The Sifford Sojournal

Our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life along the narrow way, even the old paths, submitting to the Bible as a light unto both.

Category: animal husbandry (Page 11 of 13)

New Goat “Piney Tim” – Update – Name Changed to “Eastwood”

October 20, 2009 / / 2 Comments

Well, because of some character traits we picked up on, and because the previous name is too much associated with Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol,” which celebrates Christmas in a way, which is something that we reject, thus causing us a conscience problem, and because we were probably just going to be calling him Timmy anyway, we are changing his name to Eastwood, because he seems to often give us those squinty eyes saying, “Go ahead…make my day!”

You can see it in the difference between these two pictures. You’ll probably have to click on each picture (and maybe enlarge them from there) to be able to see it; but in the second one, he’s giving “the look”:


We probably spend a little more time than is necessary on our animals with this type of stuff (naming, etc.), but we also like to try to be cautious and consistent with what we do.

— David

New Goat “Piney Tim”

October 17, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Although apparently inbreeding goats is a defined method for increasing a herd, we decided to use outbreeding instead, as inbreeding can bring to surface undesirable traits (as well as desirable ones, which from what I’ve read is why people inbreed); so our plan is to trade our males born here with other folks who are raising dairy goats. Our neighbors the Sustaires are doing just that, and the Lord had granted them twin bucks around the same time as He did our triplet bucks, which are half Nubian and half what Winnie is, which is part LaMancha. We also had Donny available, who is a little older and full Nubian. Theirs are Alpine-Nubians, and so we agreed to swap goats. They chose to take Athos, the first born of the triplets, partially because of how well Winnie is producing milk vs. how well Betsy, Donny’s mother, is; and we chose the one of theirs that had horns (one of theirs was born without them) so that he could compete with our other males since we are not de-horning our goats.

Since he’s part Alpine, that makes him rather “Piney,” and so we decided to name him Piney Tim (we’ll probably call him Timmy for short). And so here he is:


We’re thankful to the Lord for allowing the perpetuation of the animals for all of the families here on the land, and for allowing us to have this opportunity with a local family to husband the animals in this outbreeding way.

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf “Secoya”

July 23, 2009 / / 2 Comments

The Lord once again saw fit in His graces, mercies and wisdom to grant us a new calf, a heifer, to our heifer Catalina (who with this calf has now become a cow). The calf sort of has the color of a redwood tree, so we decided to call her Secoya, which is Spanish for “redwood.”

Here is the new little one:

And here she is again, in action:


We are again very grateful to God for His provisions of this new calf.

— David

 

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf “Dulce”

July 7, 2009 / / 2 Comments

Once again God has seen it in His graces to grant another calf, this time to Casi Blanca, daughter of Amistosa. Casi is the calf shown with Ami in the second picture under “Our Herd” in the cattle introduction post. This is Casi’s first calf, a little heifer; and her name is Dulce (which means “sweet” or “candy”) because she looks like a chocolate dipped ice cream cone.

Here she is:

And here’s a video:


We are again grateful to the Lord for His provisions of this new calf and the growth of the herd.

— David

 

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf “Adelina”

July 2, 2009 / / 2 Comments

The Lord graciously saw fit to grant us another calf, a little heifer, from Rosalinda, daughter of Rosa. Rosalinda is the calf next to Rosa in the first picture in the “Our Herd” section of our cattle introduction post. This is Rosalinda’s first calf; and we have decided to call her Adelina, which means “little noble.”

Here is a picture:

And a moving picture:


We are once again grateful to God for His providence and graces and mercies in granting this addition to our herd.

— David

 

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Kid “Tapioca”

May 30, 2009 / / 0 Comments

We recently obtained a doe Pammy that had been brought down to the land from Mrs. Judy’s herd. We had placed her with Shatner our buck, and Thursday she gave birth to her first kid. Please meet Tapioca, because she’s the same color as tapioca pudding — we’ll probably call her Tappi mostly 🙂 :


She seems to be very healthy and is getting around and suckling, and Pammy seems to be doing the proper mothering things:


We once again thank the Lord for Him granting the provision of Pammy and her new doe, and we pray for help and guidance to take care of His gifts properly and biblically.

— David

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: New Calf “Lajoya”

May 23, 2009 / / 1 Comment

The Lord by His graces and mercies saw fit to allow a calf to be born three or four days ago to one of our heifers, Tiara. Please meet our new heifer calf Lajoya, which in Spanish as two words (la joya) means “the jewel” — a jewel being something that might come from a tiara. 🙂 :

Tiara is the little calf you see walking next to her mother Amistosa in the first picture of our blog post introducing the cattle. And now with Tiara having her first calf, Lajoya is the first grandcalf from one of Sue’s and my cows.

Here is a video of her just a day or two after being born. We’ve seen her prancing around in the morning and evening, and so I think daytime is sleepy time:


We thank God once again for His gracious provisions and blessings!

— David

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