The race is on

Rose's kids playing in the feeder at about two weeks old. Buck left and doeling right - yet to be named.
Maggie's doeling above at a week old. She is sooo pretty and looks so like her mom. Both sister and brother below.

Plants lined up in the hallway waiting for a ride up to the greenhouse. On the left are our two tubs of chicks. One tub has ten week old Americanas and the other has seven Welsummers and four Sexlinks. Honey is taking care of eleven chicks on her own up in the chicken house. They will be on pasture here in the next week.
Above are various starts growing under lights. We have three shelves including this one set up, each holds four flats, and I've got a few extra flats that go back and forth between outside and various windows. Most of the flats are comprised of six packs, but there are also three and four inch pots holding tomatoes, squash, eggplants and herbs. Today I'm moving the most established, root bound and hardiest up to the greenhouse to make way for peas, nasturtiums, sunflowers and beans. A lot of vegetable and flower seed that is generally direct seeded benefits from being started indoors here. I find that even peas and beans, corn and squash all produce earlier if started in warm soil indoors and then moved outside. The trick is to get them sprouted and growing before transplanting, but you don't want them outgrowing their pots or they may not recover or take off once transplanted.
Yesterday we had twelve cubic yards of garden soil delivered. We weren't sure if the dump truck was going to be able to put the soil where we wanted it, but he got pretty close. He was also able to drive around our upper loop, which was quite a feat, as it is steep with tight corners. The race is on. Today we will be shoveling and hauling dirt. I'm hoping to get the potatoes and carrot seed in today. Followed by onions and peas. Maybe get tomatoes into the greenhouse by tomorrow.
It is a race here (as it probably is everywhere) to get everything planted and growing. Early planting is a gamble and caution is advised. The planting out date is June first and Fairbanks is often hit by late frosts, which we mostly avoid due to our higher elevation. I hope to have everything planted by the first of June with the exception of some succession planting. I'll be saving beans and squash for last. I've hardly begun thinking of how to arrange flower starts. Once everything is in it will be time to start thinking about planting perennial strawberries, raspberries and a couple apple trees. What an enticing and overwhelmingly delightful time of year!

Last kidding of the spring

Maggie kidded to two healthy kids in the wee hours of Friday morning. She gave us a beautiful black and brown doeling with white frosting on her nose and ears, and a nice looking black and brown buckling. We started watching her closely Wednesday evening and we were pretty sure she was going to kid on Thursday. About eight p.m on Thursday she was in labor. I think she would have kidded earlier but each time I left her side she would get up and start calling to me. She would watch me walk down to the house and stand on a rock staring at the house until I would return. I had a friend up helping watch the kids as Dustin was away at work but he had to leave about nine p.m.. I called my friend, April, and she came right up hoping to witness a goat kidding and to help with Noah and Avery. Once Dustin got home April came up and sat with Maggie and I. Again Maggie's labor seemed to stall. She wasn't happy that we were sitting inside (where the other does and their kids were penned up), and she wouldn't come inside with us. By midnight it was becoming aparent that it was going to be a long night. April went home and Dustin took over sitting with Maggie while I got some rest. I was hoping that he would crawl into bed and say, "two healthy kids, born without problems, nursed already and now everyone is resting". I was so exhausted and at the same time I couldn't believe I was going to bed at such an exciting and crucial time. I was so glad that I got some rest because Dustin woke me up at three a.m. telling me we needed to "GO IN".

As I trudged up the hill in the darkness I thought of all our goat labor emergencies that we've had in our short time of raising goats and wondering if I was cut out for animal husbandry after all. We watched Maggie for a few minutes and her situation did not seem desperate but we figured she had been in labor for so long we might as well go in (while we were both there) and see what was going on. Her cervix still wasn't dialated all the way and I carefully expanded it a bit and reached in further. Her water broke and amniotic fluid poured out down my arm in a brief flood. I felt two front hooves side by side facing the right way up (yeah!). So I backed out to see if she could finish on her own. It didn't take her more than ten minutes before she laid down and started pushing. Once we saw the hooves coming out I started helping by pulling the hooves first one and then the other at a downward angle. His head was pretty big and once his nose was sticking out I ran my finger around the opening helping it stretch a bit. Finally with a big push he shot out and I held him up by the back legs and worked to clear his nose and mouth of fluid.

