To Market

I spent the morning at our Globe-Miami Farmers Market. Came home, unloaded, ate lunch, fed the bottle baby. Then I went and got feed and went to get a couple things at the grocery store. Got back and started chores. I haven’t had a chance to fix the gate issue on Midnight’s pen and it came down again. Midnight and her twins got out. I got the gate back up and Midnight was easy to catch and put back. Instead of putting the twins back in I put them in with Bashful.  They are old enough to begin separating from mom. And since the pens are together Midnight didn’t get too freaked out her boys weren’t in with her. Bashful is a pretty gentle guy and doesn’t seem to mind babies. 

Shortly after that we got a heck of a storm. My battery was about to die so no pics of the creek running. A lot of high winds made a mess of tarps and shade cloth. The wind also blew the tin off the chicken tractors and those birds were quite soggy.   Silly Digger looked like he was out playing in it the whole time. 

Mocha and Posie were up on the hill when it hit and got pretty wet. But mostly they care about eating. 

With this rain the flies will be terrible so tomorrow I’ll have to try and work on fly control among other things. And now good night. 

Farmer Friday

Been super hot and humid this week. I have gotten a couple little rain storms, maybe .2” altogether. The cattle panel arch over Posie’s pen collapsed. 

And came down so far I couldn’t stand up in there. I had to bale the water off and get the tarp fastened back where it belonged. 

Stuck some more sticks in the pallets but not enough to keep Chocolate from hopping over again. 

Moved the last 3 old olive eggers from the front yard to the big chicken house. 

Then moved the ducks into the pen Midnight’s gang was in. I’ll be moving the compost chickens into there too so they can scratch up and break down the deep bedding in there. 

That left the front yard kennels empty so I took down the shade cloth and tarps and started loosening up the ground. Most of it was hard and dry so watered it some. This area is shaded part of the day but I think I can grow some nice greens in here and the kennel will keep Digger out of them. 

Because he likes to play with plants. That was some nice Swiss chard. Good thing it grows fast this time of year. 

And this morning Posie got out and into the hill pen. She is strong and outweighs me so there’s no stopping her when she takes a notion. So I just shut the gate. Of course that set everybody off. And then Mocha got out. She was mostly looking for snacks on the milk stand but I got the bright idea to put her up on the hill too. Latte, her kid, is old enough to start weaning so I can get more milk. So everyone yelled all day, including Midnight, Gazelle, Chocolate and even Midnight’s kids. And of course Mocha and Latte were the loudest. 

And Mocha gave me half a gallon tonight instead of 2 1/2 pints. Milk is supply and demand so this will help increase the supply. 

And then Digger saw himself in the shiny BBQ. Made me laugh. 

Sunday July 10, 2022

Mmmm. I’m not sure that’s a smile of happiness more like grinding our teeth. Poor Bambi. 

Bambi did get up to eat some rose priming’s with the other girls. 

Most of today’s agenda is dishes, laundry, trash. Mmmm. The silverware drawer is empty so I guess I better wash people dishes 

Found this Nankin on the ground unable to walk this morning. Put her in a box in the house, gave her some water. Late afternoon she was perching on the side of the box so I put her back out in her coop. She was a bit unsteady on her feet but looked like she’d be ok. Don’t know what happened. Might have gotten a scorpion. 

It was way too hot and humid to work outside after morning chores so I did dishes, laundry and trash. I packaged up soap that was ready. Currently I have lavender, rose, unscented and unscented with colloidal oatmeal. 

And I managed 2 batches of soap. One of oatmeal (it’s selling better than I thought it would) and one of lilac. This soap takes about 8 weeks to cure and harden up so trying to get stocked up for the holidays!

I was out after dark watering. 

#appreciation

Today I appreciate that the girls had bucklings so I’m not tempted to keep any kids. 😁

To Market To Market

Got a few little jobs done on Friday like putting cattle panel over the hole in Posie’s gate 

I stuffed the pallet fence with weed tree saplings to help give these girls a little shade in the late afternoon. Would like to extend that some. Have also thought of being able to tie off a little shade cloth high up on the sticks for more shade. 

