Learning to coexist with the natives of nature can often be one of the more rewarding parts of rural living.  An early summer morning with that first cup of coffee out on the porch can become a concert when turkey gobblers begin sounding off from their perches in trees where they roosted overnight.  Nothing on the television can compare to watching out the window on a snowy winter day as a wily fox makes his way along the fencerow in search of an unsuspecting rabbit or rodent.  And who doesn’t like watching deer feeding in clearings just before dark?

But surrounding yourself with entertaining nature doesn’t necessarily happen automatically.  When humans make inroads into rural areas they can often nudge wildlife along deeper into the woods or to the next ridge or valley over.  But there are simple things a rural landowner can do to encourage wild animals to stay close and to even attract wildlife to your property.  Just as city dwellers will build bird-feeding “shrines”, squirrel perches or koi ponds to have a touch of nature close, living in and near nature the rural homesteader can plant wild animal food plots, create mineral licks, and build water sources to keep their wild neighbors within viewing range.

Just as a property owner wants to maintain healthy woodlots and streams, maintaining a healthy animal population is important as well.  Creating food, water, and mineral sources for wildlife is neither expensive nor exceptionally difficult.  First, it’s important to have a very basic understanding of how animals live and eat.  Then you simply choose the right locations on your property and set about creating some habitat enhancers.

Before you start it’s important to realize that, unlike suburban bird feeders, food and water sources for larger animals will not be located in your yard.  In fact, they can be a hundred yards or more from your house or outbuildings.  Animals such as turkey, deer, foxes, and smaller game will range a couple miles or more.  Still, providing food and water sources will help hold more animals on your land, which equals more viewing opportunities.

Understanding the Animals

The goal is to attract wildlife to your property.  There are a few basic steps you can take which will benefit a wide assortment of creatures.  For instance, having deer passing through or living on your land will mean they’ll leave behind antlers each winter when the bucks shed their headgear.  Discarded antlers contain calcium, which will be eaten by squirrels and other small creatures for the mineral content.  Minerals found in man-made mineral licks you place on your property will be utilized by deer to grow larger and stronger bone and antlers, and by turkeys to develop stronger eggshells and healthier poults.  More wild turkey, quail, and other poults of ground-nesting birds will mean necessary food for foxes.  Plants grown in small food plots will increase the rabbit population, which will also benefit foxes relying on rodents and other small furbearers for food.

For years we’ve maintained food plots and mineral licks throughout our farm.  Periodically throughout the year, we set up a game camera—a weatherproof digital camera triggered by movement—near the food plots to see what is stirring.  It’s common to capture snapshots of any combination of songbirds, hawks, crows, quail, squirrels, opossums, rabbits, raccoons, foxes, turkeys, and deer feeding together at the same time from the same feeder, plantings, or mineral lick.  To keep it simple, the best bet is to stock feeders or plant greenery, which will benefit a variety of animals.  Likewise, all animals can benefit from a year-round water source.

Turkeys breed around March or April and lay a clutch of eggs that will hatch in about 28 days.  Deer will mate in the fall and, following a 180 to 200 day gestation period, will give birth in May or June.  Squirrels and many other small furbearers mate in late winter or early spring and give birth a month or two later.  All animals can benefit from proper nutrition both during the gestation cycle and when raising newborns.

Spring and early summer can be considered the most critical time for deer.  It’s during these months that bucks are sprouting and growing new antlers.  Unlike cattle, which grow horns and keep the same set for a lifetime, antlered deer grow a new set of headgear each summer and shed the antlers in mid-winter.  Think about growing a new set of arms or legs and how that might tax your body.  Growing two sizable antlers in a matter of months can require lots of extra nutrition and minerals.  At the same time, female deer, or does, impregnated in November or December will be completing their gestation period.  If growing new antlers can rob you of nutrition, try growing an entirely new animal … or maybe even twins or triplets.  And bucks can lose up to 25 percent of their body mass between January and April.

Where and How to Attract Wildlife to Your Property

I manage my family’s hunting property.  It consists of 78 acres that were once my grandfather’s working cattle and hay farm in the Missouri Ozarks.  At his passing a dozen years ago, the property had about 50 acres of fields and 28 acres of woodlots.  We cut and sell about 30 acres of hay each year now, with the rest rapidly diverting back to woods.  I started off by putting up some homemade grain feeders.  These are simple and cheap to make, and I’ll give the directions for making one a little later.  The feeders, which cost about $5 to $8 a piece to make, can benefit a wide variety of animals.  They are attached to a tree using wire, twine, or a bungee cord, and can be installed and removed with no damage to the tree.

My next move was to plant two food plots several years ago.  Now I’m working on a couple more.  With each food plot, I create I also start a mineral lick nearby.  A mineral lick is every bit as important as a food plot, and I’ll explain why shortly.  When choosing a site for a feeder, food plot, or mineral lick, I make sure my habitat enhancers are located near established travel lanes and plenty of escape cover. This makes the animal feel safer when dining at your food stop.  If you’ve lived on or visited your property very much, chances are you’ve seen animals coming and going. Look closer and you’ll find travel paths that often lead between feeding and bedding areas. A water source nearby is a definite plus, and one can be created for cheap.

Make a Homemade Wildlife Feeder to Attract Wildlife to Your Property

The simplest way to help feed wild animals is with homemade feeders.  A basic wildlife feeder can be made with plastic sewer pipe and fittings from the nearest hardware store or lumber yard.  It requires only a handsaw or some type of sharp utility knife.  Gluing the pieces together is optional but suggested.  Painting the feeder will help it blend into the surroundings, but the animals really don’t seem to care if you leave it white as it comes from the store.

You’ll use this type of wildlife feeder to distribute whole, cracked or crimped corn, chicken scratch, oats, birdseed, or a combination of feeds.  I tend to use a mixture of cracked corn and oats.  Birds tend to prefer the cracked corn, and if you use whole corn kernels the squirrels will simply gnaw a hole into a kernel and eat the meat out of the seed anyway.

To make a feeder you’ll need a four-foot piece of thin- or thick-walled PVC (plastic) sewer or water line.  I prefer a thin-walled pipe that holds up for 10 years or so before becoming brittle from sunlight and the elements.  You’ll also need two end caps for the pipe, and a 45-degree three-way slip fit joint.  The easiest way is to purchase an 8-foot piece of pipe, four end caps, and two 45-degree joints—which makes two feeders.  It’s as easy to make two at a time as it is to make one.  Doing so will only take about 15 to 30 minutes to complete.

Here’s how! Cut the pipe to a four-foot length.  Now cut off a four- to six-inch piece of the pipe and set it aside.  On one end of the longer piece of pipe glue the 45-degree joint on with the straight run in line with the pipe and the 45 degree opening pitched back toward the length of pipe.  Next insert the short piece of pipe into the opposite opening of the straight run.  This creates a sleeve on which to glue one of the end caps, which will be the base of your feeder.    The second cap will not be glued in place, but will serve as a removable lid for the feeder.   It’s that simple.  If you choose to paint the feeder now is the time.  If so, paint the lid as well, but don’t put the lid on while the paint is wet, or it will stick in place.

To use the feeder all you have to do is attach it in an upright position to a tree or fence post (using wire, twine or a bungee strap) near an existing animal trail or area where you wish to view wildlife.  Remove the cap and fill the length of the tube with feed.  A four-foot long feeder will hold about 25 pounds of grain.  When you fill the tube a small amount will spill out of the 45-degree opening, but don’t worry about it because it’s normal.  During use squirrels and other animals will drag out a little feed onto the ground, but turkeys and other birds will quickly clean it up.  Replace the lid cap to keep the grain in the feeder dry.  When I first install a new feeder I’ll also scatter a few handfuls of grain around the feeder to initially attract animals.  I have as many as a dozen homemade feeders in place on our farm throughout the year.

Here’s an important note: Some states prohibit feeding, or “baiting”, turkeys or deer during hunting seasons.  If you or anyone else intends to hunt on or near your property you might want to brush up on the laws of your state to assure there’s no misunderstanding about your intention to feed wildlife.  In our case our land is used for hunting, so we remove all supplemental feeders several weeks prior to hunting season.  The brief interruption in feeding doesn’t seem to deter the animals from returning once the feeders are back in place.

The next step up is to plant small “plots” of grains and greens to be used by wildlife.  These food plots can range from a few square yards to a quarter-acre or more each.  Here again, the goal is to grow plants that multiple animals will benefit from.  For example, a small patch of corn will be visited by raccoon, deer, squirrel, quail, and pheasant.  Sunflowers will attract songbirds, doves, and even deer.  Sorghum is popular with raccoon, deer, and other foragers.

If you really want your plantings to do well, make sure your soil is optimal. If you’ve never had your soil tested, or even if you have but it’s been a while, spring is a good time to take a soil sample to your local Soil Conservation office for a pH test.  If the test reveals a need for lime, spring is the ideal time to incorporate it.

The folks at the soil office can provide specifics based on the test results, but an ideal pH level for milo and many other food plot plants is about 6.5.  A rule of thumb is that it’ll take about a half-ton of crushed limestone to raise the pH on a quarter-acre plot by about a half of a point.  The limestone should be added to the soil and turned under if at all possible.  Either way, the lime needs to be added prior to seeding, or spring growth for existing plants.  If you wish to fertilize a general suggestion would be a 12-12-12 mix of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus.

If you’re starting a new food plot, or adding new seed, consider corn, soybeans, vetch, milo, sorghum, clover, alfalfa, or sunflowers—all good choices for supplemental spring and summer greens, beans and grains.  As for corn, I’ve planted everything from a garden variety “candy corn” to common field corn.  Just because your planting this spring and want to see some immediate results, don’t overlook planning ahead for the other seasons.  Some winter hardy choices include winter wheat, rye, and oats.

Sorghum offers some unique qualities of food plot seed.  Deer generally won’t eat the plant at all during the summer, but the seed heads are a delicacy during late summer or fall.  Since deer aren’t interested in the plant’s stem, it helps guarantee a crop planted in the spring that won’t be eaten when other options are available, and then will already be in place when fall arrives.  And it doesn’t require a lot of water.

Water for Wildlife

Having a water source near your food plots and mineral licks will only help draw and hold wildlife on your property.  Consider it “one-stop” shopping, and who doesn’t enjoy a refreshing drink after a meal.  Look at all the hoof prints around a woodlot pond and you’ll know what I’m talking about.  I’m fortunate that my grandfather put in several small ponds throughout his farm back in the mid-1900s.  All the ponds were dug using a drag scoop, sometimes called a slip scoop, pulled by a team of horses or one of his old Farmall tractors.  Two food plots on our land sit close to a spring-fed stream that flows little more than a trickle most of the year.  But a trickle is enough to keep a few puddles and bends of the little gravely creek filled with fresh water.

If you have a creek or stream nearby that’s ideal.  Digging or using an existing pond would be the next best option.  But unless you’re a farmer or own an earthmoving business, the cost of putting in ponds for animals which are not sold for income can be pretty expensive.  But don’t fret, because there are other options.  Consider hiring the work done by a local contractor or farmer with a backhoe, dozer, or skid steer.  If that doesn’t pan out, use galvanized farm stock tanks, or build your own water tank from an old heavy equipment tire.

Setting up a small galvanized or rubber stock tank is the simplest.  The main drawbacks are that galvanized tubs are metal and heat up quickly in direct sunlight or summer heat.  Stagnant water that gets hot can quickly turn slimy and undesirable.

Another option is using an old equipment tire to make a water tank.  Tractor tires work well, but combine or skidder tires hold a lot more water.  If you decide to go this route you’ll be sealing the bottom of the tire with one of three options—plastic sheeting, concrete, or bentonite.    The plastic is cheaper but has to be replaced periodically.  Concrete is more permanent but also more expensive (and you’ll likely be mixing bags by hand to do this relatively small job far away from the driveway or state road).  Bentonite—often used as a binding agent in sand casting, in model rocket parts manufacturing, and in winemaking to remove excessive proteins from white wine among other uses—is the third option.  Since this tank will likely be filled on occasion by dumping water in from a bucket or barrel for this use we’ll stay away from the Bentonite which can be washed away with a stream of water under pressure … such as being dumped from a height.

If you opt to go this route, here are the steps for a tire tank: First, cut out one sidewall of the tire.  A reciprocating saw works great for this and a chainsaw is another, albeit more dangerous, option.  Leave about six inches of sidewall from the tire lugs in toward the center.

