Russell's Ridge Nubians Website

2012 Babies -Cole (l), Claire (r) & Chloe (b)

 

Spent the morning updating our website. Information on breeding's have been updated.

 

Come check it out.

 

www.russellsridgenubians.com



A Few Barn Renovations

We decided that we needed a few barn renovations done to the goat barn.  One of the main reasons why was because Chuck and Tbone, our two 6 month old steer calves, are getting big.

 

The goat barn is a good size but the issue is half of the barn is on stilts.  Why would the barn be on stilts you say? Well our land is super hilly and has lots of slopes.  So instead of the original builders of the goat barn putting in some type of foundation to make the floor solid.  They just built the barn walls up from the flat ground they had available and then extended the barn by putting it on stilts and building the rest of the floor on top.  So yes half of the floor in the girl's goat barn is wood and the other half is dirt.  We actually have those big black padding mats on the dirt area to make cleaning easier.  The builders were smart though and put a drain in the middle of the dirt floor. It makes cleaning and hosing down the mats much easier.

 

You can see the back side of the barn on stilts

 

With that said, we needed to do something so the cows could no longer get in the barn so when they are even bigger than they are now they won't collapse the floor.

 

Months ago Jamie built a 1/2 door on the barn so we could either lock the goats in or out.  He came up with a great idea to build another half door but raise it up so the goats could come in and out of the barn but the cows couldn't come it.  Cows have trouble bending over and trying to get under things, where goats do not.  I have seen a full grown goat crawl across the ground.  Granted she was rubbing her belly on the grass because it must of felt good but with knowing that we knew they wouldn't have any problem going under the door.

 

New door

 

The above picture shows you the new door.  It's approximately 3 1/2 feet up from the ground, plenty of room for the goats to go under.  We still need to paint it though and Jamie is going to cut a square hole out of the door near the latch so I can open it from the outside and not have to crawl underneath it myself if it's still locked. The other half door that goes all the way to the bottom of the doorway opens from the outside.  We still have it up and use it everyday.  It is very helpful because once all the goats come into the barn waiting for their turn for feeding time we just close the other door so the goats can't get out and bother the cows while they are eating outside.

 

 Once everyone is done eating, goats and cows, we open the longer half door and secure it so it stays open and then we close this higher half door and lock it so the cows can't get in.  It's a very genius idea that Jamie came up with.  It will also be nice for winter time because it will block some of the wind that otherwise would come through the whole door if it was open.

 

This door will be wonderful for when it comes time for kidding.  The mama's and babies will have the barn to themselves and a place to go where they won't be bothered by the cows.

 

Chuck & Tbone on the other hand do NOT like it.  Not so much I think about being in the barn but being away from the goats.  They think of the goats as their herd and they want to stay with them all the time.

 

Chuck & Tbone saying "AAWWW come on, let us in!!

 

The other part Jamie renovated was the milking area.

 

New Wall

 

We decided to build a wall here which is the separation from the pasture to the milking area.  First the wall is nice because before we used to have a fence here, the goats would hang over the top trying to get more food because you know their starving.  All day they are starving, not really but they sure do act like it.  Even Bruschi, our biggest goat, got over the fence one day trying to get more food.

 

So this wall is nice to keep the goats out of my milking area unless I want them there.  The wall is 4 feet high so hopefully they won't be able to get over it.  With Jamie building this wall it actually increased the size of my milking area also, which is really nice.

 

New milking area

 

As you can see in the above picture,  I have plenty of room for both of my milking stands, grain buckets and room to move goats in and out or around if I need too.

 

Yes, I'm sure your asking why I have two milking stands.  I have two because I am not always milking all of my girls.  This way one girl can be milked while another who is not milked can have her grain at the same time.  It cuts down on chore time greatly.  Milking stands are great and since Jamie is so handy he builds them for me.  I'm sure one day, since Hailey is already a great milker, that if we decide to milk all the girls I will use both stands and Hailey can milk at the same time as I am.  I have all of my goats, even the boys, trained to the stand.  The milking stand is not just for milking. I use it to hold a goat while I am administering shots and also to do hoof trimmings.  You should see the boys.  I open the gate and they just run over and hop up onto the stand and start eating their grain while I go ahead and trim their hooves.  They know exactly where to go because remember they are starving and they know that grain is in that bucket.

