Herbal Treatment of Goats

Like all domestic goats, internal parasites can be a problem in a goat herd. In the wild, goats are nomadic creatures who roam the countryside. Domestically, goats are confined to paddocks and pastures where they continuously re-graze. Thus, parasite infestations are more likely in domesticated goats than their wild cousins. 

My friend Amicus and I use herbal treatment for internal parasites in our goat herd. We have found that Molly's Herbals Original Worm Formula System works well to keep our little herd in the North Carolina Piedmont healthy. 

Chemical dewormers are harsh and kill certain species of worms indiscriminately.  Other species are unaffected by the chemical dewormers. Unless you get a good fecal test that is well interpreted, you may often have to buy a regimen of different chemicals until successful.

Chemicals in our dairy goat is not desired. We are drinking our goat Edna's milk, making cheese for us and our chickens, and yogurt. I am not willing to risk chemicals passing through the goat system and into ours.

Jean Duval, agronomist, M.Sc., the author quoted above suggests indiscriminate killing of the worm species is unwise.

gastrointestinal parasites play a role similar to earthworms in the soil; that they "aerate" the digestive system when it is overloaded by too much silage, grain or green hay. 

Ecological Agriculture Projects, CONTROL OF INTERNAL PARASITES IN RUMINANTS, Jean Duval, agronomist, M.Sc. (McGill University Oct. 2002). 

One response to the Vet's suggestion may be to use Ivomec Plus.  This is a stronger herb that ivermectin. It has an anthelmintic (clorsulon) designed specifically to eliminate Liver fluke worms.

Guinea Harvest

We ate two of our guinea fowl last week. Both were males about one year old. The birds were leaders of an older set of guineas.

We still have four birds from the older flock. These birds, which join the younger flock of 21 birds from time to time, seem to interfere in the larger group roosting in their safe coop. 

Katrina has requested that I turn these four into meat for our freezer. I suspect that this weekend we may be harvesting four more guinea fowl --meat for the humans.

I am at peace with eating our livestock. We give them a good life. Our job as the human is to be a good steward. We do our job. We keep our guineas safe from predators. We see that they have shelter and quality food. We keep their environment clean and healthy.  

They are very happy animals. They range around our place clucking, trilling, bee-bopping, squawking and occasionally screeching at our old cat. They run here and there, clowning around, and eating bugs. That is a guinea life. A good one.

respectful chicken harvest kill and pluck - how to

Video of Bluebell and Ricky Taken Today

Post by Edwin Turnage.

Identification of our Chestnut Trees: I am calling them hybrids for now.

Here are pictures of our Chestnut tree elements.  The leaf looks like a combination of the American and Chinese variety.

Our Tree leaf is to the right

From left to right: American, Chinese, our chestnut tree burr

From left to right: American, Chinese, our variety.

Based upon review of these images and our tree, it looks like we have a hybrid chestnut tree. The leaf in the top picture resembles both varieties. The lentles in the second picture look like American Chestnut lentles. The burrs resemble the Chinese chestnut variety. The nuts are big like Chinese chestnuts, but they are hairy like the American variety.

I am calling our trees hybrid chestnuts until I can get the definitive word from the American Chestnut foundation.  

The leaves of my chestnut tree will be submitted for analysis via the instructions in this link.

The Useful and Pretty Rose of Sharon Bush

On our homestead, we are well pleased with the summer flowering plant species, Hibiscus Syriacus. The plant is from the Malvaceae family of course from the Plantae kingdom. The plant is species native to Syria, as is indicated by its name. Below are pictures of our plant taken in September 2014.

Our hibiscus syriacus is identified from the cultivar as, "Notwoodone" or "LAVENDER CHIFFON® - Rose of Sharon." This post is written to delve into the meat of this useful and pretty plant.

The flowers of hibiscus warn of the waning summer. Here in North Carolina, we sometimes view this with relief! It is also a reminder that we need to prepare ourselves for approaching wintertime.

Interestingly, the plant will grow beneath the allopathic Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) which inhibits growth of many plants.

Hibiscus Syriacus is favored by professional landscapers as a hedge plant.  It is a low maintenance plant with pleasing flowers.

Uses:

The young leaves and flowers of Hibiscus Syriacus  are edible in salads. The leaves are less palatable than the flowers, which have a mild flavor. They also can be made into a tea.

Hibiscus Syriacus is a medicinal herb. 

A decoction of the flowers is diuretic, ophthalmic and stomachic. It is also used in the treatment of itch and other skin diseases, dizziness and bloody stools accompanied by much gas. A decoction of the root bark is antiphlogistic, demulcent, emollient, febrifuge, haemostatic and vermifuge. It is used in the treatment of diarrhoea, dysentery, dysmenorrhoea and dermaphytosis.

Medicinal Herbs

Propagation:

According to the Missouri Botanical Garden, Hibiscus Syriacus is, "[e]asily propagated by stem cuttings." Stem cuttings with produce a clone of the mother plant. The plant also will grow from her seeds, but she may not be true to type in terms of flower color.

Chestnut Tree identification

That is highly unlikely. But if we do, our trees could be the champions if they can pass along the resistant genetics. (Something other would-be champions have not been able to do at this stage.)

First we found an excellent Internet chestnut tree identification resource: The American Chestnut Foundation. Using the site, we compiled the following data to undertake this project.