February 21, 2023

Late in the winter, Louise's arthritis got the best of her just a couple of weeks before her fifteenth birthday. We had to put her down rathern than extend her suffering. Quirky Goat Farm is currently down to five goats. The Nubian yearlings, a doe and a wether. They were orphan bottle babies purchased from a local breeder. Bottle kids are tricky, and I wanted to spare them the anguish of being raised by a rookie. They are now almost fifteen months old. Sissy will be bred in the fall, which will give her plenty of time to grow. She is simply brown with black tips. Boo, the wether, is moon spotted. What is it about the flashy colors going to the males? Sigh. I purchased two mature Saanens from Dapper Dairy near Weimer. Pearl and Bug are BIG white girls. I dried off Bug, had her bred, and she'd due to kid in March. Pearl is still giving three quarts per day on one milking. I'm trying to dry her off gently. I am transporting Bug to Texas A and M Veterinary College tomorrow, February 22. Her "girly bits" are profoundly swollen. It's not prolapse. The veterinarian her didn't know what is going on, so I called the vet school, sent a picture, and they said bring her in!

September 30, 2022

All is well on the Quirky Goat Farm, Spicewood Annex, with a contingent of six goats. The Nubians are now about ten months old and fully assimilated with the herd. The biggest news is that Gypsy has been deposed as herd queen. She had been behaving badly - biting and bullying the other goats. I removed her to a small pen for a "time out" of several days three times. After the third time, Bug, the largest Saanen, decided not to take any more bullying. She outweighs Gypsy by maybe 40 pounds, and she put every bit into pushing back. They fought, head butting and shoulder pushing, for several hours. By the next day, there was no doubt that Bug had deposed the queen and taken the position of leader. Gypsy had an obvious emotional reaction to losing her status. She stayed far away from everyone and didn't come for grain for two feedings. Even after a couple of weeks, she is still more solitary and subdued. I am milking Pearl, the other Saanen, once a day and getting three quarts every time. Cheesemaking takes place twice a week, and I'm working my way through all of the cheese recipes that I used to make. Chevre, of course, as that's the easiest. Robiola and brie. A batch of cheddar is underway as I am typing this.

Summer Solstice

I have to laugh. Apparently I wrote this quite a while ago. I wish the weather paid more attention to the calendar, and the official "end" of summer. These afternoon with temperatures in the 100s are a challenge to deal with. Good news on the goat herd. Travis had forwarded a link to The Dapper Goat dairy at Weimar. A few emails and a phone call, and I traveled to the dairy and acquired two "big white girls." Saanens are my favorite breed. Big, calm, softly talkative, and great production. Integrating these two lovely ladies (Pearl and Bug) into the herd has been a bit difficult.The roll includes Louise, age 14, her daughter Gypsy (10), Gypsy's daughter, Betsy (3), and Betsy's bucklings (one month). Add to that, the two Nubian orphan bottle kids, Sissie and Boo, now about five months old.

Goat update

I made the strategic error of joining a Texas Dairy Goats page on Facebook. A nice lady in Dripping Springs was liquidating her herd and had two orphan Nubians born in December. They were about two weeks old when I acquired them - bottle kids!!! Four times a day. Fun at first and then you remember WHY bottle kids are stressful.

Luckily, now in April, they are graduating to the adult pen during the day. Betsy, who is Louise's granddaughter, was bred to a Nubian buck and is due to kid the first week of May. Her X-ray shows at least two kids, but she is HUGE. As one of the Homesteading Today members says, she looks like she swallowed an ottoman.

Flat Rock Road, Llano, Texas

The house isn't visible from the road, which is nice. The driveway winds in and you are greeted with this well kept double wide home. Front deck, covered porch with a ceiling fan on the back.

The workshop with both a personnel door and roll up door is insulated and has a one bedroom living space with bathroom and laundry along the back wall.

This wonderful equipment shed has four perfectly balanced doors, plus a solar powered opener on the left hand door.

 

The bunkhouse is nicely finished inside with paneling, a twin bed, and a powerful air conditioner.

Funny how things happen...

About a year ago, I had planned to phase out of rental properties. Hahaha. Then, the runaway housing market in Austing prompted me to sell the house on O'Dell that my mother had purchased thirty two years ago for Travis and Nathan to live in while they attended the University of Texas. After the boys graduated, I rented the house to college students and various folks. The market yielded about a sixfold profit. Thanks to the IRS program for a 1031 Like Kind Exchange, I could invest the money in another property and not have to pay Capital Gains Tax. The search was on for a replacement property. Thank goodness, a local realtor and I had been working together, as I had purchased four lots in the small, vintage gated community of Lakeside Beach. She located a 13.5 acre property just east of Llano, Texas. A gentleman had been building a fine horse facility there, but unfortunately, he passed away before it was complete. The land is hill country granite and granite gravel. There are oak and mesquite trees, native persimmons, and a myriad of cactus varieties. Three ponds are located to the north of the house. There is a high producing water well at the house, and another well that I am going to develop toward the north end of the property Excellent horse fence borders the property and separates the horse area from the house. The 1800 sq ft double wide mobile home, although a couple of decades old, has been very well maintained. Only minimal work will need to be done to have it in rentable condition. The kitchen counters have been re-tiled in a Texas theme. We are repainting the interior. A fire pit is already in place for evening cookouts or simply visiting around the fire. Other buildings on the property include: Insulated barn - 30' x 40' with personnel door and roll up shop door. Concrete floor. Living quarters in the back of the building. Equipment shed - 29' x 48' with four swinging doors. Two operated by solar powered openers. Dirt floor. Feed/tack room - 12' x 12' with personnel door. Concrete floor. Concrete floor wash rack (under the roof) for hosing your horse down after rides. Round pen for working horses. Run out pens. Three bay chicken coop or dog pen. Garden area behind the house. Was fenced to keep out native rabbits, but that fence is in disrepair, and the garden has gone back to prairie. I don't know yet if there is improved garden soil there. Because of the size of the property, the layout, and the buildings, this will be a multi-income stream opportunity. I am in the process of designing a tiny house to build near the second water well. A local mushroom grower plans to extend his production facility to the property and develop a small mulch production site for the spent substrate that is a natural part of the mushroom growing process. Think mushroom dirt from The Natural Gardener.

First Freeze in Spicewood 2020

The weather guys guessed wrong. It got colder than expected. I left the faucets around the house dripping, but one above ground water line froze anyway. Plus, I forgot the landscape watering timer that comes off the well house. The faucet is fine, but the timer itself froze and blew ALL its gaskets.