Catch-Up Time

 

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I periodically realize I have a number of little things that have happened around here to talk about, but not anything big enough for a whole post to itself.  So, to catch up on those little developments, here's a week (or two)-in-review.

About a week ago, we had our final cria born, the only girl of the batch.  She's a lovely little pure white thing, doing great - Annie seems to be a wonderful mother.  I've named her Tammy, obviously - a blonde classic country singer and we've already got Dolly, who else could it be? :)  Hank and Willie are looking good, both seemed so small until their little half-sister showed up!  Turns out they've grown quite a bit.

About two weeks ago, we purchased an addition to our farm vehicle fleet - a firetruck!  It's a military tanker-truck, a 1968 with a ~1500 gallon water tank on it.  It also has a winch on the front, and should be able to go just about anywhere we need it to without getting stuck.  Our primary use will be for watering the animals.  Until now, we've been using a truck-bed trailer with a 250 gallon tank in it, but that only lasts about 1.5-2 days.  The repeat driving back and forth to refill it is making ruts in both the pastures and the yard, to get to the cistern, and compacting more of the pastures than we'd like.  This truck should cut the refills to about every 10-12 days.  We also won't get the pickup stuck anymore - some places we needed to take the water trailer were just too steep or muddy for the pickup pulling the weight of the trailer.  We also won't get the pickup - or tractor, for that matter - stuck anywhere else either, with the winch on the firetruck.  And lastly, we can probably use it for winching firewood out of the forested areas on our property, speeding up that job quite a bit.

We've been neglecting Fiona, our mini-horse, ever since Liam stopped enjoying his riding lessons and we brought her home from the trainer's.  We decided to make a point of working her again - Liam might not be a horse person, but it's looking more and more like Malachi is.  We are going to make a point to work her two evenings a week, and let Malachi ride - he absolutely loves it.  The contrast is quite startling - Liam rides in a circle, clinging fearfully since any second Fiona could break into a (gasp!) trot!  He is constantly telling her to stop, and within minutes is asking to get down.  Then we put Malachi on, and he just grabs on and grins.  The whole time Liam is riding, Malachi is trying to walk right into the ring and brush her, feed her carrots, anything - even if Fiona is a bit wound up from not being ridden for a while, we have to put him on her for a few minutes or he is inconsolable.  It looks like she's Malachi's horse now!

To facilitate getting Fiona for her riding days, rather than keeping her in with the alpacas and goats as we have been, we brought her to the house and put her in with the milk goats.  So far, the system works pretty well - I go in, call her and Snowpea into the kennel we use as a holding pen and give Fiona a carrot.  I milk Sophia, swap the goats in the kennel, milk Snowpea, and release everyone, including the kids from the house where they've been overnight.  Then everyone, including Fiona, gets to finish up the handful of grain in the milk stand.  I think it'll be a positive experience for her, and avoid any antagonism we might have instilled from trying to catch her and tie her up while milking.  

The last bit of smallish news is that we have sold our first tanned Highland hide through my Etsy store!  This is so exciting for us, selling a hide comes close to doubling our income from a cow, and totally validates my Etsy store doing nothing for the last few months :) Now we just need to get the next hide out of the brine, cleaned up and broken soft.  And get the 3 skulls we have sitting on an ant nest in the back pasture cleaned up and listed on my Etsy store...

Comments

wide-ranging news

This certainly gives a great picture of the variety of interests, pursuits and efforts you are undertaking to make Solace Farm a successful home and business. Can't wait to see Malachi with Fiona. (Interesting about the skulls on the ant nest--in coastal New Bedford, MA, the whaling museum settled whale bones (a donation to them from a beached whale that died) that needed cleaning into New Bedford Harbor for about 6 months, the crustaceans did an astounding job of cleaning the bones. Ant nests, crustaceans--much better than anything we might come up with to get those animal bones clean.

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