Raining, Cats and Dogs

Originally written and posted on a very rainy day last week...

Ever since we got our first dog, Mama has periodically wished for a cat which would like dogs.  I used to have a hard time believing all she said about how her cats and dogs loved each other because my only experiences in that line involved excited Schnauzers, my stressed out, deaf kitty, and (later on) our whip-thin black cat, Flavia, who hates dogs, and Kep, who loves chasing cats.

Then Flavia retired from working and the rats (which are always more or less present on a farm) began multiplying way too fast, so we finally got two young kittens.  They were six week old brothers from Shepherd's Hill Farm and are the most wonderful cats.  They are sweet to each other and people, and I think they will be great ratters.  (BTW, there is one kitten left from this litter who needs a home!  Contact me if you are interested in adopting him.)

Dickon (left) and Chauncey (right)

The first time one of the dogs (Flossy, I think) walked up and sniffed the new kittens, they both totally panicked, as several scratches on my hands testified.  For a while they would spit and fluff up every time one of the dogs came nearby, but Flossy has the gentle-giant nature of her Great Pyrenees mama (Inez) and the curiosity of her Border collie sire, Duncan, so she didn't mind the fluffing, hissing, spitting, and swatting, and would just walk over to the kittens lick them until they were too soggy to spit and fluff.

So eventually, they gave it up.

I think Flossy thinks the kittens are her personal pets.  At any rate, she has trained them to be friendly with dogs, and because we never allowed the dogs to chase them at all, they have all accepted them as part of the family.

Even Kep seems to have been finally cured of his cat-chasing proclivities and has fully subsided into his role as Farm Grandpa, even providing entertainment and exercise for the kittens by wagging his tail obligingly.

"Well, what are you staring at?  Haven't you ever seen a cat hone its pouncing skills?"

But, though all the dogs are fine with the cats, Flossie is the one who really enjoys them, and they even seem to enjoy her (well, most of the time.)

Today it is raining, and everyone knows that rainy days are the best for napping.  Apparently Dickon and Flossie agree.

"See you later!"

A Derby Day Surprise: Fannie's Filly!

After supper tonight, I went outside to do the last few chores.  LilyAnn and Emaline tagged along, wanting to check on some new goats we bought today.  When we got to the barn though, I was immediately distracted from the goats as I noticed that Fannie was lying down on the other side, looking at me around the corner.  "That's funny", I thought.  "She always stands up when I come out.  Maybe I'd better check on her."

Well, when I came around the corner, look what I found!

(Not for human consumption)... I mean, not for Christian Reading: Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White

Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White

Rating:  3 out of 10 stars

Charlotte's Web is a well-known children's classic.  It is the story of a pig, Wilbur, the runt of a litter who is originally going to be killed by the farmer simply because of his small size.  The farmer's daughter, Fern, begs her father to give her the piglet, and tenderly cares for him until he is too old to stay on the farm, when, despite Fern's entreaties, he is sold to a nearby relative.

Of course, Wilbur's new owner has sausage, ham and bacon in mind when he purchases the piglet.  When Wilbur discovers this in conversation with the other animals he is inconsolable for some time.  Finally, a friendly spider named Charlotte comes up with a plan to convince the farmer that he is too splendid a pig to butcher, and must go to the fair instead.  Of course, the wise spider knows that ribbon winning pigs are kept as prized breeders, instead of being sent to the smokehouse.

Eventually, through messages which she cleverly weaves in her web, she creates enough interest in Wilbur to send him to the fair, where he receives an unusually high award, and is secured from the fear of being butchered.

The story ends with the death of Charlotte, and hatching of her 100,000 eggs, when one of her daughters becomes Wilbur's new friend.

Issues with this book:

Snapshots of Family Life on the Feldman Farm

It's beginning to feel like spring outside, and we are all catching spring fever!  Farrah and LilyAnn have quite a few vegetables planted in their gardens, and the grass is starting to grow again in the pastures (very important when you have animals).  I have been taking the younger ones outside and doing some farm work lately:  cleaning the stall, spreading manure in the pastures, raking leaves for the pig, etc.

