Welcome to Painted Hand Farm

Painted Hand Farm is a 20 acre Civil War era farm located in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. We raise meat goats, veal calves, turkeys and organic vegetables using humane and sustainable agricultural practices.

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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Wide-Bodies in the Barn

There are three extremely pregnant does in the barn, udders full and ready to pop. Of course, the weatherman is calling for temperatures to drop this weekend with a low in th high teen Sunday night. My vote is they'll go then. Carlisle, the goat with the mouthful of hay, is notorious for kidding in the middle of the night in sub-freezing temperatures and always twins or triplets, too. At least she knows the routine. The barn is well bedded, the day-curtain installed on the door and the kid-warming barrels are ready to be plugged in. Meanwhile, the rest of the herd--both open yearlings and does not kidding until mid to late February--are in the common herd for easier feeding during the winter months.

Bucks & Ducks!
That's Red Hot & Ripped and his two personal attendants--a pair of Muscovy Mallard drakes. The ducks like to 'massage' the bucks with their bills and the goats seem to enjoy it. Weird. Rip is quite enamored with the ladies next door but won't get conjugal visitation until after he comes home from the PA Farm Show and does his penance in quarantine. Here are the rest of the bucks, many which are destined for local Eid celebrations later this month.
Peek-A-Boo CalfAs Jill up in New Hampshire would say..."somebody's cooking!"...meaning everyone around here is well-fed.
From her good side, Emma still looks like a normal cow. We joked with Jessica that she could still show her as long as she only let the judge see her from this profile. Despite lacking half her udder, she continues to pump out 22-26 pounds of milk a day. At that rate, my hands are getting stronger (and sore) so we hooked up the surge bucket (the one for the goats with only two inflations) yesterday, turned it on and NOTHING. No being used in a while, the mud wasps had clogged the pulsator. So it will be a few more days until the rebuild kit arrives along with a new vacuum regulator.

Andy, Andy, Andy. Yesterday, the vet checked him out and he's about 15 years old. We had his one snotty nostril cultured so we can effectively treat it. It hasn't negatively affected his health, but stinky green boogers in Jessica's hair each time she handles him won't last for long.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous6:42 PM

    My husband's parents had many goats while he was growing up. His dad is from Italy so that is the norm over there. He has some funny stories about those goats. The calf is so cute.

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