Please accept my apologies....

I have been slacking on posting on the blog lately, so please accept my apologies.  Things have kind of slowed down around here, and quite honestly.....I'm enjoying it!

Here's what we did this weekend.  In preparation for this winter, Shane has come up with a portable hut to put in the pasture for our does.  We learned a hard lesson last winter, when it was freezing with rain mixed with sleet.  We have our does in a different pasture that has absolutely nothing to get under, beside, around, etc. to get away from freezing rain. 

It started out with these metal rings that were like a spool for some kind of cable.    There are two of these rings with a rod in the center for the cable to roll around like a spool of thread. 

Then they were cut in half to make semi-circles to become the frame. 

Below is some tin that we have had put to the side waiting to get some good use out of it.  Let me tell you a little story behind this tin.....When Hurricane Katrina came in down here in 2005, she blew this tin off of Shane's mothers roof.  We kept the pieces that could be reused for something else.....and what do you know???  We have found something good from the devastation that the Hurricane caused us.  We were able to use the tin.....5 years later.

 

This is what it looks like underneath it.  There are 3 sheets of tin screwed across the semicircles.  They are ran lengthwise with 3 semicircles underneath which is overall 20 feet in length. 

 

In order to transport it to the field, we had to use our utility trailer and move it very carefully.  As you can see, it was too big to put in the trailer, so we had to balance it on top and use clamps to hold it in place. 

 

Never a DULL moment !!

Can you guess what this is a picture of?  If you guessed a goats horn, you are correct!  Now why am I holding this horn and snapping a photo of it?  Well, let me tell you why....

Yesterday, we ended our breeding season and moved the does together into one herd again.  That meant that our bucks went back into the buck field together again.  Of course one would expect the usual pecking order fighting to go on, but Rooster and Gold Digger took it to another extreme.  They started ramming their horns, and before we knew it, this is what happened.....

Gold Digger lost one of his horns.  It was broken completely off at the base of the skull.  You can see down into his skull by way of two holes left in his head from the horn.  It actually scared me...I thought we were going to lose him from bleeding to death, but it didn't bleed as much as I thought it would.  We gave him an injection of Nuflor and put some paste around the holes (not in them) to keep flies away per the vets instructions.  He said the holes needed to be left open to allow drainage.  I thought WHAT???  to myself....leave holes that expose the inside of his skull open??????  Shane and I were talking last night about what if an acorn fell out of the oak tree and landed in one of those holes.  It would hit his brain...How crazy is that!  He is doing well today, just hanging around in a pen by himself.  I tell you though, it is never a dull moment around here!

Today Mr. Clause Miller came to pick up his 7 does that were brought a couple of months ago to be bred by Pistol Pete/Rooster.  They left out this afternoon heading back to Illinois.

Three of these does were in with Pistol Pete, and the other four were with Rooster. 

Also, Mr. Miller was kind enough to transport one of our anatolian shepherds back with him for the Greniger's from Just Kidding Goat Farm in Minnesota.  They will be driving to Illinois to pick up their new LGD, Xena. 

Xena getting ready for the trip

So that's all that's been happening around here.......for now, that is.......because it there truly is never a dull moment when it comes to our place!

Something to share....

We had a cow that got down with mastitis this week. When I went out to take her some food and water, this is what I found.  Kimba, Jael and their pups were out there staying with her.  She had gotten down and couldn't get up, so the puppies had kept her clean from where she had pooped.  It was the neatest thing to see them keep the other cows and horses away from her while they were "taking care" of her.  We thought it would be something neat to share with you this week.

Anatolians can be gentle!

We have found that a lot of people around here are terrified of Anatolian Shepherds.  I'm guessing they think since they are "guard dogs" that they are vicious dogs.  Here at our farm, we have contact with them.........ONLY in their pasture with their goats.  Of course they are used to us, so they are friendly to us.  This picture of Kimba and Mallory is proof  of how gentle they can be. 

As with anything new, they have to be introduced by one of us.  When Shane started using our border collie to round up the goats, the LGDs were not keen on a dog coming in their territory "chasing" their goats.  So for a few days, Shane would walk Davie on a leash with him out in the pasture.  Since they have been introduced, we haven't had an issue with the LGDs when we need to herd the goats. 

Other farm happenings

We usually do not wean our calves; they are generally taken straight off of the cows and sold at the stockyard.  This year, our calves didn't seem to grow off real well (probably due to the terrible winter and drought of the summer).  The prices bottomed out late in September, so we will not be taking any to sale.  We weaned about 16 head this past week.  Those that were bulls were banded to make steers out of them.  They were put across the fence from the cows so they could still see them.  For the first few days, it was a noisy mess!  Now, things seem to have calmed down and all have went back to grazing.  We may end up keeping the heifers as replacements.  They were out of the Brangus bull Mojo, and we got some nice daughters out of him.  The steers may be sold as grass finished beef.  The whole weaning and keeping the calves is new to us, so we'll just have to see how it goes. 

We also only have 2 female puppies left for sale.  I should be getting our website updated with the information for those who are interested.  They are growing so fast.  We have found opossums and raccoons dead out in the pasture where they are at.  I think they are learning real well from Kimba and Jael. 

