Happy Holidays

   I hope everyone is having a great Holiday season!  I had a good Christmas, going to a friend's house for dinner that afternoon.  I spent the morning digging out from the 7 inches of snow we got, then barely made it to dinner on time.  
  Yesterday I spent 4 hours plowing our forest service road with first the drag plow, then the ATV and plow.  I got a bit chilled out there!  But, I'm very glad I did it, because it's snowing again today and we have a "winter storm watch" till Monday morning.  Glad I got a bale of hay yesterday, too!  Now I can stay home for a few days till the weather improves.  Next up is another batch of seriously cold temperatures starting tomorrow night and lasting all week it sounds like.  Oh joy, back to the solid ice water troughs, etc.    At least the sun is supposed to shine some, so I hope I don't have to run the generator.  

   John's nephew Matt got married today.  They should all be at the reception now having a grand time.  I made them an afghan, I hope they like it!  Maybe some day they will come out here for a visit.  I hope so!  

   It is amazing how fast this year has gone by!  As usual, I didn't get half the things done that I was wanting to.  But, the most important things got done.  Now I can be inside more and doing fun things like spinning up the cashmere that I kept to make yarn with.  I sold most of it as cloud to fellow spinners, but I did save some to make into yarn.  Now I just have to do it! ☺  I'll have fun dyeing some of that, too.  I'm not an expert at it yet, so it's always somewhat of a surprise what color or colors it is when it's all done.  So far, (touches wood) it's always turned out good, anyway.  

Well, have a great rest of the Holiday!  Happy 2015!  May everyone see their dreams come true!

A Perfect Day

 Here is Rocky, my new Akbash puppy.  He's 9 weeks old.  I got him a week ago Monday.  He's a cute little guy (soon to be big!)  He's already watching the goats pretty good.  I've only let him in with the goats a couple of times.  He's not quite coordinated enough to get away from the ornery ones fast enough.  He's been whacked by a couple of them pretty good.  So I'm keeping him out of the pens now, except when I'm right there and can keep the meanies away from him.
  Sam is well loved in his new home.  They are so glad they got him.  So that whole episode ended well.  Now Rocky just has to grow fast so he can help Nellie guard the goats.  It's funny, Nellie barely looks at Rocky.  I think she is annoyed that he is here.  She figures she can guard things just fine by herself.  If she was younger, that would be true, but now that's she's almost 9 years old, she is going to need help just about the time Rocky is old enough to be of some help.  As soon as spring arrives, I'm re-doing the fencing around the goat pens and making an alleyway all the way around the perimeter of the pens so Rocky can run around the whole outside of them to keep the goats safe.  That way he won't be stuck in one pen if something is threatening another one.  

This carrot I discovered in the garden when the snow melted off it last week.  I pulled it and another one I missed during the harvest.  A crab grass root was growing right though it!  I broke off the rest of it pulling it out of the ground.  Talk about a tenacious root!  

Today was one of those days when everything seemed to go just right.  The sun was shining so I didn't have to run the generator tonight.  I finally found a good source of excellent hay.  The animals all behaved themselves, and I had fun at the Alpine Weavers and Spinners Guild Christmas potluck today.   The only almost not perfect part was when I was unloading the hay.  It's a big square bale weighing around 1300 pounds.  It took a bounce, even though I was driving very slowly out from under it, and fell over against the dehairing room wall, and pushed the wall in a couple of inches.  I just about had a heart attack!  I was afraid the wall was going to collapse before I could move the bale away and fall on the machine.  That would not be good!  But, I got the bale moved with no more harm, and all is well now.  A scary moment though!

