Fitting Fodder into Your Day...

The first thing to know about fodder and producing it is this:  It WILL require an additional bit of effort on your part!  With fodder, there is no more "scoop the feed, fill the feeders, move on"...you have to be sure it is watered, prepped, and doing well each day.  To a small degree it is a "set it and forget it" thing, but it still adds a bit to my day.

During trials, it was especially hard because nothing was really set up right - I had some trays balanced on the sink and over a few rubber maid tubs and was just making to do.  I wanted to see if the added effort was something I could keep up with and most importantly if the wheat I had found would even grow.  Well, it did :)

From seeds to fodder mat, ain't it pretty???  I was highly excited, but due to the fact that the inside of our house is pretty much all wood I knew we couldn't be growing fodder indoors.  Nope, can't take a chance with this little cabin we call home...so I admit I have tried a few things and so far have settled on one I think will work mostly long term, for now...but that's another post...

Suffice it to say fodder adds about 15-20 minutes to my morning and a few more minutes to my day here and there.  I have chosen NOT to go with recycled water in my system, and I also do not use automated watering (at least not yet).  With the fact that those would require some plumbing and what not, well, I am no plumber even if I did grow up in a hardware store (and I did) so it's me and my hose until I get creative enough or my husband gets tired of having to water it for me when he is home hahaha....

I guess all together, doing it "the hard way" and watering by hand it adds about an hour to my day - but since I am often outside piddling around aimlessly for about that much of the day anyways just checking on the critters and what not, well, it's not that bad and not it is not that aimless either :)

Even if you have the watering automated, plan to spend an extra 15-20 each morning prepping the fodder.  I have chosen to soak the seeds first in a bleach solution, then come back after I feed everything (when I remember to) and spread them on trays and I water it the first time after I feed it...

It's not too bad adding the extra bit of work for the quality of home grown feed we now have - sure a little Clorox goes on it, but no other crazy harsh chemicals once I have it at least and the animals LOVE it!

This is Rocket, who is NOT a "grabby, mouthy" horse by any means all but snatching it right from my husbands hands!  No really, honest, Rocket NEVER tries to "take" anything from your hands - forget treats with this horse - but fodder he WILL take! He runs to eat each morning now and is looking good that's for sure! And the goats! Oh my good grief! They fight over it and I have had a jail break where they chose the fodder over the feed room once...naughty greedy things those does!

Speaking of, I am late to milk tonight...but just remember this:  If you don't have a few extra minutes in your day fodder may not be for you and that's okay too :)  But it sure is worth if it you can squeeze it into your chores!

Sourcing Seeds for Fodder...

The first thing I did when preparing for my fodder trials was clear out a spot in the mudroom to actually grow the stuff, and then I gathered a few trays that would work.  Seeds however were a bigger challenge....

Here in Texas,. barley is not nearly as common or easy to come by as it is in other regions of the U.S.  This posed a problem - everyone was talking about BARLEY fodder...okay...so I looked and researched some more...It seems people also use a product from Tractor Supply called "Plot Spike" - it is meant to be tossed out in the woods and such on deer leases to get stuff growing that deer will like to nibble on.  Deer and goats being so close in so many ways, I knew that I could, if need be, sprout this stuff...but it was pricey! One major point was to bring down costs right?  Plus, I intended to feed this fodder to our horses and they are very much NOT like deer right? Okay...

So then I discovered that WHEAT would grow as well....okay...still not all that easy to find...but I DID find it!

A tip for those in Texas growing fodder...if your feed store carries Boyce products, ask them to order the Wheat.  It grows BEAUTIFULLY! Now, what if you aren't in Texas or can't get the Boyce products?

Well...call around....Human Health Food Stores - ah ha!  They carry organic and often non GMO as well barley AND wheat for sprouting and grinding into flour and such!  It will cost you a little more, but to me it is worth it.  Plus, the most local to me place will order it in bulk and offers a discount if they do that for me.  Pretty nifty right?

Call local or near as you can find local grain elevators.  They often can help you and point you the right way.  Call the other feed dealers.  Here we have Lone Star, MG, and a few others...the rep at Lone Star actually told me about Boyce...see...they CAN be helpful even if it is not their product!  They aren't out to be jerks, and can point you the right direction.

