Good Morning, goats....

This morning I managed to sleep in until almost 8AM.  I am normally up before 7 so I felt a bit groggy and gross.  I got up pretty quickly because I knew the animals were hungry, but I was surprised that I wasn't hearing them making any noise.

The renter walked out the door to leave for work and I looked out the window on the door as she left to see where the goats were.  I didn't see them at the fence screaming for food, which is odd, but I also didn't see them come running across the yard like they are known for.

I looked at her face as she looked around the yard and got in her car.  She hadn't seen me before she left, but I could tell that she was also wondering where they were.

I felt a little nervous suddenly - was this the end of the goats??
Did they actually leave the yard?
Are they by the road?
I felt a panic start to rise.

I stepped outside, I'm not even sure that I had shoes on, and walked into the driveway and saw the renter stopped about 50 feet down the drive, laughing with her window down.

I felt relief because I was sure she was looking at them - but then also realized where she was looking.

"Are they eating my rose bushes?!" I asked.

She laughed and took a picture of them before leaving...

I once had 4 rose bushes and three unique flowers - all blooming with color... right there.

Good morning to you too....



UPDATED: to add pictures of what WAS in that area...

How to round up a chicken

Yes - I took a video of me corralling the loose chicken.  I have gotten smarter and am leaving a large piece of plywood leaning against the coop so that I can lean it up to help make a funnel into the door, as you can see.

Goats like to nibble

Jeremiah just said something to me that made me realize I had to share this story...

When Carrie was still in the house in her pen, she got sick.  I didn't know what was wrong but she wasn't eating and was just acting strange.  She was about 2 months old at that point.  I googled, because that's how I find the answers to all of life's problems, and realized she was bloated.

Goats have several stomachs, sort of like cows.  But bloating in a goat is deadly if it isn't fixed immediately.  Something about the gas getting trapped in the stomachs.  The home remedy is to feed the goats a half a cup of cooking oil and to massage their stomach until they fart and/or burp.  So that's what I had to do.  I had to use a syringe to get the oil in her and then spend 45 minutes massaging her belly.  I will just say that goats really do fart and burp, and they do stink.  She had diarrhea the next day, but then was back to normal.

A week before we left on our beach vacation, Carrie had diarrhea for two days and then was acting sick.  After checking her out, I realized she was bloated again.  Bloating can be caused by overeating (especially grain) or of eating bad plants.  Carrie had been out in the yard eating all kinds of plants that day and she had the obvious signs: lack of appetite, acting off, not moving much, and the left side of her body was clearly bloated.

Not my goat - but a picture of what it looks like when the left side shows bloating.

It was about 10:30 at night, and there I was with a bottle of oil, a syringe, and a goat.  I got the oil in her and began massaging her belly. 

Kelly was constantly coming around behind me, or climbing on top of the dog house next to me and nibbling at my clothes.  Kelly would be pulling the bottom of my shirt in the back and Carrie would be biting the front edge of my shorts.

At one point I was leaning over Carrie rubbing her belly, and I turned my head over my shoulder to tell Kelly to stop biting me, and OUCH!  Carrie had gotten a nibble on my chest.  Carrie never breast fed from her mother (or anyone/anything else) and only ever ate from a bottle - but whether it was on accident or she knew what she was going for - it hurt and I was shocked.  I know she considers me her mom, but I never been THAT kind of mom to anyone!

I sat out there with her for 45 minutes, in the dark, that night.  After awhile she didn't want me touching the swollen side of her belly, but she would also get very clingy if I stopped touching her completely.  She never did fart or burp, but I finally went inside and hoped for the best.

The next morning she seemed better, but not completely back to normal.  Her stomach wasn't as bloated so I just waited it out and later that evening or the next morning (I can't remember now) she was back to normal.

Today, Jeremiah was just watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie, from the early 90s, and he said "Remember when Carrie bit your boob?"  I knew immediately I had to share the story.




And I'll end this post with pictures of Kelly and Carrie doing what they love to do best... Climbing.  Notice how large the dog house is that Kelly has somehow learned to get on top of....

 

Freedom for the guinea

The guinea are suppose to be able to fly.  They are suppose to fly out of the kennel during the day to search for bugs, and then come back to the coop at night for safety.  This is what I read, so this is what I've been going off.

