The next craze will be goats

See how things are adding up to the final equation... of a humanity with his hands back in the earth and with the animals that sustain him. People all over the world are joining the "green" movement and the duality shift often times brings into mind the battleground, pitting the green against the non green... when infact we are all in the same world and breathing the same air. There is nothing we can do that this planet could not do back to us and if we kill the planet we die with it, so when we step outside of duality we realize we are just going along this journey called evolution. So we gathered all these new ideas and brought them to fruition. We invented new inventions and conquered the unimaginable. But the truth is - we live and we die. Like the rest of the living, we have an end, but in that end we have a new beginning for the spirit is made of fire and renewal is one of the names for the fiery phoenix. This blessing is bestowed upon all those with spirit (find your spirit and hold onto it for a ride).....

So those with spirit come forth.... and forth came the goat.

No animal could be as useful to man besides the chicken, as the goat. And very few will bring as much comic relief, love and frustration as a goat. Goat's milk is good for the skin and can be used to make nice soaps, along with the various cheeses and yogurt. Goat have even been used to pull carts, control undergrowth in forests... Of course they can also provide meat and at a fast rate, as many goat breeds will twin regularly and even have triplets. On top of this, they can do it on feed few other animals can cope with and of course the steeper the ground the happier the goat and steep ground is not so good for people deveopment anyway, so the fact we could have them for goats to use is truly a blessed thing! Goats are true mountaineers and enjoy nothing more than climbing around. If you don't have rocks then a playgym will be used, otherwise they might just start jumping all over your car!

Though goats do have resilience and a robustness fit for four stomachs, a goat starved of love and companionship will wither away quickly. And you learn quickly their hearts are made of pure love.

They really love nothing more than you to come for a walk with them and let them eat as they come along, picking leaves and twigs as they hop along playing and being happy. Soon you become happy too and you know this is what feels nice. And its been gone for a long time for us. Instead we've put the goats in pens and given them feed rations. The mechanical nature of our industrial lives flooded into the farm. The small farm in its original blueprint is almost lost in the flood of industry. Its a good thing I kept a small copy of the small farm in a wrinkle in time in my pineal gland, right in the centre of my brain. In 2008 I pulled out the dusty old emerald it was embedded in and held it up to the light. It vibrated and in a flash I was brought from Topanga to Asheville and almost instantaneously before the house is even settled completely the old farm is manifest with ancient breed siberian cats, icelandic sheep, irish dexter cattle, old welsh blooded horse, antique english springer spaniel and antique chickens. And beaming from the emerald were a brand new breed of goats. Unnamed yet and I'm not alone in the birthing of this new goat combining a mixture of milking goats with fiber goats in the miniature form to provide us with a lovely easily managed dwarf dual purpose goat. The smaller size will make it easy to keep in urban places and the easier manageability of the goats will mean more people will be able to get involved and there is nothing like hiking with your pet goats- they love it, you love it, you all have fun, laugh and feel the infinite love of the eternal spirit in yet another one of its channels of life, and one we will never forget a hike with goats.

starting up with chickens

If you ever thought keeping a couple of backyard hens would be fun and rewarding - you are probably right. There are breeds to suit basically any situation - even an apartment if it boiled down to it!

things to first consider before you start up and choose your hens

*how much space do you have that you want them to use?

*what other individuals, animals are already present and involved?

*how much time are you going to dedicate to keeping the birds?

*what is your area's climate?

then on more personal notes

*what colour preference do you have?

*what egg colours do you wish to be collecting daily?

Hens are easy to maintain. Once trained to use their coop for safety they are easy to round up every night if they are allowed to free range- which I heavily support and eggs will be easy to collect if they feel safe in their coop to lay there constantly. By not allowing new people all the time in your coop, the birds will use it as their safe getaway and as long as it is maintained predator proof the birds will remain that way.

Bantam hens are available for small garden spaces and they are much better to maintain if you want to really keep your garden manicured and abundant. Bantams are usually the size of pigeons and more often than their standard counterparts, they come in many beautiful colour . The drawback is their small size allows more predators to target them. however, their small size allows them to be more agile and capable of flight, except in some flightless examples like silkies. Allowing them to free range very successfully on people's properties.

if you don't want a farm, you can atleast have some hens. hens do not need a rooster to lay eggs and they will practically keep themselves if you have enough space to free range them. They are also the most affordable pet you could have, the poor man's pet if you may, as they are cheap, usually the most you would pay for a rare breed is us$200 for a pair. Usually you are looking at $2- $10 a chick. Best thing is feeding chickens can be as cheap as you want it to be. Free range forage, food scraps, store bought feed, like pigs, being omnivorous they will consume a wide range of items and if you are lucky, once a day, lay you a lovely egg.

