About the farm today...

 Will took this picture of mom milking.

 Daisy getting milked.

 Our milking stand (Curious is cleaning up the spills).

 Samson chilling in the shade.

 New "easter eggers" are getting big!

Luke and Beau in the new pasture.

Update: heat, weeds, broodies, a deck and goats!

Peas

I haven't updated in a while, sorry about that.  We have had such a strange spring, very cool temps and lots of rain to suddenly very hot temps and dryness.  The garden is doing okay for the lateness at which we planted it, we've harvested a cucumber, a couple handfuls of peas, and are about ready to get some lettuce this next week.  There is still a lot to grow, beans and squashes are doing well.  I planted tomato seeds straight into the garden, and they are slowly but surely coming up.  I've never done that before but by the time I got around to it, it seemed the best option.  I will likely buy a few larger plants to supplement until they get large enough.

Domestic blackberries

The chickens ate all our strawberries this year, I need to get netting over and around that!  The blackberries and raspberries are doing very well and should be ready for harvest in a couple weeks.

Apples

The fruit trees in the orchard seem pretty happy - one apple tree had 5 apples on it (then 1 dropped off), still great for it's first year here.  The other apple tree didn't even flower, but one peach tree did.  The fig plants are doing surprisingly well, I thought I had lost one over the winter but it has surprised me.  The deer have been nibbling a bit on them, but not too bad so far.

Broody girls

"Easter-egger" chicks

We picked up 7 more hens - black austrolorps.  Two of them are very broody and I'm pretty sure that they are going to hatch out some chicks for us in the next few weeks.  The "easter-egger" chicks are doing well and have moved out to the chicken house, though still in their own shelter for their protection.  I need pretty soon to start culling out the hens that aren't laying and the extra roosters.  If I'm feeding them, they need to feed me in one way or the other.  :-)  I've been able to sell several dozen eggs a week successfully which has been nice.

Collected eggs

We sold all of our baby bunnies for the asking price, which was wonderful.  They all found great pet homes and I am happy about that.  I am planning to put my white buck up for sale too and just use the dwarf buck for breeding next year.

Deck in progress

Our deck is finally moving along again!  It now has the base finished and there are 10 boards laying across the top and we can fit 2 chairs out on it.  This makes me very happy!!!  I don't know when the rest of the floor will get down and who knows when it will have rails and steps but I'm excited for what is done so far.  :-)

Daisy saying hello.

Our goats have been doing pretty well.  I need to get out for hoof trimming and am considering summer shaves too, we'll see.  I've never done that before but it may help their comfort through the summer.  Everyone is a joy and lots of fun.  Our new buckling should be coming home the end of July.

New kitty Cassie has settled in quite happily.  She is mostly in the house still but has gone outside a couple of times and enjoyed that.

Samson smiling

Samson and Molly are doing great.  Samson lives with the 2 wethers and he loves his goats.  I look forward to him being old enough to be with all the girls too next spring.  We'll see how he does at kidding. We love them both!

I think that's about it, thought I should update for now while I had a few moments.

A walk through the woods

Dogs to the vet

We took all 3 big dogs to the vet today. Tom took the morning off so that he could help me. It was not as difficult as I thought it might be. We loaded them all up in the farm van and took them in one at a time. Molly got weighed and got her rabies shot, she weighed about 50#. Carl got weighed and got his rabies shot, he also weighed about 50# and he stayed the day and was neutered (did not phase him a bit - ha!). Samson got weighed, about 60# at 4 months of age, and got his rabies shot. Now to get them all licensed and everyone is set!

Samson @ 3 weeks old

This is a video of the litter of pups that our Samson came from (at Bearskin Creek Fiber Farm). They are 3 weeks old here. He is the one with dark ears, dark spots over his eyes, around his tail and a dark spot on his left side (these spots lightened as he grew).

Our new puppy

4 Month old Maremma/Great Pyrenees mix, Samson is his name. :-)

Link

A fun website with lists of tricks to teach your dog!

Doggie Buddy

Carl is growing

Here is an updated pic of our puppy, now 5 months old and almost as tall as Molly. He is looking more houndish in the face, his feet are still quite large and he is very, very active. He has flattened 1 iris bush, 2 hostas, and 1 peony bush so far this year. He LOVES to wrestle with Molly and run and be crazy. He has to stay in his large kennel when we are not outdoors to watch him as he can be pretty destructive with digging and rolling if he isn't being watched. He is very good about not whining or barking while there though, and we are outdoors a lot! He is a sweet boy and still sleeps indoors in his crate at night in Heather's room.

Dogs update

I need to get a recent pic of Carl to put up here.  He is growing and growing!  I watched the movie "Marley and Me" last night and it definitely reminded me of our Carl.  He is constantly on the move and often in trouble.  We love him though.

The wireless containment system (PetSafe) has worked so very well for us.  I am thrilled with it.  Molly is completely yard trained and so I put the collar on Carl and he has done super with it also.  They both know where the boundaries are and have not been "corrected" more than a couple times each the first day.  They turn around and run to the porch anytime either of them hear a beeping warning.  I love it!

I weighed the dogs today and ordered Frontline Plus tick treatment.  After the experience with Seargant's Gold I am not taking any chances.  I had bought Hartz for Carl and it has not been working at all and my sis-in-law says that it is known to cause problems for dogs, especially puppies also.  I will be tossing that too.

Molly weighed 45lbs and Carl weighed 25lbs.

I ordered from www.entirelypets.com and paid $67.03 after a 10% coupon discount for 2 3-month supply packs.

