Introducing Nala

I have super exciting news today...this announcement has been many months in the making.  Last night, someone special arrived at the dome, after having been transported all the way from Minnesota.  Meet Nala!

Nala is registered with the Scottish Collie Preservation Society and with the American Kennel Club, and the plan is for her to be the start of a line of old-fashioned, working Scottish Collies here at Butterscotch Farm!  

So far she's SUPER sweet, and has proven to have a very stable temperament, adapting well to the huge changes in her life.  

She loves Thane.  Things are a bit more rocky with Thea, but honestly not nearly as bad as I expected.  

I'll come right out and say that, while she's very pretty, she's not my end goal as far as physical type goes...I'm going to choose mates carefully for her in hopes of putting out pups that turn out similar in type to Thane.  But she has a lot to offer, and I'm excited to have her as the foundation of my breeding program!  

And Then There Were 15...

I picked up a new Icelandic rooster from Vermont today, since my four young roos are too closely related to my girls and will be eaten.  This one is a bit older than mine, so he has more of his adult plumage... and WOW, is he going to be gorgeous!!

Interestingly, Thane seems quite obsessed with the new bird.  He had been doing very well with the chickens up until now.  I've heard some people say their Collies will bark at the calendar when the page is flipped, lol, so maybe Thane is just sensitive to the change in the dynamic of the flock.  

Anyway, happy Monday!!  

Funny Farm Story #2

I'm taking a sick day today...started sneezing a couple days ago, then yesterday I had a sore throat, and today I have a fever.  It's just a cold, and I don't feel super duper awful, but I called out from work so as to keep from sharing my germs with all my coworkers.

Of course, when one has a homestead, there are always morning and evening chores to be done, even when one is sick.  This is mostly routine stuff, but occasionally slightly more memorable things happen.  For example, I now step more carefully over the electric fence!  (See Wednesday's post for that story.)

Well, this morning, I learned another lesson...

Normally my shoes are enough insulation so that I can touch the fence with my bare hand, and it's just a light zap - quite tolerable... not even strong enough to call it painful.  

If any uninsulated part of my body is in contact with the ground when I touch the fence, however, I get a pretty hearty zap.  

This morning, I learned that this also applies if one's goat is nibbling one's finger when one touches the electric fence.

Oops.  Sorry, little goat...

The end.   😝

Goat Update

The boys are doing okay after, despite their tough day.  (If you missed yesterday's post, I had the three male goats castrated today.)  Things went smoothly, though one guy needed an extra dose of sedative because he somehow managed to dodge the first dose.  Here he is looking rather alarmed as the vet and I work on his buddies: 

The other two goats don't remember a thing, though, lol...

I had to go to work, but the vet stayed with them until they were all on their feet and alert.  I just got home a few minutes ago and checked on them, and they look good - understandably a little stiff, but upright and interested in eating.

And here's what will doubtless soon be one of many funny farming stories... when I visit the goats, I usually unhook the top fence wire and step over the other two: 

Well, tonight, I didn't step quite high enough - my foot caught, and I went splat onto one knee in the mud you can see there.  My hands were full,  and I might have both laughed and grumbled a little as I tried to juggle the stuff I was holding so I could grab the pallet gate to pull myself back up.  Then I laughed more as I realized something else - because my knee was in contact with the ground rather than the rubber soles of my shoes, my foot that was caught in the fence was getting a hearty zap with every pulse of the wire.  

After a few zaps, I finally managed to get my foot free and stand back up.  I suppose my goats deserve the amusing show I gave them, after what I put them through today!!  😂😂

Happy Wednesday!!

Wether They're Ready or Not...

Big change coming for my three male goats... tomorrow they will no longer be bucks, but wethers - castrated males.  

In other news, I'm beginning the process of teaching the dogs to be calm around the livestock... the past two evenings, we've gone out and sat watching the goats graze for a few minutes.  Lol, I think this process will take a while.  :P 

Happy Tuesday!!  

Easily Distracted...

Okay, someone come take my phone away... I keep getting distracted and whiling away a half hour at a time taking pictures of my chickens!!  :P 

Here are a few shots from today... they're getting bigger, and gradually getting their mature plumage.

This one is Frosty.  She's starting to get some iridescent feathers - so cool!!  Sometimes they look green, sometimes other colors, depending on the angle.

Here's me with Miss Floofle, who was not a very cooperative model.

I think this one is Blackbeak the Chicken, who I often confuse with her nearly identical sister Snow White.

