December
Whew! December is half-through and I am just now getting to the newsletter...
It
has been raining goat kids at SteelMeadow. 19 little "bunnies" out in
the paddocks with their moms. Hopping, jumping, running around the
sheds. Constant motion and then
they all get into a big pile for a nap. One more doe to kid out and we
will be done until March. Have one doe we are milking- our "emergency
milk" doe. She likes the extra food and special attention. You never know when you will need some colostrum.
Cows
are enjoying their stockpiled pasture. Each week they get .75 acres
more- should be enough to get us to the end of February. Glenn is
welding up some hay feeders. Cows and goats like to nest in the hay- I
hate seeing "money on the ground" like that... Talk about sweat in
those bales! That's food- not bedding!
Looking back it has been a great year- Hope 2008 is just as wonderful for all of you as I hope it will be for us.
Until next year~
Mary Jane
November!
2007
continues to march along, picking up speed as it goes. What happened
to June? Where’s September? The woodpile is full, the leaves are
falling- I guess it is
November… Neighbor Hubie has a great wood cutting saw on his tractor's
PTO. He cuts the trees and uses the "tractor saw" to cut them into the
correct lengths. He shares the firewood with his neighbors- cutting
more than he needs while clearing his fields. Glenn has to just drive
up and get a front end loader full dumped into the pickup. Stacking
the wood is easy!
October sped by- fueled by activities,
meetings and new farm “additions.” 4-H got it’s fall season rolling
and held a membership drive bonfire.
Games, roasted marshmallows and hotdogs on a perfect moonless, starlit night. Just like the good old days…
FarmFest
at the Springfield Expo Center was fun, I didn’t win any door prizes as
hoped, but did get great ideas, some gadgets and talked to a bunch of
people. The Missouri Dexter Breeders held their Fall meeting in town during FarmFest and that not only was an enjoyable social but was also very productive.
Savannah’s
4-H leader told us she had a gelding who needed a home. They have too
many horses right now, so we went out to look at him. Buzz will be 3
in March and is started under halter. We only went to look… really… He took to Savannah, she to him and Chet and Anna were kind enough to trailer him over for us.
So,
now "we" are learning about horses, building a round pen, picking up
accessories, etc. Savannah has not been around horses much and is
learning quickly- watching where her feet
are, how to move and not to move around him, etc. I feel like I have
stepped back in time 25-some years; all my previous “barn rat” days
coming back to life. Buzz is taking to Clinton Anderson’s DownUnder Horsemanship training methods very well. I know Buzz is further along, but I am starting at the beginning with him so I can be brought up to speed!
A
friend from Virginia came by; with her friend from school. Gave the
Missouri tourists a break from Branson- visiting the “SteelMeadow
Petting Farm” is enough to put anyone in a good mood! Enjoyed the
company, even if just for an afternoon.
Our bull Joseph just
isn’t that big a guy- never was and never will be. He is a
short-legged bull (under 36 inches) and we felt for our herd we needed
a non-carrier. After contacting several people, we decided Whistle R
Ace from Jim and Linda Smith’s herd was the best candidate. Ace is no
taller than our oldest, tallest cows, a deep dun (almost red) and very
well-mannered. Jim and Linda brought him over to SteelMeadow and we
had a “Welcome Home, Bull” party.
Baby
Beefers has a new hero and follows him everywhere. Zuu Zuu likes him,
and is often grooming him. He will have to wait until after Daisy
delivers before he starts to see any action- our heifers and other cows
have already been bred. That seems to be fine with him- he no longer
lives in the bachelor-bull herd (at the low end of the totem pole) and
is out in fescue nirvana with his own girls.
With the help of
our neighbor Herman we steered 6 calves. Herman has never worked
Dexters and was amazed at their docility. They still run and jump in
the corral, but do settle pretty quick in the chute. They just take
everything in. Good Dexters!
