·:[ high hopes gardens ]:·
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Here Nellie sticks her head out of the barn door as if to say “what ya got for me today?”

They’ve had a smorbasboard of different foods this spring. An acquaintance of a friend keeps buying 50 lb bags of various plant materials, hoping to use them for dye. They don’t quite work out as he planned, so we are the beneficiaries of 49 lbs of beet pulp, 49 lbs of ground alfalfa, and a 5 gallon container of liquid molasses. When you are a goat, it’s all good in small quantities!

one year ago…”Trees Gone Wild”

Last night was the 5.2 quake centered in Illinois. It was felt west of Des Moines, so we were in a place where we could have felt it. We think we did, but never would have thought twice about it and didn’t realize it at the time. We both woke up (this was at about 4:30 am) and it sounded like a large animal was chewing on a door or some woodwork. Linda asked what it was - I said “It sounds like a big animal chewing on the door” and not wanting to actually find a big animal in the house chewing on the door, rolled over and went back to sleep, chalking it up as “old house” or “farm noise.”

Milo is having some troubles. This morning he looked dead, with a faint heartbeat. We brought him in the house and for the first time, tubed an animal. That involved taking a tube and shoving it down the kid’s mouth about 10-12 inches down into the stomach and them injecting milk from a syringe into the stomach, via the tube. It’s one of those things that is a bit unnerving the first time you do it - put it accidently into the lungs and you drown the goat. But this goat was virtually totally unresponsive and we had nothing to lose by trying.

So Linda gave it a try. Milo laid motionless for about two hours after that on a heating pad in the house. Then he blurted out once and I was able to get him to drink some more out of a bottle. He then actually got up. Then he slept for a few more hours and ate again and seemed miraculously vibrant. I thought since he was walking around, he should go back to momma, so brought him back in the barn - but within a few hours later, he was cold and sleepy again, so he came back into the house and was used as a “lap goat” on the couch and spent the night in the house.

one year ago…”Martin Brings Home a Tree”

We’ve been anxiously awaiting Nellie’s first birthing experience as first timers can have problems until they figure it out. Paullina gave birth 2 1/2 weeks ago. Here are Milo and Fern - a girl and boy. They are very small but seem like they might be ok. Nellie has an “oh shi#*” look in her eyes, but seems to be licking the kids and murmering to them in the proper goat way.

Here they are a few hours after birth, Fern on the left, Milo on the right.

Compared to their barn mate Solo (being held by Emma) they are shrimps. Solo was born 17 days ago and was not a multiple birth and so he looks like a giant.
one year ago…”New Driveway Gravel”

The kids have officially named the baby goat.  The first name that hung around for a few hours was Henry, but eventually it turned to Solo.

The name was no doubt inspired by the fact that Solo was the first single goat born on the farm.  He’s already walking around in the pasture.  I’m thinking the next kid could be Hans.  Hans, Solo. Maybe the next kid could be Franz to to have Hans and Franz to “pump you up.” 

 It reminds me of the story of a confused student assigned to write an autobiography in a high school English class.   Through a google search of “Tito” the student wrote the fascinating and far-ranging story about “Marshall Tito Puente” and his amazing life as Yugoslavian dictator and latin bandmaster.

one year ago…”Mushroom Planting”

Sometime between 8 and 10 this morning Paullina gave birth to her baby boy!

She’s a good worry-free mother who always does well with her kids.

This is the first year she’s only had one, but this guy looks big and vigorous.  If it makes any difference, we were hoping tha Paullina would give birth before Nellie, who is pregnant for the first time.  We hope she picks up some pointers from Paullina as she is close to her first birthing experience.

one year ago…”Thingamajig Thursday #65″

It’s the week after a long vacation.

Nelllie and Paullina went to Morning Sun farm a few miles away to stay with their friends Ringo and Bingo while we were away.  We went and retrieved them this morning and started back into real life again - school, work, and laundry.

one year ago…

Yesterday “Don Juan” the very young nubian buck came to stay a spell at high hopes.  He and the two does introduced each other properly by promptly sniffing each other’s behinds.

So, many happy sniffings to all the goats out there needing to get lucky this fall!
one year ago…

Here’s a picture of our new portable electric fence.  The name of this fencing is “Permanet” as it is designed to be left up for the whole season, if necessary.  We get our electric fencing from Premier Fencing in Washington, Iowa.  Many people swear it is the best you can get. 

We’ve used some of the poultry electric netting and been pleased with it, so when we found this version that is taller and firmer, we thought we’d use it to start some rudimentary rotational grazing in the back pasture. 

This picture cracks me up - it shows that forbidden grass is always better than grass you’re allowed to eat.  The goats were just turned loose into this pasture that goes all the way to the fence in the distance over the goat’s back.  Where do they choose to eat first?  They stick their heads through a fence guarding a tree to get at the “good” grass.

one year ago…

Sometime last night, Paullina gave birth to two kids. The boy has the waddles, like his daddy, Sugar. These kids are a Nubian/Alpine mix.

Here’s Emma holding the boy with under the watchful eye of Paullina. Sadly, we lost the girl kid. We have some pens made up of cattle panels in the barn and one of the panels wasn’t entirely secured and some time during the day it fell down and the kid happened to be underneath it when it fell and it died. It’s one of those things that just wrenches your gut to see that dead nearly newborn kid.