Miss Floofle again.

Big Blue, who I should maybe rename as Bluebell or something, because it seems that he is actually a she.

Oh, here's a close-up of Frosty's feathers.

This is either Stewie or Stewie Junior... I can only tell them apart in person, because Stewie is bigger than Junior.

 Frosty again... I never realized chickens were so good at looking disapproving!!

And last but not least... the genius himself...Albert Eggstein...

Happy Monday!!!

The Waters Have Receded! :)

I'm happy to report that the giant puddle in front of the goat pen was dried up by the time I got home last night.  I was able to let the goats graze all morning, which is good.  I'm not sure I'm comfortable leaving them out of the pen while I'm at work yet... I guess we'll see how the fence holds up over time.  There have been no escapees since I upgraded my charger and ran a fourth wire, though.

Here's Rhode this morning, surveying her domain: 

In other news, Dad built me front steps the other day, and started putting decking down - yay!!  No more wobbly cinder blocks!  :D 

He also built a shelf over my sink - every little bit of storage space helps!!

And finally, here's one of the chicks... this one is a pullet (girl), and I think she's very pretty.  No name yet... still waiting for inspiration to strike, I guess, lol.

Happy Saturday!  :) 

Send Noah and the Ark!!

So we got a humdinger of a thunderstorm last night...and let me tell you, that's an intense experience in the dome, LOL!!  I was up a couple times checking for leaks, and putting towels over the windows (installing something to keep the rain out when the screen windows are installed definitely needs to be a priority...).  

When I got up and went to bring the goats their morning snack of grain, this is what I saw:

It's a little hard to see...but there's a MASSIVE, 3-5 inch deep puddle all in front of their pen.  It goes into the front of the pen, too, though it looks like the back corner stayed dry.  

My first thought was that I really need to invest in a good pair of rubber boots!!

Then I started trying to think how to address this issue.  I see two options:

1. Move the goat pen to approximately where I was standing when I took this photo, as that spot is about 2 feet higher than the current location of the pen.

2. Cart over a whole bunch of dirt (which is readily available at the moment, as things were just excavated), and build up the floor inside and outside the pen, with a slope so that water drains away.  

Another possibility would be to decide if I want to start building a more permanent goat shed and try to get the goats moved into that soon-ish...but that would likely mean going further into debt, which I'd like to avoid if I can help it.  If anyone hears of a free 8x12 shed , and knows someone who can move it for cheap, please let me know...that would make a very nice little goat house!  :)  

Anyway, happy Friday, everyone!  

Happy Goats

So I *think* the goat fence is FINALLY hot enough!!  I was able to let the goats out to graze for a good chunk of the morning, which gave me the opportunity to clean out their pen - which was much needed!  

Here's my crew of Oberhaslis:

One of the bucklings:

Lotus, a doeling from this spring:

A buckling:

Another buckling (possible the same one, lol...can't tell unless I can see the horns):

Rhode, my yearling doe.  She's like a puppy dog, and always watches for me to come over and say hi.  She's the one who kept getting out the other day, and I'm pretty sure she just wanted to be near me.

It's a gorgeous day!!

I went back toward their pen, and they ran to catch up, with Rhode leading the way!

Happy goats make for a happy goat owner!!  :P  

Everything... Even the Kitchen Sink

I can't remember if I said this already, but I had three chicks start crowing this past week.  All three will need to be processed at some point, as they are too closely related to the female chicks.  I'm calling this one Stewie...short for Stewpot. 😂

I've also still been wrestling with the goat fence, lol... I bought a bigger solar charger.  I let it charge in the sun for a few days, and finally hooked it up yesterday.  It worked beautifully for a little while... and then Rhode, my yearling doe, figured out that she could jump over a low spot.  In the process of getting her back in, she bumped the wire... and now it's not zapping nearly as well as it was.  This evening I strung some more wire, watered the ground rods, and circled the fence a couple times to see if anything was touching it and shorting it out.  Even after that, it still wasn't hot enough.  Guess I'll try again in the morning once the water has fully soaked in.

In any case, it was a gorgeous evening.  First, there was a pretty sunset...

And then the moon came out.

In other news, I picked up a bunch of supplies yesterday - I'm sure this was the first of many trips to the store for things I didn't realize I would need!!  One purchase was this water jug, which makes washing my hands much easier.  :)

Dad provided another kitchen upgrade...he built me a box to go under my little stove!  :D It will have a drawer in it when it's done, but it already looks a million times better than the styrofoam cooler I had under there. 

