Stuart and Gabrielle write a lovely post on their blog about their beginning adventures with goats. I was particularly interested as we've also been thinking about acquiring a couple of goats, and I know too little about them. I left a small comment on their blog, asking them to follow-up, and mentioning some of my own musings on Matters Goaty.
With no warning, all of my questions were answered1 in depth, breadth and heighth, to a degree unexpected on a blog's comments, by Val Grainger (who has immediately been added to my reading-list!) Stuff worthy of an entire article in its own right.
If there's anything you want to know about keeping goats on a tether, go and read it there -- there's no point in me regurgitating it here; I could only detract from Val's exposition.
But, to (briefly) address some of the gotchas mention by Val, in thinking about tethering, I have only ever considered a running tether to make sure that the animal have a sufficiently large area to roam. The other possible solution for confining them is an electric fence -- a solution that has worked well for me with horses and cows. For goats, though, I will have to get better poles for supporting the electric fence...
----
[1] Well... all my questions about Goat Tethering, anyway.
21 February 2008
12 January 2008
Animal Farm
Small apology to the shade of George Orwell
Stonehead hits the nail on the head with his characteristic pragmatism, asking "Should you keep chickens?" and trying to inject a note of realism into what look set to become a new fashion wave in the UK.
We've seen too many people, over the years, acquiring various animals simply as Wandering Lawn Ornaments. Sometimes in appalling ignorance of the animals' needs, and with predictably disastrous consequences.
One neighbour acquired a small calf: The idea of a cow wandering about the place, peacefully mowing the lawn, painted a pastoral watercolour in his city-habituated imagination... The calf was very young, and still needed milk supplements. A few days later it was dead from starvation.
Another neighbour has a partner who "loves animals" and can't help herself acquiring ever more. Fortunately she is quite clued-up on their care and keeping, but cannot bring herself to control the inevitable population-bomb, nor will she allow anyone else to do it for her, being too distressed by the thoughts of somebody eating her beloved animals. So they have several-dozen Guinea Fowl (which happily escape into the wild when their numbers become too great,) 3 or 4 horses, unknown numbers of ducks, geese and chickens, two goats, a couple of dogs, and one vastly-overweight Pig. All simply as "pets". The feed bill each month is staggering. And he is kept pretty busy building and maintaining animal housing and enclosures. Oh! In fairness, they do milk the goats and eat some eggs.
All this is apropos, as I am thinking of acquiring some more animals to help around here.
I have in mind a couple of goats to help manage the rank, weedy grass-bramble-and-alien-tree infestations in various parts of the farm, to be followed by a couple of pigs to clean the soil of roots and weed tubers as a prelude to a planting of grains or beans, then following-up with fodder crops again to close the circle and bring the animals round again for the next cycle. Fortunately a neighbourhood friend (as opposed to a mere "neighbour") has great experience with goats, and has been considering getting a small herd for herself again, so we'll probably try and find some way to work together on that, pooling our knowledge, resources and energy. Another local farmer keeps a herd of pigs as part of his (commercial) farming, so I have a local source of expertise (and animals.) I freely confess my ignorance of both goats' and pigs' habits and needs, but will make sure I cure that deficiency before taking any concrete steps in this.
Then, too, I'm thinking about adding a couple of sheep to keep the grass around the houses under control...
One of the catches in this Grand Scheme is that we are "mostly-vegetarians". We still eat some poultry and seafood, but not Pork/Beef/Mutton -- mainly because we feel physically better than if we ate as much meat as most people. So what to do with a healthy, growing population of various animals? I could just sell them on to a local butcher, but frankly I don't trust the man's methods, animal-handling practices nor hygiene. This is probably the single biggest problem for me to solve before acquiring more animals. I will not abdicate the responsibility for closing the circle.
A local friend, Don, made the comment (having kept goats himself) that animals tie you down a lot. You can't just pack up, lock the door and go on holiday -- or even out for an evening -- without making provision for the animals to be fed, watered, shut-in at night, checked for accidents,... But then that's true already with our Chickens and Dogs. Not to mention the delights of cleaning the Chook House in the pissing rain.
