RIP Riley

After all the madness we've suffered this year already with the loss of Miss Priss, two shipments of deceased chicks, two stillborn doelings and three more with ailments that we weren't sure they would survive, we've really needed a break from the 'cycle of life'. Spring is about new beginnings and of course you can't have meaningful beginnings without endings...but I feel we've had more than our fair share lately.

A stressful week on the farm seemed to be coming to a close with Lily being 'released' into the wild care of her siblings and cousins and Maxie's buckling miraculously overcoming his bloody expulsions. Wednesday morning, I was finally heading back home (I usually leave the farm Sunday night...) when I saw something on the road that made my stomach lurch. Riley hadn't shown up for breakfast that morning. That's not the most unusual occurrence, but it didn't happen terribly often. I somehow convinced myself to just keep driving, it couldn't be him. But by the time I got to my first turn my delusion faded away. I headed back...and confirmed my suspicions.

Riley was a wonderful cat - the best feral cat a family could possibly hope for! He made his presence known the very first day we brought the other three cats to the farm last June. We think he had been living under the house for sometime, but just hadn't seen the right sign from us to let him know we were cat people. Well, the full bowl of cat food brought him to his senses! We saw him on and off for months, sometimes going a week or more between sightings. He was very skittish and only came out at night to steal a bite to eat. But slowly, he became used to the rhythm of life as a pet (we thought of him as a pet long before he accepted his role!).

This year especially, we bonded with the rascal. We made all sorts of warm cozy beds for him during the absurdly cold nights...only to have him refuse to use them (proper cat behavior you know!). He went from only appearing at night, to hanging around during the day playing with the other cats in the yard. Mom and I both touched his tail as he slipped between the porch stairs to sleep off the afternoon. We felt that someday he would actually enjoy a belly rub. He even made a venture into the house once...and promptly sprayed the couch and was shooed back outside!

I feel that we gave him a wonderful way of life for the short time he was with us. He was a rangy scared critter when we first met him. He actually reached the point of being fat once (he did slim down after the lady cats in the neighborhood complained) and was obviously content with his life. He purred when he saw us and wallowed in the dusty soil in the yard with the other kitties. Many nights he waited for us by the gate to finish the goat chores and escorted us back to the house, meowing the whole way. He truly was a great cat.

We brought him home to a final resting place amongst the other sad losses of the year.

Maxie's turn...

Sunday evening, we noticed that Maxie, on day 155 of her gestation (normal goat gestation being 145 to 155 days!) was acting more of a twit than normal. She is herd queen and doesn't let anyone forget that. But that night, she was actually preventing the other goats from entering the barn at all. So after evening graining, we separated her into the kidding stall. Even if she wasn't going to give birth that night, we weren't sure if anyone would survive in the barn with her! In fact, the kidding stall gate didn't survive her behavior and had to be modified before we felt that she was truly secure in there! I set my alarm for every 2 hours and drifted off to bed. Mom had already crashed on the couch so I figured she was down for the count and I'd be the nightwatchman.

10:00 PM: (yes, I went to bed before 10...) Maxie looks annoyed in her 'prison'. Nothing seems to be happening and I think she might have given me the finger as I left the goat pen.

12:00 AM: Maxie looks more annoyed. She's facing me so I can't see if there's any action going on so I enter the stall. She proceeds to lick me ALL OVER. This is what moms do to the babies when they are first born. I realize that kidding must be close - and sure enough she is starting to have a bit of a discharge. I turn the heat lamp on, set my alarm for 1:00 AM and stumble back to the house. It could be hours still and I'm way too tired to camp out with her.

12:59 AM: "There's a baby, GET UP!" Huh? Mom apparently woke up and went to check on Maxie and saw a brand new baby, minutes after being born, in the stall. I'm not even dressed before my own alarm goes off!

It's below freezing out and the baby, like all baby goats, is soaking wet. I'm sure that Maxie can handle it herself, but I figure I'll help since I'm there. The two of us work to get the HUGE baby dried off. Turns out, he's almost 10 pounds - 50% larger than any other babies born yet! Mom can barely cram him into the grain scoop we used to weigh them! Since Maxie wasn't all that big, both Mom and I decide she is having a single one. Just around the time the boy is actually standing for more than a few seconds, Maxie's head suddenly jerks up and her eyes get a little glassy. She turns around and almost literally drops another baby with a single push into my lap. I take the hint and get the sac and the vast majority of the goo off before Maxie starts up her own cleaning routine. It's a little girl, "only" 6.5 lbs (normal sized that is!).



