When God Made Goats

March 10, 2015 Anna

I have to tell you… I love God.

Seriously.

I cannot even begin to fathom His greatness. Every day something reminds me of His glory, of His power, and of His awe inspiring imagination.

Just reading Genesis 1 I literally stand amazed at His genius.

²⁰And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds^[g] fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.” ²¹So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²²And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

²⁴And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. ²⁵And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶Then God said, “Let us make man^[h] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

²⁷So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

²⁸And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

He made this in all of it’s mighty glory:

He made him. Every cell, every muscle, every hair He formed. This mighty and majestic creature was formed by the Creator of the Universe. Wow.

This wily creature who can scale the flat side of our barn:

God made Him too. Every claw, tooth, tissue, and purr He knows.

But when God made goats…

I think he laughed.

And no, I don’t think he just let out a little chuckle. I think it was a big, all consuming, shoulder’s heaving, belly-aching laugh.

How can this crazy dance not make you want to get up and praise our Creator?

How can these sweet girls learning to walk not make you laugh until you cry?

And how can this video of a baby being born not just leave you in awe? (and laughing a little) (WARNING GRAPHIC)

When it shakes it’s tiny head … I just died. Y’all God is incredible.

I hope these videos helped you remember to praise our Savior today! I know I am.

Southern Snowapocalypse

February 27, 2015 Anna

I know everyone makes fun of Southerners for how we react to snow. I get it. These people have snow 1/2 of the year long. They think it’s ridiculous. But what I don’t think that they understand is for us snow is like rain in the middle of the Sahara desert. Seriously, it’s like being from the red and orange land of Arizona and seeing the blues and greens of the Mississippi for the first time (or second time). Real snow – the kind that STICKS and you can PLAY in – is so rare.

Just for today, I want you to put all of your judging aside 🙂 and see this Snowapocalypse through a Southern point of view. (Seriously, we got like 8 inches. That’s kinda a big deal.)

I’ve never seen snow come down so fast and hard. My hair literally froze.

We played well into the night with friends and family. We had pool floats, plastic sleds, and a John Deere Gator – you can only imagine 🙂

You must admit – there is something magical about it all.

The next morning we decided to play with the animals – in the snow, of course!

And by play I mean – we even took the puppies sledding 🙂

Here is a video of Justin sledding with my sisters Pyrenees, Zeus. He is from our first litter and 8 months old.

Here are two videos of the puppies sledding 🙂

Kadi tried all by herself:

Maybe we are easily entertained… or maybe we just know how to have fun 🙂

Either way I would say everyone on Maynard’s Farm has enjoyed our Snowapocalypse!

Until next time!

Hello World!

February 20, 2015 Anna

Kidding season 2015 began on this blistery morning. Lil Bit O’Time chose (ha!) the coldest day of the year so far to kid. At 7 AM two beautiful girls feet hit the oh so cold ground! WOO HOO! We are so so excited. Neither are named yet. Traditionally their names are supposed to correlate with their mother’s. I have had lots of awesome suggestions from Lil Bit O’Honey to Lil Bit O’ Luck (My Fair Lady – you know I’m a big fan :D) to Lil Bit O’ Frostbite and Lil Bit O’ Snow. We will be thinking and will let you know names soon. With no further adieu …. here are our girls:

One Girl:

Both Girls:

Second Girl (with a bit of a milk mustache 😉 ) :

I had to bring them into work this morning -not because of the cold but because this is DAY ONE of their lives and that requires making sure bottle feeding happens. (Yes, we bottle raise not dam raise.)

I hope y’all have a great weekend – try not to freeze – and I cannot wait to share pictures of the other babies due in the coming weeks!

A Month In Review

February 17, 2015 Anna

This has been a busy month around Maynard’s Farm.

We had puppies born:

They have gotten so much bigger now and will be going to their new homes soon:

We bought female rabbits for our males only to learn we had females originally…luckily we met some new (awesome) friends who gave us a buck(not pictured):

Some great friends gave us a house for our rabbits aka “The Taj-Mahare”…And we added on to it:

We are swimming in eggs and it isn’t even spring yet:

We also took some losses this past month – I told you about Julie & her kids not pulling through in the last blog – well we lost our inside dog, Darlin this past month:

Things seem to happen in threes so I am hoping our bad luck is over because the end of this week/beginning of next week starts …(drum roll please)… KIDDING SEASON!!! We are so excited. I cannot wait to post pictures.