If you’re using concrete to seal the bottom, go ahead and set the tank in a place where it will sit with the intact sidewall and bead down.  It works great to dig the tire partially into the ground.    The other option is to mound and pack dirt in around the base on the outside.  Next, fill the hole in the bottom with concrete.  Use a stick to push it up under the bottom sidewall and fill until the top level extends just above the bead of the tire.  Allow the concrete to dry for 24 hours or so, and the tank will be ready for use.

The other option is using a piece of plastic sheeting to line the bottom of the tire tub.  In this case, you’ll want a heavy plastic about twelve inches larger in diameter than the hole in the bottom of the tire.  First, fill the area within the bead of the tire with dirt to within about an inch of the bead.  Now scuff the bottom outer area of the plastic sheeting with a grinder to rough it up to help with adhesion.  Make sure the exposed inner portion of the bottom sidewall and bead are free of dirt and debris, then apply a layer of silicone adhesive or thick tar to the newly scuffed plastic and flip it over and press it in place.  Let it dry before filling the tire with water.  An extra step that helps is to screw the plastic sheeting to the tire’s sidewall with self-tapping, broad-headed screws every six inches or so.

A tire or stock tank holds far less water than even a small pond, but it’s still a way to get some water where it’s needed if digging a pond is not an option.

Supplemental Minerals for Wildlife

Growing antler, bone, and viable eggshells requires minerals.  Bucks with big headgear need lots of them.  It’s equally important for does to grow healthy fawns, or turkey and quail to have strong shells on eggs.  A weak shell can be crushed by the weight of the sitting hen and is more prone to damage by scavengers.  Investing in feeders, food plots, and water sources are great uses of your time and resources.  But the triangle needed to attract wildlife to your property is not complete with talking about supplemental minerals.  Animals will discover the minerals within a matter of days and it’ll become a regular stop on their travels in no time.

You can mix up your own mineral mixture using simple ingredients found at any farm and ranch or feed store.  Over the years I’ve seen lots of recipes for mineral lick mixtures and am relatively sure most of them are beneficial and in no way harmful.  But I was given one several years ago by a coworker that is simple, relatively inexpensive, and easy to mix and use.  It uses three ingredients: trace minerals, di-calcium phosphate, and common stock salt.

All the ingredients are readily available in 50-pound bags from your local animal feed store, and you’ll be using a ratio of 2-to-1 trace mineral compared to the other two ingredients.  That gives you 200 pounds of mineral mix, enough to establish two decent-sized licks and keep them “freshened up” for about two years.  The day I was writing this article I checked on prices with the feed store in town and the total cost for all three ingredients was $60, only a few dollars higher than my last visit several months ago.  That’s not bad for 200 pounds of antler and fawn-growing goodness.

Mix the ingredients only when you’re ready to use them.  Otherwise, keep the bags separate and stored in a dry place.  To start with you’ll be using about 25 pounds of mixed product per location.  Find a tub or barrel big enough to hold that much and allow for easy stirring to mix the goods together.  Now measure out about six pounds each of stock salt and di-calcium phosphate and 12 pounds of trace mineral.  If you don’t have a scale then use a discarded coffee can which already has the weight-by-volume amount worked out and marked on it.  Once enough of each ingredient is in the barrel or tub mix it thoroughly.

To create a lick you can dig a hole slightly larger than what would be necessary to hold the roughly 25 pounds of mix.  Remember, your goal here is to feed the deer and not the earthworms so keep that indention wide and shallow.  My mineral licks are about 10 to 15 yards away from the edge of my food plots and about 10 to 15 feet across.  With a hole dug, now stir in some of the soil you just removed and some of the mineral mix and stir it in the hole.  Add more soil and more minerals and stir it together until you have all the dirt and mix mounded up in the hole.

When the deer and other animals discover the lick and it won’t take too many days for them to start excavating the mineral-rich soil from the hole.  By then any rain showers will have dispersed the mineral into the surrounding ground as well.  The most used lick on our property is now about 20 feet across and nearly a foot deep in places.  Return to the lick in three or four months and freshen it up with about half as much mixture as you started it with—about 12 pounds.  Just broadcast the mixture into the hole and let nature takes its course.  Repeat the process every four months or so.

Whether it be making and installing simple feeders, planting a food plot, creating a water source, or establishing a mineral lick, the time and effort invested to attract wildlife to your property will have a direct effect on the wildlife population and, subsequently, the number and diversity of animals you’ll see on your property.  You’ll quickly discover that some of the most interesting new neighbors you’ll find in the country have four legs or feathers.

The post Attract Wildlife to Your Property appeared first on Homestead.org.

Preparing the Homestead for Winter, Part Two: The Machinery

There’s a passage in the good book which states, “To whomever much is given, of him will much be required” – Luke 12:48.

Perhaps never has that been more true than for the homesteader who has livestock in the winter.

Like almost everyone else who goes into rural living or homesteading as a first-generation lifestyle, my wife and I had a steep learning curve the first winter after we purchased our flock of chickens some dozen years ago.  After buying a few mature birds, and raising a couple dozen more from chicks in the spring, we thought we had taking care of yard birds all figured out… that is, until winter arrived.

That first year, we learned important things like how to keep plenty of unfrozen water, how to get the coop buttoned up against the bitter winter wind, and that we could encourage more egg production by supplementing the shorter days with some artificial lighting.

While birds may be more fragile than goats, pigs, or cattle, the fact is that all livestock requires some extra attention during the harsh winter months.  If you have a hive of bees, or hutch of meat rabbits, or even a dog or some barn cats, they, too, need some extra attention.  In nearly all instances, you must focus on providing ample useable water, shelter, and, nutrition, as well as keeping an eye on health.  Failure in any of those categories and egg, milk, or meat production can suffer, or, in the worst-case scenario, you can lose animals altogether.

I’m no expert, but I do have decades of experience helping raise everything from bees to cattle to hunting dogs. Here are some things to consider when the mercury drops in the thermometer:

Preparing the Animals for Winter: The Water

Water is truly the nectar of life.  The bodies of animals, just like humans, are made up primarily of water.  It’s required to keep blood flowing, muscles supple and strong, eyes focused, and the brain’s and body’s systems functioning properly.  And it takes a lot of it to keep going.  Multiple sources say requirements can be as much as three gallons per day for sheep and 12-14 gallons for cattle.  Pigs require 3 to 5 gallons for a mature adult.  For birds, it’s much less since they get as much as half of their required moisture intake from feed, but it’s still very important to provide plenty of supplemental unfrozen water.

Many novices will tend to think their animals can get plenty of water when there’s snow on the ground—after all, moisture is everywhere, right?—but, it’s not useable moisture.  Eating snow or licking ice to get water solves one problem but creates another.  Snow and ice consumption will rapidly lower the body temperature of any creature and, therefore, should be discouraged.

You’ll need to provide all your animals with drinking water that is at least 37 degrees or warmer.  You can do this in any of several ways.  The first, and most time- and energy-consuming, is to freshen water bowls, tubs, and/or troughs several times a day when the temperature drops below freezing.  If you’re wanting the exercise and don’t mind the time it takes, or have no means of getting power to your coop or pens, this is, by far, the most cost-effective.  But it’ll require a few trips a day to make it work on bitterly cold days.

If you have the luxury of electricity to your livestock areas then you’re way ahead in the game.

Back when we switched our focus from raising hunting beagles to goats and chickens, the best things available were small electric coils you could buy and place in water pans or troughs.  While they worked well, there was always the fear of the mechanism falling too far into the water and shorting out, or worse, causing injury from electrical shock.  The ones we used had a little metal tab built-in that hung on the edge of the pan or trough to keep the wire connections to the heating coil above the waterline.  But you had to wire or zip-tie the heater in place against some fencing or a post to keep the animals from bumping it and dropping it into the drink.

Nowadays, multiple manufacturers offer cost-efficient and much safer alternatives in heated waterers or bowls.  The power unit is built into the container’s base and warms the water to above freezing through the surface of the container instead of the hot coil being directly in contact with the water.  Simply replace the old water system with a new heated system and plug it in, top it off with water and keep it filled and you’re good to go.  In the summertime, you can use the same container and just unplug it, but I prefer to switch back to a metal or rubber tub and take that opportunity to give the winter container a thorough cleaning and sterilizing before storing it away in the barn or shed until the next winter.

Regardless of the method you employ, fresh, unfrozen drinking water is an absolute must for all your animals.  A shortage can lead to reduced egg production, stress (which can taint the quality and flavor of meat), and cause more immediate concerns such as impaction and colic from food intake without proper water amounts.

Preparing the Animals for Winter: The Shelter

The next big concern, especially in winter, is shelter.  If you’re new to the livestock game there’s something you should know upfront: animals do not want, or need, to live in a tight, enclosed, toasty-warm enclosure.  And trying to keep them there can quickly result in illness and disease.  Animal shelters need plenty of fresh air circulating to keep down bacteria, mold, and other concerns from moisture, excess feed and excrement, and deteriorating bedding.

Furthermore, animals tend to toughen to conditions through a combination of genetics and the changing of seasons.  Oftentimes cattle standing out in a field with snow piling up on their backs are healthier than if you tried to keep them in a heated barn.  Now, of course, you need to provide some shelter for any animal to utilize, but the creatures tend to know when they want to use shelter or stay outside.  Provide, but don’t force to use.

That said, protection from harsh wind and driving rain, sleet, or snow is a must.  Additionally, pigs will need shade from sun more so than most other homestead animals.  For cattle, that shelter can be trees of thickets, but, for animals housed in more confined areas, without ample natural cover it’s up to you to provide cover.

In most cases, that can be three-sided sheds.  Unless you’re really concerned with aesthetics, shelter can be built from scrap lumber, tarps, or slab wood from the nearest sawmill.  Or if you want to go one step better, consider buying some rough-sawn lumber from the sawmill.  If you’re new to homesteading and just arrived in the country you might feel more comfortable visiting a lumber yard or hardware store but expect to pay considerably more.  But, keep in mind, if you’re going to be living rural, you’ll find many future uses for sawmill lumber.  And having a source for sawdust or chips for bedding, and mulch for your plants and trees is a necessity anyway.  My in-laws own and operate a sawmill and sell dimension lumber, slabs, sawdust, and mulch, and can custom cut larger dimension lumber for beams or sills… it’s a great resource for a homesteader.

As for the height and other dimensions for shelter for each animal type, that is beyond the scope of this article, but there’s countless resources online and in print from university outreaches and agriculture/farming cooperatives.  Just remember there needs to be enough cover for all animals (whether one or a dozen or more) to benefit at the same time without overcrowding each other.  Pigs prefer to lay close together.  While chickens will roost on the same pole or ledge, they prefer a little bit of space between them but will huddle a little closer together in the cold.  Each type of animal is different in their preference.

Earlier, we talked about how shelter should be able to breathe.  A building which is too tightly enclosed will promote bacteria, mold, and hold in ammonia fumes from urine.  That’s why three-sided shelters work well for cattle, goats, sheep, and such.  Provide a few good, solid walls to block wind and cold, but leave enough opening on one side to allow odors and dangerous fumes to escape, and good oxygen to filter in.  Barns should be built in such a way to allow for good ventilation, preferably with the entry/exit openings and main run in line with the prevailing wind direction.

Chickens need a good secure place to get out of the weather and roost a night.  But remember the focus is to protect them at night from predators and the harshest weather, not to stifle fresh air.  Barn cats will find what they need in the way of shelter, but dogs which live outside need a good house.

In every case, provide dry and clean bedding, especially during winter.  A common concern in winter is mud where animals tend to congregate and bed down.  Mud can lead to hoof or foot diseases (thrush or rot) and the formation of ice.  Considering a layer of gravel or sand below chip, hay, or other bedding to allow for a moisture barrier in shelter areas.  And just like water and food, shelter needs will require more attention during the colder winter months.

Preparing the Animals for Winter: Food and Health

All warm-blooded animals require additional nutrition during cold weather.  It takes more energy to provide more body heat, and cold rain, snow, or wind only adds to that need.  Some sources say if the outdoor temperature is holding in the 20- to 30-degree range or lower, then most livestock will need additional feed to maintain body temperature and functions.  I’ve read elsewhere that the level where more feed is required can be as high as 50 to 60 degrees for wet animals.

If you’re feeding grains, consider feeding more often in winter as opposed to just feeding more quantity at the usual times.  Some animals will get colic (stomach pain) from eating excessively and too quickly.  Shoot, I’ve been known to do the same thing myself when my wife makes the first big batch of chili each fall, or a German chocolate cake any time of the year.  It’s best to start slowly introducing more feed to animals when the weather starts turning cold.  This “fattening up” will provide extra internal fuel at the ready when excessive cold hits, instead of having to rely on taking in much more feed on any given day.

