Snow.... wonderful snow!

We woke this morning to over 8 inches of snow and it was still snowing! This is North Carolina we don't get storms like this. The kids and I loved it... Neil... not so much. This is the most snow we have seen since we left Maine in 2003.

Out in the barn I found all the animals crammed in the barn. I am sure they were confused since we had over 60 degree weather all this past week and now more snow then most of them had ever seen. Chores took a bit extra time since I had to lug water and shovel snow off of the hay bales.

Back in the house we warmed up by the fire and spent the afternoon cleaning up the house.


Tonight I finished knitting up a pair of Mary Jane shoes for Mckayla's Cabbage Patch doll. She is so thrilled will the doll clothes I am making. I have a que of knitting projects I want to get done and a doll's dress is up there on the list.

Days update.

Well, first off, our rabbit made it through the night! She is tucked in the far corner of the hutch but her ears are up and she seems alert. I will not consider her out of the woods until another day or two and I see her eating and drinking again. But, she looks good for what she went through yesterday!

Neil's Dad came by early this morning so he and Neil could get the last of the four concrete stabilizer footings poured on the garage. Yeah! Now that that is done they can continue work on the end walls and doors to button it up for the winter.

We have two alpacas that are due with crias at the end of this month. One of those is Eloise. While feeding the girls this morning I noticed a large lump by the tail head of Eloise, so large that it actually pushed her tail to one side. I went up and felt the lump and it was firm. I pressed on it and it retracted back! A few minutes later it reappeared... I pushed on it again and it retracted once more. This was the nose of the cria! So, Eloise is now on cria watch.

My birthing stall has had a gate broken on it for some time (the cows share one side and rubbed on it until the wall broke) and since my need for that stall my come sooner than I had thought... Neil removed the half wall that the gate is attached to, rebuilt the framing, covered it with pressboard for strength, reinstalled the wall and then hung the gate again. Now I am all set if I see any signs of impending birth. I will put the two girls in there in another week regardless so that they don't give birth without being separated from our LGDs who are so protective of babies that they keep the dams away too!

Sold the three little ducklings to a neighbor I sold some turkeys to this summer. She called yesterday to see if I had any ducks for sale and was pleased that I had little ones available. Funny how things work out sometimes.

I weighed our two new Nigerian Dwarf goat doelings again today to see if they are growing. They have been here two weeks now. Miss Olive, who weighed in at only 16.75lbs two weeks ago, was up 1.5lbs to 18.25lbs. Miss Cheddar on the other hand remained the same at 17.75lbs. I am sure this is due to the week long bought of diarrhea she went through when she first arrived. She has recovered fully and is doing well now. I will continue to weigh them over the next few weeks to keep my eye on their growth.

Finally, Neil set up the volleyball net for the kids in the side yard so they could play badminton with it. Evan played for a bit but then went off to set "snares" around the farm. McKayla and I played badminton for almost an hour. What a sight we were... playing badminton with a volleyball net and racket ball rackets... but we had a blast!

Slow start...

Even though I call them "chores" I don't really feel that way about feeding and caring for the animals. I enjoy my time in the barn with the livestock and often find myself lingering about just watching the animals and giving scratches to those that enjoy them. But then there are the times like this morning...

I had a slow start this morning as I woke up with a head cold and a mild headache. I was warm as I snuggled in bed with McKayla beside me. The thought of getting out of that warm bed to go out to the cold barn was not much of an enticement. But by 8:45am I knew the animals were all waiting for me so I dragged myself out of bed, stoked the fire and bundled up for the cold (22F).

It is the transitions that I don't like... once down at the barn I was happy to see everyone was fine and waiting for their breakfasts. With the temps being below freezing most of the day I am having to lug water to all the animals 2-3 times a day. This latest cold spell has at least not frozen the water pipe to the barn. So, I only have to bring the water from the outside corner of the barn inside to fill the water buckets. It takes about six 5 gallon buckets each time I bring them water.

As much as I just wanted to cuddle on the couch today and knit, I had things in town to do; the bank, recycling center, feed store, and the grocery store.

