Trimming Goat Hooves

Goats can be persnickety creatures.  They are smart and they are stubborn.  And mine HATE getting manicures!

I have been asked how to trim goat hooves.  Well here is how I do it. Goats have a outer hoof like a fingernail and they have a soft inner hoof for gripping.  If they were living with rocks the rocks would keep the outer hooves rubbed down.  But my pasture has no rocks so I have to trim them.  They also have a heel part that can grow up. 

First put them on a stand with some grain to keep them busy,

Then you will need a pair of trimmers.  They need to be sharp and pointy.  You can either go out and buy a pair of hoof rot trimmers which was kind of pricey or a nice pair of rose bush trimmers will work also.

In the next picture you will see the hoof which the outer covering has grown up and curved over.  That is what needs to be trimmed.  Also the heel gets a little long so I will trim that down also.

The next picture shows the hoof after the trim

You can see the light colored parts where I trimmed off the excess.

If you cut too deep you can hurt them and also cause bleeding the same as cutting your own nails too short.  So go easy and just take off a little at a time.  If you start to see any pink then stop.  Mine like to fight and argue.  Usually grain or soft words help.  I also will sit next to them and lean my back up against them while I do it.  This seems to have a calming effect on my girls.

I usually trim their hooves about every 3 months.

Pigging... What fun! Meet our 12 new babies!

Pigs do not mess around on the whole due date thing 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days and she popped! I knew she was due yesterday by the calendar so I went to go check on Monster our pig.  We had been pulling grass out of the garden and the girls had given her several loads of it.  That pig carried the grass all into her house and made a nest.

So as the day went on I went to check on her every little bit.  The kids and I started trying to dig some potatoes one of the times we went to check on her we found her laying down breathing hard and looking miserable

Now mind you we have never had a pig give birth and did not know really what to expect.  So I got on the trusty Internet and looked up the process for farrowing.  It said 30-90 minutes from the time they lay down and be still.  Well at 2 hours I was getting worried and still no pigs.  I decided I would give her 30 more minutes and then go get my neighbor who used to work in the hog farms. 

30 minutes later I went out to check on her and this is what I found

Twelve year old daughter got called out to help we got the birthing bag and put pads down behind her to contain the mess and those baby pigs just started coming out.  One every few minutes.  We were wiping baby pigs down as fast as we could!  They are feisty little buggers when they are born.  We did not expect them to be running around the pig shed as soon as they were dried off!

I like this one.  It has some interesting colors on it!  And it is a girl so we are probably going to keep this one to replace her mother!

Monster is a good mom she was being careful not to lay on any.  If she heard a squeal she moved.  Except they were only squealing because two wanted the same nipple!
We ended up with 12 little piggies in all.  7 girls and 5 boys! 

Our pigs are mutt pigs so we ended up with an assortment of colors!

Monster is going to the butcher when we wean these babies.  That was always the plan.  Our pig is sweet and loves scratches and her tummy rubbed but she is just too big to handle anymore so she will have to go.  We will all miss her but we also know that is why we have them.

My neighbor is going to come and help in about a week or so to castrate them.  I can do castrations with a band and I have assisted with human castrations (worked as a RN for 20 years) but I have never seen or done pigs and the have to be cut.  So I am thankful for the assistance and guidance.

We are going to keep 4 of the barrows (castrated males) to raise for the freezer and two of the cute red females for breeding and probably sell the rest to pay for their feed.

We have been out of pork for about 2 months so we will be glad to get some bacon again!

Pork chops in the making!

It's a Horse... Of Course

I just wanted to share a really funny pic of my horse:

 

 

 

She does this anytime she gets a treat as if to say Thank You.  If you are not handing out the treats fast enough she will nudge you and smile to get a treat also.  It reminds me of Mr. Ed.  For those of you who know what I am talking about I just dated myself.  For those of that don't look up Vintage TV shows from the 60's.



An old horse made new! Before and after photos

Those of you that have been following my blog will know we were given a horse in June of last year.  She was not much more than a horse hide draped over a skeleten.  The people told us she was about 18 years old and was only skinny because the younger horses ran her off the food.  When I got her I noticed her dropping her food when she ate so I called an Equine dentist.  The dentist has an office in Oklahoma City but makes house calls and was coming thru our area.  She worked on her and at one point just reached in her mouth and out came a molar.  The dentist said she is closer to 30.

This picture was taken just a few weeks after we got her.  I was so afraid someone was going to turn us in for animal cruelty!  See how you can see all her bones!

These are recent pictures.  She now looks like a horse and you can no longer see her bones!!  She is still a little on the thin side but nothing like she was.  These were taken 9 months after we got her and 7 months after the dental visit!

She got really barn sour during the fattening up process.  I am in the process of now teaching her how to be a horse again.  She can still be cantankerous when I have the saddle on her but bareback she does fine.  She has enough meat on her bones now that you can comfortably ride her bareback.

If the SHTF and there is a EMP then she is our alternate transportation so I will keep working to get her in tip top shape. 

