New Craigslist Ad...

Four Boer cross goats - free to good home any home.

Owner should possess: maximum security prison decent fencing, the ability to chase them minimum three miles excellent cardiovascular health, complete disregard for your own personal property no nice things stored outdoors, super-patient neighbors (preferably with good cardiovascular health themselves) with decent fencing and unlimited funds to put toward additional fencing materials be prepared for possible fencing improvements.

Goats may be seen wandering our neighborhood Seen by appointment only. You catch, you haul.

Meat Goat Ranching 103: What to do when you have done everything...

Part three of the three part series is not filled with excitement and goat wrestling like I thought it would be. In fact, there has been no goat wrestling since the day we brought them home. The goat-release date set for Saturday did coincide nicely with the garage sale (which, incidentally, was a crappy, rainy weekend to host a garage sale) but there were no extra bodies required. During the week the goats spent confined to the chicken coop Todd introduced them to grain. And this obviously changed their attitude about running away because when they got out (about two minutes after we let them out of the coop...) they were more interested in hunting down the grain bin than fleeing their homeland.


We first sensed they were out because the bleating (that's goat for talking) was a little louder and closer than usual. Upon further inspection it was confirmed that Vanilla-Chocolate (yes Vanilla-Chocolate is her name) had indeed crawled under the fence (without getting shocked!?) and came looking for human companionship. The other goats could tell she was out and each of the three does made a dash for the fence and performed an amazing stomach-slide under the hot wire. Power in numbers! Once all four goats were out they went searching for the grain bin. All Todd had to do was shake the grain and they followed him back into the pasture. Not that they stayed there long, but they were there.

Another trip to the feed store and another hundred dollars and Todd returned with the following:

1.  A 50 foot section of rope.
2.  A brass bell with clip.
3.  A large metal post to tie the rope to and pound into the ground.

(I will say, however, if you are going to tether a goat in the middle of the field it is best to do it far enough away from your other temporary fence so that when the tethered goat does lap after lap around the post they don't completely destroy your temporary fence. Right. Because I spent a considerable amount of time repairing fence after the first tethering experience.)

...and Vanilla Chocolate has met her match. She has not been out since. The goats are allowed to graze (supervised, of course) in the afternoons but V/C has to remain tethered until she gets too big to escape without a serious shock. That, or she gives up trying to get out altogether. Which I don't think is happening anytime soon.

Let's recap goat "aquisition" project::

• Two additional hot lines ran along front of fence.

• Lowering of additional hot lines after goat escape #1.

• Goats live in chicken coop and eat out of the recycling bin. (Its the only "feed" bin we had...)

• Mounding of dirt below gates to avoid goat escape. Shortly followed by realization it was much easier (and cheaper) just to lower the gates. Either way, it didn't work. Followed shortly by goat escape #2.

• Installment of peanut butter covered tin-foil dangly pieces on electric fence. This was to try to get them to lick the peanut butter and shock their face teaching them that the fence is bad. Failed miserably. Either they don't like peanut butter, or they are exceptionally smart.

• Purchase of goat tether. This is labor intensive and has dramatically increased the amount of time I spend repairing existing fence.

• The discussion to perhaps add field fence to our arsenal of weapons took place last night. Sounds expensive, labor intensive and irritating. We were SO not cut out to raise goats.

They are pretty cute, but cute in the would-look-good-on-the-BBQ kinda way. All I know is the first time one of these things gets out and I find it stomping the hood of my car it's a dead goat

Goat Update...

We are still too afraid to let the goats out of the chicken coop, so Todd has been moving them every day so they're on fresh grass. Every day after work we've been upgrading the fence - as we DO NOT want a repeat escape like last Saturday. We have added additional hot wires to hopefully prevent a breakout. Ronald Weesley (the buck. God I hate that name...) is oh-so-patiently awaiting the release of his girlfriends.


A couple of genius ideas:

1. The goats could shimmy under the (non-electrified) gates. So, night before last Todd and I spent $25 and two hours shoveling dirt under the gates to raise the ground level to the gates before we realized it was much easier (AND FASTER) to just lower the gates. Fricking brilliant.

2. We're having a garage sale this Saturday, which coincides with our planned goat-release day. At any given time there should be extra people around. Extra people, that is, that can chase loose goats. Now that's brilliant!

More to come after the planned release.....

Meat Goat Ranching 102: What to do when your goats escape

My mom told us when Todd was considering raising goats, "If you can build a fence that'll keep a 14 year old boy in, you can keep in goats." I've not heard a more true statement.