When we finally returned home it was getting dark. I got the kids settled in the house and groceries (at least the cold stuff) put away. Then I donned my headlamp and went out to the barn to do the night chores. I was surprised as I walked down to the barn to discover our LGD, Emie, standing in one of the raised garden beds! It has been a few months since she has gotten out of the pastures so I was shocked to see her there. She went right down to the gate so I could let her back into the pasture. After everyone was fed, I grabbed the electric fence tester and headed out to see if the electric fence was working properly. It tested between 4000-5000 volts... right where it should be. Hummm... not sure how she got out this time. I just hoped she would still be in by morning.

The hens gave 13 eggs today.

Evidence of Snow

This picture is overlooking the female alpaca pasture out to the new home of the male alpacas. It was taken from the deck of the house.

Another one from the deck looking down to the big barn. There you see the girls undercover.

Snow on the blackberry patch.

My dog Tate was so thrilled to have snow again!

The weather broke finally

Wow! After two weeks of cold wet rain and then freezing temperatures we awoke this morning to a beautiful day outside. When I went to do chores it was already over 50F and most of the day is was up around 70F! It felt like spring.

This was Neil's last day of vacation and with the lousy weather we haven't been able to get most of the projects done that we hoped to during his vacation time. It is kind of hard to put siding on the barns in driving rain and 6 inches of mud. So, today Neil got almost the entire end wall of the alpaca barn finished. He ran out of 2x4s at the end so he couldn't finish the header over the 8 foot door but otherwise it looks great.

It was so nice out that I took the cria coat off of our new baby alpaca for the first time. I then took a bunch of photos of her since I really couldn't do that well with her shut up in the barn with her mom Noodle. Noodle has finally decided to be an attentive mom and is nursing her well and worries when she is out of sight. I think we have decided on a name for her: Gingersnap. Since she was born 3 days after Christmas and had the color of gingerbread it just seemed to fit her. We will most likely call her Ginger around the farm. Here is one of the photos I snapped of Ginger today at 10 days old.

We spent the rest of the day just tidying up outside and enjoying the nice weather. Our neighbor across the street, Danny, came over to talk with Neil about pouring the cement slab for our new garage and he told Neil that he would be able to get it done in the next two weeks or so. It will be so nice for Neil to finally get his garage up so the tools from the house, the shed and the barn can all go to their proper place and Neil can have a place to work without having to clear space in the barn every time we do a project.

The hens only gave 7 eggs today. They must be hiding them somewhere.

Happy New Year!

It is hard to believe that this is the second New Year's Day we have spent here on the farm! Boy, doesn't time fly by...

Our first goal for today was to offload the 3 1000+ lb round hay bales into the cow pasture. Both Neil and I were a little uncertain how that was going to go but it ended up going better then ever imagined. Neil backed the trailer right into the pasture over the place we wanted the bales to set. He brought our little Kobota tractor in and we looped a single strapping around the bale and attached it to the bucket of the tractor. Then we backed the tractor up and off slid the bale! Then Neil pushed it a bit off to the side so we could pull the other two off. So simple!

And the cows and donkeys were thrilled! I am hoping that with the "all they can eat" hay and the worming I did yesterday that I can get some condition back on Cherry Blossom... she is far too thin right now.

Next project was to assemble the new "temporary" building we picked up at Tractor Supply on Sunday. It is a 12x20 tarped covered shelter that we put into the male alpacas pasture to give them more shelter from the rain. With our new breeding male coming in a few weeks we needed to upgrade our male living quarters.

The building went together like an erector set and I dare say that Neil and I actually had fun doing it. It is really sturdy and looks pretty nice to boot (it is dark forest green so it blends right in to the tree line).

This was our second day with no rain and the pastures had dried out enough that they no longer had standing water in them. I took advantage of this and finally let Noodle and her five day old cria out of the barn for a few hours while we were working in the pasture. The little cria seems to be doing well despite her petite size. The two mingled with the herd until evening chores when I put them back in the catch pen in the barn. The barn is a bit warmer and I didn't want to risk it raining overnight and the cria getting chilled.

