Tails of Heaven Scent Farms

Posted By admin on May 30, 2010

Stitches had her babies this afternoon! Momma and bucklings are doing well. Stitches gave me no sign that she was ready to have those babies this morning. We went off to church and when I came home there they were! I am kind of bummed I wasn’t with her when she labored but I think she is probably happier that I was not there.

We are not sure on the Daddy of these little ones but the white one’s daddy was probably a Saanen (pronounced Sah-nen). Karen told me that white is a dominant trait. The other little boy’s daddy is an Alpine. See Stitches jumped into the buck pen. Little hussy. Before Karen could get her out of the yard 3 bucks had had their way with her.

I am happy that everyone is doing well. Babies are so cute! Want one?

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Category: Family, barn, goats, homesteading | 5 Comments »
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Posted By admin on May 29, 2010

This is my goat Stitches. She was due to kid on the 27th. Today is the 29th! She is in no hurry to have these babies. In fact I think she enjoys the fact at my stress level increases with every hour.

See how she is toying with me. She is pretending that I don’t exist. I still remember the first time I had a goat in labor. See the story here. So my history with goat delivery is a little on edge.

Yoo Hoo is doing much better now. We were not sure she was going to live at first. She has bounced back and is annoying everyone in the goat yard. We call her our “circus” goat. She likes to jump on trees or the walls of the barn and do backbends. She will also walk on her hind feet to reach the leaves on the trees. Such a silly girl.

But for now….we wait on Stitches. Sigh…

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Category: barn, goats, homesteading | 1 Comment »
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Posted By admin on May 20, 2010

I found success the first time in my goat cheese making endeavor! Usually the first time I try something it ends in disaster…but not this time! This is all my first batch made. I started with a gallon of goat milk and ended up with about 10 oz of cream cheese. From left to right in the picture we have Cinnamon-Sugar, Ranch, and Plain. As soon as I dehydrate some apples we will have Apple-Cinnamon cream cheese. I can’t wait to make more so I will do that this afternoon. Please tell me your favorite flavor of cream cheese. I want to try them all.

I want to say thank you to my friend Mary for being my guinea pig today. It is always good to get a second opinion.

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Category: canning, frugal living, goats | 4 Comments »
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Posted By admin on May 13, 2010

We just picked her up today. She is my new Livestock Guardian Dog (LGD). The things we know about her….she is a working dog to protect goats, and she will test fences. She is 7 months old and loves to be on the front porch.

What we don’t know about her….she has never been with poultry so we don’t know if she is good with them.

I am hoping she will protect the goats and chickens. I am also hoping that she does not test my patience more than the fences. She is very sweet. We have her in the 10×10 pen I put the goat kids in at night. Karen, the breeder, is coming for the goat kids this afternoon so I won’t need the 10×10 tonight. Hopefully I can let her out tomorrow to see what she will do.

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Category: barn, dogs, goats, homesteading | 4 Comments »
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Posted By admin on May 6, 2010

Last year we had close to 20 pairs of hummingbirds coming to the feeder. I finally saw my first hummingbird the day after all the rain so I quickly made some nectar and cleaned the feeder. Unfortunately I put it in the dishwasher and forgot to turn the heat dry cycle off. It looked fine until I went to put it together and I saw it was clearly warped. Bummer.

When I went to buy hay the other day I stopped off at Krogers to see if they had any hummingbird feeders. I was in luck! and the bottle is glass so it won’t melt in the dishwasher. I came home and hooked it up and forgot all about it in the business of my life.

I went out to plant some herb seeds in the planters on the back porch and I was buzzed by one of the humming birds. I saw a total of three come to the feeder today. They kind of trickled in last year so hopefully we will have many come to the free buffet this summer.

I tried to get a good picture but this was the only one I could get. They are quick little buggers. I will have more opportunities another time.

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Category: homesteading | 2 Comments »
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Posted By admin on May 3, 2010

Most of you have heard about the recent storms in the South East. Nashville was hit pretty bad with 15 inches of rain in 2 days. West of Nashville was hit with over 20 inches. The Cumberland River flows right through Nashville and is at 52+ feet as I write this. To put that into perspective, before the rain came on Saturday it was at 22 feet. At 52 feet the river has flooded the Opryland Mall and Hotel as well as the Grand Old Opry. LP Field, home of the Titans football team, is a swimming pool and the flood waters have reached 4th Ave. So the Arena, which hosts the Predators hockey team is also taking on water.

Not only is this an emergency and expense for business and government but there are countless people who have lost everything or have major damage. Hundreds of homeowners whose homes are full of water, yet they had no flood insurance because they were not on a flood plain and insurance was not available.

And the cars! Hundreds and hundreds of cars that are useless; full of sewage and polluted water. Nothing has ever happened in this area to this extent and probably never will again, Lord willing.

