I thought I would share this video today.
I am going to be teaching about the use of the goat in the permacultural setting at the Northeast Permaculture Convergence this July up in Maine!
Details:
July 2 – 4, 2010 at the MOFGA Common Ground Education Center, Unity Maine
Their site -> NE Convergence
More thoughts are developing around my presentation materials and may show up here.
The video above shows how much the garden has grown in the past two weeks!
I thought I would share a quick video that gives you a base line sense for my garden before the growth really starts to take off. Should be interesting when compared to later videos.
Once certain plants are up further, I will be mulching to retain moisture.
What a hair raising adventure in animal husbandry this week!
We had contracted with a sheep/alpaca/llama shearer to come down from upper Vermont to shear our llama.
Its not humane to keep a halter on a llama for long so she generally is free of any fetters, running wild with the goats in their acre enclosure.
To be sheared, she needed to have a halter on. She is VERY skittish and only tolerates us barely touching her when she has her head in the feed bucket. She pulls away quickly even then.
We tried for this last week to slip the halter on her but never were able to. Thursday was D-day and the shearing guys came and she still had no halter (YIKES!).
I felt like such a bad llama keeper.
Our llama easily weighs 300 pounds and is some 6-7 feet tall, keep this in mind.
The shearing guys come into the pen and we proceed to try to pen her into a corner.
Misty the llama was NOT amused.
She got angry and when she is angry she gallops up and down the wooded stump strewn hills of the enclosure REALLY fast.
When she gallops, she will run RIGHT at you to do a headfake at the last second and run askew and away from you.
When she does that, I hide behind trees.
When she gallops, pre shear, her fur flounces up and down like this gigantic majestic fluffy ball of fur with strong animal muscles, fierce kicking legs, hooves, and a predilection of spitting like a camel (she is a camelid).
I gave up hope after half an hour and was resigned to paying these poor guys for their wasted trip.
Thing is, they pride themselves on NEVER having been beaten by an animal, I had no idea.
They admitted later that they were ALMOST about to give up when one of them tried one last lunge, freestyle, at the llama’s neck (as she was at FULL gallop, gulp!)
The guy GOT her! We quickly put the halter on her and they held her to a tree while we got the extension cords out there and they began to do their very dangerous job.
Llamas do NOT take kindly to the indignities of shearing. Its important to get the fur off every few years (many do it every year) because it can become a bit much in the summer) Not sure what wild llamas do but I am guessing that up in the mountains of Peru summer heat is never an issue.
The guys had to shear her AS she jumped around, really scary (if she so much as steps on your foot, its gonna hurt).
The guys were so persistent!!! I have put a series of photos below showing the process. Llamas also need to have their front teeth trimmed if they grow too long. By the time the shearing was done, she had calmed down a bit so I asked them to trim her teeth. Those photos are at the end!
This is what she looked like before shearing, the after shot is at the top of this post!
Now the teeth trimming, notice the smoke or dental material filling the air.
All Done!
Kidding Drama
Things have been very busy around here due to it being a long drawn out kidding season. We had girls who got pregnant over several estrus cycles so the babies were kidded out over quite a long period.
We ended up with 10 kids I think. 6 of them are female which we will keep (and have all been disbudded now) and the 4 males will be sold.
This brings us to something like 22 goats total, lots! We have been letting the babies nurse but tomorrow we will separate them and start milking. At first the milk goes to the babies and then we will wean them and have the milk for ourselves.
All the babies kidded out well and healthy except for the very last one (figures huh?).
The last baby was a singleton of average size but her legs were really long. Because of this the baby had been very cramped in utero so her fetlocks had contracted. What this means is that, as you can see in the photo below, her little hooves were forced back under so she was walking on her little tiny newborn knees.
This doesnt need to be a permanent defect and can be fixed by using splints to force her legs into the correct position and allowing the tendons to stretch a bit and begin to mineralize from the milk she drinks.
The following photos show how we made homemade splints from cut up milk jugs, rags, and duct tape.
Above you see the splint as we put it on the fetlock below her knee. We tested to see if it fixed the defect.
It didnt work out as I wanted because she was just bending badly at the knees. We put on a second course of splint, up above her knees so that her leg dynamics were more about using the hoof correctly.
You can see below that it worked out better with the second course.
After a few days we removed the splints to test her out. We found one hoof well positioned but not the other so we replaced that splint.
Above, you can see her lounging (she is a great lounger). She is very tenacious and stubborn and has a distinct personality. We named her Rosie.
Above, you can see Rosie nursing from her mom Spelt.
Since these photos we have been able to remove her last splint and now she runs and frolics and is growing like a weed!
Spring Cleaning
We have put in some new fencing and segregated the goats from their usual pens so that we can clear out all the muck. This will require disassembling the pens and using a tractor to rake out all the stuff!
Goats go psychotic and loco and get super angry if they get rained on so we have build temporary rain shelters during this time of cleaning. The one you see below is one of two, the second (not shown) is much bigger.
