Today I spent the afternoon (it was a beautiful warm day) in a classroom recertifying my CPR.  Oh sure, a dry warm day and that's the day I have class.  Oh well.

We also let Jackie and her kids into the barnyard/pasture this evening.  Those poor kids didn't know what to think.  Our shetlands were very curious and I was surprised at how close Jackie let them get to her kids.  She went after Wilbert when he came in for a sniff.  LOL 

Rich also set up a small pen for my turkeys.  The orginal 3 I got last month are keep flying out of their box so its time to move to the barn.  The other 7 young'ens are doing fine.  I will move the older ones tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Theresa is coming to pick up her rabbits.  I'll be very happy to have the extra cage space with those 24 little ones, I'm going to need it!  LOL

Time to get ready for bed.
Carol

It was a beautiful day today.  I wish my day wasn't so full or I would have butchered the 4 broiler chickens that I should have processed last week.  I'm afraid if I wait much longer they are going to need wheelchairs to get around!  They are getting so big!

Today I was out running around trying to get all of Madison's 4H ID stuff in for her animals.  Its all due tomorrow.  I think I have it all in order now (I hope).

Then I realized that Rich is going to be gone during the county fair... which means for me that I have to load all these critters into a horse trailer and then drive said horse trailer to the fair! (I don't do trailers so well.. and loading critters (bigger than rabbits).. well, I've never done that!)  IT should prove interesting to say the least.  Rich just sat at the table laughing, I think he was envisioning me backing up the truck and trailer at the fairgrounds.  His great advice for me, show up early when there are less ppl around.  I'm not sure if he meant less ppl to laugh at me or less ppl for me to back into!  lol

Our litters of bunnies are opening their eyes now and crawling out of the nestboxes.  They are about 2 weeks old now.  Oreo's 2 runts died last night so she is down to 8; otherwise the rest are doing great.  I even caught a couple eating pellets.  We have 12 mini lop kits and 12 crossbred kits.

My remaining 5 red bourbon turkey poults came in today.  I also got 2 broadbreasted bronze turkey poults and 2 araucona chicks.  I still need a couple more peking ducks and I think that will complete our flocks for the year.  Unless, I see something really cute!  lol

Gunner is spending his first full night in the barn.  I found him sleeping with the chickens under the light tonight.  He really loves running in the barn and yard with the other goats.  Yesterday, I saw him head butting Clara (chicken) and she didn't think it was much fun.  She kept pecking him on the head.   Finally, he just gave up and found Ginger to play with.

Our new kids are doing great.  Already, they are jumping and butting heads.  We still need names for them.  I'm hoping to let them out of the pen and out with the herd in 2 days.  I want to milk Jackie a couple times before she goes out so I can freeze some "emergency" milk.

Well, I better start the bedtime routine here.  I'm heading to bed early as I have a full day again tomorrow.
Carol

I promised pictures of our new kids and here they are.  Sorry they aren't real great.  With the wet weather we had today, there wasn't enough light in the barn to get real nice pictures.

Buckling:

Doeling: 

We haven't named them yet.  That last picture looks like I'm forcing the poor girl to smile, lol.

Carol

They are here.  Jackie kidded this afternoon.  I found her in active labor this morning during chores.  Rich went home to tend to a few things while I stayed to see if I could catch the kidding on cam.

I did my checks on the hour. 1 pm... no change, 2 pm... no change, 3 pm... passing a little more mucous.  Rich woke me from my next nap at 3:45 pm stating he was headed out with the girls and that Madison was very excited to hear Jackie was in labor.  So I did my 4 pm check early but too late to catch the birth.  There they were, a beautiful set of twins in Jackie's pen, one doeling and one buckling.  The buck is black and white and the doeling.. welll she's white with a funny colored blackish gray swirl on her head.  Madison thought it looked like she was wearing a crown.

I'll get pictures up tomorrow.  I have to head into work now. 

I also want to mention that my baby boy turned 19 today.  I know he's not much of a baby anymore but he's my only boy.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!

Love, Mom

No kids yet from Jackie but she is definately bagging up so we are very excited.  I thought it would be fun to have them born on Mother's Day.  Oh well.  They will get here eventually.

Rich set up my new broiler chicken yard.  Well, he put in the fence posts.  We need to buy wire yet before the chickens can come out to play.

