Forthright Farms

Sunrise over the pond.

  

I just found out that Kate is a ghost tri color. What this means is that she has barely visible brown patches-her's are on both rear legs, (see picture) and in the inside corners of her ears.

 Mom's new kid, Jazmin, who is a half sister of Simcoe. Harper died a couple of weeks ago, so Mom wanted a kid to take her place. 

In other news... I finally decided on a farm name. Forthright Farms. Originally it was Finn Ridge Farm, but because we don't actually live on Finn Ridge Road, I though that it could get pretty confusing to the locals. I even have a small website started. http://forthrightfarms.weebly.com

Ebony, Marion, Flicka, and Skittles are bred-we have Desi, Emmy, Bunny, and Bluebelle left to do. They won't be bred until December, as any goat bred between now and then, will be due right at the time of Kaia's wedding. Wouldn't that be something-one of her bridesmaids can't show up because she's out delivering kids!

The puppies are almost ready to be sold-the price is $200 if anybody wants one. 

Two more of my rabbits, Spruce and Laurel, had kits, 5 and 10 in the litters. I have a funny little story to go with.

Laurel, the rabbit that had babies a couple months ago, lost all but three because I didn't have a good nest box. Because of that, I rebred her with those kits were four weeks old. I can't tell if rabbits are pregnant, except by putting them with the buck again and seeing if they accept him. So, after three weeks of watching Laurel, I put her back with the buck and he bred her. I changed her due date, and went on my merry way. One morning about a week later, when feeding the dogs, I heard what I thought was one of Spruce's kits squeaking up a storm. I decided to go over and see what was going on. As I passed Laurel's cage, I saw a pile of fur on the floor and a pink kit next to it, yelling away-she was pregnant after all! Quickly, I removed her three, 8 week old kits that hadn't been weaned, dumped Spruce's 3 week old kits out of their box, and put the pile of fur and kit into the box. I then put the box in Laurel's cage. By that time she'd popped out a second one, which I put in the box as soon as she cleaned it off. Then came 8 more! One died after a couple of days, and one is pretty runty, but the rest are doing fine. Another newbie mistake to mark down!

Kate's was on bed rest for a couple of weeks. She got her rear dewclaws removed, and anytime I let her out of the kennel, off leash, she'd go crazy and make the wounds start bleeding again. She's finally healed enough now that I can let her run again. 

Brittany and I butchered 34 ducks a couple of weeks back. We still have 27 broilers to do in a couple of weeks.