Hi

Wannabe farmer, conservationist, doodler. Just trying to make a life for myself ✌️

[sketchycreature]

My baby goat doing playing/ training things :)

[sketchycreature]

🐸

[sketchycreature]

I strongly dislike (hate?) chickens, so does Frogs

They keep pecking at him and pooping in his water. Unfortunately chickens simply do not care.

It’s so cold here right now all the goats are happily locked in the barn. Hopefully soon Zelda and Sheba (my does) will go to their new home and Frogs can live with Rosie, it would make my life simpler (not as many chickens to poop in the water where the pony is).

It kind of sucks to rehome all but one of my goats, but I think it’s for the best so I don’t have to worry so much about them. I accepted an out of state job and honestly I’m ready to not be as tied down to my own livestock. Also grateful my mom is willing to do some basic maintenance with the pony and goat while I’m gone, so I still have my little low maintenance buddy goat, Frogs, who will be a good companion for Rosie.

[sketchycreature]

Brave!!!

Might seem like an easy step, but he’s been so scared on walks without his herd. I decided just to take off his collar when working with him a few weeks ago and let the whole process be 100% voluntary. A few day ago Froggy followed me all the way to the gravel part of the road! Good little pack goat in training.

[sketchycreature]

Shipery

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Froggy helping me milk the cows

[sketchycreature]

I just made a whole crappy synopsis of my last few weeks, but tumblr deleted it and I feel like I let it all out into the world already. So with no context to current happenings, I will be embracing some change. ✌️

[sketchycreature]

My boy discovering the joys of clicker training

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I call this one the below the poverty line aesthetic

At least it stays warm enough, it was -2 the other night and I didn’t suffer the cold or overwork my heater. That’s a win. When I finally move to my own land, hopefully next year, I’d like to do a wood stove in whatever little off grid contraption I end up building. It seemed like a death trap (fire hazard) in the barn where I am now, but as long as I’m in an actual human building I’m thinking it’ll be my best option since I won’t have electric besides what a portable solar panel can provide (enough for a few lights when needed and to charge my phone).

Maybe I should make friends with other off grid people for the community, ideas, support, etc. I didn’t even realize what I was doing was ~off grid~ until I realized that’s literally the definition, I just don’t find it as immediately romantic. I just enjoy being independent and maybe a little better to the earth than I otherwise would be (septic systems are trash imo). I’m really concerned about the legality of everything, but it is my own land and can’t I just call it “camping” if anyone is mad about me living on my own land?? Anyway, just trying to work around laws that make it illegal to live the life I want while only making like 14 an hour.

[sketchycreature]

Picture from last week, but still

Going to some clicker training fundamentals with Froggy, just asking him to come willingly from his herd to walk. It’s fun to play with and I can tell he feels SO much more comfortable when he can choose to go back to his safe herd. Kind of wish I’d started with what I know with clicker training rather than what most pack goat people do. For reference, I don’t think what pack goat people is bad at all, but not my preferred method right now. My goal is a confident animal that wants to work with me and I wasn’t really getting that half the time when it was just a lead rope and some hay for him to munch on occasionally. Also, our treat was tiny cut up carrots, though I’m going to switch to something more like a forage pellet.

[sketchycreature]

I see why pack goats are usually bottle fed haha

I don’t regret my decision to dam raise, but it is harder for Froggy to go on walks without his herd compared to bottle fed babies I’ve had in the past. It’ll take more time and patience, but he’s getting there.

[sketchycreature]

Mama Fiadh and baby Frankie ❤️

I love all my goats so much… but they are my food. Fiadh and Frankie were going to be breeding stock, but the plans have changed due to the chaos of my life and the cost of living. I need to manage moving my goats permanently off my parent’s land and to do that I need to downsize as much as reasonably possible. I kept Froggy as a pet + he bred the two does I am keeping as breeding stock before he was castrated. He was Fiadh’s buckling, so her genetics will still be in my herd. She’s a very nice goat, her only downfall is her hoof quality (which she didn’t pass down to any of her kids as far as phenotype).

The good news is I finally was able to afford land, but it will be awhile before I’m able to live there. Right now I’m essentially living in a barn at a small dairy where my goats will also be moving to… no joke. Following your dreams can be harsh lol.

The goats I’ll be keeping are Froggy, Zelda, Patches, and Sheba, though Sheba is with Rosie for company this winter (my pony that my mom has taken responsibility of, I just trim her feet). Zelda and Patches are bred for meat babies and maybe some pack goats, I’d only plan to keep breeding stock out of Patches. I’m looking to keep the number of goats I have down and have them become more like low maintenance pets (benefit of well bred kiko goats), and still offer free brush clearing to my community. We’ll see what happens with us.

[sketchycreature]

Back legs are *starting* to loosen up after M-worm (neuro problems take awhile to heal)

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What AM checks look like now that the night is longer lol

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Leefs

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… big stretch

Frogs is doing about the same, the meningeal worm symptoms haven’t gotten worse or better. I started treatment really early though, tomorrow is his last dose of safeguard (5 days total of treatment). He’s been up eating and drinking and being a cheerful baby boy, it’s only noticeable when he moves a little faster.

Much better than my last experience with m-worm where I syringe fed a malnourished buckling for over a month to pull him through, but this parasite still sucks. That poor little buckling ended up thriving later, so despite my doubts at the time I’m glad I didn’t just put him down. Neuro symptoms take a long time to heal, but hopefully within a month he’ll be 100% again and start his pack goat training adventures.

[sketchycreature]

Froggy is showing signs of meningeal worm and did not respond to thiamine injection to rule out goat polio. He just came home from a two month brush clearing job in an area that pretty dense with white-tailed deer.

I haven’t dealt with meningeal worm in years, but if anyone remembers my buck Coyote, that’s what he had. He had M-worm bad before I realized what was going on (paralysis of hind end, the worm eats their spinal cord). He did recover, but it was a long process with lots of TLC. Most often it’s picked up in areas dense with deer, so an inherent risk to brush clearing goats. In comparison to my experience before, Froggy just has a more slight issue being just uncoordinated in his hind end. He started treatment this AM with high doses of safeguard liquid dewormer (23mg/ 100lbs once a day for 5 consecutive days). Update soon on him!