monday musings

George Herbert, a Welsh poet from the 1600s, once said “Every mile is two in winter” and I think he knew a thing or two about cold weather.  A foot of snow on the ground makes doing farm chores just that much harder.

I can’t imagine living life without electricity, it’s something I’ve never had to do.  Due to the snow and ice we received this weekend (not a lot of pictures, sorry, I had to work Friday-Sunday) we lost power Saturday morning just minutes before we left the house so HB could take me to work.  There was no way my little Civic was going to get us the 7 miles between our house and the main road.  We were without power until close to 9pm that night.

We did our evening chores early, so that we could finish before dark.  I found myself explaining to every animal “I’m sorry, I know we’re early, but we don’t have electricity!” when I realized – the animals don’t care if the electricity is on.  Their day is not affected by whether or not there is a warm and steady stream of hot air coming through the air vents, whether the computer or lights are working so they surf the internet or read a book, whether or not they can take a warm shower.

I felt foolish, explaining this to the animals.  Why electricity was important.  Why Jacqsonne was milked an hour early.  Why Huck would have to stay in his stall longer tonight before his morning walk.

During high school I was exposed to the works of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.  I was drawn to their prose.  Some of my favorite quotations come from their writings.  As part of a project in my English class, we were to pick a quote of importance to us and write an explanation.  We also wrote each quote on a bulletin board in the English department’s hallway for all students and passerbys to read.  My pick?

Hitch your wagon to a star. -Henry David Thoreau

As I’ve grown into an adult, I’ve maintained an intense interest in the works of Thoreau and Emerson.  I’ve just checked and the local library is open and they have his book, simply entitled Walden, and after I finish this post I’m on my way to check it out!

Yesterday, in her blog Small Measures, Ashley English wrote about how you transform during life.  She starts out, “The places you live end up changing you,” and I can’t think of a more applicable quote to sum up my life at this point.  Three years ago, fresh out of college, I would have been sitting at my bench top in a laboratory at Harvard University’s School of Public Health, extracting DNA from mice tails to run a PCR to know it’s genetic identity.  The lab I worked in had a large mouse colony, priceless to the research that supported the lab, and it was my duty to make sure we were getting proper genetic results through the planned breedings.  It was a lot of work, designing new PCR schemes to ensure that genetics were breeding through.  I lived in a mediocre apartment in Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood, a 10 minute walk to work.  In my spare time, I never knew what to do with myself.

Now, three years later I find myself in a rural village in central Virginia.  I’m working as a veterinary assistant in a small animal hospital, and play mother, midwife, veterinarian, friend, farmer, and so much more to my own gathering of animals at home.

It used to be overwhelming at times.  I would feel tied down to the farm, unable to leave.  I would get angry.  Over time I’ve developed a peacefulness with my situation.  I like getting up early to tend the animals, to enjoy my quiet one-on-one milking time with Jacqsonne.  Sometimes I’ll take a five-second break and rest my head against her side and take in her smell.  Her scent is sweet from the hay, with a slight goat scent.  At this point she’ll stop eating and turn her head to look at me.  I like to think, at that moment, we’re connecting on another level.

I’ve gotten to the point that I like to stay home on my days off.  Rather than run into town where I inevitably spend money that I shouldn’t and waste time, I can stay home – perhaps bake something, perhaps do some cleaning, spend some peaceful moments with the animals.  It allows me to work at my own, comfortable, pace.  I enjoy the simplicity.

Last night I finished The Art of Racing in the Rain, a novel by Garth Stein, which is for my book club I belong to.  It was a wonderful book, happy and sad, and I found myself crying over my chicken noodle soup (homemade and delicious) as I finished the book at lunch yesterday.  But there is one quote from the main character, Enzo, a dog, that stood out

That which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.

Donut, Celebrity Goat

Santa Donut

I was excited to learn that my photo of Donut has been selected as Goat Photo of the Week by the Spindale Goat Festival & Parade.  I’m very proud of this photo – it was luck, the combination of lighting and contrast with Donut’s pleasant little goat smile.  I took this in the stall as he faced the open stall door during the first big snow back in December.  You can view Donut’s photo as well as the other weekly winners here.  You can even enter your own photos for the weekly contest!

The Spindale Goat Festival is scheduled for May 22, 2010, in Spindale, NC – home of the American Dairy Goat Association.  The Goat Festival includes a dairy goat show (ADGA-sanctioned), a parade, goat cart races (!!!), a goat beauty contest (!!), and a pre-event Friday evening wine and goat cheese party at a local restaurant.  How much more fun can it get?  Hopefully I’ll be able to go!

