Saturday, March 31, 2007

Looking After a Donkey, by Dorothy Morris

We didn't have much time to prepare for our donkeys; we'd been losing the sheep to predators, and had mentioned needing some sort of guard animal to keep our herd safe. My MIL took this on as a mission (this was one of her more rational ones), and found us not one, but two. DH knew he wouldn't have the time to spend with them (training or standard status checks), and I have little to no equine experience (early readers may remember the one about Hercules the Thumb-Bandit). If we'd had a chance to wait, and to prepare better, I might have chosen another title.

Anyway, I was a good little consumer and dutifully kneeled at the altar (my laptop) to beseech the dieties (at Amazon) for words of salvation (this book). I read this out of necessity (I desperately needed to know how to cope with our donkeys) about a month ago. I found it to be moderately helpful. It was published about 20 years ago, and it is U.K.-centric, so the donkey organization information is only relevant in the sense that I can now go find their website in hope of more detailed health and care information. Some of the advice given assumes that the reader has some (what I would consider advanced-intermediate) knowledge on how to handle equines. Morrison tries to cover everything in 140+ pages, and I'm sure there's so much more that the new owner needs to know. A good third of the book is devoted to breeding and foaling, which to me seems heavy, but I realize that the author is writing from that standpoint and has good advice in those aspects. So, I’ll be searching for another book, and I’ll be begging for handling lessons from my neighbor or one of DH’s college buddies.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

I did it

I have 10+ pages of handwritten material for my DayDiary submission. I can't publish any of it until after the book comes out, and then only 500 words worth (assuming that any of it makes the cut). I will check in later to write about the writing, the day, and how I'm getting by with no sleep. That kid had better take a nap today so help me...

I told Steve last night that I might could be book-published next year. He was surpised and happy. I haven't slept since 6:57 yesterday morning. I have to walk away from the writing so I can breathe and figure out how to clean it up for submission. I have a lot of chronicle and only a little depth and humor. Did not get to bake bread last night, so must go fix big salad and coffee for husband, hope it gets him through the day.

Monday, March 26, 2007

These donkeys just won't quit picking on the chickens

We have a chicken (one of the Barred Rocks) who isn't getting along too well--she doesn't seem sick, but she's got a hitch in her get-along, and it's freaking the others out enough that they've pecked away nearly half her comb. So, we put her in the semi-obvious place: the old rabbit hutch GranR had given us. Not 3 hours later, I looked out the sliding glass door into the backyard and found that the hutch had rotated 90 degrees. The theory is that the donkeys shoved it around in order to eat the grain I'd put in there. When DH gets a chance, he will move the hutch into Boudeaux's pen (I'll try to help, but I'm not the buff 19 I used to be).

Yesterday, while my husband was out checking the viability of said hutch move, he discovered a huge stash of eggs under one of our brush piles. Since we've no way of knowing how long they've been there, we can't sell them. And, color me wimpy, but I'm not brave enough to try using them ourselves. We've tried candling before, and we aren't very good at it (we lost 2 chicks that way). So, since we have a chicken that was isolated anyway (and I'll assume she has nothing better to do), I built a nest with shredded newspaper (hay is $8.50 a bale here, and too expensive to use for nesting), and moved the eggs in. There's 26, and I don't think she'll be able to hatch all of them, but we'll give it a try.

The lesson here is that I need to get out more, and scope out chicken-friendly egg-hiding places so this doesn't happen again.

Monday, March 19, 2007

DestructoDonkey

A few weeks back, the donkeys busted through one side of the chicken yard. Steve hasn't been able to make the time to nail a new board up, so we've lived with the chickens being able to let themselves out in the morning. What we didn't realize was that Serenity is able to crawl under the wire and help herself to the corn and oats that I throw out for scratch. After a few incidences of chasing her out of the yard, we've decided that we'll just have to confine all chicken feed to the inside of their coop until we can design and build the new setup (one with real roosts, storage for food, nests, and a hover for chicks). We're getting some good ideas from How to Build Animal Housing by Carol Ekarius. If we go with a full-fledged coop, we will probably make it part of the barn/complex that is part of the Grand Plan.

