Tube Feeding a Little Doeling

Maybe it was all the training we had with our 4 preemie babies, but tube feeding this little doeling has been a breeze.  I just wish we didn't have to do it. I wish she was big and healthy like her sister.

She is progressing just like our "real" kids did when they were preemies. First it is the entire meal through a tube. After a few days, there will be some interest in taking a bottle - but only a little - so the rest of the meal is fed through a tube. Then, finally, the baby is strong enough to take a bottle for the entire meal.  Once that happens, there is no looking back - they eat like mad and grow like weeds.

The only thing that is a little bothersome is inserting the tube down her throat and into her belly.  It doesn't seem to bother her at all - just me.  I can't imagine what that feels like - having a tube in your throat. I would think you would have a constant gagging/choking feeling. Yuck! This little doeling just takes it all in stride. No problems. Just insert tube, feed, remove tube, sleep.

Today, she finally took a bottle for the entire meal. Yeah! She is much stronger now. She spends her days playing in the yard with the kids and her nights warm in our garden tub in our master bathroom.  She has quite a set-up. A room for royalty. Her bed is lined with soft towels and she has a heater in the bathroom to keep the room at a comfy 80 degrees. She gets "breakfast in bed" at 3am. What a charmed life!!

We just need to pick a name for her.

Complaining Gets You What You Want

Apparently if you complain on your blog about getting nothing but bucklings then your next doe will kid doelings.  Jane, our eldest and most docile Saanen of our goat family gave birth yesterday to two doelings.  We have yet to name them, we leave that to our oh so imaginative 3 year old daughter, Quinlynn. 

Quin has named all of our Rhode Island Red chickens (see our first image of our first blog) Larry.  The only Rooster of the bunch was named Charlie, our ducklings were named Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  She named our calf flower.  She even named the puppy that was sewn onto her shirt Breakfast.  She's got quite the imagination, for a three year old her vocabulary will amaze you.  Everyday she makes me laugh by just what she says.  I mean how many 3 year olds say "Thank you for the (whatever), it was extremely delicious and my tummy enjoyed it very much".  She used to say words incorrectly and it was cute.  Like the word burrfly instead of butterfly, but now she can say it correctly and just for fun if someone calls it a burrfly she will put her hands on her hips and correct how you say it... you might even get a finger wagging in your face while she tells you how to say the word correctly.

So, getting back on topic.... Jane's babies.  One of them is healthy as can be but unfortunately one of them is a runt and we are feeding her our self.  She is right now residing in our bath tub and will come out when it is feeding time.  Her development is slow so for the first 6 feedings Nicole had to tube feed her.  This evening our oldest daughter, Alexia was successful in bottle feeding her which is a very important step, it means that she is gaining strength and the will to survive.  Since she is staying in the house with us, we put a diaper on her and let her roam the house.

Up next is our 2nd Nubian, Primrose (Prim for short).  She was bred just three days after Jane was bred so we should be right back in the action of new babies on Thursday if we are lucky.  Maybe I should complain more about the boys we got earlier to ensure doelings from Prim..... here's hoping.

so the preliminary names that Quinlynn has given them is "Baby Jane and Little Baby Jane"

Bucklings, The New Way to Network

So we have had two of our does give birth so far, in the beginning of March, Blush, our two year old Nubian gave birth to twin bucklings.  This past Tuesday our Clover gave birth to a large Saanan buckling.  We are happy that both of the births came without incident and that we were lucky enough to have Nicole right there during both births so she can help the mommy's out.  All that aside... come...on... couldn't we get at least one little doe!!!? 

Alot of dairy goat farmers call bucklings a useless animal and it is not uncommon to drown the little guys before they have a chance to even make their first baby goat baa sound.  I have found that these three little guys, athough not useful in dairy production, have helped us in a way no doe of ours could do.  They have given us a contact to some families that really love animals.  Some of the families who get these little guys are using them to naturally clear fields and some families are opting to have their buckling registered and using our bloodline as their own stud service.  For whatever the reason for buying the boys from us, we get to learn about, and from, their new owners.

Last night Nicole and I spent a good amount of time with really friendly and positive people.  They saw our ad on Craigslist for the sale of our Saanan buckling, emailed us, and gave us their phone number to contact them.  They arrived at our house around 8 last night and we didn't get back into our house until almost 10. 

Right off the bat we found that they were from Michigan (we are taking over Georgia) so if nothing else we already had something in common to talk about.  But the talk of Michigan was short lived, we started talking about how we got to the point we are now, why we are doing this and where we are trying to go.  We have found so many like-minded people that, if nothing else, appreciate and adapt some our methods to be part of their own. 

Now beyond our rant of feed, pasture grazing, our rotational pastures of our chickens, the free range ducks (that would rather stay near the house than the pond), all of our raised vegetable gardens, our bees (and the organic ways to treat them), the soon to arrive turkeys, our cows, and the future pigs (come to think of it, we talk alot); we got to listen to how and why they got their goats, the neat tradition they have every year making and preserving apple cider, their hay bailing business and their overall values of starting and maintaining their new small farm venture. 