I’m whispering

One day old chicks, July 2008

Our hens have always been a bit off schedule.  We got them late – mid-July – and they began laying in December.  Trying to help them, we put a light in their coop on a timer to extend their daylight to help them through their first laying season.

This winter the hens have been molting at different times.  Right now we’re getting one egg, every other day or so, if we’re lucky.

We had to brake down.  I couldn’t believe we did it.

But the market has been closed the past few weekends due to snow.  And we needed eggs.

We bought supermarket eggs.  (in my head, that is said in a whisper)

Their shells are thin and ghostly white.  Their yolks just lay flat inside the whites.  If they were human, they’d be the most boring person you’ve ever met.

And so we’ll suffer through a dozen plain jane eggs and get more at the market.  In the meantime, we’re perusing the hatchery catalogs, just dreaming …

Coming to Lynchburg: Chocolate Challenge at the Market!

Have plans for Valentines Day?

Love chocolate?

For the third year, the Lynchburg Market is hosting the Chocolate Challenge on the Saturday closest to Valentines Day.  You have three options: look, taste, bake!

Look:  Head to the market on Feb. 13th and look at all the amazing chocolate concoctions.

Taste:  Go to the Community Market website and you’ll be able to purchase tasting tickets for a nominal fee.  Then, on Saturday, grab your ticket, put your diet aside, slip into your sweet tooth, and don those loose pants.  Head to the market and be prepared to taste dozens of delicious chocolate dishes.

Bake:  Love to cook?  Have an affinity for chocolate?  Then enter your signature chocolate dish in the contest.  Entry options are brownie, cake, candy, pie, other.  My annual favorite is Sweetie’s Chocolate Lava Cake, but there are always amazing dishes.  Entries are judged on presentation, taste, and wow factor.  You can find entry information on the LCM website (listed above).  Be advised – enter early because space is limited!

Before and After

Jacqsonne, ready for milking

A full udder

A stream of milk

The final product

An empty udder

According to her previous owners, Jacqsonne never milked unevenly, so I’m still trying to figure out why this year her udder is so uneven. When milking I get into a rhythm – four streams from the left teat, one stream from the right, four streams from the left teat, one stream from the right, and so on.  This way they finish out about the same time.  I’ve been massaging her udder to see if that helps.

On the bright side, today Jacqsonne hit a new high for her milk production.  She’s marvelous.

Meet Xenia!

Xenia!

Xenia, a 4 year old Toggenburg doe, is the newest addition to Spring Mill Farm.  We purchased her from the lovely Toggenburg herd at Delectable Hills in Bedford.

Xenia traveled well but we had a bit of excitement when unloading her – luckily she ran into the barn!  She’s still nervous, but has settled in nicely.

Have you checked your epidermis today?

I’m ashamed to say there aren’t many published pictures of my favorite goat, Sweet Roll.  In fact, there are very few photos of him circulating.  This is because I think he looks so pitiful.  And it’s not because he’s uncared for, unloved, or malnourished.  I’ve mentioned the cause casually, in passing, but I thought I would explain a little more.

Sweet Roll, pre-pemphigus, June 2009

Sweet Roll suffers from Pemphius foliaceus, an autoimmune disease characterized by a series of skin lesions typified by blistering of the skin.  There are multiple varieties of pemphigus, and luckily pemphigus foliaceus is considered the least painful as it is a mostly superficial skin disease.  In most animals, PF is characterized by pustules (pus-filled blisters) that eventually rupture and turn into large, crusty scabs.  The pustules can be quite large and cluster in groups, and typically have a symmetrical appearance on the body.  Most pustules are first found around the head – typically the mouth or nose – and then spread to the rest of the body, usually congregating around the eyes, ears, genitalia, anus, and other areas that experience a lot of friction such as the groin and armpits.

In August we noticed these crusty bumps on his lips.

Pemphigus in rarely reported in goats.  This could be due to multiple reasons — goats are not considered pets to most people and little money is invested into caprine health research.  As of today, there are only a handful of published articles chronicling pemphigus diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis in goats, and none within the past several years.  Most cases eventually end in euthanasia because the disease takes its toll on the patient and the owners.  Treatment involves a rigorous regimine of steroid injections (or food additives, if your pet will eat it), medications, and bloodwork depending on the course of treatment you take on.  Of course, there is a lot of research being done on pemphigus in humans and in companion animals (yes, dogs and rarely cats can get PF too!  In fact, Chows and Akitas tend to have breed-related predisposition to the disease), and the main force behind it is a researcher at North Carolina State University (my alma mater, Go Wolfpack!) College of Veterinary Medicine, Theirry Olivry.

And next, we noticed the crusty bumps around his tail.

