Exciting Monday

Early this morning while I fed the goats I didn’t see any of the loose bantam chickens out that Digger wants to chase so let him run a bit. He ran up behind the big chicken house and was really barking and growling.  Look close in the that tree behind the IBC tote. 

Digger had this young male bobcat treed. I swear I hit video record but apparently not really so all I got was these two still pics.  That tree is right in a fence corner and when it showed no sign of leaving on its own I picked up a long piece of rain gutter and was going to poke it. Cat got the message and hopped the fence. 

I discovered it had peeled back this chicken wire (which I never worried about before because Giotto was here). Bobcat got two nice Black Copper Marans males I’d been watching as possible breeders for spring. So I spent the morning reinforcing this with scrap wood and looking for other breeches in defenses. 

Then I worked a bit on prepping a garden bed. Mostly full of rocks and gravel about 8 inches down

Tons of rocks. This bed has been fallow for 2 summers now with chickens on it so fingers crossed those root knot nematodes are gone. I’ll finish loosening it up and add some compost and amendments then plant kale, Swiss chard and spinach. 

Digger might be barking at bobcats and coyotes but he’s really still a baby. He wants to chew on the goats rubber feed pans and everything else. The coyotes are really howling tonight. 

Hopefully that bobcat won’t come back but you never know. 

Catching Up

Digger eating a stuffed hoof in the kid pen and being calm. 

My phone did die and it took a bit to get a new one so not many pictures yet. 

Sometimes things are slow because I’ve been keeping my 2 yr old grandson while his mom works nights. 

Some days he helps with farm chores 

Some days it’s work keeping Digger from knocking him down trying to play with him

I did get a small garden bed prepped and planted

We’ve had odd weather. October tends to be a dry month yet this year we’ve had a fair amount of rain. 

Midnight being cute with a little bantam chicken 

Lots of things have been happening. I’ll update more soon. 

Mid September Already?

Mmm. Alright Bambi how many kids are you hiding in there and when are you going to let them out???? I thought it would have happened by now….

Found some cute new signs for my market table. I have had to increase my prices a bit….. soap is now $6

A sugar scrub is this month’s new product 

The lilac soap was ready to package. Mmmm. Smells heavenly 

Picked up an awesome solar light for the Patchwork Shed. 

Digger sniffing around in the car. 

Digger went to the veterinarian for his rabies shot and other vaccines. At 5 months he weighs 62 pounds. 

Digger digs. That hole is knee high on me. 


Mmmm. Looks like some chickens need a new roof pretty soon. 

These four little bucklings will soon be wethers. They are all still available and if not sold will go in my freezer when the weather cools off. They are already eating almost as much as adults and the price of hay is going up. 

Well I’ve been a bit lazy today.  Did chores and cleaned pens until it got too hot. Came in and had some lunch and played on the computer some. And now it’s time to do afternoon chores. One of the reasons I haven’t been posting a lot is my phone battery seems to be dying. Of course it’s only 6 years old….  

The Rest of August

Thought I’d catch you up on some things that happened in the rest of August. I pulled a chain link panel out from Bambi’s pen. 

I replaced it with a gate panel. 

I added more panels and made a little pen to separate the bottle baby and his brother from Storm during the day. So there is a gate on the outside of the little pen and then a gate into the big pen. A small tarp on top to help keep off rain and shade cloth on the outside. 

Then last week Midnight looked like she was coming into heat and I decided it was time to wean everyone. So all four boys are together now. 

We’ve had some crazy monsoon storms but nowhere near the amount of rain as last year. 

One day I milked in a drizzle with thunder, lightening and sunshine all at the same time!

The flies have been crazy. This giant fly paper has made the most difference of everything I’ve tried. I’ve been putting it on old tomato cages, buckets, just anything handy. 

Digger is getting big. Still getting in trouble but sometimes he is good. 

Storm has a better rear udder attachment than her mom Bambi. 

Midnight also has a nice attachment although her tiny sideways pointing teats are hard to milk. 

First day of weaning all the boys I got two gallons plus a pint of milk. That may go down a bit as the girls adjust to the lower demand. 

Tobacco Bay is a new soap scent. 

There have been a few cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes in the garden but not huge amounts of any one thing. 

I don’t know exactly what happened but Digger managed to break the front door. 

He’s watching an ant. 0.0  Check out how long his tail is, it’s almost touching the ground!

Monsoon sunsets are the bomb. 

I was hoping September would be cooler but it’s actually hotter. I can’t wait for fall. 

Last Week

Digger is taking a nap because he has been a wild child and into everything!

I had planted some seed out front in the empty chicken pens. Dill and basil coming up. 

Lots of kale too. 

I really need an easy way to separate Storm’s boys from her during the day. Their pen is to the left. So I’ve been cleaning up junk piles to make another pen next to it. Not quite done. 

Digger alerted on his first rattlesnake. A good sized Diamond back.

I got a couple of lotion scents restocked in time for market on Saturday 

Oh Miss Chocolate!  See how she’s made a gap there?  

Yep just jumped right through it when I let Midnight out to milk. So she got tied up while I milked. 

Later I added some more sticks, weaving and wedging them in place. I know it won’t stay long term but hopefully will get by a day or two 

I got more shrubs planted. Even though I’ve gotten a little I’ve two inches of rain in two weeks the ground is still powder dry. 

Left the back of the van open and Digger tried to eat the feed sacks. 

And the rubber door seal

And not only does he dig dirt he digs water too. He’s grown a lot and is starting to hit that gangling stage. 

Grateful for the rain and slightly cooler temps even though it brings humidity and more flies.