And remember that more food will be wasted during the winter months from being mixed with bedding and mud than will occur in other seasons.

One last note here: don’t overlook providing supplemental minerals during the winter.  Keep salt blocks and mineral blocks handy (and, of course, the weather will deteriorate them more quickly than in summer), and trace minerals and stock salt should be available for goats and sheep who tend to not use blocks as do cattle or horses.  I provide extra trace minerals and salt for wildlife around my hunting property during the winter as well.

The moral of this story is, if you’re going to have animals on the homestead in the winter, you need to plan to spend extra time and expenses to keep them healthy.  The real key is paying attention to their needs: water, shelter, and food.  You know that you require more attention during these months, and the same holds true for all your pets and livestock.

The post Preparing the Homestead for Winter, Part Three: The Animals appeared first on Homestead.org.

I had accepted a position—a temporary position, mind you—as a farmhand in the farm department at a local living history museum.  I’d already been working at the museum for several years when I received a call, out of the blue, that January from the farm manager, John, who had just lost his only help to the Marines.  Years before, I’d done similar work, so rather than spend the winter collecting unemployment, I jumped at the chance to do something more my style.  Little did I know then that the call I took sitting at my dining room table was about to completely change my life.

By the end of March, lambing season was in full swing.  We had ten bottle lambs, and our very small department (all two of us) had its hands full keeping the lambs fed and occupied, on top of getting ready for another season open to the public.  We had things pretty well under control (or so we thought) when one of our goats decided to give us an April Fool’s Day present.

Tulip was our best breeding doe in the San Clemente Island Goat division of our rare breeds program.  Actually, she was our only breeding doe of that variety.  She’d given us two sets of twins within the last year.  Every morning, I would arrive in the barn to feed the four goats that lived in a stall together, and every morning, without fail, Tulip would stand up and smile broadly at me through the bars; I wondered what made her smile so.

We found out.

Sometime in the dead of night on March 31, coy Miss Tulip delivered a single doeling.  She had just kidded on September 17, so neither John nor myself had detected any sign of her new pregnancy, nor did we suspect it.  A volunteer at the museum stopped to visit the goats that morning and noticed the tiny kid, no bigger than a guinea pig, lying almost lifeless in a corner.  Said volunteer called John immediately, who went and retrieved her, fearing the worst.  She had poor circulation; her tongue was an unusual shade of plum.  The tendons in her rear legs hadn’t connected well to her tiny hooves.  He gave her less than a 50-50 chance of surviving.

John, who was overwhelmed with lambs bouncing around the barn when I stopped by the next morning, was more than a little frustrated with the tiny goat, now named Sandy, who was staunchly refusing to take a bottle.  I could tell he didn’t have time to deal with a “special-needs goat,” especially one that his dog didn’t like.  I offered to take care of her for a few days, an offer he readily accepted once he realized that I had, during our conversation, coaxed her into latching on to the tiny soda bottle and sucking down milk replacer for all she was worth.  At the end of the day, I went to collect my new charge.  He handed me a small pet carrier so light that I had to turn it and look in to make sure that Sandy was actually inside, a bag of milk replacer, and a bottle.

“Good luck and thank you,” was all he said.

I tucked her pet carrier into the back seat of my VW, picked up my now-husband, Chris, and drove the thirty miles to our home outside of Boston.  At the time, we were the resident caretakers of an antique farmhouse owned by the town’s historical society.  It had been at least half a century since livestock had lived anywhere near that house, as the town had changed during the twentieth century, shifting from a little agricultural and industrial town to a bedroom community for the nearby metropolis.  You could see the subway station from our kitchen window.  Town Hall was across the street.  But I figured that keeping a goat inside for a day or two while she got stabilized wouldn’t create any problems, and so we began Sandy’s first few days of intensive care as a housegoat.  Thankfully, Chris had raised goats before and was entirely enthusiastic and helpful with the project.  He very quickly fell in love with the tiny, haphazardly-assembled, adoring little animal that we were to baby-sit.

Because Sandy had to be bottle-fed at least three times daily, she had to go back and forth to work with us.  I’d transported livestock before but never had I encountered such a good passenger.  She was silent as we drove, causing me to worry that she’d died in transit, but no!  There she was, watching the world go by out the car window.  We’d arrive at work and she’d happily trot clumsily at my heels.  Chris quickly became Papa and I became Mama, and Sandy quickly became attached.  So did we.

A week went by and I called John to ask him when he wanted Sandy back.  He was noncommittal.  I stopped up at the barn after work one day and he watched the tiny goat follow me everywhere I went with his characteristic wry smile.

“Nope!  She’s yours!  I don’t need her back,” said he.  At first, I thought John was joking.  I tried to argue that I lived in a small city, with a sizable yard but no fencing and no zoning regulations permitting a goat.  I had no experience in raising livestock at home.

“You’ll figure it out.”

John’s declaration left us with a conundrum.  Our housemate, Melissa, was equally enchanted by this deer-like sprite.  I’d been bandying about the idea of starting an urban agriculture program at the historical society for some time, and it seemed like this was the moment to make those plans a little more concrete.  Melissa and I approached the president of the society, suggesting we could keep Sandy and a couple of sheep with minimal fuss and maximum public appeal.  For a well-heeled Boston Brahmin who probably hadn’t kept so much as a guppy since his youth, he was remarkably receptive.  He advised calling the town and finding out what it would take to make it work.

By the time I had appealed to the Board of Health, Sandy was more than a month old.  She was still commuting to the museum every day, “helping” with chores and office work, delighting visitors.  She was also still terrified of goats.  Our 1,200-pound ox was her friend, but the mere sight of a goat sent her running.  Sandy’s day in court was fast approaching; I wrote up a proposal for our new urban agriculture program, designed a pen, dreamed up a manure removal program, and began wondering which trustees I could hit up for donations to make it all happen.

On the evening of her hearing with the Board of Health, suits were the attire of the occasion.  Sandy got her big-girl polka-dot collar and matching leash.  We summoned our friend Russ, volunteer extraordinaire at the historical society, to stand with us as an additional character witness on Sandy’s behalf.  And promptly at 6:45 p.m., Chris, Russ, Melissa, and I marched tiny Sandy across the street to Town Hall and up to the second floor.  Three members of the Board were present.  Sandy got scooped up and put on their table, where she politely nibbled their ties and their paperwork.  Three members of the Board promptly melted.

Variance granted.

Fundraising for the project began quickly and faltered nearly as fast.  One trustee gave $5,000 for the fence and a shelter.  Decisions could not be made without committee about the type of fence to be installed.  A second trustee was convinced there would be flies.  And who would pay for the feed for a goat and two sheep?  Chris and I booked a vacation for the middle of June just to get away from the nonsense of trying to establish the program.  I asked John to babysit Sandy while we went camping.

“Absolutely not.  Take her with you!” came his reply.

With that decided, we set about planning our trip.  Thankfully, the campground on Cape Cod we selected was pet-friendly.  So pet-friendly, in fact, that the reservation form asked, “Are you bringing pets?  Y/N.  If yes: Dog, cat, other.”  We cheerfully circled “other.”  Sandy moved into a big-girl pet carrier, one meant for Saint Bernards and the like, and we worked on weaning her before the trip.  She was still fully convinced that water was made out of poison and that grain was unsuitable for caprine consumption.  Chris went so far as to try the human-baby-weaning trick of pretending to eat the grain while smiling and saying, “Numnumnumnumnum!”  To this day, goat grain in our house is known as “nummies.”  Sandy remained largely unconvinced of its virtue.  We made our preparations for the trip, packed up the SUV, and promptly found we had a dead battery on the morning we were set to leave. AAA patched us up and we were on our way.

Before our journey began, I had indulged myself in a new book.  Its title intrigued me: The Backyard Homestead.  I admired New England farmers for their success, by the 19th century, in producing much of what they needed (at least in terms of meat, dairy, grain, fruit, and garden produce) on their own property.  I had acquired the book mostly with the intention of figuring out how to create a productive kitchen garden in our backyard to supply our foodways programs at the historical society.  I had no idea that the book was about to set us on a crash course with homesteading for ourselves.

Sandy loved camping.  Our campground neighbors thought she was the most darling creature ever (which, of course, she is).  We went hiking.  We went fishing with Papa, though Sandy could not figure out why Papa would return the fish to the “poison” after he had obviously rescued it.  We went antiquing.  We visited Provincetown (where it is apparently possible to actually attract attention from the locals by walking a goat around on a leash), and went shopping and investigated the harbor.  We almost took her to the top of the monument, but by that time, all of us were tired and didn’t want to climb stairs.  And I read The Backyard Homestead.  I informed Chris that we were going to buy a house and become at least partially self-sufficient.

He looked at me, took a deep breath, and agreed.

When we got back from the Cape, I launched into our new project with more gusto than I’ve ever tackled anything before.  To hell with the historical society!  I was burnt out after two years of working seven days a week between my two jobs, only one of which was still fulfilling.  I was inspired, and I would be damned if I weren’t going to succeed in finding us a place to put down roots.  Of course, two museum professionals rate somewhere between “destitute” and “working poor” on the socioeconomic scale, and while we didn’t need much, a mortgage was going to be hard to obtain.  All we wanted was a house on a piece of land suitable for tilling and penning up goats.  The process ended up being a bit like Frodo’s journey to Mordor in The Lord of the Rings, and those in our fellowship were treading a long and treacherous road.

The first tempting place I found in my search was, according to the listing agent, “not something that should be touched with a ten-foot pole.”  Robin, the realtor, asked a few simple questions after steering me away from that first property:

“What are you looking for?”

Me: “A house with at least a quarter-acre of land, preferably more, for as little money as possible.  We’re willing to put in sweat equity.  We just want to garden and raise goats and chickens.”

“How many bedrooms do you want?”

Me: “At least one.”

“How many bathrooms?”

Me: “At least one.”

“How long are you planning to own the home?”

Me: “Forever, preferably.”

“…Wow, you’re easy.”

Robin was our unfailing companion throughout the Saga of Buying the Bungalow.  She found us a number of properties that fit the bill in terms of land, but the houses weren’t quite what we had in mind.  We finally set up a date to see two places, one in West Wareham with an acre and a quarter on a pond and one with five acres in Middleborough.  Sandy, of course, was still commuting with us, and therefore had to come along to the house showings.  We left work one August afternoon and trundled our way through cranberry bogs and pine forests until we came to our destination: A small 1928 bungalow, nestled in a heavily wooded lot with pond frontage, with only one neighbor.  We let Sandy out of the car and walked around.  It had a great big back yard, shady and treed.  It had a shed.  Robin met us and showed us around inside; it had an interior not updated since the 1960s (perfect for a pair of vintage nuts like us).  Chris was effusive; I was in love, but reserved.  Sandy nummed the hostas, which we took as a sign of her approval.

This was the place.  We looked at the other house, which was not the place.  We began our quest in earnest.

The months that followed were agonizing.  No conventional mortgage lender would approve us.  Sandy continued to live in the dining room and commute to work with us, even though she had long since been weaned; we wondered what kind of people we were to have kept her without being established on a farm.  We took Sandy along to visit Chris’ parents in Maine, where we were hoping to get away from the stress.  We took her to Fort William Henry.  We took her to walk the rocks at Pemaquid, where she nummed the barnacles and seaweed and decided that she didn’t like seafood.  We discussed renting if we couldn’t get a mortgage; then we considered what kind of landlord would take a couple with lots of pets (including a housegoat).  We were just as discouraged by the time we got home as we had been when we left.

When we got back, Robin had an inspiration strike her at 2:00 in the morning.  She was kind enough to wait until 6:15 to call me with her idea: The USDA’s Rural Development program!  Ultimately, the paperwork and hoop-jumping were worth it.  The USDA came through for us, as we met both income and property location criteria.  The house would be ours!  The homesteading could begin!  Sandy dressed up as a fairy princess for Halloween to celebrate.  Then there were tie-ups, hang-ups, and hysterical fits of hysteria.  By the end of November, I was so tired and worried about the whole situation that I thought I’d tied myself permanently into a pretzel.  Tie-ups and hang-ups continued.  Sandy continued to live in the dining room.

To cheer ourselves up, Chris and I decided to do something characteristically unconventional.  The local Very Posh and Ritzy Mall had a pet night at their “Photos with Santa” stand.  None of the advertising said anything about “pets” being restricted to dogs and cats.  So, to get out of the gloom and doom of poverty and the uncertainty about our house, we bundled Sandy (and her new poinsettia-festooned holiday collar) into the VW and trudged off to the mall.  Never have I seen so many delighted folks in my life as we paraded our little goat past the high-end retailers that we could never afford even if we wanted to (which we didn’t).  Sandy was so proud of herself that she practically glowed.  Even the normally disgruntled “elves” at the photo booth were enchanted.  Santa was a good sport and posed dutifully with Sandy for her picture.  Our friends and relatives still hold that snapshot as being the essence of our insanity.