We set the buck in front of his relieved mother, and she licked him while we dried him off. It was not long before the next kid came out and it was another large kid, just as big if not bigger than the first. Dustin and I were like "great two big bucks, just what we need". As he left to head down to the house I lifted her tail and was just thrilled to see that she was a girl. I yelled out to Dustin that it was a doeling, we were ecstatic to have a doeling out of Maggie.
So here they are, having not even nursed yet, barely dry. Doeling in front and buck behind attempting to stand.
Here is the doeling searching around for some nourishment. These kids were both healthy and vigorous from the get go. We hardly needed to guide them to their mom's teats, let alone hold them up for their first sucks.
Maggie is a protective and caring mother. She has been content to stay with her kids in a small pen, bonding and resting. We check on the does and kids at least three times a day, often more, and at each visit we let Maggie and her kids out into the larger stall. The kids jump and hop around and Maggie stands over them giving the other does and older kids the evil eye if they come near. She stands still while her kids nurse, she cleans their bottoms and she gives them lots of licks and nuzzles. Maggie is our largest strongest doe in the herd. Her son is a combination of our best genetics and would make a great buck. I was expecting him to look like her son from last year, as he had the same sire, but he doesn't look anything like him. We will have to watch the three boys over the next few weeks and decide if we will wether all three or not. We certainly do not need another buck for ourselves. For now we are thrilled to have two beautiful doelings, just need to come up with Z names, get the kids disbudded, wethered, tatooed, registered and weaned and then there will be no more goat kid related chores until next spring. Whew, glad kidding season is over for this spring...here's to no more late night kidding emergencies, cheers!

Cream Separator

I've spent the last couple days experimenting with my new cream separator. It is somewhat complicated as it has a lot of components. I was feeling rather proud of myself for getting the whole thing assembled and working on my own. However, I wasn't getting cream just milk out the milk spout. According to the manual if I wasn't getting cream out, there was a screw that needed adjustment to make the cream thinner, so that it would come out. I readjusted the screw and took the whole machine apart, washed and reassembled it four different times and was still not getting cream out. Finally I asked Dustin to see if he could figure out what was wrong with it. Well after an hour or so we had cream. I hadn't been putting enough milk through! Why didn't I think of that? I took several pictures but my camera battery was dead this morning so I'll post photos later. I'm having cream in my breakfast tea as I write this, and I'll be having some in a cup of coffee in a while. We need to do some more adjustments so that the cream isn't quite so thick. After the cream was in the fridge all night it was too thick to pour, I had to scoop some out with a spoon.

We aren't even milking daily yet, but Rose has been extra full and needing relief. Two nights in a row I milked her until her udder wasn't painfully full, leaving a moderately full looking udder behind, and each night I got about six cups of milk. We will start milking both Rose and Xoe daily in another week. Once we are milking all three does once a day I'm guessing we will be getting about three gallons of milk a day which is way more than we can use or store. It is illegal in Alaska to sell milk, raw or pasteurized, goat or cow. It is illegal for milk to leave ones property unless it is dyed green, has charcoal in it and is labeled for animal consumption only. I would have to operate a grade A certified dairy and then I would be able to sell pasteurized milk, never raw milk, unless Alaskan laws change. (More on milk legislation in future posts) It takes about a gallon of milk to get a pint of cream. It makes sense that we have our own milk so why purchase pasteurized cream cheese, sour cream, heavy cream and ice-cream at the store when we can make it ourselves. This is one way we will be able to convert our large quantities of milk into dairy products that take up less space and should be superior in quality and health benefits to anything we can purchase.