So, how do you go about treating pemphigus?  Unfortunately, the most common treatment involves immunosuppresive doses of steroids.  Long-term treatments often include chemotherapy and other invasive drugs.  These options require a rigorous amount of bloodwork to make sure the body is maintaining organ function.  And so, for the past month we’ve been treating Sweet Roll with long-acting steroids every two weeks.  His appetite is enormous, but nothing else seems to have changed.  For a while there were no new lesions appearing, so it seemed promising.

In October, we started noticing hair loss and crusty pustules on the tail.

And then today I’m outside with him, and I notice one, two, three, oh crap, a lot of new lesions.  He’s very itchy, which he hasn’t been since starting injections.  He is due for another injection soon.  Part of the problem is that Sweet Roll’s pemphigus went undiagnosed for months while we tried other treatments.  I took Sweet Roll to a local vet who specializes in camelids and small ruminants on the recommendation of the veterinarians I work with (who mainly do small animals).  Her biopsy came back as a raging bacterial infection, with no indication of pemphigus.  So we treated according to her directions and a month later he still looked miserable.

At that point I talked with one of the vets at the hospital I work at and he agreed to help me.  So I took Sweet Roll off meds and two weeks later (we had to let the drugs exit his system) took him into work on my day off and we took a biopsy to send out for a histopath, and some culture samples to send out for identification and antibiotic sensitivity.  The culture results were Staph and it was resistant to the anitibiotic we had been using for the past month.  A week later, our histopath came in – pemphigus.  Interestingly, PF can mimic dermatophytosis (ie: ringworm and other fungal infections of the same family) so before starting him on steroids, we took a hair sample to test for ringworm.  Negative.

Sweet Roll's tail, February 2010

We started treating the secondary bacterial infection and once we had a negative ringworm test, started steroids.  It’s been a month now, and I honestly thought there was some improvement.  Perhaps it’s time to try a different steroid?  But today, honestly, he looks terrible.  And miserable.  But still so sweet and loving at the same time.

He has new open lesions, his nose is crusted over with gray stuff, and his eyes are draining.  He’s a mess.  It’s at times like these I seriously wonder if the best thing to do would be put him down.  It’s such a raging decision, he’s a wonderful pet and friend (albeit, he wants to eat everything now since introducing the steroids, but it’s cute in a goat-way), and I think his quality of life is pretty good.  He seems a little sore today, which I’ve read the PF can cause.

Most recent picture, February 2010.

It’s just such a big debate.  I’m torn.  I took more pictures today, and I’m taking them to work tomorrow to discuss with the vet who is helping me.  I’m guessing we will attempt another course of steroids, a different type than before.  Maybe a more demanding course of treatment.  I don’t mind continuing to treat as long as he maintains a good quality of life.  I worry what will Donut do, if we do have to put Sweet Roll down?  Who will be his best pal?  Will the does accept him?  It breaks my heart to think of breaking their friendship.

So, welcome to my gimp farm, folks.  On a bright note, this afternoon we’re picking up the newest addition to the farm – Xenia, a 4 year old Toggenburg doe!

Build It! Hay Manger for Goats!

For Christmas we made the boys a hay manger.   We liked the design of it so much that the first thing we did when we brought the girls home was go directly to the lumber store and buy supplies to make a second one!

The girls gather around their manger on a snowy day.

Now that we’ve been to several goat farms, I really like our hay manger design the best of what we’ve seen.  We set the manger in the middle of our stalls which allows the goats to space around them and eat.  Of course, our mangers are small – only holding about a full bale of hay (less of the alfalfa/orchard grass bales) – and we only have a few goats eating out of each manger.  Eventually we’ll have to modify the design or just build more of these mangers and space them out.

I thought I’d walk you through the basics of our hay manger.  First, after a lot of debate, we went with the plan from Goat World with a few modifications.  We liked this plan for several reasons.  One, it was fairly inexpensive – I think we spent about $30 on each manger.  We liked the airiness of the design – no solid floor, plenty of room for ventilation and letting small pieces fall aside.  It allows for easy eating from the side and the top, with plenty of room for our goats to stand around it.

First, measure and mark your lumber.

I recommend trying not to make these mangers on the coldest day of the year like we did.  I was all bundled up while working in the garage with the kerosene heater burning!

Next, carefully cut the lumber at the designated spots.

Obviously, HB is more accustomed to the cold than I.

Then, it's time to make the base.

Because HB has a variety of wood-working tools, we use these handy clamps to hold our wood base “square” (although, it’s really a rectangle).  The GoatWorld article mentions a different way to ensure you maintain 90* angles.

Then, you add on the legs

This is one place we modified our design and used treated lumber for the legs since they will be in contact with urine, manure, soil, and who knows what.  Once again, we like to use clamps to hold the wood in place while we tighten screws.

And now you start inserting the slats to hold it together.

