Another Day in Pasture

I am trying to walk more.  It’s been a rough year to try and get out and just walk and enjoy pasture, so I’m trying to do more of that.

Silly wethers–Myson and Casey

It makes me happy to climb the hill and see the herd out there.

The herd

This is the back hill that was just made into hay.

Aurora

Popcorn

With the tiny bit cooler weather and the little rain we’ve had, it’s still growing.  That’s good.

Daisy

If we don’t get early snow and ice, the goats will still be able to feed themselves off pasture until the end of the year.

Penelope, Cupid, and Zinnia catching up to the rest of the herd

That also makes my life much easier.

Copper Time

This weekend it was time to give copper again.

Haley

See the way Cinnamon’s hair is parting–that’s a sign she is getting low on copper.

Cinnamon (with a dirty face from kissing a buck)

I like it best when I can put it in the peanut shell with some peanut butter and just have them eat them.

Of course, I have to have a check list to keep track of who’s had it and who hasn’t.

There are some goats I only get to touch when I have peanuts for them.

Daisy

It seems like more and more of the goats are getting to be difficult about just taking it.

Hera is not about to come get it.

That means I’m using the pill pusher a lot more frequently. But as long as everyone gets their copper, we’ll be good.

And the Rains Came

Wednesday had possible storms in the forecast–both morning and evening. I was already rather grumpy because the predicted rainfall totals showed my farm getting between a quarter and a third of an inch.

However, at this point, since we are still in a moderate drought any rain is welcome. I was a bit surprised when we actually got a tenth of an inch in the morning. I was hoping this little extra might put the total for the day closer to half an inch.

I did my chores early in the afternoon, just in case we actually got some; however, the app on my phone was showing pretty much all of the rain missing me. Then the rains came. It sprinkled enough that it brought the goats up from pasture.

Daisy in the doorway; Popcorn outside (don’t worry–he went in when it got bad)

The wind and rain picked up. They built up and then began back building and we spent about two hours under a severe storm warning.

There was a tornado warning in there for a while. Actually, there were at least twelve confirmed tornadoes touching down in the state yesterday. This rotation was radar indicated, so I don’t think there was anything that touched down with this warning, thankfully.

When it was all said and done, we also ended up under a flash flood warning. Trust me, I did not flood. I live on the top of a hill. Thank heavens.

At one point there were four advisories (these and a thunderstorm warning)

The next morning, I went out to assess the damage. The garden obviously had some wind.

There was obviously some rotation here too. I don’t know how else those tomatoes would be in three different directions. I do think everything up here will recover.

I think the only real damage was the loss of my tarp hut.

Could have been a pool if the board hadn’t gone through it.

There was no way it could survive the weight of all that rain pooling in it.

Don’t worry, Freddie. I’ll fix your tarp hut

The next problem was trying to figure out how much rain we got. My food pans only hold about four inches.

I didn’t get the water tubs filled yesterday. I figured they would be easier to dump and scrub the next day if I let the goats drink them out more, but I have no idea how much it was, and the trees would impact the level as well.

I finally decided the big tub where the goats like to nap would give me my best estimate.

According to this tub, we got about 5 1/2 inches of rain in the two hours of this severe storm.

Grateful beans and pasture

This is all rain that soaked into the ground. You might have noticed that the barnyard wasn’t really muddy. It’s wet, but that rain all went into the ground. I can hardly wait to see next week’s drought monitor.