 

The wall will also be nice to block out the wind in the winter time when milking starts up again in hopefully February.  The unfinished part of this area is the floor.  It is currently just dirt. I try very hard keeping it clean with raking it every other day.  I've talked to Jamie about it and hopefully in the spring we will be cementing this floor in.  That will make it even easier to keep the floor and everything else clean as I'll be able to sweep it everyday and wash it down when it's needed.

 

The other reason for this wall is because we needed an outside hay feeder.  We were going to build a separate structure but thought that was silly because I wanted the wall anyway and we still had enough room on the other side to build the feeder and it would be under the roof so they hay wouldn't get wet.

 

New outdoor hay feeder

 

The feeder works really well.  Right now we are using it for the cows but it will work great for the goats too once the cows are gone.  Actually the goats use it now too when they sneak over to steal some of the cows hay.  Remember they are always starving.

 

I've talked to Jamie about getting rid of the pallet creep feeder and building a permanent structure off of this wall to the side of the hay feeder.  We won't need that for months, not until the babies are born and starting to be weaned.

 

I think the renovations came out perfect.  Drew helped his dad with some of it.  It amazes me that I can explain an idea to Jamie and then watch him make it become real.  We are slowly but surely making the barn the best it can be functionally for us and the goats.  Still a few more things I would like to change but everything takes time and money.

 

Oh that reminds me, all of these renovations cost us under $150.  Not bad huh?

 

 



Report Cards

Drew and Hailey got their first report cards of the year a week or so ago.

 

Both of the kids did absolutely wonderful and we are so proud of them.

 

Drew

 

Science            A

Math                A

English            A

Reading           A

Social Studies  A

 

Hailey

 

Science             B

Math                 A

English             B

Reading            A

Social Studies   A

 

Hailey was a little bummed about the 2 B's.  Especially the English mark since it was only 1 point away from being an A.

 

We told her that as long as she is trying her hardest then she is doing great.  She said she is really going to try even harder this period to make all A's.

 

The kids took their report cards to Dairy Queen over vacation for their free meal.  For all A's you get a hamburger, fries and drink. Four A's you get a fry and drink and one A you get a drink.  You also get the meal if you have perfect attendance which Hailey had so she was able to get a full meal too.

 

Check back in 9 weeks to see how they do on their next report card.

Chuck & Tbone turn 6 months old!!!

Chuck and Tbone our steers are now 6 months old and doing awesome!!!  They are super healthy and eating like champs.  If you guys don't remember, Tbone & Chuck are our beef cross steers (can't have babies) that we are growing for meat for our family.

 

Chuck scratching his head on Tbone

 

The boys have done a super job with keeping the pasture down this summer.  They have also been getting a daily ration of grain to help keep them in good condition.  Chuck and Tbone will be with us over the next 5 months for winter.  Once the spring arrives we will retape them to see how big they have grown and decide what will be done next with the boys.

 

Today I tape measured them to see how much they weigh.  This is where it gets tricky.  There is 2 ways to measure. The first way is just to measure the heart girth, which is around their body behind their front legs and then from their take that number to a chart I found online and convert it into pounds.  This chart is for beef cattle so I know that it will be a little off since my cows are beef crosses.

 

The chart shows the following weights:

 

Chuck (brown & white) 436 lbs

Tbone (black) 390 lbs

 

The second way to measure is suppose to be a little more accurate.  You still measure their heart girth, around their middle behind their front legs, but then you also need to measure from the front shoulder all the way back to the tailbone.  Once you have these figures you need to do a little math. 

 

Math is heart girth X heart girth X Length.  Once you have this figure you divide it by 300. You answer is how much they weigh in lbs.