Until next time!

A Flannel Christmas and a Hoppin’ New Year!

January 7, 2015 Anna

The past two Christmases have had a running theme when it comes to presents. Any guesses what that may be? I’ll give you a hint: anything farm related. Ha! I must say I love it. This Christmas across the board was farm themed – whether from the hubs, my parents, my aunt, or my in-laws family – everything was farm related.

For instance, my mother went flannel overboard this year for everyone. I know that sounds like a negative thing but it was awesome. Everyone has been decked out in flannel since Christmas around here!

The hubs got me a great pair of coveralls I can thrown on over my clothes at feeding time and stop having to get everything I own muddy and torn all the time!

My cousins on my husbands side got me cool chicken themed gifts! And my cousin Katie got me an awesome tote that says “totes ma goats” with 3 goat silhouettes! Sadly, I have no pictures.

And last but certainly not least….drum roll please…my awesome aunt made an egg gathering apron for me. She is the bomb. Justin is really going to look good wearing this… 😉

I realize people can take things overboard but I love that all my gifts were so thought out! They were practical (to an extent) and all for or about the thing(s) I love…my farm!

Christmas should never be about the gifts but it’s so nice to know that friends and family pay attention to the things you want and need.

While our Christmas was filled with flannel we will be hoppin’ into the New Year.

(See what I did there?)

This big boy is Goliath. We just picked his girlfriend, Sheba, up last night.

And this is Thumper. We picked up his girlfriend last night too. Her name is Flower.

We are going to start raising meat rabbits. We have been wanting a pig for some time but they just take up so much room and make SUCH a mess. Rabbits are much smaller, much less mess, and procreate quickly. I cannot wait to make dumplings.

I hate to end on bad news but the past week has been a rough one around here. On Wednesday Julie, one of our Obers, went into labor a week and a half early. Both kids were stillborn. (Goats cannot survive that early) Julie was doing great and then we got off work Thursday and she was down. After a lot of tireless hours filled with antibiotic shots, syringing water, and finally a trip to the vets….Julie died. At this time we do not know why. All of our animals are disease tested before coming to the farm and then tested yearly here. We are sending off tissue samples of the babies and a blood sample for Julie to rule out any disease we may have missed. Hopefully it was just from natural causes/infection and is not something that can spread to our other does.

It’s times like these when I am reminded of the Ram truck commercial about when God made the farmer. I try to mainly focus on the fun, wacky things that happen to us but farming is also filled with losses. And this past week we lost a lot.

I hope to have pictures of our new does Sheba and Flower up for y’all to see soon!

Until next time!

New Additions and Big, Bad Predators.

June 23, 2014 Anna

We have added a few new additions to the farm. In May we received an order of Murray McMurray chicks. My favorite is an Ameraucana I named Rose. I think she thinks I’m crazy. I like to carry her around and well…. she likes to run away from me. Basically she thinks I’m a stalker.

Meet Rose.

Isn’t she cute?

Meet Rose’s stalker.

Oh wait, that’s me.

We also have two cats now. They’re just barn cats but they are adorable.

Say hello to Nox and Nero.

While I milk Little they stand behind me and wait for me to pour them some fresh goat milk. They also like to do chores with Justin.

We’ve also had a house chicken for the last two weeks.

Meet Pip.

She was picked at by the other chicks. When we went out to the brooder there was blood everywhere and the poor thing was in pitiful shape. A little blue-kote and a lot of love later and she is doing much better. She has watched TV with us and even been introduced to the inside dogs. Click on the link because Chloe was not so sure about Pip. It made us laugh..a lot.

The sweet thing has finally been moved to the grow-out pen with the others and so far all is well.

Now, onto the final update…the ducks.

We have moved them out to the pond with the Ancona’s.

They are happy as can be. However, we were supposed to have two new babies:

And unfortunately due to a predator problem…they are no more.

So, are you ready to see our BIG, BAD, predator problem?

Pretty right?

Not so pretty anymore, huh? Ok, so this isn’t my picture. It’s this guys.

BUT given that my precious babies and BOTH of my nests…over 40 eggs… are gone and these guys are to blame, I imagine this is what it looked like.

This nest:

Was ONE week from hatching.

This momma is one mad hen. (Well I’m not a hen but who cares about the technicalities?)

