The Worst Part Of Keeping Goats

Maybe I should have said, "one of the worst parts of keeping goats," because there are several unpleasant tasks which often must be done. Goatherds would probably mention disbudding, neutering, and weaning. Of the three, I think weaning is the worst. It's traumatic for both kids and mamas, and there is about a week's worth of crying and hollering.

Splash is now one of the big billy boys. 

Weaning amounts to separating the kids from their moms. In our case, it's only the intact boys that get separated, because once they become sexually mature at about 2 months of age, precautions must be taken! Some folks wean bucklings at 2 months old, but I've had problems with that (details in an upcoming post, "A Goat Mystery Solved"). Because of that I like to wait till they're about 3 months to wean, if possible.

The terrible day finally arrived for Splash. Lily's triplets are three months old and being the biggest and strongest, he was getting the lion's share of her milk. Not to mention he was doing the buck thing, which none of the girls appreciated.

Introductions in the buck pasture went fairly well. Neither Gruffy nor Caleb is a bully like Elvis was, so that helped. Of course there was the obligatory macho goat ritual.

They haven't actually been mean to Splash, but they give him a hard time about entering the goat shelter. For his part, I think Splash has done quite well, better than Alphie did. He hasn't backed down from the other bucks, but still cries cried for his mother and the other kids. Alphie carried on so that I fully expected a sheriff's deputy to pull up one day and ask if I was torturing children. But then Alphie was constantly bullied by Elvis.

I still have Zoey's buckling to separate from her when he's old enough, but hopefully he'll take it like a buck, just like Splash.

The Worst Part Of Keeping Goats © June 2014
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Baby Chicks, 2nd Batch

Our second batch of baby chicks hatched late Tuesday afternoon. This is the first time I've had two broody hens in one summer.

This Buff Orpington Mama only had four or five eggs, and it looks as though two hatched.

At least that's all I've seen so far because they tend to hide under Mama when I come near.

The hardest part is keeping the adult hens out of the brooder area because I have yet to build something more permanent than a temporary barrier of hardware cloth. Thankfully, they're only interested in food, and not in giving the chicks a hard time.

And our first baby chick? Growing up.

Baby Chicks, 2nd Batch © June 2014

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

Bedroom Remodel: Floor Done at Last!

There were times when I thought we'd never get this project done. We got the carpet last March but the job never seemed to make it to the top of the priority list. Finally Dan had some time off work so we were able to finally knock this out! We did it ourselves (Dan mostly) with the help of library books and YouTube videos. Here it is in pictures.

Tackless strips were nailed around the perimeter of the room. I'm not sure 

why they're called tackless because they had tacks poking up through the

 bottom to secure the carpet.

The carpet pad was cut and pieced to fit inside the tackless strips. 

Those pieces were secured together with duct tape.

The padding was rolled back to apply double sided tape to the floor. I'm
glad we did this because it kept the padding from sliding  around when we
wrestled the carpet into the room. 

The carpeting was laid out.

This is one of the two tools we rented, a knee kicker. It's used to scooch the

carpet over the tacks on the tackless strip. The hammer was used to press

the carpet securely onto the tacks, i.e the tackless strip tacks. 

A carpet stretcher was the other rental. It, of course, stretches out the

wrinkles in the carpet when securing it on the opposite wall. 

The excess was trimmed off with a carpet knife and a stair tool was used

to tuck the edges of the carpet under. 

And there you have it!

Still to install are the thresholds and the bedroom door. Not sure when we'll get to that but then I can show you my before and after shots.

Bedroom Remodel: Floor Done at Last! © June 2014

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