Suburbanites build a fence

[GLC1968]

Yep, our country small farm adventures continue! Now that milking a goat is old hand, we thought we'd take on a new challenge.

We fenced in the paddock - approx 5120 square feet (1/8th of an acre) is now permanently fenced for Sassafras (our goat), including a 12 foot gate. It was back-breaking work, and we could NOT have done it without the truck we purchased, but it turned out suprisingly well! I can't really lift my arms today and my triceps are screaming in pain. :eek: (more details in my blog)

I've contacted a few places in search of a companion for Sassafras. I know that she's been lonely, so I'm very excited to get her a friend (besides the dogs and the cat)!

Oh, and we harvested our first plums yesterday, too!
http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-IMG_0007_532731_original.jpg

We will be farmers if it kills us. :p

[oxysback]

Those plumbs look delicious!

I love hearing about your farming adventures. :D

[SadieKate]

Who cares about the plums! We want a picture of the goat. :D

Lots of goats on this side o' the hills.

[Zen]

I'll be back.
I'm going out to buy plums.

[sundial]

Ooooh, what luscious plums. :cool:

What does Sassafras think of her new digs?

[GLC1968]

Sass seems to like the new space, but she's already foiled the electric fence, twice! I put an electric fence divider to keep her out of the side of the paddock where there are a ton of odd 'weeds' (I don't really know what the plant is, but it's super fast growing and I don't want her eating it to off-flavor our milk) and a big pile of old branches (to burn). Once we get the pile out of there, we may be able to let her have the whole place. She definitely prefers the freedom of not being tethered!

Here is a picture of Sassafras at the new gate:
http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-IMG_0001_389072_original.jpg

And one of the whole fence (including temporary electric fence, unfinished lean-to, Sass, unsawed off fence poles, burn pile to the left and the odd fast-growing weeds (dark patches in near ground)...
http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-IMG_0005_847068_original.jpg

[GLC1968]

Oh, and SK - no goats on the side of a hill...but how about some buffalo?
http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-buffalo_original.jpg
(This is through my neighbor's yard the other day - they haven't yet showed up in the field behind our house yet...)


And for the cuteness factor - 1 week old baby chicks:
http://www.tranquilitysystems.com/gallery/files/4-chicks1week.JPG

[Blueberry]

Wow! Beautiful land. I've enjoyed reading your blog - sounds like you guys are in the middle of quite an adventure!

CA

[shootingstar]

Those Oregon plums look luscious.
And if you're not vegetarian,...buffalo is very lean meat to prepare.

Sorry for missing out on other chat about your farming forays. So is someone in your family gonna pursue this full-time or half-time? Maybe a goat just needs to kick around the field and rock boulders without any human beings to interfere for a few weeks.

Carry on. Before cycling passion overtook him, my partner was a weekend farmer for 10 years since he had a full-time job in the city. Farm was about 100 acres, with some beef cattle, pigs, chickens and 3 horses (latter 2 animal types just for themselves). Did not grow crops except hay. He was mentored by an older farmer down the road since he didn't know anything about farming. Also took night courses at a local university on animal husbandry, etc.

That was my partner's exercise,...working on his farm, including building his own house. He loved it at that time. A time before cycling.

So when we bike in the country and pass cows, etc., he does comment on what he sees.

And for heart-felt reasons, he makes every effort to buy from local farmer's markets wherever we bike.

[GLC1968]

shooting star - that's really cool about your partner!

My H and I are undertaking this one all on our own! We have found a lot of really nice and helpful people locally, but as far as living on the land, it's just us. We are keeping it small because we both have full time jobs/careers. We have just over an acre, so we don't have room to expand too far beyond our means! ;)

The fruit orchard was already here, though it does need some tending.
We have planted a full veggie garden, but we were late getting it in due to not closing on the house until June. I harvested our first tomato yesterday.
We have 1 goat and are looking for a second. We will be kidding this goat and that will probably be the limit of our herd (3 or 4 goats).
We are brooding 15 chickens, but we will have to sell some as our coop was designed to only hold 12 comfortably.
Our next steps are to undertake canning, look into solar hot water and dig a deep well for drinking water (we already have a shallow one for irrigation).

We came into this with no real experience. I grew up with small veggie gardens, but have never gone the 'organic' route before. The rest of this is learn as we go. Eek! :eek:

[shootingstar]

We came into this with no real experience. I grew up with small veggie gardens, but have never gone the 'organic' route before. The rest of this is learn as we go. Eek! :eek:

No doubt any TE member who is/was part of farming family have stories to tell and trivia us urbanites don't know. ie. pigs are intelligent animals. Pigs won't overeat if they are left on their own for days which is what happened if my partner couldn't make it to the farm on certain weekends.

And don't crowd those chickens...that's how those major animal disease epidemics start..

I'm certain if sweetie hung in longer in farming...he would have started using GPS tags on his cows to track his animals when he wasn't around for days to look after them. Probably by now, this IS being done/tested already somewhere....

You are commended for forays into sustainable living. I have a black thumb, plants don't seem to live under my tutelage. I have childhood memories of strange family gardening ...a whole garden full of koh rabi (a green beet) and corner of green onions. The only veggies our family could grow without ants munching up everything. We were so gauche....initially when my parents bought this rundown house, in the backyard, we kept chopping down this furiously fast growing head of red stalks and big leaves... What was this weed???

It was a whole patch of rhubarb. We found out ...years later.

[GLC1968]

We were so gauche....initially when my parents bought this rundown house, in the backyard, we kept chopping down this furiously fast growing head of red stalks and big leaves... What was this weed???

It was a whole patch of rhubarb. We found out ...years later.