I actually called around for a friend yesterday.  She lives a few hours away from me, but still here in Texas.  First, I called Boyce and asked who the dealers were nearest to her, and got their number.  Then I ended up on the phone with a very nice, if ill informed as far as fodder goes, gentleman who talked my ear off LOL :)  But he was super helpful, gave me the info I needed to pass along to my friend and SCORE!  She now has a good source for wheat!

It does take a little creative effort sometimes to find what you want.  Often, telling people what you are doing with it helps!  Don't be afraid to say that you are looking for something that you can grow into fodder.  Most people will be glad to help you and even intrigued as to what you are up to.  I can't tell you how many times I have had to stop and explain the basics of fodder itself when I was telling someone on the phone what I was up to and why I wanted whole wheat or barley.

So, lesson here is:  don't be afraid to let your fingers do the walking, pick up the phone, and exhaust all resources before you give up and don't get hung up on growing just one thing like barley!  I almost didn't even attempt this after hitting a few dead ends...but perseverance is the key :)

I had my wheat, I had a few supplies...and the trials began :)

Horses, Slaughter, and My Take on Things....

I truly think that people that view the slaughter of ANY animal for food as wrong should be vegetarians, if not vegans, and should hold themselves to very high standards in regards to what they not only eat, but every product in their home as you would be surprised if you really read labels as to what is in stuff....I believe it is hypocritical to say that one animal is fit for food and the next is not based on a humans perception of said animals intelligence, social standing, or for any other reason.  Meat is meat and to be picky about what you eat is one thing, but to be preaching that slaughter of one over the other is okay for any reason is just nonsense. And yes, we eat meat in this house!

There are several articles and tons of outrage circling the internet and places like facebook right over the slaughter of horses here in the U.S.  You can can read one such article at this link to see what I am talking about.  Apparently, as slaughter plants where horses are processed into meat are reopened, people are forgetting what the last few years without these slaughter houses have been like for the horse population. As it exploded due to irresponsible owners and breeders, with no outlet besides Mexico and craigslist, prices dropped, conditions that horses were kept in became worse, and the market was flooded with creatures that should have been euthanized but weren't due to "costs".  It's not right, I do agree with that, that someone should take on a cheap horse and then expect it to be The Black Stallion or Flicka...but at least with slaughter as an option those horses still have a way to make it over the proverbial rainbow bridge and off of their misery on this earth.

As someone who owns and rides 2 fat, happy, healthy, well behaved, well mannered and well cared for horses...I do believe I am entitled to an opinion here.  That's them, that's Rocket and Smokey, my horses....would I ever send them to be slaughtered?  No...when the day comes that they must be put down or euthanized I will see that it happens here in peace at home.  But I made a commitment to them when I brought them home that I take seriously, and not all horse owners are that good...some people just shouldn't ever own a horse.  But you can't be Team America World Police about it, and with slaughter back as an option hopefully now people will be less likely to keep an ill or dangerous horse lingering on this earth in misery.  May not be the best option, but it's there.

Now, my main thing here is this:  Who is anyone to say that it's okay to eat a cow or pig but not a horse?  Have you ever owned a cow or raised a pig from the day it was born?  I have...guess what - pigs and cattle can be very intelligent!  Heck...even chickens are pretty smart, and in my eyes everything here on our little farm is equal.  Everything has a job, and some things are destined to be dinner while others are here to ride the fence lines on.  But no one animal is more intelligent then the next, no one animal is exempt ever from being a meal if the need arose.  I promise you this...if every one on facebook who is crying because the horses are going to slaughter had a starving family, and a fat horse in the yard, and it was a "zombie apocalypse SHTF" type of scenario...well....those same people now in a new situation would feed their hungry kids horse burgers before they'd let their children starve. Sure, last resort kinda thing, but meat is meat when people are hungry. So it seems hypocritical to me to bash the idea of horse slaughter purely because it's a horse we are talking about...

