The Goat Kids Head into Town

Tessi and Tori, our 2 goat kids, needed a series of vaccines at ages 1-month and 3-months. Our local vet did a on-site farm visit for the first round of vaccines at 1-month old but all of her farm-call openings were booked at the time for the 3-month shot.

So, we took them to the vet’s office in the nearby town instead. It is only a 10 minute drive away.  As the kids hadn’t been weaned from their mother yet, we took their mom along as well to try to limit the amount of screaming and crying.

Treat, Tessi and Tori visit the vet.

They were mostly curious to be in a new area with new things to chew on and new rooms to explore.

Treat looking at the exam table.

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Selecting our Goat Kids

As long time readers already know, we bought 2 goat kids and their mom from another farm earlier this year. But, it was a harder selection process than you might think.

There were a lot of cute goat kids running around – it was very hard to pick!

Many of the smaller goat kids were wearing sweaters to stay warm as it was unseasonably cold in mid-April this year.

Goat kids in sweaters.

More goats in sweaters:

More goat kids in sweaters.

In addition to the ones in sweaters, many of the slightly larger kids were running around the barn, chasing each other and getting into all sorts of typical goat trouble.

A bunch of goat kids.

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Random Photos from Spring / Summer 2018

Earlier this year in the spring I took a hike up our mountain to clean up any trash or debris that had blown onto our property over the winter.

I collected a handful of empty soda bottles (probably originally left by hunters on neighboring properties), some plastic bags, and 2 deflated balloons.

I also found a few other things in the woods:

There was a deer skeleton just onto our property. It may have died naturally over the cold winter, or it may have been shot and injured by a hunter and the hunter couldn’t track it. It appears to be the skeleton of a young buck – the antlers only have a few points.

A deer skeleton in the woods.

Deer skull with antlers still attached.

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The Cows have Arrived

Each year we host a few cows from a neighbor’s farm on our pastures for the summer. The cows eat the grass (meaning we don’t have to mow – the goats can’t eat enough on their own to make a dent in the full pasture) and the neighbor gets to reduce any stress on his own pastures.

See here (2015), here (2016), and here (2017) for the past few years of tenant cows.

Nia, Della and Missy shortly after arrival.

This year, we are again hosting 3 yearling heifers. Their names are Nia, Della and Missy. They are all Red Angus and look very similar – it is hard to tell them apart without looking very closely. Nia is slightly larger than the others and Missy has a small white spot on her tail, but other than that they look the same.

The new cows inspecting the run-in shed.

A few days after their arrival, we noticed one of the cows seemed to be spending a long time in the shed instead of grazing. She might have been in there for an hour or two. Turns out she got her head stuck in the cow head gate and couldn’t get it out on her own. The cow head gate is used to lock their head into place in case you need to do anything to the cow such as give medication or dress a wound. We unhooked the gate and she was able to get her head out and rejoin the others in the pasture.

A close-up (I think this is Nia).

The cows in the fresh grass.

It’s Twins!

As we have been married for at least a few years, we occasionally get comments or questions about when we are having “kids”.

Well, that time has finally come – and it’s twins!

We picked up twin goat kids from a local farm last week! They were just born in mid-April. Their assigned names are Testarossa and Torino, but we have taken to calling them Tessi and Tori. Tessi has a white spot on her forehead and Tori has a white spot on her side.

Tessi and Tori cuddling together.

In addition to the twins, we also brought their mother along. Her name is Treat (her home farm has been using food themes for many of their names – other goats from that farm include Applesauce, Lasagna, Taffy, Cabbage, and Poptart). That farm is now using car names also, such as Testarossa, Porsche, Audi, Delorean and Prius.

Without their mother, the twins could need bottle feedings every few hours. With their mother present and taking care of them, they need a lot less supervision and help. However, we hope to spend a lot of time with them and play with them frequently so they get used to people and are easier to handle when they grow up.

Goat kids Tessi and Tori with their mother Treat in the background.

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Harriet’s Horn

Both of Harriet’s horns had already broken off before we bought the farm – long time readers will remember that Harriet was one of the 2 original goats that came along with the farm from the prior owners.

However, the prior breaks did not completely stop the horns from continuing to grow. Pieces of each of her horns are still growing slowly. The remnant horn growths are called scurs.

Unfortunately one or her scurs was growing but curving back towards her head and was close to touching her skull. It needed to be cut or removed to prevent the horn from pushing against her skull.

We asked the vet to perform the procedure as we hadn’t previously cut or removed a horn ourselves (though we did deal with the aftermath after another goat broke off a piece of his horn). The vet’s initial plan was to just remove a small portion off the tip of the scur so it wouldn’t be touching her skull. Given Harriet’s advanced age and slow growth of the scur, it would have been unlikely that the horn would grow enough to touch her skull again.

Harriet’s horn.

However, not everything goes to plan. While the vet was beginning to cut the tip of the horn, the entire horn scur broke off!

The vet had already numbed Harriet’s head all around the horn so Harriet was not in immediate pain. But we needed a way to seal the horn and stop the bleeding.

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Bonus Surprise from the New York State Fair (2017 edition)

The 1 Partridge Rock, 2 Andalusians and a fried dessert calzone weren’t the only things we picked up from the NY State Fair last year.

We also purchased a champion hen. Meet Mille:

Mille (Pronounced Milly)

Mille is a bantam Mille Fleur d’Uccle hen. Their plumage pattern looks like a bunch of small flowers and in French, Mille Fleur means “Thousand Flowers”.

Mille won …

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Tiny!

We have a new dog – Tiny!

Tiny.

One of our friends who works at the local shelter (the same one where we got Penny) told us that there was a 14 year old and sick yorkie at the shelter whose elderly owner had died. The family did not want to keep her.

We went to the shelter to meet Tiny. She seemed lethargic and sort of sick. She had a stubborn infection. She had some rotting teeth that gave her very bad breath. She is mostly blind and deaf. Her lower jaw is off center. The shelter was not sure how long she would last.

We brought Penny and Shaffron to meet her at the shelter and Tiny mostly ignored the other dogs.

We took Tiny home as a foster dog. The shelter stated that they didn’t expect any heroic efforts to keep her alive. This was in mid-November.

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Surprise from the New York State Fair (2017 edition)

Long time readers may recall that we purchased several chickens from the New York State Fair in 2016.  We of course went to the state fair again in 2017, with extra time spent at the poultry building.

We ended up with a number of new chickens once again in 2017.

We really liked the intricate feather pattern on the Partridge Rock hen so we purchased the only one on display.  She is a bit older than many of the birds on display – she was over 2 years old and had already been in a number of shows and events before the fair.

Partridge Rock hen in her cage in the poultry building at the NY State Fair – 2017.

In addition to the Partridge Rock hen, we also purchased 2 Andalusian hens. Andalusians are fairly small for full size chickens and pretty fast on the ground. They are also decent flyers compared to other breeds. At least one of them has been flying up into the hayloft to lay eggs occasionally. They have a variety of coloring with blue (gray) with various black lacing. Our 2 Andalusians are named Andi and Luci.

Andalusian hen outside the coop.

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