Mostly Getting Along

After moving everyone around over the weekend, everyone seems to be adjusting for the most part.  Of course, Joani and Fionn are fine together.

Fionn and Joani

Xerxes and Hilda get along.

Xerxes and Hilda staring out to pasture

Although, Hilda would still prefer to be back out in pasture with the rest of the herd.

Hilda “Please let me out???”

Even the two bucks and the girls with them seem to have mostly adjusted.

Aphrodite in front; Caroline, Athena, and Zeus

Zues does still pick on Anubis sometimes, but it isn’t too horribly serious, and Athena escaped once, but I got her put back.

Anubis and Athena

The old laides I was worried about are doing okay.  It didn’t take long for Maggie, Harley and Cookie to figure it out.

Margarita, Harley, Maggie, Chiffon, and Marge (Cookie is inside behind Harley)

Although, Marge did let herself out of the Love Shack.

Marge

That leaves Maisie with poor Pistol and Antigone. (To be continued…)

Where to Make June Babies?

With old ladies in need of care, I had to rethink where I was going to put everyone for making June babies.  I’ve already decided it’s been a crazy enough breeding year that I’m not even going to mess with any of last March’s girls.  They’ll get to grow another year before they are put in with a buck.

Moira and Venus

Remember, Zeus has to be in the Greenhouse because he won’t stay anywhere else.

Zeus

I had planned on using Anubis to help make the perfect kid, but Zeus already bred everyone I was going to put with him, so I’ve decided on a different path to the perfect kid.  I don’t really even need to use him now.

Anubis

I decided to put the two of them in the greenhouse with the two remaining girls that I need to be with Zeus, Caroline and Aphrodite.  I’m not keeping kids from them, so it doesn’t matter which one breeds them.

Zeus and Aphrodite

That just leaves Xerxes and Fionn.  Xerxes is the biggest chicken on the farm, and he panics at everything, so he is staying in the buck room.

Xerxes

I was going to put Fionn in the Love Shack, but I have old ladies there.  I decided to move my old ladies from the north pen.  All I had to do was open the gate while I was feeding everyone in the barnyard.  Penny and Bonnie should be okay to join the rest of the herd with just a bit of head butting.  But seriously, they have to butt heads.

Annie, Penny, and Bonnie (back)

I worry about Harley with her back injury, so I decided to put her with Maggie and Cookie in the Love Shack.  We’ll see how that goes.  Again, it just took a bit of food to bribe Harley (and Cookie) into following me.  Chiffon and Marge got carried over to the pen when they were done eating sweet feed in the milk room.

Chiffon, Marge, Cookie, and Harley

Fionn and Joani are up north.  Joani was actually pretty easy. It was that bribing her with corn that worked like a charm.  Ironically, Fionn is the easiest one to move.  I just put a collar on him and led him around.  The only time he didn’t want to come was when he saw the other goats still licking the food pans, but I promised him food when he went in with Joani, and he was happy. He’s such a good boy!

Fionn and Joani

Of all the girls left to be bred, Hilda is the only one I really cared about which buck she was with because I have to have her for making the perfect kid.  She’s my only Minnie descendent on the farm now.  She’s also a crazy brat.

Hilda

I had to bribe her with a peanut to get close enough to grab a horn.  Then we wrestled for a few minutes before I got my collar on her as a safety precaution (I’ve lost her before leading her by the horn, and then there’s no bribing her after that).  She fought, drug her feet, stepped on my feet and was a general brat the whole time I was dragging her across the barnyard.

Hera reenacting the peanut bribe because Hilda would not do it.

Finally, I got her in the buck room, and she and Xerxes are together.  Does she look happy about it?

Let me out!

When it’s time for Antigone to come into heat, I’ll put her in there for a day or two and then let her back in with her maa.

Pistol and Antigone

I swear, this year’s breeding has just been chaos.

2019 in Review

It seems like 2019 has been a rough year, and I got to thinking about the old days when I actually used to link to blog hops and visit lots of blogs.  One of my favorite posts was always the year in review post, so I thought I’d go back and find the list and do one for this year.  Here is 2019 in review.

1. Me. This one comes from last March.  I try to avoid the front side of a camera, but I can’t help but take a picture of Aurora checking out the kids.  She does adore the babies, and I’m glad she’s willing to be close to me.  We’ve come a long way in the area of trust.