Neil wanted to try a new restaurant in town so we all went out for dinner and had Italian.

The hens gave 17 eggs today.

The barn is buzzing with energy!

What a day... so many things to write about today.

It started out before I even left the house this morning. I was standing in the kitchen getting the carrots for the rabbits as I do every morning and as I looked out the window I could see our alpaca Noodle laying out in the middle of the pasture by herself. I thought this was odd so I watched her for a second. She soon got up and walked over the the poop pile with her tail up and then walked off still with her tail up.

I went into the living room where Neil was stoking the fire and said "Hey, Noodle is in labor!". Now, Noodle is the same alpaca that was due anytime after 12/15 but didn't look pregnant to me nor have I felt any fetal movements and two days ago was untrasounded as open. So, Neil responded with "Really?" I headed out to the barn to work on chores while keeping an eye on Noodle. When I feed the rest of the girls (alpacas) Noodle did not come in from the pasture. I walked out to look at her and her vulva was dilating so it confirmed my thought. I went in a fed our cow Riona as she was still separated out with her new calf, but some hay out for her and the alpacas and went and peeked at Noodle again. She had already progressed so much that the cria's nose and front hooves were out. I headed up to the house to get the camera and to let Neil know that if he wanted to see the birth he had better get outside soon.

By the time Neil got down to the barn I had gotten Noodle in from the pasture and the LGDs out as they were far too interested in the bits that were sticking out already. Within 20 minutes our newest cria was born. A medium fawn girl with vicuna markings (a lighter underside). She appeared healthy enough but she was tiny! I estimated at about 10lbs. A normal cria weight should be about 12-16lbs. I got her dried off, as it was pretty chilly outside with a strong wind, and got her fleece cria coat on her right away. Once Noodle got a good sniff of her I moved them both into the barn and gave Noodle some breakfast.



Neil went back to the house to check on the kids while I busied myself with the rest of my chores and keeping an eye on the little cria to make sure she was doing OK. At about an hour old the cria began trying to stand up and with a little help for balance started looking to nurse. Noodle on the other hand didn't seem to want anything to do with nursing and would continually move away from the cria every time. This was odd as she was such a good mom to her last cria and nursed him until he was 10 months old. I ended up holding Noodle's head so that she would hold still and let the cria nurse and get that all important colostrum.

Later in the morning it was decided that we should let Riona and her calf out with the other cows to get some exercise. I also needed to muck out their stall and this was easier done without them in it. Well, that lead to a 45 minute physical struggle between Riona and Cherry Blossom, our boss cow. Blossom has always pushed Riona around but now that she had a calf to protect Riona wasn't backing down as easily. They pushed, shoved and chased each other till they were exhausted.

Meanwhile, I cleaned out the barn and Neil got started making space for his saws so he could start siding the goat barn. We both worked on stripping the chicken wire off the outside of the goat barn on the sides Neil was working on today. This was a frustrating job as there was a gazillion staples holding it on and they all had to be individually cut with wire cutters. I made sure at least every hour I went in and held Noodle while the cria nursed. It gets dark here about 5pm and Neil was trying to get the front of the goat barn done tonight as the goats had made a hole in the chicken wire covering it and could get out at their leisure.

We were working by flashlight by this time and Neil was just nailing on the final panel of the day when we heard alpacas screaming! I knew it was Peter and Sid our two mature intact males. The thing is they were in adjoining pastures so shouldn't be able to get to each other. Neil and I ran over to the screaming and found Peter on top of Sid and the two were struggling to get up. By flashlight Neil and I quickly assessed the fact that the two of them had entangled themselves in the electric string fencing. It was caught in Sid's mouth around both their legs and necks. The fencing needed to be cut and fast. I stayed with the alpacas and tried to keep them calm and from not struggling further while Neil ran to the barn to get the wire cutters. Once the wires were cut they both got up and walked away... mouths hanging open from constant spitting and screaming. By flashlight I tried to see if either had any serious injuries but I just couldn't see that well. Both of them were walking with no visible limp and we had no blood on us from handling them so I hoped they were OK for the night. I am just so glad that that happened when it did and not 30 minutes later when we would never have heard them up at the house. I hate to even think of that outcome.

