Skip to main content

March and April Through My Lens

Well...  here I am making apologies again.  You can tell when I am staying busy farming, and when I am just writing about being busy, because when I'm truly busy, I don't post on my blogs!  Anyway, thankfully I usually have my phone on me and take lots of pictures, so these will give some idea of what we've been up to.  Enjoy!


March and April were filled with:


Trying to get good advertising pictures of Buttercup (so we could sell her heifer.)


Spending time with younger siblings.





Capturing escaped horses.


Laughing at a silly dog (who wishes she was included in the tea party which was in session when I took this picture.)

Trying to keep the puppy out of the milk.


"Yum!" 


Milk for everyone!


Keeping toes out of reach of Flossie.


The first real rain for several months.


Welcoming a new kid into the world.




Trying (almost too successfully) to fly with an aerial advertising banner.

 Bo ended up with a minor hernia after getting himself dragged across the yard when the banner/ parachute got out of control.  Thankfully he got caught in the bushes long enough for Justice to cut him loose from it.


A friendly see-saw match on Emaline's birthday.  (But how did Evan and Joanna end up on opposite sides of the seesaw, with Mamaw in the middle?)


Flossie meets one of Joanna's Aussie pups, and both are scared to death of each other.


This is the sight I'm met with whenever I stay inside too long in the morning:


"Well?  What's taking so long?"


Selling Paisley and keeping her new family updated on her growth and development.


Cleone mothering Flossie.


Butchering broilers.



Watering Duncan the garden.


(Duncan is such a good boy; he has learned (very quickly) to stay off the garden beds and pumpkin piles, even when he's chasing the hose.  He knows when I'm spraying it for him, and when it's just for the plants.)


Tuesday tea (at three) with Mama.


Making new friends.


(We don't normally allow goats in the house, I promise!  Mayberry was sick and I was trying to figure out what to do for her, so she got specialty treatment while I mixed her doses.  Frankie thought that it was grand having a four-legged friend inside.)
:)



Putting "technology" to work!  Please take note of the full tote of milk dangling (precariously?) from the handlebars. 


Permanently dealing with the surprise puppy problem.



Doing chores after dark.


Hauling hundreds of pounds of manure (in multiple trips) to the garden.


Dressing up!


Putting in snaps.


Swimming!
(Yours truly doing the cannonball; LilyAnn doing a half folded knee hop.)
:)



Friendly wrestling matches.


Training Fenella.


Herding cows.
(Taken on Duncan's 1st birthday.)


Savana's homeschool graduation photoshoot.


Fenella's first time wearing a bit.



Helping out at the annual Wild Hog Canoe Race.  This young man was in the food tent with us.  I believe he handed out drinks.


Daddy even rode the zip line!


Dealing with lice on the goats.
(Just for the record, yellow dusting sulfur gets rid of them.)


Enjoying a (too prolific) crop of Swiss chard. 



Lots of milking -


And filling mineral feeders.


Welding and painting a new grill.
Creation of:



More tea parties.  (And Cleone got to join this time!)
Temporarily, that is...


Milking training.  (Yes, almost four-year-olds can safely milk a cow.)


Milk for all.


Squashing (millions) of squash bugs.


Official herding training for Cleone and Duncan.


Cooling off after the first lesson.


Working on Fannie's harness.


Rooting Trying to root roses.






Dealing with pinkeye.
These pictures were taken less than 12 hours apart.  I treated the eye with colloidal silver, and got back to feeding cod liver oil.  The pinkeye has virtually disappeared!




And the month of April closed with this glorious sunset.  The picture does not do it justice.



 O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

 O give thanks unto the God of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever.

 O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever.

To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever.

 To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Psalm 136:1-5

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Natural cure (and prevention) for foot rot in goats and other animals

Several years ago, I began learning about the benefits of copper as a supplement.  I learned that it is actually a necessary mineral for goats, cows and sheep, and is best absorbed in sulphate form.      What prompted the research was a case of foot rot in one of my goats.  I was unaware that it was foot rot until someone diagnosed it for me over the phone.  I had noticed that his foot had been swollen for a couple days, but didn't pay much attention to it, thinking that a bug might have bitten or stung him.  After about three days from the time that I initially noticed the swelling he was limping badly.  I mentioned this to a man who was interested in buying him, and he said that it might be foot rot.  He said to check and see if it smelled bad, and that if so, it was probably foot rot.      I checked, and sure enough there was a strong putrid smell to it.  So I started researching  a natural, and speedy, cure for foot rot online.  There was very little information to be found

Another Day with the Goats: Pt. 5- Contracted Tendons in Newborn Kids

Have you ever seen a kid with legs so bent that it is walking on it's knuckles?  This is usually a condition known as contracted tendons.  Bent legs in newborns are not uncommon, and are not such a very bad thing.  Usually, this condition caused either by improper nutrition (deficiency in vitamins A & D, or selenium) or by crowding in utero , sometimes by both.  This buckling is one of Nelly's triplets .  He and one of his sisters had badly bent legs, the other one also had slightly bent legs.  Good news:  the legs straightened out in just a few days (3 if I remember correctly).  In the video below, I show the kids legs and the treatment.  I hope this helps someone!

Marvelous Seeds- Natural Dewormer for Dogs and Others

Naturally de-worming animals can be challenging, and some people will say that you are just better off going with the chemicals.  There are several problems with chemical wormers however.  You see, a chemical wormer is actually a poison, which is fed to the animal in large enough doses to kill, or expel the worms, but in small enough amounts that it hopefully will not injure the animal.  Trouble is, worms have an ability to build up resistance to the chemical poisons used in these wormers.  For example:  A few years ago, when I first started with dairy goats, I had major trouble with worms.  In fact, I lost quite a few goats to them.  I tried using the chemical wormers- SafeGuard (at 4 times the dosage for horses, for 3 days straight), and Ivermectin.  The goats' hair remained curly (a sign of a heavy worm load), and their gums and eyelids were pale.  Finally, most of them died- including three beautiful purebred, registrable Nubians.  I was heartbroken.      Several years later,