Well, my 4 broilers (we called them Dinner) have been granted a pardon from the killing tree for yet another day.  Mike called early this am and asked Rich to help him retrieve some fence posts, they called it a "hot tip" on where there were some fence posts at a good price.  lol  So, my chickens live another day since the henchman was fence posting and getting treated to a Blizzard at the local DQ.

The good news is that Betsy is starting to put some weight on her sore leg.  She is out running and jumping.  I saw Betsy and Ross running after Gunner, which was pretty cute.

I did some cleaning around the trailer after running a few errands in town.  It seems when you are trying to live in 2 places at the same time (or at least for me) I'm always missing something so I can't finish a task.  Today was especially horrible. 

I went to wash a load of laundry only to discover I have no laundry soap at the trailer , so I just used Borax and that seemed to work alright.  Nothing was that terribly dirty just needed freshening.  Oh and then I remembered I don't have a dryer or a clothesline.  UGH!  

I, then, decided to line the shelves in the kitchen with shelf liner only to discover we don't have a scissors in the trailer... ok, on to the next task.  I thought I'd make french bread pizza for lunch only to find I forgot to bring the cheese grater with me from home... so I settled on the frozen pizza instead. 

I did manage to make Italian spaghetti for supper without salt (the shaker was empty) and no parmesan cheese, lol.  I was laughing by this time as it just seemed I was missing something every time I tried to accomplish something.  I can honestly say.. I can't wait until we make the complete move!

I did work in the garden... I planted 9 tomato plants.  Rich helped me plant my plum trees (2), a cherry tree and a gooseberry bush.  I still need to find a place for my rhubarb. 

And that was it.  It was time to go home.  And we did.
Carol

Once again, we spent the entire day at the farm.  My broilers are out of the coop now.  Well, after I shoved them all out the door!  LOL  They are curious but very cautious creatures.  Once out, they were busy scratching and checking out the new territory.  Getting them back in the coop was just as difficult as getting them out of it,  We caught each one of the 70 and placed them back into the coop tonight.  I wonder how many days it will take to train them.

We had an extra passanger tonight on the way back home.  Betsy (newest doe kid) is limping.  Actually, she's only walking on 3 legs.  She bears no weight on her right back leg.  I can see anything physically wrong with it.  I can do full range of motion on it and she doesn't seem to be in pain.  I brought her home to watch her and take her to the vet in the morning.  My, my, she sure can scream for her mama!  I have a feeling we are going to be awakened a few times during the night!  lol

I started organizing the trailer and making beds.  I brought out groceries and some supplies.  I also planted my 50 strawberry plants and 12 raspberry plants.  I used the llama/goat mature for the bed.   I'mt hikning I may not need my garden in town this  year with the size of the one at the farm.  Plus Rich said there is room at the end of the vineyard for vining plants if I need it.

Well, I'm tired.  Off to bed for me!
Carol

I received a phone call this morning letting me know that my bantams were here.  So I quickly got the bunny chores completed and fed the turkeys.  Rich then mentioned we need to do farm chores yet this am too... oh yeah and we need to run to Mike's to get milk as well. 

So we finally got to the feed store at about 1:30 pm!  LOL  So much for my early jump on things.  Anyway, I came home with 22 little bantams.  12 are for my SIL and the other 8 10 are for us.  I had orginally only ordered 8 for me but there were too many cute ones to stop at 8.  We will deliver the 12 extras to SIL tonight after Madison's Spring concert.

Speaking of Madison, she announced this afternoon that she had a sub teacher today because her teacher's husband died of a heart attack yesterday.  Some of you already know this but her husband was my Phy Ed/Health teacher when I was in school.  Its weird to hear news like that.  They live right up the street from my mom.  I do believe they have a son who is still in high school.  That's too young to lose your dad.  My sympathy goes out to the family.

I'm off to make supper.
Carol

We attended the llama clinic in Sauk Rapids today.  Man, it was chilly.  We arrived at 8:30 am and we were done around 4 pm.  It was held at the fairgrounds so there wasn't any heat in the buildings.  I'm still chilled!  The homemade turkey soup I had cooking in the crockpot all day sure tasted good!  We learned a lot about training llamas and now Madison wants to try to halter train Dolly.  First, we have to order a halter for her. And then the real challenge will be catching her and putting the halter on.  I'm not looking forawrd to that.

