Well, it's busy here on the farm right now. The last babies you learned about were Wauwatosa's on 2/9, one doeling, one buckling.
On 2/15 our dear Tulip gave us 4 babies! 3 bucklings, 1 doeling.
Today (well, yesterday by this time), Watsonia gave me 2 doelings. Her gorgeous babies are healthy and happy.
We are taking care of one of Tulip's boys that is having problems maintaining his temperature. There are 2 other small ones that we're keeping our eyes on.
It's a good thing we're watching. Posie decided to kid, by herself sometime between our 9pm check and 11:50pm when we went out for our check. If you're not up for reading sad news, stop now.
When we found them, Posie was just standing there, our two sheep were helping clean off 2 little bucklings. Unfortunately, from what we can surmise there was a doeling born first. Still in her amniotic sack, she was cold and dead when we found her. What a beauty she was.
Now I'm sad and tired, and must get some rest so I can help the other mommas tomorrow. I'm so glad Watsonia gave me something to be joyous about today!
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Things are moving!
Yeah! Well, for me today is actually still Feb. 13, not quite ready to admit to 2/14 yet!
So, for today's update: In the mail today we received our Septic Plan Approval!!
This is a MAJOR item for us. Moving forward, for everything, was hinged on this.
Now it is approved. Now we will move forward with contracting and installing the septic system and the power to the barn/dairy.
The power is a neat one. Now, let's clarify here, I have not done any of this type of stuff before. Perhaps you live in an area that you've done developing and things like placing a 30' power pole or installing a septic system are commonplace, but I'm feeling quite over my head.
Fortunately I have a sister that has a partner with developing in her blood (truly, a family business!). They have done some developing for themselves too, and don't seem to be intimidated at all by all these strange processes. They have been a great resource and a wonderful sounding board when I start to panic and spin inside my head.
So, it's late, we're expecting kids - a LOT of them, any day now, I'm going to rest.
Happy Valentine's Day if I don't make it back to post tomorrow with hands too full of babies or some other great excuse.
So, for today's update: In the mail today we received our Septic Plan Approval!!
This is a MAJOR item for us. Moving forward, for everything, was hinged on this.
Now it is approved. Now we will move forward with contracting and installing the septic system and the power to the barn/dairy.
The power is a neat one. Now, let's clarify here, I have not done any of this type of stuff before. Perhaps you live in an area that you've done developing and things like placing a 30' power pole or installing a septic system are commonplace, but I'm feeling quite over my head.
Fortunately I have a sister that has a partner with developing in her blood (truly, a family business!). They have done some developing for themselves too, and don't seem to be intimidated at all by all these strange processes. They have been a great resource and a wonderful sounding board when I start to panic and spin inside my head.
So, it's late, we're expecting kids - a LOT of them, any day now, I'm going to rest.
Happy Valentine's Day if I don't make it back to post tomorrow with hands too full of babies or some other great excuse.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Paperwork day
Today was a boring day on the farm. We did have several visitors, including my milk tester and her daughter. We always get more visitors after baby announcements!
I love having people over to meet the goats and share our farm.
Today was also a day to pull together the cheese I'm supplying for a Farmer to Chef event here on Whidbey Island (Monday evening!). I'm so excited about exposing such a large group of people to my product and letting them know it will be available to the public by May!
So with all the spare time we had today I actually caught up on some of my overdue ADGA paperwork. Yea! Maybe by midweek I can get it all done and in the mail.
Part of that paper work is an application for Linear Appraisal, when an appraiser (not a judge like at shows) comes out and 'scores' your animals. Just another tool, like Milk Test (DHIA/DHIR/DHI) to help me improve the herd.
We have 4 goats due this week, and another one the following week, and a sheep due sometime this month. This will prove to be a busy time, so I'd better get some rest! Goodnight!
I love having people over to meet the goats and share our farm.
Today was also a day to pull together the cheese I'm supplying for a Farmer to Chef event here on Whidbey Island (Monday evening!). I'm so excited about exposing such a large group of people to my product and letting them know it will be available to the public by May!
So with all the spare time we had today I actually caught up on some of my overdue ADGA paperwork. Yea! Maybe by midweek I can get it all done and in the mail.
Part of that paper work is an application for Linear Appraisal, when an appraiser (not a judge like at shows) comes out and 'scores' your animals. Just another tool, like Milk Test (DHIA/DHIR/DHI) to help me improve the herd.
We have 4 goats due this week, and another one the following week, and a sheep due sometime this month. This will prove to be a busy time, so I'd better get some rest! Goodnight!
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Wauwa's babies & planning progress
Today Wauwatosa, one of my does, freshened (kidded). It was a normal delivery with two healthy kids (1 buck, 1 doe) and a healthy, great momma.
Here they are 4 hours old:
We have had 4 other kids this year, and all of them are leaving the farm for sure. This doeling may stay. I only get to keep 4 this year, so there are some hard decisions to be made. This doeling is a granddaughter to my 'best' doe, and her mother's udder looks better than her grandma's - so if that continues, she will be a remarkable little girl.
I'm happy it was such a smooth kidding and her udder freshened so beautifully because our logo is a drawing of Wauwa and her momma from pictures almost 2 years ago, they hold a special place in my heart and are part of the short history of our farm.
On a business note, I also got the bill in the mail today from our septic planner. It is under budget - as a matter of fact, his cost and the county fee is just under 1/2 of what I budgetted for. Not quite enough to save our financial shortage, but every bit helps!
