Day 10: Twelve Days of 2023

I'm recapping 2023 one month at a time. This is October. I almost stepped on this gopher snake. I think it was hurt.

Bambi was in heat and acting goofy.


The tomatoes are still coming in. We haven't been even close to freezing yet.




The Superior Farmers Market welcomed the Burro Races.

Friends gave us lots of cull apples and the goats enjoyed them a lot.



I discovered I had a gas leak and spent a lot of time digging up the gas line through gnarly tree roots.

Tink, the old cat.

Finally got the little raised beds ready to plant. 

 The spring pullets began to lay.

Digger destroyed the roof on his house.

The coyote comes right into the fence.

Digger goes crazy over the silliest things. In his defence I did find a dead mouse in his pen the next morning.

I can say for sure Storm didn't get bred as she's had several heat cycles since this incident.

Another coyote sighting.

Storm really hurt herself. (she's fine now)

Day 9: Twelve Days of 2023

If you are new here, I'm recapping 2023 as one post per day. This is September. I started working on putting a solid roof over the girls pen instead of tarps.

A Colorado River Toad stuck in the squirrel trap.

I don't think these were the same two toads as this one looks much bigger. These are poisonous to any animal that tries to eat them, they have poison glands on the back of their heads.

I went to fill a chicken water and when I brought it back in discovered this king snake under the cinder block. Since it didn't move at first I wasn't sure if it was stuck or what.

 

Did you know all the baby scorpions ride on mom's back?

Bianca, Queen of the Coop. Sadly I lost Bianca recently but she lived to be about 14 years old and was a great broody hen.

This coyote comes in close, right to the fence some evenings to tease Digger Dog. 

I discovered that I still have root knot nematodes in at least one area. These things suck big time and I am sooooo over them!

The tomatoes are still coming in.

I cleared out the cucumber vines from the small raised beds to get ready to plant fall crops.

Getting a solid roof over the girls pen

And done.

Day 8: Twelve Days of 2023

This is my recap of August 2023. The amazing tomato garden is in full swing. Lots of cherry and yellow pear, Fourth of July and Early Girl tomatoes.

A pretty dragon fly

Some gnarly looking Armenian cucumbers. They did ok but not super.

This whole year was super hot and very dry. I don't think I've ever seen a summer with such little rain.

Eggs are coming in.

Pinto Bean, Bambi's daughter was the single doeling I kept this year.


Digger started jumping up on top of his house to bark at coyotes and then slept on it when it wasn't too hot.

 

I had never seen scavenger beetles here before. I don't know where they came from but they appeared to eat an entire carcass hair and all.

Hard to see even with my flashlight, but that spider has dozens of babies on her back

We had some amazing clouds but not much rain.

Day 7: Twelve Days of 2023

 

This is my recap of July 2023. I had a super tomato garden compared to the last few  years

We had many days at 105 degrees and hotter, with no rain in sight.

What did Digger Dog find now?

Some clouds and pretty sunsets but all the rain passed me  by.

I'm surrounded by packs of coyotes.

The goat bedding heats up like crazy in the compost pile.

Bambi likes people; other goats not so much.

A little salamander of some sort that was in my kitchen sink looking for a damp cool spot.

Some kind of giant fly

Sacred Datura pops up here and there around the place

Another baby king snake.

Unlike the dwarf breeds of goat my Nubians are seasonal breeders with the does coming into heat sometime around July/ August until mid Janurary at the latest. Well this July was a pretty crazy start to the breeding season.

Day 6: Twelve Days of 2023

And this is my June 2023 recap. I was given boxes of squash and Digger Dog would steal and eat them

The Hollyhocks were amazing this year

The crazy amazing tomato garden

A little gopher snake. I've only seen a couple this year. I have seen a lot of the king snakes.

First tomato




 I had bought Bentley awhile back but didn't have pen space so he'd been living at my friends house. Since Gazelle and Chocolate and their kids had left the farm I had space to go pick him up and bring him home



He started out sharing a pen with three young boys from front to back, Jupiter, Apollo and Tiny Tim who isn't so tiny any more!

The spring pullets are growing up

And some older girls are laying

A nice basket of tomatoes

Around this time I started making sugar or face scrub



A canine of some sort (I do suspect a coyote but it could have been a stray dog) Dug under the back of my big chicken house and killed several young layers. I moved the survivors to a safer spot and temporarily patched the hole.