Madison spend some time in the barnyard trying to convince Gandhi that he should wear a halter.  Needless to say, she didn't get very far, LOL.  She has also managed to teach Peaches and Booger how to walk on a rolling barrel.  Its pretty darn cute.  I managed to record some of it on  my camera the other day.  I hope I can figure out how to share a bit of it with you all.  She is hoping to get Wilbert to push the barrel while the goats walk on it.  She's going to have a little circus!  LOL

I need to get some sleep before I head into work.1
Carol

We lost our little highlander bull calf last night.   I went out to the barn to retrieve Gunner and do the chores and when I stepped out in the barnyard, I found Fozzy laying on the ground next to the water tank. 

He didn't look very good. I tried to help him get up and he gave it a good try but was just to weak.  So after a quick phone call to Rich, I put our girlsin the ar and headedup the road to the neighbor's place.  Rochelle happens to be a vet.  She told me she'd call the on call vet for me and send her out.  So we headed back to the farm to wait.

Unfortunately, Fozzy was already gone when we got back.  But I wanted to know what happened to him so if we had to change something so we didn't lose anybody else we could.

About 20 minutes later, Rochelle drove up in her vet truck stating that the on call vet would be at least 2 hours so she thought she's come instead.  I informed her he was already gone but I wanted to know what the cause of death was.

She suspected a twisted intestine since this came on so quickly.  She did a quick autopsy and sure enough, she was right.  I got an orientation to the inner working of a calf.  She said there was nothing we could have done about it.  Its just one of those freak things that happens and its very rare.  She said he was eating well, was the right size for his age and had a good fat layer.  She figured the twisted and perforated large intestine was there for just a few days.  She also found a hairball in his small intestine which she said was also unusual.

Poor Caitlin, she was standing in the pasture calling and calling for her baby.  She seems better today.  Now that he's been removed from her sight, I'm hoping she will quit calling for him.

Carol

I thought I'd share some farm pictures today.

This is Sunny after his haircut.

Here Clara catches a ride on Sunny's back.

Madison, Jumper and Sunny enjoy the barnyard.
Here is one of my red bourbon turkey poults with my bantams.

Next we have Cooper, our katadhin sheep.

This is Snowman, Blacky and Buckwheat our new shetland sheep.

Hope you enjoyed these.  BTW:  No kids yet for Jackie.
Carol

I did lot of traveling today but I didn't go more then 30 miles from home.  I started out about 10:30 a.m. taking Gunner out to the farm so he can learn to be a goat.  I told Rich, I'm just running out there to drop off Gunner, feed the broilers and coming home.  He decided to come with "just incase something was a muck" out there.  I told him the only thing that would make me stay longer was Jackie having her kids.

Well, we just get to the farm (trip 1) and into the barn, and Rich's cell rings.  Its Mike and he's right outside our barn.  He'e ready to pick up the tractor so he can plant the alfalfa field for us.  He needs Rich to drive the truck while he drives the tractor from the shop.

OK... Rich tells me, when I'm done with the chickens, to head home and get the keys for the truck so they can get the seed to the field.  OK.. I can do that, just don't ask me to drive a tractor.  I finish the chick chores and head for the car... and guess what, NO KEYS!  Great..  phone all to Rich who happens to have the keys in his pocket.  Alrighty then, I guess I'll continue with goat chores until he gets back.

While he's gone I decide its time to let our shetlands into the barn so we can get them into the pasture without blowing through the fence.  The boys did well, I opened the door and in they went.  I'm not sure if they had ever seen a chick before... they sniffed each of the chickens in the barn.  Gunner thought it was fun to run with them.  And the ducks, well they just tried to stay out of the way and still be in their little flock.

Rich returns and I tell him what I did.  He's like, ok, lets get them into the barnyard.  It took a few rounds around the barn and all 3 when thru our make shift gate (cattle panel) and disappeared.  Rich headed out to see where they went.  Thank goodness they were just standing in the corner of the fence touching the electric wire... hmmmm, shouldn't that be shocking them?

So Rich finds the short and get the fence going again.  We were lucky there!  The boys or 3 amigos as Rich calls them go around touching the fence every couple feet.  Not too smart I see.  I head home as we still don't have those truck keys Rich needed so badly. 

