By the time you unfold the paper you’re now reading, 2013 will have come and gone and 2014 will be sitting on your doorstep.
Time steadily marches on!
The snow in our area came early this year – about three weeks earlier than last year, which left us scrambling to get the machinery stored indoors and the animals compatibly penned for the winter. None of which is difficult, but all is time-consuming and requires a little forethought.
Animals that are quite tame and docile, getting along with each other, often playing, are quite different animals at the feed trough while enclosed. Gates and dividers often have to be made, with feed troughs and water containers properly adjusted for placement and height.
“You can take the boy away from the farm, but you can’t take farming away from the boy.” So said, by whom I can’t remember, as it was a long time ago, but I have definitely come full circle. Having been raised on a small 50-acre farm and having returned to a small 50-acre farm perhaps accents that statement well.
There is no series of words that can compile a diction encompassing the satisfaction felt when the chores are all done and you can hear the animals munching in quiet contentment. It is then that you can see the results of your work and care and if any individual needs attention.
There is little doubt in my mind that farming can be, and is to some, an addiction.
At this time the goats are being fed a little more grain than usual, as the majority of them are filling out quite rapidly, showing signs of being pregnant. As twins are usual, and triplets not uncommon, it has to be realized that the nutrition equation must be supplied for three times the head count. The grain is ground and nutrient mixed right here on the farm. We just happen to like knowing what our animals are being fed.
The gestation period for goats is only five months, so we will be expecting the kids to arrive about the end of March. These are exciting times, as the miracle of birth will be witnessed time after time. And by the time the little gaffers are three days old, they start bouncing off the walls just having fun.
The goats that we have are purebred Boer goats that originated in Africa and were introduced to this side of the world only about three decades ago. They are strictly meat goats that thrive on minimal care. They are gentle by nature, with slightly curved horns, are uniform in colour with the body being mostly white, sporting irregular, random patches of different shades of brown, while their head and long-drooping ears are mostly brown in colour.
Though the winter has only begun, I am already impatiently waiting for spring. It will be fun once again to watch them jump and play as they bounce off anything and everything that happens to be placed in their paddock.
And I’m quite sure that there will be no better picture ever painted than the one we will see when 60 or more of them spread out to pasture on the hillside.
In the meantime, folks, with this paper having a circulation of over 40,000, it is my wish that you and yours, and all those reading your paper, have a happy, healthy, and contented new year.
Take care, ’cause we care.
barrie@barriehopkins.ca
519-986-4105