Ha! We had a similiar experience. When we were kids, my parents bought this huge old (200 years old) house on a farm. We only had a few acres surrounding the house, but my mom tried planting corn (the crows got it) and strawberries (the rabbits got them).

We found a huge patch of rhubarb and another of asparagus. We never harvested either because my mom had no idea what to do with rhubarb (silly city folk) and she kept trying to harvest asparagus in the summer and kept wondering why it didn't look right (again, silly city folk!). :rolleyes:

I was at most 8, when we lived in that house and I remember these things!

Oh, and let me point out that if the internet did not exist, I'm pretty sure my husband and I would be facing failure upon failure. Instant research has saved us countless times already! :cool:

[Lifesgreat]

I read the title and thought you were talking about the "hot" story in my neck of the woods :):

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3929956

[SadieKate]

Good for him! Next they'll probably complain that there isn't a Starbucks within a block.

Buffalo stew. Yum.

Goat cheese. Yum.

:) :) :)

[ginny]

As for a companion animal, I got a minature burro for my horse and he really steals the show! He's super cute and friendly and he's thrifty so he doesn't eat much (but he really really likes to eat!). What else, I trim his hooves myself (I can't do the horse - her hooves are too tough). He's about goat size (slightly bigger than my boxer dog). He only cost $400 - a bargain compared to the horse :rolleyes: Just thought I would share the burro joy - let's see if I can post a picture ... did it work?

[GLC1968]

Oh, how adorable!!! Does he do anything besides just be cute? My mother has always wanted a burro and if I were to get one, she'd probably just die of jealousy! ;)

The reason we are thinking of a wether ('fixed' male goat) is because he can eat all the weeds and nuiscience shrubbery that we cannot feed to our milk doe for fear of tainting the milk. Other than that, he won't serve much purpose other than companionship.

We were also thinking of an alpaca - they give fiber AND protect family/flock from predators...so they'd be nice to have as well. A wether is about $75 though...so that's a little hard to beat.

Can you ride a miniature burro? Or can he pull something, maybe? We don't want to get any animal that doesn't 'do' something...since that's what our dogs are for! :p

[ginny]

Well... he can pull stuff. Burro teams can pull carts. I think a single burro can also pull a cart. I have pretended to sit on his back (to tick him off - it's fun to harass the critters):D. They are often used as pack animals (like in the grand canyon or on hunting trips). Most importantly for me, they are considered the guard dogs of the pasture. Burros are actually known to kill mtn lions and rattle snakes. I live at 8000' in the Rocky Mtns, and my pasture is wild! I had a mtn lion take a deer in my front yard last year, so a watch dog burro is important for me. ... and he's super cute and fun, and he gives burro hugs :D. I have to say the gelded goat is a better deal...

[SadieKate]

Burros look so sweet. Are they really that good tempered? Shirley MacLaine rode a burro in "Two Mules for Sister Sara."

[maillotpois]

The nose on that burro looks velvety and wonderful!

[ginny]

He is an amazingly sweet and intuititive animal. I have had a tough year, and when I would be at the barn trying not to cry, Tristan (the burro) would sidle up next to me and breath out this sweet burro noise he makes to commiserate with me. He was way better at catching tears than the horse :)

Also, yes, his nose is velvety soft, but he doesn't let me kiss it very frequently. Sometimes, I can sneak in with a stealthy kiss...

[tulip]

Miniature burro...that's beautiful! And they don't spit, like llamas (do alpacas spit, too?) Maybe GLC could get a mini burro and a whether.

Dogs can work. They guard the place, and they can carry things in packs on their backs. They can even pull carts. Put 'em to work; everyone else seems to be working hard at your place. Do you have cats to keep down the small furry rodent critters? Better wait til the chickens grow up, on second thought.

[GLC1968]

Ah, we do have one cat. He's currently not allowed in the garage where the chickens are living until they get their real feathers. I don't know if he'll help with our mole problem though. He was pretty good at controlling the chipmunks in NC...so we are hopeful. We've also made sure to introduce him to the basement pantry where the previous owners were using mouse traps! ;) He's fat and out of shape after 6 months of indoor apartment living though. Just like the rest of us, he'll have to build up his 'farm' strength!

Our two dogs are pretty much useless. One is afraid of everything (yeah, the big tough Chow/Shephard/Boxer mix!) and the other has a bum leg and can't run real well. They do keep the bugs in the house under control and they are very good at cleaning plates (since we don't have a disposal!).

I would LOVE a mini Burro!! I have a feeling that they are well out of our price range though. :( Maybe I should ask my parents for a specific house-warming gift! :p

[jesvetmed]

Dogs can apparently be great goat companions, too...

I was doing a training walk one day out around the farms here. My lab was with me. A little goat came running out, and followed us for about a 1/4 mile. I walked her back, she followed us again, and again. Finally the owner of the place came and got her. He had to pick her up and carry her. He said that the goat had been raised with their dog, and the dog had passed away about two weeks earlier. She was following my dog and trying to play.

It was very sweet but I was so sad for her. She missed her dog friend so much!

[GLC1968]

Jes - that's so sweet! Sassafras is defintely interested in hanging out with the dogs, but the dogs aren't buying it. Maggie is terrified of her after just one head butt, and Charlie doesn't quite 'get it'. He occasionally growls at her like she's another dog, but doesn't really know what to make of her. Hopefully, they'll eventually get used to her! I like having animals that all get along.

I did see the cat sitting in the grass about 6 feet from the edge of Sass's fence. He was just sitting there watching the goat munch on some weeds. It was a great photo op, but I didn't have my camera with me!