Meet Percy, the bottle fed Saanen buckling.

I had the opportunity to buy this little goat buckling for $15 from a church friend, so I thought it was a cheap way to put some goat meat in the freezer. I hadn't counted on K8 adopting this little cutie, and since he is the guy who volunteered to feed it a bottle every 4 hours, he gets to decide Percy's name and future. Looks like we'll have 3 Alpine dairy goat does and 1 Saanen dairy breed buck...and lots of cross bred babies in the future. I'll eventually get some goat meat in the freezer.

No, the dogs are not circling for the kill. They tolerate the little buckling rather well, in fact...

...he lives on the front porch with them.

I like the looks of the all-white Saanen breed. I may have to get a few does. They will be a good match with our all-white St Croix sheep.

K8 has me set my alarm for 0345 every morning so I can get him up for the o'dark-thirty feeding, which he dutifully does without complaining. It is great to see  my youngest son take on this big responsibility. Its one of the reasons we moved to a rural farm.

First set of twin lambs arrive!

We had a pleasant surprise upon our return from church last Sunday - Yogurt had delivered twins! One ewe and one ram. 

We actually arrived just as the second one was being delivered. 

Sunday night got bitterly cold, but Yogurt kept her newborns warm and alive. This pic was taken Monday morning.

No names yet, but the ewe will join the flock as a breeding mom, and her brother will be sold this summer as a breeding ram after he is weaned in about four months.

Mutt, our flock ram on the right, is not the father of these two babies, so Yogurt and daughter will be bred to him next fall. We have one more ewe, Snow White, due to deliver in 2 weeks. She also looks to be carrying twins - hope they are both ewes. That will make Mutt's harem even larger which means we will have plenty of sheep to sell next year (and still put a few rams in the freezer). Aahh! The thought of the Whipple Wanch making a profit! 

Farm Logo Design

We are looking for design ideas for a logo for the Whipple Wanch. Something we can put on letter head, t-shirts, business cards, etc.

If you have some ideas, please let us know. There's definitely a free t-shirt in it for you!

Thanks,

Mac & S

Turning downed trees into useful products

A storm damaged the big sycamore tree in the background, so K2 cut it down. K6 and K7 are using a friend's gas-powered log splitter to get the big round pieces down to the size that fit into out wood burning stove. We can heat the entire house with this wood and our stove during any electric power outage.

This giant red oak regretfully had to be removed when we built our house last year. K2 is now helping our neighbors with a portable saw mill to cut several beams from it for the house they will be building this summer. Pretty cool.

Any and all scrap wood gets gathered and...

...burned into ash and returned to the soil. K8 and K7 had fun with these brush piles.

K8 Makeover

K8 complained about his shaggy hair, so he accompanied Dad to the barber shop.

Alan is a great barber.

K8 is very happy with the results (and the free sodas).

My next stop was to buy 20 Triple Crown thornless black berry plants from a 72 year old farmer. He was a soft-spoken, friendly, down to earth, patriotic guy who had this sign in his front yard. Not an uncommon sentiment or practice here in the Ozark mountains - I have seen several large signs in yards or in front of businesses along these lines.  

The story of Stewie's rough day.

The Tool

The Chase

The Capture

The Procedure

The Deed Is Done!

Happily reunited with Mama. Yes, the fact we "banded" this little ram means he is on the path to the freezer later this year (after he eats lots of grass and gets big enough).

The End

Dancing goats!

You may have heard of the "Tennessee fainting" goats, but here at the Whipple Wanch we have Dancing Goats...

These girls prefer cedar over grass.