Yesterday I took Emaline, Russell and Anna-Frances outside to rake leaves.  We were putting them in the pig pen for our new piglet to root in, mulch up, and compost.  (Pigs make the best compost machines.)

This Big Piggy Stayed Home: Pt. 2

Well, after our pig was slaughtered, here on our farm, it was time to cut up, package, and freeze all that meat.

We hung it overnight in the outdoor shower.  Since the temperature was in the 20's, it was a perfect cooler.

Butchering Day

I have always liked the idea of a self-sufficient lifestyle.  (Sufficient as regards food; we will always be dependent upon God!)  Saturday, we made another step towards supplying our own food.

LilyAnn and Justice helped me butcher a sheep.

He was an extra mouth to feed, kind of mean, and very healthy, so we decided it was time for him to go to the freezer.  And rather than paying someone else to butcher him, and having to cart him over there, we decided to just do it ourselves.

This photo was taken several months ago.

(WARNING:  Images include a (dead) sheep being processed, and children helping with the work.  With that said, I will add that I have intentionally omitted any very shocking photos.  And, for the record, the sheep died instantly and painlessly.)

A Sad Day on the Feldman Farm

There are good days and bad days on the farm.  Good days are when things are going well- the animals are all healthy, kids were born, or the garden is producing lots of veggies.

Sad days are when the calf someone is waiting to pick up gets worms; the goats eat all Mama's rose bushes, plus the garden, and we run out of feed; or worst of all, when one of the animals dies.

Monday was a sad day.

Some Cute Little Cowboys

Savana took these photos for an Etsy listing last week, and I think they are just too cute not to share!  (Of course, the cute pony helps a lot!)

To order a custom-made shirt like the ones these boys are wearing, or see the other sizes/ styles Savana makes, please visit Pretty Modest Shoppe on Etsy.

A New Addition...

Ever since I got Fannie, we have thought it would be great to have another horse so that I wouldn't have to ride alone.  I always said that a large pony would be best- one big enough for any of us to ride, yet smaller than an average horse so he would be less intimidating for the younger ones to ride.
Well...  It seemed a little bit impossible for us to get another, but the Lord provided one.

Surprise, surprise! (Or, "Woohoo! We have triplets!)

I thought I was so well prepared for Nelly this time.  No way was that sneaky ol' goat going to kid without me there by her.  But...  I was so convinced I had her figured out that I missed it again.  That's right- while I thought I was waiting on her, she quietly kidded out in the barn with Mabel and Freda.  I went out to feed her a carrot, and discovered that she had three kids with her.  Talk about surprised...

Sometimes I thought this day would never come...

There were times when I thought this day would never come.  Some days the longing would be as much as I could stand; on other days, I would almost forget about it.  But never completely.

To feel the wind whistling by,

To hear the rhythmic pounding of hooves,

The feel of powerful muscles surging and rippling under you,

To have the full control over, love and respect of an 800-lb animal that could easily overpower you, but instead obeys your wishes willingly...

Creation vs. Evolution: Part 5- "Bones of Contention"

(Taken from the AiG website...)

Z: Fossils and common descent. This is one of the most controversial topics, whether they prove or disprove evolution. “When objections are raised about ‘evolution,’ the object of concern is nearly always the concept of common descent. Common descent is the proposal that all organisms, living and extinct, are connected by an unbroken series of ancestor-descendent relationships to a single ancestral life form by a process of descent with modification. 

1 X 1 = 3?

Anybody who knows anything about math will tell  you that 1 x 1 does not equal 3.  But then, most people don't raise goats.  For, you see, in the goat world:

They're here!

Well, it has been way too long since I've posted on here, and I'll need to do some catch-up posts (hopefully during the coming week or two), but just now I wanted to publish the latest news from the Feldman Family Farm:

We have some new arrivals!

