this side of heaven

Sabbaticals on the homestead

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Pet food alternatives

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Government intervention, I

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Beekeeping blogging

First I have to apologize for missing yesterday. You can read about my non- computer day here. Now since I had promised a post on bee and honey blogs, I thought I had better deliver. So here are the ones I have found so far, they are all backyard or small scale beekeepers:

First on the list: Homestead Blogger's very own Beekeeper Dreams! Woohoo!

A Hobbyist's Beekeeping Adventures
Becky's Bees and Blooms - a Colorado beekeeper's blog!
Bees in the Antipodes
Beemaster's Blogs
City Bees
D's Bees
Hive Mind Backyard Beekeeping
Honey Run Apiaries - A Beekeeper's Blog
Linda's Bees
Propolis
Top-Bar Bees

I couldn't find any blogs devoted to bee products: honey, beeswax and the like. If any of you run across any, let me know, and I will update this post! Thank you!

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Homestead beekeeping

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Legislation introduced to prohibit NAIS

I must apologize that it has been so long between posts. We are in our new house, and my library is taking shape, although not all the books are unpacked as yet. It will not be long now before I will be back to daily blogging on this side of heaven.

But I had to break silence for this piece of significant news. Legislation has been proposed in Congress to prohibit the NAIS! Senator Jim Talent of Missouri has introduced legislation in the Senate which will prohibit the USDA, which is the bureaucracy behind the NAIS, from requiring mandatory animal identification of livestock owners. And Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, also of Missouri, has introduced the same in the House. Yay, Missouri, and thank you! Now let us all let our Congresspeople know that we want them to support the Talent Emerson bill!

Find your Representative
Find your Senator

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When dogs attack

I read the news report because the grandmother in it sounded like me. I am a grandmother and I love to garden, and when I am not working on a new book, (or sewing, or cooking) I can be found out in my garden most days from March through October. You see, a 71- year- old grandmother was out in her yard gardening, when the neighbor’s pit bull jumped the fence and mauled her to death.

Then I was surprised to see a second story about pit bulls on the same day: Children found in home with 68 pit bulls. In this case the dogs were being used, illegally, for fighting, and the dogs and children were taken from the father, and the father charged with child endangerment.

I was curious as to how often these dogs show up in the news, and was shocked by what I found:

Yesterday, in London, Ontario, a man was attacked while trying to save his dog, who was being attacked by two pit bulls. The man and his dog were in his own fenced yard; like the case with the grandmother, the pit bulls belonged to a neighbor and the dogs came under the fence.

Yesterday, in Lexington, North Carolina, a woman was in serious condition in the hospital after being attacked by two pit bulls.

On Tuesday a pit bull attacked a NYPD officer, while the officer was responding to a call. The officer shot the dog to protect himself. Also on Tuesday, in Toledo, Ohio, an 18- month- old girl, who was out for a walk with her mother, was hospitalized after being bitten by a pit bull. The dog got out from his fenced yard to come after the girl. Once the dog got ahold of her leg, it dragged the girl back under the fence.

So I did a search of Google News, and found that there is a news story about pit bull attacks posted on average of almost every day! Just last week this heartbreaking story was posted. It seems that in cities which consider dangerous dog ordinances, pit bulls are usually the only breed mentioned by name. There are other breeds who make excellent guard dogs, without endangering the lives of family, neighbors, and neighbors’ property and livestock.

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Goats, multi- purpose livestock

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Wolves in Colorado

A big story in the local newspapers this weekend was that a lone wolf has been seen in Colorado near the Wyoming border not far from here. The animal was videotaped by a wildlife officer with Division of Wildlife (DOW). The theory is that the wolves have migrated from a pack which was reintroduced to Yellowstone in 1994. This is a big gulp for all the ranchers in the area -- and us, too; anyone with animals. From the newspaper:

"Wolves in the western United States are listed as an endangered species with full protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. The only legal way one can be intentionally killed is in defense of human life. Any other intentional killing, even to protect pets, personal property or livestock, is punishable by a fine of up to $100,000, a year in prison, and can lead to forfeiture of vehicles, weapons and other personal property in use at the time of the crime, as well as possible loss of state hunting priveleges."

