Shalali Infante and Pint-Size Farm, located in New Mexico, breeds miniature jerseys, Nigerian dwarf goats, and American Guinea Hogs shipping animals all over the U.S.
Shalali Infante and Pint-Size Farm, located in New Mexico, breeds miniature jerseys, Nigerian dwarf goats, and American Guinea Hogs shipping animals all over the U.S.
Miniature Jerseys make great backyard family cows, Nigerian dwarf goats are cute mini-milkers, and American Guinea Hogs are wonderful pastured hogs.
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Today was supposed have more accomplished earlier in the day than it was; I got most of my goals done.
Milking was delayed by those darned goats. Eclair wouldn’t let me work! She wanted me to hold her the entire time. I finally had to put my foot and that goat down and get to work. They are HOPPING and SKIPPING and JUMPING. It’s too much to handle. There are THREE of them doing it. Their eyes seem pretty normal now.
Yum-Yum is doing well. He got his 4th injection of penicillin today. The incision seems to be healing well. I will take out the stitches on Saturday morning. I do not look forward to that. We are still spraying it down with betadine diluted and using the wound spray. Tomorrow I’m going to start using saline solution to irrigate it.
After milking, a friend came over to look at different halter styles because they just got their first cow, a 6-month-old Jersey heifer. YEAH!!!!! That is so exciting. I wasn’t quite done with the milking clean up chores, so she joined in. She used to apprentice with me, so she pretty much knew what to do.
I called a semen dealer to see if I could purchase some semen from him to have on hand in case I get calls and need to inseminate someone’s cow. He only comes to ABQ once a month and he was here today. What luck. I got 6 straws, two different bulls. He said he could give my name out as an AI tech if he was asked for someone in this area. Hopefully I’m really starting to make some contacts. I can order stuff and he’ll bring it the next time he is in town. I want to have a few different breeds of beef semen in the tank too.
I washed butter and drank delicious buttermilk. A shareholder and family showed up then, and they took 3 of the 4.5 quarts of buttermilk and drank that for their lunch. The kids really enjoyed it after jumping on the trampoline in the heat of the day. Dante took them to see the baby goaties. Of course they really enjoyed that. Dante said later that the goats got, “All luved up by those kids.” So, we had kids loving on kids.
After the butter washing is when the Select Sires (semen company) rep arrived. I spent about an hour talking cows with him.
There was 8.75 gallons of milk that needed skimming, so I tackled that after he left. I was able to skim 10 pints of cream for shareholders and made about 6 gallons of clabber and had about 1.25 gallons of cream for butter.
Turn around and it’s milking time, turn around and its other chore time, turn around and your going out of the door (to milk again).
David arrived in time to milk with us. AGAIN, those goats slowed everything down. Eclair wouldn’t let me put her down. I had to water holding her. I had to coil up the hose holding her. Do you have any idea how hard it is to coil up a hose with one hand? She obviously doesn’t!
After milking, dinner was left over beans, chicharrones, red chile, and corn bread. Yummy!
Then it was time to bottle kombucha. I started hitting a wall, I think from being on my feet all day and waking up at 2:30 AM for about an hour.
Okay this is abbreviated, ’cause it was yesterday and I don’t have full memories anymore (I’m TIRED).
We milked. The goats made us late. Dante had art class. Saturday night, I realized I forgot my brand at the auction house. So while Dante was in art class, I went to get it and talk to someone in management. I talked to the owner of the auction house. He apologized for the way the castration was done. He did not make excuses for the boys. He said he would talk to them and give them a refresher course. When I told him they had been flinging testicles from previous castrations at each other as we were walking up, he was truly appalled, as he should have been. We then talked for awhile, and he offered to teach me how to do castrations. When he found out I was an AI tech, he wanted business cards so he could refer people to me. I felt good about our conversation. So, hopefully those boys will get a talking to. I also found out that it is possible to be licensed as a Pregnancy Palpation Technician in New Mexico from him. I e-mailed the professor at NMSU that I took the AI exam from, and he confirmed this. He won’t have any cows to perform the test on until September, so I’ll have to wait, but at least I know I can do that as well. Yeah!