We are working on building the ducks houses to lay in…but I don’t know if they will keep the heron’s away or not. 🙁

Our bees are doing PHENOMENAL. We may even have honey this year. We definitely did not expect any this year but our hive is working like crazy. They filled up their super in NO time and we have already had to put on a small super (where we will rob honey) and they’ve got half of it full.

This was a few weeks ago:

Talk about busy bees!

That’s about all that’s going on around here (it’s been crazy). We leave in less than a month for Africa!

Don’t forget to check out our blog that is chronicling that journey!

https://carryingthegospel.wordpress.com/

You can learn all about us here!

Until next time!

You Can Call Me Queen Bee…

May 14, 2014 Anna

…and baby I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule
Let me live that fantasy.

Okay, okay so it’s a song. My ~~26th~~ 22nd birthday was last week. My sweet husband teamed up with my parents to really surprise me with my birthday gift. I seriously had no idea. Are you ready?

You are seeing that right! I am officially a BEEKEEPER, y’all. I was, and am, beside myself giddy. My very own honey bees! I have wanted this for years and Justin is finally on board! Whoop whoop!

Well, I started reading “Beekeeping for Dummies” and man oh man did I learn a lot. Here are just a few facts:

1. Honey bees are divided into three castes, Worker, Drone, and the Queen.

2. During the summer months 60,000 or more bees live in a healthy hive!

3. Only ONE queen lives in a given hive.

She is the largest bee in the colony.
She produces more than 1,500 eggs a day at 30 sec intervals!
She is literally royalty. The other bees tend to her every need, without them she cannot survive. Literally. Here is my favorite part: She is incapable of tending to herself. She cannot feed or groom herself. She can’t even leave the hive to RELIEVE herself. Her court takes care of her every basic need!

Okay, okay I have bored you enough. Just one more fun fact! Btw, I would love to give credit for where I found this picture but I have NO idea. 🙁 So sorry to whomever credit is due. *Update. Another blogger gave me the link to the creator of the bee graphic below: Here is the link to the creator.

Bees are incredible, y’all. Tuesday (yesterday) our hive arrived! My super nervous (and allergic!) husband carried this in his truck all the way home:

Isn’t it cool?

Ok so next came the arduous, extensive, complicated task of putting them in the hive. We called over our local bee experts (seriously, these guys are amazing) to help us. Are you ready for the process?

1. You put the Queen in the hive:

She’s in that little box.

2. You shake the box of bees into the hive:

That is it. Yea, you thought it would be some crazy in depth process, right? Me too. Nope, that was it.

I have started a YouTube page for Maynard’s Farm. Before you rush over with excitement and blow it up 🙂 there are only 3 videos. But here is a video of the Villanow Bee Brigade (no they don’t call themselves that, I made that up) putting in the bees. Click here to see it. It is very short, my phone was dying.

I most definitely have an obsession with these brilliant insects now.

They literally swarmed all around us. It was terrifying and magnificent all in one. Yet, no one was stung.

Ty was still terrified.

This is the start of a new adventure for us and I am THRILLED. I cannot wait to share more with all of you. 🙂

Until next time…here are a few of Hebe’s favorite hiding/sleeping spots!

Mean Ducks & May Flowers

May 2, 2014 Anna

Here on Maynard’s Farm we have a problem with Mean ~~Girls~~ Ducks. Long story short, when we bought our Ancona ducks they were sold as a “package”. This package included 5 ducks, two hens and three drakes. Yes, yes, I know. It does not matter the animal, NEVER have more males than females. BUT, they were a package. That means it was all or nothing.

However, when we bought the ducks the girl we bought them from told us that she was not sure of the sex of one of them. So, this duck was named… Biquacky. Biquacky is brown and white as opposed to the others being black and white.

Biquacky is on the left and the drake who’s name has left me is on the right below:

So basically, from day 1, he has always been different.

A few months ago the other four ducks teamed up and started picking on Biquacky. He is our “odd man out”. Yes, he is a male. We know that now. He was just a late bloomer.

The other ducks are always jumping on him, pecking at him, and attacking him in the water and on land. Poor Biquacky…no where is safe. He is even missing feathers on his neck now from the abuse. Darkwing, our largest drake is probably to blame.

POOR GUY! 🙁

I feel like I have the farm version of Mean Girls going on. I have to stand by him while he eats or the others won’t let him. I videoed them coming in last night. Like I said, Mean Girls in duck form. I am hoping when all of our ducklings are bigger all of this will change.

