Monday again.

What a gorgeous weekend! The birds were all finding time to lay out & sun themselves. It is su funny to walk up on a chicken that looks like it just keeled over dead in the yard. Its eyes will be shut & its feathers will be gently blowing in the breeze. But if I step to close, it will open an eye, lift its head & scurry away. But this little rooster never realized I was sneaking up on it to take its picture.

The younger hens are really beginning to lay & have already gotten the hang of bickering over nest boxes even though there are plenty to choose from. I will be glad when we are through the pullet egg stage. I am bringing in close to 60 tiny eggs a day. Fortunately, the pigs enjoy them scrambled & I can throw the shells back out to the birds who gobble them down to supplement their calcium intake.









Pig Update: The fellows are thrilled with the outdoors - especially the sunny day we had. These older piglets are white so much more susceptible to the sun. They spent most of yesterday basking & are showing the effects today. That pink glow is real!

Moving Pigs

I'd mentioned before that we'd kept the pigs in the stable because the weather has been so unpredictable. We had been moving them from stall to stall. They were content with the dirt floors, open windows & lots of hay to snuggle in but now that the weather has settled down, it was time for them to move into the open.

This evening we moved them into their new pasture. They have a large grassy area with some nice trees for shade. The grassy area will soon be plowed up as the pigs play but we have another pasture to move them into when that one gets nasty.

Moving was quite the traumatic experience! We decided to put a rope around the neck & around the hips of a pig to guide it to its new pasture. There are too many places for the pigs to get loose during the trip from the stable to their pasture so we didn't want to take any chances that one would slip away, shoot down the hill & disappear into the woods. We also decided to move just a single pig at a time. The boys were going to hold the pig ropes, Al was going to open doors & gates & I was going to stay behind to mind the remaining pig.

As soon as the first pig was roped, he began to squeal. The other pig squealed along with him. The squealing was loud enough to make your teeth hurt. The roped pig was not interested in leaving the stable & the free pig was not going back into the stall. I cornered the free pig while the fellows tugged the roped pig out the door. They managed to shut the door just as the free pig was getting angry & shoving at me to get around to go out the door. While the boys & pig took off for the pasture, the remaining pig felt he needed to deal with me. He kept coming up to my knees & pushing on me with his snout. He wasn't quite opening his mouth far enough to bite but I didn't like the fact that he was slobbering down my legs. I didn't know if he was looking for comfort or a chunk of my leg. I kept pushing him back but every time I touched him he squealed again. In a few minutes the fellows were back, having successfully guided the other pig to the new pasture. The instant the ropes were removed, the outdoor pig began to root around calmly exploring his new home. It took another two or three minutes to rope the second pig. In less than five minutes the two were reunited & having a ball on their fresh grass.

We set them up with a water trough & gave them lots of great kitchen scraps. They were happily rooting away as the sun went down. Hopefully, they will be just as happily occupied in their pasture when the sun comes up tomorrow.

Lots of stuff

I've got lots of pictures so will just post a few with some explanations. We've had a great time with kitchen scraps from the Hyatt this week. Although it is hard to appreciate in a still photo, the hens sucking down spaghetti have been hysterical. They wolf down the easy stuff first & then spend time working on scraping the melon scraps until the rind is paper thin. They've been especially pleased this week with the abundance of cucumber seeds.





This picture needs lots of explanation. This is the outside edge of the chicken house. In the dark on the right you can barely see some pretty gold chicken feathers sticking out. This is the back side of a Buff Minorca hen. She laid this egg on the floor of the chicken house & it rolled out. She is apparently unaware as she is still setting.



We let Fuzzy & her lambs out of the barn since it was such a pretty day. The two girls are enjoying exploring the big world. Unfortunately, they are exploring a little close to the electric fence here. No one hit it while I was outside but it usually only takes one quick zap for the animals to get the idea.

Twins Again!

Aggie finally lambed this morning. She's the ewe we'd pulled into the stable a few days ago to treat for pregnancy toxemia. She responded well to the treatment & managed to get cured this morning - by lambing. She has a little black ewe lamb & a little red ram lamb. Both are up, nursing & still a little sticky dirty from their birth. I took Aggie's daughter from last year out of the stall as she was just not sure what to make of all this excitement & Aggie was being very protective of the new lambs, butting gently when her older daughter got in the way. I'll work on posting a picture or two later but since Aggie was still quite busy with mama stuff, I didn't want to disturb her by turning on extra lights, etc.

This is a picture that I took at the end of the day yesterday. It is of our LaMancha, Vincent Van Goat (named because LaManchas have almost no external ears....) sitting on top a new round bale as the other goats eat below him. I was standing at the kitchen window finishing my coffee this morning when I noticed something looked peculiar about that bale. It had tipped over onto its side & rolled off of the stable porch.




