Goats R Us

 A man in a movie theater notices what looks like a goat sitting next to him.
"Are you a goat?" asked the man, surprised.
"Yes."
"What are you doing at the movies?"
The goat replied, "Well, I liked the book."

 

 

 

When I went to look up this video, I'd forgotten its title. I made the mistake of googling "goat metal band."

Apparently, the world has its fair share of German hard rock bands...

Our urban farming experiment includes many things:

• Getting off the grid
• Getting a generator
• Growing our own vegetables
• Installing solar panels
• Creating a barn for my all-time favorite farm animal - the goat!

...and not necessarily in that order.







I mean, how can you not love an animal that can do right by a Taylor Swift song?

Of course, tons of people envision tin-can-chomping goats.

 

(They don't really eat tin cans; they eat the labels. They feel almost everything with their lips, so it looks like they eat anything they get near...of course, that's true, too, I've heard. They eat anything!)

Before starting this venture, we decided anyone new to the house (including animals and teenagers) would work to earn their place in the house. No more dogs who pretend to be guard dogs only when the pizza guy shows (I'm looking at you, Bob.)

Like most families, we support a lot of people - in our house and outside of it. Taking on more responsibility without having something benefit or at least help with the house was not something we were (or are) interested in.

So dem's da rules!

We're starting with two (yes, you have to get at least two, we're told or they will nag you foreveeeeeerrrrrrrrrr) Nigerian Dwarf goats. They're supposed to be awesome milkers (and it's supposed to be super yummy) AND they are smaller, which is something us first time farmers need - easy and little. I don't want to chase a llama-sized goat down the road or out into our woods.

I'm just saying...

Anyway, goats are perfect for our little urban farm and here's why:

• Goats not only act as lawn mowers (which you can hire them out for jobs like that), but also, they are fantastic weed eaters.
  Because they eat weeds differently than cows and donkeys, goats can help permanently eradicate weeds.
• Goats make milk even I can drink.
  Goat's milk is supposed to easier for those lactose-intolerant folks.

• Baby goats (kids) make a tidy sum when you sell them (especially if you've shown them and they've won awards. Even more so if they are registered.)
• Goats make crazy good cheese. Or rather, I make crazy good cheese from the goat's milk...or at least, I will....once I learn how.

Keep in mind, we're just starting out. We've read a ton, and this is what we've learned so far. As we go along, I'll update you with what happened to US!

copyright - All rights to the work posted on this site are retained by Cass Van Gelder. If you'd like to use some of my work, please ask. To do so, the permissions must be spelled out in writing...from me...I mean it. I have horribly mean cats; don't make me use them.

Riddle Me This... What Does Come First - The Chicken, The Goats, or The Dog?

Riddle:

You have a bag of chicken feed, a fox, and a chicken. You come to a river that you can't swim across, but there is a boat. The boat is only big enough for you to take two (2) things with you at a time. How do you get all three items across the river?


Yeah... that's the life we seem to be living lately.

One of our goals is to have goats, as you all have read. However, a couple of weeks ago, a neighbor told us he had seen coyotes in the fields. Seeing as we have deer free-roaming and a water source running around our entire subdivision, I'm not terribly surprised. I am however frustrated.

This means we have to get a guardian dog.

For those who are newer than us to this, a guard dog is different than a guardian dog.

A guard dog imprints on you and your family, protecting you as if you were theirs - which, admittedly, we are. Let's not kid ourselves. Our three dogs allow us to feed them and, in their world, we should be grateful for the privilege. (With one pup named Princess Buttercup, who were we kidding anyway?)

A guardian dog imprints on the livestock, protecting and caring for them as if they were theirs, or their family.

We've never had a guardian dog and weren't really sure how to go about this, but we also didn't want to lose any goats because we had underprepared.

Es no bueno...

(Thank you, Four-Years-of-High-School-Spanish. I have finally put you to use. For those wanting to know where the escuela is, you're out of luck.)


Guardian Dog Research

Quickly, I did a loooooooot of research (which I now understand why anyone under 18 thinks they know everything since their version of research involves Starbucks and a bunch of clicks. They don't even have to read anything, in some cases. They click a button and it'll read it aloud. Next decade, maybe we'll all just have to slather knowledge on like butter, rub in in like lotion and poof, you know everything.)

Anyway, I tracked down this one person who breeds non-registered Great Pyrenees dogs. (The research available said they were fantastic guardian dogs, especially with goats.) On our drive home, Big Daddy and I phoned the breeder up and chit-chatted about a few details. The breeder asked us what animals we were going to be adding, and we started our short list, "Goats, chickens, maybe rabbits.." I said.

"Yeah, you'll have to get those first," she said.

"The goats?" I asked.

"Nope," she said. "The chickens. You gotta get them while she's still a pup. When they can still put her in her place. Otherwise, she'll eat chase 'em...might even kill 'em."

Say what?!

I had been spending weeks and weeks, pouring over every book on goats I could get my hands on. I have signed up for Facebook groups about small farms. I have read blogs about the virtues of every goat imaginable. And now, I had to get chickens first.

It's not that I don't like chickens. I actually do like them. In fact, we were planning on getting them.

