Island life

    We have had some odd weather this fall.  It has stayed warmer longer. We had a couple of snow storms but they melted.  The weather man has let us know we have one last day in the high 40s before the temps drop again. Now December is just a couple of days away and these warmer days will not be back till spring.

    My favorite thing to do is sit on the porch with a glass of wine and just enjoy the sights and sounds of the island. The animals, wild and domesticated bring such a warm feeling of peace and joy. Of course I am sure the wine helps. 

    Just listening to the shipping traffic on the river and the seagulls over head gives me a sense of  summer days gone by. Song birds singing and the hens happily murmuring as they scratch and peck looking for something good to eat. I just love to hear the chick chatter of the last baby chick born here. The goats roam around eating what ever branches or bushes they can find at this time of year. Elliott just want to graze on what's left of the grass, his chicken happily grabbing the fly's that buzz him.

    I have a few young roosters that where born this past summer and they are just now learning how to crow.  I love listening to them and trying to figure out which one is crowing while learning there distinct voice.  A couple of them are now trying to learn how to balance themselves on top of a hen as his natural urges are coming alive.  To ride atop a hen that wants nothing to do with you. All the  while trying to not get your ass kicked by the angry hen, is cause for fits of laughter.

    Sometime a neighbor will stop to sit and sip while enjoying the critter shenanigans. We enjoy telling our stories of the island and years gone by.

    I will miss these days till next spring and the temps again raise about the 40s and life starts anew here on the farm.

Horse Tails

 

   As I get older I try to make every move count, so doing something twice is a waste of energy.  Sometimes just thought of doing something again will make my language become so colorful I hope no one hears me. 

      I have a gate in the barn that separates the  goats and the horse. Well it only works on 6 of the 7 goats. One is a jumper and goes into the horses stall and eats his food and jumps back to get her share of the goats feed.  I have had to goat proof this gate. I hung some wire fencing over the opening above the gate.  Now I have to put extra locks on the gate to keep the horse from going into the goats area as he will chase them and the distraction on the barn and its contents are another opportunity for me to use my colorful language. 

    Now unlocking this Fort Knox lock down in the morning is not fun so I only want to do it once a day.  I have to grab the hay bin and water buck after all leave the barn. Then lock it all down again so they don't leave the barn. 

    My mind is in the O zone  and I am unlocking the gate and Elliott is standing by the gate. I shut the gate but did not lock all down thinking I need to make 5 steps to grab the water bucket and out we go. Oh Hell NO the damn horse has opened the gate and walking out by the time I turned around. I took one big leap and grabbed his tail thinking I would stop a moving frieght  train as it was leaving the barn. That was my first mistake. My second one was not letting go when I knew it was a freight train.  

    It has been six weeks now and my finger is still bent and a little swollen. The pain is mostly gone as long as I don't move it side to side or pinch the fingers together.  I really think this is not going back straight but as long as its not broke I can live with it.

    Note to self: don't grab the horses tail he won't stop, just get the water bucket later.

To chicken to leave.

     We had our first significate snow fall yesterday about 5 inches. The new chickens that where born this past spring/summer, lets say they where in shock. They did not want to come out to eat or drink.  I had to carry the CHICKENS to the garage to eat. Once there they did not leave as the older chickens that have experienced snow where running between the coops, barn and garage.  

    That night I was putting everyone in for the night and again had to carry the scared chickens back to coop. This took some time as they where hiding in the garage.  I thought I had them all but learned one of the newest hatchling did not get in her cage with her nest mate. I went back to the garage to look for her and crawled around till I conceded defeat and yell, OK stay in here by your self.

    The next morning I was standing at the kitchen sink filling pails of water, I looked out the window and something in the tree caught my eye.  The damn chicken was in the tree above the barn. It was in the teens during the night and the wind was blowing. How the damn chicken got up there or  survived I have no idea. I wonder if I can get the fire department to come get her out.

       

New Neighbor

    This past summer and most of the spring I have been dealing with a new neighbor that moved into my area.  This neighbor is very fond of fresh chicken and thinks my place is a fast food, help yourself restaurant.  I have tried almost everything to get him to move but to no avail. The fox has taken some of the chickens and caused me a lot of grief as I think of them as pets. 

     I do have favorites but love them all.  If the fox gets one of my favorites I am just sick about it.  It takes me longer to get over them being taken. 

    I thought I had gotten a little handle on this as I have not seen him in awhile and he has not taken any chickens lately.   There are no guaranties when it comes to pesky wild life but I try to stay ever vigilant and keep an eye on the farm critters.

