Dakotagoats

Looking in on the girls...

2012-01-24T12:25:00.000-08:00

I turned on the camera the other morning...checking in on the goats outside before I went out. It was pitch dark out. The camera has night vision. When the first image appeared....a chill ran up my spine. There stood 10 adult goats all standing shoulder to shoulder with heads facing toward the center. It was a secret meeting. Everyone standing and appearing to have a matter of importance..
I watched for a bit then remembered to turn on my sound...Did I hear right? Murmurs of Social Inequality...a protest movement or whispers of opposition to taxes?? Nope...all I heard was a loud heavy rhythm of snoring from over in the far corner. I think Peach might need sinus meds before the girls take matters into their own hands. I've always noticed that about Peach...she sleeps like a log and snores like a foghorn. Now, lately when I feed and care for the goats, I look at them all a little differently. Funny how an image can change your entire opinion.
Now to find a solution for Peach before they do....any suggestions folks?

Good Morning!

2012-01-23T06:09:00.000-08:00

Heading to work and making ready for Tax Season...I can do it...I can do it!

Soapin fever...

2012-01-15T09:44:00.000-08:00

my son just had a birthday! I gave him tools. He made me soap molds with his own little hands!

I am very excited. So excited that I think I'll be having soap overload and I might just fill up that soap rack he also made me for my Birthday!!

I was so anxious to unmold these and slice that when I checked on them just 10hrs later they were solid and ready...

In the years when I stayed home with my children when they were young, I decorated cakes. Lots of cakes , and that supplemented our income. I think now I've been able to use that practice on soaps and while they look totally edible, I won't be eating these. I needed to find an outlet for my need to make scrumptious things...as my waistline has a mind of its own. The boy is making me some sort of tube holding molds that I can add circles and designs into my soap logs. I think this is just the start of a very fun year of 2012 Markets.

I have lots of new essential oils and am not afraid to try new natural color ideas. Gotta go...the soapin fever is taking over..

I like even numbers!

2011-12-30T06:02:00.000-08:00

I just do...so I welcome 2012 with all its surprises, happiness and excitement! Where did the last 12 years go as I was just listening to all the hubbub about the year 2000!
This new year is the year I am getting my new barn. I have the plans and I have the ground work done. It'll be 36 X 54 with an 8ft porch on one side. I want the new half wall panels on the south that allow the sun to shine through and I have it planned for the front 12X30 to have a nice office, kitchen (for soaping)...I am pretty darn excited about it. Funny what makes us happy. I'm still deciding on those little extra doodads on the roof. For the price of them, I could add air conditioning...soo...those are on the backburner for now. Course my doors are going to be in different locations, but its pretty similar in design. I will drive my used vehicle until the wheels fall off to get this project underway. I've already got the ideas on the kitchen/office/apartment...that I dream about. My goats will enjoy and a few cattle will get the special treatment during the height of a SD blizzard. Its my goal for 2012 and I just think it might get here!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T08:54:00.001-08:00

The grass is still showing and the forecast says 50's!!!??? Hard to believe when just a Christmas ago it was this...and yes...we were snowed in for that weekend. This year I think we'll go fishing for a bit. Crazy weather but I predict we'll make the best of it!

Because I like her!!

2011-12-21T10:58:00.000-08:00

I am tooting the horn for a fellow soap maker, Laughing Duck Farm who makes amazing everythings! Someday I hope to purchase some of her "future" for sale angora glove/mittens!! Her soaps are gorgeous and crazy affordable. Also, she is one of a kind, probably about the kindest and most honest soul you could know. Go to Etsy and get yourself that Christmas present!

p.s.
homemade soap is highly addictive..I'm just warning you...

seems all I have to do is....

2011-12-07T04:30:00.000-08:00

try and do it myself. Then my son (mechanical engineering graduate) who came over and inspected my attempt at constructing kidding stalls sends me ideas on how to construct proper take down, sturdy panels for kidding stalls. I expect him on Saturday...I'll take all the help thats offered. This ole girl isn't too slow...not slow at all! (wink) Note the diagram he emailed me for a proper stall. p.s I am baking cookies!

