Rainy weekend

Not much work got done this weekend. I've been trying to contain our LGDs. I really didn't expect to get them small enough to slip through pallet slats!
With the use of a jigsaw and a pneumatic brad gun, I've been attempting to "plug the holes" until the dogs get too big to escape between the slats.
As you can see… that might take a while…

New LGDs?

These are our new puppies. In the back, named for the holiday is Patrick. Not St. Patrick, just Patrick. In the front, on the left is Baby; the brown one is Amidala (Ami for short). Let your 9-yr old name it and that's what you get… Star Wars character. Coulda been worse. If it was a boy, it's name would have been Chewbacca. They almost six weeks old, American mutts.
These are OUTSIDE dogs. I've built an enclosure for them. We're hoping they work well as goat protectors, or LGDs (Livestock Guard Dogs).

I've started laying out the fence pieces. I'm still going to need another 15 or so, just to get this closed in. It's not as large as I plan it to be upon completion, but it's enough to keep two goats. The area will start our about 160 square feet. It'll measure about 40' per side. Hoping for a couple of goats in April.

 

 

I was going for April/May but I want the new dogs to get used to there being goats near them.

Enjoy the Day!
Erik

Adding to the pallet stack

I thought I was sunk, today. It was a good day, overall. My Sunday morning pancakes didn’t turn out as fluffy as I would like them, but they were good. The bacon was left in the oven too long and almost burnt, which set one of my kids off crying, no joke. Nevertheless, the taste was good and they weren’t burnt, just “almost.”  It’s the first morning after setting the clocks one hour forward, when I constantly feel the rush of the day. It seemed as soon as breakfast was over, it was pushing noon! We were planning on taking in a movie, “Oz, the Great andPowerful”. It was going to be the family’s first feature length 3D movie. We gathered ourselves together and headed out.

The plan was to go to the movies, about a half hour south, then turn around and travel an hour north to get some additional pallets. Everyone enjoyed the movie. We drove to the factory from last week only to find the gates were closed. We could not get any pallets. We still had a bit to do in town, so started heading for the other end of town to go to Lowes. While I drove, my wife was looking at her iPhone. She mentioned someone had free pallets, text if interested. I said, “Great,” and handed her my own iPhone. She sent the text and we went on our merry way. We went to Lowe’s, a sporting goods store and dinner. We did not receive a reply text.

We were home almost a twenty minutes when my phone indicated I had a text message. The phone number with the pallets replied he (she?) had 10 available. I immediately expressed interest and the back and forth of texting commenced. I was not going to go back to town, tonight. Tuesday seemed like the likely day we could pick up the pallets. My wife was to be in town, and might be able to get most of them. After a few minutes more, we found out the person on the other end of the conversation was only a few miles from our house! We made some quick arrangements and we left posthaste to get some more fencing material.

After a quick ten-minute drive, we ended up with eleven pallets stuffed in the van. It was getting dark, so we decided to forego piling any on the rooftop luggage rack. Two of the pallets are double sized. Another has been tagged, by my wife, Faith, as “looking like a gate.” Because we were so close to home, we stacked them to the roof level, left the minivan’s rear hatch open and drove home to unload. We also took with us the promise of more pallets from the same place. They own their own business, have pallets they need removed and get pallets in on a regular basis. Hooray! Another repeat source for pallets. I had a sense of satisfaction driving home while enjoying the clouds against the darkening sky. I had been worried we would not add to our stack. After unloading in the dark, I looked to the stars and I said a word of thanks as I finished sweeping out the back of the van.

We have 33 pallets. If they are all approximately 40”x48”, I have close to 120 feet of fencing that will be 4 foot tall. Our next step will be to begin preparing the pallets. My kids have seen online pictures of fences of pallets that are painted bright colors. Two of the three want to paint our fence. Why not, right? We live out in the county. The next house up the road used to be salmon pink. There’s another further on painted yellow. I guess people like to stand out from the green and brown of the trees.

Progress!!

Finally, we feel like we're making some headway. After weeks of bad weather or just no time, we have been able to add to our pallet-pile. We have one business giving us 2-4 each month. Considering I'm aiming for 100, I needed another pick up point. I could not wait two to four years to complete my fence.
Looking around the suggested places and continually checking craigslist proved not just fruitless, but frustrating. I was beginning to think that all the pallets around here were already spoken for.
Finally, I had my wife post to some of her local online communities and Facebook, asking if anyone had free pallets. She received two replied within 24 hours! In less than a day we've gone from 4 pallets to 18 good pallets and a couple for scrap pieces. I have another half dozen lined up.