I felt kind of "Wizard of Oz -ish" as I checked the edges of the bale for protruding feet. Looks like no one was squashed in the event.

Storm mess

We've decided to let the livestock eat as much of the fallen pine as they want. Although I cannot quite imagine how good it tastes or, for that matter, how funny it feels going down... the animals are thrilled with all the fresh greenery. They peel every branch down to the white core.

There is still a good bit of snow on the ground but also lots of mud & water running off. The ducks are having a ball bathing everywhere while the goats are tiptoeing & leaping from high spot to high spot.

Aggie, our pretty black Jacob ewe, is in the stable right now. We are treating her for pregnancy toxemia & perhaps milk fever. She was beginning to star-gaze today which is not a good thing. Fortunately, we keep all the necessary equipment & medications here for just about anything animal-related. Aggie was not pleased to be locked up even though Fuzzy & her twins are also in the stable. Al brought Aggie's daughter from last year in to keep her company & perhaps calm her down.

The ducks have decided that they love the new hiding places. These 3 eggs were at the same spot that I found one egg yesterday. Looks like this might become a regular spot for a while. I also found eggs in a variety of new places. One egg was being washed under a fence from the snow melt so, rather than wonder where it came from or when it was laid, I flipped it over into Regina's pasture. The dogs always appreciate a good "spare" egg. And the duck eggs have such thick shells that this one bounced & rolled down the hill. I guess that counts as a little play value besides.

Pig Update: I noticed today that the smaller of the piglets don't have baby voices anymore. They are beginning to grunt in a more throaty voice like the bigger pigs! And they are just SO pushy, climbing either over or under each other to get to food.

Hide & Seek

Now that there are lots of newly fallen branches, the ducks have extra places to hide their eggs. Fortunately, many of the ducks congregate in the same area so I know where to begin the hunt. These pine branches fell into the protected chicken yard. There are small openings all around the bottom of the fence so that the birds can come & go but the goats, sheep, cattle & dogs cannot enter to eat either grain or eggs. The rest of the fallen pine branches that the goats & sheep have access to have been stripped bare. Fresh pine needles are quite the treat & apparently the fresh bark is pretty tasty also as it gets nibbled away. Tomorrow I'll spend some time flipping branches from the front & side yard into pastures. It sure is a great way to be rid of the storm debris!

Pig Update: I spent a fair bit of today cooking yet more eggs for the little guys. We are still getting lots of pullet eggs. Pullet eggs are the small eggs a chicken produces as they are just "learning" to lay. We weigh all of our eggs to sort them for sale & the pullet eggs only weigh in as small. I don't bother selling small eggs so those usually get set aside for dogs. Luckily for the dogs, there are plenty of eggs for their usual ration & to share with the pigs. The larger pigs greet me quite aggressively when they see me coming. The smaller pigs haven't quite figured out that they should be excited until I start to dump their eggs in the trough. The red piglet is the first to stick his face in the trough. The others are hysterical to watch as they roll up to the trough next to him. Even though there is plenty of room at the trough, they don't seem to be content unless they are shoving a neighbor while eating.

What a lovely day to calve....

This little gal was born Sunday morning in the sleety rain. Al went out to feed the cattle while I went on to teach at church. He was going to catch up with me before the service. He squeaked in at the very last minute, whispering that Genny had calved.

After church, Al & Eric moved Genny & her new girl up into a stall. The cows would have been content to stay down in the woods but it makes me feel better knowing they are put up.
The goats were especially put out at the weather. The stood under shelter, staring at us as if we could change things. The sheep & cattle think nothing of rain or snow but the goats are just so fussy about getting wet. The advantage of that characteristic in goats is that I don't mind being in the rain so I can get a lot done in the barnyard without the goats underfoot. Someone may get very bold & run out to me to see if I have a peanut in my pocket. They are usually disappointed & run back under cover as I don't carry treats in my pocket if I need to work alone.

We did lose power about 5 o'clock Sunday afternoon. We stoked up both fireplaces, lit a few candles, put a pot of water on the fire for tea & moved the tortoise up by the fire as his regular heat source is electric. Everyone outside had hay, feed & water so there was not a whole lot more that we could do. It was pleasant, however, to have our power back on 24 hours later.

We did have one death in the storm. The wicked rooster who loves to chase & spur us was dead this morning. He was an older Phoenix rooster so perhaps it was just his time. He'd also huddled into the tractor barn with lots of sheep so perhaps he was stepped on. Either way, he lived a much longer life than he would have on most farms. For the last five or six years I've been just cautiously avoiding him so that I didn't often get my legs laid open. I doubt many other folks would have been as patient & would have dispatched him when he first showed himself as a cocky young fellow.