Anyway, I'm off to bed... good night, and happy Tuesday!  :) 

Settling In

I'm starting to get settled in... getting used to the nightly routine of getting home, checking on animals, and going to bed.  And then in the morning, walking the dogs, checking on the livestock again, and then cooking breakfast over a little fire.  I'm already much faster at getting the fire going, lol... that first day I almost had to go to Dunkin Donuts instead!!  :P 

Today I had the morning free before work, and I decided to do some cleaning and organizing inside the dome.  Here's the "before" picture: 

Chaos!!  Here's the "after":

Ahh... isn't that SO much better?  The kitchen will still take more work - for example, I need a wooden box under the stove - but this is the basic layout.

If anyone knows how to hook up a propane RV fridge... feel free to come over sometime, and I'll cook you breakfast!  :P 

Happy Saturday!!!

First Breakfast

Lol, still don't have my propane stove hooked up... so this is how I cooked breakfast this morning.  I will not admit how many matches I went through trying to get this little flame going.. but the food was very yummy.  :) 

I'm using a super random assortment of dishes and utensils because I haven't unpacked yet, so I was just scrounging from the tops of boxes.

Now I'm off to add another ground rod to my goat fence, because it definitely is NOT hot enough yet!!!  :o

Happy Thursday!!

I'm Here!!

So I'm currently sitting on the deck of my dome... listening to the evening sounds, and enjoying the cool air (and swatting the occasional mosquito, lol).  The dogs are here with me, and in a few minutes, I'll go to bed...in the dome!!

That's right... I'm moving in!!  :D 

Mind you, I'm not set up to cook yet, and I don't have my dog fence up yet, so I'll be going to Dad and Mom's for breakfast tomorrow, and dropping the dogs off there while I'm at work... but I'm here!!!

I Blame Thane

I blame Thane for this whole farm thing...I've always loved farms and farm animals, but I didn't start seriously pursuing acreage and dreaming of goats, chickens, sheep, cattle, etc., until I got Thane.  Then I thought...hmm...if I have an old-fashioned farm Collie...wouldn't it be cool for him to have livestock to herd?

And thus it began.  It's been a long journey to get to this point, but I am excited to announce that as of today, Butterscotch Farm is home to five charming, adorable Oberhasli goats!!!  :D :D :D

Hopefully soon it will be home to me too...LOL!!  

I am actually hoping to move in over the next couple of days...things will be pretty rustic for a bit, but I'm excited!  And it'll let me get a bit more sleep and put a few less miles on the truck when I'm over there.

Here are a few photos of the progress that has happened since I last posted:

Pastor Hayman brought me the rest of the firewood that my aunt and uncle gave me!  What a huge blessing!

Timothy installed my solar fan...and had some fun while doing so, lol.

Here's the actual fan:

It runs well, but doesn't do nearly as much as I hoped to mitigate the heat.  The dome came with screen windows that can replace the vinyl windows; I just need to come up with a way to modify them so that they won't let the rain in.

Another huge blessing: one friend from church brought his excavator, and another brought his tractor, and they have been working to do some serious clearing and stump pulling for me!

They carved a path from the water pump down into the goat field; previously, this was an almost impassable tangle of downed trees and brush.  I sure appreciated that today when I made a couple trips down to the field with a five-gallon bucket of water in each hand!  

Also, Joe found me a boulder!  Just a bit was sticking out, and he worked at it and worked at it and finally got it out.  

It now lives in front of my dome, and I LOVE it!!  Lol, Dad, Timothy, and I were pumping water from the well and scrubbing the sand off the rock the other day.  :P

Dad and Timothy hung the shade cloth this past Saturday...not sure that does much either, lol.  Maybe I need a bigger one.

I think this was also on Saturday...Dad finished getting my sink hooked up to the gray water system.  It's just a drain - I can dump any non-sewage waste water in there, and it goes down through a pipe into a special ditch.  I don't have running water in the dome; I'll have to bring all water in.  I still need to get the water from my little well tested.

Oh, and Scott, Joe, and Paul managed to use the excavator to get the woodstove inside!  I'm especially grateful for that - that thing is a BEAST!!

And...here's the goober that started all this, LOL!!  I think he's pretty sure that the chickens are squeaky toys.  Sometime in the next day or two I'll need to introduce him to the goats, too....that'll be interesting!  

Happy Monday!!!