Orphan Baby

 

Summer

This week I lost Sky, my favorite doe. 

Sky and her baby Summer. Photo from July 2025

At 8½ years of age Sky was my oldest doe and my best tempered. I really had no clue anything was wrong other than she had been quite picky about her feed for the past several weeks. That in itself isn't all that unusual, but then she developed severe scours and stopped eating altogether. I had recently wormed my goats so I added a coccidiosis treatment, vitamin B shots, and Nutri-Drench. Two days later she was gone. 

That in itself is incredibly hard, but worse, she left behind her 9-week-old doeling, Summer.

Baby Summer is able to eat well on her own, but I really, really like for them to be on their mother's milk for at least 12 weeks or longer. They seem to grow so much better that way. Plus, things born or hatched of a mother need a mother. It's the way things are. Summer is now an orphan.

One concern for lone kids is that they get picked on by the other goats. Fortunately, Sky was very firm that no one was allowed to mess with her baby, so they've accepted her. She gets butted around some, but mostly the others don't bother her. 

Only once has Summer cried for her mother and gone to look for her. I let her see and smell the body before we took it away. Somehow, animals have an understanding and acceptance of death. That doesn't mean she doesn't miss her mother, but she's doing pretty well anyway. Being a single with no other kids her age around, she doesn't have a playmate or companion. So she's mostly by herself. She follows the other goats but stays out of their way. 

I haven't tried to give her a bottle because once kids are used to the teat they refuse it. I'm making sure she gets feed with extra protein and calcium. 

I'm going to be sad about this for a long time. 

Orphan Baby © October 2025 by Leigh

at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Garden Notes: September 2025

  Rainfall

• 4th: 0.07"
• 6th: 0.33"
• 16th: 0.11"
• 20th: 0.36"
• 25th: 1.34"
• 26th: 0.03
• 27th: 1.0"
• 29th: 0.15"
• Total: 3.39 inches

 Temperature

• range of nighttime lows: 51 to 69°F (10.5 to 20.5°C)
• range of daytime highs: 71 to 87°F (22 to 30.5°C)

Garden Notes: It's been a transition month:

• Finishing the harvest for some things
• Seed saving
• Cleaning out beds for either fall planting or their winter rest
• Planting fall and winter veggies
• Starting containers of same to transfer into the greenhouse when the weather is colder. 
• Watering as needed because rain has been scant

Planted

• parsnips
• kale
• blue collards
• garlic
• lettuce
• turnips
• daikon
• carrots

Harvested

• okra
• yam berries
• sweet basil
• parsley
• muscadines
• cherry tomatoes
• onions
• green beans
• green peppers
• elderberries
• slicing tomatoes
• garlic
• field corn
• asparagus
• lettuce

Preserved

• muscadines, frozen
• elderberries, frozen
• okra, frozen
• basil, dehydrated
• parsley, dehydrated
• field corn, dried
• green beans & yam berries, canned

Pictures

Summer tomatoes making a come-back after a hot dry spell.

Summer green beans. They were late producing but are doing well now.

Spring planted Swiss chard. Something ravaged it over the
summer so that I thought it was completely destroyed. But
with the cooler temps and recent rain, it's thriving again.

Greenhouse collards planted about a year ago. These survived much
 neglect over the summer, but survived in a shady spot under a tree.

Late summer planted lettuce

Late summer planted daikon

Late summer planted kale

And a few non-garden pics. 

Lots of eggs! Mostly chicken with a few duck eggs. The little
 ones are pullet eggs from our newly laying Buff Orpingtons.

Brownie sundae with homemade goats milk ice cream.

So that's my garden at the end of September. How is yours?

Garden Notes: September 2025 © Sept 2025

by Leigh at https://www.5acresandadream.com

Test Fire for the Smoke By-pass & Stove Improvement #3

We had a test fire the other day to see if our smoke by-pass worked. Success! It's going to take some figuring out in terms of judging when the thermal mass is heated enough to close it, but that will have to wait. It's still too warm outside to heat the house more than it already is. But by opening and closing the damper we could make some assessments.

One of those assessments were a few smoke leaks in the mortar between the bricks. We noted these last year but waited to figure out what to do. One option was to repoint the brickwork, which involves touching up the mortar between all of the bricks. Dan wasn't too keen on this. The other option was to plaster the entire stove. This would deal with any small leaks and also give the stove an entirely different look.

We considered covering the brickwork with mortar last year, but I liked the look of the brick so we left it. Experience has an amazing way of changing one's mind, however. 

Here's the stuff Dan is using.

Structo-Lite. Dan found it at Ace Hardware for about $26 for 50#.

Structo-Lite contains gypsum plaster and perlite, has good insulation value, and is suitable for high heat applications. 

It dries to an off-white. Coloring is available to mix in, but I thought off-white was a nice neutral color that will go well with any color scheme. 

To get a cleaner edge on the corners, Dan found this trick on youtube.

His brickwork wasn't as even on the corners as he'd like, so the mesh pretty much evens them more consistently for plastering. 

So that's what's up at the moment. Two coats are recommended, and then we can have a second test fire. 

Test Fire for the Smoke By-pass & Stove Improvement #3 

 © 2025 by Leighat https://www.5acresandadream.com