We had pinto beans, red chile, chicharrones, cheese, and cornbread for dinner.
I was supposed to be able to sleep in, but woke a 5:00 AM. I tried and tried to go back to sleep, but ala it didn’t work, so I got up. We had bacon, eggs, and toast from the loaf of bread I had baked right before bed the night before. The loaf looked beautiful, but it rose too much and had a big air pocket in the middle, oh well, holey bread on Sunday works for me.
Dante again got to sleep in. The chickies all made it through the night. Yeah! The little goats needed their eyes wiped again. They were glued shut. I might need to get some boric acid (thanks for the suggestion, Camille) if the don’t clear by tomorrow. When Dante is not in the barnyard in the morning, I must milk Oreo. She prefers Dante, and tells me the whole time I’m milking her that I am not Dante. I think he must give her much more attention than I do.
Janie let down, but only gave 13+ pounds in the morning. She is not happy that her boy is in such a state. After we got the girls milked, we irrigated Yum-Yum’s wound with diluted betadine and then sprayed the wound spray on it. It looks good. There is some swelling, but there is plenty of drainage happening. I think tomorrow I’m going to mix up some saline to rinse with as well, and maybe even make some comfrey tea for irrigating the wound. Poor little guy. We gave him his penicillin injection again this morning. He doesn’t like that at all. I don’t blame him.
After milking, Camille and her friends came by to see the goaties. They enjoyed them. We were all holding one, and I had Butterscotch, AND HE WAS SNORING IN MY ARMS. That little stinker, he is so mellow, he just crashes out where ever he is, especially if he is in someone’s arms.
David and the boys went to get hay, while I stayed home and irrigated and protected my rib that is almost completely healed. The water overflowed a little bit into the barnyard (less than 2 gallons), and a some into the old chicken yard. I got it stopped and then shut off that field; it was the Northeast pasture. Then the boys and hay got home. We cut down the flow into the Southwest pasture and went to eat chile-cheese burgers and chile-cheese fries. The field had finished flooding by the time we got back.
David and I made a 4-foot radius berm around one of the apple trees with adobe bricks. It turned out well, and kept the water from running out. The idea is that the bricks will melt into each other and form a solid berm that the chickens won’t be able to scratch away.
After that, I went in to get milking stuff ready and David started unloading the hay. I asked the boys to help him after he had already done quite a bit. By the time they were done, it was time to milk. A shareholder showed up and I showed her and her 3-y/o son all the new babies. Janie let down again in the afternoon. Not a great amount, but better than the last several evenings. Annie is doing well, we got 2 gallons from her today. We again irrigated out Yum-Yum’s wound and sprayed it with the wound spray.
Dinner was “Spaghetti Pie” ala Crystal, but I’m not sure I did it correctly. It turned out delicious. Kind of like lasagna with spaghetti noodles and eggs.
I ground corn and soaked the meal in lime water for cornbread tomorrow. We cleaned and soaked 4 cups of beans. Tomorrow is Beans, Chicharones, Red chile, and Cornbread. Yummy!
Time to go separate Yum-Yum so we can have some milk in the morning.
Last night I ground flour and soaked it in buttermilk for bread today and pizza tonight.
Got to sleep in until 6:45. Yeah! On the weekends, Dante gets to sleep in, and David & I handle the morning chores. Janie wasn’t in quite as bad a shape as yesterday. She gave decent. The barnyard was easier to deal with, since it didn’t rain the night before.