They had flown to the top of the kennel a few times, and a couple of them did get out of the kennel and wander around.  They are like pack animals though, so they stay near each other even if that means they're all huddled near the fence - some inside the kennel and some outside. 

There are some guinea in front of the kennel - outside it - and the rest are inside it on the other side of the fence.

The problem was, they didn't seem to understand that they needed to FLY up to the top of the kennel to get back inside where the others were.  On those days, we would be out in the dark catching them and putting them back inside the kennel or the coop.

Today I opened the kennel door and was able to get all the guinea to go out the door so they could wander around.  One chicken managed to get out too.  The darn bird was not working with me to go back inside - and since I was working alone I had to try to keep the chickens inside, while also trying to leave the door open and scare the chicken back in with them.  Wasn't easy so I left her outside for a few hours and then went back to try again. 

When I went back out this afternoon to try to get the chicken inside and to refill the water for everyone (heat advisory today) I had more luck.  The goats seem to think it's interesting to go inside the kennel. 





Luckily Carrie and Kelly decided they wanted to hang out near the door and this helped to get the bird to go inside rather than running past the door again.

 

I took some pictures and video of the guinea, I was trying to get video of them making all their noise but it seems like every time I pressed record they would get quiet.

I will admit, I am nervous about them coming back tonight.  They aren't going far from the kennel, but I don't think they're going to want to go back inside on their own and since all 8 are out they have less reason to stick near the coop.  We will see.

On a better note - here are the tomatoes that I picked from the garden today and yesterday :)

Update the next day: It only took 10 minutes (at the most) to get the birds back into the kennel yesterday evening.  With Jeremiah standing by the open gate posing like a linebacker I scooted the birds around the kennel towards the opening.  It was only a minute of hesitation on their part, wondering if they should run around him or straight away from the kennel, and then they all filed into the coop.  Today I was only able to usher 5 of them out of the kennel and one chicken got out too.  When will they learn to fly?

Seriously?!

I spoke too soon.

I went outside to take the lettuce, tomato scraps, and some old trail mix out to the chickens and this is what I saw in my yard.

Seriously Jenny?!!?  Seriously?!?!

I couldn't even think about how she'd gotten out, until I walked over and saw the gate open.  What?  How'd the gate get open? 

Turns out that she must have shoved it hard enough and one of the bars broke because it wasn't welded well.    Oddly, the other two didn't come out.  So I put that piece of wood (in the picture) up by the door, went around and sort of chased her back through the gate, and then latched it onto a part that isn't going to break off.

Darn goats.

And they're out

It wasn't thirty minutes after I posted yesterday that the darn goats were out again.  Happily wagging their tails and trotting around the yard anytime we would come or go from the house.

I saw where the fence was pulled down, so I knew how they were getting out.

This morning I lured them all back into the pen and tightened up the weak area they can climbed over.  I was walking about 50 feet away to get my tools so that I could keep working on the fence when I heard Jenny climbing over the fence, I turned around and yelled at her to stop, but I hadn't taken three steps by the time she finished climbing over and then WHOOP - Kelly just leaped over the fence like a deer.

I hadn't seen Kelly jump like that before, but it put a whole new twist to how I could fix things.  I pounded a few T-posts in  to help hold the fence up straight and then decided that I would add another layer so the fence is about 6 feet tall in that section. 

It took me about 20 minutes to lure the goats back into the pen through the gate, but four hours later, they're still in.

Back where they belong - BEHIND the fence

I got three hours of work done today after the fence was fixed.  I mowed the lawn and pulled weeds in the garden.  The weeds were at least three feet tall, that's what I get for going on vacation.  But I also got two cherry tomatoes, three large yellow tomatoes, and four large red ones.  Lunch was great today :)

Pictures of the tomatoes that weren't picked

What's a little vacation...

One of the reasons I thought chickens and dogs were the only pets I would have is because I thought they would be easy to manage on those rare occasions when we were going on vacation.  The dog typically goes with us on vacation since I rent dog-friendly houses on the beach, and I figured chickens just need a ton of food and water left out and they'd be fine.

That isn't the case, and I realized that within a few days of having all of the birds in the coop.