I do have one nit to pick with Stoney's post, though: "Chickens are not dumb"? What other animal, upon laying an egg, spends the next half-hour announcing the availability of fresh food to every predator in the neighbourhood? I'm often led to wonder how the hell the species has survived this long!
Stonehead hits the nail on the head with his characteristic pragmatism, asking "Should you keep chickens?" and trying to inject a note of realism into what look set to become a new fashion wave in the UK.
We've seen too many people, over the years, acquiring various animals simply as Wandering Lawn Ornaments. Sometimes in appalling ignorance of the animals' needs, and with predictably disastrous consequences.
One neighbour acquired a small calf: The idea of a cow wandering about the place, peacefully mowing the lawn, painted a pastoral watercolour in his city-habituated imagination... The calf was very young, and still needed milk supplements. A few days later it was dead from starvation.
Another neighbour has a partner who "loves animals" and can't help herself acquiring ever more. Fortunately she is quite clued-up on their care and keeping, but cannot bring herself to control the inevitable population-bomb, nor will she allow anyone else to do it for her, being too distressed by the thoughts of somebody eating her beloved animals. So they have several-dozen Guinea Fowl (which happily escape into the wild when their numbers become too great,) 3 or 4 horses, unknown numbers of ducks, geese and chickens, two goats, a couple of dogs, and one vastly-overweight Pig. All simply as "pets". The feed bill each month is staggering. And he is kept pretty busy building and maintaining animal housing and enclosures. Oh! In fairness, they do milk the goats and eat some eggs.
All this is apropos, as I am thinking of acquiring some more animals to help around here.
I have in mind a couple of goats to help manage the rank, weedy grass-bramble-and-alien-tree infestations in various parts of the farm, to be followed by a couple of pigs to clean the soil of roots and weed tubers as a prelude to a planting of grains or beans, then following-up with fodder crops again to close the circle and bring the animals round again for the next cycle. Fortunately a neighbourhood friend (as opposed to a mere "neighbour") has great experience with goats, and has been considering getting a small herd for herself again, so we'll probably try and find some way to work together on that, pooling our knowledge, resources and energy. Another local farmer keeps a herd of pigs as part of his (commercial) farming, so I have a local source of expertise (and animals.) I freely confess my ignorance of both goats' and pigs' habits and needs, but will make sure I cure that deficiency before taking any concrete steps in this.
Then, too, I'm thinking about adding a couple of sheep to keep the grass around the houses under control...
One of the catches in this Grand Scheme is that we are "mostly-vegetarians". We still eat some poultry and seafood, but not Pork/Beef/Mutton -- mainly because we feel physically better than if we ate as much meat as most people. So what to do with a healthy, growing population of various animals? I could just sell them on to a local butcher, but frankly I don't trust the man's methods, animal-handling practices nor hygiene. This is probably the single biggest problem for me to solve before acquiring more animals. I will not abdicate the responsibility for closing the circle.
A local friend, Don, made the comment (having kept goats himself) that animals tie you down a lot. You can't just pack up, lock the door and go on holiday -- or even out for an evening -- without making provision for the animals to be fed, watered, shut-in at night, checked for accidents,... But then that's true already with our Chickens and Dogs. Not to mention the delights of cleaning the Chook House in the pissing rain.
I do have one nit to pick with Stoney's post, though: "Chickens are not dumb"? What other animal, upon laying an egg, spends the next half-hour announcing the availability of fresh food to every predator in the neighbourhood? I'm often led to wonder how the hell the species has survived this long!
19 December 2007
Best Laid Plans, Plins, Plons, Ploons
So the Summer garden is suffering badly from neglect, the brewing project is going much, much slower than desired, and I've left this blog alone for far too long. In part I can blame the weather: its been quite wet so far this season. Not that we're complaining about having plenty of water...
After the very early start this Spring, everything ran to a standstill for quite a while. I thought perhaps it was just me doing something odd, but after a couple of other local gardeners made similar comments I have to conclude that there's been something odd going on with the weather.
