Pasty BUTT

Pasty butt (dried poo that cakes on the baby chicks fanny where they can't clean and can potentially block the chicks vent and prevent it from pooping THUS killing the chick) for baby chicks is so lovely. We had one of our hens hatch 2 babies about 5 weeks ago.... 2 I can handle 2 but trying to make sure 19 chick butts are clear.....very difficult. I find myself scared to try most things but I do it becuase that's life but when dealing with something living it's a whole new ball game. I was oddly scared to pick up a delicate baby chick and try to remove dried poop but the alternative seemed a bit drastic so I did it. I started with a warm paper towel and pressed on it's bottom and waited and waited and waited. Turns our poop gets pretty hard. Now I just run very warm water and stick their fanny under the water and GENTLY pick the poo off. You do have to be very gentle because their skin is SO delicate but I've read so much on this and people go crazy. They blow dry them after or hold them close to the heat lamp till they dry. These little guys and gals are stuffed in a box and shipped through the mail at a day old, they are pretty hardy. Needless to say I don't blow dry their butts after the Pasty butt bath. My sweet Gatlin is not doing so great. He's 13 and his legs are failing him. It sucks to watch and the anticipation of the inevitable is about to throw me over the edge. He is the most loyal creature I have ever known. He NEVER NEVER leaves my side even now when he is so much pain. I try and take him swimming most nights and that seems to help him a lot. My son really loves swimming with him but Gatlin always tries to save people in the water so we have to be careful.

I won't post a picture of poop but I have to say I really feel like my life revolves around poop. If I'm not trying to avoid it I am cleaning it up or off my shoes or my kid's shoes or listening to my husband complain about it. I did have an incident not too long ago with our goats. Here's the story: Our sweet ole dog Gatlin is able to open our back door if it's not locked. I left the house for about 3 hours and in that time He opened the back door, meanwhile, our 2 goats Echo and Baya busted through the gate as if they new the door was opened. The 3 invaders enjoyed an afternoon of air-conditioning while the goats tasted and destroyed everything they could including eating my 13 year old Jade plant and a song of India plant (this was a cutting from a plant that my dad gave to my mom 35+ years ago.) On top the destruction the 2 goats pooped ALL OVER THE HOUSE. In our den, on the couch (and peed) upstairs in our bedroom and in our sons room. It was lovely. I have NEVER seen so much poop. Good times.

Nothing to post about so thought I would put up some old pics of our barn and the first week we had our goats. Pictures are more my thing anyway, writing....not so much but I still like to do it. :O)

Yesterday really started off crappy but after those sweet little chicks stopped suffering I have to say it was a huge relief. N- YOU RULE. We had a really fun day of a whole lot kids and they LOVED the the 19 baby chicks that made it. It was fun watching the huge smiles on their faces while they were trying to pick up the chicks. That's one of the reasons it's totally worth it. I have to say that everytime kids come out I am shocked by how terrified some kids are by nature. Genuine HORROR. :O) We took a long walk back in the woods, about 12 of us. Our 3 dogs and 2 goats. I've never heard so much screaming or see so much jumping from something touching them. I thought their poor mom was going to come unglued she kept saying "suck it up, deal with it, YOU"RE IN NATURE" Poor Mama. We walked through the creek for a bit but decided to head back as I think the adults were tired of hearing the complaining. I bring this up, not to complain about these kids. They are some of the greatest kids/people I know. MY FAVORITES BUT everytime my friends and their kids come out it is interesting to watch how freaked out some kids get. It happens everytime with all different kids. NOT ALL KIDS but definitely more than I would expect. Growing up I can't remember kids being freaked out by the woods. Now, that just may be selective memory. it's always easy to say "when i grew up" blah blah blah. Later we decide to do some dirt sledding which is always fun!!!!