This is when it starts to count – how square are those bases?  Luckily you’re able to adjust it some by working the slats just right.  Slats go down the sides and across the bottom.

You could stop here, but do you really want to? Because ....

Now, technically, you’re done.  Congratulations!  But we found one little problem, and easily remedied it.  So let’s continue, shall we?

This gap needs a remedy

When we made the first one, we decided we didn’t like this gap that occurs on the row of bottom slats.  It’s several inches wide and we thought a flake could fall out easily.  So we decided to add another slat, which takes a little finesse…

And we have just the fix for you!

First, DO NOT cut this piece of lumber when you do your regular cutting at the start of the project.  Why?  Because you want to make sure it fits the dimensions of the finished product.  If your rectangular bases are out of alignment (ie: not square with tidy 90* angles), you might need these pieces to be longer or shorter, depending on how the manger comes together.

After measuring the space we cut the lumber.  Then, to make a tidy fit, we cut little squares out of each end, so that it fits nicely alongside the upright slats.

Add a little more support, just in case.

Because of the addition of these extra end pieces, and having to cut out part of the wood to make a clean fit, we added additional support underneath.

The finished product!

And now, congratulations! if you stuck it out this far!  You are officially done.  Unless you plan to put this outside and want to add a roof.  Which, eventually, I want to design how we will do that.  But for now, we use these in shelters that already have a roof.  Isn’t it handy?

Did I mention it was sturdy?

Oh, and did I mention how strong and sturdy they are?

A secret to making delicious chevre

"This little monkey..."

Our secret to making delicious chevre is using this little monkey to hold the bag while it drains.

But you know what this means, don’t you?

We’re making chevre.

From our own goat’s milk.

That I milked from our own dairy goat.

That would be, the very lovely Jacqsonne.

How cool is that!?!

Of course, we live in a small apartment in the barn, so our space is limited.  Thus, we clean our shower stall, move the curtain rod to the middle (and duh, remove the shower curtain), and hang our bag of curds to drain overnight, or all day, depending on our schedule.  One day, we’ll have a nicer way to do this.  But for now, it works.

And the result?  Delicious, creamy chevre.  I took some to work yesterday to share.  Have I ever told you how much my co-workers love me?  Maybe not so much me, but they love it when I bring in treats like this.

On a side note, Jacqsonne hit a production high yesterday – milking 3.25 pounds of milk.  Her breeder said that with the miscarriage we can likely expect her to hit 75% production, maybe even 100% which would be somewhere in the 12-14 pounds/day range.  Considering we weren’t supposed to be milking her for another month and a half, I’m pretty pleased with how she’s coming along.

It’s part of living in the country

It’s a fact of life, living in the country, that when it snows your road isn’t on the county’s list of roads that must be cleared immediately.  That’s when it’s nice to have farming neighbors.  Or be married to a farmer.  Or, if nothing else, a tractor aficionado.

Depending on the amount of snow we’re slated to get, HB and his father ensure the tractor is brought down from the hay and tractor shed to the smaller shed near my in-law’s house.  Once there, a snow blade is attached, and the tractor is plugged in so that it’s ready to go at a moment’s notice.  Diesels have a hard time starting in the cold, so by using a block heater the engine is partially warmed up and it makes starting much easier. A lot of times, a tarp is thrown over the tractor to prevent snow from collecting.

As soon as the snow stops (or, if a lot of snow is expected, they might plow during the snow and again once it has stopped), my husband or his father is out on the tractor.  First, they start plowing the driveway around the in-law’s house up the hill.  Next they follow the driveway down to where it meets our road, then they return and plow the driveway to the barn (and our apartment in the barn).

Once our driveway is done, they might plow the path to the hay and tractor shed.  Or, they might start doing the neighbor’s driveways.  Or, if the county hasn’t put anyone out to plow our road, he’ll start on the road.  Our neighbor to the left has tractors (nice, big tractors with heated cabs … we can only dream) and they do their own driveway and their closest neighbors.  That means HB does the family across the road, then goes down and does the driveway to his grandmother’s house.  Once those are done, he goes around our farm and down the next road to do our neighbors behind us.

The snow makes for a busy day on the tractor!  Usually, while he plays on the tractor I work around the farm.  Shoveling paths to the chicken house, dog run, water troughs, digging out the stall doors, etc.  This time, after I did all that digging, HB reminded me we had a snow blower.  See, HB used to live in Vermont and Pennsylvania, and during that time he purchased a snow blower.  We just had never used it down here in Virginia.  Doh.

I just didn’t think about it because HB’s father was using it on their back porch.  So after I slaved the morning away, sweat pouring underneath my insulated overalls, HB follows my shoveled paths with a  snow blower.  Harumph.