But the excuses aside! I've been hacking away in front of a computer. I landed some paying development work, and decided to take it on in the interests of Earning Money -- something of a novelty after almost three years of Living By Our Wits! There are a few things I'd like to do that will benefit from some cash injection from the Evil Empire... solar panels, (electrical ones -- we're already more-than-well set up with hot water panels!) paying for Dale's University Sojourns, (so far he's doing it in far better time than I did, so I'm not in a position to criticise!) fixing the Rotovator so that I can nail the Kikuyu and get going with grains, wire bins for more compost heaps, plus some for mushrooms, a wood stove... there's A List.
We've been reaping the benefit of earlier work -- scapes and giant "Garlic", beautiful Cabbages and Kohlrabi, beans ready to be harvested for drying,... but some of the harvest is certainly going to take a knock!
Oh well, Needle, Nardle, Noo, and on we Goo...
After the very early start this Spring, everything ran to a standstill for quite a while. I thought perhaps it was just me doing something odd, but after a couple of other local gardeners made similar comments I have to conclude that there's been something odd going on with the weather.
But the excuses aside! I've been hacking away in front of a computer. I landed some paying development work, and decided to take it on in the interests of Earning Money -- something of a novelty after almost three years of Living By Our Wits! There are a few things I'd like to do that will benefit from some cash injection from the Evil Empire... solar panels, (electrical ones -- we're already more-than-well set up with hot water panels!) paying for Dale's University Sojourns, (so far he's doing it in far better time than I did, so I'm not in a position to criticise!) fixing the Rotovator so that I can nail the Kikuyu and get going with grains, wire bins for more compost heaps, plus some for mushrooms, a wood stove... there's A List.
We've been reaping the benefit of earlier work -- scapes and giant "Garlic", beautiful Cabbages and Kohlrabi, beans ready to be harvested for drying,... but some of the harvest is certainly going to take a knock!
Oh well, Needle, Nardle, Noo, and on we Goo...
27 November 2007
Storming-up a Brew
For a while, now, I've been planning to start brewing beer again, as I did until some years ago. Remember that one of our self-sufficiency goals is Pizza dinner made completely from self-produced ingredients, baked in a self-built oven. And a critical part of any self-respecting Pizza dinner has to be the beer!
As ever, the challenge is in getting all the ingredients and equipment needed. Despite homebrewing being quite popular in SA, it is not like more civilized parts of the world where there are plenty of homebrew shops that can supply the necessary. The tiny handful of suppliers that exist are hard-to-find, carry very limited ranges of ingredients, and are generally not very useful.
Last weekThe week before last I drove down to Gansbaai to rescue pick up J from a visit to her parents. The drive down takes about 5 hours, and the route takes one through the country's breadbasket. Vast tracts, kilometre upon kilometre of rolling grainlands, as far as the eye can see for hour upon hour upon hour whilst traveling at 120km/h.
It is the harvest season. The road was fraught with grain trucks carting the harvest to silos. Wheat, barley, wheat, oats, wheat,canola rapeseed, wheat, rye. And, of course, wheat.
I made a stop in Swellendam, to buy some stone-ground whole flour for breadmaking; there is an old watermill at the local museum where they mill a small quantity of wheat every week. Swellendam is also in the very heart of Grain Country, and sports a very large grain-storage facility. As I drove out of town, at least 3-dozen grain trucks were lined up at the silos to offload their precious harvest. It's been a nerve-wracking time for the farmers. Millions of Rands tied up in getting the seed into the ground. Less than perfect rainfall during the growing season, and too much rain a mere fortnight before the harvest. But at last the harvest is in, safely stored in a silo. The nation eats.
I detoured off the usual route to Gansbaai, travelling via Caledon -- another major grain-handling town about an hour-and-a-half from Cape Town. The town is dominated by massive grain silos and the railway tracks that run through them, ready to transport the grain to Gauteng. My reason for the detour is that Caledon is also home to a very large maltings: SAB Maltings. The same SAB -- previously South African Breweries -- now SABMiller, that is one of the largest beer conglomerates in the world. The maltings was a fascinating and entertaining diversion. They produce something like 220000 tonnes of malt a year! But they're still happy to deal with homebrewers wanting only a tiny, little, insignificant 50kg sack of pale malt. A very helpful, friendly lady named Estelle was wonderful in helping me get my malt. For them a tiny little drop in an ocean of beer. For me a rather large1 quantity. Had to park the car on a weighbridge long enough to weigh a small train so that they could weigh my purchase. 50kg on the nose!
