Thursday, February 2, 2012

Break Time - on a ranch?

Believe it or not, right now is break time for me. What I call "break time" is not what most folks would consider a "break", but it is for me. And with the weather... it feels like spring break! It's really been nice.

Why is it break time for me? Here's a few reasons why:

- for one, there are NO does due for a few more weeks.
- for two, I have NO bottle baby right now. Now THAT is odd, because I have had some kind of bottle baby constantly for a very long time. The last bottle baby went to a new home, so that leaves me with no bottle baby to spoil (of any kind - no kids, no calves)! Don't worry, I'm not missing it that much.
- all the does are bred and settled, so there's no breeding to be done.
- there are only 6 does currently in milk. That means milking time only takes about 10 minutes.
- the weather has been awesome, which means there have been no ice buckets to break, etc... no extra chores that come with freezing weather.
- I am completely out of hay to sell most likely until we cut hay again... which means I have no hay to load - what am I going to do?!
- all the animals seem to be healthy and doing very well - that I am very thankful for.

That's all I can think of for now. So, what's a farm girl to do? Well, there is still plenty to do, but I am not super busy like I probably will be in the coming weeks and months. Here's a few things:

- Normal feeding, cleaning and watering chores to do that come along with having a rather large herd of goats and sheep.
- milking the 6 does in milk. I really am looking forward to when we have 50 or so does in milk!
- With the new barn, there is plenty of construction going on in there getting the kidding/lambing stalls ready, and organizing the barn.
- With the drought last year and lack of nutrition (especially vitamin A) from it in hays and pastures, all the pregnant does are getting a vitamin A&D shot a month prior to their due date to balance things out.
- Been trimming a lot of hooves - catching up on this chore since in a month I won't have much time to do it.
- Getting inside chores done
- And of course, this leaves more time for bookkeeping, schoolwork, working out and such - which is really great.

So, that's it for now. I'd better go get some stuff done :).

Have a great afternoon everyone!

Suriyah

2 comments:

Unknown said...

uhuh...yep, you're not busy right now ;) Don't say that too soon! Looks like you might be dealing with kidding AND bottle feeding in a couple of DAYS! Better get organized and prepared, LOL!

Love ya :)

Good Goats said...

Yeah... you're just a wonderful friend and wouldn't want me sitting here with nothing to do! Haha!

Love you too!