Someone else wants to ride my donkeys

My phone rang this morning.  "Karen, grab the camera if you want a picture...."   I just knew the photo opportunity would be gone by the time I got outside.  I should play the lottery today because I was lucky.  Look what I captured.  Is this sweet or what?

She did it several times.

James said she stayed on much longer before I got out there.  I think Chy likes it because it feels good on her back.  Or maybe she just likes giving Respa rides.

New vehicle in the garage

It's not really new.  Most of you who know me and James know we don't buy new vehicles.  You might also know we don't keep our cars/truck in a garage.  Who would use precious garage space on a station wagon with 300,000+ miles on it?  Or a 1987 rusted out Dodge Ram that we haul manure in?  Our latest model is a 2002 Toyota.  Even it doesn't rate garage space.  This "new" vehicle is an antique.  Really it's in the garage only until we build a covered space for it in our field with the mammoth donkeys or make a cover for it. 

Last night James and I had a very romantic date.  We drove 2 hours one way to purchase this.  Sweet, huh?

Even the thought of this "donkey" cart is romantic to me.  James and I took turns pulling each other around the driveway today.  It pulls like a dream. 

I'd called about this horse cart a few days ago (Craigslist) and James said he wanted to go with me to look at it.  It was a relaxing and scenic drive.  James read to me, Goat Song, by Brad Kessler, as I drove.  I knew I wanted it the moment I saw it.   It also came with a complete harness which I think will fit Willo (my driving-donkey-to-be).  I need to learn how to harness a donkey first.  On the way home we stopped for dinner in downtown Staunton.  For those of you who live in the area you really should have dinner at Zynodoa.  They serve delicious local cuisine and wine.  It has a nice atmosphere and it's close to Blackfriars Playhouse, in case you want to catch some Shakespeare in a gorgeous timberframe theatre. 

It almost felt like we were on vacation.  It was dark when we arrived home so the cart spent the night in the bed of the Dodge.  Today I cleaned it up, along with the harness and James made room for it in one of the garage bays. 

I can't wait to ride around our field with Willo leading the way.  I've been ground driving her lately and she's doing great.  It won't be long till she pulls us in our spiffy chariot.  Now that will be a romantic date.

Pigs, goats, snapping turtles, turkeys, donkeys, dogs....................

It took a few days to get back in the swing of things but I think we have things under control (well almost).  We returned from the beach very relaxed.  That lasted a few hours.  We found we had a toilet leak at the house we're selling.  Our goat barn was infested with chicken mites and when you walked in there you were covered with them in seconds.  Very gross.  The first morning back my 3 month old kid, Respa, had weak legs and could hardly stand up.  One of my mammoth donkeys has been struggling with laminitis and has sores on her sides from lying down so much.  Our grass was shin-high and needed desperately to be cut.  A few days ago we got a call that Keri had been visiting neighbors regularly and had also been seen in the road.  Piglets needed to be castrated.  It was a pretty long to-do list.

All these things have been taken care of except for the mammoth donkey's painful feet but I'm doing my best to make her comfortable again.  James and I castrated the piglets and that went well.  Five boys now have little lines on their backsides but you'd never know they had surgery because they ran around like nothing happened almost immediately. 

I'm now letting them explore the big pasture for a few hours a day and they love that.  The donkeys and goats didn't know what to make of these busy little creatures.


When it's time to get them back to their fence for the night all I have to do is call them.


Keri is now living fulltime with the girl goats and standard donkeys.  We can't have her leaving the property so right now that's our only choice.  She didn't look very happy about it at first but now she seems to have settled in and everyone is getting along fine.  There's lots in that pasture she finds appetizing and I don't mean grass. 

I took her and Lex to the river yesterday so they could play and run.  I was gong to follow Keri across the creek but didn't want to get my feet wet so I looked for the perfect stepping stone.  As I got closer to a rock which would make an easy hop across I discovered it had lines in it.

I changed my mind.

The boy goats are getting more active now that we've had some cooler days and I think they're anticipating breeding season, which won't be for 2 more months here.



The turkeys are annoying but what can you do?  I think I'll stick with the Bourbon Reds from now on.  They're way more polite than the giant breeds.  I don't know why that is.  Here's a giant white carrying lots of food in its crop.  Some of them always have doggy bags swinging back and forth from their neck.