I'd have taken a picture of my little Corolla pimpmobile on the weighbridge, but, after my single pic of the maltings, the security guy on the gate came running over to tell me, "No, no! You're not allowed to take pictures!" Say what? It's not like this is a weapons factory. They make malt! We've known how to make malt for thousand of years! WTF?
"What would happen if I just stood outside the gate, across the road and took a picture?" I asked him. "You couldn't stop me then."
"Yes," he agreed, "It's a stupid rule, but its more than my job's worth!"2
I promised him that I would delete the picture from my phone. Faithless liar.
The Nation's Beer
Much of the drive is along the N2 -- the National Road that runs from Cape Town all the way to Durban and parts beyond. Driving along the smaller roads between Caledon and Gansbaai gave me a better appreciation of the vastness of the grainlands. I was quite surprised at the humbleness of the machinery still used to gather in the harvest. I expected to see lines of giant combines, four abreast, followed by large tractor-trailers catching the grain. What I saw was simple mowers, cutting down the grain and gathering it into windrows, ready for the thresher in a few days, followed by the bailer to make those gigantic round hay-bales that need a tractor with a forklift attachment to move them.
There was a logic to the old-style balers that made rectangular bales. Bales were still small enough for a man to lift. These huge round things? Never!
What would happen to these farmers if you took their diesel away?
They plough, disk and plant their multi-million-rand seedbed using massive four-wheel-drive tractors, four to six wheels per axle. They spray, spray, spray, poison upon poison, using aeroplanes and wide-boom sprayers aback their tractors. They harvest -- be it with the very large all-in-one combine-harvester mobile grainfactories (and there were some) or with the humbler, simpler and cheaper machinery -- and load their harvest onto 22m long trucks to be transported hundreds of kilometres to a silo. From there the grain gets trucked -- mostly trucked, since the rail network no longer finds it economic to transport grain -- to the millers. The industrial mills that tear the grain apart into its smallest usable components, to be reconstituted into computer-managed maximum-profit product, stuffed with additives to enhance the colour, smell, and, mostly, shelf-life.
What happens when you take the oil away?
What happens when diesel is too expensive?
How do the millions eat?
Let alone drink beer...
The simple truth is, "They don't!" The Elephant In The Room That Nobody Wants To Talk About: there are simply too many of us humans in an energy poor future. I am not suggesting a catastrophic starvation scenario -- those are more usually politically engendered than arising from natural consequence. But I don't see how to feed upwards of 6½-billion people without cheap and abundant energy.
I'm planning to get into small-scale grains over the next year or so. Even if its just for making my own beer :-)
[Pics taken with cellphone camera. Please excuse the pathetic quality.]
[1] Nearly typed "a very lager quantity" there... Freudian ship?
[2] Not in those words. Poetic license. This is a Xhosa-speaking man for whom English is a third or fourth language. You get the gist. (May I one day speak Xhosa half as well as he speaks English!)
As ever, the challenge is in getting all the ingredients and equipment needed. Despite homebrewing being quite popular in SA, it is not like more civilized parts of the world where there are plenty of homebrew shops that can supply the necessary. The tiny handful of suppliers that exist are hard-to-find, carry very limited ranges of ingredients, and are generally not very useful.
It is the harvest season. The road was fraught with grain trucks carting the harvest to silos. Wheat, barley, wheat, oats, wheat,
I made a stop in Swellendam, to buy some stone-ground whole flour for breadmaking; there is an old watermill at the local museum where they mill a small quantity of wheat every week. Swellendam is also in the very heart of Grain Country, and sports a very large grain-storage facility. As I drove out of town, at least 3-dozen grain trucks were lined up at the silos to offload their precious harvest. It's been a nerve-wracking time for the farmers. Millions of Rands tied up in getting the seed into the ground. Less than perfect rainfall during the growing season, and too much rain a mere fortnight before the harvest. But at last the harvest is in, safely stored in a silo. The nation eats.
