Beautiful weather this week. 62 and sunny and 72 in the house feels like a greenhouse!
The kids are asking if the ice is out in the pond, can we go swimming?? (NO!) LOL.
We have been working on the garden-yesterday we turned over three beds. Today we cleaned out the chicken coop and the goose shelter. We gave our neighbor the four beautiful white roosters. They were fighting too much and the kids want to keep the old barred rock and his son for roosters.
Poor Loosey the Goose loved those white roosters! He was courting them! So I am going to have to get goslings if I can't find him a goose friend soon!
A friend went to Johnny's selected seed today and dropped off some stuff for us. I told him just get extra and we will split the order. Some of the packets we were splitting by hand-who needs 30 zuccinni or summer squash plants?
We combed again at the farm today. Four of us were on wethers this am. I took on Emerson-the jackpot. He just dumps all of his at once. Two huge bags full and he still has more. He was much better this year-and he has gotten sooooo fat! He was new to the farm last spring and skin and bones and jumpy. He was so glad I was combing him today! Awwww>
Can't wait to get the peas and lettuce and spinach in-but I think I will wait for the new moon, another week. It seems if I plant before that the weather is lousy. I might plant a little this weekend and again in a week and compare how they do.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Wednesday
The swallows are back at S's farm where we get hay. He said they were back on Friday, the day our Phoebe returned. S and I both heard Loons that day too. What a couple of kids we are-we yacked away about stuff for a good half hour.
Willow spotted the Golden Eagles today over at Prescott. Four of them. As she said, "Goldens" one of the boys replied, "naw, those are just hawks," to which I replied, "no.Those are Golden Eagles."
We whistled to no avail, although the Willow insists that they circled before they drifted out of sight. I figure that while they might not be able to distinguish the difference between a boy holding a manure rake vs. a high powered rifle, they still know a teenaged boy when they see one.
That location seems to be out of their normal range, although I have sited them the next town down. On the way home, I spied a small engine plane flying low over the mountains where I suspect they have been nesting. Has the eagle specialist with ME Fish and Wildlife finally followed up on my tip and been flying over their standard range? That might cause them to wander.
Combing cashmere-still happening. I set Willow right up with old poptart Jackson-just since he is still shedding and loves the attention. They make a cute team. One doe we combed today filled her small bag, and then I placed it in a 5 gallon bucket, since Willow took her over while I wailed away on poor Clarke's matts. I looked over and the doe's cashmere was overflowing the bucket. Phew.
At the big bucks, Willow worked on Chris, just 'cos she loves him and he is still shedding. R seemed surprised at how much Willow combed off in him short time. I was working on Mauro, who has that bit of an evil streak. He stands nice as can be and then moves like lightning and tries to "get you". He didn't get me today, and occasionally I scratched his cheek and rubbed his horns to bring him around. I still kept out of reach, and, thankfully, I think he is finished producing cashmere for this year. :P
Boss is picking up a 2 year old buck on Friday, and Willow and I were quite excited. The rest of the crew grumbled .
Willow and I have agreed to work the opening day of the Farmer's Market for Boss, who will be going to an Agricultural Fair. The day also happens to fall on the annual huge garage sale/library book sale next to the Farmer's Market, so that should be quite the event. Willow and I are already planning what to wear. Or, at least, I should say, she is planning on what I will wear. She definitely has the better fashion sense.
I told Boss I was planning on going with a dress, and she said that we ought to look like farmers. I said it would be a country dress, and then asked if I should just wear work clothes, if that would be better for business. She said to wear whatever I wanted.
Damn retired Psychiatrists. LOL.
Willow spotted the Golden Eagles today over at Prescott. Four of them. As she said, "Goldens" one of the boys replied, "naw, those are just hawks," to which I replied, "no.Those are Golden Eagles."
We whistled to no avail, although the Willow insists that they circled before they drifted out of sight. I figure that while they might not be able to distinguish the difference between a boy holding a manure rake vs. a high powered rifle, they still know a teenaged boy when they see one.
That location seems to be out of their normal range, although I have sited them the next town down. On the way home, I spied a small engine plane flying low over the mountains where I suspect they have been nesting. Has the eagle specialist with ME Fish and Wildlife finally followed up on my tip and been flying over their standard range? That might cause them to wander.
