Spring is HERE!

Birds are chirping, buds are peeping, and the air is finally heady with the scent of spring! We are so excited to welcome it this year.... what a long, arduous winter it was. Not only are our bodies and minds rejoicing that spring has finally arrived, but it is also the start of our very first growing season at Crow's Run! There is an infinite amount of work to occupy us, and so many projects it has been rough knowing where to start... so far, we have kind of taken the "grab the bull by the horns" approach, throwing ourselves into unknown territory and learning our lessons in the process.

Our creature count is on the up! Since my last blog, Crow's Run has added a couple of new inhabitants... let's get busy introducing them!


Our first new face is Panda.

Our first bit of goat's milk!

She is a two year old Nigerian Dwarf, and the mother of Buttercup, our first ill-fated bottle doeling (her story is here). She has been a blessing and a learning experience for me! Part of our plan here is to develop a herd of dairy goats, and Panda, being in milk when we picked her up, has taught me much of what I need to know about milking (Editor's Note: That sounds pretty optimistic to me...).
 


Stated lightly, Panda is a drama queen. The first couple of weeks on the milking stand she ran me through my paces; yelling, kicking, squawking, and laughing at my tears as she squashed my hands between her udder and the milking bucket.  Since then, we've developed a trust and understanding and I was getting a little less than a quart of fresh, tasty goat's milk from her a day.






Buuuut... that's all changed now thanks to this feller!

Huckleberry is actually Panda's son and Buttercup's brother. So, he's a Nigerian Dwarf/Nubian mix, and he's been wethered (castrated). He was a gift from Lynn, the breeder (and now friend) that we got Buttercup and Panda from. He had been bottle fed since we took Panda, but upon reuniting, he's begun to nurse again. That's okay with us, because he's going to wean soon, and we don't have to worry about bottle feeding him while he's nursing. Trust me when I exclaim that there are plenty of other things to worry about!

Also, joining our trio of horses, are two miniature donkeys!

Pancho!

Lefty!

 Pancho and Lefty were an unanticipated, but very welcome, surprise addition. One phone call and a couple of hours later we were dragging these two little dudes into our back pasture, where they were greeted by much running and snorting from Jewel, Bear, and Misty, our current resident horses.






These guys pack a lot of attitude into a little package! I never knew how smart they were, or how rewarding a donkey's bray could be first thing in the morning. It is very rewarding, very loud, and very funny.







Our latest addition is Starlite, a 18+ year old draft-cross mare that we are fostering for the horse rescue I volunteer at, Horse Rescue South, Inc. (a link to their website is here). Starlite is foundered. Foundering, or laminitis, is when the lamina that "hammock" the horses coffin bone inside the hoof deteriorate due most commonly to a high sugar/high carbohydrate diet, and the coffin bone begins to rotate downward and grow through the sole of the hoof. It is extremely painful, and we are doing our best to get her where she needs to be....

Our treatment regimen, for the curious reader, keeps her in a semi-isolated run-in area with super soft and well maintained bedding. Being insulin intolerant, she cannot have ANY grain what-so-ever, so she gets a quarter-scoop of low-starch rice bran (we have had great results with Manna-Pro's Max-E-Glo meal) with Remission and Hoof Medic supplements from AniMed twice a day and "low" quality hay (no alfalfa!) soaked overnight to remove the sugars, along with plenty of fresh water. We are firm believers that lots of love and pets help heal, too!

(Shameless plug: Money helps, too... Any donations for Starlite and horses in need like her can be mailed to Horse Rescue South, Inc. P.O. Box 103 Cannelton, IN 47520)
 

Not an accurate portrayal of how disgusting chicks are...

As far as projects go, our biggest one right now is the chicken coop. We have been quite busy converting an old building that came with the property to a coop for our chicks, which have quickly outgrown their bins in the guest bedroom. It's not difficult to raise them, but if I never have to grow a chick again without a hen, I will be ecstatic. They are MESSY... (Editor's Note: Understatement). We have 18 of them; 12 egg-layers and six meat chickens.. for now. I have a sneaking suspicion that this number may grow as time goes on.

In my next blog I hope to detail a "How-To" on how we decided to build our coop. I also have great aspirations for a floating duck-house!!

Must remember, repeat mantra: "Build enclosure before buying super-cute-baby-what-evers."

We cannot fail to mention the daunting task that faces every self-sufficient homestead to be, the Garden! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the time has arrived to work the land, plant our seedlings, and weed, weed, weed, while we literally grow MONEY from the ground. I believe an upcoming blog on our crop and garden plans will be in order, as well! I've started seedlings inside, and I'm prepping some small beds for cool weather crops like lettuce, radish, and onion. Yay! A big thank-you to the awesome neighbor who is helping us to till up the 50 by 100 foot space!