Shortly thereafter, we got word that we would be closing on the house on December 30.  We went to New Bedford, signed more paperwork than we ever imagined possible, and promptly invited our friends over for a bring-your-own-chair pizza-party in our empty bungalow.  We slept on an air mattress in the house that night, with visions of hand-picked salads and goat cheese and fresh eggs dancing in our heads.

Sandy’s life has gotten a little more ordinary since we bought our house, with periodic bouts of excitement.  She was the flower goat in our wedding and came along on our honeymoon—again, to Cape Cod, where the whole dream really coalesced.  The owners of the pet-friendly bed and breakfast we chose were so enamored of the idea that a honeymooning couple would take their beloved pet goat along that they waived the pet fee, upgraded us to a suite, and insisted on taking Sandy’s picture by the pool.  (They subsequently mentioned the visit in a review in the Boston Globe).

Sandy eventually made friends with another surprise goat who came to live with us later on and was actually sad when we sold him.  Sandy has gotten used to living with her baby sister, who came home to us after Maggie had an unplanned date with a buck of a different breed.  In April, Maggie—who is almost as small as her sister, and they’re both well below breed standard—gave us twins, and Sandy is begrudgingly accepting her niece and nephew as members of the goat herd, of which she is clearly not a part.

The Bungalow, never meant to be a farmhouse, has become one nonetheless.  We milked little Maggie for a month and had the best goat’s milk we’d ever tasted.  The sneaky chickens (cheeky sneakens?) roam free and hide their eggs.  The garden has been installed and besieged by baby bunnies.  We butchered our first meat chickens last weekend.  As much as I was tempted to call our place “Oops Farm,” considering all the surprises and accidents that inhabit the place, we decided on Withywindle Farm as a name, as we’re both Tolkien aficionados and our journey to becoming backyard farmers was a quest worthy of the Fellowship.  I still have that “temporary” job at the museum.  Our dreams continue to grow and come true, our quest is ongoing, and we have one tiny little goat and one generous farm manager to thank for giving us the kick-start that we needed.

As John once so sagely said, “You’ll figure it out.”

I guess we did.

The post The Housegoat: The Unusual Beginnings of Withywindle Farm appeared first on Homestead.org.

We decided to take matters into our own hands and taking the plunge into owning an intact buck. We weren’t ready to go from ground zero to owning a full-grown Nigerian Dwarf buck. Their compact size is less intimidating, but they’re still fairly hefty around 75 pounds. Instead, we decided to purchase a sweet little buckling. We choose him for his impressive dairy lines and character. And boy, are the boys cute!

1. Bond Early On

Our buckling was just five weeks old when he came to live with us, which meant we bottle fed him every day for about two months. At the beginning, that was three times a day, graduating to just mornings and evenings, and finally weaning him off completely. During this time, he bonded with us and was an absolute joy to play with. It also meant we had the time to train him to stand still and not mind getting his hooves trimmed, to go for little walks with us, respect the electric fencing, and generally build trust. This bonding time has made working with him a breeze.

2. Easy & Safe Enclosures

By the time our buck was about eight weeks old we moved him and our wether into their own pasture including their own “buck barn”. Their barn is just big enough for an averaged sized adult human to go in and out. It’s easy to clean, fairly easy to move around inside, but not so big that it’s drafty and cold in the winter. We also insulated their barn and covered the insulation with another layer of plywood to make sure they didn’t get the chance to taste the insulation. Contrary to the belief, goats don’t eat everything. They do, however, taste it all.

3. Fortress Fencing

It’s common for those raising goats or sheep to have a livestock guardian dog, or an LGD, for short. However, that wasn’t in the cards for us (at least not yet), so we had to think through alternative ways to keep our herd safe throughout the day and night. For the boys, this meant a triple fence. The outer fence is electric and should keep out most predators. Where we live, that includes coyotes, wolves, bobcats, and technically mountain lions, but they’re rare in this region. The middle fence is woven wire, meant to keep the goats in, even if they test it a bit. And finally, the very interior fence is another string of electric fencing to keep the boys off the woven wire fence. Goats love to climb. Our buck loves to greet me at the gate with his front hooves on the gate, nose as far through the gate as he can manage. It’s adorable, but that gate will have to be replaced sooner than later since he’s putting pressure on it daily. Luckily, he only dares to do this while I’m near because he knows the interior fence is off. Once I’m back walking toward the house, he knows it’s back on and stays back, calling longingly for my return, preferably with treats.

4. Disposition: What a Sweet… Dog?

We knew owning an intact buck would mean a new pasture, more fencing, another small barn, more food, etc. What we didn’t know is just how different their disposition is compared to our does. He’s more dog-like than goat-like. He’s very sweet, fairly gentle, and loves to play. If he had his way we would live out in his pasture with him, racing around occasionally snacking on various bushes and pine branches. Our does, even the one that was also bottle-fed, are more interested in food, maybe a good head scratch, but then they’re back to their own business, whatever that may be.

5. Plug Your Nose

Nigerian Dwarf goats, when raised on a cold climate homestead are very good at growing a nice thick, warm, winter coat. As soon as autumn rolled around, our new intact buck started filling out and growing not only a nice, thick coat but a considerable beard. Every day he looks a bit more like a mountain goat with his creamy white fur. However, with this wonderfully nice coat, he also has acquired a pungent smell. In contrast, our does smell like the barn, mostly of hay. Our buck… I can smell him from across the field. It’s not so bad that we can’t go into their barn and feed them and get them fresh hay and water twice a day, but to do so we have to wear a completely different outfit. An outfit that lives in the barn and never—I mean never—comes in the house. We don this outfit change twice a day, every day, rain or shine. If it needs to be washed, it goes in a closed tub to the laundromat and gets an extra wash cycle and an extra rinse cycle and I slip some extra money under the door of the office with a note of apology as I’m sure there is a lingering smell. There is a sign on the wall, “No horse blankets”. I’m just waiting for the day where the sign reads, “No goat coveralls”.

Maybe someday we’ll move their hay/grain feeders and water buckets so they can be refilled from the other side of the fence. For now, I get to spend some extra time with our buck and wether and if they rub their head on my knee, it’s ok.

Self-Sufficient Win

We’re just a couple of weeks away from our first on-farm breeding. We’re looking forward to walking our does from their pasture to the boys’ pasture, instead of multiple drives to the breeder! A little bit more hay, a few more chores, and a lot of outfit changes are worth it to be a bit more self-sufficient—no more nerve-wracking winter drives or guessing at goat cycles. Plus, the added benefits of our sweet, dog-like buck and his comical silliness are icing on the cake. Take the plunge into owning an intact buck, it’s well worth it!

The post 5 Things We’ve Learned Owning an Intact Buck appeared first on Homestead.org.

Chena was a Good Dog

Chena was a free animal.  We fed her and she chose our home to be her home.  There is no fence so she stayed with us voluntarily.  Chena was an outside dog, she did not come in the house.  She weighed at least 80 pounds, possibly more; all muscle.  Chena ran like a greyhound, stretching way out and eating ground with a pleasure so pure that you felt like shouting with joy when watching, and I whooped and hollered a lot.   Our mailbox is a quarter of a mile away, we use an ATV to check the mail.  Chena loved to race the ATV to the mailbox.  As soon as she heard the ATV fire up she would run to wait at the end of the drive for it and then the race was on.

I often clocked Chena at over 25 mph and she always looked like she had speed to spare.  When she got to the mailbox after an all-out quarter-mile sprint she wasn’t breathing hard.  She was extremely healthy and fit.  Chena had huge jaws and large teeth, the pit bull in her showed up in her head that way.  Chena was tan and white with big soft brown eyes.   Up until the past few days, she was always gentle and loving.

When I sat outside, as I often do, Chena would put her head on my lap to have her ears scratched.  She would close her eyes in rapture until my hand got tired.  Then she would lay down on my feet.  Sometimes under the chair, but mostly on top of my feet.  She would sleep there until I got up.  We had a closeness that I can not adequately describe.

I had to destroy her three days ago.  It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do, and it has gotten harder with each passing day, instead of easier.

Three days ago Chena raced my wife to the mailbox, as usual.  But when my wife got back she was crying hysterically.  A small Yorkie-type dog was near the mailbox and Chena jumped on it and tore it up badly.  My wife was yelling and trying to get Chena off of it, but Chena was in a killing frenzy and ignored her.

My wife was stunned by the experience, it was so out of character for Chena.  My wife had also told me that Chena had snapped at her twice in the past couple of days when she got near Chena’s food bowl.  This was new behavior too.   Then I discovered that Chena had gotten into a brawl with some dogs down the road just the day before.

I don’t have a fence, and if I did have one putting Chena in it would have been cruel beyond measure.  Chena grew up roaming the river and surrounding fields.  There was a time when I tried to tie her, back when the neighbors were complaining that she was too friendly, jumping up on them with muddy feet.  It was nothing serious, just annoying.  Our neighbors were having a reunion and asked if we could restrain her during that period.

Chena, to my surprise, was a dog Houdini.  I could not keep her tied.  Her neck was bigger than her skull, she could slip any rope or collar or device, I tried several ways.  I even put her in a full body harness and tied her up with it.  She was out of that in 30 minutes the first time, and only 5 minutes the second time.  She refused to be tied up.

Chena also hated the veterinarian.  We took her to be spayed and took her for shots and she always had to be muzzled; she would bark and bite at the veterinarian, although, to me, this was normal behavior for her given that the vet had the bedside manners of Dr. Frankenstein.  Whenever we put her in the car she knew we were going to the vet, and she hated it.  She had to be dragged kicking and whining into the car, and then she would huddle miserably as far back as she could get.

We live on the bank of a large river.  It is a remote and fairly wild area overall, but there are about twenty homes along the road I live on, a small isolated sub-division.  I live at the end of that road.  Those homes are mostly weekend cottages, but there are some full-time residents.  Among those residents, there are small children and frail senior citizens, and of course dogs.

When Chena tore that little dog up, I assumed it was because the dog was scared and tried to run.  I have seen dogs do this before; an otherwise gentle dog going into a killing frenzy when something weaker is scared and tries to run.  I think it is a vestigial hunting instinct.  Something about that type of situation triggers a killing frenzy in them.  Most of the people that get dog bitten are children and seniors, perhaps because of their helplessness and their fear.  The children especially get scared and run, setting off that instinct.

Chena was too big and much too strong to allow there to be any chance, any remote chance at all, of her attacking a child.  If Chena went into a frenzy on a person the way she did that Yorkie, she could maul and maim and inflict extreme damage.  Chena could have easily killed a child.  I ran through all of the possibilities with a steadily sickening feeling that there was only one solution.

I couldn’t let her run loose any longer—to do so would have been the epitome of irresponsibility, there were several small children within her normal roaming range.  I had no fence, and even if I built one I couldn’t keep her tied up while I built it.  Even if I could keep her restrained until I built a fence, fencing her in was the worst form of cruelty to her that I could imagine.  I couldn’t let her run loose, and I couldn’t restrain her.

I thought about one of those dog rescue places.   Chena would be taken on a car trip to a strange place with strange people and put inside a fence until she was adopted—then she would be taken on a car trip to a strange place with strange people and kept inside a fence.  That was worse than me putting her inside a fence.  Even then, even if she was adopted, she still would have that potential frenzy waiting to explode on someone, somewhere.

Could I depend on a total stranger to be absolutely certain Chena never hurt anyone?  Could I shift that responsibility, or would I only be pretending to shift it because I was ultimately responsible for her?  Then too I didn’t know how long it would take to find a rescue place that would take her, and during that time she would be running loose.

I was down to only one solution, only one truly certain solution.  Chena had to be destroyed.  She had to be destroyed in the prime of her life, in full health and vigor.  She had to be destroyed based on what she might someday do, based on a hypothetical situation, her harming a child, or another dog.

This left me with two choices; either take her to a vet or do it myself.  If I took her to the vet then her last moments would be what she hated most, being muzzled and inside a cage.  Injected with a drug that would cause her to get confused and fall asleep with who knows what kinds of weird images and thoughts in her mind, but hardly pleasant ones.

Or I could do it myself.  If I destroyed her myself, she would be happily at home until the final instant.  She would be with a person she loved and, God help me, trusted.  She would feel no fear, no anticipation, no confusion.  She would simply be her happy self and then she would cease to be.   I sent my wife to town on a made-up errand.  I did not tell her what I had to do.  I did not want her to feel that dread.  I did not want her home to hear the shot and come running and see.

