Little Goats

There is a lot of screwin' around happening out there in the barnyard. This for instance....

Oh Dahli.....

Everyone is doing great. Debbie and her Cow Boys are super....

Cow-goats?

Dahli's baby and "Frosty" are a hoot.

And there are a lot of funny little faces.

I have to say that Frost is a favorite.

We finally caught a break from the heat and humidity - today should be stunning. Happy Sunday everyone!

Po-ta-toes

Taters. We got 'em. Had 'em last nite for supper. Whooot!

Obligatory link... everyone sing along!

I snuck a few of these new potatoes out from under the tater plants last nite. Hopefully the plants will just keep growing the baby spuds that I left behind. These tender and extremely thin skinned potatoes were absolutely heavenly.

More rain will be moving in later so I have to get out there.

Happy Friday everyone! Are you getting the first of the potatoes?

Pig Update

The porkers are doing GREAT. Remember this three-pack from just over a month ago? They look very delicious and are very happy.

 Happy pigz make delicious pork!

During the heat I make sure that their wallow is full and that they have plenty of water. They think the hose is amazing. Remember, tho, not to "shock" your pigz with too cold water lest they flop over dead. Seriously. It's a thing. We've never had a problem but I know someone who did. Mostly I just give them a little sprinkle and let them play in the water as they'd like.

Look at those hams!

They had a special treat yesterday - frozen hard boiled eggs. Kind of like egg-popsicle. They were very excited and thought it was terrific.

Kai, does not want to be friends with the pigz.

The big story, however, is that our Kai has started to come with me into the pig yard. This is huge and is a big step for her. She and Zander will never be the same kind of hard workin' farm dogs as Titan... but they have their place. Mostly she is the muscle and my best hunter. Coming with me into the pig yard is helping her learn, "Guard momma" which is one of my favorite commands. She is taking her queues from my Dog#1 and also from her strong natural instincts to protect her human.

You'll remember that there is always a point where I do not want to go into the pig yard. We are rapidly approaching that point. So I need some good helpers.

I let the pigz decide if they want to play in the water or just be amazed by it.

The first day she came with me I just let the pig yard gate open and called her in. I knew the pigz were more interested in me and the feed bucket so they wouldn't run out. This let Kai come in at her own speed. My #1 was busy pacing behind me - allowing me to face the pigz with the feed but his working stance kept them from plowing over me.

While I was feeding them one of the pigz trotted right up to Kai all happy and excited to meet someone new. He sallied right up as if to say, "Hi! Will you be my friend?"

Kai did not want to be his friend.

Showing great restraint she immediately got into her hunting stance (mane and ridge up, chest out, tail curled tighter...), showed her teeth, and when that porker didn't back off she gave him a warning bark which sent him running.

The big thing is that she did NOT run off after the pig or lose her mind and run him down... and she held her ground.  All this happened while I was well out of reach. This tells me that she is starting to make really good decisions and has really developed her self control. I also really like her boldness.

If I tried this with Zander we would be having pork chops for dinner tonite. Zander is very aggressive with the pigz - not that it's a bad thing. We just need him to get over his "puppy brain" to the point where I can work with him. This is just a maturity thing and I don't doubt he will be able to do this same thing very soon. He's already making great strides and is extremely obedient even in the face of flapping chickens and running ducks. 

My next training task will be to try and direct Kai - like I do with my Dog#1. By pointing and commanding him I can position him between me and the pigz... and also have him herd the pigz where I want them to go. We'll be moving the pigz into a new pasture soon so having two big burly dogs help me herd the pigz will be a tremendous help.

This also gives me a lot of confidence in working with the pigz. My husband has a new work schedule so I almost always have chores by myself. So being able to take Kai and my Dog#1 into the pig yard is really important to me...not only for my safety but it just makes things so much easier. While its hilarious to have a smallish pig run between your legs or bump into you - having a 250 pound porker do the same is dangerous and not funny at all. 

Great job, Kai!

Happy Wednesday everyone! Do your dogs work with you? Are your pigz happy to see you?

95*

Looks like it's headed up to 95* and no rain or storms in sight. Pretty much my job today will be to keep everyone alive.

Goat herd grazing.

Part of this will be to take the goats down to the woods. I've been taking them down to the new grazing area...and they've finally started going down there by themselves. But they have to run past the pigz really fast - which is kind of funny.

Eat faster, Nibs!

They really need to start working on this area - Nibbles is belly deep.

The babies either don't want to go with them - or the mommas are telling them to stay by the goat house. Usually Great-grandma Debbie or Grandma Dahli stays behind to babysit.

After I mowed down the yard the ducks came down to look around.

As far as I can tell only one of the babies has made the long walk down the hill - and that was a disaster. Me and the dog were in the upper garden when we heard terrible screaming. We dropped our tools and ran for it - I was yelling for the dog, "Where is she? Find it! Find it!" and also to Debbie, "What's wrong!? What's wrong?"