  

Yes, we do all of our own processing except cows because we don't have the facilities to handle something that big.  See that?  It's a pig, one I raised from tiny enough to hold in one hand, and guess what...He was smart as whip, would come right up to me, friendly as could be, and tasted like delicious sausage in the final analysis. Honestly, if I had to place him on the same scale as my horses, he was equally as intelligent as either one of them.  He could open gates, knew when he was in trouble for breaking into the feed room, and came when he was called...yup...just as smart as my mare at least.  When people say you can't eat a horse "because it is smart" it kills me....they've never had a beef calf that mooed when it saw you coming, liked to be rubbed between the ears, and followed simple verbal commands that they had made into hamburgers.  But I bet they eat plenty of hamburgers and never stop to think that beef was once on the hoof alive and intelligent. No, not everyone has it in them to do what we do...but unless you are a very strict vegetarian or vegan how can you say what meat is okay and what is not?

Now, with horses, in general it can be said their job is to be ridden.  Pasture ornament is even an okay title for an older or lame horse I suppose.  But sadly, there exist plenty of people in this world who do not care for animals nearly as well as they should.  Horses are too large to be "pets" for a great portion of the population...this leaves a heavy burden on shelters and rescues with abandoned unwanted animals that can cost hundreds of dollars a month to keep fed. Slaughter is one way to handle this over population.  Is it the right way?  Who am I to say...I can't say it's wrong as I eat meat.  Would I eat horse meat?  I dunno...never had it, can't tell you if I'd like it. But if others want to eat it I don't mind and I'm not going to knock them for it.  As long as they follow at least the standards I set for myself I see no problem with anyone who eats horse meat or slaughtering horses.

Here, things are checked over bare minimum twice daily, and if it's an animal bound for the freezer it always goes that way with calm, quiet, dignity and respect.  I do have a problem with people that don't slaughter, process or butcher as humanely as possible. I do have a problem with people that allow animals to be sick or ill with no treatment prior to being slaughtered.  But, if my neighbor wants to raise and eat dogs - well - that's his business.  Just raise them well and slaughter them with kindness and compassion when the time comes.

Then the cry is raised that slaughter is inhumane - but wait - did you have a chicken sandwich for lunch?  Steak for dinner?  So...it's okay to kill that chicken or that steer because why again?  It's humane for them?  Don't kid yourself...if you aren't producing your own food or very close to those that DO butcher and process your food all packing plants are equal.  Sure, some may be better than others.  But none are warm friendly places full of smiling faces.  Any meat, be it beef, pork, poultry or even horse meat, has to die to get to your plate.  Don't kid yourself that a chicken from the grocery store died a better death than a horse would - not even organic chicken - it's a factory style set up with disgruntled under paid employees.  Things are going to be less than perfect in that setting, be it horse burger or chicken patties they are producing.

There are many other aspects about people getting all preachy over slaughtering horses that really get to me...the fact that the horse market has been flooded with half wild, crazy, ill mannered beasts for years now that would have been sent to the packing house in decades prior...yeah...makes it hard to find a good one.  Also, having too much of something drives the prices down and it makes it even harder to get a good price for and sell a good one if the need arises.  And, let's be honest now, we never stopped sending horses to slaughter.  It just got harder to do...

You see, what all these people who cry over how terrible it is forget is that Mexico never closed the doors of the packing houses.  Plenty of horses were shipped over there while we were busy being self righteous about it here.  It was, to me, worse for the horses.  A farther journey first of all, one that ended in a place with no regulations like we have here in the U.S.  Sure, yes, there are cases of packing plants doing awful things here too.  But at least we have some sort of checks and balances in place to make it slightly better...slightly more humane...and people the nation over armed with camera phones and youtube to spread the word when a facility is not doing right.  Mexico...hmm....not so much....it's further away and not under the thumb of our regulatory agencies as far as how they work and what happens to those animals.  SO if I absolutely had to pick, I'd send my horses to a place in the U.S. over Mexico if it was the only option.

So, trying to keep my opinion short and sweet here, when I see these posts on facebook about horse slaughter returning and how it's the devil I can only hope those same people get the chance one day to see how smart their bacon was or their KFC fried chicken that would willingly follow a human around looking for treats...and if horse meat is still wrong, they better start thinking all meat is wrong.  Because the hypocrisy of someone chewing on a piece of bacon while they post about the evil behind eating horses is the worst part of all it.