I detoured off the usual route to Gansbaai, travelling via Caledon -- another major grain-handling town about an hour-and-a-half from Cape Town. The town is dominated by massive grain silos and the railway tracks that run through them, ready to transport the grain to Gauteng. My reason for the detour is that Caledon is also home to a very large maltings: SAB Maltings. The same SAB -- previously South African Breweries -- now SABMiller, that is one of the largest beer conglomerates in the world. The maltings was a fascinating and entertaining diversion. They produce something like 220000 tonnes of malt a year! But they're still happy to deal with homebrewers wanting only a tiny, little, insignificant 50kg sack of pale malt. A very helpful, friendly lady named Estelle was wonderful in helping me get my malt. For them a tiny little drop in an ocean of beer. For me a rather large1 quantity. Had to park the car on a weighbridge long enough to weigh a small train so that they could weigh my purchase. 50kg on the nose!
I'd have taken a picture of my little Corolla pimpmobile on the weighbridge, but, after my single pic of the maltings, the security guy on the gate came running over to tell me, "No, no! You're not allowed to take pictures!" Say what? It's not like this is a weapons factory. They make malt! We've known how to make malt for thousand of years! WTF?
"What would happen if I just stood outside the gate, across the road and took a picture?" I asked him. "You couldn't stop me then."
"Yes," he agreed, "It's a stupid rule, but its more than my job's worth!"2
I promised him that I would delete the picture from my phone. Faithless liar.
The Nation's Beer
Much of the drive is along the N2 -- the National Road that runs from Cape Town all the way to Durban and parts beyond. Driving along the smaller roads between Caledon and Gansbaai gave me a better appreciation of the vastness of the grainlands. I was quite surprised at the humbleness of the machinery still used to gather in the harvest. I expected to see lines of giant combines, four abreast, followed by large tractor-trailers catching the grain. What I saw was simple mowers, cutting down the grain and gathering it into windrows, ready for the thresher in a few days, followed by the bailer to make those gigantic round hay-bales that need a tractor with a forklift attachment to move them.
There was a logic to the old-style balers that made rectangular bales. Bales were still small enough for a man to lift. These huge round things? Never!
What would happen to these farmers if you took their diesel away?
They plough, disk and plant their multi-million-rand seedbed using massive four-wheel-drive tractors, four to six wheels per axle. They spray, spray, spray, poison upon poison, using aeroplanes and wide-boom sprayers aback their tractors. They harvest -- be it with the very large all-in-one combine-harvester mobile grainfactories (and there were some) or with the humbler, simpler and cheaper machinery -- and load their harvest onto 22m long trucks to be transported hundreds of kilometres to a silo. From there the grain gets trucked -- mostly trucked, since the rail network no longer finds it economic to transport grain -- to the millers. The industrial mills that tear the grain apart into its smallest usable components, to be reconstituted into computer-managed maximum-profit product, stuffed with additives to enhance the colour, smell, and, mostly, shelf-life.
What happens when you take the oil away?
What happens when diesel is too expensive?
How do the millions eat?
Let alone drink beer...
The simple truth is, "They don't!" The Elephant In The Room That Nobody Wants To Talk About: there are simply too many of us humans in an energy poor future. I am not suggesting a catastrophic starvation scenario -- those are more usually politically engendered than arising from natural consequence. But I don't see how to feed upwards of 6½-billion people without cheap and abundant energy.
I'm planning to get into small-scale grains over the next year or so. Even if its just for making my own beer :-)
[Pics taken with cellphone camera. Please excuse the pathetic quality.]
[1] Nearly typed "a very lager quantity" there... Freudian ship?
[2] Not in those words. Poetic license. This is a Xhosa-speaking man for whom English is a third or fourth language. You get the gist. (May I one day speak Xhosa half as well as he speaks English!)
