goat toenails

 something i never knew - you have to clip goats' toenails. weird. apparently, they do this every month at the farm. i didn't do it, but happened to be walking by while they were so snapped a few pics. i think we have goat toenail stew once a month also. j/k.

jessica clipping goat

justin, karin, jessica & goats. the white things they're standing on are stanchions.

justin is jessica's husband.

solar electric fence II

walking backwards with the electric wire fence thingy

we staked in plastic stakes for the wires to go in at somewhat regular intervals down the field

important to remember to put the wire on the right side of the insulator. we were going to loop it around and head back the direction we came (to make 2 wires) so this was really important.

attaching wire to post. also important that on these posts the bumpy side is on the inside so insulators stay put.

twisting on the insulator

using the twisty wrench-y tool thingy to twist the wire - but have to be careful not to twist too tight or it breaks off.
 

like that.

you can see how we came down, looped it around and up, and went back.

another nifty contraption was this thing that held the whole spool right onto the post when you were done. then when you take the fence down (b/c this is temporary), you can re-roll the wire and re-use.

solar electric fence I

every monday and thursday they offer classes on various topics - in a classroom type setting. occasionally, they do hands on classes like this one. jessica (the one in the dreads) was teaching us how to put up a temporary electric fence - in this case in a goat pasture - run on a battery connected to a solar panel. (this may be really boring to some of y'all (yes, i get to say y'all since i'm in tx!) but i'm doing this also as a reference for myself for whenever i become a professional solar electric fence installer).

first pic is of a few people from the farm for those of you who aren't avid fans of fence installation and who won't read past this point. on the left is jonathan, the only other catholic, then david, the farm manager, then karin (pronounced CAR-in) who is one of my roommates and in personality totally reminds me of sarah deacon/jablonski :) needless to say, i like her a lot. she's from minnesota and talks funny. ;)

Stuff you need: solar panel thingy (yes, that's the technical term), battery, red clippy things (alligator clips i think they're called), "fencer" which is basically a device that sends out a charge from the battery.

jessica holding the 'fencer', hooking it up to the battery

where you clip the clippy things. one set goes to the solar panel thingy and one set to the fencer? shoot. i'm forgetting already. i'm SO going to be electrocuted when i do this.

clippy things

clippy things to the fence - the fence is live when these are attached

the dealy-o that checks if the fence is working - it reads the charge. the needle thingy goes in the ground, then you hang the meter on the fence to read the charge.

you have to be careful to not get your hair on the fence, esp. if it's windy, or bump your forehead on it. you can only imagine how many fun electrocution stories we got to swap during this whole presentation. :) it was hilarious.

how to attach an insulator by hand if you don't have the turn-y wrench-y thingy. NOTE: all terminology used is the actual technical name

these are insulators. i do know what they're called! (the yellow and black things)

how to make a corner with an insulator

insulators and rod on a straight area. it's important that the wires are placed the correct width apart for your animals.

nifty electric wire spool holder that goes around your neck. you attach the end of your wire to one end of the fence then walk down the field backwards to the other fence and attach it. backwards b/c it can get tangled in the spool - you want to  watch it carefully.

row covers

not super exciting, but a couple of times now i've got to help put row covers over some of the veggies: particularly the tomatoes, newly planted carrots (or onions maybe?), summer squash, and some snap beans. these covers allow sunlight through so the plants keep growing underneath but keeps frost off of them. wish i had some of these in iowa! on the sides we just hold them down with bricks, pieces of concrete, or logs (basically, whatever we can find).

i think this is summer squash - really at the end of it's short little life

tomatoes

Milking Goats

So my second day here they taught me how to milk goats. I think they did it right away so I could be another person on the schedule who has to get up at 6:30 to do it. :) I was happy to learn! This stuff is so fun. They milk twice a day: 6:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. I thought you had to do it 12 hours apart exactly, but I guess not. The process is quite involved. They sell the milk here at the farm in half gallon containers. It's Grade A Raw Milk. Supposed to be really good for you b/c still has all the enzymes and things. I have yet to try it - just haven't had time and don't think of it when I'm in the kitchen. I'll let you know how it is!

Empty milk containers

EVERYTHING is sanitized

More sanitizing

Stickers for the milk jugs

Caps

Sanitizing

Writing the date and P for PM on the sticker

Iodine for disinfecting the teats

I learned that these are called stanchions. There are 8 of them b/c 8 goats are milked.

Each stanchion has a name and a place to put a food bowl. The bowl of food gets the goat to go to their place. Then you steal the food away from the goat once they get there. Then while you are milking her, she gets her food back so she is calm, distracted, and happy.

a goat. she knows we have food.

They go right to their places! Well, mostly, except the naughty ones who know where the food bins are.

Daisy the goat. Looking so cute.

I'm a milker! A milk-maid? A maid-a-milkin'?

I wasn't very fast. I did 2 and the other guy did 6 in the same amount of time.

After we finished, we had to strain the milk, then pour it into the jugs, then put it in the freezer immediately (I forget why...). Lots of cleaning up. The whole process took 1 1/2 hours. I guess some people can do it in 45 mins - once you get really fast at milking. I was really surprised at how careful you have to be about sanitizing everything and making sure you don't touch anything. Never thought I'd be milking goats!

Goats & Turkeys

 I was introduced to the goats and turkeys on the farm. There are dairy goats for milk (obviously) and dry goats for....??? The ones in this post are the dry goats. The turkeys were raised for Thanksgiving. Tomorrow (Thursday), I get to learn the first step of turning a cute fluffy white turkey into something you'd want to put into a pan....yummy!

They have fields of this stuff for goat pasture.

It's called sorghum sudan. Apparently you can eat it/chew on it and it's sweet.

This was near the goat pen. Totally random: yellow shopping cart with coffee mug - case you needed either.

Wes and I fed the turkeys. Correction: Wes fed the turkeys. I watched and took pics.

A turkey amongst turkeys.

The floppy thing on top of the beak is called a 'snood'. This dude had the longest snood. It serves no purpose. Also, if their heads turn red like that they are excited or angry. He looks kinda ticked off...

This little lady was awfully curious about my camera.

They get all calm when you hold them upside down.

The goats got loose. Apparently, this happens often. (see Fence Fixing class next blog)

Everyone gets to herd them!

Back in their pen. That was fun!