Feeding Time

Feeding time is the time to get together and drink some warm goat's milk. The race is on to finish first. Usually the bigger kids' stomach's gets fuller faster leaving the littler ones finishing the last drops of milk.

Adam is now home and I no longer have to get up before the sun rises. All the animals co-operated with me and the week flew by.

Hats off to all the diary farmers out there who milk twice or three times a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, and 40 years until retirement. It is a lot of work and commitment to bring milk to the masses.

Mia, A Doe With No Ears

Mia is the rough tough goat around Adam's herd. She bosses every goat and many seem to be scared of her. But when Mia jumps on the milk stand she is a really sweety. She nuzzles her head between my shoulder and cheek and stands quietly while I milk her.

Ladies Pedicure

Today 8 ladies from the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) Veterinarian College came out to give "my" 9 ladies a pedicure. I appreciate it so much. My hands hurt after trimming only one hoof and to have them all done is fantastic. They were a wonderful group of young ladies all studying to be vets.

I wish them all the best in their studies. They are all welcome to come back in May for kidding (this is proper term used when goats have babies).

Adam's Farm

This morning was the first morning we did Adam's chores. He is at a conference for a few day's and we are looking after his animals.
I milked 5 does and I was soaked in milk. Someone would think I have never milked a goat before. I had milk running down my arm to my elbow, I sprayed my face and I even sprayed David who was walking by. I was wearing snow pants and they are soaked thru to my skin.
Hopefully my milking will get better when I start to get used to the different udder styles.

Where is all the snow?

That is what it was like after two good days of rain. It has been so long since the goats have seen bare ground and us too! It snowed tonight but that is OK because we made a snow fort like an igloo. One day we played in the snow and the next day in the mud. That is what the days are like here.

BY KATIE

Little Gardener

Katie has decided that we can not wait any longer to get the seeds started. Of course, she has planted mostly flowers. The middle of February we normally plant petunias but I have been enjoying winter so much I forgot about starting the plants. They are all in now. It will be interesting to see what comes up.

Thief at the bird feeder

If you look closely you can see a squirrel having his or her lunch. When the squirrel feels threatened it retreats into the big horse chestnut tree and throws sunflower shells at us.
The last few days have been above 0c and the snow is disappearing quickly. The mud season is now upon us.


Now you are able to send comments to any of the blogs.

Missing Ears

This is MasterCard, a LaManchas goat, one of Adam's bucks. He has ears that are so small that it looks like he has no ears at all. LaManchas can be any colour. Adam has two LaManchas, a buck and a doe. They are both a creamy colour. MasterCard looked different when we first saw him but we are getting use to a no eared goat. LaManchas are a calm and gentle breed. They were developed in the U.S. from crossing a short-eared goat of Spanish origin with the purebreds of the Swiss breeds.

Adam's Kids

Last week we went over to visit Adam and his goats. He has three new cute and cuddly kids. Katie’s cheeks are quite rosy. The temperature outside was –32 with wind chill and it was cold in the barn. We filled up water pails and the droplets froze on our pants. These three little kids are surviving great in the extreme cold temperatures.

Prince of the House

Cloud likes to think he is the Prince of the house. He lies around bathing in the sun and then when he gets tired of that he turns on cat TV and watches the bird feeder for activity.
When his subjects (the barn cats) from the barn come to beg for his presence, we open the door with a bow and out he goes. House cats certainly have a life of leisure.

Mother and Daughter

Dianna and Hanna are mother and daughter. Dianna has a twin sister Anne (with an E). They were born in 2003. Hanna was born in 2005. Hanna wattles are attached at the base of her ears. Wattles are supposed to be on the neck. Hanna’s nickname is wattle ears. Dianna and Hanna are best buddies. They are never far apart and sleep beside each other.

Destination Beach

Yesterday when I walked to the beach it was -27 with the wind chill. Today it felt so warm at -18. This is Rustico Bay frozen over. The Island you can see far off to the left is Robinson Island.

It is owned by the National Park of Canada. The sky and water are the same colour white in winter and blue in summer.

Classic Border Collie (who doesn't herd)

This is Jazmine, a black and white border collie who has no interest in herding. She loves the kids and goes on many adventures with them. Jazmine acts like a puppy and loves to play. She thinks everything is her toy and wants to play every game we do.

When anyone feels sad or frustrated Jazmine is right there to snuggle into him or her, to try to make him or her feel better.

We love our Jazmine!

Timid, Shy and Scared are we...

.....to face the world of humans. That is exactly how the three barn cats are (mom, dad and baby shown). The mom had a litter of two kittens last summer. One brother now lives with our former employee and now good friend Stephen and his wife Nellika. Our cats help keep the mouse population down in the barn. They leave the remains of the mouse in an obvious place where I will not miss it. How nice of them! None of the cats will let you pet them. They stay a safe distance about 3 feet away. We had a fellow who was staying with us for a little while who was going to tame them. He went away with lots of scratches.

Barn

Don't you think barns are great? They have so much character. Old barns can represent a time gone by, when they protected the farm animals from the elements and stored their food. That was when everyone had a cow for milk, chickens for eggs, and sheep for wool. In some ways it feels like we are heading back in that direction.

This is our barn now. We built it in 2002 after hurricane Juan took the roof off our old barn. The old barn was a huge 30ft by 100ft. It was built in 1927 by Albert Ling whose son is our current neighbour. He hauled sand from the dunes at Brackey, by horse and wagon. It was the first barn built on the island using modern truss construction methods. Before, barns were limited in size by the size of trees that were available. To my knowledge there is only one barn still standing on the island from that early era with the same construction method as our old barn.

Our new barn is much smaller. I took the design from a picture of a blacksmith's shop from 1918. The roof's pitch is the same as the other outbuildings that were built in the same general time period.

I want to paint it this year. What do you think, dark green with white trim or white with green trim?

Porsche Puppy

Porsche is not really a puppy any more. Only in my heart is she still the sweet bundle of fur that we brought home so long ago. She will be turning 11 on March 11th.
Porsche has had many jobs in she life. Her parents won 1st and 2nd in a 1996 sheep trial in Ontario. She takes herding very seriously. Too seriously at times. She has kept chickens, ducks, sheep, cows, and horses in their pens, even when I did not want her to.
From 1997 to 2000 Porsche was a flyball dog. The last tournament Porsche raced in she was voted by all of the participants to the Tournament Dream Team. I was so proud for her. She works so hard to please me and everyone at the tournament noticed how hard she was working.
Now her job is to walk to the beach with me and Jazmine (her sister) every morning, bark at the squirrels on the tree tops and keep the goats out of the pen while I clean the stall out. Right now she is at my feet and I can not stray too far without her following me.

About Red Island Farm

We are a small farm on Prince Edward Island. You could call it a mini farm or a hobby farm but coming from a full size farm to a much smaller one, I prefer to call it a small farm. Now if you came from the city and bought a small farm you would call it a hobby or mini farm. In my opinion every animal needs a purpose or a job and all our animals have just that.

On our small farm we have 9 Toggenburg does, three barn cats, two border collies, and one house cat (who thinks he is a barn cat when warm goat's milk in on the barn menu).
The nine does are all due to have kids this spring. The first that is due is Eden on May 5th. She is my princess, one of the first two goats to come to our farm in 2000. She is my best milker and leads the herd with dignity and pride. It is getting increasingly harder for her with 4 young ones to keep in line.