The first few days back I was thinking about when we could take our next trip.  Now I'm having fun again.   The past two days have been just as relaxing as vacation.

  

More Vacation

We've decided not to go home.....at least not till Wednesday.  The B&B owners invited us to stay another day.  We couldn't think of a reason not to and our farm sitter said it was ok so we're staying put today.   I feel really lucky we're able to do things like this.  We can't stay much longer, though, because I'll weigh 200 lbs.  To say we've been eating well would be an understatement.

Last night's sunset was beautiful.  This picture was taken on the pier at Adam and Melissa's. 

Adam took this panoramic picture with his phone.

The 4 of us climbed Jockey's Ridge - the largest natural sand dune on the east coast.


Our B&B has kayaks available for the guests so James and I checked out the coastline.

They also have bicycles which we plan to ride through the nearby preserve today.  If you're looking for a quiet place to stay in the Outer Banks we highly recommend Cypress Moon B&B in Kitty Hawk.  Linda and Greg own two houses side by side, with 3 bedrooms in each.  We got a tour of the house nextdoor and it's beatiful.  It's a relaxing place to be.


I guess my next blog entry will be written from Elk Cliff Farm, which seems to be doing just fine without me.

What I'm doing on vacation

It's just after Noon, James is out running and I'm all alone in our room at Cypress Moon B&B in Kitty Hawk.  The air conditioning is so cold I'm wearing long sleaves with a down comforter over my lap as I sit on my Tempurpedic bed with  2 pillows behind my back.  On the night stand next to me is a piece of crusty bread, some Nordic Grumpy Goat cheese and a glass of wine.  Divine!  Edit:  James informed me later there was a sign saying "no eating in bed".  Oops.  I'm glad I didn't spill anything.  Sorry, Linda and Greg.  I usually behave better (not).

Maybe I should be out doing something, at least sitting on the beach reading a book, but right now this is all I want to do.  We haven't been able to sleep late yet so I figured sitting in bed in the afternoon is the next best thing, maybe even better.  This morning we got up at 6:30 to take a Wild Horse Adventure Tour.  The tour guide was quite the entertainer and didn't seem to ever get tired of talking.  We gave him a tip even though I bit all my nails off on the jeep ride back on the beach.  It was a good way to spend the morning, see the sights and learn about the island.  Adam seems very comfortable in his role as a guide and it was fun seeing him in an environment that's all his own and I know nothing about. 

If I get really energetic I may roll out of bed and walk a whole 30 yards down to the pier and watch the sailboats go by. This is the view out my bedroom window.

The B&B has bikes and kayaks we can use but a nap sounds best right now.

Vacation

I won't be blogging for at least 5 days.  I know, you're just devastated, aren't you?  We're going to the Outer Banks for some R&R.  This is the first time in 5 years I've really been ready to leave the farm.  I used to be so worried my animals couldn't survive without me, but really I didn't think I could handle being away without worrying.  I no longer feel that way.  Our farm sitter is perfectly capable of doing just as good a job as I do.  I can't believe I just said that.  I've become somewhat of a control freak and I recognize that.  That is the first step, isn't it?  Admitting it?  I used to think I was such an easy-going kick-back kinda gal but I'm learning this isn't as true as I thought.  Gasp!  I'm learning that I have a hard time letting go of things because I think I can do them better. 

We had friends visit last week and the wife is very into recognizing who fits into what personality type.  For those of you who know about the Meyers Briggs test, that's what I'm talking about.  James and I took something like this years ago when we worked for Citicorp.  I'm an extrovert/intuitive/feeler/perceiver.  You'll have to look this up http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html to see what I'm talking about.  Maybe I should tell you what it says because I'd be able to make it clearer;)

Peace, outta here.

I've won the gold

I haven't watched the olympics but I've read some of the news on the internet.  There are always many heroic stories about folks who beat the odds or had challenges we couldn't even imagine facing.  Many of the athletes leave their families for months or years to train just to find their dreams.  Most of us can't even grasp what a gymnast or sprinter or whatever..... experiences when they stand on that pedastal as someone places a medal around their neck. 

Let me tell you a story of a simple girl who didn't face any unusual challenges any other average girl didn't face.  She grew up in a normal household with a loving family, never ventured too far until she met a man.   A man who gave her all she could ask for.