 

Bio What????

Bio - Available:    the extent to which a nutrient or medication can be used by the body.

In this case the "nutrient" in mind is fodder in general.  Barley, wheat, doesn't matter what you sprout.  Just know that by sprouting it you change it's "bio-availability" and make it easier to digest for your livestock and that fact was a big part of the switch for us.  The way I picture this concept in my mind, though a bit gross, is to think of corn and do some comparing...

All fodder starts as a seed...let's use wheat fodder because that is what I grow...Now, wheat berries and kernels of corn are both seeds and are both edible.  I've never chewed on "wheat on the cob" because it doesn't exist.  But I HAVE eaten corn on the cob.  Guess what...if it goes in it has to come back out and kernels of corn often return as those same kernels don't they?  Yuck, yes, but the blatant honest truth isn't it? I imagine if I were to go boil some wheat and choke it down I'd get wheat back on down the line too...I don't know for sure...but I'm guessing this is what would happen.

Clearly, whole seeds are not the most bio-available form of what they contain if they return as seeds still right?  Okay...so we grind them up and make flour out of them.  Whole wheat bread AND corn bread both go in as bread and come back out as...well...you can't tell it was ever bread!  But you would think that since it is more bio-available in that form it's the best one for us right?  And thusly, if whole seeds are hard to digest, then we should grind them up and make them into pellets for our livestock just as we make breads out of these ground seeds for ourselves right?  WRONG!!!!

See, here's the thing....when any seed sprouts, it turns into a plant.  Livestock, in general, are plant eaters.  Horses, goats, cattle...they eat grass and green things not breads and muffins (they shouldn't at least). Their bodies are meant to chew, grind, and in the case of ruminants they ruminate that green stuff into nutrients their body can use.  Sure, they can survive and thrive on pelleted feed (which is like the livestock version of humans bread I guess).  But it isn't what they are meant to be eating.  Even ground up, it's harder for their bodies to get at the proteins and vitamins in there...now, turn it into greenery which they ARE designed for and you get a different result.  It is easy for them to break down into the vital bits and pieces they need to thrive and grow and produce. 

Heck, if you think about, breads in high amounts aren't really all that great for humans either.  If I eat a diet heavy in bread I gain unhealthy pounds of chub-a-dub-iness that's for sure...so when I finally grasped the fact that sprouting wheat into grass made the stuff in it my critters needed to be healthy available to them it made even more sense to switch to fodder.  Then I realized I myself needed to eat more veggies and less bagels, but that's another story isn't it? Basically, by growing fodder I am providing a diet with fresh veggies for my livestock instead of dingdongs and pretzels...hmmm....which way of eating is healthier?  The veggies I believe...

Needless to say once I had pondered this, I knew I wanted to give fodder a go.  I wasn't sure if it would fit in with our farm, and I was having a heck of a time finding the so highly revered barley seeds everyone speaks of using in their fodder systems...so the next step was locating something to sprout and seeing if I could handle it...plants tend to get forgotten around here.  They just don't cry for help when they need a drink of water like the pig does when he tips his bucket over ya know? But I was armed with some basic knowledge and ready to give it a try...once I found that dang barley!

Ahhh....fodder...the saga continues....tomorrow....:)

 

Ok...so WHY Fodder???

Well...I choose fodder for a few reasons.  First and foremost it is more natural to what my livestock would eat if they had their own choice in things.  Sometimes, they do get a choice - we are on 10 acres after all - but at night they are stuck in their pens close to the house for safety and some days they are stuck there as well.  When it rains the back of the property turns to a bog I prefer them not to play in...plus they won't leave their shelter anyways in the rain, so they stay there. Also, the front is not yet fenced for the horses and NONE of it is properly fenced for goats (besides their pen areas)...so I try to get out there an hour or 2 a day and let them "free range" if you will - that's another blog post though...let's just say that no matter what after a few years of crummy drought conditions anyways I am always prepared to feed my animals plus dairy goats need to eat more than just browse if you want the best, highest yields on your milk...