Here at the Animal refinery, I'm working with various chicken breeds to supply eggs to people in the local vicinity. Behind this guise which helps me keep the chickens fed and exercises them as the egg layers their offspring must be, and yet these are all generally considered "ornamental breeds". These "ornamental breeds" are often times primitive in build with larger wing proportions, longer legs, making them easier adapted to free range livestyles and under my observation it pays off. The breeds built this way catch more insects and range much faster and wider to search for food compared to heavier breeds like sexlinks, plymouth rocks, silkies, wyandottes - basically anything above 5lbs that cannot scale 6 ft in a single flight. I have some heavy breeds in the flock so the comparison is very obvious.

I've got 3 up and coming roosters. One Cream Brabanter, a Russian Orloff and a Minohiki/Yokohama long tail. These three are great breeds, docile, friendly beyond the normal and beautiful beyond the normal. The only one I questioned using in the program is the yokohama, but the decision was made earlier and hopefully we come out gold. He might just be the starter for the season and have one of his offspring take his place the next season. The orloff and Brabanter will be used for 2 seasons and a revision will be held for the 3rd season.

My aim is to provide mixed breed hens with genetics carrying all the fancy feather patterns so people can start flocks off from mine knowing they will get beautiful, strong and healthy birds.

I'll be concentrating on 4 major category breedings:

*dark egg layer

*green egg layer

*crested and bearded fowl

*bantam super layer

The dark egg layers will be a combination of partridge penedesencas, barnevelders breed to the russian orloff and brabanter roosters- in a ratio- one breeding to the brabanter- 2 to the Orloff.

The brabanter introduces the possibility of crests and keeps the breed light. The Orloff keeps the eggs brown and gives the lovely mahogany and white plumage that makes them stand out so much. Also added onto this project is Osa my easter egg layer who lays pink eggs. For she lends her cream and blue genes which will create outstanding colours with the Orloff.

The green egg layers will be a combination of my ameraucanas, lightening their build with the Brabanter and Yokohama and then bringing them in for more blue on the 3rd season with an Araucana rooster, which are the real blue egg layers.

The crested and bearded fowl will encompass all these, infusing black minorca bloodlines- a robust Mediterranean breed that is the largest quick on its feet breed of chicken. The hens are close to 7lbs but unlike the heavy breeds are light in build so they are formidable looking birds, big and stately and yet still light in build. Infusing their genetics for free range excellence and large eggs. Also creating birds even large hawks will not bother.

The super bantam layer is a hen targeted for the urban garden, small but large enough to produce a good little egg and productive enough to be considered for commercial use. A mix of super pretty colour patterns, mille fleur, porcelain, blue laced red, silver laced, partridge laced, golden laced and buff laced patterns will be used and bred the first season to the Yokohama and then in the second season I will have a pick of small pure bred bantams from Ideal again to pick from- golden neck d'uccle, porcelain dutch, self blue and Ameraucana bantams. So Second season will be fun to infuse the new blood.

Rooster care and management for a happy farm...

Mind you, without Roosters around, hens will do their own rendition of a rooster's crow once in awhile..... nothing loud, very funny though! Hens on their own will become very devoted to their owner treating you like their rooster following you around. The only drawback is you will have no chicks without a male around. Roosters kept by me are always boxed at night so they cannot raise up and make too loud a crow. The box is completely blacked out and this makes them often stay quiet until 9 or 10 in the morning when I open them up and feed them. After that they are allowed to start the day, court the ladies and crow to their heart is sung out. This allows people to not be woken up in the middle of the night or early morning by stray crowers. As some roosters can be quite persistent. Generally I do not tolerate roosters that are gamey- meaning, feisty and aggressive, choosing the more docile roosters less prone to pick fights and constantly mount the hens, there are variations in different birds' behaviour. So choose to breed from the rooster who crows less frequently and is less aggressive and maybe in 10 years time, roosters will not have such a bad reputation. We can make it a memory of yesterday, through our human selective breeding, being the whole basis of domestication.

Chick Care

If you are getting young chicks. Especially if you live in the United States where there is a system of sending out day old chicks from large hatcheries, then you might benefit from reading this paragraph. Observing hens raising their chicks, you will notice they often times pick food up and drop it infront of their brood. The chicks do learn from their parents what to eat and what is dangerous. As chicks often set out in their post parcels still expect a mother. We can do the best we can in providing this role, especially if you choose this road to take in acquiring your stock, then you really should give the young birds the best possible start to life.

