So I've been without a computer for about 6+ weeks. A nasty virus took over and encrypted all my files 😡. A friend is working on it, but here I am with nothing but my phone and iPad. Posting without a computer is not as easy so I've been a bit lazy as a result. A few scenes around the farm: Chicks are growing. So far it looks like at least one is a roo. The latest little project:
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Anyone who says raising goats is easy has never had a goat. After nearly four years of raising dairy goats, I've learned so much, but realize frequently I still have a lot to learn. Like raising all livestock and even pets, there is worry and heartache, but the joy and love they give makes it all worthwhile.
Ember is my full blooded Nubian, a beautiful and sweet girl full of grace and personality. She has been an excellent teacher to this budding goat lady, and provided enough milk for us to drink, make cheese and soap, and keep the cats fat. To say she is an 'easy keeper' would be an oxymoron. This year has been a hard one for her. First, she was pregnant with triplets, and toward the end of her pregnancy developed ketosis. Her metabolic needs exceeded her ability to take in enough food to meet them. She delivered all three kids without difficulty, but one was born dead. I don't know if it was lost due to the ketosis, or to the fact that she is not mother of the year. For the second year of kidding, she did not clean or help them, and this little girl was still fully enclosed in her amniotic sac. I had only left them alone for a couple hours while I went to Lowes... I treated the ketosis as soon as I realized what was going on, and then came the mastitis in one udder. Her udder was hard and hot, and she had a fever. Looking back to last year, her right udder was slightly smaller than her left, but I did not know the reason. At the time I wondered if it was supply and demand' because her kids liked one side better than the other. She had no fever nor visible signs of mastitis, but I now I know is it was probably a condition called 'subclinical mastitis'. This time, it was 'full blown mastitis' and treated with Nuflor antibiotic from the vet. We survived these ailments, and things seemed to be going well until a few days ago. We were on a twice per day milking schedule, and the doeling I kept was now 16 weeks old, needing to be weaned. Over the past few weeks I made a few feeble attempts at separating her and then putting them back together for my convenience (fair week), and then a failed trial of taping her teats with paper bandage tape, (it fell off) so we were back to separation again. This time, I am determined to get her weaned. While milking a few days ago, I noticed the milk from her smaller post-mastitis teat seemed off. I tested with my California Mastitis test, (which I use weekly to check the milk) and found that she had again mastitis in that udder. I called the vet, and we decided to treat her with antibiotics. This means I can't use the milk for an extended time, but I felt it was worth the inconvenience to try to eliminate this infection. To doubly treat her I started infusing TODAY udder treatment into that side. Next, she stopped eating, and had a sad, droopy look. Every time I went to see her she was laying down, and took her time getting up. Now what? Her poop was clumpy, not the normal raisins goats have, but not diarrhea. Coccidosis? Her eyelids were pale pink, a 3 on the FAMACHA scale, and given the hot wet weather, either of these could be likely. As a precaution, I gave her coccidia treatment and dewormer. The next day, she was still not eating. She looked even more sad than she had before and her milk production was down. Naturally this would happen from not eating. Is she depressed because her daughter is in a separate pen? or is it something else. I did some research, and remembered a post from a goat friend about a condition called enterotoxemia- the toxin (poison) produced by the bacterium Clostridium perfringens type C or type D. My herd is vaccinated against this annually, and her last dose was in January. It is a condition caused by changes that affect digestion in the rumen. I remembered that a few days prior, while she was still eating, she had accidentally gained access to the chicken feed for a few minutes before I stopped her. Along with her other changes - the mastitis and antibiotic treatment and stress of being separated from her kid, perhaps this combination had caused the clostridium perfingens bacteria to grow. Luckily, I had on hand a dose of antitoxin that is used as treatment for this condition. I treated her yesterday, and a second dose 12 hours later. So far today she is perking up and starting to nibble. I hope by process of elimination I'll eventually get her back to health. Maybe it was the warm wet spring, or the recent dry weather, but the garlic was looking more and more ready to harvest. The bottom leaves were turning brown and drying