Michael took Jasper back to his home last Saturday. He had been with us Halle since January 10th. Not much went on in the Love Shack. She might have already been pregnant. If only she was more obvious when she went into heat. I’m just grateful that we have room for a Love Shack and that Ken and Jo let us keep Jasper for so long.
So, with Jasper gone and Halle back with the girls that meant another stall to clean out.
They had been in the stall almost one month. In one months time there wasn’t any composting going on but it was still heavy. I tried using the big shovel but as the matted straw was pretty stuck together and difficult to tear it worked better with a pitch fork.
Since the majority of the straw wasn’t in bad shape we decided to cover the ground of the outside chicken pen. Prior to Michael putting the metal roof on,the roof is just chicken wire so the ground is very muddy. It didn’t take them long to eat all the grass and weeds leaving just dirt. In Oregon dirt is mud most of the year. So, as I forked up the straw and put it in the wheelbarrow Nicholas dumped it into the chicken pen.
I also wanted to put some of the straw outside the Love Shack door (the door that Michael made) because it was very soggy.
For years the stall had been home to baby pigs. The girl who showed those pigs at 4-H would clean out the stall and all of that waste would be washed out the open door space. It needed amending with something that would help add substance to the ground. The straw was the perfect solution. Plus it was really easy to just pitch the straw out the door
It certainly didn’t take as long to clean as the buck stall. It always looks so nice when it is done.
The area outside the door now has a lot of straw that can compost and add structure to the ground.
Enjoy the day,
Karen
That is an excellent use for barn cleanings. Straw is perfect for mud and I imagine your chickens will enjoy scratching through it.
They do seem to like it and it means the eggs they happen to lay out there aren’t as dirty.
Take care,
Karen
I have been hesitant to ask this delicate question. But since you’ve mentioned that Halle is pregnant, congratulations!
How long is the gestation period in goats?
Are you more exited about a new kid or the milk that will come with it?
Kimberly
We are hoping that she is pregnant.
I spent a couple of hours today at Diji Farm where Halle was born and Carol (the owner) confirmed that Halle is very hard to tell. Literally, you know when she lies down and pops out a baby…..always one and always a girl.
Their gestation is 150 days.
Milk. We got into the goat business for milk …which I can turn into soap, yogurt, cheese, ice cream, lotion, etc. Our worry is will we be able to find GOOD homes for the babies that we just can’t afford to keep? So Halle historically only having one baby and that baby begin a girl is fine with me.
Carol at Diji has 13 bucks! They are all gorgeous and from EXCELLENT lines but really….13 bucks! She is also in kidding season and so there were babies all over. So cute. Two were in a crate in the house on a heat pad being bottle fed because they were only one pound each. Tiny, but they look like they will make it.
It will be a balance between goats and the money to take care of them properly.
The babies are precious though!
I’ll be posting some pictures I took today of the visit as well as weighing our own goats.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I don’t mind.
Take care,
Karen
Thank you for responding so quickly, Karen.
Holly cow. . . Neonatal ICU. One pound kids on a heating pad with a baby bottle . . . This is high tech. Were they premature a bit?
Well, I guess we all do silly things like that. I carried five Pekin ducks one-at-a-time uphill today because they couldn’t walk on the snow. We had about 5-6″ of snow today. The ducks went downhill from their barn this morning and plopped down outside my kitchen door. They usually go to the pond, but the pond is frozen. They were lying outside the house all day long.
I finally decided that they needed to go back to their barn. I called them and called. They usually run, even fly back to their little home. Today, though, they could walk only a few inches at a time and they had to lie down. They simply cannot walk on snow with their floppy feet. I had do carry them one-by-one uphill. And they are about 6-7 pounds each. And it’s a long and slippery walk.
But anyways, back to milk. I just realized that I shop only twice a month. Can you imagine that? Twice a month. That’s it.
I used to shop every day back in good ol’ city-life days. Well, may be those days weren’t so good though. Every tiny little thing required a trip to a grocery store. Now, I shop only once every two months. And my only driving force for shopping is milk. We drink milk every day. We can’t live without milk.
And I can’t wait to get goats so that we can start milking. We need to build another barn though to make sure that the animals don’t get over-crowded. We have to wait for the snow to melt and dry a bit. I think, in a couple of weeks, we’ll start our new season extravaganza of farming and gardening again.
I wish we could get the youngins off your hands, but we are a bit too far from you 🙂
Thanks, and if you want to see my picture, it’s in this post: http://www.kimridgefarm.com/my-first-time-cutting-tree-with-chainsaw/ . I know, I look silly with the safety goggles and all bundled up. But I thought you might be curious.
Take care,
Kimberly