Things I didn't expect

Well!!!  It is official, it was official, actually, last weekend.  We have lived on the farm for ONE YEAR!!  I can't believe it's been that long in some ways.  I am still learning so much every day about the property and the animals.  But yet I have also been able to develop a nice routine with the added benefit of learning from past experience to fine tune.

There are several things that have surprised me this past year, things that I wasn't expecting as a farmer or rural resident or whatever you want to call it.  Today,  few things that surprised me, another day maybe I'll share lessons learned or something a bit more contemplative.

Petey and Hercules helping me muck 

1.) Poop happens.  We all know that, especially if we have dogs, cats or kids.  And anyone with a touch of logic knows that the more animals you have, the more poop there is going to be, it ain't rocket science.  Now, what you might not know is the following; while all poop smells less than fresh, chicken poop...is terrible.  It takes extra management just to minimize the odor because you really don't want to be faced with that daily.  Also, our dogs and cats are domesticated HOUSE pets and billions of dollars have gone into producing and researching all kinds of designer foods that keep them healthy with minimal 'waste' produced.  Not so for livestock.  They eat grass...and need to eat a lot of it to get what they need and in turn...a lot comes out the other end.  I never would have imagined how much time I spend raking, scooping, hauling and composting poop.  I never would have thought that manure management would be a legitimate issue that required research, a special storage facility and tools.  But yet, that is where I am.  Poop is such a big part of my day, everyday, that I have found myself walking into Anthropologie with poop ON MY JEANS!  I always wear grubbies to the corral and always (almost, obviously) clean up and change before I go out in public...except apparently, one can actually get used to wearing poop and forget to change.  I haven't been back to Anthropologie since the day I made that discovery so I'm not sure if i made it onto some secret black list or not.

2.) There is no such thing as 'fix it right the first time'.  Not if you have goats. Goats main existence, I have decided, is to keep your skills sharp and teach you new lessons in fence repair, basic construction principles and electric wiring.  Petey, is the master at this, that little devil.  Everything I put out of his reach he makes a point of finding a way to rip down and chew up.  I have replaced and restrung way too many extension cords and hoses.  Against all my years of horticultural training, my hose is on the ground, in the dirt (and poop) because i have not managed to find a hose hook/reel that I can keep him from destroying.  He has ripped out or chewed up the wiring to my automatic chicken coop door countless times, each time requiring more ingenuity to create a barrier system that will protect it from skinny, finger-like goat lips.  I have re-engineered my chicken feeders countless times.  The chickens have had to adapt, too, since they can't have a ladder up to their roosts and feeders due to fat-assed Petey climbing a ladder meant for a 3lb chicken.  Everyday there is something to fix.

Young Petey on top of the chicken roost, eating out of their feeder

3.) Living in the country, you are much more aware of your vulnerability to mother nature, in our area, namely Wildfires.  We were used to having fire escape plans, alarms, extinguishers....all the usual emergency preparedness.  What we did not really think about were the animals.  In the 2007 fires that did massive amounts of damage just to the east and south of our new community, there were thousands of livestock displaced.  They were the lucky ones.  So, our new fire plan had to include a plan for 7 goats, 3 tortoises and 21 chickens.  Since the goats keep growing (only 2 of the 7 are fully grown our plans have changed a bit.  It used to be that we had enough dog cages to fit the goats in, with the dogs in the back of the truck with the kids.  Now that everyone is getting bigger, and our cages no longer fit everyone, our plan is to shove all 7 goats, 2 tortoises and 21 chickens in our tow trailer.  The chickens can live in the bathroom so they wont get trampled, and if we end up having to live in the trailer for a while (god forbid) I have to make sure there are extra cleaning supplies and a broom to sweep up all the nanny berries the goats leave behind.  Nanny berries, for you city slickers, is a cute word for goat poop.

4.)  Goats are big animals.  There is no carting them to the vet in the backseat or on your lap, for that matter, when they need their vaccines or routine health issues.  House calls are expensive, so many farmers do a lot of their own basic vet work.  Luckily for me, I guess, all those years of giving myself shots paid off as I already knew how to draw up medication and administer both sub-q and intramuscular injections.  Not only am I vaccinating my own goats, I am shearing them, trimming their feet (their hooves grow like toenails), giving them vitamins, supplements, dewormer, delouser etc.  I have a medicine chest full of farm meds after being here just a year.  It's kind of empowering in a way, to know that you are the first, second and third line of defense when there is a problem.  But it is also incredibly nerve wracking and a lot of pressure, especially when you realize a house call from a vet will cost several hundred dollars just to get them on the property.

5.)  That leads me to the next surprise, which came just this past week.  I didn't expect to decide one day, in all seriousness, to ask Dr. Farm Hand to educate me on the whereabouts of his shotgun, key to the trigger lock and shells.  He does have a gun for sport clay shooting that resides in the house.  In my younger years, I was pretty positive there would never be a firearm in my residence.  Things and times change I guess.  Not that I was thrilled with it at the time he purchased it last year, I wrestled with it for quite some time.  But i have come to the realization (after being told by many) that if I am to have animals, I have to be willing to euthanize them.  I have read so many horror stories of births gone wrong or predator attacks.  And it seems that everyone I have met that has had livestock for a number of years has had to go through this.  A decision where they either end the suffering of an animal they cherish, or sit by helplessly for a long period of time waiting for someone else to come and do it for them.  None of it is pleasant, and I can not promise I could ever actually pull the trigger, but I don't want lack of preparation on my part to cause undue pain and suffering.  Now, some of you reading this might know the story of how I had to call a neighbor I had only briefly met once, in the middle of the night, to come and euthanize a very ill chicken.  I had sat on the front lawn, with said chicken, a hatchet and a drink trying to gather my liquid courage.  I sat there long enough that the margarita that was supposed to calm my nerves needed refilling and made me wonder if maybe my judgement wasn't impaired enough I might lose a finger in the process.  I was smart and begged a near perfect stranger to come kill my pet. Luckily for me, this person did not think I was 'too' crazy and a great friendship has blossomed.  I'm confident that I could, now, off my own chicken to end it's needless suffering, despite the fact that both Dr. Farm Hand and my fellow farmer friend laughed and snorted when I told them both of this fact.  At any rate, I feel better knowing where and how to operate the shotgun, I just pray that I never have to use it.

 6.)  This??  Is a Big Fat Lie.  I have opened maybe 75 of these types of bags this year and not a one has been easy to open.  Each bag is different, some have a small strip to pull, some don't, some you start in the front, some the back, some the right corner, some the left.  The only thing that IS consistent is that they are NOT easy to open and experience only yields a small amount of improvement in ones feed bag opening efficiency.

So, perhaps a boring update and glimpse into my thoughts as of late, but I haven't published anything here in too long and it is getting to be a bit intimidating...that is, the length of time since I last posted something.  It isn't that I am not writing....I have at least 6 blog topics started but they get very lengthy and off topic and then I get distracted and move on.  Some days I think it's adult ADD, some days I think it's hormonal, other days I think that Dr. Farm Hand is more correct than I want to admit in calling me Mrs. 85%.  Completing things these days is a challenge.  Maybe because my mind is going in a thousand different directions, maybe because I am avoiding anything that is less than uberexciting, maybe because I spend too much time petting goats or maybe because.....well, maybe because that is just how I am.  Ta Ta For Now.

Faucet breaking in the middle of a crucial wool washing step.