Well, that's all folks... more to come as time allows. Thanks for reading! Your comments and questions are welcome. :)

 

Buttercup

I think I can post this today -- the wound was too raw before, but I believe I can manage it, now...

It seems that sometimes lessons hit hard and fast, and this is one very hard lesson we have learned early in our journey... We lost baby Buttercup yesterday morning... Here's her story:


On February 21st, Billy and I traveled to a nearby city to get our very first goat. We arrived and were met by the breeder, Lynn*, and her three yapping, but friendly, puppy dogs. She led us across the lawn and we ducked low to enter the goat enclosure in the corner of a very small, urban homesteader's yard.  All the goats bleated their greetings as Lynn took us into the warm space that smelled of sweet hay and a light tinge of goat musk. We recognized Buttercup straight away; a tiny, mini-Nubian doeling, she was only two weeks old, and even smaller than she looked in the pictures of her frolicking around with her two brothers annoying a flock of chickens. We thought we had already fallen in love looking at those pictures... we were wrong. Billy picked her up, and she bleated loudly. Her tiny little hoof had us wrapped right around it almost instantly. We couldn't stop smiling. She was our baby.

*name changed for privacy

Being only two weeks old, we still had to bottle-feed Buttercup. Lynn suggested whole cow's milk, what she used, and following this suggestion we picked up a couple gallons of the organic variety. Billy and I were going to do everything perfect. We got home, flooded facebook with pictures of her on the couch in a sweater, laughed harder than we had in a while, and cuddled up with her in bed that night and the next. The first couple of days, we fed her every three hours by bottle... Billy bleated at her as she greedily guzzled her milk, convinced he was going to be the best nanny ever... I was convinced as well. Our hearts swelled with love for her.

By the third night, we forced ourselves to let her stay outside in her very own, very comfy five-star-resort-goat-pen. We had gotten our Nigerian Dwarf buckling Barley that day to be her companion, and he was already huddled within the 55-gallon plastic barrel we had customized for them to stay warm inside. We were nervous, but we knew it was best for her. She had to learn to be a goat... and we had to learn that not every animal on the farm can live in the house.

 She did fine. It was mostly Billy who made the nightly trek in cold, wet weather to her pen to feed her in the middle of the night. She would run to the gate bleating, "MAAAaaa!" hardly able to contain herself at the sight of us. She was rotten.





This past Thursday, February 28th, just seven days after getting Buttercup, Billy found her lying unresponsive in the barrel with Barley trying to keep her warm. Only an hour previously, she had been up and running, playing and bleating. I got home from work about ten minutes later, and Billy tearfully told me the news... he thought she was dying.

I called the vet, called our neighbor (who keeps goats), and scoured the internet for advice (a big thanks here to thegoatspot.net forum and all the people who helped me that night). We had to get her warmed up, and so placed her in a plastic bag (to keep her dry) and got her in a hot bath. We alternated this with using a blow-dryer under a tented blanket and successfully raised her temperature from 96 degrees to 101.5, on the low side of normal. In a moment of glory, she nursed about an ounce of milk, but her temperature would not stabilize and soon dropped, and she would be unable to digest milk below a 100 degree body temperature. The vet thought maybe she was hyperglycemic, and I spent the next twelve hours intermittently dripping a mixture of honey, b-vitamins, and milk into her mouth while I flopped her from side to side on a heating pad to keep her temperature up.

She slept beside me in the bed that night, and Billy slept diligently on the floor beside us, refusing the guest bed. I hardly slept; every time she stirred I tried to get her to eat. She wouldn't. I was beyond worry. I couldn't even think about what might happen before I could get her to the vet the next morning. Losing her was unthinkable.

I sped to the vet, a 30-40 minute drive, and arrived just before they opened at 8am. I waited anxiously without an appointment, humming into Buttercups ears and rubbing her tiny, swaddled body. The vet performed a series of reflex tests, a frown on his face. He suspected a congenital neurological defect -- basically, Buttercup's brain had not developed properly in the womb. He said there was nothing we could have done, and nothing we could do now, but we could end her suffering. I agreed, and pet her head as he injected her. It was over in less than a moment and she slipped peacefully away. She will be buried beneath a tree in the back pasture.

We all have been stricken with the grief of her loss. I have had to find the strength to even share the news with anyone. It is like losing a child. She depended on us, and we loved one another. I miss her so very much, even though a week seems such a short time to have loved her.

Now we face the task of finding Barley a companion. It's a bitter-sweet moment of excitement and anxiety, because heartbreak is a risk every time you commit yourself to an animal like we do. We love them wholly, as a part of the family and of ourselves, and offer them every ounce of love and caring that we can.

