Around the Farm

I was out taking pictures around the farm the past few days. Above is Helga and her baby, Caliber, who was our first kid of the year, born in January. In the background you can see a group of my chickens roosting on a tire. The goats and chickens all like to lay together in front of the barn in the sunshine, but as soon as they see me, they come running, expecting food, so I never get a picture of it!

You can see behind Kassie and Whisper that there is still some drifted snow that's going to take awhile to melt. The pasture is very bare and muddy- one of my first projects this spring is to fence off more pasture and close this section off to regrow. I have another pasture, but it's small and I need to make it a whole lot bigger before I can let everyone into it.

There's a little bit of melting snow in front of the barn. The ducks will definitely miss the puddles, but no one else will. I only have 4 ducks left, since the dogs killed some of them earlier in the winter before I moved them to the barn. I have been watching the local farm store so I can get some more ducklings. My chickens will be arriving near the end of the month, so I want to get some ducklings around then as well.

This is one of my many mousers, Sheila. He is one of my favorites, but is sort of a big weenie. He used to be very wild, but one time he was gone for a week and came home running, soaking wet and ran right to me. He let me pet him then and ever since that day. In the picture he is eyeballing the farm dogs- he has no trust for them.

I was very excited to see buds on my lilacs. Spring really is here! The scent of lilacs is one of my favorite smells, along with peonies and roses. I have been noticing tons of birds- or "acksuppies" as Tate calls them. I have no idea where he got that!

Here We Go Again

Another winter storm is projected for Monday and Tuesday. Monday starts with rain and freezing rain turning to snow Monday night and Tuesday. We are in the 3-6" range- just what we need is more snow! The road crews are running out of places to put it! The drifts and pushed snow in the ditches is so high, road signs are barely sticking up. My husband took some pictures of the roads after the storm two weeks ago, we have since had a storm that dumped on us 1/2" of freezing rain and 6" of snow last week.

After the storm we had last week, it took 5 days for the roads to be cleared enough to leave our place in the car. Luckily, we have the Jeep, though it isn't very fun to have to put the kids in and isn't very warm. At least it's there in case of an emergency, and my husband can still usually get around, though he has gotten it stuck 4 times this winter and put it in the ditch once.

The horses don't seem to mind the snow too much, though the ice is a different story- that they will avoid at all costs. I saw them out laying in the snow in the sunshine today and they looked pretty comfortable. I've heard a lot of horses around here haven't been doing well and some even dying because of dehydration when their water freezes so quickly. We bought a stock tank heater this fall, which works very well and keeps our horses' and goats' water ice-free. To the left is Stetson, my stallion, also known as "Big Butt."

Above are Kassie and Cinders. Kassie is the white one and is broke to ride. To the right is Whisper. These three are all mares. Cinders is the oldest at 16, Kassie is 9, and Whisper and Stetson are both 2 years old. Kassie is always the first horse at the grain trough, though the others are never very far behind. If Kassie makes it to me before I have a chance to dump the bucket of grain in the trough, she sticks her head in and helps herself. Sometimes I have a heck of a time getting her head back out again, which allows a chance for the goats to stick their heads in as well. Then I'm in big trouble! If I see them coming, sometimes I am quick enough to hold the bucket on top of my head, which works very well when you have miniature horses and pygmy goats!

Then comes the fun of trying to dump a bucket of grain into a trough while 5 or 6 goats are standing in it, another 2 or 3 have their heads in the bucket, another has it's hooves in your arm, and the rest are standing by to maybe try and knock you down when you bend over. Then you will stumble, usually catching some part of your body on a pair of goat horns, and if you're lucky, a goat will be standing close by to break your fall. And if you're not lucky, you fall down in a pile of manure. Never a dull moment, that's for sure!