We wanted chicks last spring, but I wasn't able to get my act together enough to buy an incubator and make space for the chicks. Our last attempt to expand our flock was sheer accident--I won't repeat the story here. In short, it didn't do much to improve our operation (we were hoping to have fryers by now). Once I get my raised beds going, I think I'll get that incubator, clean out the old camping bin, and raise us some more babies.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Dances With Sheep

[no, not the ones at Things Celtic this afternoon]

S has been shearing the 2-years-past-due Karakuls while he's been off this week. None of them have been cooperative, but this last "gelding" was an extra-special piece of work. S originally attempted to shear him on Thursday after the flock had been penned (the good farmer lets his sheep fast overnight so there's minimal gastric stress when put in the proper sitting position), but the sheep wiggled loose from the hog-tie and took off. This put him in the front yard, away from his flock; in the meantime, S sheared the "newer" ewe, and wound up with a horrible sunburn--I've been on aloe duty for the past few days. S tried again to catch the rogue, but Bucky managed to clear the fence, but not without injuring his nose (S thinks it may be broken). Reuniting with the flock was probably the best, as it's easier to corral all than to cull one on 9-something acres full of cedar.

On Friday, as I was doling out pellets, husband yelled across the yard "I'd appreciate it if you'd step on that lead rope." Well, I did, thinking it couldn't be that difficult. Alas, the sheep was too quick for me, and he pulled my foot out from under me. The only thing that kept me from falling over completely was the fact that he had a horn to grab--not that it was the most stable thing to hang onto. I, of course, panicked and screamed like an ax murderee (we were both surprised that we didn't get a visit from the neighbors, or the sheriff). S quickly ran from the house to the pen (wish I could have seen that), and rescued me from Bucky.

Later on this afternoon, S eventually wrestled the sheep onto its side and hogtied it again. In his words:
"My [shearing] technique did improve, though what this psychotic gelding lacked in nicks he made up for in self-injury [prior to being tied up], insisting on ramming into the side of the garage side of the pen, the 2x6 boards on the back side of the pen, and the metal gate, culminating in leaping into the air and landing on his head, twice."

Apparently, this one is not hooked up to the sheep matrix, as its "anti-wiggle reflex" (their will to fight is supposed to switch off when all their feet are off the ground/immobilized) doesn't seem to be operational. DH said that he took a few hits to...sensitive parts. *wince* I hope everyone's OK. I'm fixing to ovulate soonish.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

After years of collecting,

I need to make another stab at organizing everything I’ve clipped and photocopied. I’ve filled the two photo albums I started out with, and now I’m filling page protectors and filing those into binders. I have temporary tabs for each section (chicken, pasta, beef, etc.), and will put “permanent” ones on once I’ve made certain of the paging (that is, I might want to rearrange the order of sections so that those I use most are in front.

I also need to do a table of contents for each, and a master one (perhaps after I get the Open Office software in a month or two) so my recipes are easier to track. The last time I spent cutting and pasting, I found that I’ve saved similar recipes, which don’t need to take up twice the space.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

I actually have two quilts started

One is a top that my great-grandmother started, and I finished the re-piecing last year. Now I need to bring it back out of the closet and figure out what I want to use for “batting” (it might be a layer or two of plain old blanket), and I need to find the right backing. I’m going to tie this one, just to keep it simple.

The other quilt is a sampler I’d started in college. All the squares are cut and organized; the next step is to get all the patterns sewn together, then I’ll work on layout.

Friday, March 09, 2007

Many, many piles

Time is the biggest factor in terms of getting my papers under control. I have the materials (folders, cabinets, crates, etc.), but I just need several uninterrupted hours to make a first pass at archiving, sorting, prioritizing, and tossing everything that has piled up over the past 4 years.