Our septic plan is the first of many steps just falling into place after nearly 2 years of planning. Once we receive approval, we will move ahead with getting permanent power to the barn, and then building out the barn to our dairy plan specs. Our dairy plan specs are being designed as I type by another marvelous member of our community that is doing it well under what we expected because he believes so much in our project! I see some free cheese in his future!
By the end of February we should have dates set for the electric install and hopefully a construction schedule for the little things, like floors and walls. :)
By the way, I had an old blog (goatmilker/blogspot.com) 2 years ago that shows pictures of Wauwa and some of my other herdmates as babies.
Here they are 4 hours old:
We have had 4 other kids this year, and all of them are leaving the farm for sure. This doeling may stay. I only get to keep 4 this year, so there are some hard decisions to be made. This doeling is a granddaughter to my 'best' doe, and her mother's udder looks better than her grandma's - so if that continues, she will be a remarkable little girl. I'm happy it was such a smooth kidding and her udder freshened so beautifully because our logo is a drawing of Wauwa and her momma from pictures almost 2 years ago, they hold a special place in my heart and are part of the short history of our farm.
On a business note, I also got the bill in the mail today from our septic planner. It is under budget - as a matter of fact, his cost and the county fee is just under 1/2 of what I budgetted for. Not quite enough to save our financial shortage, but every bit helps!
Our septic plan is the first of many steps just falling into place after nearly 2 years of planning. Once we receive approval, we will move ahead with getting permanent power to the barn, and then building out the barn to our dairy plan specs. Our dairy plan specs are being designed as I type by another marvelous member of our community that is doing it well under what we expected because he believes so much in our project! I see some free cheese in his future!
By the end of February we should have dates set for the electric install and hopefully a construction schedule for the little things, like floors and walls. :)
By the way, I had an old blog (goatmilker/blogspot.com) 2 years ago that shows pictures of Wauwa and some of my other herdmates as babies.
The Little Brown Farm?
So some people mentioned that it might be good record some of the path of our endeavor to open a Grade A goat and sheep dairy/creamery. So today, I will start that.
Some posts will be historical, documenting some of the work we've done so far. However, most posts will be more like a journal, where we are now, what is going on.
We hope to create a source of information that might help others who choose to follow this path, or are just curious about the process.
I am not a writer. This will not be a great literary masterpiece. Hopefully, it will be interesting enough for some to follow along.
So let's start by telling you how we got our name, The Little Brown Farm.
I am lucky enough to work or a marketing and PR firm, with some great talent. So the first thing I did was come up with a few (very lame!) names for our farm, then I asked everyone in the office to help - it was a naming party with over 30 options.
Liz, one of my co-workers came up with The Little Brown Farm. Brown is our last name, Little suits (we're a micro-farm on less than 5 acres). We love teaching children and seeing kids interact with the animals, it is a passion to reach out to the up and coming generations. The name fit and seemed like an obvious choice even against 30+ competitors.
We dream someday of having a Little Brown Farm storybook about our farm. I've toyed with the idea of illustrating a coloring book for kids visiting the farm.
Our herd name, we came up with before the Farm name. It had limitations put on it by ADGA (American Dairy Goat Association) and we had some challenges finding a name that would get approved. We wanted Magna Latte, but the name Magna was taken and at the time no one could have the same first word or some strange issue, so we ended up settling for Latte Magna for our herd name. We thought it fit, because our girls give a lot of latte, er... milk. Also because my husband was hit on my old motorcycle (a Honda Magna), and it gave us a change in perspective of our lives and helped us to see this new direction.
So this is the story of us, our passion for cheese and animals. The cast: husband and wife, 2 house cats, 3 house dogs, 39 hens, 2 roosters, 1 LGD (livestock guardian dog), 2 sheep (subject to change) and 18 goats (subject to change).
Some posts will be historical, documenting some of the work we've done so far. However, most posts will be more like a journal, where we are now, what is going on.
We hope to create a source of information that might help others who choose to follow this path, or are just curious about the process.
I am not a writer. This will not be a great literary masterpiece. Hopefully, it will be interesting enough for some to follow along.
So let's start by telling you how we got our name, The Little Brown Farm.
I am lucky enough to work or a marketing and PR firm, with some great talent. So the first thing I did was come up with a few (very lame!) names for our farm, then I asked everyone in the office to help - it was a naming party with over 30 options.
Liz, one of my co-workers came up with The Little Brown Farm. Brown is our last name, Little suits (we're a micro-farm on less than 5 acres). We love teaching children and seeing kids interact with the animals, it is a passion to reach out to the up and coming generations. The name fit and seemed like an obvious choice even against 30+ competitors.
We dream someday of having a Little Brown Farm storybook about our farm. I've toyed with the idea of illustrating a coloring book for kids visiting the farm.
Our herd name, we came up with before the Farm name. It had limitations put on it by ADGA (American Dairy Goat Association) and we had some challenges finding a name that would get approved. We wanted Magna Latte, but the name Magna was taken and at the time no one could have the same first word or some strange issue, so we ended up settling for Latte Magna for our herd name. We thought it fit, because our girls give a lot of latte, er... milk. Also because my husband was hit on my old motorcycle (a Honda Magna), and it gave us a change in perspective of our lives and helped us to see this new direction.
So this is the story of us, our passion for cheese and animals. The cast: husband and wife, 2 house cats, 3 house dogs, 39 hens, 2 roosters, 1 LGD (livestock guardian dog), 2 sheep (subject to change) and 18 goats (subject to change).
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