16 Dec 2007
Snowbound and Heartbroken

Snowbound today - the big storm only dumped about 6 inches here, but the winds gusting to 40 mph have made most of the yard and paddocks well nigh impassable, and we won't be going anywhere. If I get the energy, I'll try to dig out behind the garage later today, but, well, I'm not really very energetic.

Very shortly after I made the last post here (Friday, December 14th), I went out to the barn to do the morning chores. And my heart broke. Donner was dead.

He'd been sick for a week, but I hadn't thought it that serious. He was getting worse on Thursday, but when I went to get the penicillin it was expired, so I thought I could just get some Friday and give him a shot to help fight it off. But no such luck - my goat baby was gone.

He was my pet, he was my friend. And he was young, only three. Too young for this. We buried him Friday morning, before the snow, in the corner of the yard that he most liked, when he escaped the pasture.

Some may think me silly to be this broken up over a goat - all I can say is that you would've had to have known him to understand. His twin, Blitzen, had to be dragged out of the stall so we could take the body, and spent all day Friday right on the other side of the fence by his brother. We locked him in a stall with Hammer on Friday night, and he's still there, riding out the storm.

I really can't write anymore now - it's tough to type through tears. I will get a photo gallery up at some point, and link it, of course. Rememberance works for goats, too, I'm sure. I buried him with Thor's Hammer around his neck - and there's a new arrival in Þrúðheimr for chariot duty.

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25 Dec 2005
Shoat? Greep? WTF???

I'm sure that some of the more urban readers of this humble blog may harbor an idyllic picture of "life on the farm", where "every day's a holiday, and every meal's a feast". Be warned, this post will put the kibosh on those sentiments...

We finally started Christmas shopping yesterday afternoon - and we finished last night! It was a typical, madcap, Haxtonesque shopping spree - not much money was spent, but immediate family all got some small token. Of course, with Kris, that still means about 15 items, so we didn't finish up until quite late, and got home about 11:30 pm.

We had also done our grocery shopping for the feast tomorrow while we were at it, so I told Kris to unload the groceries and I'd go take care of the critters - we'd made sure that they had fresh water before we left at 3pm, but needed to replenish that supply, throw some hay, lock the chickens in and I wanted to get Donner and Blitzen locked in a stall and get them some goat chow.

I'd just let them out on the pasture yesterday morning - I've had the two wethers locked in most of the week, as on their return from the petting zoo Donner had a pretty stopped up nose, and Blitzen was dribbling a bit too. And it was supposed to rain all day today (and it did rain all day, indeed), so I thought I'd get'em back in and bedded down.

To nobody's surprise, they were already in their stall, begging for some attention and some chow! I got them took care of, and noticed our other goat, a little doe named Francie that we acquired from Kevyn a few months ago, was in the other big stall, also bleating for some love and dinner. So after I took care of the chickens, threw the cattle and the horse some hay, and filled the water tanks, I went back into the barn and got her some goat ration and a flake of hay all for her very own.

About this time, Kris had finished up unloading the groceries and came out to see if she could help me get done any faster. Francie turned, for some reason, so her back was to us, and Kris immediately spotted a problem: "What's that hanging off Francie's butt?"

I hadn't noticed anything, but then again, I'd not seen her backside, and sure enough, there was a dark mass, about six or seven inches long, hanging below her tail. It wasn't manure, as goat shit is very pelletized, and this was a single long lump. The lighting was pretty poor, so we got her into the main area of the barn to have a better look.

It was a fetus! And Francie was obviously still laboring to expel ... the afterbirth? a twin? We had no idea she was even pregnant! It was a bit of a mess - the mass was hanging by the umbilical, and Kris managed to get the cord cut and get the fetus off her while I held her still. She wasn't greatly distressed, but it was very important to get all of the afterbirth out of her, to prevent infection. And we weren't having much luck...

I had to figure this out - Francie hasn't run with a buck since last year! How could she have been pregnant? We examined the fetus: judging from it's size and state of development, it couldn't have been much past 10 or twelve weeks. It was also pretty obviously defective - I wanted to put it somewhere where I could have a better look, in daylight, and that meant protecting the body from the barn cats and the dogs (not to mention the coyotes). So I put it under a rock outside the main barn door.

Mind you, this was 12:30am this morning, and we had both been up since 5am. "Tired" doesn't do it justice. And there we were, in the barn, blood, guts and a goat having a miscarriage.

We finally got her calmed down. I put some fresh straw down in the stall opposite from the boys, and we locked her in for the night. She was not happy with this - she missed Hammer (the horse), who she thinks is her big brother, and protector from the evil cattle and other goats. But she settled in, and we came in to try and get some sleep.

