Iron and livestock
IT'S NOT RAINING!
It also wasn't raining last evening when the people I was waiting for were an hour late. Without calling.
AN HOUR!
That's really late. How long do you wait for someone? Although I wasn't really waiting, as I was at the ranch and I can always find something to do, but I was ready to go home by the time they showed up.
Then they didn't come to find me, they just wandered into one of the barns to look at the goats, I had to go to them!
It's been a pretty hectic few days, starting on Wednesday morning with the sheep.
I had to haul 2 lambs to the butcher and of course it was pouring down rain. I still had some work to do on the newly re furbished little stock trailer, so after chores I got that done. Mostly, re fitting the back gate where I had pulled the sides together to weld the top bar, and (duh) of course now the gate no longer fit. And my fix was lame, so now I have to completely re do the gate. But, I had it so it was good enough to use.
Gathering up the sheep went smoothly, Abby and I got them right into the pen. Meanwhile, the doe I had been waiting on to kid ( as I had no breeding date on her) decided this very moment was as good a time as any.
So I went back and forth between dealing with the lambs and dealing with Rare Treat. In the end, the doe had twin bucks, which makes life easier for me, and the trailer worked better than I had expected.
I used to haul the lambs in the back of my truck, which not only entailed a tricky maneuver opening up the tailgate and the cap top while trying to keep the first lamb in, but also lifting the 100+ LB lambs up about 2 feet.
The back gate of the trailer opens like a door so it was easy to open and just shove the lambs in; and it's only about 8" off the ground so they just walk in or I can roll them in from their butts. It was really great. That operation had been too hard, and I usually tried to enlist someone to help me with it, which I really would rather not do.
Lambs loaded, doe settled with her kids, I drove to Eureka and dropped the lambs off, then up to Arcata to help a friend on her dairy. Our plan was to trim hooves, but we ended up disbudding her new crop of kids, which for some of them were a little past due.
That done, we spent time visiting with the goats. She has a lot of my old herd including some does I had even before I had the dairy. I think both Betty and Symmetra were born in Bear River. If not, it was soon after we moved here, and we've been here for 10 years.
Then I got to dig through the pile of scrap metal, which was really exciting! In the pouring rain, so I don't think J was as into it as I was. There's almost a whole milk stanchion in there, the first one M built for their barn. It was built for 12 goats with headlocks and a steel floor, but J thinks it is a bit bent. I saw 3 headlocks sticking out of the pile, I really would only want 4, at most 6 anyway. I couldn't get it out, but I'll come back when M is there and can use the tractor to pull it out. I got quite a lot of box steel and a nice piece of heavy sheet. There's quite a bit of good iron in there, I'll go back with the little flatbed trailer and get more!!
Home again in the driving pouring rain and I unload the steel and put the little trailer back in the barn.
A Bath and just as I lay down in fresh clean dry clothes I get a call that a friends doe is having trouble kidding, could I come to help?
Back into coveralls and boots I head out. I was a little worried about helping someone elses goat, but past experience reminds me to just treat the doe as if it were my own.
Fortunately, it was an easy delivery and everything came out well. Oh, except the doe should have been bred to one buck, but she was obviously bred to the other buck, of a different breed. Good thing the kids were both bucks..
It also wasn't raining last evening when the people I was waiting for were an hour late. Without calling.
AN HOUR!
That's really late. How long do you wait for someone? Although I wasn't really waiting, as I was at the ranch and I can always find something to do, but I was ready to go home by the time they showed up.
Then they didn't come to find me, they just wandered into one of the barns to look at the goats, I had to go to them!
It's been a pretty hectic few days, starting on Wednesday morning with the sheep.
I had to haul 2 lambs to the butcher and of course it was pouring down rain. I still had some work to do on the newly re furbished little stock trailer, so after chores I got that done. Mostly, re fitting the back gate where I had pulled the sides together to weld the top bar, and (duh) of course now the gate no longer fit. And my fix was lame, so now I have to completely re do the gate. But, I had it so it was good enough to use.
Gathering up the sheep went smoothly, Abby and I got them right into the pen. Meanwhile, the doe I had been waiting on to kid ( as I had no breeding date on her) decided this very moment was as good a time as any.
So I went back and forth between dealing with the lambs and dealing with Rare Treat. In the end, the doe had twin bucks, which makes life easier for me, and the trailer worked better than I had expected.
I used to haul the lambs in the back of my truck, which not only entailed a tricky maneuver opening up the tailgate and the cap top while trying to keep the first lamb in, but also lifting the 100+ LB lambs up about 2 feet.
The back gate of the trailer opens like a door so it was easy to open and just shove the lambs in; and it's only about 8" off the ground so they just walk in or I can roll them in from their butts. It was really great. That operation had been too hard, and I usually tried to enlist someone to help me with it, which I really would rather not do.
Lambs loaded, doe settled with her kids, I drove to Eureka and dropped the lambs off, then up to Arcata to help a friend on her dairy. Our plan was to trim hooves, but we ended up disbudding her new crop of kids, which for some of them were a little past due.
That done, we spent time visiting with the goats. She has a lot of my old herd including some does I had even before I had the dairy. I think both Betty and Symmetra were born in Bear River. If not, it was soon after we moved here, and we've been here for 10 years.
Then I got to dig through the pile of scrap metal, which was really exciting! In the pouring rain, so I don't think J was as into it as I was. There's almost a whole milk stanchion in there, the first one M built for their barn. It was built for 12 goats with headlocks and a steel floor, but J thinks it is a bit bent. I saw 3 headlocks sticking out of the pile, I really would only want 4, at most 6 anyway. I couldn't get it out, but I'll come back when M is there and can use the tractor to pull it out. I got quite a lot of box steel and a nice piece of heavy sheet. There's quite a bit of good iron in there, I'll go back with the little flatbed trailer and get more!!
Home again in the driving pouring rain and I unload the steel and put the little trailer back in the barn.
A Bath and just as I lay down in fresh clean dry clothes I get a call that a friends doe is having trouble kidding, could I come to help?
Back into coveralls and boots I head out. I was a little worried about helping someone elses goat, but past experience reminds me to just treat the doe as if it were my own.
Fortunately, it was an easy delivery and everything came out well. Oh, except the doe should have been bred to one buck, but she was obviously bred to the other buck, of a different breed. Good thing the kids were both bucks..
posted by sarah at 9:57 AM
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