Can
the goats get any bigger? Precious here is huge but hasn’t started her
udder yet. Other first-time moms are showing signs of future kidding
and we will move the goats closer to the house soon. 15 will kid this
winter, and 4 more in March. We were able to sell 4 buck kids to a
neighbor needing (literal) weedeating. The 5th buck kid was picked out
by a friend. She liked his “hams…” We traded 1:1- our half-Kiko
buckling for her ¾ Saanen doeling. The little buck went immediately to
work with her does and I mean immediately…
He amazed her with his “dedication to duty” and he is only 6 mos. old!
She said even her older granny nannies liked him, which says a lot.
Goats are picky about their boyfriends. Her Buttercup is in with our
half-Kiko doelings, being bred to Pedro, the Spanish buck. Will be
nice kids. Buttercup comes from heavy milking lines- I can taste the
homemade goat cheese!
The garden is officially over. Frost hit
last Saturday for the first time and we had just picked the last of the
crops. Made some Salsa Verde yesterday- yummy. Had a bumper crop of
basket and birdhouse gourds- they are now drying. One gourd must weigh
40lbs! It will take weeks to dry… Pitiful walnut crop this year- we
have none to pick! That late freeze in April killed the fruits off.
Last year we sold 3 pick-up loads of walnuts- this year we see
practically none. Will let the squirrels have them, if they haven’t
found them already.
The turkeys are looking right plump. Wonder if I can lace their ration with onions, sage and some pepper??? Hmmmmm….
Until later- enjoy the Bounty of the Season!
~Mary Jane
October
Cooler days! Delightful nights! O! Happy Autumn!
September
went by way too fast. We received much-needed rain and the garden did
it’s Lazarus-trick and surprised us with field corn, tomatoes and even
watermelon after we had given up post-drought. Watermelon? In October?
 Betty Jean and "Piglet"
Attended
the Missouri Dexter Breeders Show and Sale and brought home a
“handsome” (as my mother calls them) cow-calf pair from Jim Bennett’s
herd. Betty Jean of Diamond and her unnamed bull-calf have fit in just
fine. Betty Jean is a bit upset with us now- we have weaned the calves
and she, more than the other cows, voiced her displeasure all night
long.
 Steers-r-us!
Also,
we picked up 5 Dexter steer-calves and will be offering them for sale.
We wanted one for ourselves, so we now have some for others. Did you
know that Dexter ribeyes are 15% larger than regular USDA ribeyes when
compared to carcass weight ratios?? Oh those clever Dexters; even
though they are small they still come out big. They are priced at $500
and will be ready for the freezer next summer/fall. You can finish
them (grass or grain) however you would like. These steers will be
grassfed only while they are here and raised as organically as
possible. Just received our hay analysis results and we are pleased.
Will not need to supplement-feed the cattle this winter- just our
stockpiled pasture and hay.
Two of the steers are dun colored
and fairly well-matched. I may start them as oxen and sell them as a
team. Will see how that goes- they are very curious now and not
skittish. Halter-training will tell me more.
The goats are
beginning to show their pregnancies. Had them in the corral and chute
to give them a look-over, and had one by her collar. She turned and
went the other way, and so did my left index finger which had hold of
the collar. Heard a sound not unlike that when you are jointing a
chicken, and I thought it was only dislocated. Nope- the middle bone
has 3 breaks. D’Ohhh!
The
housebarn construction is moving along. Interior walls are popping up-
it is looking like a house now. Not giving any sort of estimated time
of entry- we will move in when we move in. Now with my hand out of
commission for a bit, I ain’t much help…
Made a visit to
Houston. What fun! Some people go sightseeing- I go to grocery
stores! Reveled in the variety of goods and came home with culinary
treasures. Savannah was sent home with a fall wardrobe thanks to her
Grammy and is a (modestly) fashionable farmgirl. Savannah even went
ice skating and did very well for her second time out! Mom and Rumi
are the perfect hosts!
Looking
forward to Springfield’s FarmFest this weekend. A 3-day trade show
that has over 800 vendors, free parking and no admission costs! Door
prizes, etc- I feel lucky this year... Saturday night during the
agriculture extravaganza is the MO Dexter Breeders meeting, will be
nice to see our new friends again.