After milking, we took Yum-Yum to the auction house to be banded and branded. It ended up being a fiasco. They were out of bands, so they said they would cut him. I figured they knew what they were doing, so I didn’t think much. Well, they didn’t let the brand get hot enough, so they had to re-heat, after they had already burned him, then it still wasn’t very hot and they held it a very long time. When they cut him, the young man cut his entire scrotum off. When they were done, he had a gaping hole in his abdomen with “stuff” (the internal portion of his penis) showing through and he was bleeding quite a lot. When we got him home, I sprayed it down with dilute betadine and put a bunch of cayenne pepper on it. Then I went to the feed store and got penicillin, stop bleed, tetanus, and a wound spray. By this evening, it seemed that even more was hanging through the wound, so I decided to sew it up. The feed store doesn’t carry suture material, so I got my mom to bring her curved needle and I got some dental floss. We tied his front feet to one post and his his back feet to another and laid him on a tarp. I irrigated the wound with a 20 ounce spray bottle of diluted peroxide and then with about 10 ounces of dilute betadine. With my father, Dante, and David holding him down, I then sewed up the wound. I left lots of space between the stitches for the wound to drain. It looked much better, obviously, with his insides staying inside. Oh, I am so mad at myself for letting them do that to him. I am going to learn how to do this myself and be the one responsible for doing it correctly or screwing it up. That poor baby!
David fixed a flat on the flatbed trailer so as to go get hay tomorrow. While doing that, he got smacked upside the head with the high-lift jack. I had to super-glue his wound together. He also harrowed the field to get ready to irrigate tomorrow. I finished the brooder. I put flashing along the perimeter, inside, so that there were no more corners for chickies to get stuck in. Then I added shavings. The bedding I left and wet down was starting to warm up composting. I filled the feeders, filled the waterers, got the clabber feeders ready, got they whey in the spray bottle (to prevent coccidosis, we spray down the chicklets with whey). As soon as I got back inside from that I got the call from the post office that the chicks were in. That is the first time I’ve been ready for the chicks before they arrived.
Amy, my neighbor (who was in on the ordering of the chicks) went to pick them up at the post office. I kneaded the dough and David got things ready to go out to milk. Amy got back with the chicks and she and I got mine into my brooder. Spray them down in the box, pull each one out, dunk it’s beak in water, dunk it’s beak in food, set down, wash, repeat x79.
After we got Yum-Yum back, we just left him unseparated all day. So of course, Janie had no milk in the afternoon. Annie did remarkably well. Sally was her usually wonderful self. After milking is when I decided to sew up Yum-Yum. So, I got the the stuff together and did it (as described above).
After the sewing up, we made the pizza and the bread. The Pizza was awesome with homemade mozzarella.
Yuck, what a day. I don’t want another like this for a long time!
Yeah! I worked out this morning. It felt good to jump on the trampoline again. I took it easy and didn’t get much air. I did wrap my ribs, just in case, but they felt fine, no signs of tenderness. Yippee! I think I can definitely go back to a full workout Monday. So I only got 4 days of working out this week, that was certainly better than the 1 day last week.
It rained last night again with thunder and lightening. I had Andre let Bear in, because he is afraid of the thunder. I let him out about 3:30 this morning. It seemed bitter cold outside, so that is when I decided to definitely jump on the trampoline instead of going out to walk. I didn’t want to be cold.
It was very cold this morning; not cold enough for coats, but almost. The wind was just bitter. When we got out to the barnyard for chores, Janie was leaking puddles of milk onto the ground. She had been bellering for Yum-Yum. Poor girl, but I was guessing she was going to let down just fine.
The barnyard was pretty wet, but I managed to rake the water out of all the puddles and get all the muck raked up. I rake and Dante scoops. It is still taking us quite a while to get things done, as the goaties require so much attention. They need to be photographed; they need to be held; they need to be kissed; they need to be squeezed; they need to be observed and then molested. My goodness, they are just pure trouble!
Eclair wouldn’t quit pestering me to let her help with the chores, so I had to succumb.