We've had some interesting weather lately.  Last week for three days it was 50° up here and a good 10 degrees cooler down lower.  I went to town on Friday and there was snow still.  We didn't have any up here, so I wasn't dressed for snow.  Then on Sunday I went down again with my snow boots, and all the snow was gone.  I was a bit over dressed. :-)  But now we are back to normal.  We have a couple of inches of snow on the ground now, and not much left down below at all.  It's colder again up here.   This week the temps have been perfect.  Mid-twenties during the day and upper teens at night.  We've had a couple of bouts of near zero temps to way up in the forties back to back.  That's hard on the animals.  I lost a yearling doe in the last one.  Not sure exactly what was wrong.  I don't think she was drinking enough water and got a blockage or something.  She went down fast.  That was a bummer, she had really nice fleece in a soft gray color.  I don't have many of the black goats with that color.

Well, that's all the happenings around here lately.  Seems there isn't ever a dull moment around here, something is always happening...

Changes again

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and didn't eat too much!  For once I was very good and did not over eat.  I felt so much better! :-)

Another change has happened around here.  I found Sam a new home.  He is a great guard dog for 4-legged critters, but he is way too friendly towards people up here.  Plus with his sister living right next door, it was too much to have him around.  Every time the neighbor would let her out, she would come over here and get Sam and off they'd go for the whole day.  Sam was gone two days in a row, and that was the last straw.  The neighbor has all of a sudden started letting their dog loose every day, and she comes over here to get Sam.  I think I have the fence all secure and that he can't get out, and he finds another spot to squeeze under and away he goes.  So, since he's no good to me if he's not here, I called a friend who works with animal rescue groups, and she found him a new home.  It's perfect for him.  He has a family with 2 girls to love, and they love him.  They have an energetic Standard Poodle for Sam to play with, and some animals to guard.  I think he will be quite happy there.  It's a relief to not have to worry about him taking off from here now.  Nellie has her confidence back, thanks to Sam, so she can keep the predators away.   She also doesn't like the neighbor, so that is good, too. :-)   Plus, with Sam's 1/4 Australian Shepard in him, his herding instincts were a bit too strong and he was biting the backs of the kids (goats) as he was herding them around.  I kept getting after him about it, but he wasn't quitting.  So, after some deep thinking, I decided it would be better for everyone if he wasn't here anymore.   Next year I'll get a full blood LGD and then Nellie will have help again.

It looks like it's going to be another winter of up and down temperatures.  We had a very cold week, then it warmed up again, and now by tomorrow night, it's supposed to be below 0!  That is rather hard on the animals.  I'll have a bunch of shivering goats out there.  I'll be feeding extra hay again.  We did have about 8 inches of snow on the ground, then it warmed up and rained the last two days.  Now it's almost all gone.  Our road is pretty icy.  I had the chains on going down, but made it home without them.  I had a big round bale of hay in the back, so with all that weight, I didn't have any problems.  I'm glad I plowed my driveway so the steep hill part was bare dirt/mud.  I really don't like having to put on chains.  It's not hard to do, but when I've got my "going to town" clothes on, I don't like crawling around the muddy tires trying to put the chains on without getting all dirty.  I think it's time to get some studded tires!

Well, that's all for now......

A short (hopefully) blast of winter

We woke up to snow this morning!  5 inches of wet, heavy, icky snow.  In about a month or so, I'll welcome it, but I'm not quite ready yet!  I have one last goat pen to get ready before it's all snowy.  This will be gone by Tuesday according to the weather forecasters.

I now have an Etsy store!  PNF Cashmeres is the name of it.  It takes a lot of hours to set one up!  I still have to tweak it a bit, and if any of you go on there and see something I need to do differently,  or some way to enhance it, please let me know!  Feel free to buy something while you are there, too! ☺  I'll be adding more things as I get them done.

I think I'm ready for winter, except for cleaning out the last part of the goat pen.  I still haven't got all the trees cut up into firewood from last year's thinning project.  There are a lot of them to cut up!  I'll be able to do some when this snow melts, but I'm running out of time....