Combing cashmere-still happening. I set Willow right up with old poptart Jackson-just since he is still shedding and loves the attention. They make a cute team. One doe we combed today filled her small bag, and then I placed it in a 5 gallon bucket, since Willow took her over while I wailed away on poor Clarke's matts. I looked over and the doe's cashmere was overflowing the bucket. Phew.
At the big bucks, Willow worked on Chris, just 'cos she loves him and he is still shedding. R seemed surprised at how much Willow combed off in him short time. I was working on Mauro, who has that bit of an evil streak. He stands nice as can be and then moves like lightning and tries to "get you". He didn't get me today, and occasionally I scratched his cheek and rubbed his horns to bring him around. I still kept out of reach, and, thankfully, I think he is finished producing cashmere for this year. :P
Boss is picking up a 2 year old buck on Friday, and Willow and I were quite excited. The rest of the crew grumbled .
Willow and I have agreed to work the opening day of the Farmer's Market for Boss, who will be going to an Agricultural Fair. The day also happens to fall on the annual huge garage sale/library book sale next to the Farmer's Market, so that should be quite the event. Willow and I are already planning what to wear. Or, at least, I should say, she is planning on what I will wear. She definitely has the better fashion sense.
I told Boss I was planning on going with a dress, and she said that we ought to look like farmers. I said it would be a country dress, and then asked if I should just wear work clothes, if that would be better for business. She said to wear whatever I wanted.
Damn retired Psychiatrists. LOL.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Friday, April 10, 2009
Friday
Well, it's been a busy day! Should I add that it started off with more regurgitated cat food on the stairs on my way to coffee? Jingle has just got to stop eating mice-they are obviously not agreeing with her.
Busy at the farm. Ironically, my border photo of the farm shows Pablo in the fore-Boss took him for combing herself, as she is separating his fiber white from coloured. Fine with me-I tend to comb all over and am rather careless about separating, besides, I had my hands full.
Nasrim again, and I had Willow on Carlos, the caramel wether second near in the photo. Willow raved about how sweet he was, and then wandered off to admire the babies. Still only five romping about. Bonnie tried to get Boss when Boss climbed into her pen to wash her hooves after yesterday's trim-once Bonnie realized Boss had no interest in her baby (Willow's favorite), she settled down.
So, I moved over to take over Carlos, and managed to tease out a bit of cashmere clumped on his neck. Barbaranna, one of my favorite does, third back in the pic, was waiting for Boss to do her hooves, keeping us company in the box stall.
When she went, I released Carlos, and moved on to Clarke, a big fat white wether with long guard hair. Willow has nicknamed him, "The Cornmaster". He is reknown for breaking into the grain room and nearly stuffing himself into a coma.
His rear is totally matted dreadlocks, and I have been working him for two days trying to get the cashmere off his neck and midline, and alternating slickers full of guard hair off the mats. Still not done.
Then we moved onto the buckling hill with P, and she took on Rue, and I took on Bibbles. Yeah, we have missed the sun; by 10am it is picking up strength and two days of it is giving my face a bit of a glow.
Then I met the crew over at the big bucks, and took on Mauro. I set Willow up with Zeuss, after trying to help the boys find a short in the electric fence. Boss hadn't asked me to look, and since I was there to comb I left them to it .
Chriss started giving Boss a hard time while she was working on Zeuss's hooves, so I collared him and was bringing him through the fence while Willow had taken on Mauro. Then something happened. I missed it, but it involved Willow getting dumped off the five gallon bucket she was sitting on. I am not sure if he tried to butt her or just jumped and bumped her off. I think she was covering for him,(since I couldn't get a clear story) but thankfully she was unhurt except for her pride.
Boss took over combing Chrissie, and I sent Willow off to the farm pond to check out the croaking frogs. I was still on Mauro. Once or twice I cleaned my slicker and reached over and swiped gobs of cashmere off of Chrissie's neck when he had his head back showing Boss where to comb with his horns. It was funny watching him pause in mid scratch while I swiped his neck. He was in Nirvana. LOL.
Then the hounds next door discovered Willow at the pond, and startled her, so back she rushed through the swamp, filling her boots with water. TG it was time to call it a day.