Here they are...

What a happy Mama!

Sorry for the poor photo- low light + not-so-good zoom= not the best photo...

The daddy is our neighbor's sweet Chocolate lab, Maverick.  Inez is the mama, and is our family farm dog.  She is super sweet to people and our animals, but does an amazing job guarding the farm from predators.  

We knew that Inez would be having the puppies soon, and so have been trying to keep her locked up in the stall of our barn as she isn't very choosey where she whelps.  In fact, last time it was a mud hole in the woods, five or six feet back in thornbushes, which yours truly had to chop with a matchete and then crawl through to get them out (Evan wasn't home or he would have done it).  Unfortunately, she escaped from the stall even though I thought she was secured, and dug under the house to whelp.  We had been away from the house, and when we returned, and I saw she was gone, we started hunting.  We searched for a good hour before a severe thunderstorm drove us back.  (I got in last- soaked through and rather alarmed by the nearby lightning, blinding rain and crashing thunder.)  We then waited on the deck for the storm to blow over.  It seemed to have done so and we were just heading out again, when there was another flash, and the loudest crash of thunder yet convinced that it was still not time to leave the deck.  (Mama says that she felt the electricity from the bolt, but I and the others waiting on the deck did not.)

Finally, the storm seemed to have settled down enough, and we were just starting off again when I heard a soft whimpering and mewing from under the house.  It was the puppies!  So finally, after we pulled up part of the siding, our search ended almost directly beneath our feet.  The amazing thing was that this was a distinct answer to prayer- just 5-10 minutes before I had been praying that the Lord would protect Inez and her babies, and lead us directly to them.  And He most certainly did.

This is Inez's largest litter yet- 8 puppies total.  There are two white ones (both females), and six black ones (4 females and two males).  These puppies will be for sale for $200 each.  They will be ready for their new homes when they are eight weeks old.  If you would like to give a home to one of these wonderful pups, please contact me at chickenscrapsblog@gmail.com.  A special discount may be available to my faithful blog readers, who joined at least one month previous to the puppies birth.
 Below are some photos of puppies from her previous litters.  They are full siblings with these pups.

On the trail... updated

As some of you may know, I have been a horse- lover ever since I can remember- an affinity which my sisters shared.  This year we finally had the opportunity for which we've longed, prayed, and hoped for so long.

Tammy Faye

Strawberry

Wampum

       Our neighbor, Mr. L., owns three paint horses, Wampum, Tammy Faye, and their four- year old filly, whom we dubbed "Strawberry".  This spring, soon after I got back from Haiti, we began walking up to their pasture and petting them, feeding them treats, and eventually brushing them six days a week.  Well, actually, we were focusing on Tammy and Strawberry since they are our favorites.  For several months we worked with them- making our own rope halters, and halter- breaking Strawberry, who had never been trained at all since she was a couple weeks old.  We gave Tammy a much- needed refresher on leading and longeing.  We taught them to stand tied.  Before this stage, we began bringing Savana and LilyAnn, primarily so that they could video us working with the horses, or take pictures.  Savana began working with Wampum, primarily grooming him, but occasionally leading him around as well.  I was sort of "head trainer" and would introduce a new concept to the horses, or deal with them when they were being difficult.

A screenshot of Strawberry's first reaction to pressure on her mouth from the bit.  (BTW, this is actually less dangerous than it looks!)

     We got permission to put the saddles on them, but were not allowed to ride, due to Mr. L's concern that we would be injured.  T. and W. had not been ridden for over a year, and S. had never even been halter-broke when we first began working them, so this concern was valid- especially since we had only been on a horse a handful of times.



