DDFJ_08-29-2009

Doud Dairy Farm Journal

Saturday, August 29, 2009

 

We need to locate a farm very soon. Winter is coming and we can not winter our animals over where they are at. We would like to get more animals, like a few milking Devon cattle (at least one bull and three to ten cows), and some sheep. We have an opportunity to purchase some sheep at a fair price, if we had the capital and place to put them, but that would take a farm. I could get work, if I had a farm. It is all on the farm. I need to use some scrap lumber to build a feeder for the Goats.

 

The diagrams will be uploaded later, as they did not transfer through the Google Docs application.

This is the Frame, we will need two (2) of these build from 2x3 or even 2x2 lumber.

(Structural Frame Diagram goes here)

This is the Top, we will need one of these, the holes should fit a bowl, like the dog bowl. It is made from sheet material, or from 1” slab lumber at least 8” wide.

(Top Frame Diagram goes here)

 

The two frames will be built and connected by four 2x2 pieces at 12” each to create a cube. The sides of the cube will be covered by slab wood to protect it and give it strength. We can attach leather or rope handles to the ends to allow us to move it easier. We could also make one of the side panels into a door and add some shelves for their hoof and other tools. Again we could use leather as hinges and a latch. This would make it a useful multi-purpose box. Shelves could be made from scrap slab wood, as they do not need to be one piece.

 

This is the kind of shit I sit around and think about when I am not working on other things. All we need is the farm, I can make anything else I need, just about. The same goes for making energy or anything else. Given enough space and time and I can make just about anything. I should have skinned the goat, but I thought it would be best at this time to just bury her (well really I thought it would have been best to just put her out in the woods where she would have been food for the wild animals), but “people” don't get that cycle thing very well, whatever. Yesterday on Craigslist I saw another Nubian goat that was nearly a carbon copy of Tudy, who was lactating, so that would be great to replace Tudy with, but I just don't have the money right now. I also would like to get the chickens I saw on Craigslist as they include four (4) buff Orpingtons which are really good brooder hens, as our Rhode Island Reds are not. We have ten (10) ducks now, five (5) Pekins and five (5) Blue Swedish ducks. I think we have a good amount of hens, so we should get eggs soon from the Blues and might have one or two for the freezer or dinner plate this Yule season. The Blues are good brooders too, so they will help to brood even the Pekins, as brooder hens don't care whose eggs they brood, just how many. If we give her Pekin eggs she will sit them as well as her own. The Blues are also good foragers so they will do well on pasture. The Pekins are good for eating, and produce lots of eggs, so it is a good mix.