Back home I spread some well rotted manure on the "lawn". We played some soccer with Peko in the driveway, and it was easy to see what happened to the lawn last fall. In no time the drive was churned up into loose dirt. When I have the drive fixed, I think I will just have them dump a load of gravel at the end and throw Peko's ball on top. It will be spread out in no time.
We took the goats for a walk in the woods. They were astonished when I dropped the gate and stepped back. They rushed out and started gobbling all the little bits on the ground, and then moved on to toppling small firs, and finally started walking and nibbling only the select bits. Once we reached the marsh, they bolted back up the hill to the goose grain, much to the chagrin of the goose, who latched onto Moonie, honking and flapping.
Then the goats moved on to the grain sludge the Firebird has been dumping out of the goose water all winter, and that was enough for me. I put the goats back in.
A huge pizza and half gallon of ice cream for dinner-I took beer instead of the ice cream-hey, it's Friday, what the heck...
I type this praying for rain to move in before morning-Boss wants us back tomorrow if the weather is good, but I want the weekend off. The weather looks great for all next week, so there will be plenty of time for combing then. Still, if the sun rises in the morning, I may go for some more combing. C'mon rain. (did I really say that????)
Busy at the farm. Ironically, my border photo of the farm shows Pablo in the fore-Boss took him for combing herself, as she is separating his fiber white from coloured. Fine with me-I tend to comb all over and am rather careless about separating, besides, I had my hands full.
Nasrim again, and I had Willow on Carlos, the caramel wether second near in the photo. Willow raved about how sweet he was, and then wandered off to admire the babies. Still only five romping about. Bonnie tried to get Boss when Boss climbed into her pen to wash her hooves after yesterday's trim-once Bonnie realized Boss had no interest in her baby (Willow's favorite), she settled down.
So, I moved over to take over Carlos, and managed to tease out a bit of cashmere clumped on his neck. Barbaranna, one of my favorite does, third back in the pic, was waiting for Boss to do her hooves, keeping us company in the box stall.
When she went, I released Carlos, and moved on to Clarke, a big fat white wether with long guard hair. Willow has nicknamed him, "The Cornmaster". He is reknown for breaking into the grain room and nearly stuffing himself into a coma.
His rear is totally matted dreadlocks, and I have been working him for two days trying to get the cashmere off his neck and midline, and alternating slickers full of guard hair off the mats. Still not done.
Then we moved onto the buckling hill with P, and she took on Rue, and I took on Bibbles. Yeah, we have missed the sun; by 10am it is picking up strength and two days of it is giving my face a bit of a glow.
Then I met the crew over at the big bucks, and took on Mauro. I set Willow up with Zeuss, after trying to help the boys find a short in the electric fence. Boss hadn't asked me to look, and since I was there to comb I left them to it .
Chriss started giving Boss a hard time while she was working on Zeuss's hooves, so I collared him and was bringing him through the fence while Willow had taken on Mauro. Then something happened. I missed it, but it involved Willow getting dumped off the five gallon bucket she was sitting on. I am not sure if he tried to butt her or just jumped and bumped her off. I think she was covering for him,(since I couldn't get a clear story) but thankfully she was unhurt except for her pride.
Boss took over combing Chrissie, and I sent Willow off to the farm pond to check out the croaking frogs. I was still on Mauro. Once or twice I cleaned my slicker and reached over and swiped gobs of cashmere off of Chrissie's neck when he had his head back showing Boss where to comb with his horns. It was funny watching him pause in mid scratch while I swiped his neck. He was in Nirvana. LOL.
Then the hounds next door discovered Willow at the pond, and startled her, so back she rushed through the swamp, filling her boots with water. TG it was time to call it a day.
Back home I spread some well rotted manure on the "lawn". We played some soccer with Peko in the driveway, and it was easy to see what happened to the lawn last fall. In no time the drive was churned up into loose dirt. When I have the drive fixed, I think I will just have them dump a load of gravel at the end and throw Peko's ball on top. It will be spread out in no time.
We took the goats for a walk in the woods. They were astonished when I dropped the gate and stepped back. They rushed out and started gobbling all the little bits on the ground, and then moved on to toppling small firs, and finally started walking and nibbling only the select bits. Once we reached the marsh, they bolted back up the hill to the goose grain, much to the chagrin of the goose, who latched onto Moonie, honking and flapping.
