Saturday Farm Report

It is really hard to believe it's Saturday again already! Where did the week go?

Goats are growing. They started at 6 ounces of milk, 4 times a day, and are up to a pint of milk, 3 times a day. Since our bottles are standard 8 ounce baby bottles, it's a little tricky, feeding them. Once that first bottle is empty, we have a couple of good seconds to refill before the protesting begins. It's loud and pathetic, so we hurry.

This week the vet was out to dehorn and castrate them. Yes, we remove some body parts. Horns come off for safety, although Jack was allowed to keep his. I don't think that was a good decision, but it's done. If those horns don't come off in the first two weeks, it can be a battle to try later, and they're going on three weeks now. Castration happens for the same reason the steers you eat are castrated; the growing animal puts it's energy into meat rather than full body development. It sounds unfair, even to me, but it's a fact of life on the farm and has been since we domesticated meat animals.

Last night, although I was having too much fun to get any pictures, we had dinner guests. Minah's brother was a foreign exchange student himself about 3 years ago. He is back in the US, visiting his host family, and they brought him to Illinois to show him a little of Chicago and to see his sister. Later today we will meet them at the Field Museum of Natural History, and further brother/sister bonding/baiting will occur.

I'd better go mix some bottles!