Alba's birth and a mantra for milking a goat

We made it through another successful kidding season. The does are reaching peak production and the kitchen is full with the sounds of sudsy water sloshing and the gentle rattle of glass bottles boiling for most of the morning.

This year our Sannen does were bred to a mini LaMancha. For most of the herd white coat and gopher ears were dominant.

Our girl, Alba, had a surprise for us. She was the last to kid and had two mostly black bucklings. She is the only doe with wattles, so I’m curious if this had something to do with the genetic roll of the dice.

Here she is in early labor with gentle contractions.

These get more forceful over the next fifteen minutes.

The does like to have us close while they're in labor. They occasionally reach over to lick us on the cheek between contractions.

This year my older daughter was able to help more. She now has a basic understanding of the birthing process. This knowledge applies to most mammals, so she's ready to help in a variety of situations.

If you would like to see a more detailed account of kidding look here.

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After we clear the airways and help dry the kids, we observe as they struggle to get on their feet. In my experience, this usually happens within 20 minutes. The doe coaxes them toward the teat and we watch to make sure they get to the colostrum. This is important and we’ll have to step in and help if it doesn’t happen quickly enough.

The new babies spend the day bonding with their mom in this smaller kidding pen. The next day they join the herd. Within 24 hours they are frisking around with the rest of the kids.

During these busy days, I writepaintsculpt in my head. I’ve gotten pretty good at making detailed “notes” as I milk and feed....trim hooves... I call on them later in the afternoon when I have some time in my workspace. Following the natural rhythms around me has been a lesson in how I create. I am able to honor parts of the process that are valuable, but often get overlooked. I’m more patient (a little more) and I settle down through daily tasks. My mantra is: there is an abundance of time for the things that are important. If I bring a nervous energy to the milking stand, I’ll get a kicked bucket in my lap. It has happened.

The Zen of milking a goat.

farmers, farmers, farmers

I did see the “farmer” commercial, and I liked it (as far as commercials go). I thought it was nice that it might plant a seed in someone’s head to think about the farmers who wake up at 4:30 in the morning to milk, care for their animals, and tend their crops no matter what the weather - from sub-zero ice breaking to scorching summer heat. Kinda nice to see a commercial have a secondary message that was something other than, women are objects, baby animals are cute, and MSG is the nectar of the gods.

 

When I heard the words in the commercial I thought of folks like Joel Salatin and Wendell Berry.

"We’re members of each other—all of us—everything. The difference is not whether you are or not, but whether you know you are or not. Because we’re all under each other’s influence. We’re all are affected by one another’s others lives and decisions. And there is no escape from this membership."

 

I understand there are a lot of people who have no idea what’s going on with their food, and, sadly, there’s a group of people who know about the damage factory farms are doing, but still throw all farmers into some paddock full of uneducated rednecks looking for a handout. This is proof that they’re doing nothing to back-up their complaints, because, if they had, they would have found a farmer’s market by now. Those guys with baskets of fresh eggs and winter greens can’t get those subsidies you’re talking about. Sorry my misinformed friend, but there are many people who care and sacrifice to keep ethical, time-honored traditions alive. These people deserve our respect.

 

Now, this second one is snarky, but hits at another truth – what have we let happen?! Maybe if we honored the farmers' work, the family farm wouldn’t have been decimated. Maybe a parent would pass on with pride that their child was apprenticing at a farm instead of going into computer programming. It is one of the hardest jobs there is and it’s a rare alignment of factors that could even allow for the chance that the farm could keep a family out of poverty. People who carry on despite the challenges are devoted to preserving this way of life for US. If you aren’t supporting family farms I don’t think you get the right to laugh at this parody.

 

Original:

 

 

 

Find link to the second here:

 

http://FunnyOrDie.com/m/7rpq

welcome 2013

Happy New Year!

2012 was packed with new experiences. The sculptures had their first solo show, Tangelo Studio work beat me to countries on my bucket list (especially that Little White Horse - he gets around) and the farm began supplying families with food. The children were able to experience the full cycle of breeding, birthing, and milking the goats. Their experience went from farm animals as pets, to experiencing the full spectrum of farm life. We lost a couple prized animals, nursed wounds, carried water, walked a mile in the snow with feed bags, and chopped wood. In every difficult situation there was the knowledge that these domesticated animals depend on us. They have no choice but to do their job, and not following through on our commitment was never an option.

We were constantly searching out information, planning, and reconsidering between a dawn and evening milking. There were quite a few times when big A and I looked at each other a couple days after completing a project and realized we should have done it differently. Like I said, a year of learning.

Having dairy goats is a life altering experience. They will push you, even if you're tired. One of my biggest accomplishments of 2012 was milking those goats. For a girl who enjoys her sleep it was an exercise in surrender. I often thought as I sat down beside a doe and gently washed her udder, that every dairy goat deserves to be milked by someone who's had engorged breasts. I try to imagine what it must be like for dairy animals on one of the industrial-sized farms...so little time for care and observation.

The morning chores are complete, I'm waiting on a doe to kid, and there are still a couple human kids sleeping after their first year staying up to watch the ball drop. I've yet to grab my coffee because getting back to the blog is a resolution of mine, so I better grab this moment. For totally selfish reasons (that I hope you might enjoy if you check in) I need the daily writing. I like the way it gets my brain working and I enjoy the dialogue with people who share my interests. It's an interesting opportunity we have to be on a little mountain homestead and still connect with people around the world. It's yesterdays news, but it still blows my mind. It really changes who is able to do what...and what doesn't need a little shaking up?