-If possible, use a ceramic heat lamp so they are given a discernment of day and night. When newly arrived chicks come, give them water immediately and take each chick to the water source and apply with a teaspoon or dropper holding the chick with its beak to the liquid to take its first thirsty gulps. I like to add sugar or honey to the water for the first three days to help get chicks started. The extra glucose helps them forage and eat more. When the chicks have started actively foraging and eating their starter mash, introduce them to some healthy dry dirt found in a nice sunny patch in your yard. If you do not have access to outdoor foraging for your chicks, then greenfood will be essential. Keeping things interesting will be the key to stopping featherpicking and other unwanted acts. I give chicks that I have to keep indoors alfalfa cubes as a big bag for horses costs $11 and I take a couple of cubes out and soak them so they get soft and feed it to the chicks. I have never experience feather picking and other nasty behaviour by supplying growing chicks with raw or boiled egg, left over rice, left over greens, alfalfa cubes, dry earth and starter mash. The mash is given daily and all the others are rotated throughout the week.

Egg maintenance and management

If you want your hens to be happy, healthy and productive. Make sure firstly the dietary requirements are being met. I have layer pellet available to the hens throughout the day, recycle all egg shells back to the hens- they eat them right up. Of course clean water is a good idea and most importantly, a stress free environment. The hens give birth to an egg everyday! This means the body needs the nutrients to produce that egg daily and the hen becomes a slave to the needs to produce the egg for us. So she requires lots more food than a rooster or non producing hen spending her day actively foraging to find nutrients for the egg to come. Keeping people and other animals from disturbing their foraging forays is a must and if you want to always be able to collect your eggs in the coop, you must provide enticing nestboxes and not allow other people or animals to disturb too much, depending on the level of tolerance the birds have for that. You might find them trying to lay elsewhere to hide the eggs after you let a family tour your farm or garden and you got excited to show people the eggs and brought them in and showed them the hens' nests and people talking in shrill or loud voices, moving quickly and trying to move towards shyer birds will sometimes convince them its safer to nest elsewhere. I let people see the coop from the outside windows, unless the person if very quiet, and the birds seem undisturbed. If you want hens to keep laying and not go broody it is wise to collect the eggs daily. Between 6 to 12 eggs in a nest will signal a lot of broody breeds into starting a family- and you might just want more eggs to eat, so collecting them daily will keep broody hens from hitting the cycle. On the other hand, to get some hens broody- keep eggs in their nestboxes to allow them to start setting on eggs. Once they start and you see for a couple of days that they are staying put, you can switch eggs out and give them fertile eggs and they will raise chicks well. Nothing better than a mother hen raising chicks.

good luck with chickens. I enjoy them tremendously. The Russian Orloffs are one of my favourite, full of sweet personality, very sociable and friendly with all the other birds and extremely cuddly with me. The are really like cockatoos or puppies in the way they love to jump into my lap and nuzzle. The other amazing thing is they are very pretty to look at.

The crested fowl are also a love of mine, elegant lined and beautifully feathered, they really bring a touch of fine living to the any flock. For free ranging Polish/paduan hens it is best to have other breeds with less feathering around the eyes foraging with them as they cannot see well anything coming from above. The warnings of keener visioned birds will warn them and once they are warned of danger they are capable of flying so they can get away from ground predators in the event one breaks into your yard.

starting up with chickens

If you ever thought keeping a couple of backyard hens would be fun and rewarding - you are probably right. There are breeds to suit basically any situation - even an apartment if it boiled down to it!

things to first consider before you start up and choose your hens

*how much space do you have that you want them to use?

*what other individuals, animals are already present and involved?

*how much time are you going to dedicate to keeping the birds?

*what is your area's climate?

then on more personal notes

*what colour preference do you have?

*what egg colours do you wish to be collecting daily?

Hens are easy to maintain. Once trained to use their coop for safety they are easy to round up every night if they are allowed to free range- which I heavily support and eggs will be easy to collect if they feel safe in their coop to lay there constantly. By not allowing new people all the time in your coop, the birds will use it as their safe getaway and as long as it is maintained predator proof the birds will remain that way.