When they decided they should leave, we ended up with someone we can call if ever we need to bounce ideas off of, and we made sure that if they needed help with anything that they are more than welcome to call, stop by or contact us anytime they wanted.

We, by no means, know all the answers but we have tried and failed enough times in different aspects of this farm and we are more than willing to share what we did, how we screwed up, and help others, hopefully costing them alot less in expenses (and time) than it cost us.

This is our little Saanan that was sold last night

The above two nubians were our very first bucklings, notice the little diapers we had on them so they could stay in our house. 

Farm School Weekend at Nature's Harmony Farm

This weekend Ted and I went to a Farm School Weekend at Nature's Harmony Farm.  All I can say is "WOW!".  Before I get into the details of all the things we saw and learned, let me give you a bit of the backstory as to how we ended up at Nature's Harmony Farm.

It started with the movie Food, Inc.  It is a great movie and I was really amazed at what it had to say.  I was touched by the farmers featured on the film - especially one in particular, Joe Salatin.  Well, if you are into the agriculture farming sustainable living type of thing you know that Joe Salatin has "rock star-like" status in the farming world.  Anyway, when I got the chance, I bought a bunch of his books off of Amazon and started reading. 

During that time, Ted and I had signed up for a kind of "on-line farmer's market" called Athen's Locally Grown (ALG).  We started selling our surplus of eggs to the online members (at what we considered an amazing price but what was considered "fair market value" for free-range, farm fresh, natural brown eggs).  We quickly realized that our chickens were going to be able to pay for all the feed that we need for all the animals on the farm with money left over!  We were thrilled and knew we were going to be regular sellers on the ALG market!

During this time I had seen an ad in Acres magazine for a "Field-Day on July 9th" at Joe Salatin's Polyface Farm. It would require us to travel to VA, and have family fly here from Michigan to watch the kids, but I finally convinced Ted that we "needed" to go.

About the third time we listed (and sold out) our eggs on ALG, I was just finishing reading the last Joe Salatin book I had purchased.  As anyone who knows me can tell you, I am never without a book for long.  It just so happened Tim and Liz Young from Nature's Harmony Farm posted their new book "The Accidental Farmers" for sale that week on Athen's Locally Grown.  I thought about buying it, but didn't. 

That week when I was delivering the egg order placed online, I parked next to the large delivery truck of Nature's Harmony Farm.  I saw a couple of people talking at the back of the truck so I quickly checked my purse to see if I had any cash.  I headed over to the man and woman and asked if they happened to have any books left over that I could buy.  That is how I met Tim and Liz Young.

Our conversation wasn't long or life changing or anything, but I left them with that good feeling you get when you meet someone so nice it really make's your day better. Later that night I started to read the book....and....didn't.....stop.  I swear, it was like someone had written my and Ted's story.  Obviously, some of the details were different but it was "our story" nonetheless. 

Forget Joe Salatin - I had new "farming 'Rock Star' idols" and it was Tim and Liz Young.

Their book motivated me to check out the Nature's Harmony Farm website.  While there, I discovered the "Farm School Weekend" upcoming event.  This time, it didn't take much convincing at all.  Ted saw that Nature's Harmony Farm was only an hour and a half away and that meant no long car rides, hotel costs or visting relatives so he told me to "sign us up".

All winter I was looking forward to that weekend. I was so excited! Then, about a week before "the big event" I discovered that Preston's Solo & Ensemble music festival (which he was in four different events and in one of them was performing a piece of music that he had arrainged himself) AND Preston's prom was on that same Saturday.

Let's just say, I am probably not in the running for mother of the year for 2011.  I told Preston that since this was not his senior prom then it really doesn't count anyway and I asked him to ask some of his friends to take him to and home from the music festival.  Honestly, I am not as heartless as this makes me sound.  I really, really, really wanted to go to the festival - and I probably would have if I didn't know we would loose the $900 we paid for the farm weekend.  Although, I do admit, I was indifferent on the Prom thing.  Preston is a Sophomore after all, he still has plenty of "proming opportunities" ahead of him.

The Thursday before the "big weekend" Ted and I got in a horrible fight.  The kind that makes you change your facebook status to "divorced" (yes, I really did that, I was that mad - LOL).  It was so bad we didn't even talk to each other on Friday.  Friday evening I asked Ted if he was still coming to the farm weekend with me and he said "I don't know, I'll see".  UGH!  Needless to say Saturday morning the car ride to Nature's Harmony Farm was tense and I could tell that Ted was not looking forward to spending the weekend with Tim and Liz as I was (what can I say, he didn't read the book - LOL!).  We arrived at 8:55am and "school" started at 9. 

You'll hear all about Farm School Weekend 2011 in the next post.