Until later! Enjoy the change of seasons!
~Mary Jane
Lupine shares a kiss...
September
Thank goodness that August is over and the days are getting shorter! Terribly dry and hot (it did
eventually become hotter and drier than last summer) to be replaced by
more humid, a little cooler, and generally damper weather. The field
corn, which had all but shriveled and turned brown, is now tasseling
and putting out ears… In September... Amazing what a couple inches of
rain can do… In fact, it is raining now! Not just drizzle, but honest
rain! Poor turkeys are yelping- they have never seen it rain like this
and they don’t know what to do! (Well, besides hide under the bushes
and deck-)
Turkey poult
Let
the does have the “spring off” and they should all be rebred now for
late fall/winter kids. Some are already looking “plumper…” The older
does have been producing kids every 8-9 mos. Figured a longer break
would let them rest and not “burn out” too quick. Looking forward to
lots of twins and triplets! The youngest does will get their chance in
November with the Spanish buck “Cosimo” for Spring deliveries.
Baby Beefers and Fan-C-Freebie
The
Dexters have done very well on the pasture- Baby Beefers is a chunk,
Freebie is growing like a weed and even Violet is looking “growed up.”
Joseph has been seen following heifers and cows around, chin on their
hip. They are being very “discreet…” Am hoping the older cows will
give him a break as he is a little shorter than they are.
Went
to middle Tennessee for our niece’s wedding. Was an informal family
reunion and we all had a great time. Saw family we hadn’t seen in
almost five years. Savannah had fun seeing her cousins, especially now
that there are six new babies in the family. The wedding was
beautiful, the weather pretty much cooperated and equally as good- as
was as we left it when we returned to the farm.
School is back
in session and 7th grade is turning out to be more fun than 6th.
Savannah likes her classes, the new “freedoms” of being an official
middle schooler, and is doing great in her studies. In the morning we
all walk the ¼ mile down the driveway (have chairs at the gate) and we
have a nice quiet time before the bus comes. Almost quiet, we take the
dogs too and Jasper is learning the “rules of the leash.”
Glenn at work...
Housebarn
is coming along; plumbing and insulation are going well. Windows are
all but in and I cannot wait to get moved. One day, one day. Not like
we are on the clock or rushing a deadline. Things will get done when
they get done. Springfield’s Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore had a
moving sale last month and we got some wonderful buys- wrought iron
security door (will make a nice garden trellis), an old glass-paneled
wood storm door (for between the pantry and the kitchen), a nice and
deep acrylic double sink for the pantry and the BEST buy- a “gently
used” Kohler deep double-well cast iron kitchen sink. It must weigh
120lbs! Everything was 50% off. Just love that place!
Rain is slowing and lunch time approaches… Glenn will be down soon for a break.
Until later! Think Autumn!
-Mary Jane
August
Word for the month: heat! But we have to remember, it
was hotter EARLIER last year, and for longer too. Also, has been
terribly dry. Over 6 weeks since we had any rain of consequence, which
means more than 0.3 inches. July totaled all of 1.56 inches for the
month… Hard to feel bad about the heat when humidity is less than 50%.
Had our first calf born to the farm:
Hammer’s
Little Bit calved on a Friday afternoon, just hours after she and the
other Dexters were hollering at the gate of the East Meadow “to be
moved closer to the house.” Yes, I speak cow… Thought it was odd at
the time that they should all be at the gate, “asking” to be let out.
Opened the gate and they all filed up the drive and turned into the
Rose Field. From there, up to another gate that opens to the alley and
when I got caught up with them, they plainly wanted into the
alley-way. Opened that gate and off they went. Once in the alley they
went into the two smaller paddocks and settled down.
Later that
day I went to check Hammer and saw her water must have just broke.
Went to the house and got some towels and told Glenn and Savannah.
When I returned, saw hooves presenting but the bottoms of the feet were
skyward. Hammer went down and I easily helped guide the calf out,
breech of course. Little Bull was shell-shocked and not moving.