Bantam hens are available for small garden spaces and they are much better to maintain if you want to really keep your garden manicured and abundant. Bantams are usually the size of pigeons and more often than their standard counterparts, they come in many beautiful colour . The drawback is their small size allows more predators to target them. however, their small size allows them to be more agile and capable of flight, except in some flightless examples like silkies. Allowing them to free range very successfully on people's properties.

if you don't want a farm, you can atleast have some hens. hens do not need a rooster to lay eggs and they will practically keep themselves if you have enough space to free range them. They are also the most affordable pet you could have, the poor man's pet if you may, as they are cheap, usually the most you would pay for a rare breed is us$200 for a pair. Usually you are looking at $2- $10 a chick. Best thing is feeding chickens can be as cheap as you want it to be. Free range forage, food scraps, store bought feed, like pigs, being omnivorous they will consume a wide range of items and if you are lucky, once a day, lay you a lovely egg.

Here at the Animal refinery, I'm working with various chicken breeds to supply eggs to people in the local vicinity. Behind this guise which helps me keep the chickens fed and exercises them as the egg layers their offspring must be, and yet these are all generally considered "ornamental breeds". These "ornamental breeds" are often times primitive in build with larger wing proportions, longer legs, making them easier adapted to free range livestyles and under my observation it pays off. The breeds built this way catch more insects and range much faster and wider to search for food compared to heavier breeds like sexlinks, plymouth rocks, silkies, wyandottes - basically anything above 5lbs that cannot scale 6 ft in a single flight. I have some heavy breeds in the flock so the comparison is very obvious.

I've got 3 up and coming roosters. One Cream Brabanter, a Russian Orloff and a Minohiki/Yokohama long tail. These three are great breeds, docile, friendly beyond the normal and beautiful beyond the normal. The only one I questioned using in the program is the yokohama, but the decision was made earlier and hopefully we come out gold. He might just be the starter for the season and have one of his offspring take his place the next season. The orloff and Brabanter will be used for 2 seasons and a revision will be held for the 3rd season.

My aim is to provide mixed breed hens with genetics carrying all the fancy feather patterns so people can start flocks off from mine knowing they will get beautiful, strong and healthy birds.

I'll be concentrating on 4 major category breedings:

*dark egg layer

*green egg layer

*crested and bearded fowl

*bantam super layer

The dark egg layers will be a combination of partridge penedesencas, barnevelders breed to the russian orloff and brabanter roosters- in a ratio- one breeding to the brabanter- 2 to the Orloff.

The brabanter introduces the possibility of crests and keeps the breed light. The Orloff keeps the eggs brown and gives the lovely mahogany and white plumage that makes them stand out so much. Also added onto this project is Osa my easter egg layer who lays pink eggs. For she lends her cream and blue genes which will create outstanding colours with the Orloff.

The green egg layers will be a combination of my ameraucanas, lightening their build with the Brabanter and Yokohama and then bringing them in for more blue on the 3rd season with an Araucana rooster, which are the real blue egg layers.

The crested and bearded fowl will encompass all these, infusing black minorca bloodlines- a robust Mediterranean breed that is the largest quick on its feet breed of chicken. The hens are close to 7lbs but unlike the heavy breeds are light in build so they are formidable looking birds, big and stately and yet still light in build. Infusing their genetics for free range excellence and large eggs. Also creating birds even large hawks will not bother.

The super bantam layer is a hen targeted for the urban garden, small but large enough to produce a good little egg and productive enough to be considered for commercial use. A mix of super pretty colour patterns, mille fleur, porcelain, blue laced red, silver laced, partridge laced, golden laced and buff laced patterns will be used and bred the first season to the Yokohama and then in the second season I will have a pick of small pure bred bantams from Ideal again to pick from- golden neck d'uccle, porcelain dutch, self blue and Ameraucana bantams. So Second season will be fun to infuse the new blood.

Rooster care and management for a happy farm...

Mind you, without Roosters around, hens will do their own rendition of a rooster's crow once in awhile..... nothing loud, very funny though! Hens on their own will become very devoted to their owner treating you like their rooster following you around. The only drawback is you will have no chicks without a male around. Roosters kept by me are always boxed at night so they cannot raise up and make too loud a crow. The box is completely blacked out and this makes them often stay quiet until 9 or 10 in the morning when I open them up and feed them. After that they are allowed to start the day, court the ladies and crow to their heart is sung out. This allows people to not be woken up in the middle of the night or early morning by stray crowers. As some roosters can be quite persistent. Generally I do not tolerate roosters that are gamey- meaning, feisty and aggressive, choosing the more docile roosters less prone to pick fights and constantly mount the hens, there are variations in different birds' behaviour. So choose to breed from the rooster who crows less frequently and is less aggressive and maybe in 10 years time, roosters will not have such a bad reputation. We can make it a memory of yesterday, through our human selective breeding, being the whole basis of domestication.