    A few nights ago I was counting chickens and one was missing. It did not take me long to know which one I was missing.  Baby bird was making one hell of a racket, he was looking for his Mom.  It was my little white silky Chicklet.  She hatched Baby bird and is a good Mom to her hatchlings.   She is one of my favorites and will come when I call her. So I started calling for her, nothing. I went looking and nothing.  I got the flash light and started to look for signs of her. In all likelihood of her demise.  It got colder and I went back to the house with out seeing a thing.  

    The next morning I went out and called for her hoping she ran off. If the fox scared her she would run to the woods and hide. Again nothing. I spent the day pissed and sad that one of my favorites was gone. Life goes on and the others need care.  I went to the roof to see if I could see the fox but cold winds would not let me stay long. 

    The next night baby bird was not as boisterous and he settled down early in the back of the kennel he was in.  I worried about him staying warm alone in there.  Chicklet was not bigger than him but they did snuggle next to each other to stay warm.

    All the next day I went looking to see if I could see any signs of her feathers, at least it would give me a route that the fox was using. I could move my live traps to that area in hopes of trapping it. Now the chickens are in the middle to end of molting seasons so there are feather absolutely everywhere even the woods as they all like to go into them looking for yummy bugs. I walked the road but nothing. I figured she was taken back to a den to be eaten. 

    I woke up in the morning minus the joy of going out to feed them. I dragged around for a bit and then went out. I was in the garage getting chicken food when I heard a soft chirp, I thought it was coming from the barn next to the garage.  I then heard it again.  I went out and stood between the garage and barn to listen as there are no chickens in the garage. When I did not hear it I went back to what I was doing only to hear it again. It was a very soft muffled, purring sound.  I went over and lifted the plastic cover over the hay but no sound. I bent over looking under everything and heard it again. I crawled up on the hay looking on the top. As I was coming down off the ladder I heard it again, this time I knew it was coming from under the plastic hay cover.  I pulled it back and started pawing around in the loose hay till I heard it again. I then stated to pull the bales of hay out and there she was, Chicklet. She had fallen down a small whole that the bales make if they are not snug to each other when stacking. She had laid an egg and pooped a pile. The egg and her little butt was a mess with poop. I was so happy to see her I didn't even care that I had shit all over me from hugging her.  I put her down and she ran to the watering bowl and drank a gallon of water, or so it seemed. I cleaned her up and put her in with baby bird and fed them both. 

     I still have to clean the mess between bales, but I think I will wait till it freezes so it won't be so gooey to clean up.

   

Canned Chicken

 

    My nightly routine is feeding the chickens first to give them time to eat and head to the coop to roost.  Then get hay and water for the goats and Elliott they get a treat when it's time to lock the doors and go to bed. Now all of that sound so simple NOT! It turns into animal version of the keystone cops. Chaos is the theme of the night. After at least 30 min. of chasing goats and a horse I go into the house for a few minutes while the last chicken stragglers make their way to the coop. Chickens put themselves to bed at dark, I am not always able to speed this up as chickens are not going to be hurried if they have something better they want to do. Then I go back to count chickens, shut doors and straighten barn yard up then put goat mobile away and so on.

    This night like all the rest is moving along as usual goats are extra bad and Elliott got loose so I had to chase him. It is now dark and I don't have to wait on the chickens so I start counting. I count by building not total. I do that after when I add all my counts up.  Now there are 6 adults plus 3 Ameracanas, 3 Copper Marans, 4 Laced Red Wyandottes, 4 Seabrights and 2 Polish. lock that door all counted. The barn has 12 adults in the rafters, all counted and locked in. Now the big coop. 19 adults. No that's wrong, I count over and over, it still comes out 19. So back to the barn where they roost in the rafters. This time I go in the house to get a flash light as it is really dark now. Again I count 12, again and again. I now am sure I'm missing a chicken. I then go on the hunt for a chicken or its body.  I walk the road as they get hit by cars now and then. Nothing. I then hit the barn thinking someone might be in there. I did not find any. I decided I would not get too worried till tomorrows count to make sure the chicken isn't hiding some where. 

    While straightening up the garage I see where the goats have tipped over the cracked corn bin and helped themselves to it. I went over and tipped the can up and seen the corn bag all crumpled up in the bottom of the barrel. I grabbed it to see how much they ate.  The bag was kind of heavy so I tossed it on the floor so I could clean the bottom of the barrel. It hit the floor with a thud. Not the sound I expected at all. I open the bag and found the missing chicken. She looked like she was in food coma. As it turned out all the corn was eaten by who I don't know or who got the most, goats or chickens. All I know is that last hen was pretty fat.