Wiping, drying, hay-in-the-nose didn’t work so I picked him up by the
back legs and jiggled him, laid him down and did “mouth to nose”…
Positive-pressure ventilation… That did it. He finally started to
work his lungs and Hammer did a great job cleaning him off.
Hammer and Baby Beefers, a couple weeks later- see how much the grass has dried???
Had
to help get him going by bottle-feeding some goat colostrum and then
some of his own mom’s colostrum (thanks to neighbor Herman for milking
Hammer out). Vet said, “A breech calf, if it lives, can be a slow
learner.” Well, by the next morning “Baby Beefers” was nursing on his
own and a gained 7 lbs in a week. Watching him in the field you would
never know he had a rough start. Hammer had never had a breech calf
before, but is such a patient dam and was exceedingly tolerant of our
interventions that first night.
One of our guineas hatched out a
clutch, but when the keets were a week old she brought them inside the
coop to roost. “Great!” thought I. That night snakes took care of one
Silkie hen who had been sitting on a nest of guinea eggs and 9 of the
10 keets. Guinea mom then would lead the single keet hither and yon,
losing the poor thing in different places around the yard. We tried
bringing the keet inside but when it became clear we could not easily
raise a single keet, we put it in a small pen with our other Silkie hen
who immediately scooped up the keet as if it had been hers all along.
Momma
Silkie did so good, we got 4 broad-breasted bronze turkey poults and
within minutes she had them too tucked under her wings. Banty hens
will “mother” anything. The happy family is still penned at night (not
in the coop) but now can run loose in the yard to forage. We figure we
have 2 male/2 female turkeys and will keep the best pair for next
year’s generation. So far, guinea keet and the turkey poults think
they are Silkie chickens. They come when called and are very calm when
you walk among them. When the babes are a bit bigger they can go into
the coop with the hens, but for now… Nah…
Savannah
is ready for school, if only for the central air conditioning… She
says the best part of the Hawaii trip was snorkeling on the reef.
Pearl
Harbor and the Polynesian Cultural Center were also highlights, but the
trip was so fast, so full- it is hard to pick a favorite spot. Well,
the snorkeling crater was pretty “cool.”
Glenn
and I have been installing windows in the house barn. Floor joists are
in and we thought to put in the windows before we finished the drain
lines for the plumbing. Haying is done and we did get almost half of
the hay field cut a second time. Would like to finish the job, but
with the lack of rain it is soooo dry we are afraid to damage the root
base. Will most likely just let the field rest and stockpile for
winter grazing.
We are now well-versed in balers, sickle mowers
and rakes… Figure the amount of money we spent on equipment (sans
labor and diesel) means this year the hay costs us $4.50 a bale. Next
year, if we keep every thing going, that can go down by half (if I use
my own rationalization and farm-depreciation). Still a great deal even
though we learned about haying the hard way. Ag people are saying
already that there will be another big hay shortage this winter with
prices estimated to be 3x that of last year!!!
Picked 2 bushels
of elderberries which equals 25 finished pounds. Plucking the berries
off the stems is what takes all the time. The good folks from Ozark’s
HomeBrew Supply are sending me some winemaking yeast and other tidbits
after I called them asking for help… I am set up for ale, not wine.
From everything we have read, elderberry wine is supposed to be a
superior homemade variety that rivals some of the best sherries and
similar wines. Will see… Oh, and it takes up to 5 years for the wine
to properly age… Like it will last that long!
Until September,
Mary Jane
July
Whew! Our
second summer in the Ozarks without a/c (but we are thinking seriously
about a window unit) and my! How lovely winter seems! And how far, far away!
Have
been moving cattle and goats about, trying to get the best use of
available forage. Guinea keets hatched and we have sold quite a few.
Haying went well till the baler imploded- we were saved by neighbor
Herman who round-baled our remaining windrows. One cutting will do us
for the winter, but the clover and orchardgrass we drilled is coming up
nicely; with the extra rain we received last month (3x last June!) a
second cutting is looking favorable/possible.
