Goat Sorting, Pumpkin Fest and Finally Some Rain!

We finally got to some overdue goat sorting last week, separating the market bucks from the rest of the herd, the does, the doe kids born in January, February and April and the two herd sires.

We will finish out the bucks for another 4-6 weeks and then start bringing them in for processing. So we should have some more goat meat in stock by mid to late December.

And my estimate is about half the does will be kidding later this week!

There’s already been a little green up because of the rain we got overnight on Thursday! The forecasts weren’t looking like there’d be significant rain, but we needed anything. There was a nice 1/8 inch rain on Thursday late afternoon, which was enough to tamp down the dust.

And then overnight, it poured! And I woke up to seeing some reports about flooding, but fortunately we “only” got nearly 4.5 inches overnight, compared to upwards of 8 inches not far from us. So now the ponds and ditches are full again. Some of the fields are fairly wet, but it’s drying faster than usual since everything was so dry.

Grant has already spread some cover crop beans in several fields, so we’re thrilled those now will actually germinate and if we do get rain for the tropical system currently in the Gulf, then we may be in the clear to plant rye grass, as well.

Our annual pumpkin drive is here! All of our animals love pumpkins, so as we have for the past several years, we are collecting pumpkins at the shop and at the farm to feed them.

Some folks already brought a few pumpkins and hay to the shop on Friday and Saturday and Clearview Plant + Garden center, our neighbors across the street also sent me home with a van load on Saturday.

So both herds of goats, the feeder pigs and the sows got the first round on Sunday. Generally we try to help pumpkin patches clear out their pumpkins in early November, some start trickling into the shop and then the big onslaught of donations from individuals is after Thanksgiving!

I didn't have quite enough pumpkins to share with the hens yet, but if past years is any indication, we definitely will as we get further into fall.

So in the meantime, Flock 1 got all the scraps from a whole day of cooking, including lots of kabocha squash seeds.

I also made Jalapeño Popper dip, so they got all the seeds and ribs from the roasted jalapeños. Often I give cooking scraps to the closest pig(s) to my house, but chickens can’t taste spice, while pigs can! So the chickens could go to town on the seeds without burning their little mouths.