June 2000

June 2 - We banded Packer today. I gave him a temporary tetnus to keep him from getting infection. This is our first time and Ricky helped. He was more squeamish than Packer was.

June 3 - Packer is doing fine, the kids nursed for 3 hours this morning. We lost a chicken today. Ricky found it in the garden dead. We burned it. I am not sure how he died.

June 5 - Today is baking day. We made homemade cereal, breakfast muffins, and cookies. Packer looks good. Our garden is totally overgrown with weeds. We clipped the chicken wings today to keep them from escaping. Sugar moved her kits to the woodpile outside. Seh may be the one who killed the chicken, or it may have been Snickers, he was in the garden area also. Daddy needs to take time off from work to help me - I am getting further and further behind. I pray God continue to give me strength to do all that needs to be done.

Sugar moved her kits again, this time next to the house under a bush. It is raining and the kits are getting wet. I am concerned that they will get sick. Lord keep them safe.

June 6 - We worked on the last two holes for the chicken coop but haven't finished yet. We picked our first veggies from the garden today and found two stray tomato plants! We transplanted one of them. We picked large summer squash and had them with dinner, they were delicious! We have lots of squash growing, zucchini, yellow and summer. I picked a few pea pods but there are not enough for a meal yet. I also harvested some lettuce. The potatoes look good and the cucumbers are coming up good. The beets and carrots are still small, but coming along. I weeded around some of the plants, but the weeds are taking over!

June 7 - I gave Zoe and Nanna some Ivermec injectable 1cc each and Vit B complex 1cc by mouth for worms and health. Nanna was off feed again today but was up and moving. I trimmed Zoe's hooves. We put Packer and Maggie on the stanchion today, they didn't like it much, but Packer ate well. Maggie was very nervous and wouldn't eat. Ricky brushed and petter her and talked sweet to her for a while and then let her down. Both kids were on Zoe for an hour.

The night milk will be given to the kids for morning feeding tomorrow. We didn't want to drink it after the wormer and I hope there is enough residue to worm the kids.

I am considering vaccinating with CD&T vaccine for the goats. the kids will be due the first of July. Zoe isn't due 'til next Jan or Feb but Nanna is overdue. I really don't like the side effects. My concern is that these are new goats and I am not sure what they bring with them.

June 8 - Nanna got her hooves trimmed today, boy she was upset! We put Zoe in with the kids for the night to milk teh wormer out. I made sure she was stripped out this morning so we could have 'clean' milk. Tonight we got a lot of milk, I wonder if I put the kids on Zoe more often if her milk would increase?

June 9 - I put Zoe with the kids this morning for an hour. I have had to put April's dog, Snicker, on a tether. He keeps getting into the goats and biting at them. He also bit April and me, so I think he needs to be tied out, away from the children and so he can't get in with the goats.

Packer's scrotum is looking good, no infection. It is still in tact. We aer waiting for the resulting sluff of the area. It has been a week since he was banded so we have another week to go.

The grapes are getting large. They are dime size now. The children picked about seven beets, a zucchini, 2 yellow squash and some lettuce. I guess we will have salad and squash for dinner.

One apple tree has very small apples that are beginning to turn red. The other 2 trees have larger apples that are still green. I am wondering if hte small tree is a crab apple. We'll see. My Mom says they are good for jams and jellies.

June 10 - I trimmed Packer's hooves and put him and Maggie on the stanchion for feeding. I am beginning to wean them. They are eating grain. Packer is eating it much better than Maggie. Maggie doesn't like the stanchion at all. She did get in it for her bottle, though. We fed sugar's kits some soft cat food, they loved it and seem to be ready to wean soon as well. They are 5 weeks old and will be ready to find new homes soon.

I mowed the front yard (about 3/4 acre) and ran out fo gas. When I got back with more gas the mower wouldn't start. I put the battery on the charger. I hope I can get it started tomorrow. The house, yards, garden and barn yard sit on approximately 2 acres that need to be mowed.