Bone head shit!

 

  Sometimes in ones life we do embarrassing things that are incredibly stupid and can cause great harm. Now I have two of these moments that I look back at and wonder how I survived.  

    One when I was 35.  I had a small bungalow home in town and it had an attic that you could get to on a steep stairway. Both hands on the wall/hand rail was a must. It had no rail around the floor opening, it just ascended up through the floor.. Now it was the only place that could accommodate my king size mattress. I finished it and made it my bedroom. Now to the bone head thing......  I was changing all the sheets covers blankets and mattress cover. Not wanting to carry them down the steep stairs I just through them over the opening of the the stairs.  After the total cleaning of the room I went to the edge of the stairs opening and looked down.  The pile of bedding running down the stairs looked so soft and like a big cloud. No thought to it, it happened in a split second. I jumped. The pain involved was  indescribable. My sister who felt the house shake ran into the room where I was twisted into a pretzel, yelling what happened. "I fell!" I spent a very long year covering up my back pain and how it happened.

    Now fast forward to yesterday. I'm mowing along the road and side of the ditch. I came up on a soda can right in front of me.  If I get off the seat of the mower it will automatically shut off.  In my lazy state I decide I can maneuver the mower between the can and ditch.  To say wrong move is an under statement. As I ran that damn thing in the ditch. The ditch is big and the tractor was sitting on its head lights.  The hood flung open and I went over the stirring wheel. My legs kept me from going totally off the tractor. The ditch was dry and the weeds and little sapling grow wild in the ditch. The tractor was almost totally out of sight of the road and as I crawled out thinking glad I did not kill myself and no one saw me. I stood on the top of the ditch and look down and there was that damn can still in the same place. I hiked back to the house and got my car put a 10 ft post in it and the tow strap. I waited for the ferry traffic go and I went out to the spot of my second bone head move. I put the car across both lanes and opened the back doors and hatch. When the post is run through the open back doors it acts like a tow bar. I ran the strap around the axel of the tractor and then ran it around the post through the back hatch. Hoping to get this out before the next run of ferry traffic started. I didn't make it before my neighbor came walking her dog. The embarrassment started and then here comes my friend in here gator. Holly shit batman I am so busted now and have to explain how I ran the tractor into the ditch. When the laughter stopped I was able to have my friend pull it out with her gator.  We only had three cars stopped while we got the tractor up right and out of the ditch. It started right up and I drove home. I am so lucky I only have a small bruise on my belly and arm. Why I am not in the hospital is a miracle. I went back later and got the car and the damn can.

We have babies!!!

    

 With Covid and my own health issues I lost 4 goats last year.  This did not happen all at once but over 6 months. I had decided I was not going to get anymore goats as the pain of loosing them was overwhelming.  They are pretty hardy but once you notice them off by any way shape or form you have a very small window of time to save the.. Goats being prey animals do not show signs of illness until the last minute, weakness will get them killed in the wild so they hide it well. One minute they seem fine and the next they down and when they go down it is really hard to save them.

    I am so new to goats and our vets in town are not able to treat goats as I learned the hard way.  So I had to become a Google Vet. In the middle of a crises you just can't start googling symptoms and hope you have meds or things to help you through to a good outcome. Now add to this I had my hip replaced so a week in hospital and house confinement till I could walk without a walker was another 2 months, Rehab and you get the problem. I had a neighbor coming down to feed, water and put them up at night 3 times a day but she did not know the subtle things that let you know there was something wrong. 

    Now its summer and I just have two goats and they hang around and it seems like they are board. I was missing the whole goat mischief and the horse was not playing it just was not the same.  A friend had to remind me that farm life means you have live stock and dead stock it is just part of the farm life. I was seeing all the baby goats on social media and it tugged at me. I caved and decided to get a goat.  

    I love the babies but to have them born here is scary because I do not have what it takes to snap on the latex and go in after a breach baby goat. That is the one thing I can not take a chance on happening to me.  I also did not have hundreds of dollars to spend on a goat and searching for a cheap goat is chancy.  Location is also important, Island life is great but it does have its draw backs. So just watching social media and waiting is what you have to do.  

    Then the end of May I seen the post of a farmer down sizing his herd and he live 75 miles from  me.  I contacted him and he sent pics and I fell for a 3 month old black and white doe. I took the next Sat. and drove down to get the goat.  On the way down I was thinking this baby was going to be with two old fuddy duddy goats and wasn't sure if she would liven them up or they would put her to sleep.  I got there and the farmer was trying to catch her and she was staying very close to her Mom making it difficult to separate them. Broke my heart so I told the farmer I would take Mom also.  As they were being caught and put in the kennels for their ride back I seen this little taupe colored goat with the most amazing ice blue eyes and horns. I love the horns and their blue eyes are to die for. As I am making a fuse over this goat the farmer  says she is also going to be cut. I caved and said put her in too.  Now I am on my way home with 3 goats instead of one.  They did make the other 2 goats more active and a the horse was coming back to his playful self.  