This morning, we called Kevyn, and by the time he got over here she'd expelled a twin as well. Most of the afterbirth was obviously well on the way, and we managed to get a urea tablet placed in her uterus. She'll be fine.

Best as we can figure, she'd been in the same pastures with our Blackface ram, when he was breeding the flock. And he mustn't have been paying much attention to such minor details as species...

So that's my Christmas Eve idyll - doing obstetrics on a goat, who'd been bred by a sheep, at one in the morning following a 20 hour day.

Thank the gods I'm a country boy!

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07 Dec 2005
Julbok

Lot's of folks up at Dull's have asked me about the goats: why use goats to pull Yule trees? When I'm feeling especially snarky I just answer "Because I can!", but, of course, there are deeper reasons.

Julbok with Pack The photo at the left shows a Julbok (modern English "Yule Buck") or Christmas Goat ornament. This is a fairly common and widespread tradition across Northern Europe, from Scandinivia (especially Sweden) across Finland and into the Slavic countries. The Julbok was originally one of the goats that pulled Thor's chariot. Nowadays he's considered one the of the symbols of the season, and many figurines, most made of straw, are built for display under the Yule tree (below, left) or even in the town square (below, right). In some areas, vandals have taken to burning the town's Julbok.

Straw JulbokJulbok Illustration from children's bookGiant Julbok (Photo from Pravada.ru)

The Julbok has also become quite a famous literary character (above, center): a man dressed as the "Christmas goat" delivers presents in this illustration, taken from a Swedish children's book, "Petter and Lotta's Christmas," by Elsa Beskow, published in 1947. Sometimes Santa rides the Julbok, rather than arriving by reindeer pulled sleigh, and sometimes Santa is still considered a tomte, what modern Heathens would call a landwight, who lives in the barn or under the floor and is responsible for the luck of the household throughout the year. Interestingly enough, it's tradition to leave gifts of cookies, porridge and milk for the tomte, to insure your luck in the coming year.

One has to wonder how these relate to the Wild Hunt and the Krampusse. In any event, it's quite amazing to me how deeply Heathen many of our most cherished Christmas traditions really are: I wonder how the public would take to a campaign to "Put Thor Back into Yule!"

Update: If you'd like your very own straw Julbok, here's where to get it! I also found a bit more history on the Gävle Goat, mentioned above by way of burning this year (again).

00:00 /Asatru | 2 comments | permanent link

05 Dec 2005
Another Work Day for the Goats

Dad gets a goat kiss
Dad Gets a Goat Kiss
(goat breath gives a whole new dimension to halitosis!)

Donner on the job
Donner On the Job

Posing with customers
Donner posing with customers
(and, if you look closely, sticking his tongue out!)

A quick snack
Grabbing a quick snack on the job ...

Where's my tip?
Where's my tip?

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27 Nov 2005
Draft Goats

I hinted at a holiday project, and promised some pictures, and, well, here's one! Draft goats, hauling Yule tress for the good customers of Dull's Tree Farm here in Boone County. In the picture above, Donner's getting his tip for a job well done!

We have the petting zoo set up at Dull's - Peanut, aka 'The Great Moodini', Rasta Llama, Sweet Pea and a couple of Kevyn's sheep, as well as the goats. I've been passing out flyers on the delivery business as well, and taking real tips for services rendered with my working goats. So far we've cleared about $50, which is more than enough to keep the critters in hay while they're up there, so any new business I generate should be gravy money. And we could sure use some of that right about now...

Several kids noted my rather bushy facial hair and assumed I was a certain Mr. S. Claus - perhaps next weekend I'll dress the part! That'd be a hoot, for sure!

For those who are interested, we got the harnesses at Hoegger Goat Supply, and modified a simple garden hand cart to hitch. We really need to fix some shafts on the cart, both to act as a brake and to keep the cart from bumping the goats on a downhill roll, but haven't been able to figure out exactly how to do it yet - it works fine, as is, but the goat must be walked, not led or driven, so we can keep a hand on the cart to act as a manual brake. If I get some extra time this week (yeah, right!) I'll get something more professional rigged up.

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03 Oct 2005
Weekend Visitors

Grandkids and Goats

My youngest daughter, Hilary, brought the grandkids home for a visit last Thursday - they went home Sunday. We had a ball with the kids - they got to help "Farmer Papaw" with all the chores, including a bit of "goat walking" (pictured above, left to right, are Damien, Blitzen, Anastasia and Donner). I only wish I could see them more frequently - once a year is not enough!