We went to bed happy knowing we finally had a normal kidding for the season. The first two were just flukes. All seemed well for an entire day. Well...Tuesday morning, the big boy had scours - runny poop. Not too abnormal, but his seemed pretty bad. And then it just got worse. I won't horrify you with the picture that I took, but I had to record the event somehow. His poop went from normal yellow baby goat poop colored (albeit runny) to probably 90% blood. And he passed a huge 'thing' which appeared to be a blood clot.

Ok, so now we have a baby dying from something and maybe it's contagious. Frantic searches online, rereading all our goat books, calls to the vet, posts on goat forums. All signs point to an unhappy outcome...but they are leading us in different directions to even get there! The vet says give this, the online goat experts say that will kill the kid for sure. The books say do that, the vet says that will kill the kid for sure. In hindsight, I'm actually somewhat glad for the rampant confusion we were faced with.

After the first horrible bowel movement, he had one other bloody one. And then...well, things just got better. One more runny poop - no blood, just runny. And then everything was normal. He's up and playing, nursing, acting completely fine. We went ahead and gave him a dose of grapeseed oil extract (big concentration of antioxidants and used for all sorts of stressful goat ailments) to be on the safe side. Next morning, you would never know anything had ever been wrong with him.

So I'm glad for the paralyzing confusion. Perhaps the antidiarrheal the vet suggested would have killed him. Pulling him from nursing on his mom like the books suggested may have done him in. And most certainly, 'culling' him for necropsy to see what was causing the bleeding like suggested by online goat experts would have been the end! We were at such a loss for what to do that the hours we spent agonizing over it just gave the little guy time to get better on his own. Whew.

Three kiddings down, all with 'incidents', and three more to go. Come on ladies, we need some easy days!

Happy Spring!

On Sunday we held a Spring Equinox party for our friends and family to come out and enjoy the beautiful weather at the farm. We weren't quite sure how many people would come but 32 adults and 11 kids later, we were exhausted! It was a blast having everyone out - especially folks that hadn't been here in a few months since so much has changed.

I managed to not get a single picture of the party, so hopefully someone else took a few and will send me some!

The morning was supposed to be spent working with volunteers. But visiting took precedence! It was a great time for the kids to play and for everyone to see the new babies. Lily the house goat was a huge hit of course.

Lunch was prepared using only produce from the farm. We had a pasta dish with sauteed kale, collards and broccoli with pesto made from last year's basil. The salad was entirely from the garden - lettuce, arugula, carrots, shredded turnips and beet greens. Oh, and of course a handful of edible pansies!

The afternoon was spent with more people showing up for the open house portion (the part when we didn't expect any work to be done!). People played horseshoes and on the brand new huge monkey swing in the East Pasture.

It was a fun and exhausting day. I hope we have good enough weather this summer to have another party when people can actually spend some time outside!

House Goat

If you have goats, it's bound to happen. Eventually, one of them will end up in the house. We've had ourselves a house goat for two nights now.

On Thursday, Mom headed out to the barn to check on Maxie and Shelli. Their due dates had passed and anticipation was high. Sure enough, there was Shelli in the barn with a fresh baby goat! A tiny little girl, practically the same size as Chicory when he was born. Shelli was as big as a house, so she knew more were coming. After a short wait, a second one, a boy, arrived on the scene. He was much bigger than the little girl but still didn't seem to account for Shelli's absurd proportions. While at work, I was trying to answer a few of Mom's questions with internet searches while she and Dale watched the birthing process. I read her the directions on how to "bounce" a goat to see if there were any more babies in there. Mom confirmed that all she could feel was soft squishy goat guts and no hard knobby baby bodies, so we decided that two just might be it.

About 5 minutes later, my office phone rang again. Another girl and a big one! Wow, last year we only had singles and twins and so far this year both have had triplets. What did we put in the feed?!?!

But after a few hours it was obvious that that first little girl was "off". Mom described it as her legs being bowed and she was weak. More research, more questions and more apprehension. I had a few ideas, but my suggestion was simply to call the vet. Well, the little one was whisked off to the vet before they closed and came home with the diagnosis of "contracted tendons". She was just a wee babe crammed into a tight space with two hogs and wasn't able to stretch her legs. So she just needs some time to get loosened up. Since she really couldn't walk and she wasn't able to nurse without someone holding Shelli, she came into the house.

