The House Pasture

Well, it’s official. I no longer have a back yard. I have a house pasture.  Saturday, I bribed Skittles back into the small Morton pen with some llama food and put a panel back across, so that’s all she had.

 

Skittles back in the tiny pen.

Then I dismantled the fence I just put up for her.  I turned that into a fence across the back yard.  It went from the fence to the house.  And on the other side of the house to the Morton building.  My dog was a little disappointed, but he’s mostly lazy anyhow.  He’ll survive for a few weeks with just the front and side yard.

Sky wondering why there’s a fence in his way

Before I could let her into the new “pasture”, I had to protect my baby plum tree.  It made it through last summer’s drought and a rabbit attack over the winter, and it’s doing well.  So I put a fence around it as well.

Hard to see how good it looks with all the green in the picture

I also put the pen around the parent tree.

Then I let Skittles in.

I did remember to remove the clothes line.

She might have tried to kick my dog through the fence when he sniffed her.  I have no doubt she would smash him into the ground if they ever got on the same side of the fence.  I’m going to do my best to make sure that never happens.  Because I do rather like my dog.

He decided not to sniff her back leg again.

It makes my yard actually look pretty big when you see how much room it gives her.

I think she’s enjoying it.  The next step was to catch Maybeline when she was up in the barnyard while the main herd was still in pasture.

Just Pictures

Today it’s just some pictures from around the farm.

My boys are all doing well together: Pluto, Frodo, BJ, Herky, and Gabe

Zora and Mocha

These two (Salem and Sky) always make me laugh.

Popcorn

Pax and Pixel

Hilda

Flora

Rosie and her kids–Reba and Rupert

Pretzel

Thalia

Eastern Kingbird

Eastern Kingbird and Eastern Meadowlark

These goats do make me happy (most days)!

Kidding and Rain

Thursday was a beautiful day.  It was a perfect day for kidding, and Ostara took advantage of the good weather.  She had two boys.

Isn’t he the most wild marked little boy!

They are Frodo babies.

Friday, however, was looking like a wet, windy, and stormy day.  So I made some adjustments.  Skittles in the Morton building has really put a crimp in my kidding plans.

Skittles (Casey behind) might have tasted the cherry blossoms

But who needs to put their car in the garage when it might hail?  Oh, thankfully, I had room in my building up north to put both the car and Ranger there.  And my garage is completely in barn mode…again!

I have Hera, Cupid, Penelope, and Tansy in there along with Rosie and Cupid and their babies.

I also penned Ostara with Antigone in the Love Shack.  I honestly had to put a panel across the door because Antigone was afraid of Ostara.  She is such a wimp.

Antigone in the building with one of Ostara’s boys by the bucket.

And I know her little girl is a keeper because she’s already a pain–I could not keep her in the Morton building despite the panel and a water bucket in the way.  I kept putting her back in.

I can’t count the number of times I had to put this girl back in the building.

But I’m glad I did that because it did start raining in the night. And it rained off and on throughout the day on Friday.

The herd would go out and then come back when it started raining again.

It really. made my trees happy; although, the threat of severe weather still had me nervous for them all.

I am grateful for the rain; but wind and storms make me nervous.

My one and only bluebell is blooming! I really need to move it before the weeds choke it out.

By early afternoon, Cupid had her two boys.  She never disappoints when it comes to spots and colors.

Cupid right after her boys were born

The worst of the storms were supposed to come to my area Friday night. We were truly lucky here. With multiple tornado warnings close to us, we didn’t have any severe weather.

I brought my mom out in case we ended up under a tornado warning too.

Mom and Sky–he still thinks he’s a lap dog.

When I got ready to take her back home, I peeked in the garage window and then decided mom’s return home would have to wait.

Penelope hard pushing

It wasn’t long before I pulled Penelope’s pretty little doe.

I took mom home, and it wasn’t long before we had another round of heavy rain.

With the light on in the garage, I can check girls by peeking in the front window.

Everyone is safe and well.  We got just about an inch of rain. I am so filled with gratitude, and my heart breaks for those who were hit by tornadoes.

And there’s another round of storms forecast for tonight.