The babies have a little eye infection, so we had to bring them all into the milking parlor and wash their eyes with the water we use for washing the udder (hot water with glug of distilled white vinegar). Poor Eclair was so excited to check out the chickies, but Mama Hen was having nothing doing, and Eclair got a good peck on her face. Poor girl.
After washing the goaties eyes, we finally brought Janie into the barn. She let down without any problem, filling the bucket. Finally! Annie was next up and she also was very interested in the chickies. We think these are the first chickies she has ever seen. Well, Mama Hen wasn’t too happy to have Annie’s big ol’ head checking out her teeny, tiny babies, so she gave Annie what for on her nose. I just about died laughing to see Annie back away from that chicken. Afterwards, she was a lot more cautious in her checking out the babies.
This was after her being freaked out yesterday because she tried to eat a dust mask that was hanging on the stanchion. It popped her in the face, and she backed away from it like she had seen a ghost. Oh that girl cracks me up. She’s too curious for her own good. Annie did well in the morning too, since Yum-Yum didn’t nurse on her either.
Sally was her normal perfect beautiful self.
Dante went out to separate Yum-Yum at his regular time, 11:30 and found that he had not let him out, so…he was let out for an hour. We are starting to wean him, by leaving him locked up, except between morning milking and when we separate at 11:30. Janie is just holding up too much for him to be with her so much. He’s already weaning age, so I’m not too worried.
After milking and clean up, I started Marinara sauce for spaghetti for dinner After that, I ran to the feed store to get shavings for the brooder and a new waterer. I found what I hope to be a great addition to our chicken tractors in terms of waterers. I’ll get a picture tomorrow of what they look like, but they are 5-gallon siphoning waterers that can hang too. I bought 3 of them. I asked the store manager if he would give a volume discount; he gave me 11% off. Yeah!
I showed the little house to a potential renter as soon as I got back. Then it was time to rush off to Pansy’s for Dante’s math. When we got back home, my cousin, Cydelia, asked if she could bring her kiddos over to see the newest members of our farm. They had a great time playing with the goaties and seeing all the animals. They even helped milk the cows.
As you can see, we had a lot of helpers with the milking this afternoon.
Janie again didn’t let down very well in the afternoon. Ooooooh, that girl is being so bad these days. She’s got Bad Cow Disease. I cannot wait to remove Yum-Yum to Beef Camp. Part of her poor let down could have been because Yum-Yum was with her later. It could also have been partly due to having crowd in the milking parlor. It most likely was due to the fact that she is such a brat!
We cooked the pasta and I burned the garlic toast (but salvaged it after some scraping). Yummy.
Now, I’m done for the day and ready for bed.
G’night!
I did not exercise today. I tossed and turned all night, and then the storm woke me up around 2:30 and I had a hard time going back to sleep. It was thundering, lightening, and blowing enough for me to worry about the roof staying on the house. I was also worried about the goat babies. I should have checked on them and then I could have gone back to sleep, but instead I continued tossing, turning, and worrying. I guess I finally fell back asleep, because when the alarm went off at 5:30, I decided to reset for 7:00. I’ll exercise tomorrow.
Thursdays are Magda’s day. She is a 12-year-old apprentice that comes to work with me every week. She’s been coming since last fall. Her family are shareholders and fellow homeschoolers. I look forward to Thursdays every week. Magda got to meet the baby goats this morning.
When she got here, she was excited to have her mom, Valerie, show me her new iPhone. Magda knows how much I enjoy mine. She also took her mom out to meet the new baby goats.
Raking the barnyard was rather difficult due to wetness of the muck. Baby goats also did not help AT ALL. We had to stop and have several baby breaks. When we finally got to milking, Janie had no interest in being milked. We even brought in Yum-Yum to stimulate a let down; she did let down a little better, which is why we even got the 9.5 pounds. When Magda is here, I milk Janie and Annie with Dante, and Magda and Dante milk Sally Jo. She is able to completely milk Sally Jo out without my help.