Containment System

Molly had started chasing cars on our road and  I was concerned for her safety, and really dislike that habit in dogs... then Carl wandered off to the neighbors the other day - so we decided to go ahead and try out a wireless containment system.  It is working great!

The base unit just plugs into a wall and sends a signal out in a radius.  The area it covered is perfect for our needs.  Molly can go half way up the drive and into the woods a bit to each side, then all the way over the whole back yard.  Our house is the center of the radius and it also covers the gardens and chicken house.  She learns very fast and I think soon I can put the collar down to only beep a signal, not needing to shock and then eventually remove the collar and use it to train Carl (when he's a little bigger).

I am happy with the way it has worked this week and thrilled that our dogs can be easily trained to stay in the yard for their safety and ours.  The best part, it was SUPER easy for the kids and I to set up, took only about an hour to lay out the flags at the boundary.  :-)

The system we got was a PetSafe Containment System.

Warning: Dog flea/tick treatment

Yesterday I gave Molly a flea/tick treatment, Sargeant's Gold liquid drops that are applied to the dog's back and are effective against fleas and ticks, etc...  After becoming fairly certain that we lost our dog Morgan to Lyme's disease last year, I have tried to be more consistent with treating our dogs and the ticks have become quite active again this year.  I applied the drops and within a couple hours noticed that she was looking a little weak/shaky and was drooling.  It was late and she had just been outside barking at deer, so I thought maybe she had just worked herself up.  We went to bed and this morning noticed that she was drooling more and was having obvious difficulty swallowing.  I hopped on google and found some information here from others who have had the exact same reaction.  I saw that when they called the vet he said to wash the dog with dish soap, so I did that twice and we left for church (she was acting fine otherwise).  She rested and ate and drank while we were gone and was back to full health by the time we got home.  I am SO thankful!  I tossed the rest of the treatment in the trash and will never buy it again.

More pup pics

Let sleeping dogs lie...

Lyme's disease

We have to be very aware of ticks and their danger here in our area. They are just a fact of life on our wooded acres. Had heard about a new test for dogs that was reasonably priced, the C6 test. We plan to ask our vet about it so that if one of our dogs begins to show symptoms, we can be prepared.

Here is an informative article about dogs and lyme's disease. See the whole article here.

A snippet:

"A dog with symptoms of Lyme disease ideally should have a test to confirm or rule out Lyme disease. Since it is almost impossible to culture the Lyme spirochete, efforts have centered on detection of antibodies against the Osps. The problems encountered with this method are:

• In a Lyme endemic area, as many as 90% of the dogs will have antibodies against the Lyme spirochete. Most exposed dogs never get sick but almost all of them will develop antibodies and these antibodies persist for years. How do we tell the dogs that have active infection from those that have been exposed and are not sick from their exposure?
• Vaccine has been available for Lyme disease for a decade or more. How do we distinguish antibodies generated by the vaccine from those generated by natural infection?
• How do we distinguish antibodies generated by similar organisms (Leptospira, for example, or harmless other Borrelia species)?

The solution to these problems has come about only recently in the form of the C6 test. This is an immunological test for antibody against the C6 peptide, a unique section of the one of the Borrelia burgdorferi surface antigens. As the spirochete changes its configuration to escape the host's immune system, the C6 peptide remains constant and always detectable. Vaccine does not contain the C6 peptide so vaccinated dogs will not test positive. Dogs with other infections will not erroneously test positive. Further, this test is simple enough to be available as an in-house test kit (the IDEXX Snap-3 Dx test), which can be run in most veterinary hospitals with results in approximately 10 minutes.

This still does not address distinguishing active infection from exposure. Dogs will test C6 positive within to 3 to 5 weeks of infection. They stay positive for over a year.

Treatment and Its Goals

Which of these dogs get sick and which do not? Does the dog with joint pain, fever, and a positive C6 test need medication? This is where the news is particularly good.

Treatment of Lyme disease utilizes a 2 to 4 week course of doxycycline, a medication that is inexpensive and has limited side effects potential. Amoxicillin is another effective alternative, also inexpensive and with minimal side effects. If Lyme disease is a consideration, many veterinarians simply prescribe the medication. Obvious improvement is seen within 48 hours. Furthermore, most tick-borne infections capable of causing joint pain, fever, and signs similar to Lyme disease generally are all share responsive to doxycycline so a simple course of medication actually covers several types of infection.

Eradication of the Lyme spirochete is not a reasonable expectation with treatment; the organism is simply too good at hiding. The goal instead is to bring the patient into what is called a premunitive state. This is the state that 90% of infected dogs achieve when they get infected but never get ill: the organism is in their bodies latently but is not causing active infection."

Carl comes home

Pics of our new pup we picked up today. He got a bath and food and lots and lots of snuggles, then some playtime with Molly (who is patiently putting up with him, lol) and then more snuggles. He didn't do too bad his first night in his crate and is learning already how he is allowed to behave. He is very sweet!

New puppy!

We picked out a new pup from some friends tonight. Mother is pure golden lab, father an unknown who crawled under the fence, LOL. He has markings like a rottweiler and Heather thought he looked like the dog in this book Good Dog, Carl so we are going to name him Carl. We will pick him up next week, he is 7 weeks old now. We are very excited!

Morgan is gone.

Our dog Morgan now rests. He was over 8 years old which is pretty good for a large breed like he was, he had always been our outside guard dog and didn't have it easy. He had become weak and thin and shaky, wasn't eating well and I don't think his eyesight was very good anymore. I am sad and will miss how safe he made me feel, miss his big bark and nighttime howls even. Molly misses him too.