Chick Care

If you are getting young chicks. Especially if you live in the United States where there is a system of sending out day old chicks from large hatcheries, then you might benefit from reading this paragraph. Observing hens raising their chicks, you will notice they often times pick food up and drop it infront of their brood. The chicks do learn from their parents what to eat and what is dangerous. As chicks often set out in their post parcels still expect a mother. We can do the best we can in providing this role, especially if you choose this road to take in acquiring your stock, then you really should give the young birds the best possible start to life.

-If possible, use a ceramic heat lamp so they are given a discernment of day and night. When newly arrived chicks come, give them water immediately and take each chick to the water source and apply with a teaspoon or dropper holding the chick with its beak to the liquid to take its first thirsty gulps. I like to add sugar or honey to the water for the first three days to help get chicks started. The extra glucose helps them forage and eat more. When the chicks have started actively foraging and eating their starter mash, introduce them to some healthy dry dirt found in a nice sunny patch in your yard. If you do not have access to outdoor foraging for your chicks, then greenfood will be essential. Keeping things interesting will be the key to stopping featherpicking and other unwanted acts. I give chicks that I have to keep indoors alfalfa cubes as a big bag for horses costs $11 and I take a couple of cubes out and soak them so they get soft and feed it to the chicks. I have never experience feather picking and other nasty behaviour by supplying growing chicks with raw or boiled egg, left over rice, left over greens, alfalfa cubes, dry earth and starter mash. The mash is given daily and all the others are rotated throughout the week.

Egg maintenance and management

If you want your hens to be happy, healthy and productive. Make sure firstly the dietary requirements are being met. I have layer pellet available to the hens throughout the day, recycle all egg shells back to the hens- they eat them right up. Of course clean water is a good idea and most importantly, a stress free environment. The hens give birth to an egg everyday! This means the body needs the nutrients to produce that egg daily and the hen becomes a slave to the needs to produce the egg for us. So she requires lots more food than a rooster or non producing hen spending her day actively foraging to find nutrients for the egg to come. Keeping people and other animals from disturbing their foraging forays is a must and if you want to always be able to collect your eggs in the coop, you must provide enticing nestboxes and not allow other people or animals to disturb too much, depending on the level of tolerance the birds have for that. You might find them trying to lay elsewhere to hide the eggs after you let a family tour your farm or garden and you got excited to show people the eggs and brought them in and showed them the hens' nests and people talking in shrill or loud voices, moving quickly and trying to move towards shyer birds will sometimes convince them its safer to nest elsewhere. I let people see the coop from the outside windows, unless the person if very quiet, and the birds seem undisturbed. If you want hens to keep laying and not go broody it is wise to collect the eggs daily. Between 6 to 12 eggs in a nest will signal a lot of broody breeds into starting a family- and you might just want more eggs to eat, so collecting them daily will keep broody hens from hitting the cycle. On the other hand, to get some hens broody- keep eggs in their nestboxes to allow them to start setting on eggs. Once they start and you see for a couple of days that they are staying put, you can switch eggs out and give them fertile eggs and they will raise chicks well. Nothing better than a mother hen raising chicks.

good luck with chickens. I enjoy them tremendously. The Russian Orloffs are one of my favourite, full of sweet personality, very sociable and friendly with all the other birds and extremely cuddly with me. The are really like cockatoos or puppies in the way they love to jump into my lap and nuzzle. The other amazing thing is they are very pretty to look at.

The crested fowl are also a love of mine, elegant lined and beautifully feathered, they really bring a touch of fine living to the any flock. For free ranging Polish/paduan hens it is best to have other breeds with less feathering around the eyes foraging with them as they cannot see well anything coming from above. The warnings of keener visioned birds will warn them and once they are warned of danger they are capable of flying so they can get away from ground predators in the event one breaks into your yard.

All together now

Captain Crook- ameraucana hen with crooked beak, from our first batch of chicks. She can't eat so well with her beak but she's done pretty well so far! The dogs with a little visitor friend.

