April 5, 2009 The Gory Side of Farm Life

Hello family and friends;

Here is another chapter in our farming education experience. If you are not interested in being exposed to all these gory details about farm life, tell me to take you off my list.

First, Ray was finally able to buy a tractor, a very old tractor (1948), but a good working one and he is happy. Yesterday, he tried to pull some willow saplings out of our soggy pasture. His tractor got stuck in the mud. This morning in church, one of our wonderful neighbours diplomatically asked what the tractor was doing in that spot. He offered to come over and pull it out for us. Everyone seems to know our business, and that is a good thing so far.

About our little goat kids. We now have five - two black, two golden brown and one pure white. The first four had started growing little horn buds so we asked the other goat family in Latah if we could bring them over to get de-horned. We waited until the mothers were all in the pasture eating grass, having left their babies napping in the shed. We bundled the little babies into a big dog crate and onto the back of the truck. Once there, we put one at a time into a little box with an opening for the head, closed and locked the box, held the baby's mouth closed and the head still while our friend Terry jammed a red hot circular iron around the horn bud and held it for 20 seconds while the hair sizzled and the horn burned and the baby wailed. Apply purple antibiotic stuff and reach into the crate for the next terrified baby and do it again. Excruciating!

Then we rushed home to get back before the mothers realized their kids were missing. Too late. The mothers had escaped the pasture and were running around the garden and house calling for their babies. How happy we all were to have them reunited. Next week we will get the boys castrated. Terry sent us home with a tool for that. Ray's job.

We are having a blast and starting to feel like real farmers, now that we have a tractor and all. We will probably get some chickens soon. Milking goats hasn't worked out yet. Easy to say but hard to do it right.

So that's it. Hoping to see some of you over the summer.

Love, Fern and Ray.