Ronald came out of the trailer pretty easily and started walking around the field like he owned the place. My first impression of him was not good. He was pretty big (for a goat), maybe 150 pounds, had a fu-man-choo mustache 8 inches long, his horns were probably a foot long, flat and layed back towards his neck. He didn't have a collar, but had a rope tied around his neck. And there were all kinds of rope tied up in his horns that made him look gnarly. Plus, he was doing this strutting thing that really didn't impress me. Goat's eyes look hollow and creepy too. That wasn't helping him - neither was the permed bangs that replaced his eyebrows.

The does took some persuasion and the four of them finally came out of the trailer. They were smaller and very pretty. Not too tame and running around like crazy. Ronald Weasley thought they were very pretty and started chasing them around. And that's when I learned a few things about goats:

1.Goats are NOT into arranged marriage. The does didn't want anything to do with freaky permed-bangs weirdo Ronald Weasley.

2.Goats are very flexible.

3.The six months of planning (and many verbal warnings by former goat owners) did NOT prepare us for goat ownership.

4.Goats don't care if you build a fence. They go where they want to.

The trailer arrived at 5:00pm and LITERALLY by 5:08pm the does had escaped from our fence and were wandering (well, running...) around our lawn...headed for the road. All hell broke loose. The buck (luckily) was a little too big to get under the fence, but the does were gone. Todd caught one and drug it back to the field - and then I heard him from the front lawn scream, "NOOoooooOOOO!!" And when I looked around the house I saw the other three goats about a 1/2 mile up our neighbor's driveway - across the road!!

And so began the hour and a half, three mile goat recon mission. Todd, our neighbor girl Annika, the girl two houses down, Savannah, my mom and dad, me (with the baby on my back) and our amazing neighbors (if you're reading this Robbie and Gordy - for reals - you guys rock!) joined in the chase. Everyone took off up the neighbor's driveway on foot armed with several ropes and a can of grain, my dad followed on the 4-wheeler with more rope and Robbie (bless her heart!) showed up with much needed additional fencing supplies and proceeded to build us a goat-proof fence.

The (somewhat angry and not nearly as nice as Robbie and Gordy) neighbor, whose BARN they managed to corner the goats in was totally un-impressed with our goat sheparding skills. There's nothing like six people, a 4-wheeler and three goats burning through your lawn to really say, "Hi there neighbor. Good to meet you!"
An hour and a half later with a more substantial fence and goats in tow, the action calmed down a bit. Not willing to risk them escaping again we locked them up in the only thing we had that was goat proof: our extra chicken coop. So, as of this morning we had four angry goats in a chicken coop and Ronald Weasley circling it, just waiting for them to get out. Goat ranching. A family - scratch that - a neighborhood affair!

Some of the things overheard that night:
"Do you guys have a rifle?"

"Wow. Goats are fast."

"We could have a really big BBQ tonight and invite all the neighbors. I hear goat is pretty good."

"Who's idea was this?"

"Did you read the part about goat fencing?"

"They're gone."

"@#%$^-ing goats"

"God. I hope they weren't expensive."

"Are you getting divorced?"

Meat Goat 101

I'm sure it comes as no surprise to our blog-followers that we would chose to add to our ever-expanding farm family.

Goats. Why not! Todd has methodically and religiously studied volumes upon volumes upon volumes of information regarding the pasturing, feeding, worming, vaccinating of and caring for, goats. After deliberating which ones would kid the easiest (that's goat for give birth), keep the easiest (because, you know, we're naturals at this), eat the least, grow the fastest and be the best for meat, he settled on a Kiko/Boer cross. And, naturally there aren't any located within 500 miles of our house! Todd arranged for a weekend trip to two different farms. From one "farm" he would pick up (I'm not kidding here) "Ronald Weasley", the buck, and from a different "farm" he would pick up the four does (that's goat talk for baby-making machines). The farms were about an hour apart, both located in the opposite corner of our state - a good five hour drive.

In an attempt to "maximize goat intake and minimize travel time", the plan was for Todd to leave our house on Friday after work, drive five hours, get a hotel, get the goats first thing Saturday morning, and drive straight home. That way he'd be home by around 2:00pm. I sometimes wonder what kind of delusional world we live in. (And by we, I mean me.)

I talked to Todd late Friday night and after making a quick gas-stop in Yakima (where he had intended to stay) he continued on because (I kid you not...) the prostitutes and delinquents were really thick in the area where he pulled off. He instead chose to sleep in his truck 100 miles further down a dead end road. Much safer, yes?



Here's what I gathered from "farm #1" (where the does came from):

1.They lived in the middle of nowhere. Literally, he drove down a mountain, across the gulley and up the other mountain. No cars. Anywhere. Gravel? All the way.

2.They were moderately well-kept. Probably could have used a fresh set of clothes and a shower but, all in all? Farmers.

3.Their house? Old - but on a foundation - with a trailer right next to the house.

4.Over 40 more goats in the barn.

Here's what I gathered about "farm #2" (where Ronald Weasley was):
1.It was on the other side of middle of no where. Seriously. He drove for over 40 miles and didn't pass a single car.