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31 May 2004
Catching Up Again ...

It's been an interesting couple of days. Storms kept us offline for a good portion of the time, and when the storms weren't active, we were - outside. Which explains the lack of posts.

Our meat chicks arrived last week - 201 of them. The company throws in one free "rare breed" chick with every 200 ordered! And being the only colored one, he (or she, I hope) is quite noticeable! They stayed warm in our scratchbuilt brooder until yesterday, when Kris built them a small runout with some poultry wire and temp posts. In another week or so they'll be big enough to be safe from the cats, and we'll turn them out in the east paddock until they're ready to go - should be done about the middle of July, if not a little sooner. We gotta get a picture of the brooder at night up here - it looks like something from an 'X-Files' episode!

While Kris was busy with all that, I was deboning sheep feet. Yes, you read correctly ... Kevyn sent about 20 of his meat sheep to the Muslims last Friday, and delivered their legs (at my request), which request he was quite surprised by, I might add. But I've found a potential buyer for the knucklebones, who manufacturers a medieval games called, appropiately enough, Knucklebones. Waste not, want not! Getting the bones out of the feet wasn;t that much of a problem, but cleaning them properly may be a royal pain. If anyone out there has any ideas ...

This morning we hit an auction and got Donner and Blitzen something to do - we bought a goat cart! It'll take two or three goats, and we'll be using it for several "petting zoo" type projects. More on those later on.

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06 May 2004
Ready to Brood

And I'm not even sure it's a verb ... we constructed a brooder today for our soon-to-arrive chicks. We used a cast off water tank, the kind used in highway construction (no labels, but probably 750 to 1000 gallons). Removed the valves, cut a door, installed a fan and capped the open top to prevent rain seepage.

After that, we repaired some winter damage to the henhouse, and are getting ready for our first season selling eggs off our back porch (last year we took orders and delivered). Kris is getting a sign ready, and Kevyn's going to bring back some of our hens (or more probably some new ones) next week.

So I'm bushed! Haven't looked at the news or even read my mail all day. Hope to have a picture or two up tomorrow, before I take off again (to NC, this time) for the weekend.

Oh yeah: we now offically own Donner and Blitzen. Kedrick didn't want to buy the milk replacer we'd used for them, so we took the litttle beasties instead.

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28 Apr 2004
Catching Up on the Home Front News

Things have been so busy around here that I've not had the time to post about everything that's been going on - so here's a "catching up" post.

First, some housekeeping: many have written me after having noticed that their comments disappeared. When the server went down on April 12th, I lost all comments from March 4th onward. Sorry about that, but there's not a blasted thing I can do: mercifully, it was the only data we permanently lost. And the backup schedules/paths have been adjusted to reflect the current set up, so this won't happen again.

Another interesting event: on April 4th, we "inherited" two baby goats. A neighbor (actually Kevyn's nephew, had a doe that busted up a leg in the birthing process. He's an ag student at Purdue, and he was actually contemplating taking the babies to his dorm room and feeding them himself! Crazy kids (pun intended)! But since he knew we had Sweet Pea (oh yeah, our bottle lamb obviously acquired a name, too!) he asked if we'd mind taking care of his twin goats.


All of our bottle babies in the East lot: Donner, Blitzen and Sweet Pea.

Feeding the goats is a trip ... they seem to have nothing but sheer, raw desire to eat, and will hardly wait for you to get a bottle near them before they begin to bump and nibble anything resembling a teat. They do have quite an instict to find those however, and it seems to not be very species specific. Kris would add a note here that it's not a good idea for human females to bend over baby goats...

Of course, we named them, too: Donner and Blitzen (Thunder and Lightning) were the twin buck goats that pulled Thor's chariot - seen here in a battle with Jotuns (giants). You can draw your own conclusions about the origins of Santa Claus from that ... Donner is marked solid red on the head while Blitzen has a white splash across his forehead - so the names seemed appropiate.

And finally, I'm not going to be posting squat until next Monday! We're actually taking a trip together - out to the May Day Moot in central Oklahoma. We found a good place to board our Willie dog: it's called "For the Dogs", and it's a cage free boarding/doggie daycare facility. It's surprisingly not that much more expensive than regular boarding, and having had bad experiences in the past with kennels, we figured that this would be a good place for the pooch to stay without getting totally stressed out. Here's an article from the Indianapolis Star on them.

So that's all the news from home - the only thing I'm not looking forward to about this trip is coming home to a SPAM filled inbox and an overflowing news aggregator. But oh well - we've not had a trip together since we got the farm, and it'll be good to be on the road with my sweetie.

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