Introducing…Part I

October 2, 2008

Written by: Katie

I thought I’d give a short introduction of the animals we have here at the farmstead.  We have not accidentally killed any animals in the last 24 hours so these pictures should be correct at least until we manage to do in another sweet pet.

This is Amos.  He is a buck.  He stinks.

This is the chicken tractor in the paddock area.  It has the little bitty chickies in it. 

But they are not little bitty anymore.  They are bigger and messier than they used to be.  Time for them to be outside.  The big chickens are now residing in the barn and boy are they happy.

This is Double Trouble Lightening Strike.  He is a purebred Nubian buck.

He does not stink.  He was a bottle baby which means he’d crawl into bed with you if you’d let him.  We don’t let him.

The new piggies.  Jefferson, Trouble and Piglet.  The children named them and you will have to ask them for clarification should you have any questions regarding the naming of the swine.

Jefferson has been in the pokeweed apparently.

When you call them they come running.  Yes, just like on the movies.

And of course there is Sara.  She is a good dog who only snitched one goat bone while Jay (who does have his own blog but I can’t remember the address right now) and Jeff were butchering.

Speaking of dead goats.  It was a completely accidental death that I witnessed.  It seems one of my sons felt it was necessary to move her tether to another area of the pasture.  He had already been told not to but felt it would be best anyway.  He tied her out in an area that had many fallen branches on the ground.  She got her lead hopelessly tangled and by the time we heard her wailing it was too late.  John and I detangled her but she died a few minutes later.

The butchering went well…I guess.  Robyn held my hand through the whole thing while I peeked through my fingers as the guys did the deed.  We are forever grateful to Robyn and Jay for coming to help on a moments notice.  I’ll have to cook some liver for dinner and have them over.  Jeff took the pictures and will edit them and post them should he so choose.  You can harass him HERE.

The kids watched the event though.  We wanted to give them a head start on being desensitized to blood and gore.  We are all about the kids.

Posted in Animals, Homesteading