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Elm Creek News​

January 6, 2017
 Freckles died in November 2016. Her quads strangled each other inside her and were dead on arrival. We tried to get them out of her but it was horrible; they were all tangled up and they'd already been dead a while and poisoned her. It was a bad, and we found out that we can't rely on a vet being available. We called our vet and the goat person wasn't in that day so too bad so sad. And there was NOWHERE else around that we could take her that was open and that saw goats. 
Thankfully a week later Dark Rose had healthy twins from Sandstorm with no problems. If we ever get a goat that throws multiples like Freckles again we will probably take her to get an ultrasound somewhere to make sure everything is ok. She'd never had a problem before. We were so lucky to have had Freckles. She was a wonderful mom; we miss her.
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April 7, 2016
 
A lot has gone on. Cookie died a traumatic death in childbirth leaving a male kid that we've bottlefed. She delivered him fine, but apparently there were two other kids inside her, tangled up and dead. We had no idea until two days later when she  showed signs of sickness and it was too late.
All but 3 Jersey hens survive; we were hit by some 
"varmint" that ate the heads of the others, including our beloved white rooster. We're not sure if it was a possum or raccoon, but we've set out traps and hardened our hearts. The moles that we tolerated for a few months got into the backyard and went crazy digging, killing a fruit tree. We are truly learning the meaning of "varmint" this year. 
 
In happier news, K designed and built a nifty greenhouse and we're talking to the AI guy in Floresville about coming out sometime soon to administer some straws to Gypsy. We're looking forward to seeing the results! We're planning on using straws from Demolition, the main man at R54 Lowlines in Comfort.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
R54 Lowlines Site
 
 
November 12, 2015
Created a Tumblr account for blogging farmy news. 
http://elmcreekfarms.tumblr.com
 
And a twitter account
https://twitter.com/ElmCreekFarms
 
Not sure how much i'll use them, but there they are. I have a bunch of pictures and info from our trip to see Mr. Butler in Garrison, TX but that'll have to wait for now.
 
Got all the goats to the vet for blood testing. Once they're verified clear, we'll start selling to reduce our herd. Sandstorm has to go; too related to everyone now. We have several girls that we sort of want to keep, but realistically should sell off. We'll downsize the goats so we can expand in other directions. Contact us if you're interested in buying animals from us. We might sell some of our Jersey Giant hens. They aren't laying well, but do produce fertilized eggs that someone with an incubator could hatch. We still haven't bought an incubator..
 
October 6, 2015
Today we're mailing out the payment for our two future cows, Mankato Magic and Gypsy from Grassfed Lowline Angus L.L.C. We bought a trailer, finally, but found that it has no vin #! We're hoping to get it sorted out within the month so we can bring home the  cows. It seems all the obstacles we had are disappearing; we found a guy to root plow And disc the front pasture, it's supposed to rain later this week,  and some guys who make mesquite furniture stopped by and chopped a bunch of our mesquite trees for free. Plus we found the Devine Meat Company who can process future offspring for us in such a way that we can sell the meat to others as well. We'll be figuring that out when the time comes. We also found a good way to store the chickens we process in these nifty bags by Texas Poultry Shrink Bags!
The Home Butcher might have some useful stuff for us as well. There are so many resources we're finding today that we didn't have years ago when we first started all this. We have high hopes of breaking through all the old barriers and having success at this farm venture.
 
The only thing that didn't turn out as we hoped was the buck. We had hoped to get Rosasharn Curry and had inquired about him a long time ago, but the Petersens decided to turn all their available sales into a bidding war, with preference given to their friends and multiple purchasers. We don't have a chance; it was already a stretch to pay so much for shipping and the price of Curry, so we're just going to wait for a different opportunity. She's doing her sales the smart way, and she's hand picking the homes for her goats. That's awesome. I wish we were in a position to compete, but another time perhaps.
 
 
September 22, 2015
Updated the entire site; I need to find the folder with the most recent pictures though. A big part of the reason this site was so very unfinished for so long is because we had absolutely HORRIBLE internet service until spring 2015, plus there were some pretty rough years that I didn't want to relive. Uploading the photos and thinking about those times again reminds me of how hard things were. Farming is an emotional roller coaster; the saddest times were Spunky, ALL the fish dying when the pond dried up despite our best efforts to save some, and saying goodbye to Coconut and Bella. But we have learned from them, and they are all in better places now. Onward and upward! There are a lot of things brewing here; I'll do my best to keep updating.
 
September 17, 2015
 
Wow, time flies. We have only seven chickens now with 4 chicks, and sold all our pygmies. Mama and Kitty are gone, but we kept Sunshine, daughter of Mama and Sandstorm. She's a great influence on the younger ones; she takes after Rose so much it's weird. She's like a mini clone, except she has Mama's wattles. Hemlock went out one night and never came home; no more cats. Angel is gone; we sold her too because she was just too lonely without Honey and Coconut. 
 