Speaking of, we have only 15 of the 18 left :(. We lost all three drakes! I think we are having a rough year for males on Maynard’s Farm. We lost Traveller, our only buck, Justin got pancreatitis, Biquacky is getting abused, our three drake ducklings died, and Hercules got hit by a car. Yea, I forgot to mention that. He’s alive…don’t bring out the tissues. It happened this week. We have NO idea how or where he got out. Luckily, his back leg is just a little banged up. Nothing major and I think (hope!) he has learned his lesson. He sure is moping around like he did. I do believe his pride is injured.

How can you not feel bad for that face?

Hopefully Biquacky will fit in when all the other hens move out to the pond. Sadly, that is many months away.

A few positive things:

Hebe took not one but TWO selfies with me. This. Is. Big. I love this girl but she is not much for cuddling.

And…she posed for a picture!

Isn’t she beautiful?

Also, it is May!

And that means things are starting to bloom! However, I have a black thumb. It makes me so sad! I came home yesterday and saw this!

I don’t know what it is but it doesn’t look like the weeds I have growing. So maybe this is an actual flower! 😀 Hopefully I won’t kill it.

My sweet mama bought me these!

I am hoping these are little signs our luck is turning around! Until next time my mean ducks and I will be holding down the farm!

The Ugly Truth

Perception is a funny thing. We always want what we can’t have – until we have it. Once we have what we couldn’t have we see that it’s not all rainbows and butterflies, and maybe we see things through rose tinted glasses. Take motherhood for example, we get on Facebook and see these mothers who are put together, smiling with their perfect children, and everyone is playing on this wonderfully sunny day, even the family dog. What they don’t show you are the sleepless nights, the poop smeared walls, the bowl of milk and cereal being slung in moms hair, etc. Does that mean they regret their decision? Absolutely not. Most would say it was the best decision they ever made. I feel the same way about farming and animals. It is a lot of heartache, hard work, and down right dirty work. So, instead of acting like it is a glamorous life I am going to share with you a few ugly truths.

1. 95% of the time I have poop somewhere on me. Whether it be my shoes, pants, or shirt … I literally have poop on me. Recently I went to the Doctors office and when I sat down I smelled…that’s right, chicken poop. I immediately got up, went outside, and when I looked down poop was smeared on my Toms. Ugh. I cannot tell you how many times I come to work with stains on my pants and sweatshirt from being jumped on. Heck, just this week I was driving down the road and stuck my hand in my sweatshirt pocket to find… POOP! Gross.

2. Not to sound conceited but… I like my legs. (Or I did when I was younger.) I am officially reaching the age where things are, ahem, not quite as tight and thin as they used to be. I’ve always liked the fact that despite years of working outside (I am a farmers daughter after all) my legs are scar free. Heck, they rarely even bruise. Until now. At night I am always astonished at the amount of cuts and bruises covering my thighs, shins, and knees. Truly astonished. If I am not banging into fences or gates, somehow an animal is to blame. It is crazy.

3. I typically smell like soured milk. Sad, but it is the truth. Well it’s probably a mixture of poop and soured milk :). I should bottle the smell and call it Le farm de fragrance. Ha. But really, if a baby isn’t slinging it’s bottle all down my front, somehow in the middle of milking I stop paying attention, miss the bucket, and spray myself. No, I’m not kidding. Milk will go all over my face, in my hair, and spray my shirt. I live such a glamorous life, y’all.

4. At least once a day Justin and I are discussing poop, diarrhea, teats, or some other bodily function in our animals. I am amazed at the number of conversations we have about AI (artificial insemination) vs. the “old fashioned” way ;). Or better yet the 1000’s of causes of diarrhea in our goats. Our conversations are mind blowing for intellectual stimulation. Ha.

5. I have literally been sprayed by a buck. Now, for the sake of everyone reading this I will keep this as PG as possible. Let’s just say that I rounded the corner at the same time one of dad’s bucks decided he wanted to “make friends” with one of dad’s does. The result? My legs and feet were fertile. I won’t lie…I screamed like a little city girl as I stripped out of my pants and ran inside. I. Was. Horrified.

I could keep going forever. Just like any “dream life/job” there is a dirty side. I have so many friends who say “Ugh, I envy your life” and I laugh. I laugh because they are envying poop shoes, fertile blue jeans, and sour milk hair. But goodness if these lovelies don’t make it all worth it. Those babies love to climb all over us and on the rare occasion that I remember to video them…they are tamely climbing. I wish I could get a video of their usual crazy ways.