    Three weeks go by and a couple of the kids came for a visit.  We love the big ships so we spent a couple hours watching ships, went into town to mess around and was gone for half the day.  The girls wanted to see the sun set so I told them I needed to get home and  put the animals up and we could run back down to watch the sun set.  We hurried home and the girls fed chickens and I rounded up the goats.  I was standing in the middle of the barn yard and realized I was missing a goat. It took a few seconds to figure out who was missing.  Miss Blue eyes was missing.  I started scanning the area looking for her.  I found her under the big pine trees in the pasture just standing there with two kittens.  As soon as that thought came in my head the reality of those are not kittens took over.  OMG! she had babies. My drama side kicked in and I started yelling for the girls to get out back.  I was in total disbelief because I did not know she was even pregnant. All looked Ok one of the babies was almost dry and the other one was still wet. The dry one was a little bigger than the wet one and was nursing. I did not see the wet one nurse yet and knew that it is so import for the new born to get moms colostrum. I was not prepared for this so I went off to get a place in the barn for Mom and babies.  I kicked Elliott out of his stall and put fresh bedding down and got clean water and hay for Mom.  I sent the girls down to see the sun set as it was getting late and I watch to see if the little goat nursed.  I tried to get the baby to nurse but I was not having luck. The girls came back and I yelled get me a YouTube video on how to milk a goat. The three of us stood in the barn watching a video on how to milk a goat and then tried our luck on Mamma goat. I had one of the girls hold the goat and I tried to get milk from Mamma.  My daughter does not like horns so she said Mom let me try and you hold the goat. We did manage to get some milk and then used an eye dropper to get it in the baby. That night I did not sleep because every hour I was in the barn checking on the babies.  The next morning I seen the smaller baby was nursing on his own.  I did relax knowing that they where eating and Mom was taking care of them because Mom was only 10 months old herself according to the farmer. 

    I have become very vigilant with the goats so I don't loose anymore.  The babies grew up to be cutest little blue eyed horned buckling's.   One is dark chocolate brown and one is Black both have ice blue eyes and horns. They have added so much fun to the herd and the farm. As the islanders learned of the baby goats the farm became very busy last summer with visitors to see the babies. 

    I went to get one goat came back with three ended up with 5. Now my little herd of 7 fills my days with mischief and fun.

Tattling, Good or Bad

 Now the goats are great at tattling on Elliott. Hell they even tattle on each other.  I am getting better at how they do this.  It is in a goats language and I don't always know what they are saying so I am learning those subtle clues they use to let me know something or someone is not right. 

 I have my routine down at night to put the animals up, without it there is total chaos. This chaos cause me such anxiety so I really try to keep the routine ritual. I have occasionally not been able to follow my routine for one reason or another.  Last night being one of those times.  I did not divert very much from the routine but it doesn't take much.  

 Chickens have three locations to roost at night and they have there special place and go there every night.  Leaving me with the simple task of counting them and locking the doors.  The problem is the barn. I have 11 birds that roost in the rafters in the barn. I can't lock them out of the barn or they will drive me nuts till I let them in there. So I put the horse in the back side of the barn with his hay, grain and water and shut the gate inside the barn and he is in for the night. I feed the chickens and feed the goats. I do this about an hour before dark. Go inside and fix dinner and watch a little TV while I wait for the chickens to go to bed.  Goats just hang around the front of the barn waiting for me to shut the doors.  

 Last night I did all of the above but spent longer engrossed in TV.  When I realized how dark it was getting I took off to lock up.  This time the goats are all out in the barn yard. All looking at the road. I shooed them back in the barn but that was like a game of Whack-a-mole. I would get a couple in and go back for more and the others would come out. This was not normal for them I can herd them in all at once with out problems so I am confused as to what the hell is going on.  The one thing I noticed was that they kept looking up at the road. I glanced a couple of time up that way and did not see anything. One of the does Stella was really not going in that barn and her attention was focused at that road. I finally stopped and took a good look. It was getting quite dark so took a minute to adjust my eyes and see the dark shadow trotting down the road and turning into my drive. What the hell it was Elliott out running the roads for how long I didn't know. The gate between the stalls is his main thing to do every night. He is always testing it to see if he can get it open. He was lucky last night and so was I.  The snow is still deep in the woods and along the road. So his little stroll keeps him in the road and easier to find. I thanked Stella and put them all in and shut the door.

