the magic hay tree

Cloud Harvest Cashmere: where hay grows on trees!

I think most goat-owners will agree: while a goat will seek out with single-minded determination three oats that have fallen into your cuff, they are extremely wasteful when it comes to hay.

A goat will pull half a bale out of a manger, piece by piece, to get to that one special stem or one perfect seed head or one horribly wonderfully prickliest of thistles.

And that would be fine!

Except all the hay they pull out in order to reach that delicacy is now on the ground, or the floor of the barn.

And that would be fine!

Except now they won't eat it.
Because it is on the ground.
Or the floor.

Ewwwwwwwwww.

My two cobbled-together hay feeders have been working fairly well.  But when there's nice clean snow on the ground (again!), it's tempting to just throw down a flake of hay for each goat, far enough apart to discourage squabbling.  There is waste, but not as much as when the hay is on the ground.  Apparently snow acts as a sort of tablecloth, keeping the hay ewww-proof.  A goat will munch at one flake for a while, then move to the next, and the goat that was eating that flake will move down, etc.  It's Musical Goats, but no one is ever "out" as there is always a spot for each goat to eat.

Unfortunately, some goats will eat what they want of a flake then immediately lay down on the rest.  Does the expression "dog in the manger" come to mind?  It applies, believe me.  Because not only can no other goat eat this lovely (and expensive) hay, but when that resting goat gets up, she (I am naming no names) pees and/or poops in her haynest before walking away.

Ewwwwwwwwww.

One of my semi-solutions is the "hay tree" pictured at the top of this post.  I stuff a flake of hay between a few sapling poles left standing when I cut the tops off a couple of years ago.  The goats were going to kill these saplings anyway, by stripping the bark as high as they could reach.  So cutting the tops and dropping them to the ground meant more healthy browse for the goats to enjoy.

I started with Black Birches, because they would have lost their leaves early in the autumn.  The Red Oaks were saved for last, when most other deciduous trees would be leafless and the oak leaves would be a special treat.  That's what you are seeing in the picture above.  Two happy goats, and a rapidly dwindling supply of oak leaves.

When cutting tops, I would cut the poles at about six feet, higher if there was a rock to stand on, and then leave the poles standing.  The goats would gradually eat every bit of bark, and the next time I needed a pole for the garden or a hen roost, I knew just where to find one.  Lazy? Maybe.  I've never seen anyone else do it this way.  But it works for me.  And the goats enjoy using the thinner poles to scratch that hard-to-reach spot right between their horns...

like there...

and right there...

  Ahhhhhhhh!  :)

~~~
So, back to hay.  One trick for reducing waste is to keep the hay from hitting the ground for as long as possible.  With their hay tree, the goats first have to reach way up to grab a mouthful. They enjoy this!

Goats are "top down" eaters, to borrow a sock-knitting term; they tend to go for the higher vegetation first.  A pasture full of lush grass is not a sight to gladden a goat's heart.  But turn them loose on a stony hillside covered with scrubby, shrubby, and even wincingly thorny vegetation, and you can almost hear them humming the theme from The Sound of Music.

The hay tree approach takes advantage of a goat's natural inclination to start high.  Here, Lily of the Valley stands on her hind legs and demonstrates The Reach...

...then the simultaneous Pull and Munch.

As more hay gets pulled out, some of it falls.  It lands first on a big rock, which is still better than having it go straight to the ground when there is no snow.

Now Lily is joined by her sister and best friend, Violet.  Between the two girls, most of the hay will be eaten while it is still on the rock, so scattered wastage is much reduced.

Aren't they lovely?  Maybe I'm just biased.  I may be a bit biased.

And doesn't this remind you of the spaghetti scene from
Lady and The Tramp?

:)

~~~~~

Dear Quilters: advice, please?

Dear quilters and other fabric folk,

could you please advise me on the safest way to clean a quilt?

I recently inherited this quilt, made for a double bed.  It has personal significance, but even if it didn't, it is a beautiful quilt in its own right - the amount of work that went into it is both staggering and inspiring.

It is in fantastic condition as far as I can tell, apart from a few small stains of unknown origin; you can see two examples above the ruler, in the 5-7" area, in the pink and white fabrics.  I would guess beverages, but it is a guess.  The certainty is, that the stains have been there for a good long time.