After that burst of adrenaline Neil went up to the house while I did the evening chores. Once up at the house Neil and I looked at each other and agreed that was just too much emotion for one day.

I made one final barn check at 10pm to hold Noodle again for the cria to nurse. Everyone else seemed settled in for the night.

It's a boy!

Finally, Riona (our Irish Dexter first freshener cow) delivered us a bull calf today... only eight days overdue!

I noticed her off by herself being restless about 10:30am this morning. By 11am she was beginning to have hard contractions. I went out into the pasture to be near her but not too close and watched for about 30 minutes. She was having contractions about every 2 minutes or so. I had to go back up to the house to check on the kids but returned 45 minutes later (about 12:15pm) to find that she had progressed enough that I could see two little hooves had emerged!

As this was her first calf I am sure she was a little confused with what was going on. She kept walking around, especially during contractions. I'm sure it helped with the pain and moving the calf along in the process. She was being pestered by our 8 month old bull calf, Chuck. He followed her around everywhere. By 12:45pm Riona was lying down during her hardest contractions and again Chuck was right there licking her head. After she got up and down a few more times I noticed that Chuck had figured out that Riona was lactating and was using her as a milk bar while she was pushing... how rude! I decided it was time I got more involved then just watching from a distance so I moved in to keep Chuck away from her (well at least her udder). It was only two more good pushes and at 1:03pm the calf was delivered!

As I expected, and the main reason I wanted to be with Riona when she calved, was that as Riona got back to her feet our boss cow Cherry Blossom (Chuck's mom) moved in between Riona and her calf. CB loves the babies and would have prevented Riona from returning to him if I had not been there. So while I was checking the calf over Riona moved away about 30 feet and watched.

Since Riona delivered him lying down he never was hung head down during the delivery. This is an important thing as when they are head down hanging from mom during delivery the fluid in their lungs is expelled through their mouth and nose. So, immediately after he was born I cleared his nose and mouth of any membranes and lifted him by his back hocks and hung him for 3-4 seconds. Then I rubbed his rib cage to stimulate him to breath and took a peak to see if it was a heifer or bull calf. Meanwhile CB had been licking him off or trying too with all my fussing with him. So, I picked the slimy little guy up and took him over to Riona, who seemed very pleased to have him back and started cleaning him off right away.

I let Riona bond with him for about 15 minutes all the while scooting off Cherry Blossom and Chuck (who was still trying to nurse from Riona). We were all on the far side of our five acre pasture, it was cold outside enough that we could see our breath and the calf was starting to shiver so I picked the little guy up (thank goodness for mini breeds as he was only about 40lbs) and headed to the barn. I had hoped that Riona would follow me up but she didn't budge a bit. So, up at the barn I got the calf settled into the dog crate that had straw already in it (from our canine visitors earlier this week) and covered him over with a heavy towel. Then I grabbed a lead rope and went back down for Riona.

I needed to keep Riona and the calf away from Cherry Blossom and Chuck, at least for a few days until they bonded well, so I moved Riona into the female alpaca pasture. This has the added benefit of having the largest area inside the barn with lots of dry straw to help keep the little guy warm. Once reunited Riona was very pleased and become quite protective of him with the LGDs and alpacas, not letting them come close to check him out. I stayed out in the barn with them until I was comfortable that everyone was going to get along. Also, I wanted to stay until the calf got up to stand and nurse for the first time. That happened about 2:15pm.

I returned to the barn to check on things around 3pm. The calf was resting at first but after a few minutes got up to nurse again. By 3:30pm Riona had past the placenta which the dogs quickly disposed of for her. It might seem a bit disgusting to let the dogs do this but it is part of their "job". Livestock guardian dogs instinctly remove anything from the pastures that would produce a scent that would attract predators. This is especially important around vulnerable newborns that would be easy prey to coyotes.