Yikes. There was a reason the wolf no longer lived here -- the ranchers eradicated them. Wolves are efficient hunters, and it is much easier for them to prey on livestock than it is to go looking for deer. I remember when the Clinton administration reintroduced the wolves to Yellowstone; the folks around here tried to convey to our representatives in Congress that it would only be a matter of time before we had wolves preying on our livestock again. Of course, our representatives told us why we were wrong, as they always do.

We haven't had chickens for several years because the coyotes killed all of them, over time. We haven't solved the having free range chickens while keeping the coyotes from eating them dilemma yet. Wolves are much worse than coyotes. What a pickle. Time to get more and bigger dogs.

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Family pets on the homestead, part four

If you have cats out and about keeping the mice population under control, you will need to worm your cats. We did not use the wormer commonly available in the pet stores or at the vets. We used diatamaceous earth. Diatamaceous earth (DE for short) is a mechanical wormer, not a chemical one, so its effect is nil on the host. We also used it as an insect control in our chicken coop (more on keeping your coop clean and healthy coming up). DE will control slugs in the garden, too, but it will also kill earthworms and other friendlies, so I donÂ’t use it in the garden.

There has been a controversy about the effectiveness of DE over at the Homesteading Today forums. But I found most of the controversy was because of one individualÂ’s claims that it is a cure-all. It isnÂ’t. And it should not be inhaled. A tiny amount goes a long way. The most knowledgeable post I found about using DE was this one.

We dust a very tiny amount of DE in our pet food for worm control, not every day, but for two weeks as needed. We also used DE with our livestock, but that is another post.

to be continued ...
Previously: Family pets on the homestead, part three

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Family pets on the homestead, part three

We have always had cats; they are rather necessary to keep the mice under control. Around here we cannot allow mice to multiply, because they carry the deadly hanta virus. As well as plague. You know, the Black Death that wiped out half the population of Europe in the fourteenth century? Yeah, that plague.

Our cats are not strictly indoor cats; they have the run of the house and grounds. But they are family pets. Family pets on the homestead do not lead the sheltered life that family pets living in suburbia, who never leave the house, do. We have lost cats to being hit by cars on the county road at the front of the property; and also to a predator once. We assume a coyote, but we donÂ’t know for sure, since we never found her remains. This was particularly hard on our oldest daughter, since the cat was her cat and her best friend at the time.

One time we lost our youngest daughterÂ’s cat. She went outside in the morning just like always, and she didnÂ’t come home later that day, which was unusual. When she didnÂ’t show up for supper, we got concerned, but scouring the road in front of the house didnÂ’t solve the mystery, and either did posting flyers at the local vetÂ’s, grocery store, and post office. We prayed for her, but were pretty resigned to the fact that we would never see her again, just like her sisterÂ’s cat. Then after about three or four weeks, the cat showed up at the front door, a skinny, muddy mess. We have no idea what happened to her, other than maybe someone picked her up and took her away, and she had to escape and find her way back home?

Well, death is a part of life this side of heaven, and living on the homestead introduces it to children a lot sooner than they probably would have otherwise. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but there is a reason the Scriptures call death the last enemy; it hurts when we lose who we love, and it doesnÂ’t hurt less because that who is four- footed instead of two- footed.

As parents, we want to take the hurt away from our children, but the best we can do is love them through it. And lead them, always lead them to the Lord of Life, who binds up the brokenhearted.

to be continued ...
Previously: Family pets on the homestead, part two
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Update: continued in Family pets on the homestead, part four

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Family pets on the homestead, part two

If you do decide on a dog for your homestead to keep predators from your free range chickens, and to deter deer from nibbling on your garden, you may have to teach your dog not to prey on your chickens, either. We have a black lab /collie cross. Black labs are hunting dogs, specifically bred to retrieve fowl. We had to teach our dog that our chickens were not her prey.