Days have been rolling by and I woke up this morning thinking it was Sunday but its actually monday and I had a bunch of emails to wake up to this morning regarding things I need to get my ass onto this week. I've been working pretty long days with the animals being integrated, property repairs and getting an online gallery for my artwork going- so photography sessions in the evening, with extra lighting and then computer editing and formating- all stuff I'm no expert at, so its all around, an OK job I'm doing- it'll get the point across.... kind of like my handyman workmanship around the property- I'm no expert buts its ok- it gets the job done. The money I've spent having other people build the initial housing for the animals has already seen its wear and tear...... so after I got over the sickened feeling of having people not give me their best and take all the money I had for those projects, I started collecting the scrap pieces of wood and fencing around the garden and fixing all the damage the goats, sheep and horses have done in the barn. Also had a new poultry barn door built by my friend, but he made a really disfunctional door locker, that only works from the outside- you cannot close it from the inside, but he put in fancy windows on it for added ventilation in the summer months- well the horses broke the door lock off in a day and the fancy window fell off on its own, so I had to take the latches off the gates for the pastures- workmen had bent them out of shape and sheepishly left them there- so I had to hammer them back straight and unscrew them to change the door up.... to end this story short the door functions but still needs a cinder block on one side in order for it to remain shut securely - so no horses or goats can break in............ I long for sacred geometry in my buildings ...... this just sucks, I couldn't get the drill to get these last two screws in- damaged 4 screws before I gave up with one of them stuck in the door still..... things like that make me so mad its crazy. The window I screwed back on- it had only been stapled in......... so of course it popped out in a month....... so its been pretty tiring getting these boring things taken care of aswell as having to keep an eagle on on the farm during this important integration time.

I found a postcard my mum wrote to me as a child- and part of it wrote- hope you are eating and gaining weight. Somethings never change, I'm almost 6ft tall now and I weigh 136lbs... Most food does not interest me too much that I keep around and I realize if I don't start stocking the pantry with foods I look forward to eating and keep myself fed - this aint going to work...

While there still is lots of talk of all the things to come here, everyday I have to decide what to prioritize to get done here. Its been really on going......

one thing I've been doing is shepherding the animals around the property to retrain them to graze more. Otherwise they wait around for grains and hay and chew on the house to get me to come out and feed them, or chew on the poultry barn door because they know sweet feed is in there.... so letting them out every morning and spending a good hour just walking the property slowly to let the grazers to do their thing, I find a trail of animals following me slowly- dogs, sheep, cows, goats and horses. When I'm not around Flossy will still chase the cows away. I've been talking about getting something arranged to have horse feed closer to where I feed the horses away from the other animals by the house. And god damn it I haven't done it yet - two days ago while walking with sweet feed to feed the two mares and of course feeding time is an absolutely freezy..... imagine telling horses, cows, goats, sheep and poultry to sit and wait....... they go nuts when they see anything regarding getting extra grains- the sheep alone can sometimes knock you over for grain so this time round Flossy ran infront of me and in a quick flash bucked in excitement and kicked my stomach and my right hand. Luckily I do not shoe my horses, the metal shoes would have done a lot of damage especially to my right hand. Thankfully the alien-ness that people talk about me having seems to carry an immortal gene - no bruises, no injury to me... I did chase Flossy around the entire 5 acres, flying kicked her twice on her big butt and hurled the feed scoop at her. She is a very stubborn and fearless horse and is hardly affected by it all- which is why she needs it , now I have a little more respect from her.... Paikea does not need any disciplining like this, she is so gentle and settles in so easily with all the new animals. But she is also just as inquisitive and the two of them are always first to see what I'm doing. So right now while I type outdoors in the hammock the two of them were first up to come check it out and try to play with it- pushing me like someone making you swing... but them they start trying to pull the hammock off, take my computer, bang each other around right next to me- so I told them to leave and like big children the went over to disturb Harold and Yusin the two goats, who were nestled in a little spot nearby me. So the goats left, followed by the horses and i was left to type here with only the dogs- Sam playing with a stick with Ophelia and Benji chews on Moonie like she's a giant chew toy- irritates the hell out of me because he makes me so much more work in terms of grooming out knots from her hair but atleast he's not disturbing me- he's a rescue dog and very intelligent but needy so it can get tiring, basic dog psychology doesn't work with Benji. he has finally started eating outside though without me which is really good. He was too scared too before and you'd have to sit by him. For a week i used the time to meditate- sitting amongst chomping dry dog food, thinking about manifesting more madness.......in lotus position, different mudras, bound lotus- oh benji just eaattt your fucking food already!-, so today the fact he ate outside with the other dogs- without me is amazing. Moonie mistook the two goats from a distance as strangers and started barking and ran right over to them. As she was running over she realized they were our dear friends and pretended there was still something dangerous around them,so she shut up but sniffed the area carefully and looked at me to see if i was watching- I quickly looked away and just walked off like an asshole- strange watching animals and know what they are thinking all the time. They are just like people.