My final check down at the barn was at 9:30pm. He was up and nursing again... strong little guy. I am a bit worried about him getting chilled tonight but hopefully he will stay in the barn and not wander outside. I am not sure Riona would know to bring him back inside.

With all that went on today I also had to deal with totally frozen water lines to the barn. I had to tote water from the house at least three times today. It will be a long winter if I have to do that everyday. Hopefully this weekend Neil can figure something out to insulate the hoses.

The chickens gave 15 eggs today but after I collected them I forgot them outside and they froze.

Work on the barn gets done!

I noticed this morning while doing chores that end of our 6' woven wire fence had gotten mangled a bit. After feeding I walked out into the pasture to get a closer look. This part of the fence is kind of loose since it was the end of the roll but didn't quite reach where the next wooden post will be. In the future when we get more fencing we will be splicing them together, but for right now, the end of the roll is being staked with a T-post and then the electric fence begins. It was obvious that a deer had gotten tangled in the woven wire and struggled to get free. The spacing on the wire had been distorted and the fence was leaning out quite a bit. It will still hold our livestock for now so it is not at the top of our list for fixing today. It will be nice when we have 6' fencing all around the pasture so the deer can't get in at all.

Neil actually got a chance to work on the end wall of the barn today! He got about 2/3 of the wall framed in and sided. All that is left is framing around the 8' wide door and putting on the rest of the siding. Hopefully next weekend will see the completion of the barn siding project. We still need to build some doors and my office in the barn but I am happy to have the wind break this wall will provide the animals.

I brought more hay up from the semi-trailer today. While I was in there I counted the bales I had remaining. I have 31 bales left after taking today's load. That means I have only about 45 days left of hay at best. Come January I am going to have to find some more hay... probably about 50-75 bales at the very least.

This afternoon I also took the tractor out into the pasture and collected the down wood out in the tree stand. It made for a good load of wood on the tractor. I figure it will be a couple of days of cutting anyway. Oh, and Neil took a few minutes and sharpened the chainsaw chain for me. I did a test cut after the fact and it was like cutting through butter! That will make cutting wood so much faster.

Neil and I also got the 10x10 pop-up canopy set up over the catch pen for Eloise once she arrives. The transporter called this afternoon and said it would be later this evening that he would be delivering her.

10pm Update: Well, Eloise is here at last! Finally, all of our alpacas are here on the farm with us. She has a cute face but being a black alapca in the dark of night it was hard to get a good look at her. I threw some hay down for her along with some water and after a bit left her to settle down for the night. I can't wait to see her in daylight.

Odds and Ends

The weather was warm here today and I took advantage of that and worked outside most of the day. I got my firewood cut, brought hay up to the barn from the semi-trailer, mucked out the alpaca part of the barn, cleaned out my asparagus bed and mulched it over with the soiled straw from the barn, emptied the trailer from a run to Southern States for livestock feed yesterday (300lbs of feed and 4 bales of straw), threw a clean bale of straw back down for the alpacas, assembled the four PVC pipe mineral feeders (two for the goats and one each for the male and female alpacas) and lastly in preparation for our alpaca Eloise's arrival tomorrow I moved the 10x10 catch pen out of the female alpaca pasture and put it over by the tool shed (Eloise will have to be in isolation from the other alpacas for ~2 weeks). Whew!

The chickens gave us 20 eggs today! Three I found in the goat barn again.

Daily ramblings.

Today Neil got a chance to build the hay feeder for the alpaca girls. I have been feeding them hay on the ground which isn't good for several reasons; 1. A lot gets wasted from being walked on and 2. It can increase they incidence of parasites from eating soiled hay from the ground. I was thrilled to get the feeder built finally. The girls seem to really like it too and all of them can easily fit around it.

Neil also installed my new solar shed light inside the goat barn as well as another solar motion sensor light over the door to the big barn. Both of these will help out with evening chores as it is pitch dark by 5:30pm this time of year.

