I know you have probably all heard that phrase “Cats Chorus” spoken but how many have you have actually heard it for real? I truly hadn’t until today.

Michelle came running into the house with a box this morning shouting, “They’re dying! They’re dying!” I immediately thought she meant the turkeys but no, she meant kittens!

Let’s back track a bit. Remember Jackson? Here he is sat on the dirty laundry!:

Yes Jackson was abandoned by Calico at birth & so we raised him. He is hysterical. He makes everyone laugh with his antics. Anyway 11 weeks after Jackson was born Calico gave birth to 5 more black kittens. She cared for them & so we thought all was well until yesterday when Michelle began to suspect that she was neglecting them. They are about 2 weeks old as their eyes are open & they are big. Last night we went down to 40F here - way too cold for hungry kittens SO now back to this morning. These kittens were really cold, in fact there are now only 4. Fortunately we had some KMR (Kitten Milk Replacer) left from Jackson so quickly got work warming them up & feeding them. After about half an hour I said to Michelle, “I think these are going to make it.”

We put the chicks that were in here outside with the turkeys which we were planning on doing anyway & put the kittens in the big waterer (empty) that the chick were in. By lunchtime those kittens were fully recovered & as we were trying to eat lunch they were making the most hideous racket. There was no way they could stay in the house nor do we need anymore cats in here. SO Michelle has moved them & the heat lamp over to the barn. They’ll be fine over there & Michelle will feed them every 4 hours.

Later this afternoon we took a walk & went & picked some fresh corn (not from our garden) - it was YUMMY! I cleaned out the cow barn this evening & then came in & enjoyed a glass of cold milk - the first in a week.
So that’s our story for the day Got friends coming for lunch tomorrow.
Hope your Saturday was good.

Liz

….. with the sound of cheeping!

For those of you who are not Sound of Music fans that is an adaptation of a famous line from the movie.

17 chicks hatched out of our incubator. We are SO pleased. We got a right mix of variety. They have been inside for a couple days. Last night we put the two brown hens in a cage planning to introduce them to their new babies this morning.

The weather could not have been much colder this morning for a summer’s day. It was 49 when we woke up & a fierce wind was blowing. Richard went & picked up the Banties & Turkeys from the Post Office. We had moved the 3 banties we already had down into a dog crate in the cow barn two nights ago so they could acclimatize. Alas only 16 of the new banties were alive - 12 were dead BUT I called the hatchery & they are sending out replacements next week. The good news is that the Bantie hen that took the first three chicks of the season here has now taken ALL these banties. As you can see most of the chicks are under her. Two are out & if you look closely you will a leg & wing poking out from uner her wing.

She is such a sweetie but a very fierce warrior if anything threatens them. In fact in this next pic you can see the Brahma chick that is her baby from earlier.

I had to take her out today because she was being jealous & trying to get under mum & I was afraid she was going to trample the new ones. Mrs Banti went for me - she was not happy but the Brahma chick is now back in her old home with the other chickens. The black Banti that you see doesn’t seem to want any chicks so I will let her out tomorrow.

*
After all that it was time to move our new chicks in with their new mamas. What a disaster! Richard went out half hour later & the two hens had thrown the water everywhere, poor chicks were wet & shivering & being stepped on SO they had to be brought back inside. They have now recovered.

Last were the turkeys. Turkeys are such stupid creatures that we are trying not to lose as many as we did last time. We have put them in a round pen in a shed with a lamp & are going to keep a very close eye on them. There is a mixture of breeds but we think the majority of them are Bourbon Reds.

Have to tell you about the other night. I went down to the cow barn rather late so it was dark. I always switch on the main lights in the cow area & then walk through to the hay area to open the big door to let the cows in. Well as I opened the door something fell on my hand & landed on the floor  - talk about making me jump! I quickly switched on the light & this is what I saw:

Yes a bat! Thankfully it didn’t bite me.

Michael came home from West Virginia in the early hours of this morning so been good to see him.

Tulip has fully recovered from her little problem earlier in the week. I have continued to milk her but tomorrow we will be able to drink the milk again.

Earlier this afternoon I took this picture which I thought was kinda cute:

Kim’s new papers released today - FABULOUS! Already very popular.Hope you all have a great weekend,

Liz

Richard has been wanting to find a new home for our large goats for quite some time so he was SO excited when he came home on Saturday from an ambulance run & I asked if he wanted to take a trip 50 miles south to trade the goats for geese. There was no hesitation! He had the trailer hooked up in no time & then we loaded the goats & off we went.

Why get rid of your goats you ask? Well, the big ones could & did get into a lot of mischief. We originally put the cattle guard in for them but what did they do? Jump right over it! PLUS we have no buck here anymore & now that we are getting more into the cattle side of things really did not have the time for them. They have gone to a wonderful new home. Sherrie has lots of other goats plus there is a buck so the girls will be happy.