Savannah enjoyed Hawaii- will get pictures on the website next month. When we have a bit more time...
July
has just up and grabbed us. The housebarn is going well- joists in,
insulation installed and drainlines in-process. Just no time to sit
and work on the newsletter last week! (or this week- looks like)
Stay cool, enjoy tomatoes and until later-
-Mary Jane
June 
Has
May flown by or what? Already summer is upon us and farm chores keep
us so busy we do not even know what day it is half the time.
We
are learning that prioritizing the “to do” list is a necessity, but it
does put off things that once done would be nice; like the house, for
instance. Fencing issues, planting the orchard, haying, and the ever
present “emergent issue du jour” seem to keep pushing the new house
back onto the back burner. One day we will move into the housebarn,
when exactly I do not know…
We found a great deal on used hay
equipment and the sickle mower, rake and baler should provide us with
years of service. Dividing the cost of the equipment by ten years,
then dividing that figure by about 450 annual bales (very conservative)
gave us a cost-per-bale that was hard to resist. (Yes- I didn’t include
cost of manpower or diesel but will be able to add that in after we run
our first cutting) Just picking the right time to mow, cure, rake and
bale in between seemingly daily rain showers is the trick! Having our
own hay in square bales should make supplemental winter feedings easier
and also cut back on waste from the big round bales we had last year.
Half of that hay ended up making the mulched beds for the corn. Will
we get more than one cutting this year??? Hmmmmm…..
Took a trip
to Houston, Texas right before Memorial Day to visit family and had a
wonderful, wonderful time. First time we had been away from the farm
for more than one night in over a year. Just needed a couple more days
to do all the things we had wanted to see and do, but that will give us
something to plan on next visit. Mom and Rumi spoiled us Ozark farmers
at "The Houston Ritz."
Also stopped by Fan-C-Dexters in
Navasota, our breeder from whom we bought our started calves. Brought
home 3 mature cows and 2 heifer calves (2 of whom are dun). We now
have 9 females and the one bull in our herd. All have great pedigrees,
personalities, and are a joy to behold.
 SJ Beggin
5
month old heifer Fan-C-Violet will be weaned and halter trained soon.
We expect Hammer to calve around Labor Day and that will compete the
calving for 2007. Nannies will kid twice more this year- end of
summer and again in mid-Autumn.
Savannah is now out of school so
her added pair of hands is wonderful to have around. Corn has been
planted, gardens weeded and chicks tended to. Catching and releasing
black snakes from the chicken coop is part of her job, and she enjoys
being our resident “Crocodile Hunter…”
"Crikey! What a beauty!"
The
pool has opened up and she is able to swim; her reward for hard farm
work! She is getting all geared up for her Student Ambassador trip to
Hawaii. What tales she will have when she returns!
Little
buck Prince Cosimo is having his shot at the does. Will give him 6
weeks then put one of the other bucks in for “clean up,” if needed.
Cosimo is the Spanish buck who grew tremendously quick and big- will
see if he can pass that on to the next batch of kids.
Prince Cosimo (white buck in center) surrounded by does
The
half-Kiko kids born in April will be ready to sell in
August/September. They are growing great and were seen the other day
up in a tree that leans over. Strange to see goats up above your head!
Have
finally solved the “mystery floral fragrance” we have noticed the past
couple of weeks in the absence of any visible blooming flowers… When
you walk in the woods or on the edges of the fields you get wafts of a
sweet gardenia/mimosa/rose-like fragrance but try as we might- we
couldn’t find any flowers. Finally, looked UP and saw the wild grapes
are blooming.
Until later!
Mary Jane
It's May! It's May! 
Figure we are about where we were a month ago before the big freeze hit... Everything
got set back in a big way- even "hardy" plants like blackberries, wild
roses, buck brush and fescue. Look like they had been hit with a blow
torch- wilted, brown, dead. But now, all is forgotten- green growing
grass, leaves popping out, birds singing. Spring has returned!