Anyways, horses, goats, cattle - none of these things go out on the hunt for corn or soybeans in their pastures.  Sure, if they find it they will eat it - heck, they'll eat your garden if they get the chance!  But naturally the bulk of their diet is fresh GREEN stuff!  Grasses, weeds, shrubs...Pelleted feeds make a decent supplement to this (particularly if you are in a drought and there is nothing green left!), but it's not natural at all.  Especially for the goats...goats can get acidosis, or bloat, from things like a corn heavy diet. This article explains it a little better...  Let's be really honest here - go check a bag of pelleted goat or horse feed - a good portion of it is corn or soy.  It's certainly not fresh green stuff at all! So, if by chance an accident occurs and you over feed (like the day I fed and then my husband fed thinking I hadn't yet...that was a doozy) or if you just are over feeding and not realizing it...you are setting yourself up for failure in a way...We actually took the corn out of the goats diets a few years back now and have not had a case of "bloat" or acidosis since then, but it was not uncommon to run up against it from time to time before when we fed traditional goat feeds...

Then, there are our horses...over feeding pelleted feeds can lead to colic.  Too much bagged type feed and not enough roughage and you set yourself up for it - ask our friend who lost her beloved mare after making that mistake...plus it's much harder on their teeth and such to eat those pellets than it is to grind up some grass.  Sure, horses teeth are meant to grind and pulverize - GRASS - which is actually fairly soft, stringy but soft, compared to pelleted stuff - not hard like the pellets in bags are.  Since switching to fodder our middle aged gelding (17 years old - not ancient, but getting up there) has had a much easier time staying the right weight. (And yes, he has been properly wormed, had his teeth floated, etc...but you can tell his body processes fodder better).

That's the other thing - fodder is much more bio-available to the animals to digest...we'll save that talk for tomorrow though...

Then there are all the horror stories and recalls and what not in regards to processed feeds...This article hits very close to home and then there was my own mysteriously dropping poultry...these are just 2 examples of why you have to be careful what you feed your animals.

You also have the whole "non-GMO/organic" vs not side of the debate...it's still pretty easy to find and source organic type barley and wheat to sprout compared to finding organic feed (at least where I live).  Also, even though it may be more expensive to go the non-GMO route, it still is a money saver to sprout it into fodder...

Oh yes - one 50lb bag of seed turns into 250lbs of feed!  You still feed by weight, just as you should with pelleted type feeds, and you actually feed pretty closely to the same amounts.  You just get far more bang for your buck with fodder!  So, it's a money saver that's for sure...They also seem to go through less hay when you feed fodder.  YES, EVERYTHING still needs hay!  Those long, dry, fiber filled grassy bits help their digestion just as humans need the right amount of fiber in their diets.  But we are using less of it that's for sure! Here, during the winter, we were going through close to 2 square bales a day pre-fodder - now that I have made the switch, we are down to about one square bale a day and that will certainly be less as it greens up out there with spring coming on...but knowing next winter I will need less hay to get through is NICE!

 PRE-fodder, I was bringing home 8 to 10 50lb bags of feed every 2 weeks - even after I thinned the herd! Now, I bring home maybe 5.  My goats still get their alfalfa pellets for the calcium (we are a dairy herd after all and calcium out in the form of milk = needing calcium in to make more) and I need the pelleted stuff for the pig some days so I can soak it with whey and milk for him...otherwise he tips the bucket and spills it...messy thing!  I've basically cut my feed bill easily in half even including the hay!

So, without going all scientific on you just yet, that was my initial take on why we were going to switch.  It was more natural to what they would eat, FAR less processed and meddled with by humans, a way to cut back on the feed bill when I ran the numbers in theory (though now I know for sure), and a power packed form of feed that was easy to digest!  The next thing I had to do was look at it more in depth - it seemed like a good idea...but I had to do some more research..

If you go to the following blogs and websites, you will see some of the info I found and can read through it for yourself - these people have put TONS of time and effort into this and have some great material!

Paca Pride Guest Ranch has an awesome blog and videos!
Half Pint Homestead has tons of info and sells kits geared towards smaller producers (like us :) )
The facebook Fodder Group is full of people with tons of knowledge ready to answer any questions you may have!
Here and here are 2 more sites more geared towards the larger producers with their set ups...

Also...remember fodder works for pretty much everything, not just horses and goats....take a look and watch for more to come from me...you'll be amazed when you read through it all...