Resolutions? I have a few.

Gratitude, it fills the holes with light.

Here's a little peek at 2012:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May the New Year bring you and your loved ones peace, health, happiness, and prosperity!

farm update - chicken sperm and goat teats

It's been very busy around here. I'm working on two sculptures that I hope to have finished in time to present to the curator of my upcoming show. We also added three pregnant goats to our herd in steps toward getting our creamery up and going. I'm still making cheese with purchased milk, but soon we should have plenty of our own. The local extension office has been helpful with legal information and in my free less busy moments (while filling a trough, or taking a pee) I'm reading in preparation for being a goat midwife next month. To catch you up on what's happening on the farm I took some pictures this evening...

The new girls are Saanens. Saanens are known for their large size, vitality, herd compatibility and their “eager to please” temperament, but the largest part of their popularity is their milking ability. They are known as the Queens of the Dairy Goats.

These girls are all pregnant and their udders are starting to grow

We are teaching the herd to goat pack. Evening walks are good training

leaks

lettuce

baby apples

figs

plenty of eggs

new additions to the egg laying team

a Show Girl for the fun of it

a beautiful new Cochin rooster for breeding. They have so many feathers that they can't breed naturally. The kids and I learned how to artificially inseminate on a 4-H field trip

My two older ones recently competed in the Virgina Poultry Federation's Poultry Judging Contest. Their teams did well in the state wide competition.

Hopefully my next post will include the finished sculptures!

for the barnyard

 A Christmas morning treat.

These seasonal spice cookies are heavy on the molasses and loved by all the critters.

An occasional cookie hasn't hurt anyone yet, so they were a perfect sweet indulgence.

We mixed in plenty of veggies, too.

Good Practice

"Mommy, are you sleeping out there?" I heard my daughter call from the back door. My eyes were open; she must have picked-up on the stillness. What is it about sitting down by the chickens that slows my breath and nudges my mind past thought? I watch it come over the kids sometimes...the eyes seeing everything and nothing for a moment as they hold a bird and listen to the sounds of the flock.

The same thing is experienced sitting within a herd of horses, or cows. After initial observation, the mind accepts the movements and sounds as a sort of rhythm. Even the occasional squabble rolls into the pattern. You are aware of it all, but without surface level thought. Could we say it's a moment of transcendental consciousness?  I think time spent with the healthy herd or flock can ease us into this state of relaxation. The dramas of the human experience are reflected in the animal kingdom; we can see them cycle and resolve, but aren't pulled into unnecessary action or judgment. We are invited to share the time and space without attachment. Good practice.

Seven Roosters – Japanese Woodblock Print by Hokusai. Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾 北斎, 1760 – 1849)


 

one year

"A change of heart or of values without a practice is only another pointless luxury of a passively consumptive way of life."

- Wendell Berry

Today I noticed a sweater hanging on the hook in the hall; it was pulled out on one of the first chilly evenings spent star gazing in the back yard recently. This reminded me that in September it will be one year since our move. We've made it through a cycle.

I am thankful for the inner push that wouldn't quiet till it had come home. I used to feel that I struggled with impatience; I don't feel that any more.

What a year on this little farmette....small steps in the right direction.

Children going slowly and syncing into place

wearing out their boots

growing things

preserving

"It is possible, as I have learned again and again, to be in one's place, in such company, wild or domestic, and with such pleasure, that one cannot think of another place that one would prefer to be - or of another place at all." - Wendell Berry

the witches were here

Today we found witches' handles in the horse's mane.

As a child my riding teacher told me that when you found these woven into the mane, it meant that witches had ridden the horse at night. What's strange about a witch's handle is that it is always woven the same way to make a loop - it's not just a knot in the hair.

I retold the story to my youngest daughter and she suggested we wait in the back yard tonight to catch the witch in the act. It would be okay, she said, because this was obviously a good witch...seeing as our little horse was returned unharmed. When we went inside I searched to see if I could find any other stories about the witches' handles. Here's one from Western Folklore, vol xxiii, April 1964, no 2.

In South rather than North America, a smaller creature has been credited with mane-braiding. In 1925, an English schoolteacher called Aime F Tschiffely (I’m saying nothing), was travelling on horseback from Buenos Aires to North America. One morning in the Columbian (sic) Andes he noticed that one of his two horses had its mane plaited. “I tried to undo it,” he wrote in Tschiffely’s Ride, “but found it tightly knotted. I asked the boy, Victor” – this was his Ecuadorian mozo (“boy” or servant) – “if he knew anything about this or if he had done it, and he immed­iately told me ‘El Duende’ had been with the horses during the night… It appears that El Duende… is a dwarf who lives in deep canyons and desolate valleys, where he can often be heard crying like a baby or, when he is in boister­ous mood, making noises rivalling thunder. Natives firmly believe that he is very fond of horseback riding; but being so small, is unable to sit on the horses’ back, so he sits on the animal’s neck, making stirrups by plaiting the mane in such a way as to be able to put his feet in it.” [1]  Duende is a complex and untranslatable word, but one of its meanings is what we would call ‘fairy’.

Interesting, I had always heard a European version of the story, but it seems that all over the world people are creating stories to explain the tying of the mane. Shakespeare mentions the handles in  Romeo and Juliet:
 
… that very Mab That plaits the manes of horses in the night

Have any of you heard of the Witches' handles? I'm thinking some of my British friends might be familiar with the superstition.

Do you know any other fun folktales that alert us to when the witches and fairy folk have made a visit?

This story inspired the girls to make some drawings after breakfast.