It is hard to believe but 2013 is now history and 2014
has arrived. This past year has been one
of much activity. Rick spent most of the
year on construction. A few of his
larger projects included a 2nd goat shelter, and a chicken coop. A few of the smaller projects included a
milking stall and milking stand, retrofitting a dog kennel into a baby chick
home, and many household repairs. I
spent the year gardening and learning how to preserve the bounty by drying and
canning, and milking a goat and learning how to make cheese and other items
with the milk. We also spent several months caring for children whose parents
weren’t able too, helping folks in town with home repairs, donating food to a
few families in need, and driving elderly friends and neighbors to doctor
appointments and the auto body shop to have deer damaged vehicles repaired, etc..
Both Rick and I wish we had accomplished a lot more than
we did. Our To Do List seems to grow
faster then we can cross off each item as completed. We accomplished a lot in 2013 but there is a
lot more that needs to be done. We have
all of 2014 to continue working on that list.
On January 1, 2013 six goats and two cats called this
place home. One fact of ranch life, even
if all we are talking about is a small hobby farm, is if you breed animals then
you either have to harvest them for food or sell them. No matter how much one may love the animals
that are born, there is a limit to how many can be kept. That fact is even truer
when it comes to boys. We started off
the year with one buck and three wethers (castrated bucks). Then in March Lawn Mower gave birth to twin
bucks. By the end of July all but one
wether had been sold. Sport, our special
needs Boer wether, has a home here for life as he is truly a pet. But the rest of the boys had to go. Bambi kidded a doe, who we named
Susanna.
In 2012 our herd was formed by ranchers giving us
abandoned kids. This is meat goat
country and so most of the kids we were given were Boer and/or Spanish goats. Bambi was the exception. A friend had found her in the middle of the
road and eventually she was given to us.
Bambi is a mixture of diary breeds and a small breed (possibly pygmy or
Nigerian Dwarf). I learned to milk a
goat on Bambi. The problem with meat
goats is their main purpose in life is food, which of course ends their
life. Bottle feeding a kid creates a
love affair with cuteness which makes it really tough later on when a decision
has to be made. Keep the kid as a pet
which costs money in feeding and caring for it, sell the kid, or butcher the
kid and eat it. It is very tough to kill, butcher, and eat someone you have
fallen in love with. As we were
pondering this dilemma, I started learning how to make cheese and other dairy
products. There is a market for such
products and a decision was made that we would be better off with dairy
goats. There are already large ranches
of meat goats all around us so competing with them is not a sound financial decision
and having to butcher the goats ourselves is not something we are ready to do
emotionally. But dairy goats are
different. At least the females have a
purpose in life other then winding up on a dinner plate. So once we sold off all the goats we needed
to sell, we went dairy goat shopping. It
didn’t take long to find two Nubian does to bring home.
Goats have not been our only focus this year. Last May a box of baby chicks arrived in the
mail. When I look at that tiny box now,
it amazes me that 14 chicks could even fit in there. Within a few weeks they were too big to fit
in that box and today they are grown up and laying eggs. A few weeks after the chicks arrived, a
friend in town gave us her entire flock of mature chickens. Most were hens but two roosters were included
in the batch.
In April we were given a dog that had been dumped out
here but sadly we realized that she is not a country dog. We named her Sweet Pea and though we really
tried hard to find a way for her to fit in here, we finally had to face facts; Sweet
Pea was a liability. Since she loves to chase goats and chewed through
everything and figured out how to get under fences, we had no choice but to
keep her chained 24/7. Keeping her just wasn’t fair to her. She is now living in a loving home in San
Antonio. But we still wanted a dog. Not
a pet, but a livestock guardian dog.
After a lot of searching we located a breeder of Great Pyrenees puppies
and brought two cute fluff balls home. A
couple weeks ago we took them to the vet for their (16 weeks old) checkup and rabies
shot and each pup weighed around 45 pounds.
We named them Abraham and Sara.
As livestock guardian dogs, they live outside with the goats and
chickens.
We may have started out the year with six goats (only
three lived here a year ago) and two cats, but we ended the year with six
goats, two cats, two puppies, 22 hens, and two roosters.
It is now 2014 and as everyone knows time does not stand
still. Bella will be kidding sometime during the next few days. She has a history of having twins, so that is
what we are expecting. Two of our goats (Lawn
Mower and Belle) are spending a few weeks hanging out with Fred on a friend’s
ranch. So we hope to have more kids this
summer. Both Bella and Belle are
Nubians, a dairy breed, so we will have milk for our own use and plan on
working towards creating a product we can sell.
We also plan on ordering more chicks.
We are gathering enough eggs now for us and several families but with
more chickens we hope to start selling eggs to bring in a little cash.
Since this is a non-profit ministry, we are dependent on
tax donations. Realistically,
chronically ill people simply do not have the financial means to contribute
towards this work. Sadly though we are always trying to share with others the
work that is being done out here, often healthy folks simply forget or do not
understand and therefore rarely donate.
A few have sent in donations, but not many. Some folks have supported this ministry by
installing the Good Search toolbar onto their computer and regularly use it, and
though that yearly check is extremely helpful and valued, it simply is not
enough to cover all of our expenses. So
some of what is produced on the ranch must be used to generate an income so
that we can continue with the mission of helping the homeless chronically ill.
In closing, goodbye 2013 and hello 2014. I pray that when we look back at 2014 we can
say it was a great year.
Bella was with several bucks last summer but clearly she waited tell the very last day to become pregnant. We are expecting babies any day now.
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