It looks like the drought is over, at least for now. For the first time in three years we were able to order water from the Medina river to fill our ponds and irrigate.  They are filling up right now; we went nuts trying to fix the old channels and open and close the different "gates" (mud piles) to water different parts of the yard.
 
We finally got a chainsaw, and this is the year we hope we'll finally eradicate those annoying mesquites in the field! We want a nice area for a cow or pony with a good grass mix. We need to find someone who will rootplow our little acreage, or find where to rent one. We hope to acquire a nice lowline angus cow. We really miss having moos. A guy is coming on October to get rid of the mature mesquite trees! At last! Who knew people made furniture out of them?
 
Our current herd is Rose, her daughter Dark Rose, Freckles and her 3 kids, Sunshine, Runty, Cookie and her 2 kids, Neuter, and Sandstorm. 13! We need to reduce some more. Runty, Cookie and Freckles' kids, Dark Rose and Neuter are all going to be sold. We are working on getting a nice Rosasharn buck! We've talked to her, and are working out some details. It's been getting harder and harder to find unrelated stock in our area, and we have high hopes for this purchase. 
 
 

Part of the reason this site hasn't been updated much is because of the web host's interface; I worked very hard to update it, and lost all the changes several months ago, and hadn't come back for a long time because of frustration. I have tons of photos and video to upload. I need to put up a review on the amazing electric hoof trimmer we bought last year; it's really awesome, worth every penny! Maybe this year i'll finally get around to making a youtube channel.


 

 
 
November 04, 2014
Finally updating the site! So we're working on plumbing water and electric to some far areas to make winter easier; autowaters and deicers this year! Little Pig went to a new home; he was bored without any girls and we didn't want more little piggies anymore. A nice person who called about one of Freckles' daughters gave us some good advice on goat care which we are taking to heart and ordering a bunch of stuff online. We are also going ahead and getting an electric hoof knife to simplify our lives since the goaties have multiplied. We need to reduce our numbers soon; we never intended to have over 8 goats permanently and right now we have 16!!!
 
 
May 15, 2014
K is in Arizona for a while. He'll return in a few days, and a bunch of work around the house awaits him. I wish i knew how to use tools like he does. At least i can paint! We played with the idea of rehoming some of our goats; no one is interested in buying right now because it seems the market is currently flooded this time of year. Maybe we should raise sheep; those always seem to sell well in these parts. 
 
We probably won't be buying chicks this year at all; it's so late in the game and we blew our resources on remodeling stuff plus i'll be gone for the summer. Argh; farming is complicated!
 
So we found out that banks won't refinance a property that has been used to *try* to make money (farm). We did our taxes as a farm in 2012 and now are trying to figure out what we can do to stop being a farm on the books. Schedule F and all that jazz...
 
 
 
 
May 4, 2014
Well, it's 5am but i finally got the site updated! Remodeling, trying to refinance, messed up cars etc. have kept us from a lot of things. It's been a long time since we practiced martial arts, or since we hung out with friends.
 
We learned how to pith and humanely harvest chickens this year; reluctant to learn as we were, we were sort of forced into it by all our crazy roosters! And as it turns out, if done right it's not traumatic for anyone and it's all over in less than a minute.
 
We had to sell Coconut and Honey, our sweet Jersey cows this past December. The price of hay and lack of grass was just too much. We wish them the best in their new life with the family that bought them.
 
Ms. Moerbe brought Buccaneer yesterday to visit the girls for a while. He's so cute, but very shy. We'll see how long i keep updating this year! With more goaties around, it's been tough keeping up with hoof trims! K is really good with the rasp and file, but I suck at it. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
November 8, 2013
Jersey Giants are now 6.5 months and started laying last month. I got an account on Backyard Chickens.com to better learn about breeding and care. Here is an interesting link about white Jersey Giants.
 
I have listed our extra roosters on craigslist to reduce numbers.
 
I've picked up a part time job away from the farm, but i hope to start updating this site more regularly than i have been. Notable events: Freako, our Abyssinian cat is gone, both girl pigs had babies and those are now gone. Our pond is GONE, as are all our fish, though we tried saving them. Stupid drought. K got hit by a car, but is ok. JGs are growing big and laying eggs now. And it took forever for the goats to get pregnant, so we still have Sandstorm, and Rose still doesn't have a mate.  Anyone have an eligible registered Nigerian Dwarf stud she can visit?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
​March 18, 2013