Until next time… remember that the grass may be greener on the other side but that is because it is full of POOP!

Wyoming, Idaho, and Nebraska

March 29, 2014 Anna

So let me start with a few differences in the south and out west.
1. It’s windy. Really really windy. What was that? I can’t hear you for all this wind! The only way this is a plus is if you’re in to extreme kite flying. Sheldon Cooper maybe?
2. The left lane is for passing only. Weird. Justin liked this and thinks it makes traffic move faster. My thing is… If no one is on the road… What does it matter what side I’m on?!
3. There aren’t many billboards. Scratch that – we saw none. There were large signs that told about the states and agriculture but no big billboards. And no advertisements till you came up on an exit. I liked that.
4. Past Colorado there was no sweet tea. No me gusta.
5. There is a LOT of wasted land. I like that there aren’t a lot of people and it’s all “wide open spaces” (cue Dixie chicks) BUT when you drive for 500 miles and see 500 miles of fenced in land with no houses and no animals it’s a little annoying. Hey! Pick me Wyoming!! I’ll take that land and farm/ raise livestock.

With #5 brings Wyoming.

Sorry for the awful glare but I was not a fan of Wyoming. We thought we would never get out. But I have to laugh. God never ceases to amaze me. On our way back home we went back through the same section of southern WY and God said “I’ll show you”. He sprinkled everything with a light dusting of snow and I was amazed. Everything He made has a beauty to it.

Now, let me back up. After Wyoming we got to Idaho. Beautiful, beautiful Idaho. Rolling hills, MOUNTAINS (the real kind… Not like we have in the south). It was beautiful. Truly gorgeous.

When we got to our destination of Blackfoot, ID from Estes Park we crashed in true Maynard style. Can you tell we like to eat and sleep? 🙂

But the next morning we were up and ready to go. Before we went to the farm to see our babies we stopped by the local museum…

Yep, you read that right! The potato museum! Hello, Idaho potato! It was actually really neat and we liked it a lot.

Who doesn’t want to see the worlds largest Pringles?

The best part? You get FREE potatoes. Yep, free food. Free.

You get to put your souvenirs in a potato sack!

Now on to the part you are all interested in… Our babies!! We arrived at God’s Graces Thursday morning and let me tell you … We were in for a treat.

The Groneman’s were more than just hospitable. We are SO blessed to have met these amazing folks. We spent ALL day (literally) learning everything we could. One thing we have encountered in the goat world is that everyone acts like what they do is a big secret. Presidential secret passing big. Area 51 big. They’re goats. We just want them to stay alive, folks. If we happen to luck out and have a national champion it won’t be because you showed us how to properly trim hooves. Which, they did. Seriously, they took the time to not only show us, but let Justin do one himself. I wish they lived closer. They are a fountain of knowledge and we are crazy dehydrated. But for one day we drank until our stomachs were about to burst and the Groneman’s kept giving :). We are forever grateful.

Now here is what you have all been waiting for… Our girls!

When we left Friday morning we talked names, stopped, bottle fed, and talked names some more.

We debated Shakespeare names.

Then we debated really southern names like Dixie, Magnolia, lemon, and Daisy.

No, the diapers did not stay on. 🙁

We debated names until we were delirious and suggesting things like “Idy” and “ho” and “tator” and “spud”.

Then Justin came up with their names! Meet Gypsy and Journey!

Now, for the story you have all been waiting for… Nebraska!

We drove and drove and drove until we could drive no more. We reached a town right outside Lincoln, Nebraska around 10 pm. We found a motel (outside rooms were important) and Justin went inside. We parked around back, I gathered bottles, and Justin put a baby goat under each arm…. Then we ran. Smuggling babies in a room for the night was a success. We then fed them in the hopes that full belly’s would mean sleepy babies. Wrong! They were nuts! They didn’t holler but they jumped on the toilet seat, on the walls, on us… Everywhere! They ran in circles, they head butted, and they used me for a jungle gym. For hours! I sent Justin to bed and I laid on a pillow in the bathroom. Someone had to drive in the morning and I’m better at sleeping in the car. Finally, around 2 am they drank a TON of milk, and settled down. I wish I had pictures. They curled up in the floor with me and gypsy even laid her head on mine. Sweet babies. I sure do love them. We are currently 6 hours from home and all is well (for now!).

If you haven’t seen the video click here and enjoy a laugh. Until next time!

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