I've had some interesting helpxers this year.  A couple from France, who were a good help around here.  A couple from Scotland were here also.  They helped us get a lot done in the week they were here!  The last ones of the year were from New York.  They did a lot, too.  Thank heavens for helpx!  If hadn't of had the helpers this year, I'd be so far behind, it wouldn't even be funny.  I didn't have as many helpers this year as I did last, but I did have 8 all together.  All were a really big help.  It is fun meeting all of them and hearing their stories.  Since I'm pretty much tied down to this place, I don't do much in the way of travel, so I live vicariously through them. ☺
  Someday I'd like to find a nice couple I can trust to stay here for a month and take care of everything while I do a big road trip around this country.  There is a lot to see right here in America that I've never seen.  My husband has been bicycle touring all over the country before we met, but I haven't been a whole lot of places.  A few, but there is so much to see!  I only want a month, any longer and I'd be missing this place and all my animals too much.

I've remodeled the goat pens some.  Now I have a pen to put the does I want to get bred this year in.  If they are separate from everyone else, I can feed them a bit more to keep them strong and fit for having their babies.  This year there are only 6 that will be bred.  I'm down to 53 goats, total now, and I don't want to go over 70 next year.


Here is a picture of Reggie helping me sort and bag the cashmere.  As you can see, he's a big help. ☺  It's been interesting having an indoor cat in here.  He's the first cat that's ever been in here, and he's getting into everything!  I didn't know this house had so many hiding spots. He does spend quite a bit of time outside, but at night he's in here till he's full grown.  He wasn't sure about the snow today.  He was only out for a few minutes and decided it was time to come in.  He hasn't wanted to go out again all day.  Well, I guess it's time for me to go out and do the evening feeding.  Now that daylight savings time has ended, it gets dark early!

It's been awhile!

Time flies when you're having fun, right?  I've been so busy this summer running this place by myself, I haven't had time to write on here!
There have been quite a few changes.  I got a couple of new cats, and mama and her kitten.  At the beginning of the month, a skunk came visiting and scared the cats away.  They were in the chicken pen in the brush and ended up running over to the neighbor's to the east.  Nobody lives there, it's just a junk pile of stuff.  A perfect rat breeding ground.  A bobcat was over there eating rats (I hope) and I'm pretty sure it killed the mama cat, because Reggie, the kitten, came back home a couple of days later at 2 am meowing outside the bedroom window.  I haven't seen hide nor hair of the mama, Sheba.  Sad, but at least I still have Reggie, who is a little mouse killing machine!  I keep him inside at night so he doesn't disappear, but he's outside most of the day.   So far this year I've trapped 80 mice! and 19 rats.  None in the house, thank heavens.  Most of the mice have been in the dairy barn, with some in the battery room.  I got an electronic rat trap that electrocutes them when they step inside it to get the bait.  I love that thing!  The rats can't trip it and get away.  It's zapped quite a few mice, too.  The joys of living in a place in the woods.  Dealing with wild beasts of all sizes.

I got a game/trail camera about a month ago.  I've got some interesting pictures with it!  The bobcat, for one, and rabbits, rats, owls, deer and some other creatures I can't see well enough to tell what they are.  I got the cheapest one, so some of the pictures at night aren't all that clear, but it's working pretty good, and I get to see what roams around out there on the perimeter of our property.

Sam is turning into a really good guard dog.  He's  almost 18 months old now.  He's friendly with people, but to a predator, or other animal he deems dangerous, he's all business.  He will even go out with the goats if there is something out there that they need protection from.  I found this out when there was a bear roaming around the neighborhood.  Sam went out with the goats without me telling him to, and he stayed out there all day with them!  Usually he goes out at first, then comes in and lays by the buck pen and just looks out into the pasture occasionally.  But, when there is a predator, he goes out and stays out with them.  He's also keeping the deer out of the yard and gardens!!  Someday I might end up with a LGD that is totally bonded with the goats, not me, so it will just live with the goats all the time and stay with them all the time, no matter where they are.  Sam is better than Nellie, he does actually pay attention to what is happening with the goats, and keeps an eye on them, he just won't stay right with them all the time.  I guess he does if it's really necessary, though.  I'm getting closer to the ideal. :-)

After ending up with 96 goats this spring after the kids were all born, I did a major down sizing.  Now I'm at 56 goats total.  I sold off the 2 yr old and older wethers, plus a few does, and a couple of bucks and bucklings.  56 is a good number.  Although that leaves me only 47 with usable cashmere next year. At least the dehairing will go faster then.

