A Walk Back to the Barn In Late August

It's late August and it's very hot and humid.  The mosquitoes are thicker than I've ever seen 'em.  Every animal and human on our little farm is looking forward to fall.  It is about a 150 foot walk back to the barn.  As I walk out in the afternoon, I see a very familiar sight - the cows and chickens are laid up under the shade of the pecan and oak trees.  They'll go out and eat grass in the early morning and then they'll stay in the tree's shade out in the pasture until the sun's course in the sky is overhead and eliminates any shade.  When the shade disappears, the cows head back to the always shady area on the southeastern side of the property.  They'll sit there and pant until the late afternoon.  Then they'll head back out to eat grass when the setting sun casts long shadows.

At this time in the season, the grass is diverting energy toward producing seed heads.  As a result, the grass is less nutritious.  This coupled with the fact that it is just too darn hot for them to eat grass all day has resulted in the cows all have lost some weight.  They'll be okay, though. 

I began to think about fall/winter feeding.  We have around 90 square bales in the barn.  I called the farmer that supplies us with round bales to reserve round bales this fall/winter/spring.  We keep records that show that last year, we used 24 round bales.  I reserved at least that much for this year.  In December, we'll put out a round bale and keep one on hand for them at all times until the latter part of April.

Back in the barnyard, I threw some henscratch to the hens and they begin scratching and eating.  Our flock is getting old.  A couple of years ago, we had over 100 in total when we captured them in the barn and counted them one by one.  We've lost some to old age since then.  I'd estimate that we have about 90 hens now.  In the past, I'd add about a dozen new pullets each year to replace those that died during the year.   We haven't added any new ones in a couple of years.  The hens (mostly) lay their eggs in the red hen house.  Benjamin would always collect the eggs and package them, but since he's  gone off to college, Tricia and I gather them each day, wash dirty ones, and put into cartons.

In the photo above, you can see a new addition to the barnyard - we moved a trough inside the corral.  The water trough is positioned where it catches rainwater off the barn roof.  We watched during a short rainstorm this weekend in which 5 inches of water was quickly collected from the run-off.  This is a good development as the calves are kept in the corral all night and it wasn't efficient to fill water buckets every night. 

The Great Houdini - Annie the Nubian Goat

Each morning while we milk the cows, we put Annie, our Nubian dairy goat, into the goat milking stall.  You can see the gate leading into the stall in the photo below. To the left of the gate inside the stall is Annie's milking stanchion and her trough that we pour dairy ration for her to eat while Tricia milks her.  I'm not a big fan of drinking her milk plain, but we make goat kefir (a drinkable yogurt) that we make delicious smoothies with by blending in berries, figs, honey, and cinnamon.  It is a great, healthy breakfast-on-the-go.

So while we milk the cows, Annie waits (sometimes) patiently for us to finish up and then go feed her and milk her.  Except we have a design problem with the gate that has allowed Annie to figure out a way to escape.  Can you see the gap between the gate and the post that has the gate latch below?  Annie has recently found that she can stick her nose in the gap and wedge her nose underneath the latch and pop the latch up.  Animals can be smart sometimes, can't they?

She then gets out.  It may not be as dramatic as getting out of a straight jacket or a chest with chains and padlocks, but she is crafty, calculating and deceptive.  Since we are busy milking the cows, we don't notice she's escaped until she sticks her neck into Daisy's trough and begins eating her food. Daisy will have none of that!  She uses her big old cow head as a weapon and knocks Annie out of the way.  Annie is a stubborn, persistent creature and she will keep on trying.  All sorts of shenanigans follow.

I broke an old broomstick in half as a temporary workaround and used it as a doorstop.  It worked!  Annie was frustrated that her escape act had been foiled.  But a sharpened broomstick handle isn't a long-term solution.  It is kind of dangerous, too.

I rummaged around in the barn and found some lumber and nailed it in two angles on the ladder that leads up to the hay loft.

If you notice in the photo below, look at the bottom latch.  You'll see the gap no longer exists.  There is just a small sliver - way too small for Annie's goat nose to fit between.

Four screws and two scrap pieces of lumber was all that was needed to put an end to Annie's escape artist routine.  There is peace and harmony around the barnyard now - for us at least.

Soon...

Annie, however, is plotting her next escape, biding her time until she pulls off her next Shawshank Redemption prison break.