2.  I love you.  It was scary to have Leo go through surgery this fall.  He’s been my snuggle buddy for a long time.  I do love him.

Leo

3.  Still Laughing.  These girls crack me up.  I really did laugh at them following the hay wagon to eat while we were baling.  It’s not like they didn’t have a whole pasture of fresh grass.  Silly girls.

4. Winter Wonderland. Last winter was one of those years that saw record numbers of snow/cold days off school.  I definitely got in practice shoveling with all the paths I had to make for the goats. But it was beautiful.  I don’t actually mind winter horribly bad as long as I have electricity for water and can manage to get my chores done.  Although, I did get a bit tired of climbing over the bottom of the dutch doors and taking alternate routes to be able to feed everyone.

5.  Birthday.  We have so many birthdays around here, but we don’t do much in the way of celebrating.  I will say, one birthday I wasn’t sure we’d make in 2019 was actually a hatch anniversary. Mama Phoenix turned five in May.  We’ll see if she makes it to six-years-old.  She has certainly had quite the unusual year.

Mama Phoenix

6.  Friends.  These two make the strangest friends.  But they seem happy with each other’s company.

Sky and Bob

7. I Was Inspired.  This past year was certainly one that inspired me to try new things with knitting–hats, scarves, rugs, dishcloths, and all kinds of things.  It has been a lot of fun.  I do think my round rug that I knit with cored yarn from Maybeline is my favorite so far.

8. Spring Fever.  For me spring fever means spring break kidding.  Although, this last year, I was horribly sick while we were kidding, and it didn’t work out well.  Here’s to a better kidding for 2020.  Although, I am also celebrating having healthy kids.  The copper has made all the difference in the world.

Joani’s triplets: Peter Pan, Wendy, Tink

9. Travel or Vacation.  This one is hard.  I don’t travel or take vacation really.  My whole life on the farm is one giant staycation. Maybe I should try to leave the farm at least once next year.

10. Summer Days.  This year, my summer days seemed to be dominated by gardening and scooping manure.  That was a job that I was quite happy to have done.

Dahlia (with Aphrodite below)

11. A Day in My Life. The perfect day in my life is a day in pasture with the animals.

Penelope front (Pepe behind)

12. All Smiles.  I love when the goats smile.  It makes me smile too.

Zinnia

13.  Autumn Harvest.  Farming has been rough the last few years, but I am lucky with how my beans turned out this fall.  But it is the tomatoes that gave me a record harvest. I filled my pantry and gave away a ton of tomatoes and canned goods.

14.  Family or Home.  I did a lot of work on my home this year, but there’s still a lot more to come.  I have to say, I am enjoying the new windows this winter.

15. Celebrate.  One thing I got to celebrate late this month was paying off my garage!  It is all mine.  However, I refuse to call it a barn no matter what.  Even if there is a llama and a goat in it right now.

Haley, Wanda, Cinnamon, Bonnie, Blaze and Tony peeking over

16. Let’s Do It Again!  I had so much fun taking classes at C&M Acres that I plan to do more of them.

17. I Miss You.  Obviously, Snickers is at the top of my list for those I miss this year.  This image is from April.

Snickers Doodle McWhiner

18.  Beautiful.  I need to spend more time wandering with my camera this next year.  I enjoy all the natural beauty out there.

19.  Dress Up.  I am pretty pleased with how my llama coat turned out.  It’s probably not what dress up is supposed to be, but we haven’t played dress up for quite some time around here.  We might have to do that again this coming summer.

Tony

20.  Macro.  I didn’t actually do a lot of fun photography this year.  It was just too busy, but I was really thrilled to do the newborn shoot for my great-nephew, Grady.  I love the way this macro collage turned out.  I actually have it hanging on my wall.

21.  Holidays.  I’ve pretty much already decided this will be the image of my calendar next December (2021).

Penelope

22. My Favorite.  My favorite pasture birds are the bobolinks.  It really makes me happy that they nest back there, especially since our songbirds are in decline.

23.  Don’t Ever Change.  Well, everything changes, but if I could truly pick something not to change, it would be my beautiful farm.  I love the life I have here.

24.  Just Because…So There!  I can’t help it. Pluto is cute and sweet, and I do adore him.

Pluto

25. Hopes and Dreams.  I really do want to keep making soap and expand my artistic endeavors.  I think getting my soaps and a few other items in the store was a good start.

I guess we’ll see what happens in 2020.