Dog wars again....or maybe not

I've been meaning to post lately, but things just keep preventing me from getting it done.  So here goes.....look out for several posts tonight.

I went out to the pasture the other day to find Kimba with a really swollen head.  All I could think of was that he had been bitten by a snake.  I couldn't find any bite marks on his head.  I did find a cut under his ear.  I decided I would check on Sinbad to see how he looked...(he and Kimba like to tangle up sometimes)  I went to the back 40 where he was and he appeared fine to me from the distance I was at.  The closer I got to him, I noticed he was limping a little.  Then I realized he had a cut under his leg.   Long story short, he had to pay the vet a visit and his wound was left open to drain.  We spray Granulex on it in the afternoon and he's also taking antibiotics. 

View from the side

We're not sure if he and Kimba tied up or if Sinbad got hooked by a wild hog.  They have been rooting up the ground in the back near the goats and we figured it could be a possibility.  The cut under Sinbads chest was such a large clean cut.  It seems like it could've been due to a tusk.  If that's what happened, we can't figure out why Kimba's head was so swollen with that cut under his ear.  Maybe they teamed up on the hog.  Who knows?

View from underneath

A Sad Day.....

Today was a sad day for us here at Deep South Kikos.....Our little rat terrior Maggie ( "Maggie mo-mo" as we called her sometimes) died this morning.

She had to be one of the toughest farm dogs ever known.  She only weighed about 5 pounds and you wouldn't have ever guessed a dog so small could do so much.  She loved to help (or get in our way) when we were working cows or goats.  She had so much heart....She had been stepped on by a cow, bitten by a copperhead, and yet she never stopped being our little super dog. 

We buried her in our backyard under a Bradford Pear tree at Dillon's request.  He wanted to have a funeral for her.  Mallory sang Jesus Loves Me and Dillon asked that I say a prayer.  He put a cross on her little grave site and we all reminisced about all of our wonderful memories of her (through tears for me and Mallory). 

 

We got Maggie in 2002, so she had been a big part of our family for almost 8 years.  We will really miss her very much.  It's something how a dog so little can impact your lives like she did ours.

Temporary visitors from Illinois

About a month ago a gentleman from Illinois contacted us about breeding some of his does to Pistol Pete and Rooster.  He had a select group of does from his breeding program that had made it through his strict culling practices.  He wanted to add some of our genetics to his stock.  We have 3 put in with Pistol Pete and 4 in with Rooster. 

Pistol Pete with the ladies

The does with Rooster

We also had our goat playground modified this past week too.  Shane had a guy bring in his heavy machinery and move the piles of concrete around.  It's not exactly how Shane had wanted it, but the goats are seeming to enjoy it better now.  It is not as dangerous as it was before.   They are running and jumping on it every time that I've went out there to check on them.

Breeding time is here!

We had a few cows that didn't move to the new pasture with the rest of the herd.  They had new calves and didn't seem to care about staying with the group.  Saturday, Mr. Broome and his pastor brought their border collies and together managed to move those cows across the road with the rest of the herd.  Now of course, it wasn't as easy as it sounded.  It took a few tries......I'm not sure if you can tell by the pictures butit was very foggy that morning.

Moving calf back down the road

Mr. Broome with his border collie

We worked all of our does Saturday and separated them into their "breeding groups".  We have Gold Digger in with the purebred and commercial does; Rooster is in with the 100% New Zealand does.  Kimba decided to jump in the driver's seat of the mule while we were sorting the goats in the catch pen (a good picture opportunity.) 

    

Rooster is finally with the does

Gold Digger checking out the ladies

I'm hoping to be posting some new information about some other goat breeding that might be going on here at our farm........Until then............................

Update on pups

I have finally been able to get a few more photos of the pups to share.  It has been a job to try to get a halfway decent shot of them.  They move around a lot!  I've got random shots below of them in the pasture.  We wanted to let everyone know, these pups have been around cows, horses, and of course, goats.  They are trained to a self feeder.  We put a 50 lb bag of food in it, and with the two adult dogs and 5 pups, it only lasted 5 days.  They are eating real well.

Hanging out with dad

Checking out the cows

At first we intended to have no contact with the pups, but when it came time to give them their shots, I couldn't catch them.  They wanted nothing to do with me, because we had had no interaction with them.  We now try to go out a couple of times a week and at least try to put our hands on them.  The kids really are loving that!

Shane bought a LGD locally a couple of years ago.  He ended up being a fantastic guardian for the goats, but not one of us could get our hands on him.  He would run way off from us and bark.  We had the hardest time catching him to take his collar off that he was outgrowing.  It was digging into his neck.  Our vet had given us "ace" to give him in his food, and that didn't even work!  Him not wanting us to touch him ended up being the death of him.....we couldn't catch him after he had been bitten by a rattlesnake numerous times; until it was too late.  I feel like the LGDs need to have some human interaction so they will not be like he was. 

Cooling off

Self-feeder

Learning from mom

We had a man come by yesterday to look at one of our adult LGD's that is for sale.  He really wasn't ready for a dog yet, but he went ahead and paid a deposit on one of the males to give him time to get his animals set up.  So as of now, we only have 2 females and 1 male out of this litter of pups left for sale.  If you are interested just give us a call or email.  We also may be able to deliver.