The chickens have three water dishes outside in the kennel area and one inside the coop.  I clean and fill them each morning and by the afternoon they are disgusting and dirty again.  Each morning I dump a huge scoop of feed for them, and by the afternoon they need more.  They have two big feeders in the coop that last two or three days before I need to put more feed in.  And every night I have to herd them all into the coop and close the door because I am worried about a creature coming to eat them.

When our (new) tradition of a week at the beach was getting closer, I realized I really needed to find someone I could trust to come to the house twice a day to feed the goats and the birds and then to put the birds into the coop at night.  Finding a dog sitter was always hard, this was going to be far worse.

The original plan was that a neighbor was going to come do the first half of the week, and then the girl renting a room in our home would do the second half of the week. 

The first day that we arrived at the beach I received a text message at 7:30, two hours past feeding time, from the renter.  She asked about the animals being fed and said she cleaned and filled their waters because it hadn't been done.  Turns out the neighbor didn't come as promised.  I hated to ask her to help even more, but the renter agreed to take care of the animals for the entire week.

I relaxed because I knew I could trust her....

And then Wednesday came.  The goats were out.  Jenny is about 100 pounds (or more) and does not want people to get near her or touch her.  Kelly is about 30-40 pounds and is also slightly skittish, but not as bad.  And the two were out.

They didn't go far, they know where the food is, so they were just hanging out around the mudroom (where the grain is kept.)

I text a friend that lived a few miles away and he came over to help the renter catch the goats and get them back into the pen.  It was about two hours later that I received word that they had finally managed to get everyone back inside.  They both told me not to apologize, it was a funny story they were ready to tell their friends.  How many people can say they wrangled a goat?

The next morning, they were out again.  The renter got them in on Thursday night, on her own.  Friday morning, they were out again.  I told her to just leave them out, they weren't going anywhere.

We got home from our trip on Saturday evening and all three goats were out by then.  Carrie had managed to tear our screen off the screen door to get into the mud room and when it was raining they all ended up in the mud room. 

Welcome home.

Sunday morning we got out to finish the new goat pen we had been building.  They now have about two-thirds of an acre fenced in for them to graze and enjoy.  The chicken coop and kennel is inside their pen area because I've heard they can help keep other creatures from getting to the birds and I am hoping the guinea will help to keep the ticks away from the goats too. 

It's only a matter of time before the goats get out again.

And then we had fowl

When we bought the property, I knew I wanted to have chickens.  My rule about pets was "it must have fur and be over 40 pounds" because I don't care for small dogs or cats and there is no way I would have a reptile or snake in my house.  My rule for outdoor animals was that it must have a purpose.

Chickens have a purpose.  They give us eggs.  No, I could never eat one after I'd raised it.

So the plan was to get chickens.  Simple enough.

But spring hit, and after a very warm winter the ticks came out in full force.  I happen to be talking to my school principal and she mentioned that she had guinea fowl and they eat ticks.  I started researching these birds and found that a couple things

• They make a loud crazy noise all the time
• They are known for being "alarm systems" and will alert you when anything unusual comes onto the property
• Owners say that once they got guineas, they never had ticks again
• They are ugly

I was sold simply because of the tick issue.  I started looking in to buying some but found that they are pretty rare.  They only lay eggs in the warmer months and are horrible parents so it isn't as easy to get some of them hatched like it is for chickens.  Everything I found had to be shipped from out of state - in groups of at least 50.  Then I found someone on Craigslist that bought a group of 50, but only wanted 25 so she was selling the rest.  I bought 12. 

They were 3 days old when we got them, and after a week they were twice the size and I just knew I had too many.  One day I saw one that was much smaller than the rest and I noticed something was wrong with her rear end.  After some google searching I found out that these birds have one "hole" for laying eggs, mating, and eliminating waste.  I also found out that this little bird had a problem in which her feces was dried up inside of her and it would kill her.  Several times a day I had to clean her rear end with warm water.  She did not like it, but she was small enough to fit in my hand so she couldn't exactly get away.  I also read that Preparation H helps with the swelling so I had to go buy some from the store.  It took a little over a week, but she finally seemed to be better, although she was half the size of the others.  Because she is the only one I can tell apart from the others, and because of her issue, she was the only bird that was named... Poopers.

When they were about 3 weeks old, I sold four of them to someone on craigslist because they were getting big and I knew I had too many.