Rookie move #102. I spent the morning crying because N- my husband, had to euthanize 3 baby chicks. Developing a "farmers backbone" is not an easy task. I really thought I was doing a great job. We had a broody hen that sat on 4 eggs and 2 made it, one never hatched and one partially hatched and just didn't make it. Circle of life.. I get it and I'm ok with it. I know our animals have a GREAT life while they are here but when the death of something is due to your ignorance it changes the heart a bit. Basically we set up our incubator. GREAT INCUBATOR BY THE WAY http://incubatorwarehouse.com/hova-bator-genesis-1588-deluxe-kit.html I think we placed 34 eggs.....actuall I put in 23 and N- tossed in 11 more for good measure. This was our fist time using the incubator and just from what we have read we thought less than half or half would hatch and a lot of those would be roosters so the more the marrier. Not so much, in my opinion...now.. that was WAY TOO MANY EGGS. They should hatch in 21 days but ours started early at 17 but they were popping out like crazy. All healthy and precious and guess who got WAY too excited and kept opening the lid. YOU GOT IT! They are not lying when they say DON'T OPEN THE LID UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO. If there are no eggs pipping or breaking through then you're ok to retrieve the dried baby chicks to place in the brooder but I failed to read that. So due to my ignorance 6 babies were stuck in there eggs. What happens, is the humidity goes down FAST when you open the lid and if the eggs have holes already pecked through, the membrane dries up like leather and makes it impossibe for them to peck out. YES we pulled them out and peeled the shells off of 3 but that was a bad decision because they all had deformed legs or just weren't ready so that made it even harder because they were chirping and breathing but really suffering. SO another "LEARNING EXPERIENCE" but at the expense of a life which really really sucks. I am SO grateful for N- He is so calm when it comes to situations like this. He is VERY humane and kind and handles it. THANK YOU THANK YOU!!

Being a farmer is becoming more and more the ultimate dream for people. "I would love to have a piece of land to farm." Having heard this over and over again I may be the luckiest human on the planet. About 25 years ago my parents aquired a beautiful farm in Ky. We lived in the suburbs and it was/is more of a hobby farm. My parents along with a partner tried cattle for a long while but eventually the cost was too much and they sold the herd. When I turned 30 I asked if I could build a little house on the farm and they were happy to let me do it. We finished my house in 2002, my incredibly cool cat and I moved in and I promptly went to the humane society and came home with Gatlin. My beautiful boxer/lab mix. I was starting my photography busines so I took a job at Home Depot in the paint department to help ends meet until my business took off which was about 6 months. Farming was not on my agenda. Blah blah blah fast forward 3 years and My busines is great, I've met the love of my life and couple years later we got married, adopted 3 more dogs and then had a little boy. Life was/is wonderful and both of us were selfemployeed. We decided with a little person we needed great insurance so my amazing husband shuts his business down and goes to work for a company. I wanted to just give a little background because the purpose of writing this is because we both want to be farmers. We want to live off the land, eat our bounty, have a CSA, milk goats, cut our own hay so on and so on. REALITY!!! You really have to tone it down a bit. So we start with growing vegetables. My husband reads constantly, the right way, what to plant, where to plant, what's the best soil ph, and I'm more along the lines of chuck the seed in and see what happens WRONG... As it turns out you really have to be a bit of a perfectionist and I am the total opposite and may put the husband into an early grave from frustration. :O Slowly but surely I am getting the hang of it and I am really trying hard to listen to his advise and not do the "I am woman hear me roar" thing because it really doesn't benefit anyone to not be a team player when farming. My other handicap is that I, AM A WEENIE. I have actually had a 1 ton cow put on an I.V. I cry when one of our chickens die and I would gladly bring our goats in to the house when it gets too cold or hot. These qualities a farmer does not make. :O) After 10 years of of talking about farming this is where we are (10 years of talking and about 4 years of actually putting plan together). Our sweet "pet cow" Sarah that we raised in the back yard with our dogs had a baby which gave us 2 but then our friend had a bull that needed more room so he came over to our farm for a very long visit and now we have 5 cows. We have been raising chickens for about 6 years and that really has been wonderful. I will follow up with what's going on with our chicks later. Last summer we purchased 2 goats to help with underbrush and possibly milk. I've always wanted goats. My Aunt raised goats up North and made cheese and sold to restaraunts years ago and I've always thought it sounded wonderful. KEY... SOUNDS WONDERFUL. When I told her I wanted to start raising dairy goats for a living she had a nice chuckle. SO we are starting very small. Another weenie moment came last fall when I decide to not breed the goats because I didn't want a nastly ole Billy Goat on my girls. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME. So this fall IT WILL HAPPEN and hopefully in April we will have some baby goats. Which are the cutest things on the planet.