I want to find my notes from “File, Don’t Pile” which I read 7 or 8 years ago; if I can’t, then I may try to get a copy through an interlibrary loan (which may actually take a month or two). In the meantime, I can get some ideas from:

Unclutter Your Home
Family Manager Takes Charge
Creative Home Organizer
How to Be Organized in Spite of Yourself

I’ll get in touch with R (the sitter), see if she’s available tomorrow, and see how much I can get done.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Breaking News

[there's a lot to catch up with, but this is so great--for us--I'm posting it now before I get scooped]

DH placed an ad to sell/re-home Sombrea in our local Greensheet. This task has been on his todo list for a while; I think that looking at our budget (and seeing how much we've been laying out on extra feed expenses) and another attack on Persephone were what spurred him to action. Sombrea does a fantastic job of keeping the wild canines away, but I wish she was capable of making an exception with our two. I decided to expand our chances of selling her, and I posted this to craigslist last night:

Registered Jennet

15-year-old female donkey needs a new home. In-laws gifted us with her daughter, and she's been living with us while they worked out their weaning dance. We can no longer justify paying twice the feed, so we want to find her a good home. $200 adoption fee to ensure committed companion. Great guard donkey (she's kept our sheep safe from the ferals/coyotes that had taken 3), but not good with dogs. Grey burro with "cross" along back/shoulders. Please email to initiate conversation.

We received one bite, but she was wanting a miniature. No go. By noon, we received a notice that our post had been flagged and removed. I couldn't imagine why, so I posted this question to their pets forum:

"I've been flagged. I can't figure out why--I read the terms of service and worded my post accordingly. We are not trying to sell our animal. She needs a new home. We were only meant to be temporary owners while her daughter (whom we are keeping to be a guard animal) weaned herself. As I can read on other posts that have been left up, a rehoming fee is acceptable in order to ascertain a serious new owner/companion.
I'll watch this thread for constructive comments, and I'll post the ad again in a week. We truly want Sombrea to find a good living space where she can get the attention she needs, and hope that this community can help by enabling us to spread the word as widely as we can."

Here's the first response:
"is it possible that your post sounds like you intentionally bred her? if you post the ad here, maybe we can help. Flagging questions should also be directed at the flagging forum- click feedback in the upper right and then click flagging. "

My answer: [I posted the original ad, which I neglected to do]
We had nothing to do with her breeding. The daughter (Serenity) was 4 months old when we received her from our in-laws.
I posted here because I'd like to get an idea of why someone would kick my ad off and leave other similarly-written ads alone.

Here's another reply:
"how much were you asking?"

my answer:
$200--the original copy is within my reply to the first reply in this thread (hope that made sense). This was far lower than any of the other rehoming fees for similar equines. Do you think we should up the price?

and a third:
"this is completely out of context for me as I don't see any other posts by you on this forum and don't know what your ad on the Pets board looked like.
If you want constructive comments, it might be a good idea to include the text of the ad you posted with your request (on the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if people just said "Go to the flagging forum." I think the whole process is getting too complicated myself.)
But based on nothing more than what I just read in your message, it sounds like you are rehoming-for-a-fee an unspayed "animal" (I assume a dog, but why don't you say that?). If you don't state that you will spay her or require the adopter to, that in itself might be enough to get you flagged.

Since I'd already reposted the content, I felt that this question was covered.

And then, I received this post:

"reasons
possible reasons:
a) dog isnt spayed
b) keeping pup as "guard dog" (dogs deserve to live inside and can better guard your possessions while inside. what she guarding outside? your lawn?)
c) rehoming fee is too high for services rendered (reasonable fee $100 for a spayed, vaccinated pet or $25 for an unspayed, unvaccinated pet - but she SHOULD BE SPAYED)
d) intentionally bred the dog you're rehoming
e) the dog you're keeping isn't spayed
f) you intend to breed again
it could be anything. if you would like to post your ad here, we can better guess why you were flagged

Unfortunately, I couldn't bring myself to be as graceful with my answer:

Here's the third copy of...the ad [and I posted another copy, as above]
so:
a) she isn't a dog, and she's registered, she's meant to be bred

b) while some people have no problem with allowing their donkeys inside (I understand some owners of minis do this), this is prohibitive for us. She's a full-size donkey, and she has 10+ acres on which to roam. As you can see in the ad, she's guarding our sheep against wild/uncontrolled canines that had, up until her arrival, taken nearly half of our flock. [I should have said that there is no more lawn to guard, as the sheep she's protecting have eaten it down to nothing]

c) $200 is actually quite low for an equine. She's registered, part of a decent bloodline, and meant to pass that on. In order to buy the mother-dughter pair, we made a promise to register the daughter so that the bloodline can remain tracked. We have no plans at this time to breed the daughter (aside from that fact that she's way too young), but who knows what our circumstances might be in the next 10 years?