Then you go through all the what-ifs? What if the panel hadn’t fell? What if the kid hadn’t been underneath it, what if it happened on one of the 5 days a week someone was home all day instead of one of the 2 days everyone is gone? And so it goes. Not a happy on the farm day.

In the evening, as neither of us has not yet seen an opera and a touring company was presenting the Marriage of Figaro at Stephens Auditorium in Ames, we were able to go both see our first opera. We both enjoyed it - like most things it was much better live than recorded.

one year ago…

This week’s Photo Friday Contest theme is “Fresh.” Here’s a shot from the high hopes archives of milk about as fresh as you can get it!

This is one of our milk goats, Paulina.
We all know there’s more than one meaning to “fresh” so keeping that in mind, and in keeping with the goat theme, here’s another photo.

Back up to about 6 months before the milking picture for Mr. Billy getting “fresh” with his lady!

one year ago…

Yesterday the good people at Morning Sun Farm brought a young Alpine goat buck when they came over to make soap. His name was alternately “Whiteface” or “Sugar” and we decided to call him Sugar, pronounced “Shoog-uh” as his job is to impregnate Paullina and Blaze. The two young boys went to the sale barn on Saturday, and the two young girls went to Two Friends Farm for a while.

Here’s Shoog-uh with one of his harem.

one year ago…

This evening the goats were bleating like they do when one gets separated or they need help. It’s a different kind of sound than the “feed me” or “milk me” sounds.

Nellie caught her head in the fence.

Trying to get her head out every which way - neck first, nose first, and on…

Finally, it’s time for the fence bending blocks and levers to try to bend the wire just enough to release the goat. If this doesn’t work, the ultimate solution is the sawz-all!

Free at last!

Last night it started raining (about 2.25 inches worth of driving rain) about 3:30 am and strong east wind and unseasonably cold August temperatures in the mid-50’s. I started to worry about the chickens outside, but tossed fitfully until first hint of light, hoping not to see a pile of dead birds. Just one died - a turkey - but I jerry-rigged additional shelter with tarps to get them through the rest of the day.

The weatherman has been promising a great Memorial Day weekend, hot and maybe a bit breezy. Last night a small chance of late afternoon thunderstorms was added - but a small chance. Evidently the storm at 5 am that woke us up was 12 hours late (or early)!
This afternoon damaging winds blew through, not as part of a thunderstorm, at least not here. It made my work for the next few days clear.

I moved the chicken tractors out of the barn a few days ago to check them over as the chicks may get in them later this week. The wind wrapped it around this apple tree very nicely!
Lots of small limbs are on the ground and are on the garage roof, shed roof. A big hollow limb off a silver maple fell off in the back pasture.

There a lot of branches in the front yard snapped off, but still hanging in the trees. There were at least a dozen bird nests blown to the ground as well.

I didn’t notice right away that the back door of the barn had been ripped off as well. I heard Paullina bellering especially vigourously and went to check. I could hear a kid (goat) whining in what sounded like a part of the barn that wasn’t supposed to have goats. I went in and couldn’t find her. We still have a few layers of hay against one wall of the barn, about 6 bales high. The sound was coming from within the bales, so I started unstacking the hay. Sure enough, the kid (Millie) had gone through the place where the door had been, climbed up to the top of the hay and fallen in the crack between the hay and wall. When I got to the bottom and could see her, she wasn’t moving - her head was stuck between the bottom bale and the wall and she couldn’t lift it up - her momentum must have wedged it in pretty good. With trepidation, I pulled the bottom bale, not knowing if she had broken anything and she was fine!
We lost power and as I went out to check on neighbors, I saw the reason for the outage.

A powerline snapped at the ground in front of our closest neighbor’s house to the south - and didn’t fall to the ground because it was leaning against some trees.
The other direction from this neighbor, a big silver maple blew down (away from the house) and the small park a mile away lost trees as well.

Not exactly the “beautiful weekend” advertised! But now I know what the weatherman means when he says a “bit breezy.”

Goat milking season is in full swing. It’s good for drinking, making yogurt, and a bunch is finding its way into the freezer for goat’s milk soap.

Here’s the front end of the goat during milking.

Here’s the milking end of the goat.

Quite literally, here’s the kids at play during the milking.

I’ve got a little bit of feeling in my hands tonight of the long-time Minnesota tradition of fishing opener. It’s been cold and windy and drizzly/rainy for many days now, but this evening we went out just before dark to pull weeds from the perennial flower garden. Now my hands have that deep stiffness from the wind, wetness, and cold, much like repeatedly dipping your hand in the minnow bucket on a windswept lake in the middle of May.

This morning Martin was the perfect gentleman. As soon as Mom got up, he brought her the Sunday paper in bed. Then he brought up a cup of coffee. Then a bowl of strawberries with a dollop of whipped cream. Then some sliced pears, egg scramble, and toast, finally a piece of organic dark chocolate and bussed the dishes downstairs! This afternoon he took Mom to see a stage version of Winnie-the-Pooh. He ended the day, helping in the garden.