He invites her to move to St. Louis.  What else can she say but yes, as this handsome man hypnotizes her with his gentleness and captivating way.  She's already lost.

Could he be just as captivated?  "Let's quit our jobs and move to NC....and later, VA", the girl says.

"Sure", this unusual man says.

"I want to learn to play guitar", she says. 

"Go 'head, you'll be great", he says.

"May I raise goats?", she asks the generous man who didn't grow up with animals. 

"Sure, the milk will be great", says he.  "You want more goats?  Chickens? Donkeys?, Okay, we'll have a farm we never knew we could dream of".

James and I met 25 years ago today, 8/7/87.  I may not have faced the challenges the olympic hopefuls have or have trained like they did, but I'm just as thrilled as if I've had a gold medal draped around my neck. 

OooooooOuija Board

Some old friends from NC came to visit this weekend.  We hadn't seen them in several years but it felt like no time had passed since we hung out last.  The sign of true friendship. 

After a long, tiring kayak trip yesterday we all somehow got a second wind and played the game Catch Phrase.  We divided ourselves into teams - the introverts against the extroverts.  The introverts won but I'm sure they cheated.  They pretend to be all quiet and unassuming but they're sneakier than they let on.  We definitely need a rematch.

I don't remember why we decided to drag the Ouija Board out next.  Adam had given me this as a Christmas gift a few years ago because I told him I played with one as a kid.  I remember our church youth group leaders getting upset about us using one.  I didn't really get that because to us it was all fun and games.  We saw nothing evil about it.  Looks innocent enough, right?

This one even glows in the dark so we lit candles and turned off the lights.

Today I read that we were supposed to put it on our knees between two people.  We had it on the table so maybe that's why we didn't get the full experience.  We did get some interesting responses though.  We started simple with a yes or no question.  We got the answer we expected and wanted.  Next we asked a question only James and I could know the answer to and had our friends be the ones with their hands on the planchette.

 The above photo is blurred to protect the innocent.  We don't want any demons following them back to NC.

We asked who had lived in this house besides senator Miles Poindexter, whose framed photo we had perched on the table.  The planchette pointed to I and then R.  It stopped there.   One of the women who lived in this house (now deceased) was named Iris.  Hmmm.

We asked what year the senator died in this house.  It pointed to 1964.  Actually he died in 1946 but maybe this spirit was dyslexic.  We asked another question and didn't get an answer at all.

Even after mixed results I think everyone was a little impressed.  No one walked away possessed (not that I know of) and it left us wondering if maybe it really works. 

Today I read some Ouija Board stories warning us not to use this but I'm not scared away just yet.  I also read some tips for how to use it.

1. Play sober.  You'll get better results if you haven't been drinking or smoking.   Good to know.
2. Maintain control. If the board starts giving rude, vulgar, obscene or otherwise disagreeable responses, break off the session immediately by closing the board.  We never felt out of control but that may have been pretty exciting.
3. Don't believe everything the board tells you. Just as with any other source of information, don't accept whatever the board says to be the truth or accurate.  We were prepared to believe anything even though we were sober.
4.  Move it. Purposely move the planchette around in a circle on the board for a moment or two to get it 'warmed up.  I'm thinking we might have gotten better results had we done this.

5.  Close the board. This is an important step. When you're done with your session, slide the planchette to 'GOODBYE' and remove your hands.  We didn't do this but from what I've read we might be in big trouble.  I think I'll still sleep ok tonight.

Now I want to try it again.  Does that mean I'm obsessed or possessed?

I might be losing it

My friend, Jerry, commented on my organic spa entry, saying he thinks I need to get off the farm for awhile.  At first I thought he was probably just jealous because we didn't have pigs and mud for him to play with when he visited.  Another friend said she may have to "unfriend" me on facebook after reading it.  I'm thinking they both may be telling me what I need to hear.

Today I have to admit I probably need to get out more and I might even need a break from the farm.  My aquaponics system isn't working quite like it should because it's root-bound and not draining properly.  It's getting frustrating.  We've also been getting rain so it overflows occasionally.  This morning I had to drain a little because of last night's storm.  I put the hose in to syphon it and said, "I hope I don't forget and drain the whole thing".  Of course I forgot but at least it didn't drain completely before I noticed - maybe a foot more than it should have though.  To make matters worse, I put the hose back in to add water.  This is where I ask you to guess what happened next............

