20 years... Things are a changing. Not for the better.

 

The girls lounging in the sunlight in grass/weed/mint that they can't eat.
It blew in from neighboring yards that use landscape services that
don't realize that what is on their blades from

another location is bringing these weed seeds in. 

I thought i better update on all things farming. 

I have been living here in S. FLorida in Loxahatchee for over 20 years now. I remember when i started this blog over 15 years ago and never thought i would still be here... doing what i love. But here I am. 

But things change. The more I stay the same, the more everything around me doesn't. And there is no amount of trying to keep it - as it was. I've tried... on the environment. On the land. On the rural nature of us. On the customer and client. On the livestock. Things just change. And for someone that doesn't like change much, it does add a layer of frustration in every day life. 

I don't know if I don't like change or is it the learning curve to keep adjusting. And that is with everything. Farming yes, but even daily life and design things. Keeping up is timely. And it seems like things change faster then in past. Just as i'm learning more about some software and a new update comes in- with more changes to learn about. 

I'm still here. Still a staple in the community for all things rural. It just gets more and more difficult. 

Friends i've known for 15-20 years are moving out. Leaving any equity they've created in the area. It's too expensive. Too crowded. Too.... urban. and those moving in are nothing like what is leaving. Expectations of urban life they left, keep slipping in... They don't even realize the damage they do. 

The area is becoming more urban/ suburban... People moving out here haven't a clue what this area is meant to be. What is should be. What is only a very few areas left in Florida like this... 

The road is now paved (milled). All the empty lots are now homes. Many of which are filled with urban dwellers that don't care how to keep us rural. They want their services. And this area is not meant for them. They complain about taxes vs. services. but forget they are paying for premium of an acre of land. 

We are AR /RSA- Rural service area. and i loved that. But that meant dirt roads. 10 miles to the nearest shopping plaza. 5 miles to the nearest gas station. Dirt roads and goats and pigs as neighbors. And crowing roosters. lots of them. Street lights are going up at every turn. Roads widening. Even the night sky is changing. Light pollution. These types don't like the dark! Why is that? How rare to be able to see the stars at night. That's now changing as well. 

The cost of living has increased so much that the Property appraiser, it seems doesn't even want to give (and seem to be pulling) AG classifications on less then 2-4 acres. why? I'm not quite sure. The math doesn't add up? more hobbyist then commercial?  For me, living here so long, does make it worthwhile, because i'm locked into that 3% cap every year. But the minute i want to improve on the property? that will change. The AG classification also helps. That could change. Improving the property here is not going to happen because it will increase taxes. And right now, mine are looking pretty good comparatively to newly purchased homes. Ridiculous in differences. 

The cost of feed and hay is becoming burdensome. The cost is 4 times even 5 times when i first started. $9-10 for a bag of layer feed 20 years back. Cheapest i find now is $22-29 and that isn't even the designer feeds. Hay was around $12-20 for a 50-100# bale. Now its $25-$50 so thats $25 per 50# of hay. and the prices keep  going up. Peanut hay is around $20 bale for 40lbs of it. small flakes. so, i still need to feed double i used to. 

Bonzai out in the middle of the day to do his patrolling. They both are
in the house now more then ever because of the lack of knowledge
of neighbors and what an LGD is supposed to do. 

Anything delivered South of Lake Okeechobee and we get slammed with increased fuel costs. Time it takes to travel to S. Florida.

What prompted me to write this today.. Some lady on FB was complaining on the cost of raw dairy - goat or cow -  This isn't a state where land isn't a premium. Where the footprint of the state isn't like traveling 3-4 states. Where the economy is not high. home values might have skyrocketed around the country. But is it $250,000 for an acre of land ? as that is the going price in my county for ONE undisturbed acre out here. Of course price increases closer to the Ocean.

Staying put... essentially has saved me in some ways. Thinking of starting over in another part of the state? or in another state is daunting. I'll be turning 60 this year. Things are supposed to get easier. Not where i am always (it seems) chasing my tail to keep up. 

Essentially, we lost this fight. The fight to keep the area RURAL. The last 5 years we've been fighting to keep us unincorporated. There is unending traffic out here. Arden/ Westlake/ Avenir... They are all filling up with homes. Urban stack'em and pack'em homes. HOA's and the people that love to live in them. Sometimes that population is trickling into our area... why? well when you see a home for $700k even if it is new, and then you see something cheaper with an acre of land surrounding... what would you do ? 