New Garden Beds
Below you see a panorama photo of our early spring garden (older beds on the right) that shows the tree clearing (background) and new raised beds on the left.
The photo below shows a closer view of these new beds.
They are amended with a LOT of llama manure and will be planted with a mix of perennial and tender annuals.
Planting has to wait until at least after this weekend because we are looking at night freezing and snow (sighs).
Meet Nibblet! One of our new LaMancha baby goats.
Our goats have begun to deliver their babies. We had 3 arrive yesterday alone. Sort of tiring! I have posted a Flickr slideshow below for your viewing pleasure.
To get rid of the tiny thumbnails along the bottom of that slideshow, just pass your cursor over the display.
If you can not see that, click here to go to that flickr set.
When kidding goes easily, its all fun and games. Problem is, there are always possibilities for things to go terribly wrong. If you have read this blog in the past you might have seen that we lost one of our does last year, see this post: RIP Wheatie, our sweet goat girl.
Well, this year, we had another trying time. You may remember Felicity, who we treated aggressively to save her life from a nasty illness. For details on that see: Listeriosis.
She healed well with a lingering twist to her head. That went away as she exercised and romped so that you cant tell from looking at her that she experienced these challenges.
She is a small doe, so is her sister Calliope. Calliope didnt get pregnant this year but Felicity did.
We could tell by the development of her udders that she was indeed pregnant.
One day I went out in the morning to check on the goats for babies and I find Felicity licking a baby that had been stillborn, definitely premature. It was very small and had almost no hair but was perfectly formed.
I took the baby away and all seemed well with Felicity other than her calling out and looking around. That maternal instinct is so strong!
The next morning my oldest daughter went to check and then flew back into the house telling me that Felicity has prolapsed.
Indeed, Felicity had suffered a prolapsed vagina and cervix. You can see what that looks like below.
I had read about how this could happen but I was worried that this mean that Felicity still had a baby inside, stuck.
As you might also know, we have been un- and under- employed for some time so we cant just call the vet, just not an option.
I do not recommend that you be the same way. You have to be really intrepid and have guts of steel to wing it. You have to always be ready to put the animal down if things go badly so that the animal does not suffer. I can not abide by suffering. We are all animals and I feel their pain like I do that of my human kids.
I knew that one can stitch the vaginal opening closed but I was worried about the possibility that:
I also knew that sheep have a tendency to prolapse and that there was such a thing as a ewespoon – a device (shown below) that you use to reposition the vaginal tissues and then it is held in place until:
I thought it might be of use to show images of all this for those of you considering homesteading with dairy goats so that you can see the realities of these animals and the birthing process.
The following set of images might be disturbing to some. Please note that Felicity didnt seem to be in great pain (even tho it might look like it “should”). There are not many nerve endings in the vaginal canal and none in the cervix really. Same goes for us.
MOST importantly, Felicity healed and is quite back to her normal self now!
I thought I would share a little about this guy Jean Pain who completely and most effectively hacked the DIY energy thing some time back! Obviously, the world has NOT been paying attention (as old timers know well).
In a nut shell, Pain was a forester in France who noticed the mighty thermal output of microbial action on composting materials. He proceeded to harness this heat by rigging large mounds of shredded brush (from his management of the forests) with an internal methane producing biomass bioreactor and heat capture coils built into the mound structure.
Click through to the page to learn more!
[A winner was selected, congrats Genevieve! I wish I could send each of you a copy!]
I got to know the author of Grocery Gardening, Jean Ann Van Krevelen, a little bit via twitter (she is @jeanannvk). With a few 140 character strings and lots of other people also tweeting, she brought my awareness to this great book.
The premise of the book is to help people gain the knowledge they need to begin to grow their own food.
I think it takes a great viewpoint – approach people who want good food but who mainly know their food as things you buy at a store, not raise with your own two hands.
New gardeners can often feel overwhelmed. One might start gardening for the sake of securing safe wholesome food but very soon the truth emerges, gardening is not intention, it is action and observation and attention.
With this book, the entry level gardener can begin to make their segway gracefully from poking veggies in the store to growing their own.
The book is somewhat unusual in that there are several contributing authors who speak from experience: Jean Ann Van Krevelen, Amanda Thomsen, Robin Ripley, and Teresa O’Connor.
The photography is crisp and very inviting. The pages are packed with information on growing as well as recipes for using your bounty! The mixture of voices very much evokes the current trends in social media where one is bathed in a diverse community of knowledge, viewpoints, attitudes.
Chapters
I am happy to recommend this lovely book to anyone who is interested in learning more about growing their own food and also how to enjoy their harvest throughout the year!
Ok, here are the details on this contest:
Suggested tweet that you can just cut and paste:
I entered 2 win a copy of “Grocery Gardening” by @jeanannvk at @nika7k ‘s site, here! http://bit.ly/bZxUTo You can enter 2 win too! RT Pls
Product Details:
[If you would like to volunteer for this effort, please drop me an email at nika dot boyce at gmail dot com and I will get you into our PermaCorp volunteer database and keep you up to date]
Like you, I have been simply swept away by the brutal earthquake that has subsumed Haiti into a hell that gets worse by the day.