2.Goat "ranchers" maybe don't always practice good personal hygiene. For example: this guy could have used a shower, flea dip, hair cut, shave, fingernail brushing, nail clipping and tooth brushing. I can only imagine what a person Todd described as "The Unibomber's Brother" looked like in person. Impolite to ask to take a picture?

3.Goat "ranchers" don't always live in mansions. Todd said it looked like the Unibomber's Brother's "house" was a one-room shanty-town that he was pretty sure was made from pallets. After going inside (only to sign papers, not for fun..) he noticed that the bed was in the kitchen. And on cinder blocks. I guess "breakfast in bed" when you live alone in the middle of nowhere means actually cooking breakfast from bed. Hmm.

4.They had no electricity. Ya know, the stuff they discovered in the 1700s? He would fire up the generator whenever his wife needed to use the internet.

5.No electricity but they have the internet? Interesting, don't you think?

Todd arrived back at our farm at around 5:00 pm on Saturday. Three hours behind schedule, smelling kinda like a trucker. And this is what I could gather from him:

1.Dinner consisted of beef jerky, green tea and spicy habenero chips.

2.He didn't pack a toothbrush. Or deodorant. Or a change of clothes.

3.He hadn't showered, shaved or brushed his teeth.

4.He didn't pack his heart-burn medicine. (Too bad, considering the meal, right?)

5.He hadn't taken his shoes off in at least 24 hours.

6.We seriously underestimated what it would take to raise goats.

All things considered not a bad trip, right? And then he let the goats out of the trailer to explore their new digs. And that's when the shit hit the fan. Stay tuned for all the late-breaking details on goat ranching!

Lots of Berries This Year!

When we purchased our house in 2008 we were excited to find a decent amount of fruit producing plants around the place. There were two great blueberry bushes and three apple trees. The blueberries were in pretty bad shape (not pruned or fertilized for what looked like a very long time) and the apple trees hadn't been touched the last two years because the house was in foreclosure. I gave the blueberries a heavy pruning and a good fertilizing and our first year we ate and ate off the bushes and froze 10 quart ziplock bags of berries. This year's crop is looking even better as the bushes look amazing after another good pruning.

Our two semi-dwarf apple trees did a great job producing wonderful eating and baking apples, but the huge old Gravenstein tree only produced about 10 apples. The year prior (according to the neighbor) had been even worse for the poor tree. We gave it another heavy pruning this year and we hope to get a better crop of apples off of it. They are delicious apples!!

This year we are trying our hand at raspberries. I loved eating raspberries straight from the vine when I was growing up. We installed a small row of vines we received from a friend that will hopefully produce berries this first year. Yum!!

Mid-spring 2009 we planted four more semi-dwarf fruit trees just beyond the garden. We have a pear, frost peach, italian prune and plum tree. I'm not sure how great the peach will do, but the others are designed for this region and so far this year are covered in blossoms. We had a very warm February (the warmes on record) and a lot of our plants were coaxed out of their dormant state. We are getting some wild weather now (rain, frost, hail, etc.) and hopefully it won't damage the tender blossoms too much.

Hopefully our mason bees weren't too put off by the cold weather and are getting out there to pollinate! We'll have to wait and see.

The Hoop Coop Works!

This week was a big week for our laying hens. They finally graduated from the brooders to their hoop coops! They are just shy of 5 weeks and are quite a bit bigger than when they came home. Most of their chick "fluff" has been replaced with realy feathers. They still have a little fluff on their necks and although they're outside, we are still keeping the lights on them at night.

We had a little bit of work left to complete on the coop before it was ready for the birds. The tarp, which proved to be an engineering feat, was the last thing to go on. We couldn't decide how to lash it down, or whether or not we should use more than one tarp. We chose to go with just one tarp and leave the very front end exposed. We will totally enclose the coop this fall in preparation for the winter, but for now seems to be working just fine with one end exposed. We used small pieces of trim screwed through the tarp on the bottom and back. We used some Gorilla Glue to tape the tarp down below the nesting box hinge so water doesn't drip on the ladies while they're in the roosting boxes. The end result looked pretty good!

The Barred Rock hens have gone from almost all black (when we got them) to the traditional black and white flecked. The Buff Orpingtons have remained their original color, but have gotten their adult feathers in.

We chose to move the coop to the garden, which is laying fallow right now. There is a little grass growing in the garden (which will be nice to have the hens eat up) and the chicken manure will be great for the vegetables this year. It's a win-win situation! Plus, it is still close enough to the shop that we can string an extension cord for the lights at night.

It seems during the evenings and nights they huddle up close (to be expected), and during the day they enjoy milling about the coop. For now, they are completely confined to the coop. They have enough room and food.