out. There is a fine line between too early and too late, and I am not quite the expert. It is early in the season for garlic. Typically harvest time is near the end of June or early July. I've been watching it closely over the past week, digging only those that were very ready, because it doesn't all mature at the same time - and finally decided to dig the rest of them. My concern was with the rain predicted this week, the moisture may cause them to become soft and difficult to dig, and promote rotting in the ground. Last October I planted about 700 cloves and 5 varieties of hardneck garlic. Romanian Red, Georgian Fire, German Red, Chesnok Red Purple stripe, and Music Porcelain. The original bulbs were purchased from certified organic stock, and raised using organic all natural practices. The soil was fertilized with natural aged compost from the farm and tilled into the soil. After the bulbs were planted, the area was heavily mulched with clean straw for weed control. Early this spring when the bulbs started to emerge, they were fertilized with organic fertilizer - natural fish emulsion - and weeded by hand throughout the growing season. No chemicals nor pesticides were ever used. I am very pleased with the size of the majority of the bulbs. Its a huge improvement over last year's crop. So, what are we going to do with all that garlic?? That's an excellent question. The largest bulbs will be sorted and saved as seed to plant in October. The smallest ones will be kept by us and used to make minced garlic for cooking throughout the year. The rest will be for sale. If you want some, let me know! It is all tied up and drying in my pole barn garage, and will be ready in a few weeks. Today was the day for annual disease testing of my little goat herd. In the past, I've only had one or two does to test and did this through my vet, but for 7 goats, it would be quite expensive. I decided to do it myself. Six does and my one buck would all be tested for G6S, CAE, CL and Johne's. G6S is a genetic defect and will only be tested once, the others are tested annually. Several months have been spent preparing... and fretting. Many years ago in my clinical nursing days, I stuck plenty of needles in humans and didn't blink an eye, but sticking a needle in the jugular vein of a squirmy goat is another thing entirely. First I selected my lab, choosing TVMDL since they offered all of the tests I needed in one location. Next, I called the lab to discuss procedures for ordering tests and shipping blood. The tech was very helpful and instructed me on how to set up an account. Needles, syringes and vacutainer tubes were ordered of appropriate size and color. (Purple for G6S and Red for everything else). As the day drew closer, I talked to other goat breeders, and watched You Tube videos to refresh myself on the procedure. Help was recruited - Connor for his brute strength to hold the goats, and Carmen for her organizational skills and calm demeanor to be my assistant. I must say we were a great team, and it went much better than expected. The blood has been shipped, and now we wait for results. I have no reason to think it will be anything but NORMAL. Fingers crossed! It was a weeklong struggle, but we did it!. Nearly 250 fresh bales of hay put up in the barn for next winter. A combination of well fertilized thick fields of grass, plenty of rain and a sketchy forecast, and old equipment created a small challenge for this spring first cutting. Dad cut the fields on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Our first attempt to bale was Wednesday evening. The hay was thick and somewhat damp, and kept clogging the old baler. We finally decided to spread it back out and give it some more time to dry. More tedding on Thursday, and then baling on Friday and Saturday. The end result was tired farmers and lots of beautiful hay. Thank goodness for my dad and all his help and guidance, and mom for keeping us fed and hydrated :-) And this guy... Meanwhile, 4 H chickens arrived And a bunch of Bob White Quail (what were we thinking??). I'm pretty sure these will be released in the wild once they are grown. I hope they survive and reproduce. I love the sound of a Bob White chirping, it reminds me of my childhood. That's something you rarely hear today. Today I cleaned up the garden. Grass was growing between the rows, so the best I could do was MOW it, and pull weeds and mulch in the rows. So far so good. Strawberries have been in for a couple of weeks, and they're almost gone. We've had just enough to eat and a few extra to freeze for later. Milking has begun. Ember has one good udder, and one that is smaller due to her bout with mastitis after kidding. For some reason, maybe its easier to get to, Glory seems to like nursing on that side too, so poor thing is a bit lop sided. (I'll spare you the butt pic this time). Even so, we have plenty to drink and make pudding and yogurt, and a bunch is already in the freezer ready for soap making.