While Madison and I attended the clinic, Rich headed over to Wyoming, MN to pick up a highlander cow and her 6 month old bull calf.  Apparently, when you pick up cattle, you get 2 free cats in the bargin, lol.  I thought it was a good idea to get a couple of barn cats as we are starting to find mice in the barn.  Unfotunately, the black one took off and I'm not sure where it is.  Hopefully, I'll spot him/her tomorrow.

Caitlin (highlander cow) and calf unloaded easily from the trailer and seem to respect the fence.  Rich rounded them up and showed them the way to the pasture and soon both were chowing away and the fresh grass.  Our poor llamas didn't know what to think.  They just stared.  lol

Well, I'm off to work.
Carol

WOW!  what a trip home from work!  It was snowing, blowing and a lovely layer of frozen slush on the road.. took me almost an hour to drive 26 miles!  UGH!!!  The good news, most of the 6+ inches of snow we received was gone by 3 pm.

We didn't go and pick up our 3 wether shetland sheep as the weather was so awful this am.  We are rescheduling for later in the week.

Tomorrow we go to a llama clinic for 4H.  That should be interesting.

Carol

So I'm up early watching the news and Jonathon (weatherman) says we are expecting up to 12 inches of snow and blizzard conditions tonight through Saturday.. say what?  Its April.. where are our April showers?  We haven't had that much snowfall from a single winterstorm yet this winter.  Good grief, now I'm worried about my chicks in the new coop.  I hope I didn't move them too early.  I think I will do some extra insulating today.

I'll update more later.

Carol

We ran errands today.   I got notice that my client is out of the hospital so I get to work tonight.  I have to admit it was nice having this unscheduled mini vacation  and I'm not really looking forward to my shift tonight.  I'm hoping that this summer I will be able to go to an on-call status so I can help more at the farm but we shall see.

I forgot to mention that Madison and I had attended a rabbit show about 45 minutes from here.  We didn't bring any of our rabbits but we went rabbit shopping.  Madison now has a beautiful senior buck.  He's a gold tipped steel mini lop.  She also fell in love with a fawn colored 7 week old mini lop doe so we brought her home as well. 

I was so excited to learn that the gal we bought the buck from raises a meat rabbit breed called Crème d'Argent.  Its a light orange colored rabbit.  What was really exciting to me was that they are on the American Livestock Breeds Conservatory in the watch catagory.  I have asked her to contact me when she has a breeding trio available.

Oh before I forget, Hillary is doing great and so are the kids!

I'm off to work. 

Carol

We are getting a new rabbit this weekend.  So I had to move our rabbits around in their cages to accommodate our new addition when she gets here.  I cleaned all the cages, the enclosure and also cleaned the 2 chicken cages.  It was beautiful outside making it very nice for cleaning.  Believe it or not... the mid 40 temps feel extremely warm at this time of year in MN.

I still haven't gotten my seedlings started.   If I wait much longer I might was well just plant them in the garden.

Carol

Well, it looks like Lucky is doing fine in the barn.  She walks kind of funny but is right in there with Clara eating with the goats.  They have their own chicken feed but apparently goat chow is better.

Our snow is disappearing and Sunny and 2 of our younger goats noticed the "greener" pasture on the other side of the fence as we found them grazing OUTSIDE of the pasture fence.  All 3 came running as soon as they saw me.. crawling right under the fence without hestitation.  I guess Rich has work to do on that darn fence!  He's not too happy.   

Speaking of the snow, I thought I'd share this picture I took a few days ago when we got 6+ inches of heavy wet snow.

The sun was just starting to come up.  I think it is so beautiful when it's snowing heavy like this and everything is undisturbed.

Hoare frost is also very pretty which is what is in this picture:

Well, I need to get to bed.  I have a 4 hour meeting tomorrow morning.

Carol

We spent a quiet Easter weekend at home, hoping it would get warm enough to melt all snow that was dumped on us Thursday-Friday.  But its still here, not all of it, we have lost a few inches but its still pretty white out there.

I'm getting spring fever.  I'm hoping to get my seedlings started today.  I probably should have started them a week ago but I just didn't get to it.  I never have much luck with transplanting the seedlings so this year I'm planting in Jiffy Strips so I don't have to disturb the roots.  We will see how that goes.  I'm also going to try some companion planting.  I have a few weeks yet to figure that all out.  May 1st is about the earilest one dares to plant outside here.  Rich reminded me that I have to plot the garden(s) at the farm.  I have one garden in town and have to figure out what plants are going in here and which are growing in the garden(s) at the farm.

OK, I better get to started with my day.

Carol