The automatic waterer is working like a dream! A five gallon bucket sits on top of the coop and feeds the red waterer when it gets low. This keeps a nice, fresh supply of clean water for the birds and is completely low-maintainance.

The dog is very interested in what's going on with the chickens. And maybe not in a good way....?

"Hey Son, Do You Want To Go Pick Up Some Chicks?"

Taken out of contex, perhaps a little disturbing. But, really, we went and picked up our broiler chicks night before last. We have been waiting patiently for them to come in. They were supposed to arrive 5 weeks ago with our order of laying hens. They arrived at the store, but shortly afterwards nearly half of them died. The store called to explain things and said there was a person who only wanted 12 and would take the half order if that was OK with us. I said OK, figuring that if half of them died when they got to the store there was probably something wrong with them anyway. They assured us our order would be filled that week, but have been waiting (somewhat patiently) for nearly 5 weeks now.

It turned out to be perfect timing though because just three days ago we were able to move our laying hens out of the brooders and into their outdoor coops. This alleviated space in the brooders for the new flock. Instead of having two brooders both full with chicks, we're able to leave one empty and when the shavings need changed we just rotate them over to a clean one and clean out the dirty one. It works better I think.

The broiler chicks are adorable! They look like little Easter chicks - yellow colored and tiny! They'll grow quickly I'm sure.

Hey! Look who wants to help feed and water the chicks! I don't think guard dog is what Griz has in mind...

Say Goodbye to the Pigs

As we approached the due date of our first son, Colt, I could think of nothing more appropriate than to bring home three wiener pigs two days before his birth! And that's exactly what Todd did! And, seriously, I think I always harbored a little resentment towards the pigs for that. I mean, there I was: 11 months pregnant (or, at least, that's what it felt like), the size of a house and angry at the world...and I'm supposed to welcome with open arms three more mouths to feed?

Well, as time went on I learned to like the pigs. They were quite friendly and I grew fond of the little black one. (We refuse to name animals we're going to eat, but we affectionately called this one "Boots.") They were playful, made amazing rototillers and found chunks of buried cement, bricks and wire we never knew were there! But, over the winter they got pretty big. And a little stinky. And I started to avoid going in their pen because I was a little worried they'd eat me.

They certainly had their moments. Like the time we tried to move them to the lower wooded area. Having never raised pigs before, we were not prepared for them to refuse to leave their enclosure because they knew up to the inch where the electric fence was. I think we both assumed they'd follow a bucket of grain anywhere. Wrong. Two hours later with the help from a very patient neighbor, we managed to get them moved.

But, when the time came they (sadly) loaded right up in to the trailer with know idea where they were going. And then followed Todd right out of the trailer at the butcher shop. They weighed between ~160 and ~195 each and we're patiently waiting for the meat to be finished! We're getting hams, bacon, chops, ribs, hocks, soup bones and sausage! We're both really excited to taste the finished product.

This was our first time raising pigs and I think a rather successful go at it.

Jump. I Dare You.

Our laying hens (minus one, which we think might be an un-laying hen (also known as a rooster)) are now 4 weeks old and getting a little it seems, restless? I guess I can't blame them: there's nothing like sharing a 5'x5' living space with 23 of your closest friends which includes the kitchen table (two long feeders), the faucet (two self-filling waterers) and one bathroom (the floor) and being totally unable to turn off the lights!! Come to think of it, I would really hate being a baby chicken. The grow light (which keeps them warm until they develop feathers) has to stay on all day and night in order to keep the brooder at the proper temperature.

Now that they're a little older, they're starting to develop grown-up chicken feathers and have recently started the game of "Ooohh...let's perch on top of the water tower so that when she opens the lid she'll be startled. And then, when she reaches for the feeders let's lunge at her hands like we're going to bite!! Hehehehe." Really. I swear they've plotted this plan and ran through it over and over. (What else do you do all night long when you can't get a wink of sleep because no one will turn off the light?)

Anyway, since they've started doing that whole perching on the water tower thing I've just been waiting for one to jump out. And, I'm so NOT in a hurry at 6:00 in the morning that I have time to chase a wayward chicken around the shop for fun, right? Wrong. Well, the other day when I went in there, I moved the lid to access the food and waterers and left it ascew while I filled the waterers. Big mistake. I came back and there was a Buff Orpington perched on the open end of the brooder! I didn't want to make any sudden moves because I just knew she'd jump off and run wildly around the shop. So, there we were: locked in a stare down for nearly a minute while she contemplated the consequences of her actions. I could sense (by the feverishness of their peeping) that the other hens were trying to coax her back down, and my stare said nothing more than, "Jump. I dare you." And I think, after serious deliberation and weighing her consequences, she decided to jump back into the brooder. Or, maybe it was my stare down. Either way I'm staging a fishing net next to the brooder because I think they're on to me.