Hot, Hazy Days

We have certainly reached the hot, humid days of summer where my camera fogs up the second I step out the door.

Fogged over Hera with Reva and Butterscotch in the back

It’s the kind of weather where you can almost hear the corn growing.

Front to back: Sonny, Cher, and Addie

Our temperatures are near 90°F (32.22°C), and the dew point is tropical.

Sisters from another mother: Moira and Venus

2TC

Cinquain (trying to lick Xerxes’s salt block), Seven and Joy

Maybeline

It’s the kind of weather that makes me want to stay inside, and even the goats and llamas are feeling it.

Penny

Tansy

Chiffon is really getting a lot nicer now that her sister is gone.

It looks like this trend is going to continue for the next couple of weeks.

Pasture Rotation

Part of good land management includes making sure pastures don’t get overgrazed.  Before I bought the farm surrounding my acreage, my poor front pasture was constantly eaten down, which is really bad for it.  With the addition of another almost forty acres of pasture, that has really made things much better (and I finally made a map of my pastures so you can see what I’m talking about).

This past weekend I shut the gates to the back pasture in the Back Forty. There are several reasons.  First, the goats have been eating back there most of the time since March.  The grass isn’t very tall, and that’s where we make hay.  I want to get them off the hill so the grass can grow.

I was also tired of making the long trek to the back hill two or three or four times each day to make sure nobody was stuck in the pasture.  This past week, Milo decided he wanted to get stuck in the fence.

Milo

Then Penelope got stuck in the fallen tree.

Penelope

I kid you not, she could not figure out how to put her head down and just back out.

I was also really struggling to count my babies in the tall grass to know if I needed to go get someone out of the fence.

Joker, Jester, Astra, and Avril

I decided that it would just be much easier to shut the gate.  Now they are confined on the front half of the Back Forty.

I still have Joy, Margarita, Aphrodite, and Antigone on the front pasture.

Front to back:  Antigone, Aphrodite, and Joy

Over the weekend, I checked that fence and found where Uno managed to escape to get back to his maa, and I plugged that with a panel.  The escape route is marked by the purple spot.

Front: Penny; Right: Athena; Back Cutie, Addie, Chiffon

I’m pretty sure Freddie and Fannie haven’t forgiven me for weaning them the other day (for like ten minutes), but I managed to catch and wean them again.  This time, they are on the front pasture.  We’ll see if I did a good job repairing the fence.

Ava with kids Fannie (front) and Freddie

I have more changes planned pretty soon because of the need to replace the fence between the Back Forty and the crop field.

Aurora, Maybeline and Odie

It’s kind of a necessity.

Basking

Another favorite activity with nice sunny weather is basking…

Bonnie

Chiffon and Marge

Maisie and Uno

Myson

Penny (front) and Victoria (back)

It makes for a perfect afternoon!