I have been mostly learning about it via CNN and on twitter. I have been pouring over the satellite images of the destruction as seen in Google Earth.
As I write, Reuters says that more than 200,000 people have died and as of this evening, they have buried 40,000 dead. MANY more bodies lay in the streets and under endless tons of ruined buildings.
Thank goodness for twitter and the permaculture people I have gotten to know there because that is the only thing that is keeping me from feeling utterly lost in desolation over this apocalypse.
It is through @gaiapunk, who is something of a one-man permaculture media empire, that I have begun to learn about and really love the idea of Permaculture First Responders.
He posted several links to projects already either training Permaculture First Responders or projects on the ground in Haiti and other disaster struck places.
Permaculture First Responder – Permie Disaster Relief Training Course
Cegrane Camp Permaculture Rehabilitation Project
Cuba-Australia Permaculture Exchange
I have been wondering how I might be able to help nurture this idea here, tucked away in my small part of the world without actually going to Haiti myself.
I have been chatting with Cory at Permaculture.org and am happy to share this link that is very constructive in terms of the next steps.
Help for Haiti from Permaculture
From that site you will see:
Some of the projects which permaculturists can design and implement are:
Short Term:
Building sewage systems, composting toilets, compost and recyclying centers, rocket and solar stoves, temporary shelters (perma-yurts), water catchment and filtering, and plant nurseries.
Rocket and solar stoves are key because the major ecological problem in Haiti which causes huge hardships from many angles is deforestation for fuel. Solar stoves use no wood and rocket stoves, which can be made out of old cans and pipes laying around, use almost no fuel and can cook with twigs.
Correct diversion of sewage, human waste, and water can substantially contribute to rebuilding farm land in the area – the idea is to create the conditions for long term self-sufficiency and abundance with even our short term handlings.
Long Term:
Permanent, low cost, earthquake resistant natural buildings, water storage, earth works, renewable energy, permaculture food forests, broad-scale reforestation, farms, aquaculture systems, and community buildings such as schools and health centers.
We are currently working via a worldwide network of permaculturists to bring resources to Haiti, and several permaculturists are interested in traveling to Haiti to help with the rescue and relief efforts, but need funding to do so. We are in contact with disaster handlers in the area who they can coordinate with for maximum effectiveness. There is a permaculture project existing in Haiti that we are working to connect with as well. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me – I am also willing to meet with potential funders to answer questions personally.
If you want to donate now, please use the “Haiti Donations – Donate” Paypal button on the right hand side of this web page. For past projects we’ve funded, please see the Pine Ridge Lakota reservation article under “Projects.” We will use initial funding to get people there on the ground and most needed resources such as equipment for building the short term items needed. Whenever possible, we use existing resources in the area that are free or very inexpensive – permaculture is very effective at getting the maximum return for energy invested, so you will know your money is going to a good cause.
I know that the idea of surviving this disaster is like a miracle and then the idea of Haiti being able to climb up from a place so dark seems too distant to contemplate.
To this end, I have been graphing out what the needs would be over time for people living through such overwhelming disasters.
I think its extremely important to do this now and for Haitians, now, because these same ideas and strategies will be needed again and again as climate change progresses.
In the graphic above, I try to illustrate the needs of a person immediately after surviving a catastrophe (earthquake, fire, flood, etc). The needs are pretty basic but inelastic in their being absolutely needed.
Once the person is out of immediate danger and is left standing with nothing, no assets, nothing but other survivors around them, they need to find a way to rebuild, regenerate, and boost their resilience so that they become embedded in a community that provides current and future needs.
In this next graphic, I extend on the specific needs outlined in the second graphic with permaculture and no/lo-carbon and low cost strategies for coping and rebuilding.
Please take some time and explore these graphics and tell me what you think, whats missing? What would you add?
Please consider becoming involved in helping the Haitians, using permaculture or by other means, as where the Haitians are right now, that hell, could easily be ours, any of us.
We are, in many ways, their community.
We are each other’s community and it is through us banding together that we build resilience in every place.
Enjoy a few shots in and around our humble homestead – silent raised beds, munching truculent goats and hesitant chickens as well as an aloof and rather disgusted llama.
Going out to feed the goats, chickens, and llama.
Snowy llama – her name is Misty but we are calling her Snowy right now.
Goats eating hay.
Maisy the goat, eating hay and saying hello to me.
The milking stanchion frozen over – so glad we are not milking right now.
Chickens and duck.
Old english game rooster, dozing his way through snow.
How is it where you are?!
Activate the Wp-cumulus plugin to see the flash tag clouds!
We are a family of 5, including Nika, Ed, Q (14), KD (7), and Baby Oh (4). We garden 1024 square feet of raised beds plus assorted permacultural plantings. We also have 13 LaMancha dairy goats, 40 chickens, and one guard llama.
