Homestead Update

Well, I know I'm overdue for a post, but I wasn't planning on posting tonight, but I saw your comment Ginger, so this is for you :) 

As those you who are local know, we've had the craziest spring ever - with winter weather and snow up until a couple weeks ago and then we've had seventies and eighties all this past week - just craziness. So, I'm getting the garden in later than ever. I spent all last week hauling wheelbarrows of compost up a soggy muddy driveway and up into the garden. One afternoon I managed to slip in the mud and the wheelbarrow full of compost I was pushing up hill fell back onto me, bruising my arm and neck- badly enough that I had a pretty stiff and swollen neck for a couple days. Then, the following day I was checking on the bees, wearing a tank top and skirt and I got stung by an angry guard bee on my already bruised and swollen neck. Needless to say, I didn't drive any where for a couple days, and I'm now suiting up.

As you can imagine, I've been in much of a panic where the garden is concerned. Thankfully my mother-in-law came up for a few days and has been spending her day with the kids and I've been able to plant from morning till night. As of today I was down to flowers, medicinal herbs and perennial re-arranging. However, we are putting in a new garden this year in the old buck pen that we have been clearing out. Some friends dropped off a tiller tonight and D is going to till about a thirty by thirty patch of ground that has had ducks, chickens, geese and bucks on it for the last five years- so we are talking fertile ground. I was going to put heavy feeders here, but then decided to put my heat lovers in the top garden. I'll be planting brassicas, beets, carrots and potatoes in the new garden.

In Goat news, Xanadu kidded. I don't have the heart to go into the details - but her first kid was upside down with it's neck back and I ended up calling the vet (crying) for the first time since my first kidding season. (Yep - I have the worst kidding luck ever.) We lost the first doeling - two for two this year - I've been feeling pretty down about that. On the upside, the second doeling was in the correct position and is healthy, strong, beautiful and sweet. Giving us two doelings this kidding season.

  Here is Denali

Wild Roots Denali :)

Avery and I planted her garden yesterday. She planted three corn plants, three sunflowers (two of which are red), six snapdragons, three cherry brandy rudbeckia, one cabbage, one broccoli and three strawberries. We have yet to plant some red zinnias, which I started from seed but the aphids got - so now I need to buy some - cause I promised my girl red zinnias.

We currently have fourteen Cornish Cross in the house - and as you might be asking why not fifteeen, as D told the lady at the feed store, "my wife said fifteen was too many." There are also eight Welsummers keeping them company - all of which are ready to head outside. There are twenty some laying chicks in a protected outdoor pen. Daisy and Dilly are in a chicken tractor, but they are fast outgrowing it - so D is making me a special Goose tractor - which I'll share with you when it is finished. So far these are the most personable geese we've had. They follow us all around the property. For a while I was able to crouch down an call them within arm reach, but now they've learned that I'm going to pick them up and put them away - so they've gotten harder to catch.

Happy Greenup! Happy Planting! Happy Summer!

Zinnia's third freshening and kidding story

Zinnia went into labor on Tuesday night and kidded Wednesday afternoon; day 149 of her gestation. This kidding was much anticipated by myself, given that she has not been able to kid without assistance yet. I've written about all the uterine toning herbs I've been giving her in hopes that she could do it on her own this time. As much as I wanted to give her a chance to do it herself, I ended up going in once again as her labor seemed to be sporadic and again, not progressing as it should. When I went in I found two front legs upside down, no head. The kids were in the same position as last year with their necks turned back alongside their bodies - which has got to be the most frustrating and problematic kidding position and I just dread it.

As the kid was upside down, the neck was down to the bottom left and I couldn't even reach the head. I was trying to get my hand on the inside of the neck to pull the head around but just couldn't. I ended up panicking a bit and just pulling the kid out with the neck still turned back. It was a buckling and he was very weak. I revived him with cayenne tincture on his gums and chest and lots of rubbing and determination. The second and last kid was in the exact same position as the first and I couldn't get that head turned either. At some point I just don't care if the kids make it or not,  I just want them out and I want the doe to be ok. Although once they are out I wish I'd taken more time to try. I don't know why I haven't invested in a head puller by now, but it is on the list for next year. 

The second kid was a doeling and was in good shape.

 Zinnia and her doeling, Dahlia, still a bit wet but standing.

Both kids, buckling on left.

The buckling was alive but not gaining strength very well. I had to pry his mouth open to squirt milk down his throat. For a while he seemed to be doing better and was starting to suck and nurse with help. I limped him along for two days before bringing him inside to nurse him, but he died on Friday morning. My guess is that something was damaged internally from the rough lengthy kidding. I had given him cayenne tincture several more times and it would give him a kick start but then he'd start to peter out again. So once again, Zinnia has one doeling to care for.

