Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Gwen Giffen" <ggiffen@1st.net>]

My husband and I got a good laugh off of that Okie story, Jim. He has spent 
the last month building fence. We recently traded 6 sheep for 2 rolls of 
woven wire on the OhioFarmBarter group. We could've gotten a lot more for 
the sheep, but we needed the wire fast, and didn't have the money right now 
to buy it. We wanted to cut down on shearing just for this year (shearing is 
difficult when one is with child - a balance issue), and I didn't want my 
prime spinning ewes to go to the sale barn, so it worked for us. We kept the 
nicest spinners with lamb.

Now, our sheep are getting out worse than our goats right now. It used to be 
the sheep stayed in and the goats got out. But they trade off. We have mixed 
browser breeds of longwools though, so maybe that's the problem. Also the 
goats recently kidded. By fall, they will be back to their antics. 
Consequently, we could milk the sheep too if we wanted to. In my experience, 
a noisy animal is a tame, overgrained animal, no matter what the breed. Our 
Jersey cow when I was growing up would let us know if we weren't in the barn 
by 6 a.m.. She wanted her grain!

My husband and I both come from dairy families, and we milk goats the lazy 
way. We don't take the kid off of them. We haven't milked this year at all, 
but in the past, we have taken one milking a day, or even every other day. 
It only gives a quart or two per goat. You have to milk around the same 
time, to develop the supply correctly. Once the milk supply is established 
and the kids are grazing or eating hay, it does not seem to hurt their 
growth and development at all. The extra feed the mom gets while milking 
increases her supply substantially, and despite the kid, the amount of milk 
goes up as you go. We don't need gallons in this household, and it works for 
us when we want it to.

Gwen

Then
> you stand back with a bucket of water and throw it at
> the fence. If the water goes through, it ain't a goat
> fence.
> More true than not.
> Jim