Speaking of feet and eyelids...

Today is the day - I'm actually behind on this, I try to hit it at the first of the month.  But with everything I have had going on with the kitchen and such I let March get away from me...

Today I have been outside trimming hooves and checking eyelids...woo fun right?  Doing a little worming inbetween too...trying to get the goats who are due to kid in May all set and the others just caught up in general...

The FAMACHA test is a good place to start with your goats to determine if they need to be wormed - but it is NOT the end all be all guide!!! It only helps detect a few of the little blood suckers...so be sure to either get a fecal done by your vet at least occasionally...OR...learn to do them yourself.

I need a microscope...I keep saying I am going to get one...but it hasn't happened yet...

Until then, I either run a few samples to the vet OR I use  this lab which is SUPER cheap to mail my samples in to.  They do all sorts of critters from goats to horses to cattle, it's cheap I said, and the post office IS closer than the vet for me at least! I try to send in a sample in the spring (i.e. NOW) and one in the fall to be sure what I am doing is working and keeping everyone parasite free.  Well, at least they have less parasites than some others I suppose...nothing that lives outside in hot, humid, muggy, damp East Texas id EVER really "parasite free" ya know???

I know some people do the whole organic all natural thing with their herds.  For us, where we live, it does NOT work!  Nope, no can do....maybe it's the fact that this place used to be an ucky mucky hog farm...or the climate...or the fact that we live in soggy river bottom...who knows?  It's probably a combo of things.  But natural herbal stuff is merely a minor way to keep things down between times when I pull out the "big guns" so to speak.  Today, my go to is cydectin - yes, it is stinky harsh stuff - but it WORKS!  I bring it out 3 or 4 times a year if that and everyone is fine.  The worms here laugh at other products.  No really, I can hear them chuckling if they see me with SafeGuard.  That ones a big waste of my money...totally useless per fecal testing at the vet...

So...if you have critters and the weather permits, take a minute to get out there and give them a good once over.  It's what I am up to today.  The fodder saga shall continue tomorrow perhaps...until then I am off to go spend the afternoon with the herd :)

The thining of the herd....Part 1

Back around the holidays between money being tight and the weather being so cold I was stuck inside...I found myself researching different ways to lower our feed bill.  With 2 horses and at that time 15 goats and 4 pigs and a half a dozen older chickens and another dozen meat rabbits of varying ages we had a pretty hefty feed bill.  Not to mention the fact that I had brought home some chicken starter crumbles a few months before as I HAD (had being the key word) some replacement laying hens which were about a month old still in the brooder....after serving them that bag of feed they literally half dropped dead in an hour and the other half wilted and wasted away over the course of a week...the dealer claimed up and down it wasn't them...I doubt it though...

I made a resolution well before the New Year arrived that I would do 2 things.  One - I would find a better way of feeding my animals, something healthier and sustainable for us.  Two - I needed to thin things out a bit.  It was just too time consuming to be caring for a yard full of critters AND try to make this place better than it already was...feeding and watering and such sucks up a LOT of time! That was time I could be spending improving things around here...so I began to thin the herd...
 
First I went through the easy stuff - small animals.  The rabbits were either getting up there in age or young fryer sized and to be honest we already had (and still have) quite a bit of rabbit meat in the freezer.  I sold some of the younger ones, stock that would be suitable for breeding as just that, and then I culled the rest for freezer camp.  I knew I had several does due to kid, projects a plenty to tackle, and I wouldn't have the time for rabbits for a while.  It was tough to do, as I enjoyed them and all of the fresh meat they brought to our table raised in a healthy fashion...but with the rabbits out the feed bill dropped a bit...

Then  came the pigs...we had a freezer full of pork products, and these were just pot belly pigs....not like I was loosing whole hams here.  So I sold all except one.  He was retained to do my garden tilling in the spring.  The others got the boot.  That wasn't so hard to do, except by the time the family that bought them found the house is was well after dark and took a little creativity in parking to shine headlight just so as to be able to find them...but that was another way to massively lower the bills...