We are fine. I am grateful to my neighbor for putting up the stripping in the barn and the gutter on the high side of the barn, just a day before this storm hit. As it was, I had a river of water flowing downhill through the goat shed and the chicken coop. The chicks stayed high and dry and fortunately the goat stall in the barn was complete, minus a gate. I was able to block the opening with fencing and wood temporarily so that the big girls had a dry place to sleep. I also did quite a bit of trenching outside the goat shed to divert water. I could not believe how much water was coming down!

We count ourselves lucky and blessed that our home’s location on a hill prevented us from damage and we pray for all those who are suffering right now.

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Category: barn, chickens, frugal living, goats, homesteading | 3 Comments »
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Posted By admin on April 29, 2010

Look what we got today!

I know it seems like I need a 12 step program for chicken addictions, however, since my friendly neighborhood fox has taken to dining on my hens I want to make sure I have extras for next year.

I found this guy on Craigslist. He guarantees that these are girls. If they start crowing to bring them back. Turns out he is friends with my neighbor Randy…small world. So now I have 66 chicks in the brooder. Last year I started with 52 and am down to 25 of the original chicks. Most of those have fed the wildlife around here. We have now enclosed a small chicken yard that ties into the goat yard. Hopefully that will slow the fox down. The hawk will still have her choice though. At least she won’t take more than one every day or two.

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Category: barn, chickens, frugal living, homesteading | 1 Comment »
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Posted By admin on April 21, 2010

We have had many highs and lows in just the last 24 hours here on the farm. Last night we were searching for our dog Bullet.

We got a call from someone who had picked him up but then released him when she spoke to a neighbor ( a mile plus away) and realized he belonged to someone around here. Then he did not come home. It was a long night and morning. I knew he did not get hit by a car because we could not find him anywhere along the road. I alerted my closest neighbor to keep an eye out for him and he called me around 1pm. He was down at another neighbors house…a different mile away. Silly dog really got around. My Prodigal Dog is home at last. He is dirty and tired and I am happy he is back.

On another sad note….It seems we have a fox nearby. I saw it Sunday in broad daylight snatch one of my hens from the front yard. Nothing happened on Monday or Tuesday but tonight I came home from church and closed the coop and found that I was missing three hens. One of which was Momma Hen.

I am so sad for this loss. A good setting hen is worth her weight in gold. I was so fortunate to have one sit. Her four little peeps were alive and well huddled in the corner of the coop where they would sleep. I scooped them up and put them in the pool with all the little ones. Their life is going to be a lot different. No more wandering the woods or pasture. They are orphans. The big hens will be confined to quarters until we get the new fence built to enclose them in and attach them to the goat yard.

We just got finished yesterday contracting our neighbor to extend the goat yard fencing to include the chicken’s pop door, so that they will be protected within the fencing, but still have a large area to wander in.

Stupid fox.

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Category: barn, chickens, frugal living, homesteading | 7 Comments »
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Posted By admin on April 16, 2010

We have had quite the chick explosion on the farm. Momma hen hatched out a total of four chicks. They are very cute and follow her where ever she may go.

That picture was taken before Momma jumped out of the nest box.

I have also had ten hatch out of the incubator! Far better than the first attempt at hatching eggs. See that story here.

Yesterday Samuel picked up his 4-H chicks for the “Chick Chain”. He got 25 Black Sexlink pullets. A pullet is a young hen. He has to raise them and then bring the six best back to the Robertson County Fair for them to auction off to pay for next years chicks. He gets to keep what ever is left. Pretty good deal. We also stopped at Tractor Supply and picked up 10 more chicks for me. When we got home everyone went in the pool…aka…brooder.

Little chicks are just so darn cute!

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Category: barn, chickens, homesteading, schooling | 7 Comments »
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Posted By admin on April 11, 2010

Yesterday I was fooling around in the barn after work. I have a Black Astralorp hen who has been setting on a nest for about 3 weeks. I’ve been calling her Momma Hen. Unfortunately she happens to be setting in everybody else’s favorite nesting box, so occasionally I have to move her back into that nest box because she will wait patiently in another nest for the intruder to leave.

Well, this time I decided to take matters into my own hands and removed the intruding hen and put Momma Hen back where she belonged. When I did that I noticed that one of the eggs was cracked and I could see a chick stuck in the partially cracked egg. I was all sad that the hen I removed had stepped on the egg and cracked and killed the baby chick ….until…. it peeped! The Momma Hen’s eggs were starting to hatch! Yipee!

When I went out there today I saw at least 3 baby chicks. So far God and Momma Hen are doing a better job of hatching eggs than I am. It is very exciting that I have a hen that is willing to do the work. I tried to get some pictures of the few chicks I could see but it is hard to get a picture of the babies in limited light and under the Momma Hen!

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Category: chickens, homesteading | Comments Off
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