When we got down the hill we found that Frosty - Darla's baby - was the one screaming. There was a fly on her. No, it wasn't biting her. She was just scared. Of a fly. *sigh*  We'll chalk that up to reason 872 why dogs are better than goats.

Today should be a looloo.... so don't forget your extreme heat livestock care.

Happy Tuesday everyone - is it going to be hot where you are today?

What Love Looks Like...

Here is what real love looks like....

True romance.

...660 feet of fencing... what could possibly be better? Thanks, honey!

My hubs went and got this yesterday. One of our most important projects this summer will be to fence in the pond. For the last couple summers the waterfowl have not had access to the pond - the stupid foxes are just to eager to help themselves to the birds. But soon all our problems will be over.

Once we fence around the pond, which is currently outside our perimeter fence, we'll be able to let Kai and Zander run wild and rid the land of varmints. Then we'll be able to let the ducks and geese back into the pond during the day.

And nope, you don't need a pond to have ducks or geese - just make sure they have a tub or kidding swimming pool to splash around in. But it will be great to have everyone swimming around.

Once we get this area fenced in the goats will have a new place to graze down near the pond.  Soon the pond will be a hive of activity. I'm so excited!

Happy Sunday everyone! Does anyone love you enough to buy two rolls of field fence?

Not Everything Works Out

So this happened the other day. 

Sometimes things don't go right. Don't take it personally.

And then yesterday was a humdinger. Not only did I get zapped by the electric fence while mowing.... I was standing in a patch of poison ivy when I did it. It was not exhilarating in a good way. I went in the house and had some ice cream.

It got me thinking, tho, about how not everything works out. But that's OK. Not everything in life is going to go perfectly. How you react to non-perfect days can largely determine the course of your life - and the that of the folks around you.

Are you a club thrower, road rager, food server curser, chronic complainer, teller of woes, fault finder? Do you go thru life enumerating every wrong that has been done to you? Do you rehearse every slight, insult, offense? Do you come home and tell your spouse about every single person who parked badly, cut you off, or heaven forbid had too many items in the express check out lane?

Baby, why the rage? Aren't you tired of exhausting yourself with that misery?

I'm not superstitious and I don't believe in astrology... but being that it is a Friday the 13th, and the full moon, and apparently we have some big solar flares going on.... it could get a little nutty out there. So I'm just going to gently and lovingly suggest that everyone gear down a bit and try to give each other a break today.

What if, instead of assuming that bad parker is just a jerk, what if you imagined a situation where the person next to them parked badly so they had to scoot over...and the next person had to scoot over, and so by the time you showed up it was just a series of scootin' over and not a vast conspiracy just to ruin your day?

What if there was absolutely no one around at the check out so the grocery gal called the next customer over, and in an attempt to be nice, invited the person with 14 items to use the "12 items or less" express line. And then you happened to come up to that line. Instead of scowling, or even scolding them, what if you just shrugged it off?

What if you didn't write some crappy, negative comment if you didn't agree with the poster? What if you just scrolled right on by and didn't give it another thought?  What if you didn't correct someone's spelling, or more likely, their bad typing?

I'm always dumbfounded by folks who are so outraged, so offended, so personally wounded when every little thing doesn't go their way. I'm not talking about big things like an illness, or being laid off, or not getting the job. I'm just talking about someone who is mad because they don't like the cheese on their salad, or if someone is in "their" spot, or if they happen to get in the check out line with the trainee.

Instead of going out of your way to be offended how's about if we all go out of our way to be kind to each other? Let's all do this for no reason other than we all just need a break today. Kindness is contagious so let's sprinkle it all over today.

Let's all thank the trainee for doing a great job (even if you have to choke those words out), let's respond with "whatever is easiest for you" when they ask paper or plastic, let's park further out so that a mom with her kids or an older person can have that up close parking spot.  Let's give encouragement to someone starting a new project (instead of telling them how they are doing it wrong and it will never work), let's reach out to someone who could use a friend, let's open doors for each other, let's look someone in the eye and smile, or just hold back any negative thought comment or action.

What do you think? Do you need a break? Are you giving someone else a break? Not everything is going to work out but at least we can try to help each other along.

Happy Friday the 13th! Look out for looniness and solar flares!

I'm so in trouble!

Oh no!!! Look what happened!

Handful of trouble.

Um... no one tell my husband that my momma goose, Cindy Lou, hatched a lone gosling. I wasn't supposed to have any more gooses! Or gooselings!  Dang.... maybe I could disguise this little cutie as a baby turkey?

Quick people! I have some 'splainin' to do! I need an alibi! Plausible deniability! Some kind of rational explanation for how this happened. I could say that someone did a "drive by goosing" and left this little lumpkins by the gate!

I'm totally in trouble. Zoikes!

Happy Thursday everyone!  Are you in trouble?