Chores When It’s Really Cold

The really cold (but not quite stupid cold) weather we are having right now adds another level of challenging to doing chores.   Part of that is because the animals went from pretty mild temperatures to really cold temperatures.  They have to have time to adjust, and they didn’t get that.  Even Odie is acting a bit cold.

Odie

I worry about Wanda with her fur not completely grown back.  The greenhouse is a bit warmer for her than the main barn.  (The hazy look is my breath steaming.)

Wanda and Aphrodite (and Athena’s body)

Caroline is her typical brat.  Not even the cold can change that.  You’ll notice Anubis on the shelf below her because Zeus is still kind of pushy.

Caroline (Anubis below and Zeus’s back)

I’m glad it did this over a weekend when I was home to check everyone more frequently.  I’m also giving them an extra feeding of hay.  This would be easier if we hadn’t had the ice that froze my door down.  At least I can open the top and throw my bale of hay out and then climb over.  It’s just another level of fun.  Although, I have gotten it chipped away so I can open it enough for me to sneak through now.

Moose

This extra feeding helps me check on everyone.  If someone is not getting up to eat or is just standing there shivering and not eating, they need to be moved.

Cupid and Cutie

That’s why Stormy got moved to the garage on Saturday.  She was lying in the barn shivering, refused to get up and wouldn’t eat when I put hay right in front of her.  She’s doing much better now.

Stormy

Sunday, Dolly joined them.  I have a couple more old ladies and the young kids that I’m keeping a close eye on.

Antigone and Dolly (Pistol across the front)

The front door to my garage is also frozen shut, so I have to carry hay through the milk/soap rooms, or I can climb the fence and go through the buck room.

Xerxes and Hilda (the door that will open between them)

Poor Xerxes still is the biggest chicken on the farm, but he’s also hoping I bring him lots of grain.

I’ve also been breaking the ice off my cattle tank.

Penny

The heater is working, but it is warm and the steam freezes, and it just keeps freezing until it’s completely iced over.

Luckily, the cold is supposed to break tomorrow, and I can put my old ladies back out of the garage.  Of course, with the warmer temperatures comes the threat of more rain, ice, and snow.

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.