We sold our pony, Cowboy. It was sad to see him go but with the plans to make our a hobby farm a working hobby farm, we needed the stall space. Cowboy was a very friendly little guy but he was green broke so the only person who could ride him was Farm Girl. And since she already has a horse of her own that she can barely find time to ride as it, he had no purpose on our farm other than taking up stall space and keeping Chase company in the pasture. So he has gone to a new farm where he will be thoroughly loved and given lots of attention.
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In our goals to add more goats to the farm, we made our first purchase. Meet Miss Holly. Admittedly, she isn't exactly what we were looking for, but she fulfills two needs. My boy wanted a pet goat of his own that matched his size, and breeding pygmy goats was something I had thought of doing before. Additionally, Faun and Jadis are getting close in age to breeding but I'm not ready for a full size buck. Purchasing a breeding buck for Holly down the road will provide pygmy babies in the summer and help to identify when my other does go into heat. A pygmy buck is a lot easier to handle than a full size buck. I wasn't to sure how the meet and greet would go with Faun and Jadis so put Holly into the stall next to them first. Unlike our girls, Holly has horns and I didn't want anyone getting hurt. But goats are such social creatures and I had no problem moving Holly into the same stall. They did a bit of smelling, gentle head butting, then they all went about their goat business.
I've been busy this past week. Firstly, me and the kids spent a couple days in Toronto for some city shopping and a visit to the Royal Winter Fair. The last time I was at the Royal was when I was a teenager so I was looking forward to it and hoping to learn lots. Sadly, it was a huge disappointment. The Royal is geared more towards showing livestock as well as their huge horse show, rather than educational. At least it wasn't in the area I was interested in. I was hoping to take in seminars or workshops but found none. You see we've had discussions around the household lately about increasing our farming operation. We looked into chickens as they are my favourite farm animal but learned quickly that it is a difficult if not impossible industry to break into. They have a saying that you either inherit it or marry into it. Since neither of those options is available to us, we vetoed that plan and looked at our second favourite critter. The goats. The goat industry is slowing starting to make progress and with more awareness there is promise of it really taking off. It is just as healthy as cow's milk but is easier to digest and better for those with low tolerance to cow's milk or allergies. My oldest daughter has suffered from an allergy to cow's milk ever since she was little. After I switched from breast milk to cow's milk, she became increasingly constipated. It improved some when we brought her down to lower fat content, but her allergies remained all of her life. She was unable to enjoy ice cream, yogurt, or a glass of chocolate milk. I heard about goat's milk recently and brought some home. She had and enjoyed her first glass of chocolate milk without any side effects for the first time ever. Obviously, both she and I are sold. I've heard it also helps with those who suffer from eczima. This same daughter has struggled with eczima since she was a toddler (perhaps another side effects of cow's milk), so we are experimenting and putting her on a goat's milk diet to see if there is any results. Will keep you posted. So, anyway, we spent some time in the goat's barn at the Royal and even took in a show. The only "demonstration" we found was this guy under a stairwell milking his goat between shows. We werent' the only ones curious about what he was doing, there was a whole crowd surrounding his enclosure watching him. I think he was surprised. My boy did get a lesson on cow milking though! No matter it wasn't a real cow. And these chicks made me want white silkies just so I could colour their coats to match the season! But the highlight of the entire fair had nothing to do with agricultural at all. The President's Choice Superdogs by far stole the show and had the biggest turnout. Sorry about the bad quality but they were too fast for my pathetic little camera. Here's one of the stars of the show. Meanwhile, back on the farm, we've been busy getting ready for winter. First up was winterizing the rooster's coop. It originally belonged to the rabbits and it might very well revert back to them in the spring, but for now it houses all of our five roosters. We brought the horses in and did their feet, combed out all the birs from the field and gave them their winter deworming dose. Then the girls were next. The goats that is. They got a pedicure and also were dewormed. We are still working on rearranging housing conditions inside the horse barn as the horses will be coming in within the next month or so and at the moment one of the stalls is being occupied by Lizzie, the pig. We had built her her own pen, but she ended up chewing it nearly right through so we moved her out and put the female rabbits in it instead. I had made the executive decision to colonize all the females instead of making them each individual hutches. It's working out for us and they all get along nicely. And finally, this morning I was greeted with a raccoon hanging out near the dog runs. I set our german shepherd on him but she has grown into an old sad dog who lacks speed but grown fear. The damn critter turned and started chasing Dakota, oye! So I went inside and brought out three more of our dogs (Emma was kept inside because we're crossing our fingers she may be pregnant), and the only thing those three were good at was chasing the coon up a tree. So two hours later and with the raccoon showing no signs of leaving our property, I took matters into my own hands. My chickens wanted out to range. And my boy wanted out to play. How many people can say they've killed a raccoon? I can. Now. Living in the country isn't always pleasant.
Ever since we owned backyard chickens and they began laying, our eggs are always fresh and eaten within a day or two of laying. However, because of this trying to peel a hardboiled egg became a problem. Eggs need time to allow air to filter through the thousands of little pores in the shells to create air pockets. Without those air pockets, it's next to impossible to peel those shells away from an egg. Believe me, I've tried. The best way to peel a hardboiled egg is to allow it to sit in your fridge for a week or two (the longer the easier the shell falls away) before boiling it. I boil mine for about ten minutes (start at a low temperature to prevent shell cracking) then sit it in cold water until cool. When cracking, begin with the widest end of the egg where the largest pocket of air has settled at the bottom. The shell should then peel away for you easily and in large sections. This may seem simple to some, but I figure if I could make this mistake, so could other first time backyard chicken owners.
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