. So we shall see. I read that if a buck and doe with elf ears are bred together, they will have kids with ears. I really want to see if this happens, since both Phoebe and this little buckling have elf ears. Also, Phoebe is polled, so I want to see if she's carry the polled gene in here like Penelope does. So a little experimenting going to go on here at Outback Farm soon.

I am ready to be back in the milk business. I have had one person from last year calling to see if i'll have milk this year. And there are 4 others too. Plus my daughter wants to start drinking goat milk for her digestion. She was at church last Sunday and the preacher talked about goat milk. Saying he knew someone who had horrible stomach problems, ulcers, I think. He found some raw goat milk and drank that for 3 months stright and went back to his doctor and it was all gone. So she wants to try it herself. I already know it's trua and it works!

How does this happen?

I have been wanting to clean out my cabinet that holds all my little storage containers for the longest time. It's been a mess. So how does this happen? Who is taking all the bottoms to all these tops? Where are they? Does someone have a bunch of tops with no bottoms and they come into my house at night and take all the bottoms and leave the tops? I have no idea where all the bottoms are. And I have at least 50 tops to nothing. So what do I do? Save them in hopes that one day they will be brought back to me? Or throw them all away? Then I will have a bunch of bottoms with no tops soon. It just never ends.

So does anyone have a bunch of bottoms that need tops? Would you like me to send these to you?

I am off to clean out the horrible messy stinky regions of the refrigerator now. If I don't come back here soon, I have fallen into the depths of the fridge, never to be seen again. It's been fun!

First official milking this morning.

This is Penelope this morning. I put all 4 kids up in a stall last night so I could milk in the morning. Abby too. This is what Penelope looked like. I milked out almost a half gallon! And left some for the kids too. Very impressive for such a small doe and a first freshener too. Her teats go forward a bit but I don't mind at all. She is very easy to milk and pretty fast too.




And this is after milking. You can see her teats now.

The answer my friend, is blowing in the wind...

the answer is blowing in the wind.

Saturday, clothes blowing in the very strong wind. I had to go outside several times to chase sheets. Once out in the field next door. But they were dry in a few hours. Now, we haven't had rain in 4 days straight! So hopefully we shall dry out too. (And I love that song.)

Good to the last drop.

Well, that must have been really good. Abraham got the last of the warm molasses water this morning. And got his head stuck in the bucket! John Henry thought it was pretty funny!

The Peepers are back!

Way over to the North of my farm across the pasture, is a pond tucked into the woods. It's really swampy in there. And full of cattails. But really cool in the summer, with nice big rocks to sit on. The dogs love it there too. You can see Stella over to the right going in for a swim.

So I was reading in the Almanac that the Peepers will be out in full force the first few weeks in Feb. And they sure are! I love that sound. It's really loud too, but sounds so cool.

Some new goats?

I went out to the milk room for something later this morning and found this. I don't mind that they clean up the left over grain, as long as they don't poop on the stanchion. That is SO nasty! But these girls were doing a good job. Since I haven't been feeding the 4 hens and 1 roo any grain, they've been sneaking in here to get some. That's ok though. I'll just need to check inside this feeder to make sure they don't leave anything behind. The goats will not like that at all.

Happy weekend!

I wish I knew how to link up with another blog, but I'll just do it this way for now. Amanda Soule does this on Fridays, called This Moment. Here is my wish for you all. A peaceful wonderful weekend.

What is this??

While on my walk today, I came across this strange think. Back up the hill a little further, there was an old torn up tree stand. I walk back there a lot but not since last spring. It was not there then. I almost ran into it. It's just really strange. A soda bottle hung up in the tree with black electrical tape, upside down. I have no idea what it would be there for. No idea. There were no holes that I could see. The top is also taped so nothing would get out. But there was nothing in it as far as I could tell.

Hello

This was so cute! I was out there with the goats and the sheep all came around the house. Ursula went over to say hello to them. Phoebe did too a little after this. I love my sheep and goats!

It's been a beautiful day. I went for a walk out back. All the way around. Probably over a mile. Ended up at the old house next door. I put 3 new albums up on my Outback Farm FB page if you'd like to see them all. I can't put all those pictures up here. My FB has a picture of my Outback Farm sign, in Chickamauga, Ga. There seems to be about 5 other Outback Farms besides mine.

So it's been really quite here since Iris and Brie left last Saturday. I really miss them. But not enough to want them back. All the other goats have been SO good and have stayed inside the fence!!. I am so happy about that. So I guess they were the instigators all along. And such young goats too. I hope they are being good at their new home.

So what are y'all up to on this most beautiful day? It's supposed to be like this through Friday, then maybe some colder weather with snow flurries? Ugh. I just want this place to dry up!

Slimey ooey-gooey farm mud

Well, this about sums up what every square inch of my farm looks like these days. Slippery, slime, ooey- gooey farm mud. And to top that off, it's Georgia clay. So everywhere I have to go looks like this. But actually this is not too bad compared to what the rest of the place looks like. I just didn't want to gross you out this early. It's pretty bad out there. And I am usually worn slap out by the time I haul hay and feed and water to goats and sheep and dogs and cats. It's worse than walking in deep sand at the beach. I really should invest in some cleats or snow shoes. Something with leverage. Something that would keep me from slipping the whole way to where I'm headed.

So I am dreaming of some really dry solid ground, really soon. I do have stepping stones and boards down on most of the paths that the sheep and goats walk on. Just because goats hate getting their feet wet. It doesn't seem to bother cute little baby goats much though. They're so much like real kids, that stop at every puddle to splash. Just a little too cute. But I am so ready for dryness.

Flies

I heard not too long ago, that when we start to see flies in winter, we'll have an early spring. Well, I guess it should be spring right now. Because I have been seeing flies for about a month now. I just killed 2 at once! Love when that happens. Flies are just one of those annoyances in my life that drives me crazy. If there is one fly in my house, I cannot sit still until it's dead. I will follow that fly all around this house til I get it. They absolutely drive me crazy. Seriously, you can ask anyone in my family. And it seems that flies love company too. There are more flies when there are people over for Sunday dinner. All over the place. I can't even eat.

So, where is spring??? Bring it on!

Is she or isn't she? Hmmm...

So here is Sandy. From this angle she does look like she has a pretty good size bump going on there. She is a goat who will not have a full udder til almost right before she kids. So I can not tell by looking at her udder. But she does look pretty heavy underneath from the side view. I am SO hoping she is pregnant. But since she was so finicky about getting bred, I have no idea when she'd be due now. There were several times I knew she was in standing heat and I'd take her and Arlo into the stall together and I SAW Arlo do the deed. But then she's go right back into heat 21 days later. I don't know if she was just fooling around or what. I don't really think she liked the little guy. She always ran from him. I know he's got the goods because Penelope's kids are for sure his kids. No way they could be John Henry's kids.

So, here I go with the guessing game. In all the years I have had this goat, she is ALWAYS the LAST goat to kid. Abby was usually the first, then Sandy was the last. So we shall see. And I so hope that these will be Arlo's kids. IF she is pregnant at all. She could just be getting to that age where it's going to be hard to get her bred. I have been reading on a few other blogs about goats being bred a number of times and not getting pregnant. It's a bit frustrating, to say the least. Especially since it's getting a little late in the season.