Did you guess that I forgot and overfilled it till it was running over?  I drained it again but set the timer this time and didn't wander too far.  Unfortunately, one of the garden beds was sagging and lost a bunch of water that drained onto the patio so I should have topped it off but I couldn't bring myself to go through that again.  Now it's threatening rain so hopefully it will fill it another 3 inches so I don't have to go through another Groundhog Day.  I'm not even going to explain this.

Yesterday I had bread dough rising on the dining room table.  This morning I finally remembered it was there so it is now a very heavy and dense bread that rose and fell too many times. 

As I type this I have tomatoes on the stovetop, cooking down to make sauce.  In the past I've burned the tomatoes but I'm sitting only 15 feet from them so I hope I'll remember them before I smell something burning.

Today I made reservations (at a B&B, not an asylum) in the Outer Banks for 4 nights.  I think I need it.   

Important notice

We've had lots of company lately.  As a matter-of-fact, we'll have had 32 people staying here in 2 1/2 weeks.  I just want to say this - from here on out I expect every visitor (or group of visitors) to provide me with a blog entry.  I mean, a really entertaining blog entry.  No one is here tomorrow but on Saturday a group of 19 folks from PA arrive and I have VERY high hopes for something juicy, even though it's a church mission team.  Do you hear that, you Methodists?  I have high expectations from you.  Get your game on.  I know you thought you were doing mission work.  Well, I have a mission for you too.  I think I'm giving you plenty of notice.

Has this scared any potential visitors away or challenged you?

On another note:  A friend sent me this picture on Facebook

 Whadda ya think?  Think I could train a pig to pull a cart?  Anyone have a pig harness I could borrow? 

Roxie's organic spa

My niece has never been to a spa so I decided to treat her to a mud bath at the finest spa I know of in Arnold's Valley. 

Spaquaponics garden update

My hot tub gardens are doing great.  We've gotten 9 or 10 tasty cucumbers from it, some red long beans, swiss chard, lettuces, spinich, basil, oregano and tomorrow I should get my first tomatoes.

We even have some flowers growing.  Here's the view from our kitchen window.

Aren't these cool beans?  I forget what they're called.

Caspian Pink tomatoes.

Yellow bell peppers.

The white carrots have some growing to do yet but I think they're going to make it to our table.
The cool thing about planting in gravel is you can pull a plant out and transplant it (or take a picture of it) very easily.

It's also a good way to root a plant.  I cut a few sprigs of rosemary from another plant and I stuck them in the wet gravel.  I'm pretty sure they'll take root and grow just fine. 

Remember, this is all growing in gravel only and being fed by the waste from the fish.  Unfortunately the fish haven't fared as well as the plants.  I lost the majority of the catfish and probably only have 10 or so fish in the tub.  The original bass and sunfish are still alive.  I tried to get a picture of them coming up for food but as you can see I was slow on the trigger.

There's lots of algae growing on the uncovered portion of the tub so I made a shade cloth for it.  I also added another filter and we haven't lost a fish in a few weeks now so hopefully things have balanced out. 

I don't know how this will continue to hold up.  The gravel is full of roots and every now and then I have to clean roots out of the bell syphons.  I'm going to call it a successful experiment even though we won't be filling our freezer with fish this year.   I'm going to keep trying.  It's pretty neat having fresh vegetables 10 steps from the back door.

If only pigs could stay little

I know there are micro and teacup pigs but they really don't seem to stay as cute as a piglet.  Our 9 piglets have gotten very active and boy are they cute.  When I sit on the ground they crawl all over me.  It hurts and it tickles. 

Today we had to put up some electric netting because they were exploring so much more and walked right under the existing electric ribbon.  They sure are fast.

They've also discovered the mud pond.  I was afraid they'd fall in it and drown but they've figured out how to get in and out.  I don't have video of that yet but you can imagine how cute they are all covered in mud, can't you?

See, cute, right?

Milking to the Monkees

I love having electricity in my barn.  Now that I have a milking machine I have another reason to love it.  The lights are nice for nightime milking but what I really like about having it is  I can play music while I milk.  Someone asked me to video myself using the milking machine so I thought I'd try that today but it's really hard to do holding the camera in one hand and using the other to hook things up, pet and feed the goat, all while singing and dancing.  Here's the best I could do.