As a puppy, any time she started chasing the chickens for fun, we told her “No!” very sternly and sharply. Whenever she started chasing a chicken, that brought an immediate disapproving response from us. But one day in the late afternoon, when she was about 9 months old, she caught a chicken. She didn’t kill it, because I told her “No!” immediately, and called her to me, but the chicken was so deeply wounded that it would not live. We immediately isolated the chicken in the yard, to protect the bird from being attacked by the other chickens. I couldn’t kill it myself -- my husband is the hunter in the family, and he does all the butchering whenever it is called for. Then we waited for my husband to get home from work.

I kept the dog by my side while we waited, and did not allow her any more freedom to run until after we had settled this. My neighbor, an experienced rancher and farmer, came and looked over the chicken, and told me that in his experience, when a dog gets that taste for chicken (or eggs) as a puppy, they cannot be broken from it. We could try, he said, but he thought we would have to put the dog down, as well as the chicken. Gulp.

It was important for my husband to be the one to administer the discipline to the dog for this offense. He is the pack leader in the dogÂ’s eyes. When he got home, he just walked over to the chicken without saying a word, and examined it to be sure it was not saveable. It wasnÂ’t; the poor thing was suffering. The dog, this whole time, stood with her tail between her legs; she knew she was in trouble, even more so by my husbandÂ’s displeasure, which was easily readable by his body language, than she had been by having her freedom restricted, or being scolded by me.

He came over and took the dog by the collar, and told the rest of us to go in the house. So I am not an eyewitness to what happened next, but this is what happened next. He brought the dog over to the chicken and put her face as close to the wounded bird as possible, and very sternly reprimanded her. I am pretty sure the dog got a thrashing, too, at his hands. This is another very un-pc thing these days. But my husband put the fear of God in that dog of chasing chickens. That is what has to happen, if you do not want the behavior to be repeated.

After the discipline, he put the dog in the house, then put the chicken out of its misery, and I made chicken and dumplings from it for Sunday dinner that week. After my husband had showered and eaten, he called the dog to him, and petted and loved her, and accepted her back into the family again. The dog is devoted to my husband, and is never fearful around him, but the dog never chased another chicken again. Ever. She is ten years old this fall. Our neighbor couldnÂ’t believe it.

I think the reason is two-fold: one, it goes back to the bonding during the 6 week to 12 week window as a puppy. That bond is integral to a dog seeing your family, animals, and grounds as her family, animals, and grounds. Because the dog was bonded to our family, and had never known another “pack leader” but my husband, she never knowingly again did anything he had specifically forbidden. And two, she knew she had transgressed the “pack law” (Thou shalt not chase the chickens). She was punished for the transgression, but then received complete forgiveness and acceptance. She responded to my husband’s grace toward her with gratitude and devotion. I truly believe that played the major part in her future obedience.

to be continued ...
Previously: Family pets on the homestead, part one
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Update: continued in Family pets on the homestead, part three

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Family pets on the homestead, part one

A dog is a must to keep predators at bay, depending on where you live. We have coyotes and mountain lions around here, who tend to see your free range chickens as a convenient buffet line. But mountain lions will avoid dogs if at all possible. Although our homestead was smack dab inside the 25-mile radius of the range of a local mountain lion and her cub, and we saw her once in a while down the road from us, we never saw her on our place or our neighborÂ’s. Between us, there was one black lab /collie cross, one blue heeler, and one great pyrenees.

Coyotes are more of a problem, since, when they pack up, they tend to not see a single dog as an insurmountable threat. (But the great pyrenees is so much bigger than a coyote -- the size of a small bear -- that they do give the GP a wide berth.) This is why, in the old days, farmers and ranchers shot any coyotes within rifle range, which is terribly un-pc these days. I have read news reports of people who live in the country getting in trouble for shooting predators on their property. Which is crazy, but know your countyÂ’s laws.

We even had an owl try to pick up a chicken not 20 feet from the house one day. It was daytime! Since the chicken was almost as big as the owl, the owl was having trouble lifting off with the chicken in its claws. It only gave up and let the chicken go when the dog came careening around the corner, full out for the owl, barking its fool head off.