 

Using this measuring method the following weights are:

 

Chuck (brown & white) 378 lbs

Tbone (black) 341 lbs

 

I measured them this morning before they had their grain and had been out in the pasture all day so I feel that it was a good measurement.  The only problem is the cows look big to me.  Now if you know me well, you know that I have NO perception when I look at something.  Meaning I can look at an animal and have NO idea what it weighs, same thing if I look at an empty room, I have NO idea if a certain piece of furniture will fit.  So with that said, I think the boys weight are somewhere in between both these measurements. 

 

Chuck (brown & white) approx 400 lbs

 

Tbone (black) approx. 370 lbs

 

Here is a pic of Hailey standing next to the boys so you can get and idea of how big they are now.

 

Chuck with Hailey

 

The top of the cows back comes up to Hailey's shoulder, (she is standing downhill next to them)  So that makes them approx. 3 1/2 ft tall right now.

 

With the cows getting so big we have done some renovations to the barn so they can't go into it anymore.  The reason for this is that 1/2 of the barn floor is on stilts, because the lay of the land, and we are afraid that once they get too big they will collapse the floor.  They do have another smaller shelter they can go into that is on the ground to help them stay warm and dry but they aren't happy about it because they want to be with the goats, who they consider as their herd.

 

Jamie has built a half door on the goat barn so the goats can still get in and out but the cows can't get in at all.

 

New door to keep the cows out

 

We still have a door that goes all the way to the bottom so the goats can't get out too.  The doors have been working out nicely.  I close the door that goes all the way to the bottom so the goats don't bother the cows while they are eating.  Once the cows are done eating I open up that door and close the half door so the goats can stay in the barn and not be bothered by the cows if they want.  This was also done so when kidding time comes for the goats the babies will have a safe place to go to get away from the cows.

 

Chuck & Tbone peeking under the door to see what's going on.

 

Jamie also built an outside feeder.  The feeder is for them for now but will be used by the goats too once the cows are gone.

 

New Outdoor Feeder

 

They still have their separate personalities too.  Tbone, the black one, is not very interested in people unless you have food for him,  He will run when he see's that red bucket and will stand by the hay feeder mooing for some hay.  He does like to have is head and chin scratched but most of the time he likes to just hang out and watch what everybody is doing.

 

Chuck on the other hand loves people,  he will be the first one to come up to you if your out in the pasture.  He loves to have his whole face rubbed, especially his cheeks.  He will stretch his head out really far so you can rub all of his cheeks and neck.  He loves the grain too but is a little more patient for his turn.  He also loves to moo.  He will greet you first thing in the morning to say hello and will moo for hay also.

 

I know that your not suppose to have favorites but I clearly do with these two boys.  I think I like Chuck so much because he is so laid back and relaxed, where Tbone is a little more hyper and unpredictable.  This makes me nervous.  I know that these boys are big and will get even bigger and for me it makes me nervous to have a hyper animal that big around.  For this reason I am trying to convince Jamie to have Tbone be the first to go even if he is a little smaller than Chuck.

 

We still haven't decided on what we are going to do.  We hope that once the spring arrives one of them will be big enough to send to the butcher.  I would like to send one in the spring and then keep the other one for another year, which will help with the pasture for the summer but then we would have to pay to feed it over the winter.  Jamie is still deciding.  He is thinking about maybe selling the second one after the summer to get some money back on what it cost us to raise them but I think we should keep it and butcher it since he has told me that one should feed our family for the year. This way we wouldn't have to worry about any beef we would eat for at least 2 years.

 

I will do an update on them in about 3 months just to show you all how well they are and how much more they have grown. 

 

Here are some other cute pictures of the boys.

 

Tbone peeking over Chuck's back trying to figure out what I'm doing

Chuck, my cutie -you can see he is missing a little piece of his ear, we are not sure what happened but it healed fine and doesn't bother him at all

Chuck scratching and yes their tongues feel like sandpaper

Tbone's sweet face



Pork is Delicious

We have gone through more than half of the pork we got back when we had the pigs butchered back in March and of course there is NO bacon left either.