I got a new milk goat.  A 3 year old purebred Alpine.  She's a good milker.  Very easy to work with.  Now I have two good ones again.

I am finally almost done with the dehairing for this year.  Only 5 fleeces left to go!  Running this whole place by myself this year ended up having the cashmere on the back burner more often than not.  I'd start out the days with a project to do in the mornings after feeding everyone, while waiting for the sun to hit the solar panels so I could get to the dehairing room for the afternoon.  The project would end up taking longer than anticipated, so I didn't get as many hours in the dehairing room as I wanted to. I finally said to heck with it, and just concentrated on the cashmere for the last month and a half.  Now I'm making good progress.  John is home for a few weeks getting things ready for winter for me before heading back east again.  That has helped a lot!  The wood shed is very close to being full.  I will be warm this winter!  The solar power system is all checked and ready for winter.  So I will be warm and have electricity.  Life is good! ☺  Clean running water, a flush toilet, a warm house, a comfortable bed, and plenty of food, that is more than millions of people in the world have, so I am very, very blessed.

The helpxers that have come this year have been great.  There haven't been as many this year as last, but the ones that came I've enjoyed having here.  They have been a great help!

This year has gone by so fast, it's hard to believe it is Fall already!   It's going to be a cold winter around here this year.  Although I'm thinking it might be like it has been all year, warm spell, then cold, then back to warm.  Rather hard on the animals.  We are supposed to get well below 0°, which I'm not looking forward to at all!

Well, that's it for now.  Maybe I'll get to this more often from now on.  Things aren't quite so hectic now.  

Selling some goats

  I've got a couple of bucklings to sell this year.  I'm keeping the cream colored one, but the brown one and the red one are for sale.  $175 each.  All three boys are related, but the cream one is the least related to the rest of the herd, so I'll keep him.  Arthur and Hershey are both out of excellent fiber does and the buck is top quality, too.  Arthur is out of a white doe and buck, and Hershey is out of a black doe and white buck.  Spot is the buck.  If they weren't so related to my herd, I'd keep them myself.  They are so soft to touch!  Hershey is a stout little guy.  They were born mid-April and are weaned now.  If you are interested, I can send more pictures.

  It is July 20th and I have a fire going in the wood stove!  I think the rest of the country, and even the rest of Montana is hot, but we are only at 59° and it's raining.  I'm brewing some kombucha so it needs to be somewhat warm in here.  I'm glad it's raining, it's keeping the fire danger from getting high.  I sure hope my goat friends (and relatives) over in Washington are okay where the fires are.  I have a bunch of relatives and some friends over where the biggest fire is, and I haven't heard if they are safe or not.

Here is another view of Arthur.  As you can see, Fiddle seems to be in the middle of everything all the time.  He's the cream colored one.  He's the dominant one of the bunch, and Arthur is the most laid back one.  Hershey is very food motivated. 

I got a couple of cats from a rescue lady on Friday.  A mama and her kitten.  They've been fixed and all of that good stuff.  I brought them into the house and opened the carrier, and haven't seen much of them since.  They have gone into hiding.  They come out once in a while, but as soon as I move, back into hiding they go.  Obviously they aren't very tame.  As soon as they get used to here, they are going outside to kill mice.  I'm being over run with field mice.  I've caught 38 so far in traps, mostly in the dairy barn.  I had to put down my old cat this last winter and was just going to go without a cat, but with the invasion of mice, I decided a cat was a necessary critter around here.   Hopefully the two will realize I'm okay and am their friend and come out of hiding soon.  They run around in here at night, I hear them, but most of the time they hide.  I can't blame them, the mom had kittens in someone's garage, they called the rescue lady, she trapped the mom and kittens and took them immediately to get fixed, jabbed with needles and all of that.  No wonder they don't trust people!  Once they figure out I'm not going to do anything to them, I think they will be okay.  Hope that doesn't take very long.  They have a very important job to do!  