Cookie
and CupCake indeed graced Mrs. Meyer's website last month. Cookie was
their feature for an Earth Day "reuseability" wire release. Her broken
leg story made the internet and I would like to say she has become more
the wiser but no- fame doesn't bring smarts.
Found her yesterday with her head caught in the fence, just an inch
below the hot electric wire we put up to keep such activity from
happening. Turned off the juice, got her out and imagine won't be long
before "the other side" looks tempting again... Her paddock is lush-
she isn't wanting for food- she is just being a goat...
 Fan-C-Lupine standing nicely...
The cows all halter trained well- they only needed 48 hrs of tutoring.
The more submissive girls accepted things better than the two bossies.
Joseph was the caveat- the more time he spent being "trained," the more
"bull-igerent" he became. Realized it was an opportune time to get him
de-horned; something we should have done earlier. That done, we let
him loose. Figured he had been through enough. Our vet is wonderful,
does house calls and graciously takes with him whatever I have baked.
Trying out the new corral...
The
cows and older goats are enjoying the newly opened East Meadow. As
expected, they find a good spot high on the hill to watch the sunsets
while they ruminate things. Ticks turned out to be the Curse of the
Meadow. We quickly built a holding area with a chute so we could
inspect and de-tick as needed. Two of the cows (the bossies) will
stand quietly while you play "tick bird." Read that it will take at
least 2 years of diligent management to see a difference in tick
counts. Guess that means next year won't be much better.
Ticks, large and small, pulled from us... Bleh...
Getting
geared up for the end of school, haying time, carpentry and a trip to
Texas. (Do I see more Dexters in my future???) More about all this
next month.
In the meantime, asparagus is coming up- seeds in
starting trays are doing what seeds should do (wouldn't want to be in
too much of a hurry here)- ground is warming and we will be planting
corn soon. Time to go watch one of these May sunsets and see what the
cows find so fascinating...
Glenn feeding Ricky while the girls look on...
Until later~
Mary Jane
April! Spring is Here! Eggs are set! Kids are born! 
And the ticks
are here too... Had such a warm March that just a few days of 70's
brought them out. Bleh! THEN we get record breaking highs, 80 and 81,
immediately followed a few nights later by "soon to be record lows" in
the teens and 20's.
 Ricky and the mob
Have
added several strands of wire to make a total of 7 or 8 strands,
depending on topography, in the East Meadow. Much of the fence was ok,
but many parts needed to be completely tore out and replaced. Glenn
cleared a path along the fenceline, making it easier to run the wire
now as well to check for breaks, limbs, etc. in the future.
 East Meadow gate and our elm posts
The
Dexters and goats will LOVE it up there. The East Meadow is the
highest point on the property and I know they will all be up on the top
of the rise at sunrise and sunset.
 East Meadow looking to the West Field
March began the Spring kidding, and the Spanish/Kiko kids are adorable.
 Kids  Stella
All white like their buck with ears like beagles, but one has kept the long droopy ears of her dam- Cookie's little doe Cupcake.
 Cookie, sans cast, and Cupcake
Two
more does to kid and we will be done until the senior nanny group kids
again in August. Next year we will be kidding in 3 groups, not just 2.
The heifers and little Joseph are growing nicely. This month I will halter train them- a learning experience for all of us, I am sure.
Have had some good advice from Boulder Creek Farm and the halters made
by the Thomas's in Oregon are perfectly suited- they have had Dexters
for over 30 yrs. and know how to fit a Dexter's head.
 "Can we wear a hat instead of a halter?"
Fruit
trees are being planted as they arrive, still anticipating asparagus
next year. Mom sent rhubarb crowns which are already sending up
leaves. Mmmmmmmm, rhubarb pie... Have been too busy to "put out" the
garden yet, but last year we didn't get going until mid May and it did
just fine. Morels! We apparently are covered up in them here. Were
too busy last year, unloading the semi, when we moved here to hunt
them. Looking for a nice good rain to bring them out in bunches.  The cement crew came today and poured the slab and footers for the housebarn. This spring and summer we will be in shorts, in the shade, away from chiggers and ticks being carpenters! Imagine! Shorts, shade and bug-free!
