New Toys

About two years ago, we received several pieces of pre-built deck, with steps, rails, and an odd shaped step-pyramid from a mobile home dealer,going out of business.
Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Bill persuaded his dad to help him dismantle, move, and set up all of this at our place. We had enough spare pieces and pre-built decking to add a back porch, front porch addition, and four sets of stairs with stringers and handrails. This set of stairs was a leftover piece and just right for our goat yard. As you can see, they are inspecting every bit of Bill's handiwork.

(Bill here now) Construction was so simple it doesn't really bear talking about. The step unit was pre-assembled and we just propped up one end with 4x4 posts which we screwed in place. (With my new and fabulous DeWalt variable speed reversible drill which I got for Christmas from my loving and beautiful wife KL. End of gloat.)

The goats seem to like it a great deal (the steps - not the drill) and we figure it will stay dry enough beneath that it will be a good place to put the feed and mineral blocks.

KL and Bill at High Antler

Ladies and Gentlemen - Elvis!

Please help us welcome our newest citizen here at High Antler: Elvis. Elvis is a Pygmy buck. He is about a year and a half old (the people we got him from weren't fanatical record-keepers.) He has had no shots or worming treatments. More welcome news is that he had been on the farm by himself his entire life. The odds that he is carrying any goat diseases is pretty remote.

Elvis came to us due to our sudden realization that our window of opportunity to breed Amanda and Bridgette was about to slam shut. It seems it was only just summer and now we're coming hard up against the end of breeding season. Since KimLee has assured me that Amanda and Bridgette have both whispered in her ear their desire to have little baby goats, the search was on. Ryan, our 15 year old major domo and feeder of the critters, found a Greensheet listing for a Pygmy buck for $50. After KimLee made a call and was assured it was a healthy buck, off we trekked to Lancaster, Texas for closer look.


Elvis was tied to a tree with aircraft cable, but long before we saw him, we smelled him. KimLee assures me that she objects not so much to the odor, as to the burning in her eyes. Sadly, a strong goatly odor must be endured if one wishes to bring little baby goats into the world. After chatting briefly with the owners we were led to Elvis. His gums looked pink and healthy, his eyes were clear (and piercing.) I reached below and subjected Elvis to a mild indignity and determined that he was indeed a buck. KimLee gave me the nod and the next thing he knew, Elvis was being led to the back of our pickup - on a leash. Yes, Elvis is a friendly goat, not your stereotypical Hee-Haw rounder, but a gentle - even loveable - goat.


How did we get Elvis home over about seventy miles of road, most of it freeway, at an average speed of about 60 mph? I'm so proud of our solution to this, I'll devote an entire post to our Goat Transportation System (GTS) - later.

Since Elvis is about to meet Amanda and Bridgette, you should too. Here they are surveying their domain. Amanda and Bridgette are sisters and about 10 months old. With luck they'll have a thing for older goats.

Elvis arrived and was removed from the GTS. He was then treated to a brief walking tour of High Antler and got to greet numerous dogs, cats and chickens. He then entered the goat pen.

Now I'd like to tell you how Elvis suavely greeted the ladies. How he smoothly moved up to the girls, tenderly nuzzled them, and led them into the goat house for some quality goat time. That's what I would like to tell you, but the sad truth is that goat romance is considerably less pleasant and does not involve candlelight dinners at all. Elvis's first romantic overture was to stick out his tongue and snort loudly. Then, apparently having decided that his goat aroma was waning, he did the goat equivalent of applying after-shave. This is done exactly the way men apply aftershave except: (1) the aftershave is applied with a much more personal body part, and (2) the word aftershave should be replaced with the word urine.

There is little more to say that won't have me in trouble with People For Goat Decency. Suffice to say we granted them some privacy and we'll see what develops.

Raised Garden Beds and Containers, Part 1

Now that the snow has melted at High Antler, all half an inch of it, time to assess the repairs and clean up the mess. The next two months are 'down time' for us. December and January are spent making repairs, adjustments, and prepartions for the coming season.

Spring comes early down here. Most of our seeds go right into the raised beds in March, wearing little 'cloches' or mini greenhouses made of plastic drink bottles. Since I never throw anything away, we simply collect them in a bin out in the shed until planting time. Our soil is fondly known as 'sugar sand', because it is mainly very fine sand. In some parts, the sand is twelve feet deep, and then red clay for an unknown distance.

There are some other situations at play here, such as the hot summers, 100F+ days, often as soon as May, coupled with extreme drought conditions. The price and quality of alfalfa hay reflected that fact back in August. Too much and not good, in that order.

We are huge fans of the All New Square Foot Gardening: Grow More in Less Space!method. This is one of the easiest things I have ever tried, and the bulk of the work is to get it started. Most people just get out the tiller and make rows, hoe the weeds, water several times a week, and hope for the best. Makes me tired and sore just thinking about it.
Square foot gardening consists of prepared soil in raised beds and vertical trellises. This is pretty basic stuff, and it has made all the difference.

Keeping with our philosophy of making the best of what we have on hand, Bill and I have made some pretty interesting raised beds. Remember, I never throw anything away.... I also find new uses for FBSR (found by the side of the road) and FBSD (found by the side of a dumpster) that others have thrown away. Doesn't really matter what it is, I will find a use for it. Bill's eyes glaze over whenever I ask him to pull over and load up that item someone left for the trash collection during our forays into the city, or the broken piece of whatnot leaning next to a dumpster. I have grown herbs in an old barbecue grill for the past 8 years. We found it somewhere in our journey from the city.

Ideally, raised beds should be constructed of new, treated lumber, and painted with oil based gloss enamel for protection. They should be uniform in size, and pretty. Any similarities in the former and our raised beds begins and ends with the oil based enamel paint. In fact, our only cash outlay was a roll of galvanized fencing, a roll of chicken wire, 2 boxes of wood screws, 4 dozen corner brackets, and a bucket of paint, 'barn red'.

The frameworks for the trellises are a bit more creative. We were given a pvc pipe configuration that was once a soccer goal. After some creative sawing and glueing, Bill was able to make three trellises, one for each of three large rectangular beds. Some leftover short pieces were used in Part 2. More about that later.

~~KL

Chicken House in the grip of the "Deadly Snowstorm"

This is our primary chicken coop and the only one we currently have in use. It consists of a shed (about 8x10) with wood walls and floor and a corrogated metal roof. The east wall has a window screened with hardware cloth. In the winter we board this window up to keep out drafts. The shed door has a smaller chicken-entrance cut in the bottom so the chickens can still come and go while the main door is closed. Attached to the west wall (the one with the door) is a framework (about 8x12) built out of 2x3" lumber and covered with one inch chicken wire on the sides and top. (We wanted the top covered to protect our girls from hawks.) The door to the enclosure is a standard aluminum screen door which we picked up at our local ReStore. (This let us get a door we needed super-cheap while helping out some less fortunate folks. A win-win kind of deal.)

Note the raised beds along the sides of the enclosure. Above the raised beds we have re-used metal bedsprings and wooden bedframes for use as trellises. Had you been here in the spring you would have seen the Morning Glories and Sunflowers.

If you look close you can see the water containers inside. They are one gallon each and we have six inside for 14 chickens. The containers are elevated on cement blocks and seem to get less dirty this way.

You can also make out our hanging chicken-feeders. These hang high enough to make it easy for the chickens to eat and they hardly get dirty at all. Sometime soon we'll show you how to make all you want out of discarded materials.

Inside the shed are more feeders and waterers along with nesting boxes made from FBSOR (Found By Side of Road) shelving units.