I need a nudge....

2011-12-04T06:31:00.000-08:00

I also need a helper...a strong one.

Seems I put off that cleaning out and prepping that goat barn area all summer. I mean the serious cleaning..deep and reconstruct. I can do it..I can do it. Just wish I hadn't waited until it was 25 degrees out and a 30mph wind. So with my second cup of coffee inhaled and my thermals, out I go. Pictures later...I HOPE!!

Maybe if I play some Christmas music?!

Rudy..

2011-11-26T06:16:00.000-08:00

Sure looks nice and friendly now doesn't he? And he is, just a little too spunky to be able to stand beside him and scratch his neck though. He taught me a few more lessons on keeping a bull just recently and I'll share...
Rule #1...Never scratch or ever rub their heads. I touch them lots when they are babies but I never ever scratch or rub their heads. Heads are what get you when your not looking...even if they're in friendly moods. When they aren't in pleasant moods..they push, butt, walk over you.

Rule #2..Be the Boss! (but keep solid steel fence between you)

The Story
I decided it was time to sell a few calves. I sorted calves about a month ago and weaned them. I also put the Bull in with them, since he needs to learn to be apart from the herd for times. He liked it..grain delivered every morning and evening. I liked it because I could walk with the girls and check up close how all my girls handled the Summer.
Now for the hard part, load the calves without loading that Bull. I have several pens that I can sort them into, but the spoiling them morning and night with grain only made the Bull more convinced that I was indeed the Grain Fairy. He loved me and kept me in his sight at all times. He was like glue. My Son had already left for school and it was early morning...just light enough to see which ones were steers and heifers. I wanted to get home early the night before and at least have them sorted but the Sun set before I got home. All had to be done before I headed to work. I thought about calling my other Son down the road...but it was awfully early and I really need to do these things myself.
So, I take grain to the cows in the pasture and lay some on the hay for them. I run down to the corrals and by then the Bull is acting up. He is at the gate and had been running around in the pen pretty excited. Kicking , twirling, charging...you get the picture. I opened the panel to sort him out of the pen area and let him back in with the Cows. He walked to the open panel and head down and tail snapping he skidded around it thinking I was playing a game. I holler like a sailor and sounded like I meant business...all the while my legs are starting to tremble. I swung it wider and get behind the flimsy rail to entice him to go on...run on out now. He finally sees the open path and out he goes but twirls around and stands ready checking me out. I crawl over yank it shut and say " Get now". I sounded tough so he turned and hopped skipped and kicked his heels all the way up the hill to where the girls were. He saw the large round bale (1200lb) that I had just pushed into the lot. He rammed it, slammed it, pushed it over and trampled it. Then he put that head of his down and did that low bawling growl that Bulls are famous for. He showed it alright. He also showed me. Keep him in view at all times. Don't act intimidated but be smart.
I went back to sorting the steers and miraculously had them loaded and locked in the trailer. I went to the house to get ready for work now.
When I took off my shoes I stood there and then I felt it. My knees were still shaking, my heart was still pounding and my spine was ready to crumble. But I did it and I was still patting myself on the back when I backed into the loading chutes at the Yard.

I have decided that Rudy is a gem but he will be sold this next year. I think this ole girl can handle cows just fine, but Bulls are not my thing. I am very anxious to see what I get for calves from him but this next year I have them bred to my Stylish/alias Gigilo. Another bull I hand raised. He was registered Angus and he was a Beaut! He just knew his job too well and I couldn't keep him home. He traveled. He just took fences with him.
Rudy will be used for this next year and by Fall he will hopefully go to someone who lets him be a Bull for a few more years.
Life is hard sometimes and while I make sure all my livestock live happily and are easy to handle..I will not be foolish keeping Bulls for long. I can rent/lease a Bull for a time and that's good enough for what I need.
Now, next I'll have to show you what a headstrong Buck can do to a panel. Testosterone is certainly a powerful thing. I just know I CAN handle that Buck without my knees shaking me apart. Pretty sure I can anyway...and I gotta show you that fence!!

Time flies by...

