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.

Production:
Janie: 9.5 pounds
Annie: 10.6 pounds
Sally Jo: 20.3 pounds
Eggs: 21 pounds

IT’S POURING RAIN RIGHT NOW.

ARGH- Janie held up terribly today!

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’m ready for bed now. G’night.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Farm Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.