Why Welsummers

The beautiful dark brown eggs in the photo above are all it took to convince me into raising Welsummer chickens. These eggs are from Whitmore farms Welsummer hens, the same farm we purchased our chicks from. These photos are right off their farm website. This is what I know about these chickens: they are a heritage breed originating from Welsummer England and they are a hardy active forager. They have been raised to be a dual purpose bird; bred to lay a good number of eggs as well as make a decent meal. When raised with other breeds of chickens they tend to be the more dominant birds. I find the roosters very attractive and I believe I've said this in a different post but I'll say it again, they look like the classic rooster. The hens are less showy, but I guess they put it all into their eggs.

Two more kids

Above is a picture of Honey's chicks. She is taking care of eleven of them, three of our own Brahma crosses, six black sexlinks that we picked up from the feed store and two Welsummer boys (we think). The Welsummers were just for variety. My friend and chicken expert recommended a variety of chicks so that she will be less particular about who she adopts. We put the Welsummers under her last and sure enough, she could tell they were different and was pecking at them but soon decided they were cute enough she'd keep them. As soon as Honey hears our footsteps on the stairs she starts clucking at the chicks and trying to round them up. They are becoming more adventurous and rebelious. She fluffs herself up and often places herself between us and her babies. She has been showing them how to scratch and find food. She will start scratching and gives a different cluck and they all come running and start scratching in the same spot and pecking for food. In other news, new baby goats!
Here is Rose cleaning off her brand new babies. On Friday night Rose kidded to a white buckling and black and tan doeling. They are both healthy and strong. They were trying to nurse and stand before I even had them dried off all the way. I have yet to weigh them but I'm guessing they are in the seven pound range. Both Noah and Avery have been sick the last few days with a gnarley cold. On Friday night they were just miserable, to ill to be attending a goat birth. My mom came out and cared for them for several hours while I sat with Rose and helped dry her kids off and get them to nurse. I panicked unnecessarily and lubed up and went in early because I was worried that her kids were breached. I thought I felt a head first and it was challenging trying to stay in there with my right hand while holding Rose's colar with my left hand. So I tried calling the vet. When I didn't get ahold of her I called Dustin to see if he could get off work an hour early. I took a break to make calls, nurse a very fussy Avery and think about my options. I was hoping that there would just be a baby on the ground when I returned and save me anymore worry and as I walked up the hill I saw Rose leaning over to look at something. As I reached the doe pen there she was outside licking her son. I started drying him off and within a couple minutes she pushed out her doeling. It was the first night of horrific mosquitos. Luckily I had just made up a spray bottle of essential oil repellent and rubbed it allover Rose, especially her udder which had twenty or more mosquitos on it. Dustin arrived in time to help get the kids to nurse.

Rose is an awesome mom. She has will not leave them for a minute. They have been staying in a small pen with water and fresh hay. Yestereday we made it up about four times to let them out and watch them. It is pretty crucial that we see the kids nursing well. They are still learning and it helps for us to angle the teats for them to get a good grip on. Rose is very patient with them. She stands still for them to nurse. Zen, our three week old buckling is very eager to play with the new kids but Rose won't let him near them, yet. I don't blame her, he is pretty rowdy.
We are so thankful that we have a doeling out of Rose. Rose has a lovely round wide udder. It has really matured over the last year and has the same shape but is larger, it is just huge. She doesn't have a name yet, but something with a Z (unfortunately). Zinnia, Zephyr, Zahara??? Maggie is due to kid in the next couple days so we will probably wait to see if there are any more doelings to name. I think the buckling would make a nice Buck if anyone was interested. We were talking about keeping one intact buck in case anyone calls midsummer wanting a buck. So we will see...

