Thursday, July 25, 2013

A Few Summer Snapshots

Well I haven't been  present in the blogger world very much this summer. I thought I'd share a few snapshots from our summer, that I've happened to capture with my phone.

Shane being the "grill master" for family get-togethers

The kids decided to have a sweet tea stand (we didn't have any lemonade).

I have to mention that we live in an very rural area.  Hardly any traffic comes through our area.  On this particular day, there was quite a bit of traffic.  The kids made a whole $33 at their sweet tea stand.  They also ended up selling Kool Aid too.  At first I thought it would last for a few minutes until they realized there would be no customers.  Boy was I surprised!  They picked the right day to have their stand set up.  I had to end up going inside to make many more pitchers of  sweet tea.  We even ran out of ice.  It was a very busy day. 

Hard workin fellas

We went to my mom's house to pick snap beans several times

One hard-workin girl


I was able to can 21 quarts of snap beans.  This was my first time to do this.

Fence-work on the back 40 is still going on.  It's almost complete

The kids earned KikoBuck$ at the AKGA convention. 
Since earning the KikoBuck$, Dillon has become the proud new owner of his very own registered kiko.  He came home from the AKGA convention ready to start his own herd.  He's been working around the farm helping Shane to save up money to buy his own goats.  He said his goats are gonna "smoke" our goats ( as in perform better than ours in the pasture).  I told him to bring it on!

A little fishing has been done too!

I've also canned tomatoes, and my plants are still producing! 

Ordering school supplies to get ready for our new adventure!

We've even done some traveling.  I plan on adding photos from our recent trip to Ohio.

There's even been some horse riding going on. 
I hope your summer has been as fun filled as ours. I really do hope to get back to getting more frequent blog posts. I apologize to those of you who are faithful readers of this blog.  Mr. AWS and Mr. Mike, I promise to get a few more posts rolling along :) 

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Weaning Kiko Kids

Let me make a fair warning in advance, I have uploaded lots and lots of pictures. These are just a few of many that I managed to take, so I just had to share some of them. 

Last week it was time to wean our 2013 kid crop.  We wanted to wean the kids at 90 days.  Of course, they are not all born on the exact day, so there are some that are over 90 days and some that are under 90 days. This spring, when we'd look out in the pasture, we'd really like what we were seeing.  Some years that may not always be the case. I couldn't wait to see what the scales, pencil, and paper would say.


They were rounded up out of the pasture with the Border Collies, Davie and Alex.  I tried my best to get a good photo of the herd, but I tell you, when you've got so many scattered out running towards the gate, it's hard to capture one with all of them in it. 


They get to walk across the road to our working pen that has been converted to a goat working pen.  We have 2 catch pens with alleys and head gates.  They were originally for the cattle, but Shane converted one side to work goats.  It is still a work in progress, but it sure beats the way we first started working goats.  Our 4  running feet, lasso (no lie; you should've been there) and a shepherd's crook.  Now it's Border Collies, pen with alley, and squeeze chute with head gate.  You can see photos of our working pen by clicking here at this link. 


I tried to get a unique photo of the goats in a group here, but it didn't work out as planned. A few stopped to look at me, but those Border Collies kept them moving.  




Shane and Mal walk along behind the goats and help the border collies with any stragglers.


I tell you, that girl is one big help.  Dillon happened to be at his grandma's house on this day.  He had to miss out on all the fun :)


Earlier in the day, before we moved them out of the pasture, I walked around with my camera to try to get some pictures.  Here are a few of them.

This doe always produces well.  We have several daughters, granddaughters, & great granddaughters out of her

doeling

doeling named McFlurry by the kids

buckling

doeling with a lot of spunk

This doe in the photo below is AWESOME!  She is 7.5 years old and still produces some of the biggest and best kids.  She weaned a total of 119 pounds with these 2 bucklings.  One was 61 pounds the other was 58 pounds.  She does this consistently every year with no input.  


We were very pleased with our weaning weights and overall health of our herd.  We did cull 3 mature does out of the main herd, as well as 16 bucklings.   They all averaged about 83.00 a head. 

Also our Anatolian Shepherd puppies are growing! They have just started learning to eat out of the dog feeder.  

We are excited to see how the rest of our kid crop grows out as we whittle them down to the best of 2013.