Its now 1 pm and I'm headed back to the farm (trip 2).  I forgot to bring food and Rich so kindly reminded me.. oops!  So once I'm at the farm, Rich says, follow me to Rod's place I have to drop off Mike's truck.  Once at Rod's, Rich says.. I guess Mike changed his mind so Rich stays and I head back to the farm.  I decide to check on everyone.  I was lucky enuff to discover Lucky's nest and found 7 eggs!  WOOHOO!

After retriving Ellie and a phone call to Rich just to make sure its ok for me to head home, off I go again.  Once Chas and Madison were home, we went back to the farm (trip 3) as it looks like Jackie might kid.

Mike is just finishing up the field work and headed back home.  Rich says he needs to bring Mike's truck to his farm yet before we leave for home.  We decide to stop in town and grab a pizza so we can eat in the trailer and watch Jackie for a bit.

We finally left for home around 7:30 p.m.  Jackie is still acting weird and her udder is filling up and warm so it won't be too much longer.

So that's 3 trips to the farm if you don't count the trip to Rob's and a trip to Mike's.

I'll be out there bright and early tomorrow.  I'm hoping for triplets!
Carol

I was hoping my turkey poults would be here today but I was told "hopefully" tomorrow or Friday.  So I guess I have no choice but to wait.

SweetPea kindled today but all the kits died.  First they were too cold and then they got to warm.  But we do have 14 mini lop kits already so I guess we are ok.  I think I may use SweetPea as a foster mom for 2 of Oreo's kits that are tiny and need some extra TLC.   She let them nurse on her tonight.  So if they are still alive in the am, I think I'll put them with her.

Rich and Austin were out picking rock on 11 1/2 acres today getting ready for alfalfa to go in.  Only another 80 acres to go and the rock picking is done.  UGH!  I like the critter part of farming not the crop part.

Well, I'm off to bed.
Goodnight!
Carol

Yeah, Rich and I spent 2+ hours trying to get Caitlin back in the fence today.  It all started when I was looking out over the barnyard and mentioned to Rich that Caitlin seemed far out.. like outside the fence, across the field, grazing on the grass near the creek.

So off Rich goes to bring her back around.  Which wasn't too bad except for the fact we only have one gate and she was on the opposite end.  So he got her to graze up by the barn (outside of the fence) and went to see how bad the fence was damaged.  Well, you can imagine.. Caitlin weighs a mere 1000+ pounds and the 5 barbed wire with 2 strands electric isn't enough to keep a spooked cow in, 

He finally got that all straighten out and we got Caitlin around to the gate.  Rich went inside the yard and opened the gate, Caitlin headed in.  But then Gandhi decides that Caitlin is a threat and charges her just as she's entering the gate...  I was the only thing standing in the way of a cow being chased by a llama.   Needless to say, I moved out of the way right quick!

Caitlin charged the fence and got into the pasture and Gandhi stopped.  He's wasn't stupid enough to go through the fence (open gate, yes; fence, no).  Ok  fence recked again and a llama out.  Rich went to fix the fence and I went to catch the llama.

Fortunately, the llama is easier to move then the cow, since Gandhi knows what a white pail carried by a human means.  In no time he was at the gate and ready to protect his herd again.  He seems fine as long as Caitlin is on the pasture side of the fence and he was patrolling the fence line to make sure she stayed there.  It was interesting to watch.

Rich is convinced that Ghandi scared Caitlin out of the fence in the first place so it looks like Ghandi will be going up for sale.  Which is sad because I really love our llamas but he can't have him charging the cattle.

One thing I learned about fixing fence,  you should have lots of staples in your pockets because you never have enuff!

On a better note, I got my 2 roosters from Karen last night.  Oh I'm excited.  One rooster is a mix breed.. beautiful black coloring and nice tail.  The other is a white silkie.  The black fellow already was busy with Clara, she should lay a fertile egg tomorrow!  lol

Madison also started her 14 eggs (from Aunt Shelly) in the incubator today.  We don't know if they are fertile but she wanted to try anyway.  This year we actually have a real incubator that we found in Rich's dad's stuff at the farm.  Its a Little Giant still air incubator with an egg turner.

Hopefully, I don't hurt too bad in the morning!  All I know is that I'm really tired!
Carol