On top of it all

Avery is pretty proud of her new found skills. At seven months she is pulling herself to standing. At first she had no fear and would let go of whatever she was holding on to and would just try to walk away. When she falls she cries so hard, not because she is hurt but rather because she is mad. She is starting to walk around the chair or couch while holding on and has realized that she can't just let go like she wants to. As of last night Avery's first tooth broke through the surface. She has has a low fever and has been real fussy the last couple days. I haven't been sure if it is just from teething or if she has the same cold that is affecting Noah.
This is not what it looks like outside anymore. I took the following pictures about two weeks ago. In the winter our walks are confined to the driveway and along narrow trails leading from the house up to the bucks and chickens and further up to our does stall. Walking off trail is not something I do unless I'm rescuing a determined child or other animal escape, although the later tend to have more common sense and also stick to the paths. The goats and chickens do not like snowy feet. Imagine Noah's delight when one Spring day he realized that Chana was running across the surface of the snow without falling in. He ventured off the path and sure enough, he too could run around anywhere he wanted to go. The way the snow was melting the top had compacted and formed a firm crust. We larger beasts; Dustin, I and the goats were too heavy for this revelry but Noah and Chana enjoyed their freedom thoroughly. We had a great time watching them, and everyonce in a while Noah would fall in and call for help. He learned to roll out and away from the hole before standing up again.

"This is pretty cool mom. I'm on top of the snow. You can't stand on top of the snow!"

Runnin around and around
Oops. As the week progressed Noah fell in more and more. His boots were and still are constantly wet inside.

It's Summatime!

I've been meaning to have a post titled 'Spring is Here!', but it has been so long since I've posted last that it is now summer. Some parts of the world may consider our weather still spring like, but not in Fairbanks Alaska. Eighty degree temperatures equal summatime! We've set record high temperatures over the last few days. I am sun kissed. I had forgotten the unique sun on skin smell. I can't describe it; salty but sweet... pleasant, sunny. I would not be inside now if my kids were not sick. We spent most of the afternoon on our south facing deck. It is a little tricky trying to stay in the sun while at the same time keeping the kids in the shade - it was that hot! The juxtaposition of snow and heat is delightful. On my evening walk tonight the air was a balmy sixty degrees, all around I could hear rivers of water, pouring off the hillsides. The light breeze was warm but would change to cool when the wind blew over large areas of remaining snow. Here in the interior we generally don't see eighty degrees while there is still snow on the ground. Yesterday there were just a few bare spots of ground showing, mostly on our trails and driveway. Tonight there is more earth showing than snow remaining.

So I know you are wondering about all these cute chick pictures... where do I begin? Well Honey (our broody hen) was due to hatch her clutch of eggs on Sunday. We were beginning to think the worst when finally on Monday afternoon there was a little hole in one of the eggs. I kept checking on it and was growing impatient. Most chicken authorities agree it is best not to help the chicks hatch out of their shells. Well, I couldn't resist. In a desperate desire to see at least one chick hatch I gently enlarged the hole from the size of a small bean to that of a quarter, then set it back under Honey. Within a few hours the chick was completely out and dry. Tuesday morning there were three chicks hatched. I opened the two eggs that had not hatched and there were chicks inside that had died probably just within a few days of hatching time.
Here is our first chick of the year and our first chick ever hatched here on the farm by a broody hen.


Honey is pretty thorough about keeping all the chicks rounded up and underneath her at most times. The picture above is from Tuesday afternoon, so the chicks were barely dry. I pulled them out. She looks a bit overwhelmed, "whats that?!" It is her instinct to protect them and care for them, but she is a first timer and feeling them under her and seeing them moving around in front of her are two different things I'm sure.
I got a call on Monday letting me know that half of our chick order from Whitmore Farm was on its way. By Wednesday morning they still had not arrived so I was getting a bit worried. They finally flew in on the Wednesday afternoon. Thirty Welsummer chicks. Four didn't make it, so that is a little over ten percent. Not bad considering what they went through to get here. So below are a couple photos of the Welsummer chicks.

In the right hand corner are four red sexlink chicks that we had purchased from the feed store last week. They seem to be getting on alright. Tommorow a friend is coming over to help me sex and divide up the Welsummer chicks. We are only keeping about ten for ourselves.