Today was a beautiful day for planting a garden. There's not much to see in the pictures, but we planted cucumbers, a variety of peppers, tomatoes, brussel sprouts mom and I raised from seed, and loofa. I decided not to plant as much as last year and focus on things we use.The chickens were loving this beautiful weather too! I think this little girl will be called Blaze O' GloryEmber's kids are now 4 weeks old and doing fine. I'm having an awful time taking pics of them because as soon as I get ready they are in my face giving me kisses. Ember is doing well and has fully recovered, although the mastitis affected milk production in one side of her udder. Even so, she's feeding two kids and I'm milking about one quart per day, to keep her from getting too full.
Easter was a beautiful day with family, visiting the petting zoo. Shiloh always loves getting treats from Papa, and I think Tater weighs more than both of the girls. Ember has had a rough week. It all started Thursday, when the ketosis started. She was so large with her pregnancy, she couldn't eat enough to keep up with the needs of her body and babies. I put her in the barn, and checked on her frequently, thinking she would deliver at any time. Friday evening, I had to run a few errands and was gone longer than expected. Naturally, that's when she decided to have the kids. When I went to the barn at around 10 pm, she had delivered. It looked like it had happened no more than an hour before I arrived. The babies were still wet (she hadn't bothered to clean them). There was a little black buck with white on his ears just like his big sister Sasha, and a black and tan doe. Lying beside them still in the amniotic sac was a third kid, stillborn. I wasn't there to witness it, but I believe it was gone at birth. We quickly grabbed some towels and dried the kids, and helped them learn to nurse. The next few days were spent working to get Ember back to health. Having Ketosis (panting, sweet breath, laying down, not eating) we had to work quickly. I gave her boluses of Calcium, molasses, propylene glycol, and vitamin B shots. Then, on Sunday came the fever. I started her on PCN shots and Banamine. Sunday night I called the vet who recommended getting a stronger antibiotic, which was started on Monday. She is doing much better now, eating well and standing, and seems to look happy again. The fever may have come from one of her udders, which is still firm and swollen and not producing much milk. I think she may have injured it from pressure laying down when she was sick with ketosis. The babies are nursing on her, and being supplemented with a bottle until everything is back in working order. Hopefully that will be soon. I've been with them so much these past few days, they seem to think I'm their mommy too. Do you think she's pregnant? Due March 23, 2016 The soap from last weekend has been cut. Now, we let it cure for 4 to 6 weeks. Most of the time, I try to avoid the gel phase in my soaps because when using goat milk, the gel phase causes the soap to become a dark orange color. Gel or not gel does not affect the quality of the soap, it only affects the color and length of time it needs to cure into a hard bar. Not gelling is initially a softer bar and takes more time to cure in order to evaporate the water in the bar. The method I've been using to avoid scorching the milk and preventing the gel phase is as follows. First, the goat milk is frozen in ice cube trays and small 8 ounce baggies. The lye is added gradually to the frozen milk, stirring as it thaws. Once the oils and lye/ milk mixture are combined, blended and poured into the molds, I place it in the freezer for several hours. Certain additives such as honey and some essential oils will accelerate the heat. I purposely allowed the wine and cocoa soap to gel since it had a lesser amount of milk and using the wine made it very hot. The other three, however, were put into the freezer hoping to preserve a lighter color. Chopped dried Chamomile was added to one for a yellow color, and the oat and honey recipe contains, of course, honey, adding to the darker color. I was not happy to discover both of these gelled in the center in spite of my freezing efforts. The soaps are still fine, but they will have a darker circle in the center. I'm anxious to see how they will all look after several weeks of drying. Rainy days are a good time to make soap. I made 4 new batches, and used up all of my frozen goat milk stash. It looks like no more soaping with goat milk until more is available, which should be soon. Ember is looking VERY pregnant, and due to kid in about 2 1/2 weeks. In addition to making soap, Connor and I hauled a load of square bales up the hill, trimmed all the goat's hooves, applied organic fertilizer (fish emulsion) to the garlic bed, and gave Callie a much needed bath. The latest creations are drying and will be ready very soon. As you can see, I'm getting braver and experimenting with layering and natural clay colorants. All of these are hand made using goat milk from Ember and Alita and other natural ingredients. The only 'unnatural' ingredient I have used is the occasional fragrance oil. Most of the time I stick to essential oils, and sometimes no scent. Todays soaps are still hardening in the molds.
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AuthorMy name is Christy Franklin. Archives
February 2021
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