Tonight I milked late and while I was milking a wasp stung me on the leg. I didn't know what it was at first, only that I felt something biting me so I hit it with my hand and he got my right thumb as well. Needless to say, milking was somewhat difficult after that. I currently have some Benedril gel on it to minimize the pain, but it is still painful.

June 11 - We are going to church at the lake and need to leave early so we milked early today. The wasp sting is still sore, but much better than last night. All is well at the farm, but looking forward to a day at the lake! Daddy and the kids did chores tonight and gave me a break.

June 12 - We put the kids in the stanchions today. I trimmed Maggie's hooves today. They are getting very good in the stanchion and are drinking les milk. They were in with Zoe for an hour after milking.

We got all but a small amount of 1 hole dug for the chicken house. We should have them done tomorrow and ready to plant new posts and finish building the chidken house by the weekend.

The kids are getting used to the stanchions and Zoe has been avoiding the kids when they are around. I think she is trying to wean them. They are only drinking about 2/3rds of their usual amount when feeding, and thier grain intake is increasing.

Spice girl has been coming around a lot lately, so I think she is getting ready to find a place to have her kits. Alice's kids are about ready to go outside and Sugar's kits are 6 weeks old tomorrow and ready to wean. They are eating soft cat food and drinking milk from a bowl. The runt from Alice's litter is really small. I hand fed him tonight. All of her kits are boys. there is one that is all black that Ricky wants to keep.

June 13 - I finished mowing the back yard and garden area. Cook's pest control came out to check the termite traps.

We got 2 zucchinis, 3 yellow squash, some lettuce and 3 beets. The peas are drying out, the drought is getting bad. I can only afford to water every other day. It is taking it's tole on the garden. One of the summer squash is dying as well. There is supposed to be scattered showers today and tomorrow. I pray God stirs the clouds to bring abundant rain here in Northern AL.

Daddy milked tonight. We didn't work on the chicken house because it was trying to rain. Unfortuenately, the rain was only a few sprinkles. I hope it rains more tomorrow. The weather report says that we are 18 inches behind our average rainfall and this is the 3rd year in a row we have been behind. Everyone's ponds are dry, but God has blessed us, ours is still wet. I wish we had a way to haul it from the back pasture to the garden... hmm, I'll have to think about that.

June 14 - Still no rain. I pray God's intervention for rain. There is a 40% chance for tomorrow. Shelly brought me a beautiful flower from the lawn in back. She is so sweet. Our milk stanchion is falling apart and in desparate need of repair.

June 15 - The stanchion completely busted today while I was milking. Zoe fell head first over the stanchion onto the ground, butt in the air! She was ok, but hte stanchion is through! Daddy fixed it with scrws and cement blocks for a temperary fix until we can build some new ones. He also did all the chores tonight by himself while the children and I visited a friend in town.

We finally had a decent rain and more is expected tomorrow and Saturday! Our garden is very dry and the Tap water is not helping. I think it is actualy hurting the veggies to water them with the tap water.

June 16 - Daddy is home for th enext 10 days! He took time off to help on the farm. We are finally working on the chicken house. Daddy is tearing down the fencing where the chicken house will be and we should have the posts set today and the rest of the house together tomorrow. The frame is done for the roof.

June 17 - Work on the chicken house was stopped at lunch time by the rain. Yay! Unfortunately, not much rain. I hope it continues. We got the walls up on the chicken house and have the brooder house mostly apart. We willleave the satallite dish up as a sun shelter for the chickens in their yard. I need to make the roost and nest boxes. The next boxes will have access from the north wall of the house on the outside. We almost finished the coop by evening, now we need to do the fencing.

June 18 - It rained all night. We worked on the fencing, repaired the fence between the gate and barn, and shewed the chickens in the makeshift pen half dozen times! The coop is a large single room, 3 sided shelter with one side enclosed with 2inch chicken wire. Tomorrow we will finsih the coop and yard.