Burt and Ernie. Island travelers

     The new boys have arrived and life is starting to adjust for them and us.  I was a little concerned about letting them out of the pasture to free range with the other goats because I did not know if they would come back.  They did not care to bond with the others as they had each other.  Little Levi was alone when he came and bonded quickly with the others and followed their lead.  The boys on the other hand did not bond quickly. They seemed to do their own thing and stayed out of the others way.

     When I arrived home the first day I put them into the pasture, we just put the kennel they were in into the pasture and opened the door.  When it was time to go into the barns for the night I was at a loss as to how I could get this done. The barn they were going to sleep in was not connected to the pasture so how would I get them into that barn. They wanted nothing to do with me the stranger that just took them away from their mom and the only home they knew.  My daughter helped me trick them into us capturing them and bodily carrying them across the yard to their barn.  Wow! That was a pain and just about killed me.

      Next morning I had to trap them and carry them back to pasture.  Now I am not a dummy and neither are they. Getting close to them again will be totally impossible. That was truly a one time deal.   I have to admit I did try but realized what a waste of time it was.  So my thought was to leave them out over the night and try to come up with a new plan.  I would leave Elliott out too so he could be the bigger animal presence in the pasture to keep the predator critters away.  

      I try to be the confident person of logic but am the worry wart that does not sleep knowing they are out. The predator critters that roam here are only kept away buy locked doors at night. So around 2 AM I'm out trying to see if they are Ok. I have no flash light just the moonlight, just stumbling around in the dark. I could not see them and Elliott was not visible either.  I moved along the wall of the barn till I came to Elliotts doggy door and stuck my head in.  All I could see was the big wet nose of Elliott. I went back out and roamed the pasture looking to see the boys.  I realize that I needed a flashlight to find them. I was walking by Elliotts door and seen the boys heads sticking out of it and Elliott stand outside looking at me. They had gone into Elliotts stall with him.  I felt better and headed back to bed.  I had to leave the door open as they all came out to see what I was up to.  About 5 or so I was up and worried about the new boys and Elliott.  I grabbed a flashlight and went to the barn. This time I went straight to the Elliotts doggy door and shined the light in and all three were sleeping.  Now the boys sleep with him with no problems. 

      The boys did not want anything to do with me so getting close was not happening.  I tried all my tricks in my dog rescue knowledge book I had.  It does not work so I have to start a new farm critter book of tricks.  I just ignore them and put food out for them.  Letting them out in the morning was easy just open Elliotts door.  Then at night I had to tease with some sweet feed and put it in the barn as they watched on.   After I left they headed into the barn to get the feed then I could shut and lock the door. A few weeks of this and they would come when the others where getting treats and after a while they would come when they heard me out in the pasture.  I was aloud to touch them after a few weeks and felt like thing where progressing and wanted to see how they would do if I let them out. 

     I feel so bad they are cooped up in the pasture when all the others are out freerange foraging.  I wanted them to be out there eating all the leaves and weeds they could gobble.  I finally let them out and I stayed close to them. They headed right for the woods.  My worry was if they get in there and get lost I can not go find them.  I do not wonder into the deep woods, I did one time and had an anxiety attack and once is enough.  If they get lost in them they are on their own.  So as soon as they went in I was right after them to get them out.  They left went around the side of the house and went back in.  Hell I was now regretting my decision to let them out.   

     They will call each other when they are not insight of one another. It can get really noisy and it sounds like they are screaming MA.  So I like to call them the same way. I stand at the back door and yell MA to see if they will come to the gate of the pasture. Most of the time they yell back at me MA. I am sure the neighbors can hear us on the Southern end of the island.  

     Now I am walking the the perimeter of my property and the woods yelling MA to no avail.  I spent the next hour scared that I would not see my new boys again.  I started to walk and call MA again when off in the distance I could faintly hear MA. I listened again and it was so faint I thought about how far away they must be that I could barely hear them. So thinking they could be lost I just kept yelling MA so they could follow my voice.  They finally popped out of the woods and I was so relieved it took me another week before I let them out again.  

     As time has goes bye I started letting them go out with all the rest of the goats.  Soon the herd comes back and they are not with them.  I ask the others, where is Burt and Ernie none of them speak up so I am left yelling MA again.  They show up after a while just like they know just where they are and how to get back home.  They are bonding slowly to the others and me.  I can even touch them and occasionally get to pet them.