Our animals...

As most of you know, we love our animals!  In recent years, Bonham and I decided that we wanted to live off the land a little more.  We're not going to start making our own clothes or anything, but we wanted a garden and food-producing animals.  We have goats that we planned to milk, we bought some chickens for eggs and meat, and we have rabbits for meat.  When you live in the country, there is a lot of trial and error in raising animals.  Sometimes they die from things that are out of your control.  We feel bad when this happens, but the more I read and talk to people with animals, it seems more common with the smaller livestock.

We started with twin female goats back in the spring of 2012. 

Rose and Daisy:

These two girls were so sweet... 

They were only a few weeks old when we got them, so they had to be bottle fed.  

Bottle feeding baby goats is a great way to bond with them.

Jayna was the best, little goat feeder.

Goats love to climb.
Look at this sweet little face.... makes you want a goat, huh?

Follow the leader...

One night, during a storm, some coyotes came through the pasture.  Rose was smart enough (or lucky enough) to get into our dog's yard for protection.  Unfortunately, Daisy wasn't so smart/lucky.  She ran through the pasture and was killed by the coyote(s).  The next day, we found (what was left of) her and we buried her.  We worried about Rose and how she would do alone.  Rose had the cows to keep her company, but she cried for her sister.  Yes, goats can cry.  She maa'ed (sp?) until her voice was almost gone.  It was so sad to see an animal going through the heartbreak of losing her sister and friend.  It's not like you can explain or comfort them.  After a few days, she seemed better and she stayed very close to the cows, which is wise.  Goats are herd animals, so they like to be with other animals.  We joke that Rose doesn't know if she is a dog, goat, or cow!

We waited about a year and then purchased a new little buck to breed with
Rose eventually.  We named him Buddy.

Our kids love their baby animals

Even though Rose was so much bigger, she almost seemed scared at first.  She was establishing herself as the alpha, I guess.  He quickly learned his place.  

He was such a precious little guy.

And he loved to be driven around...

Buddy started getting  aggressive as he got bigger.  That made me worry about having him out here and I questioned if we should keep him, but over the next few weeks, he was also attacked and killed. So, now we'd lost Daisy and Buddy to coyotes. :(    Our next goat was a full grown male goat.
He is sweet and not aggressive, unless you are aggressive with him first or if you are my dad.  :)

For some reason, he gives my dad a lot of grief.

He's sweet to the rest of us, but he stinks to the high heavens.  If you've never been around a male goat, you're missing the worst smell of your life!

Look at this big goofy face!  He said, "Please don't sell me...."

This was George at 1 year old standing out by the goats.  

He is a natural farmer/rancher! 

After Mr. Brown did his job, we tried to sell him a few months ago.  We had very little interest and the first time we get one serious buyer, they wanted to kill him on our property and take them in their car.  They were going to eat him!  We weren't going to let that happen.  He hasn't been raised for meat.  He is a registered goat and he is meant for breeding.
I've convinced Bonham to let us keep him.  ;)

He made some cute babies...

And he produced girls, so that's good too!

When Bonham wanted to sell Mr. Brown, we had purchased another bottle baby; a registered male.  He already had a name when we picked him up, so we kept it.  His name was PeeWee.  He kind of became "my" goat. 

He looks a lot like buddy...

The girls were checking him out... he was so tiny, so he was only a few weeks younger than Rose's babies.  Goats and cows don't really take on other babies that aren't their's, so instead of immediately accepting him to the group, Rose tried to scare him off.

But he had me to protect him!  

(I wasn't really kissing him.  Not to say that I've never kissed our goats though)  LOL

cuddly...

Unfortunately, PeeWee died about a week ago.  He had been lethargic and very bloated.  We took him to the vet and they were going to monitor him overnight, but he passed away.  They aren't sure exactly what happened, but they assume that he ate something he shouldn't have or his intestines somehow got twisted.  I loved that little goat.  :(

These are my parents' cows.  They are very gentle.

They are also raised for meat.

We added rabbits... Isabella Bunny and Bugsy Pants 

We also added chickens: we ordered 25, they only sent us 24.  We had to cull a gimpy one pretty early on.  We lost another few during all of those really bad storms.

Then as they approached 4 months, we started giving them freedom to roam the pasture during the day and we put them away at night.  In one day, we lost 11 chickens!!  Eleven!  We found piles of feathers and bones, we know they didn't run away.  We are down to one, lone chicken.  We will get more evenutally, but we have a lot going on right now.

Isabella Bunny became on a mom on Mother's Day!

At nine days old....

At 3-4 weeks old, enjoying a belly rub

Around 8 weeks old....

The litter started as 6, but 3 didn't survive out of the first week or so of life.  

We ended up giving this one to some friends:

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WARNING:  
DO NOT READ PAST HERE IF YOU PREFER 
NOT TO SEE US SLAUGHTER A RABBIT

We bought the rabbits with the intention of  breeding Isabella and Bugsy to then eat their babies.  I know it might seem harsh, but there are people all around the world that eat rabbits.  They are supposed to taste like chicken.... we will know soon!  The meat is very lean, you know where it's coming from, and rabbits produce like, well.... rabbits!  They can breed 3 days after giving birth!  That's not our plan for our rabbits, but it's good to know when the zombie apocalypse comes!  ;)

Here it is... our first "dispatch"!
We brought the bunny inside for a little more time with her.  The kids were sad, even though they knew this was always the plan.  She's so fast and hyper that it was hard to get a picture with the kids holding her, so I cradled her like a baby and tried to get Barrett in the shot.

For those who are curious, we researched the most humane way to kill them.
A quick snap of the neck is the best.

Tie them up, just like you would a deer or a pig

 The kids were out there for the first part, but didn't want to stick around.
They did come back later to check on our progress though.

Skin is off... their hides are so soft.  I am going to do more research on tanning hides and see what I can do with their fur.  The kids want me to make a blanket out of it.

Be sooooo careful - this is the bladder

The organs....
We inspect them to make sure they are healthy.  If they weren't, of course we wouldn't eat the meat.  Also, with animals living in close quarters, you have to be cautious of them spreading things to each other.  Everything in her was very healthy.

I took more pictures, because I thought this would be a good anatomy lesson for the kids.
These are the kidneys

Heart and lungs...

My man and his first rabbit!  It was a lot easier than we thought.

I cooked it up two different ways last night and only used 1/2 the rabbit.  I baked some in the oven with BBQ sauce.  Then I cooked another part chicken fried.  Both of the kids ate it and everyone agreed that it tasted like chicken, so that means we will keep raising our own meat!  Yay us!