2011-11-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

Now he's taller than me and the little squirt is in 4th grade or...is it 5th? Yikes these grandkids grow up fast!! Still just as cute as ever and every time I look at this picture my heart just softens..angels I tell ya...Angels!

Time to gather...

2011-10-21T09:28:00.000-07:00

Time to call all the cattle home and batten down the buildings...
Fresh straw is piled and loads of hay brought in...
The news mentioned "El Nino" this morning and even they sounded worried...

I've been missing two of my cattle for a couple of weeks. I got lucky last evening and spotted one on a ridge a couple miles away. I hurried down with a bucket of grain and the trusty mule and found her in a neighbors pasture. She saw me...the bucket of grain and was quick to follow me all the way home. As long as I stopped to let her catch her breath and shake a little more grain in the back of the mule. As I was coming in the home gate, she saw her buddies she's been missing for these last weeks and started bawling her greeting. Then she forgot about the grain and ran ahead of me heading down the lane to the gate that leads her to her own back pasture. So I went to bed...worrying about the last lost cow with her calf at her side.

I said a little prayer to my buddy upstairs to please make this last cow easy to find. Went to bed and worried about it most the night.

As I was leaving for work driving out my gate...I see a calf standing on the road west of my place. I could see a number of black cattle in the ditch and some calves crossing on and off the highway. I went to chase them back in.

As I approached, I can see the calf standing in the middle of the road is my lost calf with the yellow tag and looking at me along with several other big cattle was my last lost cow. Hallelujah! I hurried around back to my house and jumped on the mule. Grain in the bucket and out I went. She was only a short distance in a near pasture away and this would be a piece of cake.... if she remembered how nice grain tastes.

While all the other cattle started bolting from the looks and sound of the mule heading toward them..she just stood and blinked. I raised the bucket and shook a little in the back of the mule.
Yup.. She remembered and she was on a dead run...calf in tow. I took it slow into my yard and down the run to the other cattle. She did the same beller at her buddies and forgot the grain, just happy to be home!

Its happening fast and I can feel it in my bones...

How Jack-0-Lanterns began...

2011-10-21T09:19:00.001-07:00

losing spots...

2011-10-02T10:41:00.000-07:00

So very tiny and fragile and what could be a better place for an orphan, but a place that serves fresh goats milk...

Changes and growing up, her first few weeks were very pampered....she even went to work with me. She was 1 day old when the unfortunate event happened....and we don't speak of it.
She has decided long ago that the dogs were harmless and she actually likes getting in on the action on occasion. The dogs on the other hand are very gentle with her, which really surprises me. She can't weigh 25lbs and yet Atticus is closing in on 200 pretty quickly. He's the one who takes more abuse from the little girl, as she likes hopping on his back and chasing him around...Tess isn't quite sure if its all that cool, but is very calm with her.
Now to see how long she stays around...as I have no intent that she will be a family pet, but if she's a smart girl she can sure come home anytime the weather is raging or hunting season is upon us. Nature will call someday and off she'll go, but in the meantime, she's always standing by at milking time and waiting for her nice fresh bottle of goats milk. She follows me every night doing chores and I take her out in the field for walkabouts....just so she knows how to crawl under fences and watch out for traffic. I've noticed every evening now a nice bunch of deer coming closer and closer to my house and smelling and listening. For now, she thinks she might be a dog, but soon I imagine she'll decide for herself.

Thank You!!

2011-09-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

LOVE IT! (yes, I had a spoon into it immediately)
The creamiest, smoothest, sweetest golden nectar ever...and shipped so quick...very cool!
Thank You to Jayme!!

a river run....

2011-09-25T08:49:00.000-07:00

Atticus is easier to get to the River in the back of the mule..when he has to run...it takes him a half hour longer to get there...much faster to simply load him up. Course he just might be smarter than we give him credit though...
windy day....

.......gate opener??
uh...oh.....
..........................help......snake...oh wait..thats justa chunk of rope!!
windless side of the river.....and releasing a pet baby bass.
the windy side of the River!!

the getting wet first before the wave crashing side.....

heading home and the lazy dogs...

loading up to go home...
and the video is the windy side of the River on a cool September evening....funnest times are had when the waves are whitecaps and washing you ashore. Good memories for a wonderful reason we live so close to the river!