Then the goats moved on to the grain sludge the Firebird has been dumping out of the goose water all winter, and that was enough for me. I put the goats back in.
A huge pizza and half gallon of ice cream for dinner-I took beer instead of the ice cream-hey, it's Friday, what the heck...
I type this praying for rain to move in before morning-Boss wants us back tomorrow if the weather is good, but I want the weekend off. The weather looks great for all next week, so there will be plenty of time for combing then. Still, if the sun rises in the morning, I may go for some more combing. C'mon rain. (did I really say that????)
Thursday, April 9, 2009
goat talk
We wormed all our goats yesterday morning. I was not sure what they weighed, so I took the scale out and pre-weighed the Firebird and myself, expecting that we would pick up the goat and then subtract our weights. We started with skittish little Anna, the youngest, who had never been wormed. Of course her eyelids were bright red, indicating that she was not anemic, but I was going to worm them all anyhow.
Anna's response to people is to play passive. She curled up on the ground and glued herself there. The Firebird couldn't budge her. Talk about dead weight! I managed to get her in my arms, and then couldn't get to standing, so I had the Firebird help me lift her. She weighed 65 pounds!
Then Derek was on the small house roof, so I scooped him up, he being the next smallest, and he weighed nearly a hundred. Combined with my weight of currently 137,
(my Doc would be dancing with glee), we nearly topped the scale, so I stopped weighing goats and started guesstimating. Phew, got that job done!
Today we worked at the farm. The day did not start well at home, beginning with cat vomit on my favorite rug (I refer to these as omens of a "cat puke day") and sure enough, things were helter skelter at the farm. We ended up on the buckling hill for two hours combing the little guys. The first ones were easy enough-then I had saved Jacolby for last.
The other time I combed him, he yelled so hard I had to release him. So of course today he started in yelling. I started singing to him..."Mr. Pitiful". This caused him to increase the tempo of his screaming. Maybe he was just trying to drown me out. Finally he settled down enough to comb quietly. Phew, my arms arm aching, and I already agreed to comb the big bucks tomorrow. Ha. I think I am ready for a nap.... :P
Anna's response to people is to play passive. She curled up on the ground and glued herself there. The Firebird couldn't budge her. Talk about dead weight! I managed to get her in my arms, and then couldn't get to standing, so I had the Firebird help me lift her. She weighed 65 pounds!
Then Derek was on the small house roof, so I scooped him up, he being the next smallest, and he weighed nearly a hundred. Combined with my weight of currently 137,
(my Doc would be dancing with glee), we nearly topped the scale, so I stopped weighing goats and started guesstimating. Phew, got that job done!
Today we worked at the farm. The day did not start well at home, beginning with cat vomit on my favorite rug (I refer to these as omens of a "cat puke day") and sure enough, things were helter skelter at the farm. We ended up on the buckling hill for two hours combing the little guys. The first ones were easy enough-then I had saved Jacolby for last.
The other time I combed him, he yelled so hard I had to release him. So of course today he started in yelling. I started singing to him..."Mr. Pitiful". This caused him to increase the tempo of his screaming. Maybe he was just trying to drown me out. Finally he settled down enough to comb quietly. Phew, my arms arm aching, and I already agreed to comb the big bucks tomorrow. Ha. I think I am ready for a nap.... :P
Monday, April 6, 2009
Fishing, tree climbing, and ice out?
Open water fishing began April first. We thought today there might be just enough open water to give it a go. Here is Willow, the determined, but disappointed, fisherwoman.
I managed to catch a tree (bobber dangling in middle of photo). Where is that tree-trimmer when you need him? I turned over casting to the saplings, who managed much better, only snagging the ice floes a few times.
The Firebird managed a few excellent casts on his own, until he (wisely) gave up fishing, and retreated to his more preferred pastime, tree-climbing. Note the snowboots and t-shirt, while Willow is huddled in a snowcoat. ;)
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Sunday
Busy day!
Finally some sun again! So it made a good day for the farm!
Boss had Linnea and Bonnie in mind-neither one suitable for Willow, so I headed over to the wether pen and picked out Jackson, Lincoln, and Jasper as possibles for her. I brought Jackson right over, and Willow just loves him. He is a giant, and the joke at the farm is that he was raised on poptarts-he came back to the farm from another household. He was raised with rowdy kids (poptarts) and is very gentle for Willow.