Savannah
is getting geared up for her Student Ambassador trip to Hawaii in
June. Her horn playing amazes us (not a musical bone in our bodies) and
we don't have to nag her to practice. Got her a new horn, she started
on a rental single and needed to move on up to a double, and she says
"I just love to play on this horn."
 It is hard to for us to remember she is only 12...
Martins
are migrating up, some have stopped and checked out the gourds we hung
last month. Just love hearing them sing. Hopefully some will stick
around. Tons of migtating robins, bluebirds nesting, even
whip-poor-wills and owls singing in the night. Eggs are rocking gently
in the incubator, a mix between our partridge rock rooster James Brown
and our buff Orpington, silver-laced Wyandotte and partridge rock hens.
 James Brown, 3 years old
But- as we have only female guineas- their eggs are saved especially for hard-boiled eggs. PERFECT size!
Well, I feel ticks crawling everywhere- you find one (or five) then you feel them for the rest of the day... bleh! (Aha!- there's one...)
Happy Spring!
-Mary Jane
March- In Like a Lion!
March
roared in with a band of tornado-spawning storms; can't get more
"lionish" than that. Later that day the weather was nice enough, but
most strange to have thunderstorms in the pre-dawn hours.
Fields
are beginning to show green, snow geese have been flying north in huge
numbers- if we have seen this many go over us, imagining all the other
flocks is almost boggling. The does-in-waiting will be having kids in
pretty soon now, and Cookie's cast came off- her broken leg has
healed!!! The goat gods have smiled upon us~ I am sure the Mrs. Meyer's bottle, with it's residual geranium scent, made her feel better (goat aromatherapy??) and did a fine job of keeping her leg out of the weather while her terrible break mended- even in the sub-zero nights!
February's
market prices for goats were nice and high- should be the same in
March. Will have some buck kids to take at the end of the month.
February, March and April historically are the high-priced months in
the area.
Fencing, gardening, no-till-drilling of clover,
lespedeza and orchardgrass and work on the new house will be on our
March "to do" list. Ordered several fruit tees from Jung's and Stark Bros. Asparagus crowns will also be soon arriving.
All
in all, must say that Spring is right around the corner. High temps in
the 40's-60's and lows hopefully won't dive below 24 again until Fall.
More rain would be nice, both
January and February had less than 3 inches each month, including
melted snow contributions. Will see how precipitation in March and
April pan out.
 Time to get outside and get to work!
-Mary Jane
February... Brrrrrrrrr!
We
missed the ice storm that hit the rest of Missouri, mostly because we
are 300’ lower down here in the holler. We got rain, a touch of ice,
but that was all. Driving up the road to town was amazing- there is an
invisible line that defined ice-no ice and up on the ridge things were
worse than we imagined.
And,
to make matters worse, Ricky the Weather Llama saw his shadow, so we figure
another 6 good weeks of winter left. The fact that flurries
were blowing by didn’t help soften the forecast news.
The
rest of January went well enough, considering all that happened. One
pregnant doe, Cookie, showed up one morning with a broken back leg.
The injury did not break the skin but one could feel both ends of the
broken bone- snapped right in two. Vet was unable to come out as he
was getting ready to perform surgery, so we discussed with him a plan
of attack and carried on ourselves. Grabbing what we could- wood
window trim, VetWrap, hand towels, plastic bottle, margarine tub and
lots of duct tape later, Cookie was up and about in the “Hay Barn
Hospital.” Had to keep her relatively quiet and confined, but goats
are such social animals- the week she was in solitary greatly depressed
her. She ate less and less each day, losing weight. After her time
was completed in isolation, we let her back out with her mob. She was
a happy goat again! Eating with gusto, bonking heads with the other
goats...
She
can run with the mob on 3 legs and will prop her “peg” when she feeds.
Circulation has been good in the hoof of the affected leg, so we are
guardedly optimistic. The splint comes off in March, 2 weeks before
she will kid. February will be the longest month- for all the waiting.
