My daughter's border collie-pit bull- Shamata

Shamata means "calm abiding" in sanscrit- Oh yes- that must be a joke! Shama is anything but calm, and she has no patience. Cute tho.

Violet and Lilly at work

 

Goats love to eat vines, and they like poison ivy most of all. They eat it like candy! Here they are clearing a big vine off a rock, right next to the trail along the side of a creek.

Violet and Dorje face off

My garden August 20 and before, May 7th

 Before and After- May 7th and August 20. You can see Violet and Lilly (on the platform) in the background too.

A trip to the creek for a swim

 I took the goats for a walk today in the woods. They got in the back of my Volvo- I have it set up with a tarp in the back to protect the seats. Dorje and Willow were in the front seat. I lured the goats in the back with food and off we went. A few minutes later, I looked to my right and there was Violet climbing over the tarp barrier into the front seat with Dorje and Willow-

We got to the woods (5 minutes away), and everyone jumped out and headed down the trail. It was really early, so there was no one and no dogs around. The goats followed Willow; and I followed with Dorje on the leash, keeping her from lunging at them. (She loves to play with Violet).

After some time, we headed for the swimming hole. I tied Dorje up, and jumped in. Suddenly I heard loud BAAAAING. Both Violet and Lilly had jumped in the creek to follow me. They had never seen a creek before and thought they could walk on it.

We all swam to shore and I helped them up the steep, slippery, bank. They shook themselves off and followed me back to the car. Did you know that goats can swim?

Goats in the back seat

  We are now equipped for outings- a tarp covering the entire back seat area of my Volvo- Violet likes to go for walks.

How to treat your goats for copper deficiency without going to the vet

  Take a capsule of Copasure (which consists of tiny pieces of copper wire) - designed for a 150-500 lb cow, pour out the contents and measure a dose for a 45 lb goat, mix with a powdered sugar frosting, Frost several animal crackers with the mixture. Voila- a painless way to treat your goat for copper deficiency (common in black colored goats). The goats love them!

River dragon

 On my day at the beach, I saw a river dragon, lurking off shore, watching.

A beach vacation

 
No gas and no driving to get to this beach- morning sunlight in August.

Hopewell Furnace

I arranged a day trip to Hopewell Furnace- My husband likes history, my daughter likes Iron working, I like to learn about how we will have to start surviving without an abundance of petrochemicals.

Hopewell furnace is an example of a pig iron blast furnace powered by charcoal made from huge quantities of trees. The waterwheel drives pistons that are connected to wooden tanks in which air is compressed and forced through a pipe to the furnace. The added oxegen makes fire hotter and melts the rocks that contain iron ore. The furnace produced pots for cooking, wood stoves for heat, hammers and anvils for iron working.

To drive the furnace (without petroleum), hundreds of people needed to be fed and housed. There was an extensive farm, bakery, blacksmith shop, housing. The colliers, who created the charcoal (energy), lived in the forests in grass covered huts, and were the most numerous of the workers. And the lowest paid.

Bikejoring

  Shama has shown great potential as a lead dog. Here is a story about one of our firsts trips to the woods.

I took her out to the Crum again this morning. The bikejoring equipment needs some work! It kept interfering with my brakes, a potentially dangerous situation. Shama is such a fantastic puller, so speed is an issue. From now on a helmet is essential. Dorje has a tendency to run ahead of her since she likes to be the leader, and she can be off the leash. This really motivates Shama to pull more consistently. I also don't help much so there is constant drag on her. She is learning Gee and Haw and Hike. Since she is such a fast learner, she is picking up the commands quickly. Dorje knows the trails and knows where to turn so I can practice calling out the commands to Shama.

We worked for about 10 minutes, took a break, then another 10 minutes. I let Shama chase a rabbit as a reward, then tethered her for my swim. Then we went full speed pulling again, up the hill back to the car. The side of my face is all red because she pulled me with such force through some bushes that had catscratch growing on them. I feel like I had some kind of crazy iron man workout. When I got back to my car these workmen were staring at me- with 3 dogs on leads, all dirty, my bike covered with mud and sand. HaHa

A family project

 

Thanks to Fiasco Farms for their stanchion plans. This was a family project. With kids in college and a burned out husband, we desperately need projects. This one was a total success!

Violet and Lilly get their first walk

Violet and Lilly don't like being in their enclosure, so today was our maiden voyage. Violet and Lilly (my twin black mini Manchas) have learned how to be led (with food naturally), and were coaxed into the back of my Volvo sedan with Black Oiled Sunflower Seeds (BOSS for short- the caviar of goats). I jumped in and drove off to the closest easy access point to college campus (5 min away).

Once there, I opened the back door- they weren't too eager to get out, but BOSS did the trick. Soon I was luring them over to a huge bank of brush and weeds, where they went crazy. I tied up their leashes so that they wouldn't trip on them and prayed that I could catch them when the time came, trusting their natural shyness, and need for my company.

They browsed for some time- tasting all the different plants. When they started to go off a little far, I walked slowly after them. They started to walk away from me and I thought- Oh **** - what have I gotten myself into? I made a clanking sound with the metal bucket holding their treats, and sure enough they came running over.

I re-captured them, and lured them back to the car, and into the car by climbing in the back myself and holding out treats for them. They climbed in and we went home (I way praying that they would be naturally disinclined to eliminate in the car- thankfully they waited until they got home.

I want to thanks the folks from Goat Beat (my caprine consultants) for getting me to this point- one of my last posts was asking how to tame them! The animal crackers did the trick, as did tethering them separately for feeding grain. They are so food driven managing them is much less of a challenge I thought it would be.

It took me one week to go from them not wanting me to touch them to taking them out to the woods for browsing!

My next goal- To take them for a walk with my dogs, meditate for a half hour in the woods while they browse, and make it back home safe. Wish me luck.

Thanks again!