This has been a busy week. I have moved the sprouted grains project into the basement and still did not see a lot of sprouting happening. I think that even though it is warmer in the basement, or more precisely, the temperature does not fluctuate as much as outside; the average temp. is not as high as the grains need to sprout.
I have not seen any mold yet, but the sprouting is not the lush green grass like growth I see in all the pictures. It has been six days and it still looks anemic. I did find an old space heater with a thermostat that seems to be helping keep the temperature up. Maybe I need to let it go for 9 days? It could be I need to soak the grains 16-24 hours instead of just 12. I will continue to experiment.
On Tuesday the six million dollar dog was due for her yearly booster shots. Even though we have not been to the vet. for almost a full year, they still knew her. She was very touchy about the nose drops for bordetella, so she got that one injected instead and then she freaked out when the Dr. tried to clip her nails. We had to get this done so she could go to “daycare” on Wednesday. Since I was in town I also stopped by the large animal vet and paid for the farm call when the kids were born. I made an appointment for the next day to bring Rusty in and see if I had missed a testicle when I tried to neuter him. I did. I have to take him in on Monday to have the vet. fix my mistake.
Also while I was in town I went to my favorite ranch store and bought an incubator. Last Sunday I had heard from the guy I gave the duck eggs to and his nephew found 5 out of 6 eggs to be developing. I figured that the ducks are still so young they don’t have really good instincts about sitting the eggs yet. I thought I would try it myself, I now have 32 duck eggs incubating. I have to candle them tomorrow to see if any are viable. I have seen the rouen duck sitting on the nest from time to time, but she still wanders the property with the other two most of the day.
Wednesday I was up early to meet the men for breakfast, and then with the dog out of the house for the day I got busy. I put the finishing touches on the beehive and placed it outside. I setup and plugged in the incubator. it had to come up to temperature and normalize for 6 to 8 hours. Since I was waiting I went out and collected duck eggs from the nest. I had to wait a bit for the one duck to leave the nest, but the drake was there watching me very closely. The eggs were still quite cold, so she hasn’t been on them for long. I had to take and disinfect the eggs per the instructions that came with the incubator (and online advice).
Amidst all of this I still had to do the usual feeding, watering, and egg gathering. Eventually it was time to get Rusty ready to see the vet. I got him in the truck with no problem and when the Vet examined him she said she thought she could feel one testicle inside and so we made an appointment for Monday. I was able to show my pictures of the kids to the vet that helped deliver them. Since this did not take very long and the dog needed to be picked up from daycare I went in and got her.
After dinner the Adam and his girlfriend came out with some apples to give to the goats. He seemed surprised at how big they were getting and told me he had a name for the boy . We hung out in the pen for a while and then they went to get some dinner.
I have been milking the mama goats every other day for this past week and starting today I will milk them every day. The amount I get will depend on how fast the kids grow, how much they eat, timing of the meals and milking…… I had a sample of the milk yesterday ( it wouldn’t all fit in the jar) and it was very rich and sweet tasting.
I may have another pregnant goat in the pen right now. I think that somehow Rusty bred Skeeter and that is why she dried off. I was noticing this week that Skeeter seems to be heavier than when I was milking her this winter and Adam also made a comment on it. It only takes on to get the job done, and I think I left Rusty in the girl’s pen too long and didn’t band him soon enough AND if I missed one, well, I will see what mini-Nubians look like. Probably in May or June.
Mystery solved?: This week while looking at what needs to be done in the yard and orchard I found what could be a DarkWing duck wing in the front by the forsythia bush. Just a wing and nothing else. I wonder what got him?
So on to the egg count! For the week of 4/6/2014 thru 4/12/2014:
- Eggs gathered – 65
- Sold – 4 dozen
- Cartons filled – 5
And that is all for this week.