K has been away forEVER this year. The shed remains unfinished, the goat pens in pieces. Giants are coming in April; we got auto water, auto door, and going to get auto feeder for so many birds. That shed needs a lot of work still and K won't return til the 29th. How annoying. Rose had her baby on the first, Kitty just had hers, and it looks like Mama won't be long now. I'm considering picking up a couple of ducklings for poor Sweetie-Pie to raise too. I'm going CRAZY. A visit from the fam 2 weeks ago  brought with it a baby turkey who insists on keeping me in line of sight.At least the piglettes don't look pregnant anymore. That would be MUCH too much! Both piglettes are still with us, though the original plan was to have only one at this point. I've kind of neglected the site and forum because i've been so busy, but keep an eye out for my product reviews on all the goat and chicken stuff we bought recently. A youtube channel is in the works because i want to document the Jersey Giant batch. I hope ours grow as huge as the ones i've seen in pictures! Still need to check out Chaffhaye that Amanda recommended and the one very distant feed store in SA that carries organic food. ​

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January 26, 2013

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I have the terrible feeling that Fuzzpuff the piglette is pregnant. Sometime near the end of last month we forgot to fully latch one of the gates and Little Pig got in! We found him on one of the girls with PUDDLES of nasty piggy jizz all over the ground!! Food enticed him away, and at the time we really hoped that he hadn't actually gotten the girls, just the cement, but last week Baldy piglette was showing signs of heat and Fuzzpuff couldn't care less. Her belly looks slightly bulgy and her little nippies seem to stick out more than Baldie's. This is the WORST! If she IS actually pregnant, she is going to have her babies at the worst time of year.. summer when i go to camp! So they're going to end up all crazy. Plus, Little Pig just screwed himself out of a job here. We are going to need to sell him because we wanted to keep one of Fuzzpuff's kids and they cannot breed back to Little Pig as far as what i've read. Little Pig is Fuzzpuff's dad, and that's called "linebreeding", but that's all that's allowed and only in the cases where the mother and father have NO relatives in common. Little Pig has also destroyed our backyard fence trying to get to Baldy and increasing the risks of something killing the chickens. We need to sell him off quick once we completely verify whether Fuzzpuff is pregnant or not. I don't think we'll be keeping a male pig on our place after this. We just can't contain him anywhere. He literally TUNNELLED out of the big stall, just like any dog. To keep a male pig contained it seems that nothing short of cement flooring and cattle panels, with possibly a line of electric wire along the bottom will do and we can't expend resources like that on one male pig when we have a giant unfinished goat pen, a big chicken run that only exists on paper so far and a shed to convert into a coop that all need to be done by May!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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December 14, 2012

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Finally heard back from Sand Hill; We made a mistake when ordering; the minimum order is 25, but all orders must be in increments of 25 and we ordered 30. D'oh! Well, we have decided to bump up to 50! We've got a lot of work to do! The plan is to convert our current shed into a giant chicken house, with two separate areas for males and females and to learn how to caponize so that having many males growing big for food will not be a problem.

Little Pig and the Piglettes are TRASHING our yard. We haven't taken care of biz with them because our resident Man has had to work a lot lately and he's saving all his time off for the holidays. Our good neighbor friend and sole investor suggested that they're not worth the trouble... i'm starting to have my doubts, as feed prices climb, but at the same time they may someday come in handy. One thing is for sure, we need to get them confined to a single area where the rest of the yard isn't at their mercy!

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Found a link to something called Heifer.org, an anti hunger campaign from the site of Nigerian goat breeders in Missouri who donate some of their goat sale profits. Sounds interesting; we will do the same when we get our farm off the ground.

 

http://www.nigeriandwarfgoat.com/​

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USA today article on Urban goats

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2010-03-02-urbangoats_N.htm

"The Steiners walk them on a leash and have jackets for them. The goats fetch balls, jump in their arms and swing in a swing," says Aaron Lay, the couple's lawyer. "They are clearly household pets."

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December 13, 2012

​Our ever-wonderful neighbor Ms. Judy V gave us a great surprise Christmas present/investment: 100' of high quality horse fence!! We are continually grateful to her and her equally wonderful husband Jim for their kindness and support of us in these most difficult formative years of our farm. They are so kind, they never ask for anything in return, but we wish to give them a good share of our production, which right now is not much, but next year we hope to be able to give them good returns!

 

 

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Dec. 8, 2012

Interesting article at Huffington Post:

Demand for goat cheese spurs growth of goat dairies

We're still figuring out if we want to actually go the "Dairy" route, or just make for ourselves and possibly family. We haven't had to buy milk in a loong time now and it's been nice.

 

We still haven't heard anything from Sand Hill about the Jersey Giants.... hopefully we're still on for next year! One of our three remaining hens was attacked last night; lost a lot of feathers, but i think i got out there (unwittingly) in time to stop whatever it was. She is moving slowly but seems like she will be ok.​

"Let us first be as simple and well as Nature ourselves, dispel the clouds which hang over our brows, and take up a little life into our pores. Do not stay to be an overseer of the poor, but endeavor to become one of the worthies of the world." 

 

- Henry David Thoreau, 1. Economy, Walden

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