Eventually.

Suddenly, I felt as if I'd studied for a math test for weeks, only to find out on the day, it wouldn't be for another two weeks, but the science one was in ten minutes.



Chicken Research



Black-laced Wyandotte

Over the next two days, Evelyn Wood had nothing on me. I sped-read everything I had skimmed before. I searched. I googled. I got a freaking headache from all the chicken knowledge I had stuff in my brain that was now pounding up against my skull.



Blue-laced Wyandotte

From my research, we picked out Wyandottes and a backup of Buff Orringtons. Websites were filled with how they were good egg layers, friendly, and - most importantly in an urban area - quiet.
























Great Pyrenees Breeder Research

Last Saturday, we drove up to Northeast Tennessee to see about a pup. We learned a few difficult things:

1. The pup should glom onto the animals and not us. This meant no human food and no bringing her in the house. As the breeder said, "You can turn them into pets afterwards, but you can't turn them into guardians later."
2. You can't bring her inside the house unless you want her to lose all her coat and be incredibly uncomfortable. Great Pyrenees have coats so thick that if you do bring them inside, they will likely plot your death in the afternoon. They get overheated and love being outdoors. Seeing as I don't want to sleep with one eye open, the pup stays outside.



Our new Great Pyrenees addition

3. Getting chickens would have to happen before or with the pup. "She'll get big quick," the breeder said. "Give the chickens as chance to tell her to back off."

We left a deposit for our new female pup - who is currently unnamed. Suggestions are appreciated.

We'll be back up in two weeks to claim her. We needed to get some things in order before we were descended by a playful puppy who needed to be trained.

Plus, our housemate, Rachel, needed to buy the pup some toys... don't let her kid you, she's a sucker for puppies...and dogs...and any animal that doesn't resemble a snake.



Chicken Breeder Research

On our way back home, we decided to stop at the Poultry Hollow in Carthage, TN. The owners have over 55 breeds of birds...and they have pigs, and dogs, and sheep, and goats, and sneaky donkeys (as the sign coming into the place tells you.)

The owner was patient with us, knowing that we were starting out. We told her what our goals were, what we had to work with, and what we gleaned from our research.

She looked at me with the patience of mother with a backward child. If she had reached out to patted me on the head, I wouldn't have been surprised.



ISA Brown

She lead us towards the ISA Browns, mainly because they are excellent layers and they were friendly. We watched her box up a few for a small family that had come to extend their small brood with a new variety. The beaks poked out as the little girls jumped back.

















The infamous white turkey

By the end of the day, we had spent a good hour talking with the owner, and not just about chickens. She has a fair amount of animals I hadn't seen up close, including a white turkey.


















But as we drove away, we knew we'd gotten some good advice and at least weren't going to overwhelm ourselves.



Calf that seemed very interested in my camera

So, for us, the pup comes first, then a few hours, then chickens, then a few weeks later, the goats. In the meantime, we start building new habitats for them all.

Whew!





Oh, and if you want the answer to the riddle above, it's more simple than you think...

First, you take the fox and the chicken feed across. You leave the fox and take the feed back with you. Then you take the chicken and the feed across.

That's it.

Sometimes, you have to go backwards to go forwards.



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Composting for an Idiot (i.e., Me.)

Sunny Saturday came equipped with a drill - something I've made a point that my son and my daughters know how to operate.

 

Ella was hesitant at first, but as you can see, once she got going, no one was taking that drill from her.

 

Just like the video from a week ago, Ella drills ventilation holes in the sides, about 3-5 inches from the top. We had a much larger bin, so we opted for 5 inches.

Everyone had a go at it, even Big Daddy (as we'll call my husband. He kind of likes "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".)

That's sort of where we are on all of these activities - everyone participates because

a) everyone benefits from the results

and

b) likely everyone will need to do this in the future.

The sun shines through the finished product!

Our bouillabaisse of shredded junk mail gave us a great start to our composting heap. (Yeah, Lillian Vernon, I'm looking at you.)

We opted for 4 tubs of worms from the Wal-Mart bait and tackle section. In our town, they carry the same red wigglers you can buy online. At this one, it was about $3.56 for a tub of 30 worms. That gave us about 120 worms - not nearly enough.

As the pictures show, our tub is much bigger than the one featured in an early posting. So, we went back and got another 10 tubs. Now, we have about 420 worms and their soon-to-be offspring munching away on  all kinds of yummy things, including:

• Dryer lint
• Coffee grounds
• Coffee filters (torn up)
• Tea bags
• Flour
• Powdered sugar (I've been told you have to be careful with sugar because it can throw everything out of balance. We still have it in the original container and store it near the compost, sprinkling a little on each time we add new material.)
• Damp and dry leaves
• Vegetable cuttings

I've been surprised by the vast lists of things we can add to it!

ALSO, our town has decided to allow for picked up recycling. For a $20 deposit, they leave a large container and pick it up once a week. It makes getting rid of cardboard boxes easier.

The finished product!

The whole process is super easy. The longest part was arguing over who would get to use the drill next.

Next up: Riddle Me This... What Does Come First - The Chicken, The Goats, or The Dog?

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