Schoonover Farm Blog

Rams

This is one of my worst times of year- taking the rams out of their breeding groups and putting them back together. During this time they have forgotten whose the dominant ram and have to reestablish themselves. They bash each other until they figure it out. I place them in a pen with some tires on a fence post in the middle to try to minimize the damage they can do. I also sprinkle them with cheap perfume to see if that confuses them a little. Then I let them go at it and hope to much damage isn’t done to each other or the barn. So far so good but we’ll see how they look tomorrow. This year my other ram James is injured so he can’t help diffuse the violence so we’ll see what happens. When James gets better we’ll have to start this process over again- what fun!

2006-12-09 21:57:27 GMT

Another goat day

This morning while I was checking my email I looked up and saw this scene. It’s really beautiful living here. This eagle has been taking branches off of that tree and taking them to the river- presumably building a nest there.

Today I was not motivated to go out to the barn for chores. I don’t know if it’s still being worn out from the winter storm, the lack of daylight, or a burn out on animal chores (I hope it’s not the latter), but I stayed in surfing and cleaning until late morning. Then I was able to get my butt out to the barn to feed the critters, and I trimmed all of the goats hooves. They all seem to be in good health except my supposedly pregnant ones haven’t made babies yet. I need to get the compost placed on the garden beds soon- maybe I can do that this weekend?

2006-12-06 23:29:14 GMT

Snow (update)

It snowed just a little more last PM, but now it’s clear and 14 degrees! It was quite a bit of work getting food and water to all the animals early this morning. We have one ram whose lame today (James), but otherwise everyone is OK. The buildings and shelters are all still standing too. They don’t expect a thaw until Thursday when it’s supposed to snow again. Our road is ice so we are saying home again today. There are a number of large branches down, but we still have power, phone and heat so all is well so far.

2006-11-28 19:20:07 GMT