Birthday fun!

2011-09-08T12:49:00.000-07:00

I celebrated my Birthday for the entire weekend leading up to Labor Day! My day is the 6th but why not? So we loaded up and went to the State Fair. Gorgeous day and I had plans of trying every indulgent food there. I almost did too...but while we enjoyed all the barns and buildings and animals of all colors and breeds, I had my eye set on seeing who in our state raised Guernseys. I have Jerseys and one Jersey/Guernsey bull and really would like a splashy Guernsey to add to my herd.

I had called ahead to a rental place that supplied the electric scooters and reserved one for my Father who just had some surgery. At 80 yrs old...why not get to use a scooter anyway!!

So all over the fair grounds we tromped and through every barn and food court we could find.

I finally found a whole barn full of Guernseys and introduced myself.....to the gent who owned them anyway. He was a fella you could talk to all day on cows and I was having quite a chat...when I heard my Father exhale quite loudly and cross his arms like...(gad this is going to be all day)...so I said..oops...sometimes I can talk all day about animals and I better entertain my Pop for a bit. About then Dad asks what he wants for that little calf over in the corner. One of his helpers hollers over..$500. I perked up and thought, boy if its a girl, I'm taking her home. So I was quick to ask more questions. He is smiling pretty hard so I go along with his prank and say" So how old is SHE!" He laughs and says...about 3 days..born right here. So I walk over and check for boy parts about then and know all the while...its a bull calf. Pretty hard to come by a female dairy calf born on a Dairy Farm and they are willing to part with them. I said..OK now..whats he worth. Thats when the owner piped up and says, about $100.00. My Dad grabs for his wallet and is ready to pay right now....while me...I have 7 bottle calves at home already. Seriously...mine at home are about ready to wean. Do I want another steer calf to feed out? I told Dad to put away his money. I wouldn't let him pay anyway..I would buy my own stuff. That way if it dies I won't feel like I let him down. You just never know about babies and such.

But I needed to decide.

So...we walk around lots more and eat and enjoy the Fair. But just before we leave Dad says..."SO?" He really really wanted me to go get him...and I did happen to put my cage carrier in the back of the explorer. So I waivered just long enough to say OK!

Here's the picture of the calf after he stretched his legs in the carrier. Lets just say, he was happy to be home and stretching out proper after his 2 hr ride to my house. He's a big boy!

Doing very well on fresh goats milk ...now if only miraculously he would change his gender. I really would like a Guernsey! I just need a girl of a different color!

My cage did suffer a little after that ride though...it isn't quite as square as it used to be and some seriously rounded walls now. Oh well, at least he wasn't riding on someones lap!

missing in action..

2011-09-08T08:42:00.001-07:00

haven't blogged in a while and need too....it seems to help with maintaining life. And it has been a fiasco lately, so I'll get busy. First though, I have reading to do to catch up on everyone!

We've had babies and building and fixing and selling going on all summer. Farmers Market is going well but it takes up too much valuable time in repairing and making ready for Winter. Seems its approaching faster and faster these days. Too little daylight already, but I think blogging and organizing will help make sense of it all. Stay tuned....

best laid plans....

2011-07-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

My Granddaughter made individual neck bands for all ten puppies.
They were gorgeous.

All different and a wide variety of colors.
Plan:
Color code individual puppy by male or female and get individual photo of each for Facebook viewers to make choosing puppy a little easier.

Simple.....

Gather....

Awaken....

Introduce neck bands.....

Second attempt.....

This one actually had it on for a few minutes....

This one's didn't fit..... and it didn't show up anyway...fur is too thick!!

but he's a boy you know...

Give them more attention and refocus...

they don't know when to quit....

and had to have a snack.....

too low....

Too High and moving....always moving....

or sleeping...
plain cute though...

and last attempt...have son hold them for a pose...but still they move!

Realization - photographing puppies is just like photographing baby goats. Never standing still and they have a mind of their own!