Even the statutes are starting to block us in. If this area ever incorporated? There is a new Statute that essentially blocks incorporated areas from the ability to use the 'Right to Farm' act. and a few other statutes become null after incorporating. 

Back to that lady complaining. Yikes. Cost of milk - the real cost of milk isn't just in the bag of feed you feed. or hay you feed. Its EVERYTHING> the cost of gas. The taxes we pay. Vet bills. Increases in utility bills. Cost and value of services we need. I remember an entire acre of fencing was no more then $1-2k... People are getting quotes minimum $10k for an acre of fenced land. Last year someone estimated 90ft for $1500 and that didn't include the posts. i already have them. of course, he was trying to add ft to the estimate as well. Not honest. Not having it. 

so am I - In it for the long haul? Until I can't haul any more. Or i get pushed out. Which it seems is beneficial for the county. Why have an acre or more of land paying only 1/10 of what they can get in today's home value. 

It's been awhile since i posted something on this blog, because it seemed i had said everything useful.. I guess i have a new topic. 

I'm still here... For now... 

Sweet Pea meandering around the yard. 

My dog is special....

"My Dog is Special. My dog would never hurt them. My dog is so sweet. My dogs are too small to do any damage."

Comments I hear constantly. Things that are said by owners-new to goats, and even some not so new to goats.

Comments that make me consider not selling to people that have not done their due diligence. And/ or, only have read a few posts on some random goat group, 90% of which themselves are new to goats, but parrot things they hear from others. They take these comments as expert advice. Every goat group I'm in has that 'expert' when digging a bit further hasn't been in goats very long.

Yes, of course, there are always exceptions to the rule. 

Yes, possibly, your dog might be 'special'. 

But, when its mentioned you need to create separate living spaces for your goats, and where your dogs can not get into, this isn't just random chatter. This is based on fact. 

Dogs are PREDATORS.

Goats are PREY. 

Do you really want to take that chance - one day - in 'play' your dog gets your goat, and then a vet visit is needed. Or worse, dead goat.

Goats run. and jump, and are skittish. They make a dog's natural instincts come out. To chase. A chase that might look like play, that turns into 'catch', and bites happen. And, if you have more then one dog, pack mentality comes into play. I have had my 'pack' (in the past before LGD's) ignore any training they might have had. Ignore me. Ignore a shovel. Ignore a hose on them. Literally, their brain is ancestral, they pack and can kill your goats. 

Dog bites are nasty. Inevitably, a puncture wound is always missed. and a festering wound is deadly to a goat. Stitches. Antibiotics. Followup Vet care. All these things cost money. Time. Pain.  The fact that these are all a given, on top of possibly a dead goat, do you really want to take that chance?  

I see this scenario all the time. I saw my share of goats dieing, or seriously injured at the vet office (when i worked at a vet office).  And guess what the owners still insist? i don't know what happened, MY DOG is so sweet.

Goats that are on hind legs, head butting your dog (or you), is NOT playing. This is not play behavior - its dominance behavior. When you see your goats doing this? this isn't cute. It's not play. and it will incite the dog. If you have a smaller breed dog and full size goat, then the opposite can also happen. One good pummel by your goat and they can break your rib, or a dogs rib. I remember a friend broke her knee, her cute little buck was 'play' ramming and she got in the way.

But in the end it's your decision. It's your decision to not listen to sound advice, or to err on the side of caution. To never let your dogs in with the goats, and if you do, only supervised, on leash.

Mini Nubians? hmmm....

What is a mini Nubian? Simply, the purebred nubian bred to a nigerian dwarf. In this instance, male nigerian dwarf had his way with one of my purebred Nubian does. Out comes these adorable little gremlins. Ears double size. and not upright because of the weight and length of the ear - becomes airplane ears. 

This photo makes me laugh out loud. What am I doing, yet again, with a single goat kid in the house. And she is from a Nigerian Dwarf male and a purebred Nubian. She came out with two males. one was dead on arrival. One died a couple days later. She on the other hand came out healthy and at 5 days old, a little terror. My mini mountain goat. 

I've never wanted to delve into the mini's. Never had any interest in making a smaller goat that makes less milk. Seems the universe is thinking otherwise. We shall see what is going to happen. I want to say i'm going to call her daisy but i usually don't name them for a few weeks. .We shall see. . 

Goats. Goats. And more Goats.

