It was my turn to lead devotions for the farm a couple weeks ago. I basically did the same thing I did last time. I wrote down just 2 passages each day and told people to go off by themselves and read and pray. I also decided to do prayer meetings every night that week. We met for an hour each night, Monday through Friday. It was a really awesome time. God really moved during this week. We had a healing happen during these meetings. We had a baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. This person has become completely different after this happened. It has been so encouraging to watch him become instantly mature. I have seen a lot of fruits from these meetings and I'm sure the farm will see them for years to come.
So about 3 weeks ago, I was working up at the dairy, repairing some things. Chris came running in saying that some of the goats were injured and that a couple dogs had just come onto the farm. Two pit-bulls came onto the farm and attacked my dairy goat herd at about 9:30 a.m. The boys tackled the dogs and got them caged up. I grabbed my first aid goat kit and ran down the road. I was not prepared for what I was going to see. I expected a few scratches. What I found was #4 Daisy with the side of her udder hanging off. That is what you see in the picture.
Nathan (on the right) just finished up his pastured pork project. He had 5 pigs which he raised on pastures with a very small, a mean... seriously tiny amount of grain. They ate slop and grass and of course all the goat's milk and whey they wanted! We butchered one pig at the farm. The guys who did it kept commenting on the lack of fat on the animal. I think the project was a success over all.
One day when I got out of the shower I kept hearing this sound like something clinking against glass. I finally looked up at the glass bowl over my light fixture in my bathroom to notice the shadow of something you just never want to see. I got up there and pulled down the bowl and looky looky what I found in side. Yep... a scorpion in the bowl of my light fixture in the CEILING! What the heck?! I kindly let it go outside and then "accidentally" stepped on it.
Ok, so this week has been the worst week for me so far at the farm. I had one doe come down with gangreness mastitis. Her udder turned black and she got extremely sick. I had to shoot her. It was not what I expected it to be like. I thought it would actually be easier to shoot her then cutting the throat like we do for butchering. This was a million times harder to do. It was a lot to take in and I was able to hold it together. Later that day I went to let in the dry goats from the back pasture and what did I find, our buck laying on the ground...dead. We have no idea why he died. We decided to fore go the autopsy to pay for a new buck. The picture is of our buck Merlin. He was a good dude. We will miss him. After his death is when I heard the saying, "goat's are just animals looking for a place to die." After my time here I truly understand this saying and it's 100% true.
After all that, I called Eric from Caprine Royale (http://www.caprinoroyale.com) to hook me up with a new buck. He put me throw to Caroline at TLC farms in Franklin, TX. She breeds show Nubians. (www.tlc-farms.com) So we picked up this good lookin' stud to the right named Fresno. He is 6 months old and a little short but he should get the job done. Haha. He mom placed 9th at nationals and his great-grandmother placed at nationals as well. He comes from a great milk line and a blood line of champions.
Other things happening at the farm. I have scheduled a few field trips to other dairies to learn about their operation and also get pointers to better care for our goats. I have learned SO MUCH! The biggest thing I have taken away from the trips so far is that we are like dinosaurs on the feed scene. We need to really adjust what we are feeding our goats and start some more preventative measures for our goat health. I will post more about this when I actually make some changes and explain all that in detail. We visited Caprine Royale which I talked about above. You are welcome to visit their site. Yesterday we visited a dairy connected to Homestead. Dairy Meadow Farms run by a sweet couple, was the most I've learned in such a short time about goats. They are a soap producer looking to starting selling grade A raw goat's milk. (http://dairymeadowsoaps.com/) Feel free to order some soap if you would like. I went home with a shampoo bar that I'm really excited to start using. I'm excited to get to work on changing some things to better the health of our goats while increasing milk production and enhancing the flavor of our milk!
I will try harder to update this blog. Some times the stories I have to share are just not fun to talk about so I put it off and this goes on and on. Well, until next time.
Life on the ranch can be so harrowing at times. It is also humbling. So much can happen in a split instance and turn things upsidedown. Some days you need to learn how to cut your losses and it can be painful. When you cut your losses right, recovery is quicker. But it alwasy puts a change in the program and when your best gets laid to waste it's a pretty tough learning experience. When its good, its rea real good. But when it gets bad it gets horrid. My sympathies to you my friend. And also my best wishes.
ReplyDeleteHey Beck,
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to hear of all the goat mishaps. You are a trooper to deal with all that you have had to deal with. I hope that things have gotten better. Best of luck in the last few months of your internship.
Bronwyn