We've been splinting her legs at night and letting her walk and stretch them during the day. She has improved tremendously in the two days since she arrived. She can stamp and clomp around the house and makes the most absurdly cute noises. The cats aren't so sure she should be allowed in the house and the dog doesn't know why she won't play. But all in all, it's been fun to have a house goat!

Meet Tiger Lily!

Antonelli's Cheese Shop

Yum! Chad and I just discovered a new gem in Austin. We ventured across the street from Mother's Cafe to have some dessert at La Dolce Vita when something more scrumptious caught our eye...cheese! Right next door, at 4220 Duval, sits Antonelli's Cheese Shop. They just opened last month, so don't feel like you've missed out on a long held secret!

The wonderful staff at the shop encouraged us to try ANYTHING we wanted. And we politely obliged. I was most focused on the sheep cheeses. I still haven't gotten around to milking Cat and Maggie, but I'm hoping to start that venture soon. I've had other sheep cheeses in the past, but why forgo an opportunity to try a few more? I settled on the wonderful Ossau-Iraty cheese from the Basque region of France. It's is superbly creamy with a little nutty flavor - supposedly a hallmark of sheep cheeses (I'm no connoisseur...yet!).

The store also carries some great local dairies including CKC Farms (goat cheeses) and Brazos Valley Cheese Co (the wonderful people who taught me to make cheese!). It really inspired me to get back into the art after being so down trodden because of the regulations. I'm now more excited than ever for the milking season to begin. Should be really really soon! Shelli was due yesterday and Maxie today. Come on girls!

Be sure to stop in a give this place a try. I'd love to have a local outlet like that if we ever do "go big". Support our local businesses!

Cheese Case at Antonelli's

From thrillist.com

Shearing Day!

Yesterday was quite an exciting day. Our spring lambs from last year were shorn for the first time. It was an adventure!

No more wooly coats for these guys!


Last summer, the sheep were quite easy to move from one temporary pasture to the next. I just grabbed a handful of grain and they followed me around like...well, like sheep! But over the winter, they stayed in the same pasture and got out of the habit. Now they would much prefer to explore the green pastures they are walking by instead of keeping their eye on the goal! So it's been a bit of a fiasco moving them. Yesterday, there were myself, Mom, Pops, Jascha, Chad, his brother and girlfriend, Dale (on his day off!) and Loretta. I didn't think it would take 9 of us to get 5 sheep into a new paddock, but I sure was glad everyone was there!

Once the sheep were securely in the smaller fenced area, the real fun began. A woman from down the road brought her clippers over and one by one the sheep were transformed. First up, Linden. He tolerated the process rather well. Dale and I held the sheep in position while the shearer and her husband got the wool off.



Afterward, Linden was hardly recognizable! He went from a huge fuzzy puff ball to a scrawny, rather absurd looking naked critter.



He was pretty unsure of the change at first, but soon forgot how silly he looked and went back to his regular nosy behavior. I trimmed hooves while the shearer worked...and Linden needed to inspect each and every subsequent sheep while they were being held down to make sure they were getting the same treatment he had!



Meanwhile, Mac and Ace lounged about and played while their elders were being "tortured". They had nothing to fear...but just wait until next year! Well, maybe Ace did get a little startled when Percy roamed a bit close, but other than that, it was just a fun adventure for the lambs!

A hard night at the farm

I haven't gotten the blog setup quite right to allow for multiple authors, so I'm posting on Mom's behalf:

Some days are best remembered instead of experienced. Yesterday was one of those - better in the telling than in the doing.