24 November 2007
Flood Update
Well, the rain has stopped for a little while, though there's a reasonable chance we'll get some more today. 304mm so far, in a span of about 36 hours! It's stuff like this that really screws-up the averages.
The N2 (national road) is/was blocked in at least two places nearby. Over 1000 people have had to be airlifted to safety. More rain forecast for Monday.
Our road is very badly damaged, but people seem to be getting in and out. Several people in the neighbourhood have been asking the district roads people to fix the culvert for a long time, now, to no avail. My guess is that they'll get around to fixing it just in time for the next floods!
The N2 (national road) is/was blocked in at least two places nearby. Over 1000 people have had to be airlifted to safety. More rain forecast for Monday.
Our road is very badly damaged, but people seem to be getting in and out. Several people in the neighbourhood have been asking the district roads people to fix the culvert for a long time, now, to no avail. My guess is that they'll get around to fixing it just in time for the next floods!
22 November 2007
A Rain Of Fish
One of my very first posts when I started this blog was about a Big Rain – the Floods of '06, a little over a year ago. Well, brace yourself for The Sequel!
After a drizzly day, yesterday, the heavens opened in the late afternoon, and have not yet shut. At about 8 this morning the rain-guage was showing a guesstimated 102mm overnight. The scale ends at 100mm. All the dams in the area are overflowing with ummm... interesting... results for the roads. I think we'll be unable to get to town for a while, even after the rain stops. And it's showing no signs of letting-up yet.
There's a river down the middle of the veggie garden, since the small dam beside the house overflows that way. No serious harm to anything, though, since it was designed and the earth carefully shaped to channel the overflow between veg beds. It's only the odd mole-tunnels that can cause some small washouts. Pity the poor Moles, though.In other parts of the region people are being helicoptered to safety. We're pretty safe; just helicopter in some Scotch and we'll be fine for quite awhile ;-)
Many more pics at Photobucket for the interested. Including the Rain of Fish. (A bunch of freshly-dead fish lying around where they've been washed out of some dam or other. Great amusement and yummies for the Dogs!) Sadly Photobucket seems to lack any way of putting the pictures in any kind of sensible order... :-(
Congratulations to Kevin and Becky, and a big Welcome to Owen! We wish you much happiness, learning and fun!
10 November 2007
Chicken Hygeine
The Cottage Smallholder » "How do I keep my chickens clean?" is a great post about Chicken Hygiene! Chickens are simply not very clean animals. It's OK up to a point to justify some of their habits by rationalising, "Well, there's no sense applying human standards to other animals." Mountain Gorillas, for instance, die if they don't eat each others' shit, since that's how they share certain enzymes vital to their digestive systems.1
Chicken Mites are a real bugger and get out of hand really fast in warm weather. I detest using poisons, so dealing with Mites was a real dilemma for me for a long time, until The Lightbulb Moment a few years ago. Now, about four times a year, I clear out the bedding and crap from the chookhouse, and then take a blowtorch to all the surfaces (especially perches.) Works like a bomb2 and kills all bugs and their egss, provided I play the flame back and forth over each area for a while and let it get good and hot. Occasionally I get a bit too enthusiastic and manage to scorch the wood a little, but usually there's no problem.
Speaking of which, its probably time I cleaned out the chicken house again this weekend...
[1] I read it somewhere. What is this? Wikipedia? The Spanish Inquisition?
[2] ...visions of broken bits of chookhouse flying through the air...
Chicken Mites are a real bugger and get out of hand really fast in warm weather. I detest using poisons, so dealing with Mites was a real dilemma for me for a long time, until The Lightbulb Moment a few years ago. Now, about four times a year, I clear out the bedding and crap from the chookhouse, and then take a blowtorch to all the surfaces (especially perches.) Works like a bomb2 and kills all bugs and their egss, provided I play the flame back and forth over each area for a while and let it get good and hot. Occasionally I get a bit too enthusiastic and manage to scorch the wood a little, but usually there's no problem.
Speaking of which, its probably time I cleaned out the chicken house again this weekend...
[1] I read it somewhere. What is this? Wikipedia? The Spanish Inquisition?
[2] ...visions of broken bits of chookhouse flying through the air...
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