June 19 - We finally finished the chicken house and yard. We refenced around the two fenced areas and made them into one large area for them. We divided the coop into two areas, one for the chickens and one for storage of feed, tools and other stuff. I still have to build the nest boxes and roost, but that can be done later.

Packer's scrotum has not dropped yet. It is hard and looks ready. Spice had her kittens in the loft in the barn today. So far it looks like she has 6 kits.

It hasn't rained today, but the rain yesterday dropped the temperature and increased the humidity. So our 85 degree temp felt like 95. I had to 'herd' the chickens into their new pen tonight (they were lost!) The pasture still needs mowing and bailing, but the guy that is supposed to do it hasn't called back yet. I hope he calls soon! Tomorrow we plan to work on the garage conversion and put the air conditioner in.

June 20 - We got the frame in the window for the garage conversion, but the air conditioner is wet from Daddy cleaning it. The rest of the day we spent resting a bit. Daddy needs to install the outlets next.

June 21 - Nothing got done today, well actually we cleaned the house, washed clothes, went to the feed store and picked up prescriptions for Shelly. But, additional work was not done today. It rained really well today and the water buckets were full from the roof run-off.

We picked 2 big cucumbers and had cucumber salad with dinner tonight!

A friend from church has some roosters she doesn't want, so we may be getting about 8 more for the freezer. We really need hens. I am going to ask her if she will sell about 4 hens to add to the approximately 8 we have now.

June 25 - Nanna had a baby! We had gone out of town for an overnight trip to a friend's and she had a baby girl an hour before we got home!

June 26 - Nanna won't let the baby suckle. I milked her 3 times today, she has some good colostrum, so I fed it to the baby. Nanna did great on the stanchion and the baby ate well with the bottle for a first time, although I had to force her mouth open to get her to take it at first. We cleaned out a stall in the barn for the baby until she gets a little older. She didn't like being away from the other goats, but it will be better for her there until she learns to eat from the bottle.

I got stung by a dark red, very aggressive hornet in early afternoon today on my right arm. I put meat tenderizer on it immediately to draw out some of the poison. After the meat tenderizer, I put Benedril gel on the area and kept ice on it. By late afternoon it ws swollen up to about 1/2 my arm - from my wrist up my fore arm. I called Daddy and he started the trek home. Being in the military, if I need to go to a doctor I must call a triage nurse and get an appointment or a release to go to the emergency room. I decided that since the swelling would not stop increasing (by 4:30 it was overtaking my entire forearm) I would go see a doctor. I fanally got an apppointment at the clinic at 6:45. By this time my fore arm was doubled in size and my hand, wrist and arm to my elbow was swollen. The Dr. gave me a shot and some oral meds to continue to heal the arm. Not being able to use my right hand and arm has been frustrating and milking was a definite chore!

I put 7 tires that we scavenged in a circle on the ground in the garden to make my first raised bed. The muck from the barn was put into each tire and in the middle. It looks really good. I would like to make raised beds over the entire area.

June 27 - Ricky milked Nanna and fed the baby (now called Babe). She didn't want to take the bottle, so finally Ricky put the baby on his lap and then forced her mouth open and she finally ate, while laying on his lap! What a spoiled farm we have! She fell asleep in his lap after drinking most of the colostrum.

June 29 - It rained most of the night! We thank God for the blessing of rain!

We are going to milk Nanna 4 times a day now to increase her milk supply. Babe is drinking more than Nanna puts out. We are using some of Zoe's milk to supplement the baby. She is taking the bottle well now and I will probably put her with the larger kids soon.

Ricky accidentally let Maggie into the pasture with Zoe and 2 hits brought her milk down almost a pound! So the morning milking was light. Ricky is teaching Packer to lead. He does well in small areas, so now he's working on large areas. He walked him around the pasture tonight during our evening walk. It will take some more work! Packer's banding is still hanging. We continue to wait for it to drop, it has taken longer than we anticipated.

I need to purchase a disbudder for the baby. I really need to get one anyway, so will begin researching the prices.