In my youth, I was an avid hunter.   I know guns and I have a hunters knowledge of animal anatomy.  I know ballistics and shot placement. I knew just which gun to use, which bullet type, and exactly where to put the bullet.  I wasn’t going into this with a lack of knowledge or confidence in how to best do it.   I quit hunting over 30 years ago because I no longer wanted to kill anything, but the knowledge is still there.

I killed Chena—without euphemisms, that is what I did.  I killed her. I couldn’t ask anyone else to do this; she was my dog, my responsibility.  I owed her at least doing it myself.  Getting someone else to do it lacked a certain integrity to her.  I owed her a completely painless death.  I could not have trusted that to someone else even if I had been inclined to.

In her last moment, she was eating her favorite jerky treat on the river bank, wagging her tail as I softly told her what a beautiful girl she was while looking into those beautiful soft brown eyes.  Then, faster than her brain neurons could carry the signal, she was dead.  She didn’t feel it, there was no pain, it was over too fast for her nerves to send a signal, plus there was no longer anywhere to send a signal to.  She felt only her normal pleasure and freedom up to her final microsecond of life.

Her body didn’t even twitch in death, I know that for a fact because I watched for it, to be sure I had done it right.  Just like that, she was gone forever.  The gunshot was immediately followed by my wailing “NOOOO!” as loud and as long as I could, railing against this.  It echoed up and down the river as I cried and took care of the final details of disposition.

Chena was simply and immediately gone, and with her, a vital basic part was torn right out of me.  I hated doing this and knew it would hurt, but I wasn’t really ready for how much pain there would be.  I think that denial must have been a defense mechanism that allowed me to get this done, otherwise, I would have been paralyzed.  A fundamental part of my soul was wrenched and ripped painfully away in that same microsecond that she was gone.  I expect it will heal, but not completely, not completely.  There will always be a wound there, carrying a pain so intense that I can barely stand it.  No matter how many years may pass, this pain won’t leave.

I might someday be able to isolate it away so that it doesn’t come bobbing up to the surface every five minutes the way it does now.   While I wait for that healing though, each day that has passed the pain grows more intense than it was the day before.  I am still tearing apart inside.  The wound is getting larger, not smaller.

I went fishing the day after.  I waded into the river with my fly rod and started blindly and furiously casting.  As I walked down the bank I thought for a just a split second, out of the corner of my eye, that I caught a flashing glimpse of her coming running to go fishing and my heart leapt wildly for just that split second.  But of course, that would have been impossible.  Eyes full of scalding hot tears can play tricks on you.

I wish I could say something romantic like I felt her presence, or that she lives on in my memory, or that she is roaming heaven’s river banks now and that those thoughts made me feel better.  I thought all of those, but I did not feel better.

The only thing I can say is that I went fishing, without Chena.

Chena’s Epilogue

It has been several months since I killed Chena.  There have been changes brought on by time, easing the pain in some ways, making the pain deeper in others.

For a couple of weeks after shooting Chena the pain was unbearably intense and constant.  I grieved hard.  After a while I began to question this continued deep grieving, why wasn’t it letting up?  Why wasn’t the inevitable emollient of time doing its work?

With reflection, I came to the conclusion that I was punishing myself.  The continued grieving wasn’t really a healthy kind of grief, but a self-punishment.  Except… it wasn’t really that simple either.  The grief was also my last fundamental link with Chena.  When the grief was gone, I felt Chena would become another relic in the memory attic, an abstraction so to speak, and that abandoning the grief was abandoning Chena.  Almost like I had a second chance to keep her alive.

Part of the grieving was “performed” by going over and over whether or not I had made the right choice.   I always ended up thinking I had made the only rational choice given all the exigent circumstances, but I was also always unhappy with reaching that same conclusion. I wondered why I kept working the logic over—would I actually feel better if I came to a different conclusion?   I decided to see what would happen, inside me that is, if I had come to the conclusion that I had made the wrong choice, that I had killed her when there was another better option.

That took some time to sort out, but finally, I understood that even if I had made the wrong choice in killing Chena, I still had only one option;  to forgive myself for making a horrible mistake in reasoning, and then get on with my life.  As long as I knew that I had made a mistake, but an honest mistake, then I knew it would be better to forgive myself that mistake, learn the lessons to be learned from that mistake, and move forward.  No good would come of becoming depressed, or obsessing, or of failing to learn.

Having reached this conclusion, I left a lot of grief behind very quickly,  because much of that grief had been based on using the grief as a tool of self-punishment.  Time took care of most of the rest of the grief.

Anyone who has lost a loved one understands that grieving never really ends, it becomes subdued and often buried under the veneer of day to day activity… but it is still there and occasionally pops up and still hurts.  Sometimes intensely.  But, by and large, it becomes manageable.

I have a wound deep inside that will never heal, but it has gotten smaller, and it has become harder to get to…but it is still there and won’t go away.  It has taken its place among the other wounds that we collect simply by living life.  It isn’t the greatest wound that I have, nor is it the least.  It is the freshest for now, but life will take care of that too.  We all carry our collection of wounds with us, and in some ways, they help to define us.

I could rewrite “Fishing Without Chena.”  If I were to do so now it would become less raw, more eloquent perhaps, and probably less poignant.  But, what I wrote was honest and straight from the heart, however, I feel about it now, that was how I felt then… so I am going to leave it alone.

Chena was a universe of lessons for me.  From the day I got her, to the day I destroyed her, she was a teacher—my teacher.  I try to honor her now by living the lessons she taught me.

Truth is, I never go fishing without Chena.

The post Fishing Without Chena: A Touching and Honest Story of a Man and his Dog appeared first on Homestead.org.

Dogs have been the farmer’s companions ever since the first dogs figured out that if they helped the farmer with the livestock instead of eating the livestock, the farmer was less likely to supplement his own diet with canine cutlets.  Dogs have worn many hats on the farm and still do.  Since dogs come in many sizes and forms, they are a natural for specialization.

Your first inclination when thinking of a farm dog is probably Lassie.

Have a seat.

AKC Registered Rough Collie Lassie is a myth.  So mythical in fact that the dog actor playing Lassie wasn’t even female. Lassie was always played by male collies.  (Good thing they have long hair, huh?)

Now, I have nothing against collies.  I love collies.  I’ve had collies and you will not find a sweeter, better-natured dog around.  But your general run-of-the-mill purebred collie of today will have some issues.  Collies are known for eye problems.  Seems the breeders liked the look of the almond-shaped eye better than the nice round eye that can actually be seen out of and have bred collies with eyes that are literally suffocated for lack of air.  A sleek narrow head was also found to be more attractive so they bred for that over a nice round skull.  Now there’s no room for a brain.  Clearly, a dog who cannot see properly and has a squished in brain is not going to be a very good working dog.  If you are itching for a good old-fashioned ‘farm collie’ there really is such a thing.  They don’t look a lot like Lassie, but then, Timmy’s yard did not look like a farmyard either.

Of course, there’s the OTHER collie: the Border Collie, and they are a completely different animal. Imagine Lassie on speed.

If you have a very busy farm with a lot of stuff that needs tending, herding, sorting, worrying, then a Border Collie is perfect.  Border Collies are arguably smarter than a lot of people and have a whole lot more stamina.  Where Border Collies (and their families) get into trouble is when the dog does not have ENOUGH to do.  Border Collies need to work and if you do not give them a job, they will make one up.  Tearing up an entire household worth of linoleum is a short afternoon’s work for a B.C.  Escaping from the yard just in case the neighbor has something to do takes about a split second if you have an average fence.  If your fence is fashioned after the one at the maximum security prison set into 3 feet of cement, it will take an entire second.

On a farm with plenty of work to do, a Border Collie can be an invaluable companion—sharp, quick, always ready for any adventure you may have to go on no matter the weather—just the chance to be DOING something with you will be met with an exuberance that’s rarely found for something short of winning the lottery.  The big one.

Farms harbor vermin.  It’s a fact. You can deny it, you can ignore it, but they are still there—mice and rats will be wherever there is a food source and that means your farm. Terriers have been bred to dig out vermin—the word “terrier” comes from the Latin word “terra’ or earth, so they are literally dogs bred to “go to earth”.  The most commonly known terrier right now is the Jack Russell Terrier, thanks to the TV show Frasier and Eddie, their dog.  Today’s terrier will kill mice and rats.  Unfortunately, like the Collies, the terriers of today are usually so far away from being working dogs, that they are indiscriminate in their prey and will seriously deplete your flock of chickens as quickly as your mice.

Back in high school, I worked on a poultry farm where the house pet dog was a Cairn Terrier.  Like Toto in The Wizard of Oz.  Now, if you recall, Toto was a farm dog and chickens were blowing by during the tornado that he had not killed.  The terrier on the poultry farm, however, was kept firmly chained when outside because if loose, he had been timed at killing a chicken EVERY 30 SECONDS till caught.  My own flock of hens was recently diminished by the Jack Russell Terrier down the street, and the neighbor gave up on chickens because her rat terrier made short work of them.

For a large terrier, an Airedale is a good choice.  When used as working farm dogs they are more for guarding and pulling carts, but individuals can be gifted as herders and hunting dogs as well.  They are usually good babysitters and are strikingly handsome.

Be very careful with small terriers.  I currently have a crossbred terrier who is wonderful at not killing chickens.  She does not kill mice either.  She will absolutely tear up a rogue cookie, however.  In fact, my best mouser, up to and including any cats I’ve had is my four-pound toy poodle.  Go figure.

There are a lot of other “specialty” dogs who fit in on the farm—previously we discussed the Livestock Guardian Dogs in an article devoted just to them.

The hunting dogs: pointers, hounds, spaniels, and retrievers are all good choices for farms where hunting is part of the routine.

Every once in a while you will find, by accident, a dog who is completely suited for a job on your farm—my four-pound poodle is a good example.

And of course, there’s nothing quite like a good mutt.  Employing a mixed-breed dog can be a very good thing.  They are usually much more inexpensive as far the initial outlay for purchase.  There are people who believe that the mixed breeds possess ‘hybrid vigor’ making them less prone to health problems.  This is not true.  I’ve seen just as many mixes with hip dysplasia and skin conditions as purebreds.  The best reason for getting a mutt is that they usually really need the home, and although I’m not one for anthropomorphism, I truly think rescue dogs tend to try a little harder to be Good Dogs than their counterparts who were born into good situations.

Even with the best of intentions, common sense must play a factor in choosing your mixed breed. Collie/Shepherd/Retriever crosses are a good bet.  Chow/Pit/Rott crosses may not be.  Individual dogs will be as varied in temperament as in looks, so blanket assumptions should just be guidelines, not set in stone rules.

Just like everything else on the farm, your dog will need regular maintenance and upkeep.  A good quality dry dog food should be given twice daily—especially with the larger breeds, multiple small meals lessen the possibility of gastric torsion (usually fatal, always expensive), and in all breeds, food is just assimilated better if not given in one big meal.  Regular worming and vaccination schedules should be adhered to according to your local laws and climate.  External parasites need to be kept to a minimum.  Expect yearly upkeep expenses on your dog (not counting food and squeaky toys) to be several hundred dollars.

A good dog is as valuable an asset as anything else on your homestead, with the added benefit of also being your friend.

The post Farm Dogs: See Spot Work appeared first on Homestead.org.

Livestock Guardian Dogs: A well-bonded pack of 8 livestock guardian dogs ranging in age from 1 ½ year to 13 ½ years. They have kept a zero loss to predation record on our farm for 13 ½ years straight. Predators threats for our Wyoming farm are mountain lions, stray dogs, wolves, fox, eagles, and hawks. These guardians have displayed successful experience at guarding our alpacas, horses, donkey, chickens, geese, and rabbits. They are gentle giants and serious protectors.

Sled Dogs: The guardians will pull a kick sled working together as a full team, in smaller groups, or as individuals. They know the basic commands of haw, gee, let’s go, leave it, whoa, and their favorites, Whoo-hoo! and Yea! They love going on outings ranging the mile round trip to the county road to pick up the mail, to excursions in the Big Horn Mountains.

Farm Hands: These large and powerful dogs help pull firewood and drinking water out of the mountains for us, thus easing our workload. They have also hauled hay up to our barn when it has overflowed into our garage.

Personal Protection: Each dog is tightly bonded to my daughter and I. We don’t have any fears of intruders of any sort to our farm.