Well, I butchered four roosters today, two Turkens, a Barred Rock and my last Dark Brahma (a feather footed breed). This should be the last of the chicken butchering for a while. I still have more roosters then I really need at 8. Those that remain include a Barred Rock, a Cuckoo Maren, a Dominique, a Dark Cornish, the Hill Roamer, two Welsummers, and my mystery rooster. The mystery rooster should go in the pot but I just think he is so handsome he will be able to stick around as long as he behaves himself.

But, as far as butchering goes, I think that doing 3 at one time is really my limit if I have to do them all by myself. My back really gets soar from all the standing in one place during the scalding/plucking/cleaning process. Not to mention almost wearing the skin off the back of my right hand from repeatedly inserting into the cavity of the bird during cleaning. You really do need small hands for that job. I knew that doing all four would be a strain but I wanted to be done with them as next weekend I will be butchering 3 turkeys out for Thanksgiving.

Only 5 eggs today... hmmm... what's up with that?

Our red barn

Well, after a very hot week where I didn't even want to step outside I managed to get a second coat of paint on the front of the barn today. I also got the chicken coop side painted with two coats. I think in looks great and I look forward to getting the back side done too. But that might wait until the other short side of the barn is finished being sided.

So here are the long awaited photos...



The retaining wall in front of the barn was recycled from Neil's job site. Part of Neil's job is to make concrete test beams from the mix they are using on the roadway. After curing for 7-14 days Neil "breaks" the beams to make sure they meet NCDOT standards. The broken beams are usually used as solid fill in a landfill somewhere but I thought they would work great as a retaining wall for my garden beds. I think they came out great and I love the look of them.

The Red Barn

Well, I am very tired tonight so I am only going to post that I got the front of the barn painted today! It looks great but it does need a second coat to get good coverage. Not sure if I will get to paint more over the weekend since Neil and I will be working on other projects.

Next week, once I get it all painted up nice, I will take some photos. For now, I am off to bed!

The rest of my day went like this...

I have been collecting tomatos out of my garden for a few days now. They have done OK for my first year here... they have given us plenty to eat fresh and the romas are coming in strong now but I think next year should be better now that I know more about gardening here.

Anyway, I had collected about ten pounds of tomatoes, mostly Hybrid Romas and Amish Paste Tomatos but also a few Cherokee Purple and a half dozen or so of Homestead Tomatos as well. I needed to do something with them so I cooked up a tasty batch of mushroom spagetti sauce with them this morning. I didn't have any canning jar seals in the house so I put them in frezer bags instead. Wish I had the seals though as I love to stand back and look at homegrown produce put up in freshly canned jars... it warms my heart! Trust me jar seals will be on my next shopping list!

Once the sause was done the kids and I headed outside to see what mischief we could get into. I don't know why but I was inspired to get the barn painted red by this weekend! I big job but I felt up for it. Neil still has one short side of the barn that he hasn't had time to frame in and install the sideing on yet and mentally that has been holding me up from painting the rest of the barn. But, with Alpaca Farm Day looming ever closer (September 29th and 30th) I felt like I needed to get something going on the barn. So, this afternoon I primed the whole back side of the barn and the chicken coop side. There is a 15 foot section over the rabbit hutches that I was unable to reach which really bumbed me out as it looks so good otherwise. Since the project got started late the priming is all I got done today but I would like to get the whole barn (minus what I can't reach) painted red by Friday. Then this weekend I will see if either Neil will paint the rest or if he can figure out some staging for me so I can finish it up as Neil really doesn't like to paint. Since the front of the barn was already primed grey it doesn't look any different to those driving by but to me it looks great!

Tonight I am tuckered out from my day!

Farm work day.

Since Neil works hard all week at his job I try not to work him all weekend around the farm too. We try to work one day and relax the other but sometimes that doesn't work out. We have too many partially finished projects done that all center around the barn and the pastures that we worked all day today too.

