Beaman's Fork Farm Blog

Our original plan (with our vet) was to wait until this fall to test Snow for Cushing's Disease because the test would be more accurate. However, despite the diet change, supplements, restricted pasture access and constant monitoring, Snow has continued to have Cushing-type symptom issues, including increased hoof tenderness. (If you're jumping in now and don't know the back story, we found our 30+ yr old miniature horse Snow having a seizure in her stall in July. You can read about it here.) We have been consulting constantly with our vet through the whole ordeal and we made the joint decision that we should go ahead and test her as soon as possible as well as x-ray her hooves to look for the beginnings of any rotation. Of course we have Hurricane Hermine moving in on us, but Dr. White was determined to get this done sooner rather than later so we can start treating her with the medication she needs if she is positive. [caption id="attachment_2071" align="al...

This past Saturday was going like any other -- I had just gotten home from selling soap at the local farmers market, my car full of the stock I brought back with me, I was a hot and sweaty mess, and ready to relax. It had been a busy week and an equally as busy market day and I had been looking forward to putting my aching feet up for a couple of hours of quiet time. I got out of my car and before I went inside the house, I remembered that the horses were in their stalls because severe storms had been threatening to blow through, but the weather was clearing and they could safely go out and stretch their legs for a few hours. I walked down the long aisle way of the barn to the stalls in the back where Pebbles was sticking her head over the gate watching me and quiet rustling noises were coming from Snow's stall. And that's when I saw it. Snow, our miniature mare, was facing the back of her stall, wobbling on her back end, and jerking her head rhythmically up in the air, almost ...

Well hello, World! Long time. Yeah, I know. Hush . I would start off by saying that it has been a busy couple of months, but I honestly think that is always the case in some form. If it isn't bad weather, it's preparing for upcoming weather. If it isn't dealing with current animal issues, it's preventing future animal issues. If it isn't me drowning in a list of hundreds of pounds of soap I need to make THIS WEEK, it's cleaning up from making all of that soap last week. It is, as we all say on our farms, what it is. But honestly, no one... and I mean no one... signs up for farm life because they want to be bored. After recovering from the mudfest we had thanks to days upon days of torrential downpours in early October, The Boy and I set off for a rare and much needed mini-vacation away from the farm. Probably more so for my sanity than his, because it had been well over 18 months since I had spent a single night away. He travels some for work. Me, not so much. ...

Like many people with livestock, this time of year is crunch time for hay supplies. Our goats wasted more hay this winter than we had planned for (a problem that we have since fixed, and will continue to improve upon this summer) so our hay supply has been running short. Our regular local grower is sold out, like most places, but I was able to get a lead on ten bales from another source so I set out early this morning and claimed it. This definitely takes a stress off of me and should get us through until spring. Now I can take a deep breath and turn my attention back to the anticipation of goats kidding soon. We pasture bred all of the does this year so we don't have exact due dates, just estimates, but we are pretty sure Abbie (pictured) and Molly are ramping up to kid soon. Abbie is definitely ready to go soon so we are keeping a sharp eye on her right now. I think Greta and Sage both have a little ways to go.

We recently installed heated water buckets in the barn, one in each stall for the horses and one for the goats. I probably should have done this years ago but I think I've finally had enough of busting ice in the morning only to have it refreeze a couple hours later. The buckets have cords, so you have to put some thought into where you are going to hang them. The cords are wrapped in a protective metal spring to deter chewing, but especially with goats, the cords need to be completely out of sight of them. I don't trust their wandering mouths. I placed the goat bucket pretty much on the ground (still attached to the wall by a bracket) so that it is low enough for the chickens to access it also if needed. They frequently come in the goat stall for water, especially if all of their drip waterers are frozen. The cord goes through the slats in the wall so they can't reach it. I also put a bungee cord around the bucket to keep them from moving it at all (and possibly exposing...

I've been putting off a much needed barn improvement project for a while in hopes of catching the necessary materials on sale. Specifically, high grade rubber mats for the stalls and aisle way. The heavy stall mats I needed finally went on sale today so Seife & I headed into town. We will need to remove the old mats in the stalls and do some leveling of the clay floor before we put the new ones in place, as well as have some sand brought in to raise the floor level in the aisle way because we occasionally have flooding problems when it rains a lot. Project benefits: Reduce bedding costs (which are at an all time high) because rubber mats keep the bedding from being ground into the dirt/clay floor. Reduce flooding problems by allowing us to raise the floor level and then protect it with the mats Reduce dust issues... our barn is very, very old and the aisle way is made up of very, very old fine dusty dirt that gets on everything. This will also help keep our milking stat...