This is where a whole round bale goes....

Zeb & Gates, our oxen, share a pasture with a single ram. The ram actually had to be put in that pasture last breeding season for an attitude issue & now he is content with the big boys. The oxen can tear up a round bale in just a few days. They celebrate the arrival of a new bale by spearing it with their horns & pitching hay down their backs. They eat enthusiastically, only letting the ram sneak in after a few hours of eating like they'd never seen hay. Of course, they are never short on hay as we put in a new bale just as an old one is being finished off. But each new bale warrants lots of excitement. Hay tossing & eating are followed by dismantling the bale. For the next few days the oxen will lay in their bed of hay for hours at a time, standing up to eat, wandering over for a drink & then returning to claim their space which they carefully guard. The ram, who was quite a big shot among the other sheep, sneaks a bite in here & there or feeds off some other hay we put at the far end of the pasture & the corn I pitch over the fence. He has learned that the oxen rarely finish a whole bale before receiving a new one so he's content to eat at last week's hay while the oxen carry on somewhere else.

We had another stray dog show up yesterday. This one is a cute little fellow so we rescued him from potential problems with either the donkeys or our livestock guardian dogs in the back pastures. He is in a stall & we've placed a "dog found" sign at the side of the road. I've had three calls on missing dogs but none fit his description. One fellow did say he'd seen this dog wandering a few miles up the road from us a good week or so ago so who knows how long he has been on his own or if anyone is trying to find him.

Pig Update: The piglets are initially in a stall until turned out to pasture. The last piglets were happy to be indoors with the temperatures in the teens. These latest piglets are only 6 weeks old & are also content inside for a bit. We have found it funny that both groups love to lay right at the stall door but fly into a squealing panic the minute the door is open. The race to the far end of the stall looking utterly stunned that the door has been opened.