Fiber Producers: The Akbash/Great Pyrenees dogs who live here provide fiber as soft as baby alpaca, that I spin into yarn and then finished products. They each give up their coats to us naturally twice a year. Fiber is collected by brushing them when they naturally shed.

Family Members: Our dogs provide unconditional love at all times. Each one has a unique and treasured personality. They are humorous, sensitive, loyal, gentle, athletic, and they keep us warm at night.

Guardians, Not Dogs

You have probably guessed that I love, respect, and am thankful for the guardians on our homestead. I use the word guardians instead of dogs because there are some words that can’t be said on our farm and dogs is one of those words. Dogs, coyotes, foxes, eagles, and hawks are the main predator threats to our livestock. Those words have also become naturally bad words that the guardians don’t like. Thus we don’t say them unless we see one in the vicinity of the farm. To accidentally let one of those words loose from our mouths, means that this pack of white-coated canines form an army and they do it in an instant. Instead of calling them dogs, we call them by their individual names (Koda, Tacoma, David, Goliath, Solomon, Samson, Esther, or Ruthie), or puppies, guys, guardians… but never dogs.

Fencing in of the Guardians and the Runway System

Our guardians keep us safe, and it’s my job as their shepherd to keep them safe from all harm. That means fencing them in and keeping them only on our property unless on leashes or halters on excursions. The outside perimeter of our farm is 6-foot fenced while the inner alpaca pens, backyard, and the duck and chicken coops are also 6-foot fenced.

To give the guardians full access to our farm, while keeping some of our farm animals in individual paddocks, meant that I needed to develop a runway system that only the guardians and us could get through. When putting the runway system together, the goal was to allow the guardians access to all of the livestock any hour of the day and also be with us. That meant gates with entrances that alpacas couldn’t escape from but that the guardians could get through. This system has worked wonderfully for us. The guardians know where to be. They come and go as they please from the house to hanging out with all of the animals here.

Big Sled Dogs

It didn’t take long into our sledding interest to find out that the guardians were going to need larger sizes of some of the sledding equipment that was available for purchase. Some studies have shown that the ideal sled dog is right around a 50-pound range. One of my most eager runners and pullers, David weighs in at 160 pounds. The XXXL harness that I bought for him was simply too small. I needed to have one specially made for him from a dogsled equipment manufacturer.

I also quickly discovered that my dogs have big feet for dog sledding. Snow can build up between their toes when we are out running or sledding in certain types of snow conditions. All can be going well for five miles, and then if the conditions are right, snow will build up between their toes. I have had to remove the snowballs from their toes mid-run. It was time to get them some booties. Again, I ordered the largest size that I could find online which was an XL bootie especially made for dog sledding. These types of booties are simple contraptions that Iditarod dogs can wear out in a day or less.

I had only ordered 4 booties as an experiment because I wondered if that largest size would fit my dogs. That XL bootie ended up barely fitting my tiniest guardian, Ruthie, who only weighs 70 pounds. I’m presently sewing much bigger waterproof booties for the whole guardian team to wear out on sledding excursions. I’ll sew some extra to put on my farm website (Big Horn Mountain Alpacas) for sale. You never know when you find a little nitch business in the process.

Eager Helpers

When there is a task to be done, we incorporate anywhere from one to all of the guardians in helping us. From cutting firewood in the mountains and dragging out logs, to pulling spring water from a mountain spring in the winter on a sled to the main road, a guardian helps. Not only do the guardians make our life easier by helping out, but they are a great company. I don’t have any concerns taking off for the mountains or any back-country excursions knowing that we have full-time bodyguards as friends.

Fiber Producers

Dog hair has been found to be as warm and even warmer than wool. A fancier word for dog hair is chiengora. With eight dogs, we have lots of dog hair. Each dog gets rid of or “blows” their coats twice a year. When I notice a dog starting to shed, either my daughter or I will start brushing that dog. We will brush that dog every day until the undercoat is off of his or her body. Their hair is then placed in zip lock bags for storage. Then I spin their hair into yarn to be made into finished homestead products.

One year, I sent off a sample of Great Pyrenees hair from one of our dogs to be tested for fineness. At the time, I was sending alpaca fiber samples each year to the lab. It helped me to better market the yarn when I could label it as baby alpaca, a term given for how fine and soft the hair is, not necessarily coming only from young alpacas. The Great Pyrenees hair came back within a micron as soft as the baby alpaca.

Once washed, chiengora will have no “wet dog smell”. It is oil from the skin that produces that smell, not the hair itself. The finished product will look and feel much like angora rabbit hair. I know this because I also raise angora rabbits. People who see me wearing a chiengora hat and scarf will often comment that it must be from our angora rabbits.

Maximizing the Value of a Dog on the Homestead

As you can see, our dogs mean so much more to us than being livestock guardians. Yes, it’s true, that they keep our animals and us safe from harm. But these dogs have so much more to give. They are strong, eager helpers that are willing to pitch in on just about any chore. They are always up for fun adventures, too, such as dog sledding. Next time you take a look at your dog, think about the possibilities. I sometimes think of bored dogs in America sitting on couches with hidden talents just waiting to be exposed. In the end, uncovering that potential may just be a win/win situation for you and your dogs. I know that it has been for me and my family.

https://www.homestead.org/livestock/the-mare-someone-threw-away/

https://www.homestead.org/humor/we-re-being-mugged-by-mother-nature/

The post Homesteading with Dogs: Get By with a Little Help from Your Friends appeared first on Homestead.org.

They don’t deserve to be tossed aside because they aren’t perfect or young.  They aren’t worthless; all they need is a little help.  With help, they can go on to live full, happy, long lives.  These animals can come from someone’s backyard, a breeder, or a farmer.  They can also come from animal shelters or classified ads.  They can be inexpensive and even sometimes free.  Or they simply show up on your doorstep!

Sadly, shelter dogs and cats are plentiful.  Purebred, registered breeds of all ages can be found in almost any animal shelter.  If you are looking for a specific breed, know your breed standards and visit an animal shelter.  If there are dogs or cats that fit within the criteria, it would be worth a try!  With mixed breeds, look for qualities that you want in a pet.  Learn as much as you can about their health and behavior history.  Keep in mind that the shelter staff only have limited knowledge, either from the people who surrendered the animal, or what they have learned through evaluations and their own experience.  If you don’t want to see all the animals, ask for a specific breed or profile that you are looking for.

People often say that it is hard to go into animal shelters, and it is.  But it could be an opportunity to give an unwanted animal a chance at life.

Even with information from the shelter, you will no doubt learn more once you bring an animal home.  The animal-shelter environment is stressful to animals and they may react differently there than they normally would.  Be prepared to give the animal some time to adjust and a private area away from your other animals.  This can serve as a quarantine time that is to the benefit of everyone.  It will also give the new animal time to get familiar with its new surroundings.  They have just been through a traumatic experience and moving to a new home is another stressor.  And for some, just one more move.

Years ago we adopted a kitty from an animal shelter; she had been picked up as a stray.  In the shelter, this kitty got sick with an upper respiratory infection.  As she was being carried back to be euthanized, she reached her paw out and touched another staff member.  This lady decided to take the kitty home and let her get healthier so that she could be adopted.

When we saw Amber, she was dangling her paws out of the steel bars on her cage.  When we brought her home, it was just another day for her, or so it seemed.  She took it in stride and acted tough.  The very next day we took her to the vet for a checkup.  She fought getting in the crate and didn’t like the visit to the veterinarian’s office.  When I brought her home, she flew out of the crate, but then she looked around and realized that she had come back to a familiar place and I saw her whole body relax.  From that moment, she began to settle down and be a happy kitty.

At eleven years old, she developed cancer.  We did all that we could for her without submitting her to invasive tests and treatments.  It was a difficult process but she was strong and stayed as happy as she could.  We worked closely with our vet; as her owners, it was up to us to do what was best for her.  She died peacefully at home and in our arms.  This is part of the whole life process.

Old and sick animals end up in animal shelters or abandoned because people don’t want to watch them get old or be sick.  They are neglected when they need help the most.  They are our responsibility.  It may be hard for us, but it matters to them.

Most people are familiar with shelter cats and dogs, but farm animals can have these issues as well.  Oftentimes, we don’t hear about them because if they aren’t healthy and hardy, they don’t get a chance at a new life.  Cows, pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits, and chickens are livestock but they have feelings and show emotions just like a dog or a cat can.

In 2009, I delved into chicken keeping.  At four months old, one of my young female chickens (pullets), began having issues with her eyesight.  The vet didn’t really know what was causing it or what could be done; neither did most of the experienced people that I talked to.  Often, chickens with a sickness of any kind would be culled.  Because her health was good otherwise, I let her live and she did just fine.  Her vision loss was gradual, so she knew her surroundings and was comfortable in her environment and her flock.  By two years old, she was completely blind.  I added new birds to the flock that she didn’t know or trust, so she was happier in a pen of her own; she needed a separate space to ensure her safety because the original hens were good to her but the new hens may have pecked her.  Again, she adapted and is thriving.

In a protected area, she can have free-range time with everyone else.  She scratches around for grit and grass, takes dust baths, and lounges in the sunshine.  The rest of the flock comes by to be near her and visit, and she is a happy bird!

Last year, I found an ad on Craigslist for two blind chickens—a rooster and hen pair.  They both have limited vision but are not blind.  The original owner had gotten them as chicks and had other roosters that had begun picking on these two.

The rooster had never crowed, and she didn’t think he would.  It turned out that he wasn’t crowing because he didn’t want to draw attention to his hen or himself.  When he came to our farm, where there were no other roosters and he knew they were safe, he learned to crow.  Now, he and the hen function in the flock perfectly.  He can still do his job—we had a chick hatch this Spring.  He is as watchful as he can be, but he is extra sensitive to sounds and will warn his girls if he hears something strange.

Recently, there was another ad on our local Craigslist for a lonely, blind chicken.  This one is completely blind.  Found starving and pecked nearly to death, they rescued and brought her back to health, but she was their only chicken.  Her rescuer wanted a good home for her where she could have chicken company again and be safe.  I had the set up and figured she would fit right in!  She did need some extra help with eating and drinking.  Like my first blind hen, the new one showed frustration when she was hungry and couldn’t find or grab the food.  The new chicken was trying to eat from a typical chicken feeder and getting flustered because the surface area was too small.  I switched her to an open container and she liked that and was able to eat.

My experience with Stevie taught me that the plastic bowls that mount to pet crate doors are perfect for these birds.  Because of his limited vision and his big comb and wattles, he didn’t like the chicken fount.  I tried a couple of things before I found he loved the plastic bowls.  And they are working perfectly for the new girl.  Once she figured them out, she was able to drink and eat independently.  Which makes her a happy girl.

Since she is completely blind, she will be able to be in with my other blind hen.  I will let them get used to each other by being near one another before I put them together.  With these chickens, when introducing them to a new space, I let them experience the boundaries on their own.  They will wander and figure it out.  If the space is larger, they will venture more and more as they feel comfortable.  I spend time in the area with them at first.  When they need to feel safe, they often climb onto my shoes.  Once reassured, they will begin wandering again.

For their food, I will tap at the feed as a mother hen would for a chick.  They know the noise and will move toward the sound and start pecking around.  The blind birds tend to peck erratically until they hit the right spot but once they are comfortable, they eat normally.  Drinking is the same: I just splash the water around so that they can hear what it is and they come to the sound.  Once their area is established, I leave everything in the same position so they know right where it is.  They even have short blocks that they like to climb and perch on.  They are all happy and thriving doing what all the other chickens get to do.

In recent years, chickens have begun showing up at animal shelters.  In some areas, you can adopt chickens that have come from a commercial egg factory.  The factory birds have never felt sunlight or stood on the earth.  A backyard flock can consist of just a couple of birds, but like any other animal, they are a responsibility and commitment.

They don’t lay eggs forever.  A young chicken starts to lay eggs around six months old.  Their peak production is at about a year old.  After that, the production starts to decline.  I have four year-old hens that still lay every day, some every other day or so.  People have to decide what they will do with the aging, less productive hens.  My ladies will live out their lives on the farm, eggs or no eggs.  I have added new girls to the flock and that is a process, too.  The term “pecking order” really is just that.  Chickens are very social and they have a complex structure within the flock.  They form bonds and friendships; each chicken has its place.

As some of my hens get older, I see them slowing down, just like other aging animals. Their feet and legs can get stiff and they can’t jump from their perches like they used to.  Recently, I have made some new accommodations for this.  With the addition of the new blind hen, I needed to change the coop.  I had one mini-coop and added another one.  It is an enclosed area inside the coop where the blind birds can be safe and have their own space to move around.  For the older ladies, I put in blocks and ramps so that they can walk or hop up and down rather than jumping.  It takes some extra planning and effort, but it is worth it, especially for the critters.

