Senseless Banter...

madnicmom wrote:Well, it's already started. They just finished the fence and I've busted Kane laying in one empty bed and digging in another one.

Dog owners: What have you done to prevent this? I'm already thinking of putting cattle panels up or something like that to fence in the garden.

I use hog panels for part of my garden fence (one side is the chain link propery fenceline) to keep out my dogs & goats(for when they sometimes get out of their pens). It is not the prettiest garden but does the job. Here is the link to when I started less than a year ago:

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t5172-my-new-garden-and-helpers

Cattle panels and t posts work for me. Some chicken wire would work to I'm sure.

Somehow, they seem to find a way around or over the fence.

My 18 month old grandson took his TONKA Truck to climb on so he could get over the fence around the Christmas Tree.

Cattle Panels and t-posts are hard to use in the living room.

Tonkas are for Climbing.

Gorgeous tree, Furbalsmom! Cute grandson - but those clever ones are Trouble!

Cattle Panels and t-posts are hard to use in the living room

Well, I really do. The granddaughters and I spent about an hour at Tractor Supply looking at all the books & magazines. We are thinking about a Tennessee fainting goat or a pygmy goat. I've been asking for about a year now & we have the acreage, but DH just gives me the "look".

BUT persistence, AKA nagging, sometimes pays off. I've wanted my chickens closer to the house for a long time & tried my darnedest to get a chicken tractor. Now he's drawn out the plans for my greenhouse/studio with an attached chicken coop & covered run.

Congratulations Dixie! Don't you just love persistance?

Lindacol, thank you! I remembered that thread.

dixie, do you have goats now or have you had them before?

I just ask because sometimes they can be somewhat of a challenge to keep "in" lol. They are pretty good escape artists! They are fun, but crafty lil buggers

Never had any. The TN fainting goat is "supposed" to be a little easier to keep fenced.

I really like the Dwarf Nigerian Dairy Goats. I try to convince my wife we would be better suited to have them instead of the meat goats we have now...

I have looked at the fainting goats too. They are pretty cute! Have you looked up what their purpose was?

They have been traced back to the 1880's & main purpose is meat. They are on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy Watch list. Link

WOW! talk about senseless banter. My parents are Ohio Farm Bureau members and I was just reading last month's magazine about meat goats. Very interesting, the USA is slow to get on the band wagon for adding goat meat to its menu's, the rest of the world consumes a whole lot more and has for some time.

nKedrOoStEr wrote: Have you looked up what their purpose was?

So why don't we talk about sacrificial goats?

I know that I have eaten goat meat, when I was fortunate enough to travel to Greece. I also know I really liked it. (I wasn't told, at least not in English, that it was goat, but I deductive reasoning says that is what it was.)

But I know that my hypocrisy would kick in again if someone asked me if I wanted to eat goat. (Which is ridiculous, because cows are cute, too!)

So, NR, do you slaughter your meat goats, or sell them, or both?

As you can see from my avatar I raise goats. I have had dairy goats as a hobby. I breed and show them. Started when I was in 4H, continued with my 2legged kids in 4H & FFA and I still show the goats. Here is my website ederscolquitt.com

Mine are the full size dairy goats but yes I have eaten and liked goat meat. More people in the world drink goat milk & eat goat meat then cow milk/meat. I do not eat my own goats but do sell some for meat. It is a fact of life. We give them a very good life while they are here but must select carefully the animals we can afford to keep. We have raised our own beef. I can not even watch the butchering but do not have a problem using the delicious, lean packed meat. A cow or steer is no longer cute when it weighs a 1000 lbs and can break your foot if it steps on it or when it lovingly rubs it's head on your leg and leaves a foot long bruise.

I have never raised Nigerian dwarfs. They are cute little buggers but their high pitched voices, particularily the young kids voices are very irritating to me. I like my quieter big girls. Mine are all considered Swiss breeds - full size dairy goats with upright ears that originated in the Swiss alps. They are in general quieter than the nubians with the long drooping ears and roman noses.

I have to laugh that this thread is about Senseless Banter.

This all about goats is SERIOUS STUFF. and I am learning a lot about it.

My husband and I ran a pub in England once for a short time and it came with a goat that was used to keep the grass down in the paddock. It was on a tether, and as it cleared one circle of grass it was moved over to the next patch of longish grass.

It coincided with a visit to the village by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Right Reverend Robert Runcie, who landed his borrowed helicopter in the paddock. He held an open air service, and it included blessing the goat for keeping the grass short enough for him to land. It did not do the goat any good, as we were only looking after the pub until a new landlord took over, and I believe the poor goat went to the knacker's yard.

Looking back on that time, I realise the paddock would have made a wonderful place for Square Foot Gardening. We also took over a couple of rather ancient gardeners, brothers, who would only grow veggies for us, I had to look after any flowers if I wanted them.

Lincacol, I posted in another thread that I am a hypocrite. I believe animals should live a healthy and happy life - and then be eaten. (Well, not ALL animals, but that is just more hypocrisy on my part.) I understand and agree that a 1,000 pound cow isn't cute like a calf is, although some of them have beautiful faces.

But I can't even claim to 100% buy happy animals to eat. In my opinion, our society has far too much separation between our food and our knowledge of food, and what happens to it on its way to our plate. (Both animal and vegetable.)

I heartily support and applaud anyone raising happy animals for slaughter.

Abattoir is a beautiful sounding word, pronounced abba-twar, as in "Let us wander over to the abba-twar" But it means slaughterhouse. Long time ago took a course in meat products (slaughtering) and the professor thought we should know this term. Just more senseless banter!

rubber baby buggy bumpers....

There're 8 'M' states. Anybody have a mental trick to keeping the abbreviations straight?

(The subject came up here:
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t9397-my-results#90326

And it's the last day for the Christmas Story!!!

boffer wrote:There're 8 'M' states. Anybody have a mental trick to keeping the abbreviations straight?

(The subject came up here:
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t9397-my-results#90326

SEDATION?

The only one for which I know a trick is Montanta - MT - empty....

nKedrOoStEr wrote:And it's the last day for the Christmas Story!!!

I know! I posted about it in the Editorial Comment thread!

boffer wrote:There're 8 'M' states. Anybody have a mental trick to keeping the abbreviations straight?

(The subject came up here:
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t9397-my-results#90326

I don't know if there is a "common" way to remember but I thought about it and came up with this: From a grammar class I recall that a, e, i, o, are common vowels that come after four of the "M" states. As in MA, ME, etc. Then you are left with the other four states that end in s,t,d, and n. Those letters make me think of a simple sentence, "STD-No!"
So here are your 8 "M" states-
MA, ME, MI, MO, MS, MT, MD, MN
I swear I just made this up.