Spring time on the Farm

It is Spring which is a very busy time.  We have started getting our garden out but Jack frost keeps interfering.  He has not looked at the calendar and realized he needs to go away!  I have Soda Bottle greenhouses over my tender tomato and pepper plants.  The town next to us sells mulch for one dollar a truck load we just have to load and haul it.  Next week we will be going to get five loads for the garden to keep the weeds down.  Plus my son-in-law has been saving large sheets of cardboard from his work to put under the mulch to further fight the weeds.

We have 4 additions to our milk herd

The incubator is running constantly and I have hatched so far 57 chicks and 18 ducks, currently there are 41 Guinea eggs in the incubator.  Soon the first batch of Chicks will be headed for the freezer.

Three ducks are setting on their own nests and so are 3 chickens.  I really thought the black sex links would not set so I bought some baby bantie's.  Then 3 decided to go broody!  Yeah!!!

The rabbits are producing and we are able to have bunny dinner frequently.  We have eleven in the grower cage right now.

Spring is in the air for the pigs and Monster should have her piglets in 3 months.  Husband pig is much smaller than monster but he somehow managed to do his duty!

The Turkeys are growing and the brooder is full of baby chicks

 

 

Cow is getting big

Blessed with Girls!!! Cute Pics

I love my goats!!!  They are smart, funny, Bossy and give us a supply of fresh yummy milk.  So far two of my darling ladies have kidded.  I have ended up with 3 does and one little buckling.  The first two Peter and Tinkerbell are now 5 weeks old.  They jump on me every time I go out there.  Now we have 2 more both are precious little girls.  Yes we are nerds (according to my teenage step-daughter) they are named Megan and Jenny for the Delaney sisters off of Star Trek Voyager.  The momma is full blooded Nubian and their Daddy is fiull blooded Alpine so one ended up with floppy Nubian ears  (that one is Jenny) and the other with some funky half up half down ears (that one is Megan)

Jenny has the floppy ears and Megan has the straight ears

It's a Girl.... And a Boy !!!!!!!

Our very first goat babies delivered today.  Dot is the proud mama of two darling kids.  One little girl and one little boy...

 We are very proud!!!!!!!

Our newest member.. Meet Brisket

He's not a big angus but this little fellow was only $100.  Around here if you can find bottle calves they usually want 300 or so for a meat cow like an Angus.  So I am happy with the one I got.   He is a Jersey crossed with something bovine. 

Brisket coming home

We drove to Missouri to get him and brought him back in the back of our Jeep. 

He is a bossy little bugger.  And it seems like a bottle puts him into Hungry mode.  After I feed him then he nudges me in the back side and chases the goats and even the horse around trying to get more.  

A few days after we got him both of his testicles dropped and I was able to get a band on him with the help of my daughter holding him.

I will up date with more pictures as soon as I get them...

We have babies!!!! Bunnies that is!!!

One of our does just gave birth last night... She had been working on her nest since yesterday morning so I knew it was imminent... I went out last night and could see the fur moving in the nest...

What a cozy nest!!!

This morning when I went out there I gave her some good scratches behind her ears and then pulled back the fur:

See the pink spot in the hole of fur?

Phone on zoom, not a great picture.

There are 6 of them.  3 pink ones and 3 black ones like their daddy.

This is her first litter so I hope all goes well.  Every time I have been out there she has not been in the nest with them.  I put her in the nest to get the top picture...

Building a combost bin for free

If there is one thing every farm has plenty of that is MANURE!!!  Up until now we had no one place to put it so when we cleaned out a stall it just went... Where ever the kid who was in charge decided it should go.  Now we have a compost bin and that is THE PLACE for them to dump their wheel barrows.

Cost 6 nails... a few pennies
Pallets and skids Free
Bailing wire... Free (it came off the bales of alfalfa)

I have several pallets and skids sitting around that I had gotten for free when some people down the road built a house.

2 of the skids were 10 feet long by 4 feet tall and the two pallets I used were about 4feet by 4 feet.

Our garden has a pen made from field fencing at either end of it.  One end has our growing pigs in it the other is for if I have to separate out a goat for some reason.  In between the two pens we have almost half an acre that is going to be our new garden this next spring.  Last year our garden flooded horribly and had to be replanted 3 times so this year I decided it was going on higher ground with no chance of flooding from the road.

The first step was to put one of the skids up against the fence in the corner.  I nailed it to the corner post and then bailing wired it to the T-post.  I then added a pallet on each end which I nailed to the skid.  The front skid I cut so that it was only about 2 feet tall and then nailed it to the pallets.

Now I have a place in the garden for garden compost like weeds and a place to put the manure from the barn and pens.

Welcome to our new beasties... Bacon Monster and Pork Chop

Well here they are.  Hubby and I have been working hard for a couple weeks to get them a pen ready and a house.  Finally I found piggies for sale at a good price and close to home.  My daughter and I went in halves on these too little porkers.  My grandson named one "Monster" So I am calling him "Bacon Monster" and the other "Pork Chop" to always remind the kids exactly what these guys are for and it isn't to get attached to.

They are 12 weeks old right now and we are planning on taking them to the butcher this spring.  One more giant step toward self sufficiency and swearing off the Wal-Mart grocery shelves!!!