Any Day Now

Well, the nannies have been shared for about a week now and the first of our kids is due anytime. Today is a snowy day but not too cold. Nannies seem quite comfortable in the barn.
It's Mardi Gras in NOLA, it's one day to kidding and 34 days 'til spring.

What Time Is It ?

It's Kidding Time ( almost ) !

The first of this year's kid crop is due to start arriving on Feb. 17th. We've spent the past 2 months processing fiber - lots of fiber. Now that we are just about finished with the 2009 clip of mohair and wool, we'll be shearing the nannies next week and we'll start right in with 2010.
It seems that there really isn't a time when there isn't some fiber to process.
But what we're really doing now is getting ready for baby goats and a bit later lambs ( due April 1st ). Here's what we do to get ready :

-Clean the barn and kidding stalls
-Partition the barn into living areas - we house like sized nannies together to avoid un-sportsman like conduct ( translation - slamming ).
-Check and make sure we have enough buckets for each pen ( food and water )
-Test the heat lamps - our heat lamps are held up by chains and have bulb guards.
-Make sure we have plenty of towels for drying
-Blow dryer ( just like the ones used for drying hair ) - for drying kids fast
-Selenium shots - BoSe - each kid gets 1/4cc - we're in a low selenium area.
-CDT - each kid gets 1cc
-Nutri-drench - each kid gets a couple of squirts
-Ear notch tool - we notch instead of tag kids - tags sometimes rip ears or fall out. We prefer to notch. To see a sample ear notch diagram visit the AAGBA website.
-Feeding tube - in case of chilled kids and a container for the milk from the nanny.
-Prichard Teats - in case we need to supplement nursing kids or for bottle babies
-A couple of plastic soda bottles for the teats ( but no Coca Cola bottles as the threads on the bottle's neck have been changed and no longer accommodate the Pritchard Teats. )
-Worming paste for the nannies - after the stress of kidding we generally evaluate nannies and worm if needed. Stress can cause a decreased resistance to parasites.
-Something on hand for scours - we use a pepto-bismol like liquid.
-Shear the nannies - keeps the fleece clean and gives the kids a nice mohair-free udder to latch onto. After shearing the nannies stay in the barn until mid-March.
-Put the radio in the barn and tune to WAMC - our local Public Radio Station ( this is a plug for the station. Their fund drive starts in a few days. )
-Wait for the kidding to begin.

18 days 'til baby goats
51 days 'til spring

Where 'Ya Been ?

It's that time of year again - catch-up time. It's hard to believe that it's been 4 months since our last post. Time flies around here in the summer and early fall. Hopefully things will slow down a bit and we'll get back to a regular routine. Happy Thanksgiving !
PS. This is NOT our turkey !

From the Dye Pot

We've been spending a lot of time this summer trying to catch-up with fiber processing. While the unusually wet weather has put the kabosh on outside farm work, the cooler temperatures make for a good opportunity to get a jump on getting things ready for the fall fiber shows.
This is a batch of kid mohair that I've dyed in anticipation of a roving colorway. Roving kind of takes on the colors of the fiber that comes out of the dye pot in our mill. It seems that no matter what color I "plan" on, the fiber takes up different color components of the dye bath at different rates. This is actually a good thing for me because it provides endless possibilities for combining color. It makes many colorways unrepeatable though making it all the more important for us to encourage customers to get the quantity they need at the time they are purchasing roving ( or yarn for that matter. ) This is one of the many pluses, but also one of the minuses ( for some ) of small batch dying.

Perspective - Cat in the Garden

Cat and Zucchini Plant

Watching the Garden Grow

We planted a bunch of "stuff" the end of May. In June it rained - not just a bit, a whole lot'ta rain. Ark building type rain. We just hoped our vegetables would survive being continuously wet and cold. And then the sun came out a couple of weeks ago, not all the time mind you, but just enough to inspire the plants to open their flowers. So, here's where things stand today - in the sunshine !

This is a very small bell pepper

Swiss Chard

Zucchini

Zucchini again -

Rows of staked tomatoes - Brandywine and Roma

Eggplant flowering

Green Cabbage

Basil and Italian Flat-leaf Parsley

This year we decided to put down a ground cover and then mulch on top. A really good decision. The result is virtually no weeds. Years past our garden was always overcome with weeds ( we do not spray anything and there is never enough time to spend weeding ). We debated regarding the ground cover - did not want to use plastic - and decided on using a cloth or fabric variety. Our hope is to be able to re-use the cloth next year. Having the hay mulch on top keeps weeds from sprouting beneath and also may preserve some of the integrity of the cloth as well. We'll see what happens. By the way, we needed to put the split firewood down on top to keep everything from blowing away - we're in a windy spot !

Is That The Sun We See ?

After almost 5 weeks of rain without much more than a day of non-rain in-between ( can't call it sunshine 'cause there wasn't any ), we're finally back into the swing of making some hay. If you look closely you can see a "square" bale being "kicked" into the wagon, from the baler. An "Action-Shot". Now we have an awful lot of catch-up work to do. Because of the late first cutting of our hay this year, we're going to have a lot of clover in our round bales which makes for a really nice feed. It just takes an extra day or so to dry and this week we've got the time to make it - 4 days ( predicted ) of good drying weather !
These square bales are also full of clover. We'll be using them next February to feed our nursing nannies so they make a lot of rich milk for the 2010 kids.