Odds and Ends

Xerxes has stayed where he belongs.  That’s a good thing.

Xerxes

I had a lady cardinal show up the other day between rain showers.

Sky–just because he’s handsome.

Sky tracking the scent of a big buck who was in the yard

Rocky likes my bathroom sink.

Rocky

I only have a few goats left who need their hooves trimmed.  Several will get them done after kidding.  The others are a pain.  I caught Flower and got her done, but everyone else freaked out and would let me get close to them.  This might take some trickery (aka food) to catch the ones I have left.

Flower

My mom had to come out and get more milk for Chiffon’s little triplet, Lazarus, so he came out to visit too!  He is doing quite well.

Mom and Lazarus

She is still trying to fill her nest, but I keep taking the eggs.  We’ll see which one of us lasts longer.  I’m betting she wins in the end.

The geese are also enjoying the gate to the front pasture being opened up. It’s much easier for them to go back and forth.

When I was scrolling through the blog last Sunday, it reminded me that I put Tansy with her mom and Hilda and Freddie.  Remember I said she didn’t settle with oopsie babies.  Well, that means she is probably bred for June babies even though I didn’t see her come back into heat.

Tansy and Cupid

That means I still have to decide whether or not to sell her.  At least this time, if she’s bred, it’s not her twin brother.

Still On the To-Do List

I have managed to get a lot done since we’ve warmed back up, but I do still have some things left to do.  First, I really need to clean the soap and milk rooms.  They’ve kind of become extensions to the barn and garage with the cold.  It’s a mess.

It’s still been a bit cold yet (at least the ground level with all the snow) to get hooves trimmed.  I really need to get them done as soon as it warms up.

Joani needs her hooves trimmed badly.

I’m trying to get some of my doors cleared out.  The door to the barn and the birds’ section of the barn barely open.

It’s packed hard, and I haven’t even gotten it chipped loose, even though I started trying to get them cleared up when I chipped open the red gate.

I also thought the chickens quit laying eggs when it turned cold.  Apparently, they just decided to lay in the lower nest boxes, so I have a crazy frozen, broken egg mess to clean out.  Fun.

I’m still struggling with keeping food for the animals on the farm.  The feed store is still dealing with supply issues, and last weekend I had no corn for the goats and llamas.

Maybeline

Thankfully, my nephew brought me enough to get through the weekend and even picked me up more from the mill when he dropped the Little Farm Hand off with the babysitter.

I’ll be glad when these supply issues are done, but it also makes me realize how much I need to get my bulk bin back to being functional.  I also still need to clean the garage out after having goats in it for that short time.

Blaze (on the Ranger), Dolly and Flower

With the cold, I also didn’t have a chance to dump out the water buckets to scrub them clean.

Popcorn

That’s done now, but I still need to do the big 50-gallon tub.  I just don’t want to make a huge ice rink from dumping it.

Gidget

I guess that will have to wait a little bit yet.  I’m pretty sure I’m not going to run out of things on my to-do list.

Kicking Them Out

With the warmer weather, it’s time to kick everyone out of the various places I had them for a bit of extra care.  I do still need to be a little careful though, because they are still trying to catch up from the long cold spell.  I decided to start with the girls in the garage because I really want goats out of the garage.

Blaze on the Ranger

Dolly and Flower were easy.  I just had them come from the garage, around the corner and into the milk room.  After a quick snack of calf starter, I opened the door and they were back with everyone else!

Dolly

I could not get Bambi to leave the garage.  I mean the literally.  I couldn’t catch her. I couldn’t bribe her. She wouldn’t follow Blaze.  I finally gave up and left her.  I put Blaze back in there too because she really needs to gain a bit more weight back before she is moved.

Blaze in the milk room; Bambi in the garage

As I was doing other work outside, I realized Cupid was relentlessly chasing Flower.

Cupid looking innocent

Again, she is still trying to finish recovering from the cold, and she doesn’t need to spend that much energy being chased.   So I put her back in the garage too.

Flower demanding treats

Whatever. It’s just a garage.

Bambi behind the Ranger

Next up was the goats in the greenhouse.  I’d been promising Popcorn I’d let him out this weekend, so I removed the twine and let him out.

Popcorn

Most of the young goats were quick to come out.

Penelope

I left 2TC in there because she has dropped a bit of weight too, and she was busy eating.

Aurora and 2TC

Litha and Aurora were still in there too.  I hadn’t decided whether or not I was going to let them out.

Litha, Penelope (just before she came out), and Aurora

All the young ones were enjoying being out and having nice weather.

Purl, Tansy, and Popcorn

Tansy, Flora, Purl, and Popcorn

Popcorn and Trace

Trace and Popcorn

Then I got the spade and chipped the ice away from the red gate up north.

Ruby and Onyx behind the gate

Haley really was not very good to Victoria.  I’ll leave Victoria and her girls so they can actually get a bunch of calf starter and goat feed and hopefully pick up more weight.  I want to let them out next weekend, as long as they are doing well.

Victoria, Ruby, Onyx, and Haley

Haley came out.  I will still let her into the milk room for some extra calf starter/goat feed.

Haley

Anyhow, when I came back out after lunch, I found that Onyx had snuck out.  It wasn’t a big deal, and I just put her back in when I did chores.

Onyx

Same with 2TC.  She had snuck out the bottom of my panel gate.

2TC (Flora in the back)

I will tell you, the reason I had promised Popcorn that I’d let him out is because a couple of days when the temps were starting to improve, the little goats broke out of the greenhouse.  That isn’t a big deal, but Litha tried following them through the tiny space at the bottom, and I came home to find her stuck.  Poor old lady.  She is doing fine though, and I hope she realizes it’s better to stay where I put her.

Litha–no way she’s going to fit through that small space at the bottom of the panel.

Anyhow, I did finally let Litha and Aurora out because the weather was so nice.

My two oldest goats–Litha and Dolly

I think they enjoyed it.

Aurora snacking on the walnut tree and Maybeline

Aurora, Litha, and the kids went back in the greenhouse when I did chores.  So did Dolly.  Purl also managed to sneak in.  She’s good at that.  I let them eat the extra feed.

Popcorn and Flora (Litha in the back)

I did leave a few of the young ones in overnight because we had another winter weather advisory for Sunday.  Now I need to figure out how to get the ones in the garage into the greenhouse.  I’ll try and keep them there for a while.