Tim and Liz Young
Nature's Harmony Farm

Making Laundry Soap and Window Cleaner

Today I ran out of our homemade laundry soap so I needed to make another batch.  We have been using this laundry soap for close to 4 years now - I will never go back to the store bought variety!  This works great and best of all, there are no harsh chemicals, no added perfumes and dyes.

We have tried several different types of soap for the recipe but we always seem to go back to Fels Naptha.  We used Zote a few times (I kind of liked the mild scent and the fact that it would produce some soap suds - something the Fels-Naptha recipe DOES NOT do).  We found that Zote does not dissolve well and creates huge clumps of soap - even when we shaved the soap into very fine flakes.  I have never tried Ivory (even though I have over 100 bars of it sitting in my overstock cabinet) - but you CAN use Ivory soap, it is often much easier to find than Fels-Naptha.

Here is the recipe that we use:


Makes 10 Gallons:
1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1 Bar of Fels-Naptha (or soap bar of your choice)
5 Gallon Bucket with lid

You need to shave the bar of soap into soap flakes.  Many people use a handheld cheese grater.  Depending on how much time I have, I will too - but many times I just grind up the bar in our food processor.  It saves me a ton of time and I have never had any of our food taste "soapy" after using it.  Just throw the food processor parts in the dishwasher when you are done.  Once you have "soap flakes",  dissolve them into about 4 cups of water heating in a sauce pan on your stovetop.  Heat and stir until flakes have completely dissovled - DO NOT LET THIS MIXTURE BOIL - trust me - it causes a HUGE mess.  Once dissolved, dump the mixture into the 5 gallon bucket.  Add in the 1 cup of Borax and 1 cup of Washing Soda.  (Tip: leave the bucket on the floor and use your kitchen sink sprayer for the next step.)  Fill the bucket (stirring occassionally) with hot tap water.  Stir it all up - MIX WELL.  Put the lid on the bucket and leave it for 24 hours. 

After 24 hours you will find it has turned into a gel.  Mix the gel up WELL with your hands - you will need to reach all the way in to mix it well so wear a short sleeved shirt.  (Tip: let the kids do this step, they love it!)   I bought a long 24 inch spoon from lehmans.com to use for this and it works great it just takes a bit of muscle at first.  Once the gel has gone (almost) back to a liquid, fill your old Tide (or whatever you have) bottle HALF WAY with the soap mixture - fill the other half with hot water.  That is how you turn this recipe into 10 gallons, by diluting the mixture in your laundry bottle.  To measure out the soap for your wash, just use the laundry cap that is on the old Tide bottle you are using.  If you are using an old plastic pitcher like we do, just use 1 cup.

The only thing you will have to get adjusted to is that there is no soap suds with this recipe.  Trust me, it really works great.  If you just can't live without the perfumes, add about 10-15 drops of your favorite essential oil scent to your 5 gallon bucket.  We like that there are no perfumes, it helps us when we are working the beehives........but more on that later.

While we are on the subject of homemade cleaner recipes, I thought I would share the one I use for window cleaner.  It is really simple and not to mention cheap.

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/2 teaspoon liquid soap or dish detergent

2 cups water

Put it all in a spray bottle, give it a shake right before you spray it. 

If you have ever tried using just vinegar for a glass cleaner before, you might have been very frustrated by the results because of the streaks that were left. Unfortunately, the commercial glass cleaning products that you used before left a wax buildup on your mirrors and glass and vinegar alone is unable to remove the residue.
The good news though: The recipe above will work for you because adding a dab of dish soap to the vinegar and water removes the buildup.

 

Be Careful What You Wish For......

I have been begging Ted to buy me a dairy cow.  My dream was to get one so we can hand milk her at the same time we are milking the goats.  I could picture cheese, yogurt, ice cream, butter...all the wonderful things that we could make.  Well, we answered a craigslist ad for a "very tame, healthy Jersey heifer. Hand milked.".  We went out last Friday to look her over.  She was a beauty - and if we bought her we had to get her 3 month old heifer calf as well.  Also, she had been bred to a Beefmaster bull.  So I guess it was like getting 3 cows for the price of one.  The farmer was nice enough to deliver her (them) to the farm the next day since we had no way of transporting a full grown cow.

It has been 3 days and I am over my "hand milking a cow" dream.  UGH!  She won't let me near her - oh, I can get close, and even reach down a milk her a bit but if I want to come near that cow with a bucket.....forgetaboutit!  She bucks around like something possessed.  I'll be honest - I am terrified of her.  She is HUGE and she really throws her weight around if I am making her do something she is not interested in doing.  Not to mention, she must have said some bad things about me to her calf because there is no way that little girl will come within 10 feet of me.

Well, this is a very expensive lesson learned.  I guess I will see how things go over the next couple of days.

Welcome to Heaven!

Welcome to Seventh Heaven Farm's newest edition - our very own blog!  You will now be able to follow along with us on our journey as we learn and grow on our beautiful 7 acres.