Didn’t really show up in the pic but there’s a huge hole in a fallow garden space. Maybe a rabbit burrow as it looks bigger than most of the ground squirrel holes I’ve seen. Goes quite always down. 

Had a lovely time at market and came home to Chocolate and Gazelle going walk about.  They even had Posie’s gate open. 

Apparently the wooden fence post I hinged to dried out and the pintles are twisting. Got the girls in, temporary fix. Will work on it when it cools down some.

At milking time I discovered there was more to the story. Posie has broken off her small scurs…

AND Mocha has blue paint on her horns (like Chocolate and Gazelle.  Mmmm so now I wonder if Posie and Mocha got out and they got the other gate open.  Mmmm. 

Digger looking cute and innocent. He’s getting a little better about chasing the cat and chickens IF I catch him BEFORE he actually does anything. Like we are walking and I see a loose chicken and Digger is paying too much attention to it. If I tell him NO and distract him it’s good. 

I have no idea what was sooo interesting under the car. 

Tonight’s milking was interrupted by a thunderstorm with a little rain so took even longer than usual. Got the bottle baby, Digger and me some dinner and went to bed. 

#appreciation

I appreciate all my customers that help support my crazy life 😀

Today was Derailed by the Crazy Train

Digger got his leash stuck because he went around the tree half a dozen times. 

Doing chores. The view from Bashful’s pen. 

Mmmm.  Chocolate are you sprouting and udder?   Mmmm. 

Mmmm. And Gazelle too. But I didn’t breed you two. And I have NO recollection of you and Bashful being out at the same time.  Mmmm. 

So Digger and I are just doing chores, I’m watering some plants as I go. No hurry. And realized Chocolate has her head stuck in the fence. 

I *almost* got her loose but her horns are too long and wide and she was fighting me trying to maneuver her head. Texted a friend and while we waited for help I put down a stack of cement blocks for her to stand on. 

So my morning was derailed and nothing I planned to do happened. By the time I got some smaller mesh wire over the cattle panel it was too hot to work in the sun. 

Mocha is a piggie. She is scraping up the fine residue of feed that is stuck to the feed pan with her teeth. 

Lousy pic, I know. But livestock guardian dogs are amazingly smart. Digger goes around this pen when I’m feeding. (These chickens are freaked out by him so I don’t let him go in this pen). Coming back down his rope catches under the edge and he gets stuck. Today as he came around the corner he grabbed the rope in his mouth and carried it so it wouldn’t catch. 

And the consensus is Bambi is pregnant. Oh boy. Getting more than I bargained for!

PS: this should have posted on Thursday but having issues with technology....

Woot. It’s Done!

5:00 am. Good morning. Little goat. 

Storm and bottle baby’s brother 

Feed Digger his breakfast 

6:00am hay all the goats and check water buckets 

Feed the chicks. This year’s hatches were about 90% male 😒

Feed all the adults 

6:45am off to work. Back about 11:00. Feed me, the bottle baby and Digger. Fill some water buckets. Digger likes to drink out of the hose. 

Ran some errands. Came home and while it was hot it was cloudy so I got the gate set on the new pen. Moved Midnight’s boys in. I want to start separating them some during the day. 

They didn’t seem too concerned that mom wasn’t around and paid no mind to her hollaring   

Milked Posie and Mocha then Midnight. After milking I put her in with her boys. Then I went and got Chocolate and Gazelle. Then I milked Bambi and Storm. 

Chocolate is checking the fence out. I realized that I had forgotten to screw the pallets to each other and I hadn’t finished wiring one of them to the T post so it was wobbling. Got that done. And then it was dark. 

Ate some dinner and going to bed. 

PS. This should have posted on Wednesday but somehow didn’t finish upload