Advice and Observations on John Victor's Problems
(Page 3 of 4)
The second problem area I spotted in John Victor's narrative is the four-legged animal trap. Housing and feed use up resources but are just one part of the problem. The main trap is the demand on your life and time to care for the horses, cows, pigs, etc., on a daily basis. Four-legged beasts tie you down almost as much as a small child. Cows and dairy goats must be milked twice a day; all animals must be fed and watered daily. Many homesteaders find a 365-day-a-year animal routine even more demoralizing than the 9-to-5 city grind; there, at least, you get two weeks' vacation (paid, at that). Please, folks, take up big livestock only after plenty of thought and enough time on the place to know your neighbors so well that they'll gladly tend the zoo occasionally, when you want to get away.
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Horses are a luxury to be avoided unless you can afford them. Period. John Victor has six horses (and two cows) on ten acres and obviously loves them enough to pay the (considerable) price. Doc, our own blue-eyed strawberry roan gelding, is a genuine wonder of the equine world, and I do my own saddlery and hoof work (with dirt trails we don't shoe), worm, and give routine shots. But, what with the price of winter feed and the cost of surrounding four acres of pasture with electric fence, my daughter Martha will have to ride at imputed stable rates for years to recoup the costs. The garden thrives on the manure, of course, but in pure dollar costs, what comes out of a horse isn't worth a fraction of what goes in.
A few technical tips: John's cows act like spoiled pets because that's how they were raised. Well, we all adopt the first beast or two as family members. "Brownie," Martha's favorite hen, lived well beyond her egg-laying years — eating voraciously the whole time — and, once deceased, earned a full-dress burial complete with headstone. After the first one or two, farm animals should be considered food on the hoof (or pad or claw) and dealt with humanely but from an emotional distance. Our hogs are successively called "Horrible Pig," our steers are named "Hamburger," and our chickens are kept as anonymous as a row of spinach.
The phrase "chaste rabbits" is a contradiction in terms. Maidenly does should be held with one hand (stoutly gloved and sleeved up to the elbow) pushing down firmly but gently on the saddle of the back, and with the thumb and finger of the other hand pulling the tail forward while the buck figures out his role. A young buck needs a little practice, but if he can't perform, get one that can. Some rabbits are hopeless; Martha gave her pet-store-owning friend, Susan, a Mini Lop buck named Pooh, who never could get his mission straight. He was neutered and is a great store mascot.