Rabbit, a first freshener and due to kid next week, showed signs of early labor around dinnertime so I put her in the birthing area of the barn and Dale, Loretta and I pulled up chairs to watch. Over the next two hours she progressed from mild agitation to straining but the process looked different from any other goat labor I had experienced. It was hard to qualify what was different and everything seemed to be okay so I ambled between house and barn with snacks and advice and even slight disinterest. Then at 8:30, as the temperature was dropping and the coyotes were tuning up Rabbit expelled a tiny stillborn doe. She looked normal and weighed in at 5 pounds, but she never took a breath. The birth had been odd with the baby presenting the crown of its head first instead of hooves, and the little body had been pushed out in one big whoosh of fluid. Rabbit nickered to it and cleaned it up but as soon as she turned her back to clean herself I wrapped the doeling in a towel and took her away. Rabbit got a handful of raisins and warm molasses water and went back to pushing. 20 minutes later another tiny form was suddenly spit out like a watermelon seed and flopped to the ground. This time I grabbed the lifeless form by its back legs and turned it upside down and shook it a few times until it sputtered. Dale and I helped clean the little buck up but Rabbit let us know that she was perfectly capable of taking care of that job. Dale and I sat back to wait for the expulsion of the afterbirth, the buckling to stand, and the first attempts to suckle. An hour later the kid still was not standing, no progress on the afterbirth and Rabbit was munching hay and wishing we would go away. We tried to get the kid up on his feet but he was too weak and getting cold. Warm towels, hot water in drink bottles and brisk rubbing didn’t seem to have much effect. So we waited. And waited. After 4 hours we felt things were getting critical so Dale tubed the kid and we got 2 oz of life-saving colostrum into his tummy. He warmed up and went to sleep. So we decided to call it a day and about midnight shuffled back to our houses.

At 12:45, just as sleep seemed to be within my grasp, the alarm clock starting flashing, beeps and buzzers went off and the washing machine came to a grinding halt. Then all was silent. Great - I would have to restart the wash in the morning and reset all the clocks. Then I looked outside and realized that the barn light we had left on was out and the ruby red glow of the heat lamps keeping all our baby poultry alive was gone - the world was completely dark. The computer that collects our weather station data had gone on battery backup so the light from the monitor allowed me to collect flashlights, get my dirty clothes back on and find a jacket since it was now below 40 degrees. I started over to Dale’s cottage only to be met by him on his way to get me. We came inside and started trying to groggily figure out what to do next. The phones were dead and we don’t have cell service at the farm. So we piled into my car and drove half a mile down the road to a little rise where we got a signal. The countryside was as dark as the inside of a cave - not a light twinkling anywhere except in the sky. So Dale and I, two worn out and disgusted “farmers” sitting huddled in a car on the side of a dark country road in the middle of the night were trying to find a phone number so we could complain about our plight. Thanks to my trusty iPhone I found a number for Bluebonnet Electric Coop and called it only to find that it had been disconnected. Doesn’t anybody update their websites??? Finally I found a number to report power outages only to give my name and address to a robot, who politely thanked me for my call and hung up. Click. GRRRRR.

Back home we started a fire and began filling metal buckets with ashes and hot embers. We were determined to keep our chicks, ducklings and keets alive. The cats were very amused that we were up so late and doing such interesting things. The thought of escaping to wild night adventures crossed their minds but they hadn’t gotten in their 20 hours of sleep for the day yet, so just went on thinking about it. Dale ferried the buckets to the various birds and I accompanied him out once to check the ducks. He looked over at the birthing area and exclaimed “another one was just born!” Sure enough, Rabbit had birthed another dead doeling, larger than the others, but she didn’t look right, and she was bright orange, even her little hooves. Dale and I just looked at each other thinking “what next”? That’s when the smoke alarms in the house went off. I had left the fire unattended and the spark screen open and all I could think was that if the house were on fire I would just fling myself inside and be done with it. The fire was quietly dancing in the grate but the alarms were screeching discordantly and the cats were all prick-eared and wide-eyed. Soon all was quiet again and Dale and I decided yet again that we had done everything we could and we deserved to go to bed. I sat down on the couch to collect my thoughts and fell fast asleep. Until 3:45 am when the electricity came back on causing lights to flash and beeps and clicks and alarms to sound. I awoke to the cats staring at me like I was purposely torturing them and would I please stop because they needed their beauty sleep - or else. I turned off lights, crawled into bed and actually got 3 hours of sleep before chores started this morning. Now why did I want to live on this farm???

Going outside and seeing the glorious sunrise, hearing an early morning chorus of coyotes in the distance and a stunning orchestra of bird calls, the sheep baahing in the back pasture, Percy crowing like he knew it was the best day of his life and watching the cats frolicking in the dewy grass I remembered - this is why I love the farm!

Rabbit is doing well but seems confused - just like always. The buckling is stronger but still not a normal frisky kid. The chicks, ducks and keets have recovered from our mothering. The cats have had their fun and are now are napping. All is well. Please let this day be terribly boring!!!

I just wanted to add that goat gestation is typically 150 days. Kids born 5 days early are surely going to survive. Kids born 10 days early surely won't. Rabbit went into labor 7 days early. But we are all rooting for little Chicory!