Dogs around the place will also help deter deer. If there are a few gardens to nibble from, the deer will go to the garden that does not have a dog hanging about before it will go to the garden that does have a dog hanging about.

Our dog is a black lab /collie cross; a good retriever and shepherding dog, good with kids, with great protective instincts. And big enough to stand up to a predator, if necessary. We like cross breeds rather than pure breeds, because they are less prone to genetic disabilities. Not to mention being a lot cheaper, LOL.

Know your breeds before committing to a dog for your homestead. Dogs bond most easily in that 6 to 12 week window as a puppy, and that bond is integral to your dog seeing your family, animals, and grounds as her family, animals, and grounds (and therefore her responsibility). We had a red heeler before we found our black lab /collie cross. She was a great family dog, but we had to give her up to a new home. She kept leaving the grounds to go herd the neighboring rancherÂ’s cattle, which did not get us in good with our neighbor. Our black lab /collie was perfectly content to stay home, LOL. We gave up our red heeler when she was about six months old -- not too old to adjust to a new family, but old enough to be hurt by not being with her people anymore.

to be continued ...

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Update: continued in Family pets on the homestead, part two

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On milk goats

We chose Nubians, as they are well-known for high quality, high butterfat milk. We wanted our goats primarily for milking, and not for milk and meat, so an all-purpose breed was not necessary for us.

Rabbit trail: the Colorado Rockies have attracted all manner of wacko cults and fringe groups. The Buddhists have a huge retreat and complex hidden away up in the mountains not far from here; and other cults who emphasize communal living and living off the land have farms and centers dotting the foothills of the Front Range where we live. Boulder and Aspen are new age meccas. I am not sure why that is, other than the devil always tries to co-opt GodÂ’s best.

Anyway, one of these farms had a large dairy goat operation, and we went up to observe it. We tried some of the milk they were getting from their herd, and it was sweet and wonderful! So that spring, when their nannies had kidded, we went back up and chose two baby nannies and one billy to take home. They were relatively inexpensive too (IÂ’ll have to ask my husband how much we paid for them; I think $20 each). My husband had just finished building new stalls inside our barn, and in the three goats went. Our children -- we happened to have two girls and one boy also -- each adopted a goat. That summer the children, the dog, and the baby goats slept out in the barn together, a lot of the time. The children in sleeping bags, of course; and the dog to sound the alarm should any coyotes come around.

Another rabbit trail: this is one reason why I loved homeschooling so much. On those mornings, I would take the breakfast and the school books out to the picnic table, and the children and the goats and the dog would all gather round for lessons, and after a few hours when the lessons were done, the children and the goats and the dog would spend the afternoon romping around the grounds together. Then it would be nap time, for the goats and the dog, and sometimes the children, but more often the children would be curled up with their goat (who make a great pillow, by the way, when you are ten years old and the warm summer sun is shining down on you) reading their history and literature books.

We were careful to get the billy goat from a different family than the nanny goats. He did his duty at the right time, and that winter our two nannies were pregnant. In the late winter they had their kids. One of the kids was stillborn, but luckily, our neighbor across the lane raised cashmere goats for wool, and her nannies were kidding at the same time ours were. This was lucky because one of her nannies had triplets and rejected the tiniest one, so our neighbor gave us that kid hoping our nanny who had lost her kid would take to the little orphan.

The secret to adopting out an orphaned kid, is to milk the nanny, first, and put her milk in a baby bottle for the orphan. Feed that milk to the orphan and wait a few hours for the milk to “cycle through.” Then take the kid to the nanny. The nanny will smell the kid, and when she smells her milk on the kid, she will think it is her kid, and happily adopt it. But if you just introduce the kid to the nanny without doing this first, the nanny will most likely reject the kid.

So, we had two momma goats and two baby goats, even if one of the babies was a cashmere and half the size of her adopted “sister.” Since our billy had gotten overbearing and stinky and mean as an adult, we sold him.

Next: weaning the baby goats, and learning to milk; hopefully I can get some pictures up too ...

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