In fact, I feel certain the quilt has not been washed or cleaned in years.  It has probably been folded up at the bottom of a bed in a spare room.  So even if this was good sun-bleaching weather, the entire quilt should still be cleaned in some way, just to get years of what I imagine as sneakily infiltrating dust out of the fabric.

My washer is a front-loader, and I could fit the quilt in it easily, but I wonder about the potential hazards of the spin cycle...?

Thanks very, very much for any and all suggestions!
~~~

wordless wednesday

not a morning person

I woke up at 3 AM to find several inches of fresh snow, and more falling.

A few hours later, before suiting up and booting up for chores (snow still falling, by the way), I plodded into the parlor as I do every morning, in search of my Somewhat Faithful Sidekick.

Every morning I greet Piper with a cheery,

"GOOD morning, Pipergirl!  Would you like to go OUT?"

And this is the look I get:

I wait, trying not to laugh.  Piper does not move a muscle:

Piper is using the power of her mind.
She is willing me to go away, so she can go back to sleep.

This almost never works.

Today, after breaking away from the mesmeric stare, I peered out the window and saw nary a goat in the paddock.  They were still abed, perhaps watching the snow fall, and very likely nibbling leftover evening hay.  They certainly were not standing at the fence, staring at my bedroom window and waiting for their breakfast.

So today, Piper's amazing powers of mind control actually worked.  At least for a couple of hours.

I can now expect a challenge to pretty much anything I ask Piper to do in the next couple of days: come along, find your toy, go to the barn, etc. 

It will all result in The Look.

Piper is a very, very smart dog.

~~~~~

Lights! Camera!

"Are you getting my good side?  Because if you are NOT getting my good side, I am SO NOT DOING THIS!!"

After a year of pondering, I recently bought a very low-end wireless camera to install as an experimental "barn cam" during kidding season.  If it works as hoped for, this gadget will communicate directly with my laptop and reduce the number of times I need to disturb the does before and during labor.

One doe in particular.  That one, up there.  I love her, and she puts the heart across me with her scary birthing behavior, which makes it impossible for me to really ignore her, but I always wonder if ignoring her would reduce the scary birthing behavior, but since it is SO scary, I can't ignore her, and around we go.

After the "excitement" of last year's kidding, I began dreaming of a way to monitor without disturbing, and discovered (again) that I am way, way behind the times.  Lots of people are doing fairly inexpensive online monitoring of their wildlife, their horses, their babies.  Well, move over, because here comes...

Goat Cam!

Maybe.  If it works.  We'll see.

"Can't wait.  Call me when you're ready for my close-up.  I shall be in my chalet.  It is the one with the big STAR on the door."

Since it is very sunny today (sure, I've had to knock the ice out of the water buckets three times, but it is sunny, which feels very pleasant indeed!), I decided to experiment with my little camera.

It needs to be plugged in, and I'm not sure how far it can be from my router, so I put it just outside the back door where I could step in and out and adjust things easily instead of running back and forth to the barn a dozen times.  Not that the barn is far from the house; it's not.  But every time I take even one step toward the barn, the goats think Room Service is arriving, and they all start hollering encouragement.

It gets old.

For all of us.

So, camera by the back door!

Shortly after I set it up, the camera emailed me pictures of these suspicious-looking characters:

And oh-oh!  This must be the ringleader:

Funniest email I've received today  :)

~~~

Before I can put the camera in the goat barn, I have to cobble together some kind of simple housing for it, to keep it from being destroyed by the ever-present dust from hay and grain.  And goats.  And chickens, come to that; they love to scratch through the bedding in the barn and find every last seed.  They do an excellent job, but the dust is unbelievable.

The housing must also have clear glass in front of the camera.  As you can see, the image quality is Not Great, and that's in lovely, delightful sunlight!  Inside the barn at night the camera will go to infrared, and images will look murky at best.  I could build something nice, but keeping expenses down is key.  Maybe I can find a little thrift-shop aquarium, turn it upside down, and pad around the bottom leaving room for the power cord...that might work.

Meanwhile, at least for today, it's...Chicken Cam!

~~~

"Oh, is that so?  Fine.  I'm calling my agent."

~~~~~