 What a challenging year I have had. But the one thing that keeps me going is babies. lots and lots of babies. Being back in milk is such a calming enterprise. It creates discipline. Time to milk. Time to feed. Time to feed kids. If not feeling well (which at times is the case right now with me) it forces me to work thru it. The animals don't care if you don't feel well. They don't care if you need a nap. They don't care its a holiday. 

The best part of course are the kids being born. And while it is a bunch of work, its the best kind of work. I raise them in the office with me for a few weeks. After disbudding and vaccinating I set them up outside in one of the stalls to grow and have more room to be. 

Simplicity gave me a whopper male just last week. And Fern, my oldest doe here, gave me two simply gorgeous females. I will keep. And raise. They are  the last out of my Delilah. The goat that started it all. 

This is the whoper male i'm calling him Moose. He came out at 12 lbs. a single male. His dam is offering up over a gallon a day. 

This is one of my new females. She is precious. Typical mottled ears. Her sister is all brown with brown ears.  Just adorable. Can't wait to see them grow. Fern is older and this will likely be her last birth. I'm so lucky she gave me two females...

Kids. Kids. Kids.... and broken fences....

I'm sitting here trying to remember some details.. Last December 2020 we started to kid.  Dec. 25th to be more exact... Then in January 2021 we had a few more.  I have to check my notes because the difficulty to remember is huge right now. I hope it comes back. 

Giving birth is usually such a whirlwind of excitement around here. Getting the stalls ready. Cleaning them. Bedding them. Getting the molasses and the towels put in place. Making sure i have all the things needed in case of a problem... This year not so much. I'm tired. Sick. In pain alot. Still dealing with symptoms of Covid and it's long haul status. Luckily, 2 does kidded out easily. I walked outside and voila babies on the ground. And so thankful for it.  Had zero strength and constantly dizzy... 

Fern started to give birth and all that changed. It was about an hour of me trying to untangle kids. Adrenaline rushing i realized later I was going to be down for days afterwards... Nothing I was doing was working. I needed brute force at this point. to save Fern. I knew the kids were likely dead already.  Luck would have it a friend was coming over. I got her involved in pulling out what we knew were already deceased kids. When kids are alive they do help in the process of birthing. Their heads don't waggle all over the place. You can put your finger in their mouths and feel the tongue move. You can re-arrange them still inside and their heads won't wobble back. Or their feet won't disappear again... But with this birth they were tangled, and likely dead a day or two. It was very upsetting Fern is 10 years old this year. I wanted this to be her last kidding. And based on the difficulty it will be. It was in my opinion one of my more terrible births. I am convinced the kids were dead prior to her first push. But still doesn't take that sting away. I think she might have been head butted by one of the others a few days before. 

This picture popped up on my memories in FB. 11 years ago.
My friend Liz is holding Fern as a baby. 

All in all a somewhat uneventful birthing. 3 goats. 6 doelings (2 that died). 1 buckling.  I weaned them uneventfully. One died from unknown reasons. One sold. 3 of them are still here. Today, they are hitting 7 months old. Healthy and doing well. 

This would normally be the end of the 'birthing season post' ... ha.... in typical farming fashion...  the unexpected happened... and yes, being ill is a part of it.. Charles my buck decided he was going to break thru a few fences back in February. While i tried to contain. And fix. I was no match for him this year.  Especially back then... The fencing is far too old and he is far too big and... 

Part two of birthing commences...  Carolina gave birth to again 2 healthy doelings. And Wild Child gave birth as well, to 2 doelings.  Both of them gave birth easily and without any help from me. These 4 babies are still in the house. Video below. I have to say how much I love birthing season. But twice in one year is just too much. On me. On the goats. On their udders that were slowly drying them off early. I love their wide eyed looks. Antics. Cries. Even the parrots get involved and start calling for the little ones.

What am I going to do with Charles. And the fencing. Right now I have him stuck in the back. For how long till he breaks thru that fencing ... Time will tell. It's now become urgent I do something drastic to keep him away from the girls. 

If this year wasn't such a blurred mess with me getting sick -it would have been stellar. 8 doelings. 1 buck. out of 5 birthing. I would call that the goat trifecta. Bucks are so difficult to sell. Does aren't. 

They really are the cutest with the elf ears.  Charles is a purebred Nubian. 

Both Dams are 50/50 Lamancha/Nubians. This makes the babies ears a tad longer. And if you see I have one with beautiful Nubian ears - and to standard - below the nose.