I Tried

With the warm weather, I kept good on my promise to try to find a way for Miss Goose to get a real bath.

I think Ostara would prefer the tank be for drinking only.

I’m pretty pleased with the setup.  I even put a brick step there.

She was busy taking her bath out of the cattle tank while I was setting it up.

The goats noticed the tub of water.

Pretzel

Maisie

The llamas found the tub of water.

Odie

I did everything I could to get Miss Goose over there to the tub of water.

I tried to steer her to the tub. (Odie and LIlyAnn behind)

She nearly tripped on the bricks.

She does not have power steering.

Finally, I gave up.

She did find the tub eventually.  I broke a thin layer of ice off of it in the morning, and then she proceeded to try a bath from it like she does the cattle tank–just dipping her head in it.

I’m afraid she’ll never get into something with sides that high.  She’s not very adventurous.

That twisty neck!!!!!

So it’s back to the drawing board.  I finally decided that life is too short to hoard the kiddie pool until spring.

Heidi was getting a drink until she saw me.

And looking at her back side, she really needs a bath.

I hope she will get in and have a full bath.

A Wicked Swing

Let’s start with the good news!  Last week’s rain dropped us out of severe drought and back to moderate drought.  That is really good.

We started this week warm.  I mean too warm for this time of year.  I believe two nights had record high low temperatures.

Last weekend when it felt like early September.

Then we had a front come through and drop our temperatures to way below normal.

I scrambled to get heated water buckets going.  And it’s a good thing I did because all the ones I didn’t get emptied are frozen solid.

frozen water and the hydrant

Did you notice the snow flakes on the ice?  We have flurries this morning.  I suppose I should be grateful it’s not the huge amounts of snow they had out west.

Astra and Antigone are not happy with snow.

But my hydrant is frozen.  I don’t know how.  My well house is heated (it’s 50° in there), but it’s just like last year when I couldn’t use it and had to carry buckets of water for six weeks.

Snow down the lane to pasture.

So far, there’s water in the cattle tank.  We’ll see if it works or not when I know someone has drunk from it. and they have to because all of their other water is frozen.

Wasn’t it just a week ago I was looking forward to winter?  Hopefully, the ground won’t freeze completely for a while and we’ll be able to replace the hydrant yet this fall.  I hope so.

Saturday Afternoon

You know it’s a busy day when I’m still on Saturday afternoon. Since the goats were hanging out basking, I decided I’d take the opportunity to get my spring water ready.  I started by putting a tub out for the bucks.

Freddie was trying out the tub while it was still filling

It makes me smile to see Freddie being good to his little buck.

I also emptied the big tub and put a smaller one there and then added some buckets that the kids can drink from.

Onyx

Brigit checking out the new bucket

But after a while, the goats quit basking and went out to pasture.

heading out to pasture

That let me go back to the rest of my plan.  I got Flower and Coral’s hooves trimmed and moved them up north.

Coral and Flower up north

Then I focused my attention on my poor garage.  I got the wheelbarrow out and the tire blown up and cleared from in front of the garage door.  I was impressed that the garage door opener worked perfectly once I got the sensor back in place.

Bob was my helper.

Bob Cat

But when I took my first load to dump, I ended up with someone thinking they were going to come and join me out in the driveway.

Caroline

I decided I’d be better off waiting until Sunday morning when everyone was really out in pasture. It would be much easier to clean then.

I made a little progress!

It was long until the few goats who came back in wandered back out to pasture, and I decided it was time to put the goose in.

happy out in the barnyard

I felt bad about making her go back in the pen, so I treated her with a clean pool.

taking a bath

I think she forgave me.