  
This pretty double rainbow was taken last week after a little thunderstorm we had.  I always think that a rainbow after a storm is a sign that all is well, despite how things look sometimes.  Oriental poppies and double peonies are so pretty!  The peonies are very fragrant.  Mother nature is showing just how perfect she really is with these.  They are beautiful.  Such detail in their petals.  The poppies are amazing.
Well, that's it for now....

Wild Weather and sick goat

 The three inches of snow we got on June 17th.  Yuk!  It flattened all my flowers except the irises.  Most of them have recovered, except the oriental poppies, they are going to be blooming on the ground instead of way up in the air.  The lilacs straightened back up.  This is the first year they have bloomed.  Every year they have either been attacked by deer or goats.  They were so pretty and smelled so good!

This is one of the irises I have in the front of the garden that are all blooming now.  They are so pretty.

I've had a stressful week.  Oksana got sick the day after the snow melted.  Thursday of last week.  I read all my books on goat care and still couldn't quite figure out what was going on.  I called the Vet and he came out on Monday and decided it was Vitamin B deficiency.  She was so wobbly and staggering around, her brain wasn't functioning properly.  I held her while he gave her a shot of b vitamins in her neck vein, then he gave me the rest of the doses to give out every 12 hours.  I did that for the first two doses, and didn't really see any improvement.  I read in Pat Colby's Natural Goat Care book that it should be every 6 hours and at a bit higher of a dose than the vet gave me, so I gave the rest at 6 hour intervals instead.  She perked up and started improving with that.  I also made up a "power" water concoction of blackstrap molasses, raw honey and lemon juice, with a tiny pinch of cayenne in water and squirted that into her mouth with a syringe.  Plus an herbal concoction I made up.  She is almost back to normal now.  I came so close to putting her down yesterday morning.  She wasn't doing so well at all.  But I decided to finish out the last vitamin shot, I had one left, and keep up the water and herbs one more day.  By yesterday evening she was getting stronger.  She only got stuck on her side once last night and is now able to get up and down by herself.  Her back legs still aren't quite back to normal, but they are close.  Her brain is back, too. A couple more days in the "isolation ward" and she should be back to normal.   I went out with the jar of power water and syringe to see if any of the other goats wanted any.  A few of them came up and sucked down a good dose or two.  I poured some in their water, too.  They had a choice of plain water or the power water.  I saw the power water was all gone when I went out later.

I sold 23 goats a couple of weeks ago to a guy over by Spokane, WA for weed control.  Now I'm back down to 61 goats.  Much more manageable number than 96!  That was just too many for me to take care of by myself and also do everything else around here single handedly.    It was sad to get rid of them.  I sold all the wethers, plus 5 of the does, and the dairy crosses.  The wether pen was so empty.  I had a good cry after they left.  Now I'm not really missing them all that much except for Lincoln.  He has been around here for a few years and has a unique, rather strange, personality.  Now Bart, Poppy, Lupine and Dottie's last kids are in there.  They look so small compared to the big wethers.  ☺

Sam is actually turning out to be a decent LGD!  He goes out into the pastures with the goats and stays with them, at least until they come back for water, then he decides they can fend for themselves and takes a nap.  I'll give him a little leeway since he's only a year old.  I think as he ages, he'll become more responsible.  At least he goes out with them, which is more than Nellie does.  If I go out, she will, but if not, then she just stays in the yard.   Sam is keeping the deer out of the yard, which is good.  I'm trying to convince him he should keep them off the whole place, but he's not prepared to patrol all day and night. :-)

Well, that's the excitement for now.  It's  rainy day so I don't have to water anything today!