Piglet mortality

I've read that it's normal to expect a 20% mortality rate raising piglets, with the first 3 days being the most critical.  I'm at 25%.  Today the 3rd piglet died but I don't know why.  Yesterday one was crushed by Roxie but today's little guy just seemed sick.  I removed it from the others in case what it had was contagious.   The others were all very rambunctious this morning but tonight it's 100 degrees and they're all lying spread apart on the mud Roxie delivered to them.  She's lying in her mud hole.  I don't know if the heat is too much for piglets or not.  I sprayed Roxie with the hose and she stood there and relished in it.  I was tempted to spray the babies but didn't think it was a good idea at this young  age.  The little piggies are covered in mud and look nothing like the picture I posted last.  The one that died today was the cute black and white belted boy.  He was a pretty little thing. 

I'm trying to decide what my plan is for pig raising.  Should I keep Roxie?  Should I keep a baby or two for the freezer?  Should I raise a boar to breed my own or should I get out of pigs altogether?  I'm going to wait and first see how the rest of the babies do before I make any decisions. 

One more day of really hot weather and then it cools down to the 80s and even 70s.  I think all our animals will be happier with the cooler weather. 

CUTE!

I almost hate to admit this but I think piglets might even be cuter than baby goats.  Believe me, that's tough to top.  Roxie delivered 12 babies last night, all different colors and all adorable. 

July 4th was her due date and she didn't make me wait another day.  James and I went kayaking with some friends and I was sure she wouldn't have them then because she was acting perfectly normal, as far as I could see.  Around dinner time she began nesting.  I had already given her hay in her house to make a nest but she must have thought she needed more because she would pull grass up and carry it back to her house, little by little.  She did this for a good while. 

I knew babies would arrive that night.  I sat in a chair and watched and waited.  I know what it's like to wait for goats to kid so I figured it could be awhile.  I decided to milk the goats quickly then go back to watch some more.  I thought I'd be staying up all night sitting in the field but instead Roxie decided to have 8 or 9 babies while I was milking.  They must have flown out of there because I was gone no more than 45 minutes.  I was there for the last 3 or 4 but I couldn't really see them entering the world because her butt was toward the back of her house.  She really didn't show any signs of pushing.  She was always grunting so that was no indication.  It seemed like all of a sudden a wet baby would appear from behind her and walk very easily to a teat and begin nursing like it had done it its whole life.  Piglets are the most coordinated newborns I've ever seen.  Their eyes are open and they don't even stumble except when tripping over the others to get food.  They nursed for an hour or 2 and then I left them in the dark. 

This morning I went out to feed Roxie and check on the babies and I saw one off by itself.  I thought it was dead.  I've been worried about her squishing them.  I picked it up and discovered its intestines were sticking out its side and it was open in the groin area.

I brought it in the house, cleaned it with peroxide, put some oregano oil and grapefruit seed extract on a bandage and taped it up.

She's still alive but I'm pretty sure she won't survive.  She's taken an ounce or 2 of goat's milk but she's not terribly enthusiastic about it.  I don't know if it's a boy or girl.  I need to study a few of them to see what a male and female pig look like underneath:)  I think she's a girl though.  She's the only one I've handled.
The others seem very energetic.  One of them had a bloody front foot and was limping but I think it'll be ok.

Come see them.  You'll want one.

Edit:  Ok, Unless I miscounted, It looks like we have 7 boys and 5 girls.  The one that's not doing well is a girl.

Edit:  The little girl died at 10 PM tonight, just 24 hours after she was born. 

Storm power outages

So many people in our county are still without power from the storm last Friday night.  Think of that, no showers, no water for livestock, a dark house at 9 PM, no computers, swimming pools that are getting nasty, no air conditioning (and it's been in the upper 90s to 100 this week), traffic lights aren't working, gas stations are closed because their pumps aren't working, downed power lines have closed many roads and it take much longer to get somewhere, losing stuff in your freezer....................