The two cows and one of my ducks are sitting near me now, the dogs are coming and going. The cows seek out my presence and when I'm in the house they will rest near the house like the other small animals, which is really cute to see. Sometimes they get spooked and start running- fast and like the horses kick their heels up and all the smaller animals get out of the way. They are definitely intelligent creatures and thrive on human and interspecies interaction. They are inquitive too and the first day the hammock came up, you should have seen all the animals coming up to see what this is all about. They are all so so endearing.

The youngest batch of chicks are now completely feathered and the size of small bantams. They have started to explore the outdoors a little, following me nervously to the wooded patches. Second time around they started playing, flying all over the place, play fighting and coming over to me for cuddles inbetween- yes my baby chicks come up for cuddles, it is the cutest thing when the little juveniles come up and push their bodies into me for a cuddle. The little minorcas, brabanters and russian orloffs just might be my favourite breeds, they are such sweethearts. The minorcas are jetblack and big wily birds. They will be good hawk deterrents. This morning a small hawk came by. The birds must've known as I was inside still but I had opened up the door to let the babies out and I saw this hawk swoop at an adult hen by the front door of the house but as it was a smaller hawk, so she defended herself and saw it off. It alighted in a pine tree and waited. I brought the dogs out and went to check out the scenario. All the babies were in the coop along with the majority of the hens and all the bantams. They weren't risking it! When they saw me they all looked very relieved and came back outside to forage. Good having smart birds.

Its so awful to think what our modern day livestock go through now. And its so awful to see what people go through today aswell.... I believe the knowledge is inherent in our hands to be farmers tending some livestock and some plants- knowing them all individually, bringing in the higher consciousness, of a life that can be lived not depleting the planet's life force. Unfortunately modern man is a huge depletion on the planet's energy because we are not "awake" to the full reality of the cosmos. How can you function properly when one knows so little about the immediate environment around them. Do you know the plants you can eat and cannot in your environment? Do you know what animals use the same streets and paths and land you do? See indigenous peoples grow up being taught about all the creatures and plants around them and the way THEIR universe works, so they live as one breathing organism with their loved habitat. Somewhere along the lines, we've gone off track in our quest for more wealth and power. But this does seem to be nature's evolution. Also in the evolutionary cycles of life, is change- its coming folks and you better wake up to the reality of the life around you, if you are to become part of life on this amazing wondrous planet and be vibrant. When you are awake and talk to nature, you'll find a language available for dialogue in the subtle body for one to communicate with the bigger picture -"god" You'll find space in your body and each breathe will taste new and you will feel deeper, your connection to the rest of the planet and know you share the same dna that makes us human, makes all the other animals and physical manifestations on the planet, we are all the same, brothers and sisters. Equals for god's love.

Definitely equal for god's love is the goat..... the one wily creature who will live where no other animal will and eat what no other animal will eat. Goats are lovely creatures, reverting back to feral states with remarkable ease but at the same time when in relationship with man, they demand a relationship! Few animals love as strongly as a goat does. They hate being contained, infact Harold my buck will find his way out of any pasture to be by my side. Goat behaviour has been challenging. yusin my little inbred nigerian dwarf doe is tiny , looks like she will be the smallest in the flock. She's not too happy about the new does, she cares more for me and harold. harold of course loves new women but he introduced himself shyly first which was really cute to watch. I have to tie him up when visitors come onto the farm though because he'll start harassing the does more probably because he thinks someone might challenge him for his harem. I challenged him for his harem and won so he respects me and when I tell him "no" he listens like a dog. But when new people come, he's impossible, so its best just to put him on a leash when visitors come. He's a little pest, if he can't follow me around then he'll go hang out with the horses, and they look like the odd herd- two light coloured horses with a little white buck with floppy ears and a waggy tail next to them. So with my farming practices- Harold runs free with the flock of does- most people keep bucks separate, for a number of reasons. In the wild, bucks have their harem. I know some forest tribes that don't allow the women to sleep at night with the men even when they are married...... but I know those men sit there and think about their wives at night. In winter Harold was a real pain, and he had to be leashed to an area so Yusin could escape his advances but still come in at night to close up the barn and find them snuggled together for warmth. There is something really nice about waking up with a partner- not alone. I feel strongly the animals feel the same way and for them to always have company is very important. harold for the most part though, has a second love - that is me, he tries to court me when he can and has to be tied up when anyone is around mainly because he cannot stand seeing anyone even near me- he has to stand between us and headbutt you if you get too close to me! But like I said, alone he's very enjoyable not disturbing me- only to come gently lay down next to me when I'm reading in the garden- him and Yusin- she tries to hop in my lap. Goats are very very emotional creatures- do not get them if you do not plan to really get involved!