I took on Linnea, very cautiously. She nearly broke my kneecap last year, so today I kept my distance, but actually, she was very good. She only tried to get me once. I got two big bags of fiber off her, and Willow combed a ton off Jackson, too. Then I brought the other two wethers over, but Willow said Lincoln wasn't releasing, and she didn't want to deal with Jasper's long guard hair, so she chose to hang with the new babies.
That's right, the babies have started arriving at the farm! Last week Coretta dropped a set of twins, both does, and Bonnie had a single buck. Then Dancer had twins, one of each, two days later.
I released Lincoln and cleaned Jasper up, and then moved on to Bonnie. I opened the pen after I chained Bonnie. She wasn't releasing much fiber, and then her buckling darted out of the stall and she started flipping out, so I released her. Dancer's babies were napping, and since she was the only goat not out in the field, I collared her and cleaned her up. She kept trying to get me, so I had to hold a horn in one hand and comb with the other.
In the meantime, Coretta and Bonnie had moved out of the barn, and Willow was hanging with them and the three kids. Bonnie has her hooves full with that little buck!!! He was romping with the little doelings, and Bonnie was having a fit!!! He would run and she would go after him with buggy eyes. Then Corretta's black kid was trying to nurse and Bonnie butted her because she thought it was her little black buck!
Finally we went to Prescott and I combed Duke. He was being very jumpy-finally I had one of the weekend boys hold him, and Boss worked on his neck while I wailed away with the slicker.
I found some pussywillows in full bloom as we were leaving, and they joined the vase of forced forsythia on the kitchen table when we finally arrived home.
I have been looking for at least one more goose for our lonesome gander. I found a couple of female pilgrim geese down in New York, but the price and the shipping is steep. We could get eight goslings for a better price from Metzer. Hmmmm-I don't really want a big flock of geese, so Lucifer might have to content himself with the chickens for company for awhile....
Finally some sun again! So it made a good day for the farm!
Boss had Linnea and Bonnie in mind-neither one suitable for Willow, so I headed over to the wether pen and picked out Jackson, Lincoln, and Jasper as possibles for her. I brought Jackson right over, and Willow just loves him. He is a giant, and the joke at the farm is that he was raised on poptarts-he came back to the farm from another household. He was raised with rowdy kids (poptarts) and is very gentle for Willow.
I took on Linnea, very cautiously. She nearly broke my kneecap last year, so today I kept my distance, but actually, she was very good. She only tried to get me once. I got two big bags of fiber off her, and Willow combed a ton off Jackson, too. Then I brought the other two wethers over, but Willow said Lincoln wasn't releasing, and she didn't want to deal with Jasper's long guard hair, so she chose to hang with the new babies.
That's right, the babies have started arriving at the farm! Last week Coretta dropped a set of twins, both does, and Bonnie had a single buck. Then Dancer had twins, one of each, two days later.
I released Lincoln and cleaned Jasper up, and then moved on to Bonnie. I opened the pen after I chained Bonnie. She wasn't releasing much fiber, and then her buckling darted out of the stall and she started flipping out, so I released her. Dancer's babies were napping, and since she was the only goat not out in the field, I collared her and cleaned her up. She kept trying to get me, so I had to hold a horn in one hand and comb with the other.
In the meantime, Coretta and Bonnie had moved out of the barn, and Willow was hanging with them and the three kids. Bonnie has her hooves full with that little buck!!! He was romping with the little doelings, and Bonnie was having a fit!!! He would run and she would go after him with buggy eyes. Then Corretta's black kid was trying to nurse and Bonnie butted her because she thought it was her little black buck!
Finally we went to Prescott and I combed Duke. He was being very jumpy-finally I had one of the weekend boys hold him, and Boss worked on his neck while I wailed away with the slicker.
I found some pussywillows in full bloom as we were leaving, and they joined the vase of forced forsythia on the kitchen table when we finally arrived home.
I have been looking for at least one more goose for our lonesome gander. I found a couple of female pilgrim geese down in New York, but the price and the shipping is steep. We could get eight goslings for a better price from Metzer. Hmmmm-I don't really want a big flock of geese, so Lucifer might have to content himself with the chickens for company for awhile....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
