Eggs (week ending 8/12): 16The second full week of the hens laying gives a total of 16 eggs, down one from last week. I'd say someone was slacking, but I'm so happy to have laying hens again that I'll gladly overlook this.
Eggs (year to date): 41
This morning while going to let the birds out, I did my usual diversionary tactic of putting a can full of grain into the manger for the goats. On the way out from doing that, I glanced back into the goat stall and saw a small, dark kid staggering around. Great, I thought, the little runt goat is in trouble. Then I saw one of the does licking it and it struck me: that goat is too black to be the runt.
So I went to investigate. The last of the does to be bred delivered her kid this morning. This is a change because every other doe born here (including last year from this same mother) was born in the late afternoon (and were discovered by yours truly just after I got home from work). This one is black with some white highlights on the face, and dark brown and white socks on all four feet. So my daughter now has a newborn kid to take to the fair in a couple of weeks (I guess the fair board pays a bonus for this because city folk love to stop by and go "ooh-ahh" at the babies). This new arrival comes on the very day that two of my daughter's yearlings go off to their new home with a farmer wanting a couple of pet goats (actually, he only wanted one, but goats are best kept in pairs - my daughter, the salesman).
The next projects on the Accidental's list:
- Oyster shell for the chickens (this means finding the aluminum dog food bowl I was keeping it in and a trip to Tractor Supply).
- More scratch grain and layer feed for the chickens (as long as I'm going to Tractor Supply). Plus sweet feed for the goats and oats to "clean out" the doe that just delivered. Unless my father-in-law beats me to these latter two.
- Taking down what is left of the repaired goat gate on the milking room - it was repaired at one time but goat interest tore it down again. Bring in the ready-made too-big gate and make it fit somehow.
- Mucking out both the goat stable and the milking room. And the concrete part of the barnyard.
- Pull a scur off of the head of one of the cart goats so he's presentable for the fair.
- The usual maintenance stuff, like changing the fly paper in the coop.