After milking, we had several small mundane chores to do. We made a deposit. We ordered milk filters and butter muslin and rennet. We uploaded all the pictures we took during the baby breaks. This morning, we used the last of the carrots (for the girls’ treats) so we decided to go to Costco for carrots and lunch (Pizza). Dante, Magda, and I went to the bank and then to Costco. Fresh hot pizza is so yummy. At Costco, we realized Dante forgot to lock up Yum-Yum. As soon as we got home, he separated him. It was about 2 hours late.
After we returned, we decided to clean out the brooder, since the meat chicks should be arriving this weekend. We decided to dump all the old bedding on the ground so the chickens could scratch through it to find all the spilled food. We left about 6 inches and watered it down so it would compost and add warmth for the new chickies. It was so dusty. Magda and I had to put on dust masks. While we were cleaning out the brooder, the Fired Marshall’s office called to schedule my fire inspection for my business license. He arrived a few minutes after my aunt Pansy and cousin Camille and my mom; they had come to see the new goat babies. He deadpan informed us that, “Baby goats are not permitted.” I do need to put a fire extinguisher in the barn and hay shed, which I guess I should have thought of before. He also suggested smoke alarms, but they are not required. Another shareholder, Celeste, showed up during the goat appreciation party. And then yet one more shareholder and her young kiddos came. It was a regular Goat Party.
Magda helps me get ready for evening milking right before she gets picked up. Her father and younger sister, Danda, arrived just as we were getting started. Danda brought us some samples of the chocolate chip cookies she baked today. Yummy! We finished getting ready after they saw the babies. While we were getting ready it started raining and the temperature dropped. By the time Dante and I were out doing evening chores, it was cold enough for hats and coats. I got pretty chilled. Janie refused to give any milk at all. I know she had less because of the tardiness of locking up Yum-Yum, but this was ridiculous! We decided not to let him out after milking. He has hay and water and is old enough to be weaned. She better let down in the morning! When we were finishing up, the sun started to shine and the rain stopped. We did get a beautiful rainbow.
We had goat/lentil stew. I had some frozen from January. I made garlic toast to go with it. It was quite nice to have hot stew after the day got so cold. I even put on long johns before going out to clean the brooder.
I made it out at exactly the same time as yesterday, 5:48 AM. I guess 3 minutes really doesn’t make a difference. Buttercup and I walked again. Our Walk was 2.02 miles with an average of 16.03 minute miles. This time I took Buttercup’s sling in case she got tired, which she did; I carried her for the last quarter mile or so. I thought we walked faster today, but it was actually a little slower. Oh well, it was a good workout.
I made buttermilk/potato pancakes for breakfast. They were so yummy with maple syrup and butter on them. Ezra picked up Andre to take him to CNM for me, so I fed him some pancakes too.
After breakfast, Dante searched the perimeter and found the short in the fence and repaired it. He also tested Bear’s collar to make sure it had good batteries before he let Bear out of the shed. It worked, because Bear stayed in the yard all day. Yeah Dante!!!!
When we went out to the barn, Carmy had kidded 5, with 3 live kids and 2 dead kids. She looked so skinny, compared to her rotund prior self. There are 2 boys and 1 girl. They are so cute. I’ll get the photos uploaded tomorrow. The girl is the runt. She seemed to not be doing as well as the 2 larger boys, so we milked some colostrum into a large syringe and fed her some. She seemed to perk up and then started nursing on her own. We let Carmy eat all the grain for all 3 goats (yes we got more for the other two) and we gave her a gallon of warm water with 1 cup of molasses in it. She seemed to appreciate greatly; getting the crazed molasses eyes. We moved them all into the Goat Shed.
Needless to day, we were quite delayed in our morning chores. We didn’t get back to the house until 11:00! We are usually done by 9:30 or 10:00. Mama hen got off her nest and so only has 4 chicks. This afternoon I cracked the remaining eggs and there were 4 dead chicks and 1 egg. Oh well, she has 4 cuties and they are healthy.