     Finally, their owner was able to ride Tammy, and within a few days we were allowed to as well, provided that we stayed in the round pen under his supervision.  He also got on Wampum, and eventually Strawberry as well.  In those initial rides, Strawberry actually reacted the best (or rather, the least).  Tammy did not appreciate all the weight on her back, but responded well to the bridle, Wampum didn't care a straw about the weight that I could see, but was stubborn about moving forward and turning.  He didn't obey the bit well at all.  But Strawberry was, as we put it that afternoon, "twice as good with the weight as Tammy, and twice as good with the bit as Wampum".

Strawberry during her very first ride.

A screenshot of my first real ride on Tammy.  Hooray!

  Then we were given permission to ride T. even when Mr. L. was not there, and about a week later, he said that we could ride the others as well.  Finally, we went on our first real trail ride with all three of them.  Unfortunately, the photos were accidentally deleted from the camera :(  Daddy went with Farrah and I, and he said that it was the most fun he'd had with us all year (even if his legs were really sore the next day.)  We rode all the way to our house, after taking lots of little back roads and trails around Mr. L's property.  Daddy got off at the house and Evan rode Wampum back with us.  Farrah and I cantered our horses (Strawberry and Tammy respectively) for the first time.

     I'm so thankful to the Lord for giving us all that he has-  a very generous neighbor, who considers it a favor that we ride his horses, a wonderful family who have supported and encouraged us, and of course, the beautiful world we live in, and the magnificent animals we ride!

    

Here's a few photos from our last ride:

Evan on Wampum.

Riding by one of the many ferneries around here...

Farrah on Strawberry.  This filly is doing great for being so "green".  She used to have a phobia of branches coming near her head, but now we've ridden her through the woods and under low-hanging boughs without a problem.

Trailing in the woods.

Me on Tammy.

At the house.  Russel was so excited that he repeatedly tried to escape from the porch and come see the horses.

LilyAnn trotting.  She's going to be a really good rider.  Tammy had spooked and jumped sideways only a few minutes before, and she stayed on pretty easily.  That little episode made me much more comfortable taking LA with us, as it showed that she wasn't easily unseated.

A pretty flower I picked as we rode by the bush it grew on.

LA hosing Tammy down to cool her off.  She also untacked her by herself (took off the saddle and bridle).

Leading Tammy and Strawberry back to the pasture.

Feeding carrots...

And there's nothing like a good roll!

Introducing: Mabel, Queen of Goats

Well, the name may be a little pretentious, but she is the queen of Feldman goats (of course though, she's the only one).

Saturday, the 11th, I was blessed to finally find the goat I'd been looking for.  She is an American Nubian, which basically means one step down from the highest grade of ADGA registered goat.

     Mabel is actually not her registered name, but is a bit of a play upon my middle name, and Farrah's (May and Bell.)  It is also an old name, and I like old names.
   
     She is supposed to be giving 3 quarts a day, but is at about half that right now, probably due to the stress of being transported, new home, no other goats, new stanchion, new feed, and even a new name.  LilyAnn will be taking care of her along with me, and she's been doing a great job so far.  She's milked her completely by herself the last couple days, and has made sure that she's had food and water.  She's also helped her to remain somewhat calm during the first days of tethering, when poor Mabel would become very distressed and run back and forth in the hot sun at the end of her line.  LilyAnn would go out and sit near her, and gradually accustom her to being left tied to a stake in the ground.  Now, although it's been only since yesterday morning that she's been tethered, Mabel is much calmer, and is eating grape leaves and grass, which she was too distressed to do before.
     Here are a few pictures I took yesterday morning.

Washing Mabel's udder...

Drying it.

Milking.

LilyAnn and Mabel.

William petting Mabel.

Proverbs 27:23-27

Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, , and attend to your herds;

For riches are not forever, 

Nor does a crown endure to all generations.

When the hay is removed,

And the tender grass shows itself,

And the herbs of the mountains are gathered in,

The lambs will provide your clothing,and the goats the price of a field;

You shall have enough goats' milk for your food,

For the food of your household,

And the nourishment of your maidservants.