Understanding we have just the family van, not a truck, we left the kids with my mother-in-law as support and headed out. We were told there were pallets behind a local factory and to "pull up and get them." Of course, it wasn't quite that easy.
The factory has one gate to the rear of the facility. There was no one outside. It was barely above freezing… I didn't expect anyone to be outside! Slowly driving around, my wife spied three pallets sitting by a forklift. "There they are," she said. I wasn't so sure. This was a large facility and when I heard they said to "pull up and get them" did not sound like three pallets. I kept driving. We saw two more by a door. I kept driving. We rounded the back corner and saw what I was expecting. Multiple stacks of discarded, various sized pallets.
I backed the van in and we started going through the trove. Being grateful of the gesture, we loaded as many as we could. Some were small. Faith wanted those for our shed. We loaded pieces, to fill in gaps and repair the pallets that needed it, or will need it. Faith saw a couple bigger pieces she wanted. They weren't full pallets, not even half pallets, but she wanted the parts.
So we went home planning to come back. We were able to load the pallets without affecting the seating in the middle section, meaning we could take the kids next time. We went home. We had the kids come out and help with the unloading.
Later, we loaded the kids and returned to the pallets. The pieces Faith had her eye in we're heavy. They were each at least seven feet long, made from three 4x4 poles with 1x6 crossbeams. We were able to load both of them on the roof. While Faith took charge of tying down the big ones, Nathaniel and Aleah shuttled pallets to me, one on each side, calling out "Left-Right-Left-Right" as they collaborated. I stacked them in the van with Garret "helping" from inside. After loading about another half dozen, we came home.
We worked the unloading similarly to loading. The kids took out was small scraps we had, them cooperated to get alleys from the van to the bottom of the yard and stacked.
After we had the van emptied, Garret went inside, while Nathaniel and Aleah played on the stacks. It felt right. It felt good to have made progress.

The visit that wasn't

We were to have visited Tara and her family, today, to talk goat. It was all set up. Early in the week, the weatherman was predicting 50°'s as the high. Yesterday, it was forecasted to be snow and sleet and might hit the mid-30's.
we woke up to a massive wintery weather front moving across Tennessee. I watched it for an hour before contacting Tara. The roads around here are very steep and curvy. They're not long, jagged edged mountain roads. They're short, no guardrail between you and the pastureland 20 feet down the hill, irregular blacktop kind of road that'll slip out from under you before you know your car hit black ice. The road crews don't get out our way much.
So, the trip was cancelled. While writing this, I wonder if it was the right decision. Erring in the side of caution, it was. Parts of the interstate the family van would have crossed over were shut down… some 15 miles of it, due to (at one point) the report of about a dozen accidents of varying severity.
If I needed further proof we were to stay home, it came when my wife and I took a walk to her parents' place. Less than an inch was on the ground. The road toward her patents, next house up the road, was clear and almost dry. However, our driveway was ice, snow and slush. The roadway at the bottom of our driveway was a sight. Twenty feet to one side was covered in snow and slush. This bit o' winter extended about 100 feet in the other direction. Other than that "T" of winter. (our driveway and that bit of road) the street was clean.
We have learned, a long time ago we learned, when the Universe gives you a sign… pay attention.

Still in Limbo

I'm still aggravated about not being able to advance toward goat ownership. My chain saw's still busted and my bank account is still reeling from the well pump going out. But I am determined to make some sort of progress.
The county offices failed to call me back all week. I'll call them next week.
I have taken the monumental step of contacting another goat owner in my area. Tara is a member of Goat Spot and we are getting together next Saturday to talk goat. I look forward to seeing how another person has their goat yard set up.

I'll admit, I'm starting to feel desperate. I think my most favorable months to purchase a pair will be May or June. How I'm going to get an area for them, I'm not sure, starting over from scratch. I'm seriously considering a dog tie out system.

Should I "farm?"

I read an article, last week, indicating that the USDA is going to provide “microloans” to help small farmers, “…up to $35,000 are designed to help bolster family-run farms as well as minority growers and military veterans seeking to start a farm who might otherwise have trouble qualifying for small loans from banks or other USDA loan programs.” The article went on to say those interested should contact their local Farm Service Agency (FSA) office.

I looked up the contact information for my local FSA office and gave them a call. I was dismayed at the information that I received. First off, my button pushing did not direct me to the office I was seeking. I was did not want to apply for the loan, but wanted information about the new program. I got the loan dept., anyway. The nice lady, Betty I think her name was, explained that the other people “on the county side” were out of the office. When the phone rings a couple of times, if no one picks it up, she does.

I explained about the article. She said the first step was for me to register my farm, and stated there were not many goat farms in McMinn County, TN. The undertone made it sound like there were no goat farms in McMinn County, but I don’t know. I know there are people who have farms with goats, but they might not be registered as such. When I said I had about 1.4 acres of land, I could almost hear the corners of her mouth turn upward. The journey of her lips to condescending smirk completed when I said that I had never farmed before. According the Betty, they loans were for people who were farming for at least three years. Further research, linked above, seems to contradict her thinking. I’m guessing the new loan process may have been rolled out without much information leaking down to the local levels, yet, or Betty sees people trying to become farmers as an inconvenience and inadvertently tries to discourage such things. Welcome to the bureaucracy, Mr. Larson.

I hung up the phone without much more information than I had when I started the conversation, except that to apply for any government assistance, I would need to register my small plot of land as an official “farm.” This, however, is in contradiction to what I was told earlier, if I’m just producing milk for my family and plan to sell the excess goats for meat, I don’t need to register as a farm. I do not recall who told me that, but it was another phone call to another agency.

I am very much leaning toward registering my land as a “farm.” My accounting degree kicks in here, knowing there are tax advantagesto having a farm, as well as advantages in loans and that sort. I do not see any disadvantage in registering my land as a farm. I plan to speak with “the county side” to determine what is needed and learn more of the advantages of it. The disadvantage is that my farm my not make a profit and “fail.” I have tried to start other businesses that did not work out, so it is not a new experience. I would write it off and press on… ever onward.