On the bright side, we will probably get an adult doe for Barley's companion and to start our herd. This means that he won't have to be banded, and Barley can be herdsire as we originally planned. We were going to castrate him before to protect our too-young Buttercup from his forthcoming maturity, but with an adult doe, that will not be necessary. The cycle of life will continue, and we can look forward to his offspring with hope, a little nervousness, and a lot more preparedness.

Thank you for all the lessons you taught us, Buttercup. Thank you for all the love you filled us with for your short stay in our lives. You will always and forever be in our hearts.

Introducing...

So, I've been meaning to start a blog, and I guess today is as good a day as any! This is going to be an introduction post.... here goes!

My name is Gloria. I am one third of a trio of persons who have decided to forfeit "normality" to follow our dreams of building a more self-sustained existence! My partners in crime are Angela, my mom, and Billy, my boyfriend.

Last year was a turning point... last year brought hard lessons learned and changes for the better... this is the year of our rebirth! Through hardships untold (for now), we have come together to form what we hope will be a healthy, progressive relationship with the earth and what grows in it and from it. In this way, we will ourselves grow and thrive.

Last year, Angela opened The Derby General Store in a close-knit, southern Indiana town on the Ohio River. This is a place like you would imagine it to be - a rural, farming community full of some of the most caring, and often the most interesting, folks you could think to meet.

Shortly thereafter, an opportunity to purchase a farm just a mile and a half down the road presented itself. I had always had aspirations of a farm life, and am just a plain ol' country-lovin' gal to begin with. The time was right, the stars aligned, and serendipity brought us our beloved 27 acre farm which we have dubbed, "Crow's Run."

Panoramic of Crow's Run

It was perfect in our eyes.... an old cattle enterprise which included a 100' by 50' barn, a large garage/workshop with attached pole-barn, a dog kennel, and a 30 year old double wide trailer on a sinking foundation. Littered with the remnants of its previous life, suffice it to say, it "needed work."

We consolidated our possessions. We faced the task of compressing 4000 square feet of belongings into just over 1300 square feet of space. We have learned to live without some things that we had previously thought necessities, which we have discovered is just what we are trying to accomplish, anyhow.

Mona, Charlie, Gracie, Lulu, and Griffin

Our lives, and the lives of our pets, merged into one. We each brought two dogs to the table; Angela brought her territorial, food aggressive, cat-hating, yet well meaning, Cairn Terrier, Griffin, and the quiet, caring shepherdess, Lulu. I brought my completely and utterly spoiled, apartment dwelling Pug/Cocker Spaniel, Charlie, and my shy, misplaced, city-dwelling hunting dog, Mona. Let's not forget to mention my three exclusively indoor cats, Nola, Ryu, and Banjo, and Billy's just as domesticated kitties, Sam and Chinaski.



Take a moment to imagine the chaos that ensued over the next couple of weeks... now multiply that by your wildest imagination.

Yup. That's all I have to say about that.

Jewel, Bear, and Misty

Princess Buttercup!

Nevertheless, we've all adjusted splendidly, and have even added a little Mountain Cur, Gracie, to our pack.

Also added very soon after, were three horses from Indiana Horse Rescue South, a local rescue I volunteer for: Jewel, a beefy, sorrel quarter horse, Misty, a quaint and shy little Appaloosa, and Bear, a feisty, bay ex-racehorse.



Our most recent endeavor has been the addition of a couple of goats. In our quest for self-sustainability, I have acquired an interest in starting a herd of dairy goats so we can have our own goat milk, cheese, soap, etc. Four days ago, we picked up Buttercup, a mini-Nubian (half Nigerian Dwarf, half Nubian) doeling that is now two weeks and four days old and still being nursed every five hours by Billy and myself.

Two days ago, we picked up her companion, Barley, a full-blooded Nigerian Dwarf buckling that is two months old and soon to be wethered... the reasoning behind his castration (and a "how to") will be explained in my next blog!

Barley, in front, and Sebastian, a short-term foster, in back.

Estimated 300 year old American Beech

Our dreams are great here. They seem to flow out and manifest as easily as the wind whips over the hill country to rustle the brittle leaves that retain their tentative grasp on the 300 year old beech tree crowning the edge of our woods. - We dream of building a hillside of cabins for ourselves and our guests... we want to maintain an expansive equine facility where we can give trail rides, lessons, hold camps and shows... we want to thrive off of solar energy and live off the grid... but, we must take things one step at a time, and we can never forget to live in each unique and wonderful moment.


Right now we're working on fencing in acreage. We have to seed our pastures so we can rotate our livestock. After that comes the garden - the biggest I've ever kept, planted in a 110' by 45' space beside the future chicken coop and dilapidated hog-house. Chicken season is coming up, too!!

 Expect frequent updates and our take on how each of these projects unfolds for us. I want to document our progress not only for others who wish to follow in our footsteps, but also as an outlet for our aspirations. Stayed tuned - Coming up: "Banding" Barley!