 

With all the talk of the increase of prices for pork meat, really any meat because of the drought and feed prices going up, we decided it would be best not to wait till the spring to raise another pig.  We have decided this time to raise 2 pigs again but we are going to keep all the meat for our family.

 

Two weeks ago we went ahead and found two pigs, to pick up to raise for our meat.

 

 Pigs the day we brought them home, 2 1/2 months old

 

Pigs enjoying running in their pen

 

Both pigs are girls this time.  They were born in the middle of July so they are now just 3 months old.  We butchered the other pigs at 7 months old, so we will have these girls with us at least until February/March.  That will bring them up to 7/8 months old or 250lbs, which ever comes first.  We will be checking their weight every month like the last pigs.

 

We do not have names for them, not sure if we will name them either.  I just call them girl piggies for right now when I talk to them.  I am trying to spend a little time with them each day to get them used to us.  One of them let me touch her on the snout yesterday, so I'm sure with another few weeks they will be letting us touch them.

 

Here are some pictures of them that I took today at 3 months old.

 

Girl pigs

Girl pigs eating grass

 

 

 

 



First Fire of the Season

By no means is it cold here in TN right now.  By the temps dipped a few weeks ago in the evening and we got to have our first fire of the Season.  I'm sure my MA family and friends are thinking that 60 degrees is not cold by any standards but going from 75-80 degree weather down to 60 in a few days does make it feel chilly.

 

We decided to have it in the fireplace we have in the living room.  This fireplace gives off some nice heat but its not overpowering like the wood stove we have that we use to heat the house.  We were sure the weather was going to warm back up so we only wanted to warm the house for the evening.

 

The house was warm and the fire is so relaxing, we ALL enjoyed.  Even Jamie.

 

 

Lou & Bryce enjoying the first fire of the season



Kids & Sports

Football is finally over for Drew.  It was such a busy season.  Practice schedule was Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and games were on Thursdays.

 

The season didn't go so well. They actually didn't win one game but the boys played their hearts out and did a good job.

 

Here are some shots of Drew playing. He was number 4 this year.

 

Drew on the kick off team

Drew lined up on defense

Drew playing defense.

 

Drew has decided not to play any other sports this year so I'm sure he will be playing football again for next season.

 

Hailey is right in the middle of her soccer season.  She is playing for the
Y again on the same U12 team as last year.  Her team is doing great.  They have either won or tied for all of their games so far.

 

Hopefully they will go to the championship again this year and win.

 

Hailey before her first game

Hailey's team Fall 2012

 



GO PATRIOTS!!!!!

In September the Patriots came here to TN to play against the Titans.  We were lucky enough to get tickets for all of us and get to go.

 

Us at the Pats game, tailgating.

 

We had a great time.  We got there a little early anticipating traffic like there is at Gillette but surprising there wasn't any at all.

 

Once we got to our parking lot, we unloaded all of our chairs, table and grill and started tailgating.

 

Me & Drew hanging out 

Hailey & I tailgating

 

I was a little worried about how the Titans fans would be since we were Pats fans, but I think there were more Pats fans around us than Titans fans.

 

We had Pats fans parked right next to us tailgating.  It really is a small world. They were actually National Guard helicopter pilots from MA who were in AL for school and had drive to TN for the game for the weekend.  They were actually from Plymouth, MA area which is really close to were we are originally from.

 

Jamie, Drew & Hailey tailgating

 

Tailgating was fun, we just hung around and ate lots of yummy food waiting for the time to go into the game.

 

Once inside we had a great time also.  It was really warm that day.  Ended up having to buy sunscreen because the sun was out for so long.

 

Drew has been to a Patriots football game before so he knew what to expect but Hailey hadn't.  I think she was a little overwhelmed with all the people because she was a little quiet but she said she had fun and loved it and wanted to go back again.  Drew had a good time too and wants to go back also.

 

Drew, Julie & Hailey at the Patriots game

 

The Patriots and Titans aren't in the same division so it will be at least several years before they play each other again but we are hoping to maybe take a long weekend trip and see the Pats play again if they come to a neighboring state to play.

 

Of course, best of all - The Pats WON 34-13