Stick to icelandic sheep if you want something less intense, they are still inquisitive but not as ridiculous as the goats, this month the farm expects two ewes to lamb- so its an exciting month! Primitive sheep are very athletic and you best be their friend- good thing is they are pigs and love treats so a line of friendship is easily run here and they soon recognize and will trust their owners whilst remaining wary of strangers somewhat. No one can touch the sheep outside though one ewe loves for me to pet her- you can't get near them- unlike the goats they'll run up to say hello to everyone. Well I better get to some planting and barn mucking. Its lovely weather for it today - 76'F.

how now brown cow?

These are our two new heifers, Rosaleen and Catriona- Irish names for the girls, as it was the wish of their breeder- Pam Malcuit. Rosaleen the bigger and older of the two went to the Houston Livestock Show and won 5 or 6th place, and the next week after that, her and Catriona who was down in a breeding pasture, were brought up the cold mountain(yes the movie was referring to this area) to Our magical place. Just behind those trees in the picture with the cows is biltmore park, where full civilisation is- movie theatre, restaurants, ymca, barns and nobles and the lot, so its quite surreal to have all of this here and that just o v e r there.....

We led the two of them out on the 3rd day I think it was... I had Andrew hold the older trained heifer and I had the wild baby - Catriona - who took a little while to catch..... but then Rosaline started flailing her head around and stepped on Andrew's foot...... so I decided to switch- and have Andrew hold the baby Cat and have me lead Rosaline- who wanted to graze and Cat was scared and needed to be as close as possible to Rosas. So we walked them around the lower pasture and then led them back up and gave them their grain. I don't know what is so good about grain but I love it too- pastries, breads, cakes- life without grains would be dull. Right now Flossy has been observed checking them out on the other side of the fence when I let them out to kick their heels up and she darts at them even with the fence between them to chase them off. And of course they run because they are babies. Sometimes I really want to slap that horse around, she's such a pukebrain. So it will be a while before i let them intermingle- need to see the calves more alert and strong- Catriona seems to have weakly hindlegs so some running around will do her good. They are so sweet, and so ancient looking and sounding, the long tails are lion like. And their moo, does bellow loudly and the big wet nose isn't like any of the other animals I keep. They seem to be bonding nicely to us. So next year, we'll enjoy their lovely milk- smaller fat molecules allow for easier digestion - supposedly- so lets see if we fart less- cheese fitz

new goats

On saturday march 27th, a trailer arrived at 10 thistledew lane with 4 doeling goats and 2 heifers. The goats are adorable! Twin nigerian dwarf mixed pygora sisters and two pygora doelings, one white and one champagne, both with wonderful fleece possibly even better than harold's so the combination of this flock should yield some amazing fleeces and milk. They are all so precious. No animal can make me as mad as a goat, but no animal is as endearing. You have to take both sides and take the anger with a pinch of salt- they are not going to change for no one! So we love them as they are. Right now I might be the only one who loves Harold= he's just so much buck...... the testosterone is overwhelming at times and I'm wondering what to do with him. He can get out of every pasture and every stall except the ones in the poultry barn that has chicken netting to the ceiling......... yeah he's the best at getting out, opening doors, opening trash cans and feed bins- they all have to be kept away from him. So lets see what happens with this one. For now we're trying to keep him off the does and let them grow a little more before he starts impregnating them.

horsing around

Paikea and Flossy often sleep under our bedroom window and I can come and lay with them. It is a beautiful thing when horses are so trusting and loving.

Their roundpen came today so I have to set it up and order sand to fill it with, then I can start training the two of them. In my drawings as a child, I drew horses being ridden in bitless bridles- that looked like regular english snaffles without the bit part. Well low and behold! Someone - a doctor has designed just such a thing. A english bitless bridle that applies pressure evenly over the entire head, no more sore mouths and more control with less pain. I am so happy! So my lovely ladies have freedom, bitless bridles, barefoot hoof trimming to simulate wild mustangs and the love put into them really shows, as you can see in the picture above. They are just so happy. Esp from what horses have to go thru living in southern california. Paikea is close to 17hh now and Flossy is atleast 15hh, so they are both ideal sizes for carrying many different riders on their backs. Lets see what type of riding horses they turn out to be..... some horses are really one person horses, like my first horse, he wasn't to be trusted with anyone new, so we have to just see how each individual comes along in life don't we. We'll see what these two get into SOON ENOUGH!