First, taking in that family was not an adventure I
enjoyed. The entire family stayed for
one week. That was long enough. It was clear the father and oldest daughter,
neither of whom wanted to be here, needed to leave. Their presence was causing a huge amount of
problems and the father not only did not want to help with the workload, but
preferred to just sleep all day long. After
one week they were driven to San Antonio where we had secured a place for the 2
of them to live for awhile. The father
was then able to start looking for a job.
The 3 youngest children stayed with us.
It was not easy being surrogate parents to kids who had never had to
live by rules before. At first it was
not that bad but as time progressed and they became use to living out here the
situation went from bad to worse. I
think if we had been provided legal guardianship of the children and they knew
this was permanent, things would have been different. But as it was we did the best we could. Thanks to others we were able to send them
all to a Christian Adventure Camp near here and introduce them to Jesus. The beginning of July we took them to their
father who even though he is still unable to properly care for them wanted them
back. So that family is back together
and peace has once again returned to the Ranch.
Second, with or without children in the house, life goes
on. The 3 goat kids born on the property
have been growing nicely. Eventually it
became necessary to sell Lawn Mower’s bucklings. The moment they were born I knew that day
would come. Lawn Mower’s boys could be used as breeding bucks and each was sold
to a different buyer. I used a reseller
service so I have no idea who purchased them but I am assuming they went for
that purpose. It also became necessary
to sell off the twins, Zorro and Boots.
Last January we had the twins castrated so selling them was more
difficult. I placed ads on Craigslist,
advertising them as pets. This area
happens to be at the crossroads of several geographical areas on
Craigslist. I placed the ad in one area
and later while looking for something else in the San Angelo area I found
someone looking for pet goats. So I
contacted him and told him about the twins.
Well, not many days later we loaded the boys into our homemade goat-tote
and took them to their new home in San Angelo.
They seemed scared but they quickly settled in to their new
surroundings. On July 1st I
had 8 goats, but by the end of the month I only had 4 goats.
Now that my goat herd was down to those I planned on
keeping, it was time to go dairy goat shopping.
We decided at least for the time being meat goats are not for us. The problem with meat goats is they are cute and
have a lot of personality, which makes it hard to harvest them for food. Dairy goats on the other hand still provide
food without having to sacrifice their life.
And we can later decide to harvest bucks if necessary. But goat’s milk is very healthy and
yummy. So I put the word out I am
looking for dairy goats. I quickly got
responses from all over the state and started visiting breeders. After a few trips I settled on 3 Nubians, 2
of whom had been with a buck and therefore there is a good chance they are
pregnant and 1 young doe whose growth has been stunted due to worms and other
issues. Everyone seems to have settled
in nicely. We are convinced one of the
older Nubians is pregnant and hoping the other one will soon show similar signs
of weight gain. We are treating the
stunted doe for worms and GI damage naturally as much as possible. She is slowly gaining weight.
Third, last winter I read about Straw Bale gardening and
when spring arrived we purchased lots of straw bales and started getting them
prepared. It takes about 2 weeks to begin
the composting of the bale and have it in shape to plant in. Then it is planting time. I started with one row of bales by one fence
and soon as that row was planted, we purchased more bales and set up another
row. I also planted in the two areas of
the garden I had prepared last year. Not
everything I planted has grown well, but it has been a successful gardening
season.
Forth, Bambi, one of the goats that kidded this past
Spring is a dairy goat. She may be
petite but once she weaned her daughter, Susanna, we started getting about a
quart a day out of her. We have stopped
purchasing cow’s milk all together. Goat's milk is very healthy and many think raw goat’s milk is much better for people
then cow’s milk is. It is also very delicious. I have been learning how to make different
things, including cheese, out of the milk.
It is hoped one day I will have few items I am an expert at making and
will be able to generate some type of income from these goats. Or we will just use the milk to feed people who someday will be living here.
Fifth, having a garden creates one problem. What to do with all that produce. I have had the opportunity to share with
others in need. I have also shared with
a few folks who are not going through a difficult time. Besides sharing the
bounty, I have been learning how to can.
I planted 2 cucumber plants and one of them is very happy. I have for the first time in my life made
pickles. I have tried 3 different
recipes. Two I canned and one of them
was a refrigerator dill pickle. Just
today I turned a bunch of rather large pickles into both sweet pickle relish
and dill pickle relish. I already canned
it all and it is now cooling on the counter. This past weekend Rick made a ton
of salsa and I canned it all. I have also made homemade turkey broth and got 17
jars out of it which has been canned. My
butternut squash plant is doing very well also and yesterday I made a butternut squash soup that was really good. So as
soon as I have all the ingredients ready, I will be making large amounts of
that soup and canning it too. We won’t
have everything we need to sustain us through the winter but we will have a
good start.
Besides learning to can, I purchased a food dehydrator
and am learning to use it. Unfortunately
my solar dehydrator was damaged in the microburst last year and needs a lot of
repair. I have been told some
vegetables, like zucchini and yellow squash, cannot be canned. The 2 ways to preserve it is freezing and
dehydrating. So that is what I want to
do with all the yellow squash that has been growing in the garden.
Sixth, we now have chickens. We have laying chickens and growing
chickens. Back in May my baby chick order
arrived and we took on the task of raising chickens. They were so cute and noisy. At first they were in the kitchen in a large
metal water trough. It did not take them
long to outgrow their home and so Rick converted the 10by10 dog kennel into a
chick habitat. There is no way a predator
could fly in and grab a chick or crawl under the fence and grab a chick or for
a chick to get out. Their coop is an old
dog house.
Before we moved the chicks outside we received a call
from a friend asking us if we wanted a flock of chickens. It turned out a friend in town was tired of
caring for the chickens and wanted them gone.
So Rick turned his attention to finishing the chicken coop as fast as
possible and then we threw the dog crate in the back of the pickup and drove to
town. Our friends would catch a chicken
and hand it over to us and we would quickly put it in the dog crate. We left with 11 hens and 2 roosters, who have been named David and Goliath. The chickens spent a couple weeks locked in
the coop getting use to their new home while Rick finished the fence around the
coop. Once done, we let the chickens
out. Now they enjoy their days free-ranging
for bugs and greens and anything that looks good to eat and they spend their
nights in the coop protected from predators. And we spend our afternoons
gathering fresh eggs to eat.
And lastly, I am not the only one out here learning new
skills. Recently a neighbor offered us several
wild pigs he had caught in his trap.
Rick butchered them and we have been eating pig meat ever since. It is really good meat.
So 2013 has been a year of firsts and a year of
learning.
Bella, Belle, Clara
The new dairy goats we purchased.
They are purebred Nubians.
From front to back (cantaloupe, yellow squash, cucumber, beans, sweet potatoes, habanero...)
Cherry Tomatoes, Roma Tomatoes, Big Tomatoes, Jalapeños.
I have had a bumper crop of Cherry Tomatoes.
Donated chickens investigating the area where I removed a compost pile.
Donated chickens checking out the area under their coop.
Day the baby chicks arrived.
May 13, 2013
Baby chicks one week after they arrived.
May 21, 2013
Baby chicks today
Sept. 3, 2013
They grow fast.