d) We had nothing to do with the jennet's past breeding. My in-laws bought the mother-daughter pair, which had to be kept together in order to allow the daughter to be weaned humanely

e) see c) Do female donkeys get spayed? I know jacks get gelded...

f) We may breed, but it won't be "again", and it won't be for several years, and maybe not until we can afford a bigger place.

Given the new information above, what do you suggest I do to stay off the flaggers' radar?

I suppose I should have been not so... snippy, but as I went on, the tone and the assumptions of the post got under my skin.

Anyway, as I was typing up the last response, my dear friend Phelan pinged me, asked what I was up to. I told her that we'd finally gotten around to advertising Sombrea for sale. She wanted to know how much we were asking, and I told her. She said SOLD! and asked when she could come and get her. After I made sure she knew what she wanted to take on (possible foaling late this summer, foot problems, dog stomper), we agreed to trade flesh for cash sometime within the next month. There were other parts of the conversation which turned goofy, but that is one of the things I love about my friend. <3

And, lo, there was much rejoicing about the Browncoat Acres.

Until I realized that I am going to have to get my house really clean and soon. OMG my friend is going to see my house!!

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Well, I have most of the ingredients

but not enough time and money, and almost not enough energy.

We have the acreage (11.6 acres), but much of it is covered with water-hogging cedar. That has to be cleared and shredded (we’re under a burn ban, and we’re not seeing an end to the 3-year drought) before we can add any more large animals, or the orchard for that matter.

We also need to build more animal shelter (ideally a barn, but may have to settle for temporary lean-tos for the sheep and donkey), and we need a better-designed chicken coop.

Our ideal farmstead will have the following components:

  • garden (herbs, vegetables, gourds, berries)
  • orchard (fruit, almonds)
  • poultry (meat, eggs)
  • sheep (meat, wool)
  • rabbits (meat, pelts)
  • milk cow (various dairy products, bred for meat source)

Everything will be on a small scale until I get some time back from the child-raising. We currently have one raised bed for gardening, but I want at least two more so that we can grow enough to put up for the winter months, and possibly start a subscription service for our city friends.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Haven't been keeping to schedule

and this won't help:

http://farmandranchfreedom.org/content/dont-tag-texas

Together with several other groups, we will be sponsoring a rally in Austin on Friday, March 2. The Texas Legislature will be considering bills to address both the National Animal Identification System and the Trans-Texas Corridor, and our elected officials need to hear from the people! A parade of tractors, horses, and people will drive, ride, and walk up Congress Avenue to the Capitol. There will be speakers on the steps of the Capitol.

Date: Friday, March 2, 2007, Texas Independence Day

Time: The march will begin at 1:45 pm, and the rally on the steps of the capitol will run from 2:30-5:00

Speakers (partial list):

Penny Langford-Freeman: District Director for Congressman Ron Paul
Hank Gilbert: 2006 Democratic Candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner Liz McIntyre: Co-author of Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Purchase and Watch Your Every Move
Michael Badnarik: Libertarian candidate for President in 2004
John Dromgoole: The Natural Gardener
Judith McGeary: Executive Director, Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance
Linda Curtis: Executive Director of Independent Texans
David Stall: Co-Founder of Corridor Watch
Terri Hall: Regional Director, San Antonio Toll Party
Alex Jones: National radio broadcaster and documentary filmmaker
Gina Parker: National Issues Chairman, Eagle Forum

I'm pretty certain this isn't the sort of rally where I'll have to worry about landing between rowdiness and security. I'll bring the big stroller so Anthony has a chance to nap. Should I print/bring business cards?

We'll be shearing the sheep on whatever day (this weekend) we can get our mother's helper to watch the boy. I'll report the ensuing adventure.