Every animal will get old.  Even the perfect ones.  I used to be one who didn’t want to go into an animal shelter and see all the sad animals, but one day I did.  The thing that bothered me the most was seeing the old dogs.  At the time our male German Shepherd was getting older and his muzzle was turning gray; I saw dogs just like that in the shelter.  I thought of how faithfully our dog had served our family for so many years.  The shelter dogs were the same, only their families were gone.

As our dogs get older, we adjust their diets.  They are less active, so they get less food to keep them at a healthy weight.  We make sure that they aren’t jumping as often or as high.  Be careful when you throw sticks and balls for them so that they don’t strain themselves—they don’t always act old!  We give them beds that are little higher off the ground so that it is easier for them to get up and down.  The same goes for cats.  Watch the heights and distances that they are jumping.  They too need diets adjusted—from kibble to soft food—as well as the amounts.  As with any dietary change, do it gradually and watch them closely.

Livestock ages as well; my horse, Scooper, is 28 years old.  Horses have special dental needs; their teeth grow all of their lives. Because of this, they need to have them “floated” by a veterinarian.  They sedate the horse and put on a special halter that holds its mouth open.  Then the vet uses a rasp to file down edges of the teeth that have developed sharp points or have uneven wear.  With sedation, the vvet can do a much better job and it is easier on the horse and his mouth.  As they age, their teeth still grow, but much more slowly.

Horses also lose teeth as they get older.  When they lose teeth or wear them down, it affects their ability to eat.  My horse is at that point now.  He doesn’t have many teeth left so he is on a soft diet.  His pelleted food has everything that he needs.  It is complete nutrition, like Ensure is for people.  He can still nibble at hay when he wants, but can’t eat it like he used to.

The last couple of years, he has been slowing down physically, as well.  In the wintertime, we can get a lot of snow.  We will take the snowblower and clear paths for him so that it is easy for him to walk.  We also plow an open area so he can get exercise and roll around.  As his vision and hearing capacity diminish, I make sure his pathways are clear of any obstacles.  I also leave things so he knows where they are; his water trough stays in the same location as does his fence line, that way he feels safe and secure.

Going to the animal shelter is an experience, as is rescuing any animal.  It takes character and some extra effort, but the rewards are greater than can be imagined.  And for the animal, it really does make a difference.  For the ones that don’t have a long life left, what a gift for them to have a home where they can live happily and die with dignity.  My special-needs pets teach me much about life in how they live and die; every day is a valuable gift, for them and for us!

The post Imperfectly Priceless Pets: Shelter Rescues on the Homestead appeared first on Homestead.org.

Giving Shots to Your Animals

Giving shots to your animals is one of the basics of animal aid that is cheaper and more convenient than hauling them into the vet’s office.  You can buy vaccines in bulk from vet suppliers that specialize in mail-order to farmers.  Buy from your own vet or vet center, where you’re known and will feel free to ask questions; you’ll also probably get more free advice because you’re from the area, and people know you.

When giving to cows, be sure to place their head in a stanchion and tie at least one hind foot as securely as you can.  With calves and goats, get a friend or family member to hold their head and rump.  You’re going to give the shot right in the middle of a bulge of pure muscle; aim for the front shoulder or rear thigh.

Giving Pills to Larger Animals

If you have to give a pill—a bolus—to a cow, calf, goat, or horse, get the aid of a friend or family member.  A horse will probably behave just fine, but you may need to place the goat or calf in the stanchion.  Push your fingers all the way to the very back of the animal’s mouth; they’ll help you by opening wider.  Put your other arm around its neck to hold it still and just push the pill down its throat quickly.  Pull your hand out and hold the animal’s mouth shut for a couple of minutes.

A bolus gun is, of course, easier than shoving the pill down your animal’s throat with your bare hands.  Either way, the animal may spit the pill out and you’ll have to start all over again.

Livestock Reproduction

A female horse, a mare, is in heat for two to eleven days and will come into heat about every twenty-two days.  After giving birth to a colt, she’ll be in heat again in three to fifteen days.  A sow will come into heat one to eight weeks after having a litter of piglets, and a ewe comes in heat for about thirty-five hours every sixteen days.

Artificial Insemination

If you don’t want to provide a bull, A.I., or artificial insemination, provides a way to breed your cows.  Once the cow is safely inside a chute, she’s injected with bull semen through a metal tube.  You can actually take a course to learn to do this yourself; ask you local vet about this.  If you’re not a do-it-yourselfer, then your vet will surely know of someone in your area who can do it for you.

Helping With a Birth

Most of the time, Mother Nature can handle the task of birthing just fine, but sometimes, help is needed.  If you find yourself helping one of your animals give birth, just remember to pull very gently to help prevent any tearing.  Let the animal’s cervix dilate before you start pulling and don’t pull on both legs at once.  Pull on one leg and then the other so that the shoulders and hips can move out one at a time instead of all at once.  The baby will come out much easier this way.

Vaccinations

What vaccinations you give will depend on the kind of animal you have and what diseases you have in your area, once again, here’s where a good vet comes in handy.  You can also ask neighbors who raise livestock.  It might be a good idea to give immunity shots to your livestock – it’s better than the risk and consequences of them getting sick.

Dehorning

Horns are a natural part of some animals’ anatomy and are sometimes needed for self-defense.  For these reasons, it doesn’t make sense to remove them.  But if you have goats, for instance, and they’ll be around your children, dehorning them might be an excellent idea.  An animal should be young when they are dehorned so that the horns aren’t too big.  You can use a caustic paste or a burning treatment, either one, to dehorn a baby goat.  If your goat’s horns have already started growing, then they must be nipped.

Cauterization Dehorning

There is a special tool you can buy for this: a bell-shaped dehorner.  You can also use a make-shift iron rod-in this case the base must be equivalent to the size of the horn.  Calves can be dehorned in this way as long as they are no more than 4 months old.

Caustic Dehorning

Caustic is available in sticks and also in a paste.  The sticks are much easier to use.  It’s best to use it on a very young goat before the horn has started to grow out.  After you put it on, don’t let the goat out in the rain as the caustic will run into its eyes and blind it.

Trim your animal’s hooves regularly; this is the best way to keep them from growing so long that the animal can’t walk normally.  It’s also the best way to keep an infection from getting into an overlong hoof that has split open.  Horse’s hooves are pretty easy to trim, just lift it up, trim it and then file it with a rasp.  Cows are stubborn and much harder to deal with. You might try trimming their hooves when they’re lying down, as they’re very loath to pick up their foot while standing on it.  Be sure to trim the hooves of any animal very gently and slowly; if you cut too much off you can cause the animal to be lame.

Foot Rot

When a cow’s feet get swollen and she seems to have pain in her legs, it could be, and probably is, foot rot.  This is a bacterial or fungal infection in the soft-tissue between a cloven-hoofed animal’s toes.  The infection can also be in the animal’s hoofhead.  Foot rot is very painful for the animal; it can make them lame, will reduce milk production in a milker and cripple any draft animal.

Digestive Ailments

Your cows, goats, and sheep can suffer from foundering; it’s a form of indigestion and it’s very grave.  Horses can also contract it.  Foundering can give your ruminants either diarrhea or bloat; get the animal to the vet as soon as possible.  If diarrhea lasts too long, a cow’s milk will dry up.  Foundering is caused by the carelessness of us humans; usually a change in their diet that comes too quickly.  So introduce any new kind of food, or increased amounts of food slowly.  Letting animals graze on lush, wet spring pastures can also cause bloat.

Symptoms of foundering include swelling and belching.  Don’t let a bloated animal lie down; keep it moving so it can expel as much gas as possible.   

Hardware Sickness

Simply put, this is what happens when your animal, cow, goat, sheep, etc, eats a piece of metal.  They will eat nails and/or bailing wire, or whatever happens to be mixed in with their food; but it happens mostly to cows.  Believe it or not, they can survive eating nails, bolts, and even hinges if you know the secret.  It sounds crazy, but what you have to do is get them to swallow a magnet; the magnet will grab the metal and pull it to the bottom of the cow’s stomach.  It stays there for the rest of the cow’s life, but isn’t lethal.

You might want to take the cow to the vet, but if not, watch for these symptoms:  Your cow stops eating and looks downright miserable.  There won’t be a fever associated with this condition, but the cow will definitely look and act sick.  Your vet has a metal detector he can use and can actually locate where the metal is inside your cow.  If you let this condition go on too long, the cow’s insides will be torn up, so the laxative the vet will give your cow will help a lot.  He’ll then make her swallow the magnet.  Most of the time, your animal won’t need to be operated on, but they should be back to eating within about one week.

Basics of Animal Aid for Diseases and Infections

Abscesses

This is a localized infection that is usually just under the surface of the animal’s skin.  It looks like a giant pimple.  These can be caused by using dirty needles on your animals, so be vigilant when giving them shots.  You should leave an abscess alone until it’s ready to be lanced; you’ll know when it’s time because the hair on top of the abscess will be very easy to pull out.  Lance the abscess with a clean needle and then swab it with iodine.   

Pinkeye

Animals can get pinkeye for a number of reasons.  Goats contract it from feed that’s dusty, but they can also get it from good old-fashioned bacteria.  A household cure for pink-eye in goats is to treat the affected eye with diluted lemon juice twice a day until it goes away.  This can take anywhere from one to two weeks.  If you find that this doesn’t work, you might have to inject antibiotics into the eye. You should start treatment of pinkeye quickly as it can lead to blindness, severe emaciation and even death.

Bovine Pinkeye

Flies are the main cause of bovine pinkeye.  It starts as soon as the weather gets hot and the flies start buzzing around the cow’s face.  You can help your animal by soaking some rags in a solution that the flies don’t like and hanging these on a rope so the cows can rub it on themselves.  This does provide some measure of relief.

A better solution is to buy a pink-eye resistant breed of cow.  Some good examples are Black Angus, Charolais, and Hereford; short horns aren’t resistant.  During fly season, it’s a good idea to check your animal’s eyes every morning and every evening since pinkeye is a very fast-moving disease.  You’ll know immediately if your animal is developing it; it usually happens in one eye at a time, the eye will look ulcerated and just awful.  Get the animal to the vet pronto.

Pneumonia

Pneumonia happens to goats and calves and the symptoms are very similar to those in humans.  Your animal will have a very snotty nose and possibly runny eyes and a fever. They’ll be weak and you’ll know they’re sick when you hear their raspy breathing; they may even have a cough.  Keep them warm and dry and get them to the vet as soon as possible.  If you have a cow that hurts itself and lays down and can’t get up, just wrap it in blankets and offer it food and water frequently.

Red Water

Named for the color your cow’s urine will be if they get this disease; it will be red because there will be blood in the urine. In goats, red water can only be seen with a microscope.  Liver flukes cause this disease, and liver flukes are caused by snails.  Be careful where you let your animals graze; ducks can help control the snails, but the best thing to do is have your animals inoculated against this dreadful ailment.   

Ringworm

Ringworm is a fungus and it can spread from animals to people.  If your cows get it, it can spread to all of them and will take the hair off in roundish looking spots, leaving a kind of whitish, scaly surface.  Some good old-fashioned home remedies include applying lemon juice 3 times a day, or iodine dissolved in glycerin.  Of course, your vet will have some ringworm medicine too; you just paint it on each spot as you find it.  Some old timers used to tie a rag to a stick, dip it in used motor oil and rub it all over the cow’s affected areas.  There’s no telling if this worked or not, but it probably can’t hurt to give it a try.

Sources: 

The Encyclopedia of Country Living; An Old Fashioned Recipe Book, Ninth Edition, by Carla Emery, Sasquatch Books, Seattle

The Merck Veterinary Manual by Merck and Company, 1986

A Veterinary Guide by N. Bruce Haynes, 1978

The post Barnyard Basics of Animal Aid — Animal First Aid appeared first on Homestead.org.

My wife opened the car door and said, “Look at who I’m training this week!” A two-year-old Boston Terrier jumped out of her car, ran across the yard, knocked the chicken pen over, and proceeded to grab each chicken by the head, shake until dead, then immediately go after another one.  Chickens were running all over; they couldn’t outrun the dog.  By the time we caught him, two minutes later, he had killed ten of the twelve chickens.  Based on this experience, I would say Boston Terriers aren’t “Farm Friendly” in my book.

What Makes a Dog “Farm Friendly”?

Every homestead is different, but most have a few things in common.  The commonalities include: open space including fields and ponds, gardening, chickens and other small animals, possibly goats, cows or horses, and finally predators.  Let’s take them each in turn.