I also started working on building a coop for them.  It took me about a week to finish the coop, but I figured it was big enough for the guinea and the chickens I planned to get.

At 6 weeks old, the fowl were ready to leave the cage in our basement and so I moved them into the coop, and the next day I got 8 chickens (June 24th).  I picked up a rooster a few days later (June 27th).

We now have our birds settled in.

The background to the goats

By the end of 2011, we had met the neighbor that lived two properties away.  He had a big barn with horses that he would buy and sell, and he had other animals that would come and go for various purposes (mostly food.)  He was renting out some of the barn to some Muslim guys that were selling goats for religious/cultural events for food and several of the goats and cows would get away and escape.  The guys would never go look for them or try to catch them.  There were 2 calves and 3 goats in total that I knew of that had escaped and no one knows what happen to them.

The first goat to escape was Billy.  He was a little guy that showed up in my mud room one night - I thought someone was trying to break in.  He was so terrified I couldn't get close to him and for a month he was on my property or the one further away from the barn surviving on his own.  Finally the guys went and caught him because he was often near the main road and I think the county said something to them.

In mid-December, my sons and I saw a new goat on our property.  We knew he escaped from Larry's barn.  I eat meat, I enjoy eating meat, but I can not know an animal before it is going to be eaten.  My theory is "if it escapes, it deserves to live" so I was hopeful that they wouldn't catch her and I bought some treats and food to put out for her in the hopes that she wouldn't go back to the barn and get caught.

We saw her a few times over a week or so.  She didn't want us to walk up to her, but she would come fairly close to us.  Once I was using the chainsaw to cut some trees up and when I turned around she was only about a 100 feet from me.

On the last day of school before Winter Break, I came home and saw the goat standing at the top of my driveway.  I stopped the car to take a picture before the car would scare her away and my older son came out of the woods and told me "Don't worry, she can't go anywhere.  She's tied up."

Yes, he had "caught" the goat and tied her to our dog's chain.  Sticking with our country-singer-names theme for our animals, we named her Jenny, after the singer from Sugarland.

We knew she was pregnant so I went and bought more food for her and we put a sun canopy over the area she was tied up to so that she wasn't getting rained on.  About a week later we told Larry that we had her and he said it was fine because the guys never go to look for the ones that escape anyway.  Later, the guys did tell my oldest son to pay for her or to give her back, I told him I wasn't paying for her (couple hundred dollars) so he would have to take her back.  He told Larry, and Larry paid the guys for her so that we could keep her.  That was NOT my plan, but at the same time I didn't want her or the babies inside her to be killed.

When you're not expecting to own a goat, what else do you do?

On Thursday, January 26th, I received a text message from the college girl that was renting a room from us about some "babies" and after a phone call home, I found out that Jenny had given birth to two babies.  I hurried home, stopping off at a feed store to ask them about goats and pick up some things they said I would need, and called Larry.  I found out from Larry, that my oldest had watched them being born and then run over to tell Larry before he got on the school bus.  Larry had come over and moved everyone into our mud room.

One was up and stumbling around as she learned to walk.  She would talk and move around.  The other one was laying in the straw, not moving, and only opened her eyes twice in about an hour.  I knew nothing about goats so I just sat with them and watched.

Finally, I decided something wasn't right, I wrapped the weak one in a towel and took her back to the feed store to ask for advice. They told me that she was dying and probably wasn't going to make it.  I said that wasn't an option (I know I am just not strong enough to deal with animals dying on my watch) and they said that the only chance she had to survive was to bring her in the house, get heat lamps on her, bottle feed her, and just hope that she improved. 



Baking the babies



 So that is what we did.  We had two goats in a plastic storage tub in my living room, baking under heat lamps. 

We named them Carrie (the white, weak one) and Kelly (the black, stronger one).  Both of them are named after country singers of course - Carrie Underwood and Kelly Pickler.

We spread puppy-pee-pads around the living room floor and after they were warmed up we brought them out of the tub to try to feed them and get them moving.  Kelly was up and walking around and making noise.  Carrie couldn't stand and was struggling just to keep her head up.

Jenny was outside screaming the entire day and Kelly was often yelling as well.  I could tell that they wanted to be with each other. 

