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4H Projects

Oldest 2 and I got the round pen up. I was concerned if 40' would be enough for 3 ppl and 2 animals to move around freely, it's plenty.

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Still need to finish the stalls and figure out the final location for tieouts/washrack.
 
We spent 4 hours reclaiming our barn and pen area in prep for goats. It's possible they won't be allowed to take chickens, so we're getting goats as a back up. Ill snap some pics next time we're out there. Been a decade since we've had stock in the pens, so it was a disaster!
The last time bird flu was an issue the kids in my county still got to do the project, they just couldn't bring them into the fairgrounds. I have no idea how they judged them but I know they were "showing" a stuffed one at the auction and I still bid on a couple.

We are debating.
My daughter is adamant she doesn't want to do chickens but my youngest (first year in 4h) is okay doing them. She wants to do hogs so I'll have to do some work in the barn to makes that feasible. They both want to continue to do rabbits so I need to order more stuff for that also.
 
We decided to ride the chicken train for the County fair and hope for the best. It didn't make sense to only do one pen of chickens and a meat goat, versus two pens of chickens at County and a dairy goat our local independent fair (which unfortunately is the opening weekend of bow season). So we're goat farmers now. We found these Nubian wethers up in Tusc County that we'll go get in 2-3 weeks. They'll be fully weened and banded, which will be nice. They're brothers out of a set of triplets and I can't wait to eat them 😂

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We decided to ride the chicken train for the County fair and hope for the best. It didn't make sense to only do one pen of chickens and a meat goat, versus two pens of chickens at County and a dairy goat our local independent fair (which unfortunately is the opening weekend of bow season). So we're goat farmers now. We found these Nubian wethers up in Tusc County that we'll go get in 2-3 weeks. They'll be fully weened and banded, which will be nice. They're brothers out of a set of triplets and I can't wait to eat them 😂

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Anything they can reach will be destroyed fair warning lol.
 
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Today's 4H prep was one stinky, filthy, dusty, nasty ass chore that's needed done for a way too long! Took us a solid 7 hours to get the barn to a point where we can put it back together in a cleaner and more organized manner.

I replaced all the single bulb lights with 3' LED lights, and added a new LED floodlight. We fixed all the gates and added goat panel to them. I need to fix the frost free hydrant and we'll be fully functional for the goats, which come home next weekend.

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We had two adventures. Tracie uncovered a massive female coon with babies that made for interesting times 😂

The second was pulling the old tractor out. It's a 1956 Ford 600 and its the tractor I learned to drive on when I was a kid. It's been in the barn for 20 years. I'm torn on what to do with it, but at the moment it's getting a bath thanks to a huge thunderstorm that just rolled through. One of these days I hope to restore it, but it'll have to wait.

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Will be 3wks tomm since the fellas came home and I'm very happy with their disposition and progress so far. We are up to 1.5hrs tied up + walking/working with them another 30 mins each day. Took about 3 days but you can walk up to them and boys are able to get halters on, tie em with quick release knot and lead them with assistance (mostly rear pressure only). Only 1 incident of letting go of the lead by Myles to date, thankfully Brownie just stood there looking at him like "wtf is ure deal" lol. The barn time is exactly what the oldest 2 needed to learn to work together. I'd be lying if I didnt say I enjoy it with them, and the smell. Something about cows. That said, 7:30am/7:30 pm, one of em better be feeding/watering/picking shit😁.

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I turned and burned last Sunday to middle of lower mitt MI to get our grooming chute. Good dude, awesome product, boys requested the Edison Charger orange accents, turned out great. Tomm we get the Flex Seal to coat the wood floor to make 100% waterproof. Went back n forth on materials, but anything with a wood base has to be sealed and its the most economic path and lightest design. This weekend we introduce baths/rinses/blower.

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