Another one of Greg and the kids....

Wow, it's been quite a while since I've posted. Things have been going well on the farm, and I am most grateful to have Greg to keep up with the mowing... when it was strictly up to me, things quickly got out of control. A couple of weeks ago, my friend Amy's sister and her kids came to visit... Greg rode them around on Magnum a bit, and they loved it!

Quite the scare!

I was just at the kitchen sink and glanced out the window to see my horse, Shiloh, laid out completely prone in the front field. Now, normally I might just think that he was taking a nap and recharging his solar batteries (judging by how often all animals do this, I'm convinced they have better solar technology than us humans). But we had a snowstorm yesterday, which meant he was lying in about 9 inches of snow, which doesn't seem very comfortable in which to have one's face flat.

So I was concerned, briefly thinking "what if he dropped dead?!". (That's a frequent worry with my elderly animals). I opened the front door and called "Shiloh?". No response. So I quickly put on my clogs and shuffled through the snow towards him. As I got to the fence, I noticed a little bird perched on his neck. That did it - I thought "Oh no, he's dead and frozen solid and the wild critters are already treating him like part of the landscape!". I climbed through the fence and again said, "Shiloh!". This time his head came up quickly (startling the bird off) as he turned to me with his ears perked forward, and he looked for all the world like he was saying "What?". I asked "What are you doing, you silly horse?!"

At that, he put his head back down, scrubbed it vigorously back and forth in the deep snow until it looked like he was a powdered doughnut, then rolled over and wiggled in the snow with his legs in the air, doing a pretty good impression of making a horse snow angel. Then he stood up, shook, and wandered over to his hay trough. I was very relieved to see he was fine, but wished I'd had my camera to take a picture of him laid out with a bird preening itself on his neck. I just shook my head and went back in the house to warm my frozen feet...

Ellen on Shiloh in the park with Zoey alongside

Baby Goats Born!

Anette holding the newborn twins! A little buckling and a little doeling. Click here to see more photos: http://s669.photobucket.com/albums/vv55/AnnaB264/Baby%20Goats/

Zoey

Lower Right: Zoey's mom, Sabina,correcting her bouncy daughter, and letting her know she'd better BACK OFF!

Horses at hay feeder before the snow

view of the field

Horses waiting by the gate

Maybe I need some good Goat recipes....

I got another call from my neighbor today to report that my goats had eaten all the evergreens she planted along her driveway as well as the bulbs under her window. After her last call, I had fixed the goat pen fencing and had them penned up, but I let them out to forage since everything is snow-covered. I'm probably just going to have to get rid of them all until I can put up my perimeter fencing, which would keep them out of the neighbor's.

The pen they are currently in is pretty small, so it will quickly get pricey to feed them hay throughout the winter. As it is, I think I'm going to have to reimburse the neighbor for all her plants... after her first phone call, I glanced at her evergreens, and they looked a little nibbled, but like they would certainly make it, so I don't know how dire of a state they are in now. Hopefully they won't be too expensive... maybe selling the goats will pay for them!

CHILLY WINTER DAY

It was FREEZING cold today... I believe we reached a high of maybe 22 degrees. This morning I had to go break the ice in the horses' water troughs... it took quite a few whacks with a heavy metal digging bar. I hope it gets above freezing tomorrow, as I may have to refill the troughs by then, which will be quite impossible if the hoses are frozen.

As I frequently do when it's particularly cold, I boiled a large pot of water on the stove to soak their beet pulp and alfalfa cubes to warm up their feed a bit. It's a funny sight to see when I dump the food into their buckets and steam wafts up as they eagerly dive in. The goats were particularly insistent on being fed right now, and they aren't at all fond of the cold. The two littlest babies (born on Thanksgiving) seemed just fine, romping about and appearing not to notice the temperature.

The bunnies had frozen water in their dishes, but other than that, seemed perfectly fine in their rabbit fur coats. I cut and split enough firewood to get me through tomorrow, so hopefully it won't stay frigid for too long!

Sabina

Update

I haven't posted in quite a while, so I think it's time for an update on the farm. I have 6 horses here now... my 2 (Shiloh and Magnum), and 4 boarders (Whisper, Aztero, Amaree and her colt Cashmir). My goat count is up to 8 with the birth of 2 new babies on Thanksgiving Day. I really need to sell the two older males... Billy Goat O'Leary is not too happy with them infringing on his does. My rabbit count is holding steady at 3, as my one female is either refusing to get pregnant, or quietly disposing of her litter as soon as it's born. I really need to get another female and see if I have more luck. That's about it for the livestock count... photos when I get to taking some!

Back side of the barn 

Drive down to the back field 

8/10/05

Well, I moved into the place finally on July 22nd! I have a list of projects long enough to easily last me into 2007, but I can't wait to get started! The first thing I did was run around taking a few "before" photos...

Shiloh, ridden by Jackie