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What's Happening.......
Half Creek Farm
So many people think farming is something you decide to do and zap! you're farming. Not so. We've been working on our place for the three years we've been here and have put up several barns, tons of fence, done herd improvement, aquired needed tools, had bad weather, tons of snow, not enough wood. We've been snowed in, had animal mishaps and even people ones!
We wouldn't trade any of it, but its not easy. We're HOPING to actually get a house started in 2011. So far the goats have more housing than we do. I thought it might be interesting to let you watch our progress. We are amazingly slow, but persistant. Thats the only way you can succeed.....so, here's our story I'll keep it as current as I can, but I do have things to take care of here, so may slide once in a while..........
This year we started kidding the first part of January, with Gurnsey having quads, and Myrtle having twins on the 2nd, then on the 3rd Pippi had quads and Spot had twins, on the 4th Brown Betty had triplets, and on the 5th Goldenrod had twins. Daughter Lorena came up several times and helped out while she was here. I can't tell you how nice it is to have kids that like helping on the farm, and grandkids too!
So far all is going well with kidding. We have a lot of color and lots of kids hopping all over the place. We had a period of very mucky wet weather and the dairy goats are having feet problems. I got some stuff for their feet and will get them done. Its no fun having sore feet and apparently dairy goats are more suseptable to it than Kiko's. The new barn should help with some of the dampness. We're going to try and get the barn wings done this Feb/March if the weather holds out. Davids been working on the backhoe as we'll need it to dig
perk holes when we begin the house ......hopefully in May.
Vicki Brookreson sent me some really nice pictures of Sir Snickers, one of the bucklings she bought last year and Cremella and her twins (one of the doelings we sold her). They really are cute and Sir Snickers turned into quite a nice looking young man!
Wow has it been a weird year for weather! We were still getting snow in May! The kidding is complete now and were starting to get registrations in on the goats. David has been fencing almost every day trying to finish the perimeter fence so we can let the cows pasture farm wide. We don't worry about the goats as they're home bodies and always return, but we aren't that confident about the cows, who are naturally wanderer's.
We are still planning to start the house, most likely this month, so will have a busy year. The dairy goats had some nice little doelings so we're hoping to expland into some cheese production one of these years!
We ended up with a lot of color in our Kiko's this year. Some years we're all white, and some we have lots of color. I was going to keep all the color, but someone spoke for two of them and I decided to let them go. Its drizzly today but warmer, and the first Hood River farmers market is this evening so David is out cutting Rhubarb for me. I took four goats in to Mesa
for processing yesterday so will have some nice cuts for the farmers market in Vancouver on Saturday.
Tomorrow we pull tail hairs on the kids for their DNA for registrations. I'll get pictures of the kids for the web site and get the current animals for sale on it. We kind of got behind this year with the nasty weather so hopefully will be caught up before to long.
The Columbia Basin Goat Guild had a "Goat Accademy'" day on the 14th of May. We did classes and demo's all day on care and maintenance of all kinds of goats. We had about 50 people attend and included BBQ goat hoagies, chili, salads, muffins, drinks, etc in the entry fee. Had a great day and met some wonderful people. We plan on having another on next year. Its help at GateWay Farms in Centerville WA.
ride from parking to the barn
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tag/tattoo/shots
DVD demonstration/lecture slaughter and processing by Jason Holmes
FEC analysis, microscopes were available and everyone who wanted to could do an analysis
Shearing an angora, participants and teacher
Blood draws, Chelly Sayer-Holmes and hubby Jason
Its June 14th today. I got a few new pictures of the goats done for the sale page. Yesterday we picked up 4 goats I'd had processed and have them ready for the CSA's and the Farmers markets. The animals are all doing great. I've seperated the dairy animals from the Kiko's and Lorena has started milking several of the does. We won't have a full complement of milk till next year, but this gives us enough to practice on. We'll do soap and cheese this year till we get the recipes right.
The house plans are ready to submit to the planning department so those of you who have been here and seen the one room cabin may be suprised to see changes over the next few years.
David has been working steady to get up the perimeter fencing. Its a big job to fence 100 acres in rugged rough terrain and he's been working on it for quite a while. Once the fence is done we'll be able to let the cows graze wherever they want, which they'll like. The weather is finally nice, sunny days that get up into the 70's sometimes. Nights still make it down to the upper 30's and we still need a fire at night, but it is getting nicer.
The grandkids are enjoying the weather and the animals as well. Avalon has taken a real shine to both the goats and the cows, especially Ingrid our little Jersey heifer. Ingrid is doing very well, still getting her bottle but also grazing with the big girls.
Daisy has taken a special interest in Ingrid and is a sort of benevolent aunt figure for her.
This picture is of Avalon petting Ingrid while the big girls are laying in the sunshine. We still plan on breeding this August so should have late spring calves. Of course Ingrid is still a long way away from that but we're being careful to handle her a lot so when its time to start milking she'll be comfortable with us.
Well, its getting later in the year and we're in "get ready for bad weather" mode. The transmition on the truck went out last week............with 3 tons of hay on the trailer............so is now in the shop getting a new one. We had fair last week and the Kiko's did great. A grand champion doe, several reserve champions, the grandkids won showmanship, best junior dairy doeling, pack goat, cart goats did great. Lots of fun but I'm always ready for the fair to be over for a while by the time the week is over! Our friends Randy and Glenda Miles from Twilight Sky ranch stopped by to see us and visit, and that was a great treat. Glenda raises Kiko's in Marysville, WA.
The weather is getting cooler now, last week we droped down to 35! We're putting the bucks in with the does tomorrow so we have earlier kidding now that we have a bigger barn. When the truck is back to running we're picking up an old used squeeze chute I found so we can get the AI (artificial insemination) done on Iris and Daisy. I found a guy (Justin Hill) who does AI locally. Ingrid is doing well and growing a lot. I think she is deaf, likely from being so sick for so long, but otherwise seems to be doing well. I just sold several of my goats to a nice lady in Kennewick (Mary Cowan). She really got some nice does. We've really cut back on sales this year as I'm doing some culling, and I have several older does that will need retiring soon. I luckily have several really nice replacement does comming up but have a hard time holding on to them when the sales money looks so good LOL. I think thats what got me in this predicament in the first place.
The Wookie (our older Bouvier) had another seizure, again during her heat cycle. This one was pretty bad, worse than ones in the past, so we decided to have her spayed. She is recovering nicely now and with any luck the seizures will stop. Mr. Darcy is doing well. He's an excellent farm dog but a little to aggressive for herding, although as he gets
older he is starting to calm down a bit. Well, better get busy or winter will sneak up on me while I'm writing this!
Well, the year is nearly over. We have a new barn up, and the hay is stored under cover now. We have a nice group of dairy goats ready to start kidding in the spring, so we can start experimenting with soap, cheese and butter. We've added the lovely Ingrid, our gersey calf to the group. Our hopes are for more and better adventures next year. I think I'll probably add another link for the next years input so you don't have to scroll all the way to the bottom to hear what we'll be doing next. I hope you are enjoying reading about our farm and what we're doing. We'll see you next year.