Next came the chickens...and that was much harder than either the rabbits or the pigs!  Some of these birds were my original chickens and some were not.  I had a strange emotional attachment to poultry that I didn't have with the pigs or rabbits...but still, the job had to be done.  The younger group was sold to a friend and the older birds were quietly culled.  In all seriousness now, the older birds weren't hardly laying any longer and had not been for some time - the egg factory had dried up so to speak.  The younger ones were okay layers...but they had been given to me by another lady who was just hatching and raising backyard type birds.  They were nothing fancy and not overly productive anyways. I had already decided months prior that for my flock I wanted productive, strong layers.  I will admit, I miss my fresh eggs.  But it's been a nice break not having to mess with poultry these last few months and when I jump back in I will hopefully have everything set up just right and perfectly for them versus the half baked deal we were working with after our move....

So now I was down to just one pig, the horses and the goats...I debated for a while letting my mare go.  I love her, but to be honest the horses have become the red headed step children of the farm.  There was a time pre-goat where the horses were bathed once a week, ridden at least 3 times a week, and in general they were overly spoiled.  Now they are lucky to be ridden once a week, bathed 3 times a year, and they a get a fraction of the attention that the goats receive. I decided against it though - Smokey is my love and even if I don't give her the attention I used to she is still a one person type of horse and very attached to me and me alone.  And let's not even go their with Rocket.  First of all he is older and when I took him on it was decided this would be his permanent forever family - he had been through enough changing of hands in his life.  Not to mention that he is my husbands horse and I really do think Mr Homesteader would have a fit if I got rid of HIS horse...That left the goats...a story we shall save for tomorrow or the next day, but needless to say we dropped down to 10 goats as well....

So, anyways, back to the point being that I had time on my hands now that there were less critters to deal with, research to do, and a problem to solve.  I was tired of feeding overly processed mostly gmo corn based molasses filled pelleted feeds to everything with the added factor of the mysteriously dropping dead baby chicks...yeah, I'm still bitter about that (but that's another blog post entirely). Anyways...Dr. Google solved it for me in the form of FODDER!!!

Stay tuned...the saga continues tomorrow....

Boo to daylight savings time!

Yeah, that's right, you heard me.  I said BOO!  UGH! YUCK! But we get an extra hour of daylight you say, why do you hate the time change you say....Because in reality we do NOT get an extra hour of daylight - it's all a scam meant to mess up my schedule!

Yup...a scam, a sham, a flim flam floosy way of messing with my head.  The sun still rises and sets as it pleases.  Heck, in Arizona and Hawaii they don't even recognize daylight savings or have to change their clocks...why should I change mine?  Really, stop and think about it ya'll...

Yesterday, my critters were all ready half an hour before sunset to be fed.  It's the way we roll around here.  I wait until the last possible minute to get out there and feed since I am not an early riser anyways.  I promise you, the horses did not care about the time change.  Their internal clocks know when I will be out with dinner by the position of the sun.  However, when it comes to people stuff this is a pain!

I had a load of hay delivered yesterday - and I woke up all in a tizzy at 10a.m. (the old 9a.m.) thinking I had missed it! Thank you daylight savings time for giving me a minor heart attack.  Thankfully, I did not miss my hay guy calling and heading over.  But still...can you see how it affects my dealings with people? Never mind that I was seriously up all night until 3a.m. because I couldn't sleep which would only have been 2a.m. a few nights before...yup...daylight savings sucks in my opinion...

Now, while you're all excited about that extra hour of daylight, I want you to find a farmers almanac or google this. Actually, here's the link to the farmers almanac website:   sunrise and sunset times by city   Look up sunset and sunrise for Saturday (before the time change) and count how many hours of daylight there were.  Now look it up for Sunday (after the time change)....hmmmm....where's the extra hour now?  Can't find it can you? See...it's all a sham I say! There is no extra hour of daylight, just an unnecessary need to readjust our own clocks as well as our own biological clocks!  Crazy madness for no dang reason...

 Now I am finally headed out to make the rounds and get stuff settled for the day - it should only be 11:30 but it's after noon now...and nothing anyone can say will make me appreciate the falseness of an imagined extra hour of daylight today...I'm all backwards and running later than usual.  Thanks a bunch daylight savings time...NOT!!!!

 Yup, what he said....