I made Workshop fliers to put up at the La Montanita Co-op bulletin boards at each location in town and at the Western Mercantile (one of my local feed-stores). I printed little tags to be ripped off with the name of the workshop and my contact info. I hope it generates some interest.
The little house is up for rent again, and I called references on an applicant today. All the references had very similar things to say, which was encouraging. I’ve offered her the house.
Dante had math with Pansy today. While he was there, I put the fliers up at the Co-op. On the way home, we stopped at the Feed Store to put some up there too.
Afternoon milking was uneventful. The babies were as cute as ever and doing well. Andre & Ezra came home and saw the babies, but were not appreciative enough of their cuteness. I saw the little girl’s itty bitty, tweeny weeny teats. OMG, they are the cutest thing ever! They are smaller than a grain of rice. I think I could just eat up that little girl.
Dinner was porkchops massaged with bacon fat, garlic, parsley, salt, and pepper. Placed in a stonewear pan and topped with thinly sliced grapefruit and baked to perfection, at which point, the slices come off and they get toasty on top. Savory potato/rice fluffy fritters. Garlic toast. Greens.
I worked on an estimate for a potential AI client this evening. And, YEAH, I’ve gotten my second in a row blog done (barely, I’m falling asleep at the blog
I also called Dan the Hay Man and got an appointment to get hay on Sunday.
G’night
Yes, Janie is holding up so much. I cannot wait to take Yum-Yum to his beef camp. I need to band and brand him first though. I’ll either take him Saturday to Cattleman’s Livestock Auction or I guess I better do it myself. I’m hoping to get hay this weekend, so maybe the auction on Saturday (the only day they can do it) and then hay on Sunday. I guess calling Dan the Hay Man is on my To-Do List for tomorrow. But I digress…back to the topic of Janie and her super hold up today. She’s been giving less and less these days and then one day, she’ll give a whole bunch.
We are waiting on Carmy (Dante’s goat) to kid. We’ve been actively waiting for 2 weeks and still no babies. Her tail is about to fall off and her pin bones can’t get any looser and her bag is huge and her vulva is gaping open (you could drive a toy Buick up there). Poor girl. She is as round as a beach ball. The last time she kidded, over a year ago, she had 6 babies. Only two survived. We have been locking her in the milking shed at night just to keep her safe. I thought she was in labor today, but I think she was just very uncomfortable.
There is a mama hen under the goat stanchion setting on a nest. Yesterday the peeps starting coming out. Yesterday there were 2. This afternoon there are 4. She still has 5 more eggs to hatch. I hope they hatch tonight. This morning, we couldn’t stand not knowing how many chicks she had. We lifted the goat stanchion off so we could have easier access to her. She tried to kill Dante’s glove. I managed to pick her up and we saw 3 peeps this morning. She was very angry. I asked Dante, “I thought we weren’t going to interfere?” He said, “That was yesterday.” This afternoon, she had taken them out for a little walk and we saw 4. Yeah. She went back to setting on the others that have not hatched yet. I hope we get all 9 hatched.
After afternoon milking, we went to Frontier for dinner. Andre drove us both ways. He did really well. He had to drive home in the dark. I’ve not driven with him in the dark before. I’m proud of him. He remembered to dim his brights anytime we met another car.
We got home to our dog, Bear, being out and me having to cruise the neighborhood for him. I found him. Now he is locked in a shed; and tomorrow, we will try to find the short in the electric fence.
Well, it’s my second day of eating food again after my 2-week milk-fast (actually I was only drinking milk for 2 weeks- no food). I really like to chew.The bacon, green-chile, cheeseburger was very good tonight.
Buttercup and I went for a morning walk this morning. We went 1.94 miles in 30:52 minutes with an average pace of 15:52/minute/miles. We’ll do it again in the morning. Hopefully I get started on time tomorrow, 5:45 AM.
I’ve done it! I’ve completed one day of my goal of blogging. Goodnight.