We now have 5 new geese - 2 Chinese & 3 Embden and we got a big bag of freshly picked lettuce & some cucumbers in with the trade:

Owning a milk cow is no easy task at times. As you may well remember when we got Tulip 2 weeks ago her teats were REALLY cut up. We have been treating them but believe it or not they are still very sore & scabby. Poor girl! Those cuts must have been really deep. Anyway two teats are in pretty good condition so that is the two I have been milking out. Daffodil was supposed to drink from the other two but one day last week she decided not to do that so one quarter went 24 hours without being milked! That spells MASTITUS! Aack! Thank goodness we have Rosie Lee. That calf drinks from all 4 quarters & does an excellent job. Alas it wasn’t good enough so today we had to go get some medicine from the vet. This medicine comes in a tube that you have to insert in the teat. Tulip had to have one tube this morning & one tonight. This morning went pretty well as she didn’t know what Richard was doing. Of course tonight she was a little wiser so not quite so co-operative but we succeeded in the end. Praying that she will now get better. Can’t drink the milk for 5 days now but I don’t think I told you about Roxy (the St.Bernard).

Last week we started giving the dogs milk with their food as we had some to spare. A couple days later Michelle came in saying that Roxy was not eating. It turns out that Roxy wasn’t eating because her dinner did not have any milk in it! Once we gave her milk she ate her dinner. So I will still be milking Tulip but the animals will get it instead of us.
I have Rosie Lee on Tulip twice a day right now so hopefully that will help.. They say that a calf is the best cure for mastitus - much better than me fighting her.

Life is never boring around here - always something on the go. The chicks have just started hatching in the incubator. We have 25 bantams arriving on Thursday & 35 turkeys coming on Friday so I guess you could call it “Bird Week!” LOL!

Hope your Monday was a good one,

Liz

No! Mischievous children!

One afternoon last week Richard & I thought that Daniel & Hannah were outside playing nicely. Should have known better as they were VERY quiet.

Recently we have had some inventory problems with our Adirondack reinkers. As you know our kids work wherever we are plus they pretty much have free rein of the place so come & go as they please. I had caught Hannah taking the Adirondack Reinkers before & kept meaning to move them but…

Yes you’ve guessed it, last week Hannah took a bottle of the black & we are guessing that she gave it to Daniel who then obliged by opening it. By the time we discovered them they were covered in black ink, the goats had been “spotted”, it was all over the back of the van & driveway etc. What a mess! They were put straight in the bath in disgrace & yes we have now moved the reinnkers up higher.

Hope your week is going well,

Liz

Rosie took her first drink from Tulip tonight! Now Tulip had already kicked over the bucket of milk trying to get Rosie out so I tied Tulip up to make her stand still. I wish I had had my camera. Rosie came up very gingerly from the rear & started sniffing around. Once she got hold of the teat there was no letting go. She was so excited - her tail was going really fast. Eventually she came around to the right position & made a complete pig of herself. Tulip wasn’t too happy but stood still.

This is what we had hoped would happen so we’ll see how they progress. Hopefully Tulip won’t kick her when she is not tied up.

Hope your week is going well,

Liz

No Richard did not get romantic & import tulips for me. Him & I took a road trip to Amsterdam, MT on Friday & Saturday to pick up these two gals:

Tulip & Daffodil are Dutch Belted Cows. Tulip is one of the rarity’s who does not have the white belt but as you can see Daffodil, her baby, does. Tulip is 5 years old & Daffodil is her calf from this year, born June 15th. She is a friendly little thing. After Hazel being less than co-operative & Michael now leaving for 2 1/2 weeks to see his girlfriend in West Virginia we decided we’d better get ourselves a decent milk cow.

Dutch Belteds are on the ALBC critical list. There are not that many here in the USA - in fact one article I read stated that there are only about 300 registered DB cattle over here & alot of those are beef cows, not milkers. Tulip & Daffodil are not registered but we hope to be able to change that with all the info we have.  The Dutch Belted’s milk is creamier than a Jersey’s in the fact that the cream doesn’t separate as much. They are also bigger although not as big as a Holstein. As you can see in this next picture Daffodil is taller than Rosie Lee but not as muscly & Daffodil is only 7 weeks old.

Tulip’s first day here went well & now she has learned where to go for grain & to be milked. Her teats are very cracked so I am having to be very gentle with her & rub in lots of bag balm once I am finished milking. They will soon soften up & heal. The milk flows well though which is a blessing but she doesn’t stand still even though we have her tied. She’ll learn. Right now I am having to milk twice a day (like I don’t have enough to do around here already! LOL!) as Daffodil has the nasty habit of only drinking from one teat. The previous owners were not bothered by this as they also had an angus calf on Tulip so he drank from all four teats. We could have bought him also but really do not need another steer here. We have Rosie Lee in with her & are hoping that once Rosie has had Tulip’s milk a few times Tulip will accept her & let her drink. Time will tell. Right now poor Rosie is getting pushed out of the way.
On another note, one day last week when we were out doing the animals, I saw Daniel pick up something with Bella but didn’t think anything of it as earlier in the day he had brought in a very large dead grasshopper! BUT a good while later he handed me this:

What a surprise! It was a baby Killdeer. It’s mother had not gone far & was calling for it so I put it over in the long grass & we watched them get reunited.

Hope you have a great week,

Liz