Month: June 2019

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Spring on the Farm

It has been an exciting spring at Storybook Farm in 2019. Life has been bustin’ out all over. Now that it’s officially summer, I have time to post some highlights from our busy, busy spring!

Cats

I’ll start with the cats: we had two cats give birth to kittens this year. Each had three kittens. The first had two girls and a boy; the second had two boys and a girl. These are two from the first litter, named Phantom and Tiger Tigress. (Sadly, their eyes have since turned green.)

The first mom, Katnis, had her babies under the house in and inaccessible spot. When they were about six weeks old, she moved them to the barn. She was a first-time mother, so we wondered how she would do, but she proved excellent and produced two black male/female kittens and a female mini-me: tiger striped with green eyes, pictured above.

The second litter was born about six weeks later, to Patches. She chose to deliver in our most remote shed where we store boxes to be burned. From Day 1, I knew where they were, but we didn’t move them for about four weeks. They are pictured right about a week after moving. Patches had one ginger boy and a tiger striped boy/girl pair.

Chickens

Next, chicks. We hatched about 100 chicks this year, mailed out many, and saved ourselves about 70 replacement birds. We hatched wheaten Marans, Light and Coronation Sussex, and black and blue Ameraucanas.

It’s taken us four years to get our infrastructure right, but we had it working very well this spring, and are happy with the results!

Goats

Next I should list the most challenging animals of the spring: goats. The learning curve for gathering a herd was straight up, but God gave me great mentors from around the country via the Internet, and one nearby neighbor.

We started by purchasing a three-year-old pregnant doe, Buttercup, who kidded on April 2, blessing us with three doelings.

One almost didn’t make it (and you can read that story here), but they have all grown into lovely, strong animals who are affectionate and beautiful.

Our second goat, Milky Way (or Milcah) also came to us pregnant. She was only nine months old, however, and she was caught late in heat, so she did not deliver until June 8, 2019. The delivery of boy/girl twins was easy enough, but we were concerned for a bit that she wouldn’t accept them. However, she proved a very attentive first time mom! Pictures of Milcah and her kids are below.

We also acquired two young bucklings, who will be our herd sires in 2019.

Green Gables E Asher *B
Bellhouse’s Rigel *B

Last May, we traveled to Michigan to pick up these two does in milk: Mimzie (in front) and Twyla. They are sweet girls and great producers! Twyla freshened for the second time this year, and Mimzie for the third.

Last of all, we imported a favorite of mine: Skillman’s Star. She is three years old and the grandmother of Milcah’s twins. She is also Milcah’s half sister, since Irine Skillman has been doing serious line breeding for a number of years.

Star is a gentle, tall, and graceful doe who brings milk stars and maturity to our little herd. If the babies get lost from their mother, Star is there to call to her and remind her to wait for those babies, or come back to get them!

Guardian Dog

Few goat herds are complete without a Livestock Guardian Dog to keep them safe from predators. Though it will take Heidi two full years to grow up enough to be fully trusted alone with them, she currently lives among them in a pen and run. We brought her home in March as a 12-week-old puppy, and she is growing more beautiful (and gentle) every day!

Posted on by — Leave a comment

New Barn Comin’

We are breaking ground on our new barn starting Monday. I am beyond excited. It’s going to be a two-story pole barn: 48’ x 36’, with a 48’ x 12’ shed on one side where we plan to park our tractor and truck.

We are building it inside our existing riding ring, that we excavated years ago for horseback riding. With my age and osteoporosis, I don’t ride much any more. But, if the notion takes me, I can ride around this new barn. Meanwhile, the goats will enjoy a large indoor space, a larger outdoor flat space, an incredible view of the mountains, and 30 acres of fields, brush, woods, and terrain. What’s not to love?

In these first pictures in this post are mostly of stuff you’ll never notice when the building is done: my contractor’s copy of our floor plan above, the excavating that we did to make the site level for building (also above), the improvements to the road up to the ring that we had to make so delivery trucks can make it to the site (that’s what all the slate is for), below.

Shale: 10 dump truck loads
MORE shale, heading up past our chicken coops to the building site above.

And last (but not least) a picture of a very hot husband who was trying to get a cool drink on a break from putting up temporary fencing to keep the animals out of the construction zone for the summer… but somebody got to his pitcher of water as he was telling me about his progress!

After all the prep work, it was early July when the lumber arrived and things starting looking like there really was a new barn coming! The following pictures summarize the construction, but don’t capture our gratitude for all the skill, craftsmanship, and sweat put in by Chris Lambert.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Lost in the Woods!

We had a wonderful blessing on Saturday, June 8. Twins—a doeling and a buckling—were delivered safely to our doe named Milky Way, or Milcah to us in the barn. It was Milcah’s “first freshening” — meaning that she was a first time mom, and a young, small one at that. So, we were praying for twins, since each of them would be smaller than a single kid, especially a buckling.

All went well for this birth, and we were thrilled. Milcah was, at first, a bit clueless, but after a few hours became strongly bonded to her twins, and was everything we could wish for in a mother. After two days of “bonding” (read, being cooped up) with her twins, though, Milcah was braying to be out with the herd and eating grass! So, I began to keep time for her. I would see her nurse her twins, let her out, and then call her in to nurse again after two hours.

This went well for another two days, until the twins stopped sleeping after feeding and wanted to play outside. Cautiously, I let them meet the rest of the herd. All the does were very kind to the new kids, and I felt comfortable letting them into the three-acre field that is the most visible from our house of all our fields. Again, this worked well for a day, so I got comfortable with it.

Mid-day, I decided to take a quick trip into town with my daughter to run an important errand. We were gone about an hour and a half, but on the way home, the heavens opened and it started to pour rain. I was figuring that Milcah would have gotten her kids safely in, but knowing that she’s a first time mom, it crossed my mind to be sure to check first thing when I got home. So, I went right to the barn in the tapering rain, and looked.

They were not in their kid hut. They were not anywhere in the barn, but there was Milcah—alone. My heart sank. “Milcah!” I demanded, “Where are your kids!!?” She just looked at me.

So, into the rain I went. The field is about three acres… and then there’s a gate that opens onto a smaller field, about one and a half acres. I didn’t think they’d gone into the farther field, but there was that chance. I started going around the edges, and especially into the woods, where the herd often chooses to graze. The grass is tall in places, and there are brambles and there are sparse woods. My jeans got soaked by the tall grass and wet rose bushes as I searched. After about ten minutes, I called in reinforcements. My adult daughter, Marjorie, came out to search with me.

As we looked, the sky cleared, and the sun shone for about ten minutes. Then it darkened again, and rained gently. I was thinking about the little tiny kids being wet and cold… there was a decent breeze along with the rain and sunshine. 😕 They were SO small~ I knew they would be so easy to miss. I prayed that God would open our eyes as we searched!

After we had searched separately for about ten more minutes wandering wherever we went in the field, I called to Marjorie, and we began a systematic sweep, as you would if you were mowing. We started around the perimeter, near the fence line, going side by side, about ten feet apart. We got up into the woods at the crown of the field and slowed and searched. Marjorie started to call, imitating Milcah’s timbre.

Then, to our relief, we heard them! A small, high-pitched bleating came from nearby, but we couldn’t see them. Then Marjorie heard it again. Then she saw them. They were warm, dry, and sleepy, just emerging from a hollow tree that had fallen down long ago. With great rejoicing and many grateful thanks to a good God, we took them up and brought them back to Milcah in the barn. Believe me, we’ve been keeping close tabs on them ever since!