Well, it’s been a LONG time since I’ve blogged. Things have been busy, and I’ve been neglectful. I do want to get back into it, so my goal is to spend 10-20 minutes every evening takin’ care o’ business.
I’ll do a quick re-intro of things and then tonight, hopefully my first installment of my new way of life will happen.
So…The cows we have on the farm now are:
Sally Jo, still my favorite girl, but don’t tell the others
Janie, still a sweetheart. She calved December 19, 2009 and gave us a half red Angus bull calf, whose name is Yum-Yum Eat ‘im Up, but we call him Dum-Dum for short. He will be leaving to go to beef camp soon (a friend’s farm who pastures him until it is time for freezer camp, next summer).
Annie, I’m not sure if we had her as of my last blogging. She came from Nebraska and was traded in part for Molly (meaning Molly was only a small part of her price). She is a first time freshener, and has been in milk since last May. She is a cutie and still a teenager.
Dante still has the goats, Coco, Carmie, Oreo, and Hildago. He has a new doe (the first ever born on our farm) Pumpkin Pie, and a new buck (about 9 months old), Brown Boy (formerly Stupid Brown Baby Boy, but shortened because he is not a baby anymore and we are trying to stop hurting his feelings). Oreo and Coco are in milk and Oreo is being milked. Poor Oreo had a still born about a month ago.
Penelope, the American Guinea Hog sow, has just had her third litter. We butchered the first litter. YUMMY! The second litter will be ready for butcher in a couple of months. Orwell, the American Guinea Hog boar, is out being a pigolo (being studded out) again. He should be back soon.
We still have assorted chickens and Duck-Duck-Goose (2 ducks who know they are ducks and one goose who thinks she is a duck/person).
I have been trained and certified and licensed in Bovine Artificial Insemination (AI) and am starting to build that as part of the services offered here at the farm.
I am also offering workshops on homesteading topics. Check out the page here on the blog to your right and also check out the Learning Center on my main website. www.pintsizedfarm.com
We used the dehorning paste on the little goat kid. YUCK. It was awful. He screamed and screamed and screamed. We decided that we will suck it up and get the disbudding iron. That at least is only while it is being done. As soon as you stop burning it, then they seem to be okay.
The boys and I put of split (lengthwise) cattle panels up between Amy & Colby’s yard and our yard over the top of the fence to keep Zed inside our yard. He was jumping over the 5-foot tin fence to get into their yard to play with their Beagle. That evening, I saw him trying to get over, and he jumped right into the fence and bounced off and landed on the ground. I hope he learns from that. It was pretty awful work though, with all the Pyracantha. I got a thorn slapped into my upper lip- it bled for about 10 minutes.
I baked 2 loaves of bread, about a dozen English muffins, about a half dozen pita breads, and 4 flat breads (I forgot to let the first batch of pitas rise, so they are just flat bread, but YUMMY).
Sweete milked in the PM. She said Annie was in a RAGING standing heat.
I shaved Buttercup, to make picking the ticks off of her every night easier. Poor littler girl, she has so many ticks. As a result of shaving her, we realized just how FAT she is. She needs a diet or some exercise. I guess I should try and take her for a walk every day.
Milk Stats: We milked 7.31 gallons; Sally gave 26.7 pounds or 3.24 gallons; Janie gave 22.2 pounds or 2.7 gallons; Annie gave 11.3 pounds or 1.37 gallons (down because of her heat); we collected 23 eggs or 1.92 dz.
Ground and soaked flour for bread. I mixed brown rice, red wheat, oat groats, and spelt. I planned to make pancakes, English muffins and try pita again the next day.
Worked on budgeting.
Milk Stats: We milked 7.38 gallons; Sally gave 26.8 pounds or 3.23 gallons; Janie gave 21.1 pounds or 2.55 gallons; Annie gave 13.2 pounds or 1.59 gallons; we collected 23 eggs or 1.92 dz.