One word before I start is that none of this is set in stone.  If you look up low prey-drive dogs you will see Doberman Pincers.  If you look up high prey-drive dogs you will see Doberman Pincers.  So, there isn’t 100% agreement on any of this.  It is just my experience… which is limited to about 50 breeds that I have actually had out on my homestead.  Keep reading for some additional recommendations on picking the “right” dog.

Open Spaces Including Fields and Ponds

As I’m writing this story I have a client’s Shih Tzu sitting next to me in my chair. Shih Tzu’s are small, loyal, friendly, good alert dogs, and great lap dogs.  But they are not great dogs for open fields and ponds.  Why?  This one took a happy run through my field and pond yesterday only to return covered in thorny sticks, briers, and filth.  He had to get both a bath and a blow dry.  It took nearly an hour to deburr the dog’s long hair (not fur) from all the junk it picked up, bath it and blow dry it.  This is not an “all-weather” dog by any means.

Some dogs have hair instead of fur.  This includes dogs like Shih Tzu’s, Yorkies, mini Poodles, and Maltese.  These dogs may be hypo-allergenic, but they are not field-friendly.  Field-friendly dogs have fur not hair, preferably slick fur like Pointers or durable fur like Great Pyrenees.  We had a long haired Spanish Mountain Mastiff dog on our farm who never got a bath in his whole life.

Dogs with fur instead of hair shed. The shedding keeps them clean and renews their coat.  Dogs with fur instead of hair generally have two coats. The undercoat is like a T-shirt, soft, comfy and warm. The outer coat is like an armored raincoat, waterproof, and biologically tough as fingernails.  Our Mountain Mastiff didn’t need a dog house, he wore one on his back 24/7.

Another issue with open spaces is that they require good Homing Instincts.  If you have acreage there are ways for dogs to get off the reservation.  When dogs wander onto other farm and ranch properties they can (and do) get shot, or lost, or get you in trouble.  You want a dog that knows how to “stay home.”  Great Pyrenees are great at this, as are labs, sheepdogs, mastiffs, and golden retrievers. Lots of smaller dogs also stay close to home like chihuahuas, pugs, spaniels, and corgis.

Finally, fields have snakes and other critters in them.  I prefer to have a dog who is alert to such things.  My preference when I walk through a field is to have my dog off leash tracking back and forth about 10 feet in front of me, looking for trouble.  Dogs that are good at this are pointers, hounds, labs, and spaniels.

General rules for a good “field dog” are dogs that:

• Have durable slick coats of fur, not fluffy hair.
• Can shed water and rain so they don’t constantly need baths.
• Don’t wander too far from home.
• Are active and alert to dangers.

Dogs and Gardening

This issue is simple.  You don’t want a dog that digs for fun and profit.  This makes spaniels a little less farm-friendly than some others.   This is not a non-starter because you can teach your dog to stay out of the garden (see Training); it’s just easier to not have the issue in the first place.

What dogs really love to dig?  Think terriers and hounds.  Jack Russel Terriers, Dachshunds, Highlands Terriers, and Beagles all love to dig.  Dogs that are made to find moles and gophers will dig your property from one fence line to the other.

Generally, the larger breeds aren’t really diggers.  A lab might dig a round hole to lay in, but they generally don’t dig holes like it’s their job, unless they are really bored.  Shepherds (Australian and German) don’t dig much.  My favorite farm dog, Great Pyrenees, don’t dig.  Mastiffs are another example of non-diggers.

General Rules for good “garden” dogs are dogs that:

• Don’t dig for fun and profit.
• Can stay out of restricted areas when trained to do so.

Dogs with Chickens and other Small Animals

I believe that chickens lay so many eggs because they are so easy (and fun) to kill.  I’ve seen a snake kill a chicken, raccoons kill chickens, birds of prey kill chickens, and dogs very often kill chickens.  What you are looking to avoid in dog speak is called “prey drive.”

Prey drive is a tendency of a dog to want to sight, chase, grab, play with, and kill (on purpose or accidentally while playing) small animals.  Some dogs with high prey-drive are terriers (Jack Russel and Yorkshire), Doberman Pincers, Beagles, Australian Cattle Dogs (different from Australian Shepherds), Weimaraners, Whippets… and Boston Terriers as noted previously.

Prey drive works for dogs that need to hunt, corner, and kill small animals.  It’s not so good for dogs that need to co-exist or even protect them.  I had a Spanish Mountain Mastiff as one of my personal dogs on the homestead.  At first, he wanted to kill chickens, but I trained it out of him in a day (see Training.)  So “some” prey drive isn’t a non-starter if you are willing to fix it early.  Mostly, however, you want to avoid it.

Dogs with very little prey-drive are Pugs, Brussels Griffon (a dog I really like personally), Labs and Labradoodles, Golden Retrievers and Goldendoodles, some Mastiff breeds, and my perennial favorite homestead dog, Great Pyrenees.

Good small-animal dogs:

• Don’t kill small animals.

Dogs with Large Animals

Some dogs are made to work with large animals.  Any dog with the word “cattle” or “shepherd” in its name is probably a good cattle dog. Australian Shepherds, Australian Cattle Dogs, German Shepherds (particularly the low, stocky lines), Sheepdogs, Collies, and Corgies are also good with larger farm-animals.

The question is this: do you want your dog to “run” the herd, “guard” the herd, or just “ignore” the horse?  It depends on the types of animals you have and your goals.  Cattle can be run, herded, and moved.  But if you have a single horse and a dog that wants to pester it while you are trying to ride, that can be a problem for you,  the dog, and the horse.  You could get thrown, the dog could get kicked, or the horse could run into a fence and get hurt.

I have never, personally, run cattle.  I had a cow once and I had a client’s 8-month-old Australian Shepherd.  The dog, with no training or encouragement from me, knew exactly what to do.  He had never seen a cow before, but his instincts kicked in 100%.  With a little exposure and minimal training, that dog could have helped me move a herd across a pasture, I’m sure.

I also worked with a young low-body German Shepherd around a small herd of cattle.  He seemed to know what he needed to do.  The cows didn’t like it, and he needed a little training to tamp down his enthusiasm, but I could tell that he “knew.”

With my small goat-herd, I used my favorite field and farm dog, the gentle Great Pyrenees.  They are not only calm around all animals, they look like a sheep or a white goat, so they are good at guarding a flock against predators.  In this case, I wasn’t looking for help herding.  I was looking for a “shepherd” to look over the flock.

The Spanish Mountain Mastiff I had was also great with guarding.  One night, I was out camping in the woods.  No tent, just sleeping on the ground under the trees.  The next morning my mastiff came walking up with a giant gash that went up the side of his ribs.  It was deep, almost to the bone.  Why?  Some wild bores (who have razor sharp tusks) tried to come into the woods where I was sleeping.  The mastiff fought them off, receiving a deep gash in the process for one of those tusks.  Not to worry, he was fine.  I sprayed the cut with Blue-Kote (an antiseptic for cattle) twice a day and it healed up within a week.

Good large-animal dogs:

• Work the herd (if that’s your preference)
• Protect the herd (if that’s your preference)
• Or, just leave the horse, or whatever, alone.

Dogs for Homestead Predators

This brings us to predators.  Chickens, rabbits, goats, calves, sheep, quail, ducks, rabbits, they are all dinner on the hoof (or paw) for coyotes, wolves, birds of prey, snakes, raccoons, cougars, bobcats, lynx, and more.  That’s where homestead dogs earn their keep.

Barking, chasing away, and defending; depending on the dog, it will do one or more of those three.  Let’s take my precious Great Pyrenees and my Spanish Mountain Mastiff as examples.  They lay around in the middle of the field or at the edge of the herd all day.  They barely move.  The Pyrenees, in particular, can look dead they move so little.  But when something shows up on the edge of the field they get up, stare at it and bark.  If it doesn’t run away then they start moving toward it, barking more.  In the end, if the doesn’t leave then they will attack it and run it off.  That’s a good field-dog.

The other type of predator walks on two legs and wants to steal your riding lawn mower so he can buy methamphetamine. The mastiff was good for that work as well.  The Great Pyrenees, less so.  German Shepherds, Doberman Pincers, and Rottweilers are good at active defense against people.  Smaller dogs and dogs that bark are good at intrusion alert, but less so at actual defense.

With over ten years of dog training experience, I can say that my personal choice is to alert me, and possibly scare away an intruder, not to have a dog that literally attacks people.  Here’s why.  An “attack” dog is like a loaded gun with a brain of its own.  Does the Rottweiler know the difference between a pillow fight and an assault, or can it tell if Billy from next door is a danger or just selling cookies for the band fundraiser?

I don’t like families, particularly with children, owning dogs that can seriously hurt people and who have the mentality to attack (aggressive Pit Bulls, Bull Mastiffs, some Great Danes, and Rottweilers, in my experience)  I train these dogs regularly, and people who own them will swear they are gentle giants.  But 275 people every year are killed by dogs.  Over 50% are family members or friends of the family.  About 75% of the dogs that kill are Pit Bulls, and Mastiffs (including Great Danes).  Rottweilers and German Shepherds also make the list, just as a minor contributor. I would never personally own a Pit Bull.  Not because they are all bad, but because there are BETTER BREEDS that I can trust 100%.

One last word on guard dogs.  I hate Chows.  Get one if you want… but don’t get one.  They are very often mean and they bite people.  They don’t kill people, but they bite them and they aren’t good family dogs.

That being said, I had a Spanish Mountain Mastiff that was a great dog.  He did corner two people in his life and scared the pee out of them (I think they needed to be cornered).  Luckily he didn’t actually attack them.  If he had, I would not have been able to stop him.  Balance these thoughts with the actual dog you are considering.

If you EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER (is that enough?) think that your dog is in ANY WAY a real danger to children or family members (or even people walking by your fence) then get rid of the dog.  I don’t care what people on TV say about “it’s the owner, not the dog” or what breed apologists say about their breed. NO CHILD EVER DESERVES TO BE BITTEN OR ATTACKED BY A DOG.  It is always 100% the dog’s fault.  Get rid of the dog.  That’s ten years of experience and 6,000 dogs trained giving that advice.

Dogs should not be used as weapons.  Buy a gun if you want a weapon, not an attack dog.  At least the gun has a safety and can be locked in a safe when not needed.

Good predator-protection dogs:

• Know their role
• Have the body type to fulfill their role (like staying outside 24/7)
• Can be scary looking… but…
• Are safe to family, friends… and also safe to (well-intentioned) strangers.

Training

I’m a dog trainer.  I train indoor dogs to not bark, jump on people, pee on the floor.  I also teach family dogs to behave, calm down, and walk properly on a leash.  Finally, I deal with dog “behavioral issues” such as biting, leash aggressiveness, prey drive toward other family pets, etc.  I’m not primarily a “farm dog” trainer.

Some people will disagree with this advice, but I use an electric collar with a remote control for most of my field- and farm-dog training.  Most of the issues you have with a homestead dog will be excessive barking (particularly at night), digging or getting in the garden, and small prey drive (chickens in particular).  A shock (yes it should shock) collar like the Micro IDT Plus by D.T. Systems is a great solution for those problems.

Get some training or find a good video from someone like D.T. Systems.  Shock collars that also vibrate are an excellent tool when you are trying to train a dog to not do certain things at a distance… like killing chickens.  Obedience trainers will disagree.  That’s their choice.  I think a little training with a quality shock collar gives a homestead dog a great life of work and joy.

Conclusion

All dogs are different, but there are strong “breed tendencies.”  If you can try a dog out before you keep it, that’s a good thing to do.  If you get a puppy, introduce it to homestead animals very early in its life.  If you want the dog to bark, encourage it when it happens.  If you don’t want the dog to bark, discourage it with proper training.  If you know your goal for your dog, you can pick the dog for your homestead.

Bank on one thing: whatever issues the dog has when you’re picking it out will probably continue throughout its life.  If the dog seems skittish, then it is skittish.  If the dog pees on itself when you go to pet it, it’s too timid.  If the dog is overly confident and doesn’t seem to care about you, then it probably won’t care about what you want when you get it home.  Don’t just take a dog because it is cute.  They are all cute.

What dogs do I have?  I had a Spanish Mountain Mastiff for my field work and a pug for my personal lap dog.  They both passed away not too long ago.  For a while, I had an old, Great Pyrenees who was old when we got him and only lived a couple years.  I have since moved away from farm animals, so I don’t currently have a personal dog.  I do, however, board and train dogs for others.  Right now I have a client’s Doberman Pincer laying with her head on my leg and a Shih Tzu curled up on the pillow next to me.

Happy Homesteading.

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