The
“puppy,” nine month old Jasper, decided he wanted to play with an old
fishing lure he found. After it “bit” him in the lip, we had to get
wire cutters. Hard to do with a hundred pounds of yelping, jumping
dog, 12 inches of long pink tongue and 3 treble hooks dancing on a 5
inch lure- waiting to hook into something else. Makes you want to
carry wire cutters with you at all times.
The
young buckling born in November shows potential- at two months he is
now nearly as big as our year-old Texas does! He is already market
weight, but we will give him a go-round with some does later this
summer to see if he can indeed pass that growthiness on.
Hay
is scarce and prices going up. We were fortunate to get one cutting
done last spring and I won’t complain any more about its lack of
protein. At least we have some hay. Corn prices are shooting up as
well (don’t get me started about ethanol plants), but we have found
that cottonseed meal, at 41% protein, is a good protein supplement for
the lactating nannies. The calves and pregnant does are doing well on
their stockpiled fescue and between it and the aforementioned hay, are
pretty self sufficient.
Savannah
is up to “snow day #7” from the school closings. Four days were used
before Christmas, one for the January ice storm, and two so far for
this week’s snow and below freezing temps. She has one day left worked
in the schedule, after that future snow days will be added on to the
end of school. She is happily dreaming about her upcoming trip to
Hawaii in June to get her through the frigid temps. We just have to
remember is that come summertime we don't have air conditioning-
suddenly the winter weather doesn't seem so bad- just put on a sweater
and have some tea!
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
has put out their 10th annual catalogue. Based here in Mansfield, they
are growing by leaps and bounds. It is a wonderful catalogue, and
free! The story behind the company is charming- give them a call for
your own copy!
We
also attended a conference early in January at Tan-Tar-A Resort in
Osage Beach. “Computers on the Farm” opened our eyes to the world of
big business in farming and the unimaginable ways technology has become
“indispensable” on the farm. As a result, we recently purchased a GIS
mapping program that allows you to draw, map, and keep records on your
acreage. FarmKeeper is a
wonderful tool- we can now know exactly where to put our temporary
fences for our grazing strips, how much fence is in a field’s
perimeter, etc. I recommend it to anyone.
The
rest of February will see us getting a bit more done on the house barn,
a little more fence run when the weather is hospitable, and getting the
pastures frost-seeded with clover for better forage in the future.
Until later, stay warm yourselves!
-Mary Jane
January 2007
Happy New Year!
2006 has left us in the midst of many, many projects. We are still
clearing up fencelines, mending and refencing fields, reworking
buildings as well as starting on our new house-barn. October
brought us not only a break for the summer heat, but our Dexters up from Texas.
We love our cattle and cannot say enough about Neil and Maureen McCready/Fan-C Dexters of Texas.
In November we had our Fall kids born and they are growing like
weeds. One young buckling has herd sire prospects- weighed 11 lbs
at birth and gained 20 lbs in 30 days~ not bad for a Spanish lad!
Three of our Texas doelings we received in July arrived bred and
their kids (all does) are also thriving. The next batch of kids,
sired by our Kiko, will arrive in late March and early
April. For our older Spanish nannies, these were their second "batch" of kids for 2006!
2 month old kids at the trough
The Dexters are growing nicely and are enjoying "stockpiled pasture"
(we did not graze on this particular field after we cut it for hay in
early June) and are sharing the field with the other bred does, bucks and the
guard llama. Two strands of hot woven wire are keeping all in
within the allowed grazing boundaries, even the nosey-nose goats.
Early training of electric wire has its rewards! We hope to finish
refencing the perimeter of this field soon so we can add the nannies and their growing kids.
Fan-C Frieda and Fan-C Zuu Zuu
Stockpiling pastures certainly is the way to go for winter
feeding. What ease! We do have hay available from round
bale feeders (if they so desired) and give the cattle, goats and llama
a handful/token amount of meal in the mornings. This allows us
to check on them, pet them, and gives a bit of "positive reinforcement"
for coming to us when called.
Mixed herd
Until later,
Mary Jane
|