I'm beginning to think I have the worst kidding luck ever; in the past six years I've had three kiddings where the first kid or kids were upside down with their heads back, but then as Zinnia has been the culprit the last two times, I'm beginning to think maybe there is something wrong with her; maybe the shape or size of her uterus makes it prone for kids to be in the wrong position? I don't know. But I do know that I am not breeding this doe again. I want easy kidders. I don't even feel comfortable selling her to anyone. She is a beautiful doe, make lovely babies, she is a good mom and a good producer, but that is all the positive I can say about her.

I'm planning on milking Zinnia for a few months or more. I have Zinnia's doeling Clary, from last year and she is beautiful. Dahlia looks like she is also going to have lovely conformation as well. There is part of me that wants to keep the Rose/Zinnia line in the herd, but I am reluctant to keep kids out of a doe with kidding issues. I'd really hoped that Zinnia would impress me with an easy kidding, but it was not to be. When the kids are in a difficult position like that they cannot come out on their own. I'd like to think that if they were in the correct position she could have done it on her own, but I'm not keeping her around long enough to give her another chance, she just isn't a friendly or sweet enough doe. 

Fortunately my next doe to kid is Xanadu; who has kidded four times and never had any difficulties - with the exception of her first kidding where she had a big buckling head first and it took the vet to get him out as I was inexperienced at goat midwifery. Xanadu is the sweetest most wonderful goat. The entire herd will be browsing in the woods, but Xan will be wherever I am. Over the years Xan has had seven bucklings and two doelings, one was Avalon who is a wonderful goat that I sold recently. I've always wanted Xan to have a doeling that looks like her - she has had three bucklings that have had her coloring. She is due May 19th and is huge already. She has had triplets her last two kiddings. I'm hoping for strong healthy kids and an easy labor.

Meeting the new goat kids

Avery and new wobbly doeling.

doeling in front, brothers in back.

Flashy buckling left side.

Right side.

Can we keep her mom?

Can we keep her mom?

Xanadu dry this year

Looks like Xanadu will not be having kids this spring...bummer. She was due March 28. We had a feeling a week or two before she was due that she wasn't looking like she was going to kid anytime soon. You can't always tell by looking at goats whether they are expecting or not. A couple of my goats do seem obviously pregnant. I was hoping that maybe Xan just had one or two kids. She is wide through the middle but I think that just means that her rumen is well developed and in good working order. According to Molly (Fiasco Farm site), if the does are wide and big bellied they say that they are in "good condition" or if they are really big but not pregnant they are in "very good condition". I guess that it the case with our Xanadu, she is in good condition. Last fall when I bred Xanadu I had been pretty sure that she was in heat but she wasn't too receptive. I attributed her unsubmisive attitude with the buck to her recent move up and dominance in the herd. She use to be my most gentle submissive doe but after the birth of her son she started picking fights with the other does and moving up in the herd. This winter I haven't been able to tell if she or Maggie are top doe. I did mark on the calender that a week after I'd bred her it looked like she came back into heat, but I never noticed her come into heat in December or January, but those are more challenging months to notice heat cycles because it is so cold and we don't spend a lot of time with the goats during those months. I am disappointed that we will not be having any chamoisee kids this spring. I've been dreaming of a little chamoisee doeling. Xanadu is a great milker too, she is everyone's favorite goat to milk because her teats are so big which make hand milking easier than smaller teats. I feel a little cheated now that I've been feeding her so well, and she is not due to kid and provide us with milk. Kinda like she is living for free and not paying rent, but it is completely my own error. She is certainly taking advantage of the situation by letting the expecting does (who are at an awkward disadvantage) know who is boss, and she doesn't let them forget it. So here are some photos of Xanadu and her buckling last spring. Breeding earlier in the fall has it's advantages, one of them being that if the doe doesn't take you have lots of time to notice. So at this point I am planning on breeding Xanadu first thing in September.


As you can see from the pictures Xanadu is an attentive mother, always close by her son. I never worried (as I do with Xoe) that she was going to be too rough with him, or not let him nurse. Rose and Maggie were also great moms and they are due May second and May ninth. I thought I was going to have to make some difficult decisions trying to decide which doelings we were going to keep this year, but it looks like we'll be lucky if we get two. If Rose and Maggie each have a doeling we will be keeping them both, if one of them has more than one doeling we will probably sell her, unless there are only two total. We are limiting ourselves to two doelings a year, no bucklings whatsoever. We've got to have some restrictions or we would quickly find ourselves overrun with goats.