Today some friends asked us if we had room in our freezer for their stuff.  They had a generator but it died and their frozen stash was at risk.  This was a good excuse for me to make wine from frozen strawberries from years past to make room for their veggies.  Our farrier told me yesterday she had already lost everything in her freezer.  She even had bread dough rising in there.  It would be so upsetting to lose all the food you worked so hard to put away.  We have 2 freezers full of food.

Fire departments are delivering water to farms for their livestock.  I would have hated to have to haul water from the river or creek to our animals a few times a day but at least we have water surrounding us.  I've had a few calls from friends asking if we were ok and if we needed help.  We really are lucky.  I'll take the tree damage we had any day over loss of power for this long.  I would have lost what fish I had left in my aquaponics garden.  I replaced some tile in our kitchen sink and we can't use it for 72 hours.  This drives me crazy and I can't imagine how frustrated I'd be if I couldn't use any of our sinks. 

I'm cooking soup for dinner tonight with veggies I discovered in our freezer today while making room.  We had a brief rain storm which cooled things off enough to eat soup.  We haven't had a nice rain in awhile so James and I went out on the front porch to watch and smell it. 

I'm feeling very content tonight but I wonder how cranky I'd be by now if we were without power for 4 days.

Craigslist for entertainment

I came across this ad on Craigslist yesterday.  I have to wonder if it's for real.

1977 2 horse trailer - $100 ( (catawba)



Date: 2012-07-02, 3:59PM EDT   2 horse trailer good condtion build out of galvanied metal 2 inch locus .... 100 obo will consider trade rideing lawnmower or anything.. call 828-241-3951.. thank you! my dumb wife put 700 for it she come out of the wrong hole we are an old couple so if me or her dont answer the phone keep calling 828-241-3951

I wish the "dumb wife" would put a counter-ad on there so we could see what she has to say about this.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Roxie is getting close to farrowing.  Her udder is developing and she looks to have dropped a little but what do I know about pigs?  I'm excited, that I know. 

I've heard pigs don't sweat and that's why they roll in the mud.  Roxie is almost always covered in mud.  Even her eyes are sometimes covered.

She's a chatterbox.


I wonder what her babies will look like.  I wish I took pictures of the dad. 

Wind storm

We had a doozy of a storm 2 nights ago.  It's been very dry here and we were hoping for rain but we probably didn't get more than 20 drops, just wind - and what a wind it was.  A friend and I were standing out in the goat's pen saying how nice the breeze felt.  It wasn't 2 minutes later we had to race into the barn because that nice wind turned into a howling craziness carrying branches and lots of dirt.  Our turkeys were holding on to the swinging gates for dear life.  I think all of them got knocked off and we carried them to safety, which they weren't so sure they were more comfortable with (silly turkeys).  It was scary listening to cracking as trees were falling here and there.  James convinced us to come to the house so we stood on the front porch watching the lights of cars as they waited for the firemen to cut up the trees (our trees) that were blocking their way.  I worried about my animals in the field because I couldn't see them.  Every now and then the lightning would flash and I tried unsuccessfully to catch a glimpse of them.

We had folks camping in our field that night and all their canopies got blown away.  They were sitting in their van so we called them up to the house.  These were the counselors for a Quaker bike camp.  Luckily the campers hadn't arrived yet.  I have no idea what we'd do with 20 kids in our house for the night.  The 5 counselors slept here.

Daylight brought quite a scene.  We had at least 10 to 12 trees or very large branches down and small branches everywhere, along with buckets and things blown here and there.  Two crabapple trees blocked our driveway.

You get the picture.  Lots of wood to cut up and a few fence repairs need to be done.  Our garage roof had some damage but it was fixed in a jiffy by two neighbors who showed up to help.  They also spent 5 hours cutting up trees with James.  They had to quit when the temperature reached 100. 

James was disappointed to see his corn looking like this.  It was doing so well.

We're lucky though.  Most of our neighbors don't have power and have been told it could be a week before they get it back.  

Sadly, we lost 7 rabbits.  We found them dead in their cages the next morning.  I don't know if it was stress or heart attacks or what. 

The campers arrived in the afternoon and so did more tents to replace the ones that were destroyed.  Even though it was 100 degrees James stood in front of the wood-fired oven cooking pizzas for their dinner, which I think they appreciated. 

It's going to be a hot week for the cyclists.  I expect they'll spend the next few days in the river before they head out on their journey.  I hope we're done with big storms.