Erosion Control Success!!!

Well, after some pretty big storms and lots of rain last night, I'm please to say that the retention dams did their job well! Woo Hooo! Time to start looking at terracing for the rest of the pasture now. Hopefully I can get some grass growing on these dams to hold them in place.

From the top, looking down. You can see where Red Clay Farm gets it's name!

The water adds some definition to the size of the dams

Erosion Control

One of the challenges we have here at the Red Clay Farm is that we are on the side of a hill. The road is to our front and the land slopes away from the road toward a stream that runs along the back of the property line. In all, it's about a 50 meter vertical drop from the front to the back.

Courtesy of Google Earth

When we first moved here, we had a huge gully that ran through the middle of the property. It was terrible and in places is was at least six feet deep. One day I couldn't find our little goat, Timmy, anywhere. I walked the pasture for an hour before I heard a faint Timmy call. I had to listen for a while to figure out where he was. I finally found him at the bottom of the gully, covered in red clay from head to toe. He was so deep that all I could reach was his horns.

After saving Timmy, I decided that I had to do something about the gash that ran across our property. So, the following week, I burned all the brush we had thrown in the gully to stem the flow of water and got the tractor and box blade out. I spent the next few days using the box blade to push in the sides of the gully and fill it in. Over the next few months, the soil settled and the gully started to reappear. There were low spots developing in area where the gully was the deepest. Water was still flowing down the hill pretty fast in this area.

Today, I pulled out the box blade again. This time, my goal was to create some small retention "ponds" along the gully to keep water from flowing like a river down the hill. After about an hour and a half of work, I had created four retention dams along the area where the gully used to run.

From the top of the hill, looking down.

I put the dams on the down-hill side of the low spots that formed. The smallest dam is about 1.5 feet deep and 12 feet across. The largest is about 18 feet wide and 2.5 feet deep.

The bottom-most dam. Also the biggest. The picture doesn't show the depth very well.

So that's how I spent my day here at the Red Clay Farm. I won't have to wait long to see how these dams work. There is a big frontal system bearing down on us tonight and we are due to have strong thunderstorms and rain. I'll report on how they held tomorrow.

Not Out Of The Woods Yet!

I walked out to check on the goats this morning. It was a cool 27 degrees. Everyone appears to have made it through the night but the new guy... Just barely.

I brought him into the house to warm him up. He started shivering as he warmed. Once he got over his shivering, he got a little more active and tried to stand. He was weak and stumbly.

While he was warming I stuck my finger in molasses diluted by warm water and rubbed it in his mouth. I got very little response. We tried the bottle again with no luck. He just wouldn't take it. Several websites suggest sub-cutaneous injections of lactated-ringer's solution and tube feeding. I don't have the experience or supplies for either. I guess I'll have to figure that out and stock some supplies for the future.

So, once he was thoroughly warmed, I took him back to the herd. He started bleating and they all came running. I put him with Junie and he started nursing. Maybe getting him good and warm was the key!

UPDATE: As of last night the little goat was doing well enough to tentatively name. He was moving around and feeding on his own. We named him Petie.

For future reference, I found a link to the supplies every goat rancher needs here and another website that talked about how to manage weak and wimpy kids here. This link about warming a chilled kid was also very helpful

New Goat #4 (I hope)

Junie has always been the problem child. When she was born we only had a few days with her before we had to go on a trip to Kansas. As a result, she is completely wild and scared to death of us. It's almost impossible to catch her unless we sneak up on her while she's eating. Even then, it's tough.

So, wouldn't you know she would give birth on the one of the worst weather nights we've had! Last night it POURED as a frontal system came through. The temps dropped from the 60's down to the low 30's. Rumor is it even snowed a little.

So I came out this morning to find one very cold and wet little buck and one even colder (dead) little buck. I dried the little guy off and put some betadine on his umbilical. Naturally, June was traumatized that I was within 10 feet of her and took off. I decided to back off and try to let nature take it's course.

I learned a lot about goats today. It was touch and go all day long and the new guy seemed very weak. The day finally warmed into the 50's. We set the new baby in the sun where he started warming up. I didn't want to have to bottle feed this baby and I wanted June to accept and take care of it. I was afraid that if I did too much, she would never accept it.

We managed to catch June and calm her down with some feed. I held her while my wife tried to get the kid to nurse. He would start, and then lose interest quickly. We tried this several times with very little success. After some quick research on the Web, I decided that we were going to have to bottle feed the little guy.

I made then run in to TSC to buy the required supplies. Forty-three dollars later, I came home and mixed up some kid milk replacement with colostrum replacement and took it out to the new kid. He would not have it! He was warm enough, I think (Here's where I learned that I need a goat rectal thermometer). He just would not have the bottle. We held June again and tried to get him to nurse with some limited success. June was attentive to the baby so we decided to let her handle it herself.

As of this writing, the goats are bedded down in straw under the shed. It is a cold night and it's supposed to get colder. I have wrestled with the idea of bringing the baby in to keep him warm, but I think I will let June and nature handle it and see what happens.

If the little guy lives, I'll post a picture of him tomorrow.

New Goats 2 & 3

I came out this morning to do a head count and found that Nutter Butter gave birth to twins last night. This is her first set of twins out of five pregnancies!

NB is never too sure about us Red Clay Farmers. If we have food, she will stand by us, but otherwise, she is always out of reach. Her demeanor changes every time she kids and she becomes more friendly. This morning she seemed happy to see me as I visited with her and her babies. She was even happier when I gave her some feed without the rest of the herd swarming her.

 The brown kid is a buckling. The black one is a doe. They each have a distinct personality. The brown one is kind of bold and adventurous. The black one is a little more reserved and timid. I've named them Big Dan and Li'l Ann.

New Goat #1

I knew she was pregnant, but Chrissie surprised me this morning when I walked out to the pasture and found a baby goat by the water tank! That was the good news. The bad news was that the baby's twin sister did not survive and we found her little body a few feet away. It's too bad, too. The one that didn't make it had really unique markings.

Doe and kid appear to be doing well.

Aquaponics

I have made my New Year's resolution! I have decided to try my hand at aquaponics. For those of you who don't know what aquaponics is, it is a merging of hydroponic gardening and aquaculture (raising fish). The fish create nitrogenous waste that the plants use as fertilizer and the plants clean the water for the fish. Plants are grown in a growing media and there is no dirt used.

I am getting my inspiration from the IBCofAquaponics website. This website has some very detailed info and you can download a great PDF from their site here or on their website. The PDF shows some options on how various people set up their aquaponics systems. There are so many ways to do this! I am only limited by my imagination...

I have found a guy who is selling IBC containers nearby. He is willing to deliver and he says that the container previously held a food grade glue similar to Elmer's Glue. He wants $75. for each. He also sells 55 gal plastic drums. I may get a few of these as well for use as rain barrels or something.

More to follow....