New Kids on the Block

Elvis and Priscilla just hours after being born.

Things have been pretty slow here on the Red Clay Farm until yesterday.

I walked outside to go for a run yesterday morning and heard a strange bellowing coming from the back corner of the pasture. I knew exactly what it was the moment I heard it. For weeks we have been waiting for Prissy to kid. We knew it was imminent because she looked like she was about to explode.

As I got to the back of the pasture I saw Prissy standing over two baby goats. One was up and moving around, the other laying down. As I got closer, I saw that the on laying down had its leg caught in the fence. They were mostly dry and clean so they had been around for a couple of hours, but not much more.

I untangled the leg from fence and tried to get the little kid to walk around. He would not use the let at all. Instead, he would drag both rear feet behind him, kind of like that half of a zombie dragging herself across the town square in that show, The Walking Dead. After some quick research on the 'Net, we decided to splint his legs and see if that helped him. It did. A few hours later, he was up and moving around on all fours, looking rather stylish in his purple and white splints!

Elvis and Priscilla are doing well today. They are strong and active! Unless something bad happens, I believe we got them through the rough patch!

This is Elvis trying to get to his momma and
dragging his leg behind him.

Priscilla just after being born. It's amazing how
quick they are to stand up and get going!

Donkey Wrastlin' and Plantin'

Saturday was a great day, weather-wise. The sun was shining and it was warm. If I were to have one complaint, it was the wind, which was rather strong. It blew bird houses of their stands, the trash cans went for a tour of the back yard and the buckets I had sitting in the driveway wouldn't stay.

About a week ago, I ordered some plants from Ison's Nursery. They arrived Friday evening, delivered by FEDEX and wrapped in a plastic sheeting and a thick, brown paper bag. I got two more muscadine vines for the grape trellis, four raspberry plants, another pear tree, a peach tree to replace the one the goats killed last year and I couldn't resist trying out a pomegranate tree. So, with buckets, plants and shovel in hand, I headed into the orchard to plant me some trees.

This is the first time I've ever dealt with bare root plants and I sure hope I did things right. For each plant, I dug the hole about twice as large as the roots (except for the pear tree which had really long roots - I would have had to dig to China). Then I took the dirt and mixed it with some home made worm castings in about a 2:1 ratios (dirt to castings). As I filled the dirt back in around the roots, I would add a little water in the hole to help settle it down around the roots.

It took much longer to plant nine plants than I thought it would. It was mid-afternoon by the time I was done. After all that effort, I sure hope they live!

By the time I was done planting, it was time to feed the menagerie. I walked down to the feeding area to get the feed bowls set up and was greeted by 15 hungry animals. (I guess I should explain here that Rosalita, the donkey we acquired in Jan, has proven to be uncatchable ever since the farrier trimmed her hooves two months ago. This is unfortunate, because she has a bad case of thrush and her hooves are over grown and need lots of attention) Rosalita got just a little too close to me and a quickly grabbed her halter. When a 350# donkey doesn't want to be caught, it can put up quite a fight, but I managed to hang on and drag her out of the pasture.

I tied her up to the horse trailer and fed her separately, trying to make this as pleasant an experience a possible. I brushed her, gave her a carrot and then started working on her feet. That's when the real fun began. It was a tussle, but I managed to clean, treat, and file her hooves as best I could. Buddy the farm dog was a casualty, though. He got a little too close to the action and took a hoof to the right shoulder. No permanent damage, but I think he developed a very health respect of the donkey at that moment.

Anyway... That was my Saturday at the Red Clay Farm. At the end of the day, I was dead tired, but it was a good tired! Lots of fresh air and sunshine. Spring is in the air here in SC!

(Editor's Note: I will add pictures later. One of the things I've got to do better is take more pictures. Nothing is more boring than a blog without pictures! Who wants to read all the time?)

A Very Blue Trailer

When you have a farm, even a small one like ours, you need a flat bed trailer. They are handy for all sorts of things; hauling tractors, hauling hay, picking up 16' fence panels or hay rings, or even for transporting five cubic yards of mushroom compost.

I bought this trailer a few months ago. It is a well-constructed, sturdy trailer with a 7000# capacity, but it had a few problems. First, the brake lights didn't work, and second, the tires are in horrible shape.

So what started out as fixing the brake lights turned out to be a major project. I first started out to fix the taillights but once I managed to unbolt them, it became clear that they were unfixable. The body of the lights were rusted through and wire casings were cracked. I decided to scrap them and buy new ones.

Of course, if I buy new lights, I might as well re-wire the trailer while I'm at it, right? And before I bolt the new lights in place, I ought to clean and paint the tail light bracket so it doesn't rust any more. Once I painted the tail light brackets, I decided I might was well paint the rest of the trailer while I'm at it. Oh, and the wood could probably use some wood preservative since I don't have a shelter to park the trailer under; Thompson's Water Seal to the rescue!

So here it is, in all its blue glory. In retrospect, blue probably wasn't the best color for the trailer. But it does now match the tractor color, as you can see in the picture. Plus, blue is my favorite color. The paint job is what you would expect from a spray can paint job. It has its share of runs, drips and oversprays, but it still looks better than it did before. Bob the tractor will look sweet riding on this trailer!

All this and I STILL don't have the brake lights on or the tires changed! It's not safe, but it looks good and that's what's important!

Pre-Composting Worm Food

I love my experiments!

We've been throwing old produce into the compost bin and layering it with alpaca manure for the past week. The intent is to pre-compost it just enough and feed it to the worms. As you can see by the thermometer (even if it is kind of hard to see), we've started to see an increase in the temperature. It hit 120° today. I expect that it will reach 130° - 140° sometime this week and then start to drop off. When the temps start to drop, I'll mix it up and let it cook again. In about two more weeks, it will be perfect worm food - soft, mushy, rotting and loaded with bacteria and fungus. Yum, Yum!

Isn't science cool?

IBC Aquaponics

I finally finished building the aquaponics experiment I wrote about earlier in the year. This week I got it filled with water and have the pump going to cycle the water. All that's needed now is a source of fish so I can stock the thing.

Here's a list of what I needed to build this system, cost and sources.

IBC Container - Craigslist.org - $75. (Delivered)

Two each 2"x4"x10 - Lowe's - $7.

1" PVC pipe and misc fittings - Lowe's - $23.

4x65# bags Sunleaves Rocks Growing Medium (.5-1.5" diameter) - The Urban Garden - $97.50

EcoPlus Submersible Pump ECO1056 and 1" flex tube - The Urban Garden - $82.75

All totaled, I've spent about $280. on my experiment. That's not especially cheap, but not too expensive, either. I'm not sure how much fish will cost me yet but as soon as I find a good source I will update this post or add another.

Alpacas Join the Team

I've always said that I would like to raise alpacas. They are great animals. They are clean, pretty easy keepers, easy on the land and just so darn cute!

Well, this week, Mrs Red Clay Farmer purchased three learner alpacas for me as a Army retirement gift. These girls have been pets for the past year or so and the previous owner decided he was too busy to keep them. They are named after the characters from the Golden Girls. Dorothy is the white one, Rose is Brown and Blanche is the black one. They came with two donkeys as well - Scarlet, the mom and her son, Harpo.

The girls and Harpo have made the transition to the farm and seem to be well adjusted. Scarlet, on the other hand, has not made it to our place yet. She has proven to be a challenge to catch and seems to be very happy at her old home. We are going to make one more attempt to bring her home later in the week.