CSA Newsletter and Application are now posted!!!!
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
Tis the season to be goaty. If you haven't heard and seen already, there are baby goats newly prancing and flipping in our barnyard. All over our valley and, most likely, all around the country new goats are being born along with all the other new baby animals--calves, foals, fawns, pups, kitttens. All signs that spring is here!
Of Buckhorn's three does aka "nannies", Midnight is the first this spring to have babies. Last Monday (3/11) on the new moon while checking the goats before the night, we were blessed to receive and spend the twilight hours with the new twins. All these pictures were taken that evening of the new moon. Both of these goat babies are doelings! Awesome, more to milk.....next year.
Reading a little on goat husbandry and asking other farmers with goats, you'll discover that it is common for goats to give birth to multiple offspring at once. It depends partly on the breed, but twins seem to the most common birth occurrence in many breeds.
After taking picture with the twins, Horton thoroughly checked them as they slowly began to dry off and try out their spindly, rickety legs. We gave the goats fresh water with some kelp and warm water with some molasses to the twins before heading back in for the night.
Vernal Equinox occurs this Wednesday (3/20), so we are anticipating that Zen and Rocky, our other two nannies, are very close to birthing their kids as well. We're guessing it will happen this week. Zen is pictured here with her billy-kid Porter, born March 8th of last year.
Champ (big grey bearded goat, Toggenburg breed) is pictured here beside Midnight (all black, Alpine breed), as well as a portion of the herd.
What a Champ!
Now that we have had a week of observing the twins they both appear to be healthy: herding and grazing in the field with the others and milking daily on Midnight.
Sorry, but you can't pet the pictures of baby goats...no matter how much you may want to.
Stop on by the farm soon and see all the new kids!! Oh, and don't forget to holler at your friendly, local farmers while you're at it.
Of Buckhorn's three does aka "nannies", Midnight is the first this spring to have babies. Last Monday (3/11) on the new moon while checking the goats before the night, we were blessed to receive and spend the twilight hours with the new twins. All these pictures were taken that evening of the new moon. Both of these goat babies are doelings! Awesome, more to milk.....next year.
After taking picture with the twins, Horton thoroughly checked them as they slowly began to dry off and try out their spindly, rickety legs. We gave the goats fresh water with some kelp and warm water with some molasses to the twins before heading back in for the night.
Vernal Equinox occurs this Wednesday (3/20), so we are anticipating that Zen and Rocky, our other two nannies, are very close to birthing their kids as well. We're guessing it will happen this week. Zen is pictured here with her billy-kid Porter, born March 8th of last year.
Last year, from the last week in October until the first week of December we were able to board and care for a herd of 14 goats while the herd owner, our friend Eddy, moved his family from Texas to the western slope. In exchange for caring for his goat herd for over a month, the billy-goat of the herd, Champ, would hopefully impregnate our two female goats. Looks like he performed his job quite well. Midnight was a gift from Eddy at the end of the exchange.
Champ (big grey bearded goat, Toggenburg breed) is pictured here beside Midnight (all black, Alpine breed), as well as a portion of the herd.
What a Champ!
Now that we have had a week of observing the twins they both appear to be healthy: herding and grazing in the field with the others and milking daily on Midnight.
Sorry, but you can't pet the pictures of baby goats...no matter how much you may want to.
Stop on by the farm soon and see all the new kids!! Oh, and don't forget to holler at your friendly, local farmers while you're at it.
~Jak
Monday, March 11, 2013
It's March, sure. But with a good amount of snow last month, surely we weren't hibernating...were we? Hibernating, no. Thankfully we have been sleeping pretty well, and eating extremely well.
Horton, Laura, and I have all had a chance or two to ski and snowboard in Telluride this winter. I was able to snowboard with Leelyn, one of our amazing volunteers from Telluride who's soon heading to Washington state to start her own CSA farm!
Afterwards, there was a soreness in the muscles for sure, but the big-mountain experience was more than worth it. This beautiful snow has also allowed me to XC-ski up to the farm a couple of times. It's something I've always wanted to do.
Aside from the times we get to play in the stuff, we have still been busy at work. Many of you know that I have been working part-time at Natural Grocers at Vitamin Cottage in Montrose. NattyGro (as I call it) is a good fit for me in terms of "getting a job". And I have my reasons for working there. One of the biggest perks I enjoy at NattyGro is the bags of veggie scraps that I can take home to give to our goats and chickens. All the produce at NattyGro is certified organic; therefore the scraps provide excellent nutrition to our young chickens and our three currently pregnant goats.
If we weren't giving the scraps to the goats and chickens we'd contribute them to our compost piles. Though right now, it's important that the animals get the green nutrition since our pastures and chicken yards are covered in snow. This way we don't have to feed as much alfalfa hay as we would if we didn't have the veggie scraps. You'd devour fresh veggie scraps like an animal too if your main food source disappeared for 6 months out of the year!
We've also been building our compost piles and worm bins like mad! SHE'S MAD, I TELL YOU!
This pile is filled with worms that have been growing in number and size. We added a bunch of straw, bags of leaves, mycelia, Actinovate, coffee grounds, and other soil builders like greensand, crabmeal, and azomite to increase the nutrient content for the worms to process. This worm pile will be our "starter" pile that we will use to initiate other compost and worm piles this year.
Leelyn and I are chatting about peppers and eggplant varieties to plant.
Laura's re-taping up the reflective paneling in the dome, quite a project. But, she done good.
~Jak
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