The Flood of 2011..

2011-06-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

Everyone has a sandbag fortress around their homes or businesses.

River is eye level to some...or up to their armpits to others...

Bridges are alot closer to the water...and side slopes have eroded.

Walkways are well underwater...

We're in the middle of it and its been the talk of the town since it began. The Flood!

Nowhere do you travel but that someone speaks of the damage, the stress and the nonstop worry about water.

Seriously...in the middle of South Dakota we are accustomed to drought and heat and hoppers.

They first said it was the 100yr Flood...now its the 500yr Flood.

Regardless, when a thundercloud appears on the horizon, people scurry.

Everyone in this area knows their elevation. Its flooding at the 1434 elevation and thousands of roads and homes are being assaulted. Flash Flood Watches/Warnings are always scrolling. I have loaded more sandbags than my screaming buldged disc can allow.

I on the other hand live on a bluff overlooking the vast Oahe Dam/Missouri River. Just several miles upriver from one of the largest earthen dams in the US.

My elevation is 1856.

I get tornadoes....but at least I know a few more people who might just come help pick up the pieces if I blow down the draw, and yes...it is bad...but it could ALWAYS be worse.

I still find a fascination with a Thunderstorm though and what happens happens....its all going to be fine....Just Fine!

Feeding frenzy...

2011-06-14T14:25:00.000-07:00

I have 6 bottle babies. One needs to be weaned, but we like him. I'm thinkin I don't want to give him a complex and make him feel neglected. So I water his down a tad.

He hasn't noticed.

I should get a video but it takes all hands, legs and the occassional armpit to feed in the mornings and nights. Sure I have some bottle holders...but some finish faster than others and you better be ready. When they see you coming at the right hour of day, they're always moving fast and licking their lips. Milk...its an addiction!

If anyone is interested in cute....

2011-06-05T13:58:00.000-07:00

here is my webcam...http://www.myfaintinggoats.com/and click on goatcam and sign in as guest. Use guest as login and use password as the password. Click the power on button and It'll give you 5 timed minutes. You can zoom in and move the camera around with the toggle screen. If anyone wants to watch the goings on in my world for any longer than that, just contact me and I will give you a login all your own to watch chickens scratch and puppies grow. Always an occassional goat in the picture too, and if your lucky your going to see me cleaning out the rest of the goat pen real soon. My weekends are always full and if your really wanting some entertainment just click on audio connect and you just might hear some real farm words sprinkled in.
Atticus and Tess puppies are the highlight, born June 1, 2011. Birthday puppies for my youngest son and it made it a nice and exciting birthday for him/us. 10 puppies with 6 girls and 4 boys.
3/4 Great Pyrenees and with Tess teaching these puppies what guarding livestock is all about, their sure to be smart little puppies. With Atticus as father, I expect the real braun. Tess is 1/2 English Collie and 1/2 Great Pyrenees and I can't say enough about her attention to her job. Now I'm not saying Atticus isn't smart....but he is just 1 yr old and he acts like a puppy ALOT! He is totally a Great Pyrenees with the mind of his own but he has learned who's boss around here. Tess! Atticus is the one who has the don't approach bark that can be heard for miles and miles. He must have the eyesite of an eagle because he can spot something halfway across the county and bark like crazy. That and he has a very menacing growl.

Tess is only having 1 batch of puppies and I am spaying her and Atticus is going to ride along for his own surgery. I hope to find some excellent farm homes for all of the puppies and I will be requiring a little background on everyone who wants one.
and boy am I going to have a hard time when they are fat fluffy cute as the dickens little playful puppies...
Now if you know of anyone who would like a really well brought up LGD dog just send me an email. These pups are going to be adapted very well to farm life and would make excellent Guardian dogs.
Enjoy and like I said...you might want to prepare yourself for colorful language. Milking season is cranking up shortly!
Seriously this goatcam came in very handy when my does were kidding. While I was at work, it was always up in the corner of my screen and I didn't miss much. Now if only I had an outside cam to watch how the girls are escaping some days. I'm afraid of what goes on when I'm not at home but maybe I don't really want to know.