I quickly learned how to flip Jenny on to her side without hurting her and had to "pop" her teets from being dried up so that Kelly could feed from her mom.  Kelly was able to do it, but Carrie was too weak and Jenny just didn't want anything to do with Carrie.

So Carrie stayed inside.  She was being bottle fed every 3 hours, day and night.  I slept on the couch with her in a box next to me on the floor.  In the middle of the night she would wake up and cry and I would wake up and feed her.  She would cry if I put her back in the box so I would wrap her in a blanket and lay her on my chest and she would fall asleep on me.  The next day we were able to get her to stand up and walk a few steps.

Faith was jealous, but she did very well with Carrie

Another day went by and I took all three goats outside together.  Jenny did not seem to understand who Carrie was.  I have since learned that sometimes goats (and sheep) will "forget" about their first child while they are giving birth to a second one, and so when they see the first child again later they are confused as to who it belongs to.  I believe this is what happen - along with the fact that Carrie now smelled like us.

He wasn't too thrilled to learn about feeding from a bottle



So Carrie came back in with us when she was done playing that day. That is how things continued for us.  I slept on the couch next to Carrie for about 5 or 6 weeks.  She wanted to sleep on my chest at night, but luckily she wasn't needing to eat as often so I was getting some sleep.

  

Everywhere I went for the first week, she went with me so that I could be sure that she was getting fed at the right times.  There were many waiting rooms that we sat in together while the boys had doctor and dentist appointments.

I would take her outside to play with her sister every day but she would stay inside the house in a play pen when I was at work and at night.




I had her checked by a vet and he did tell me she may not make it because of an infection in her joints, but we were able to get that cleared up within a week or so.  She learned to walk and run and is now 5 months old.  I had to put up a fence to keep Jenny and Kelly in and once Jenny was large enough she was out there with them.  Jenny still doesn't treat her like a child, but Carrie is strong enough now that it's okay.  She and Kelly run around and play together.

When I am outside doing yard work I will bring Carrie out of the enclosure and she will just wander around the yard eating my plants and weeds.  She comes when I call her and doesn't ever stray far from me.  She definitely thinks I am mom, and I am definitely attached.

When people ask my oldest son what he likes to do in his spare time, he constantly says "play with the goats" as the first answer.

And THAT is how we became goat owners.

Her first bite of real food
How can you not love that face?!?!

Who we are

Let me preface this by telling you a little about us...

I am a single mom to two boys and a teacher.  As of today - June 2012 - my boys are 7 and 14 years old.

January 2012

I was born and (mostly) raised in San Diego, CA. We were in the suburbs and I was raised with cats and dogs, nothing more. I did spend 2 of my teenage years on 40 acres about an hour outside of Spokane on a "farm." We had butcher pigs, chickens, dogs, 3 geese, a duck, and my horse. Other than the dogs, the animals weren't pets.  It wasn't a real farm but we had about 20 acres of alfalfa that we cut and bailed and the animals.  We only had the chickens for the eggs, we never ate them.

Besides those two years, I haven't been around farm animals besides petting zoos and county fair type things.  My oldest son and I lived in houses and townhouses San Diego before deciding that we wanted a change and we moved to the N. Virginia area.  My youngest son has only lived in houses and townhouses in the areas near the beltway (near DC.)

I knew that I wanted to own land some day and have chickens (for the eggs) and privacy and peace, but I wasn't sure if I could afford to do that on my single salary. Last summer I was looking to buy a home and was just hoping for a decent size yard.  My agent sent me some listings and I dismissed them as being too far from my work, but one said it had a couple acres.  I quickly did a google map check and realized it was the same distance that I was currently driving and started researching.

I ended up buying the home and we moved out to the semi-country. 

The back of our new house

My original plans were to get another dog (I've had Faith, a purebred pitbull, for 9 years), and some chickens just for the experience for the kids and the free eggs for breakfast.  I also wanted a garden, but otherwise I wasn't planning any "country" things for us.  Although we have a couple acres and we are surrounded by unoccupied acres on three sides of us, we do have a whole housing community across the street and there is a new shopping center a half a mile away from us.  We aren't really that far into the country considering it's a half a mile to the gym, the daycare, and to get milk and butter.

.My plans didn't go as planned... But I'm not complaining :)