We put up some cattle panels that had been left here by the pervious owners from the barn stretching along the woven wire fence of the chicken run. At the end of that run we installed a 14 foot gate (that we also found lying on the ground at the back of our pasture) so we could get the tractor in and out of the cow pasture without having to take down the electric every time. Then using the fence post on the non-hinge side of the 14 foot fence we installed a 4 foot walk through gate at a 90 degree angle. From that 4 foot gate we ran 4 foot woven wire to the front of the goat barn and from the other side of the goat barn Neil ran five strands of electric to connect with the electric that runs around the cow pasture. So, with our new perimeter secure we took down the T-posts and woven wire that was temporarly running from the barn to the cow pasture. This gave the animals a lot more room up near the barn and gave us much better and easier access to the pasture and back of the barn (which we never had before). The area that was created by doing this will later be divided into three catch pen areas leading to three different stalls inside the barn. One for the female alpacas, one for the male alpacas and the third for the cows and donkeys. But that will be for another weekend...

All work and no play... not.

Neil and I were woken up early this morning by Berk barking non-stop. I lifted my head to look out the window at him to see what direction he was barking in. He was barking into the barn... at the geese! Neil had gotten home late last night with the two new embden geese. They were in our large wire dog kennel so Neil and I lifted them into the barn still in the kennel, put some hay and water in with them and left them for the night. Well, this morning Berk and Emmie discovered them and were not happy about having strange large birds in their barn. I trudged out of bed to go silence Berk before the neighbors started to complain. I moved the kennel closer to the fence so Berk and Emmie could get a good look at them. The geese put on a good show and didn't back down at all. They stayed there several hours until the dogs started to ignore them and went to lie down. Then I moved the geese into the male alpaca pasture which shares a fence line with the dogs so the geese could stretch their legs and get something to eat. The dogs got all excited again but it didn't take as long to get them to settle down this time. I sure hope getting these geese help with our poultry killing LGDs.

Speaking of poultry the first of our young roosters crowed today. Or at least he tried his best. It was the Hill Roamer rooster we had gotten with the goats. I am looking forward to hearing more of them crowing soon.

We had a full day working out in the barn today trying to get things finished so we can rearrange some of the animals to make room for the 7 alpacas and our rescue llama that will all be arriving a week from today!

Neil finished framing in the backside of the barn and got the siding up as well. I managed to get another acre of the pasture mowed while helping Neil as much as I could. Once the back wall of the barn was done we needed to reinstall the automatic waterer that the cows and donkeys are currently using since we put a wall where it formally was. But, I got to move it to it's permanent home on the other side of the 20x24 run in area that will soon belong to the female alpacas. The cows and donkeys are getting demoted to a smaller run in area on the other side of the barn. Finally, with most of the siding installed on the walls the cows no longer need to walk around and over the siding piled in the barn.

We finished up in time to get all cleaned up and headed into town. Neil took us to the movies to see Ratatouille by Pixar. It was only the second movie that the kids had seen in a theater and they did great! I was surprised the kids didn't fall asleep during the film as it was a two-hour movie and we had gone to a later show that didn't start until 9:35pm. But no, they both watched the entire movie through to the end. It was a good movie... as usual Pixar did not disappoint! For those Pixar fans out there you will LOVE the "short" at the beginning of the film.... so funny!

Happy Independance Day!

We didn't do much for the 4th of July this year. Seven more of our alpacas are due to arrive around July 15th from California and South Carolina so we have lots of work to do before they get here. Neil had the day off from work today so we took advantage of that to start cleaning out the barn. We didn't have room in the house for the last trailer load of boxes from our move from SC to NC this spring. That whole trailer load has been sitting in the middle the barn. I have walked around that pile many times a day in the past two months, but today we finally moved it! Some of the boxes got put in our temporary work shop but most of the boxes needed to come into the house. Sigh... we now have boxes stacked in the kitchen again, and in the living room, and in the hall to the bedroom and even out on the porch! Neil looked at the bright side and said, "Hey, at least when this is all put away we are done with boxes!". But I think it will be months before I can find homes for all this stuff!

Anyway, with the barn floor cleared we plan to set the rest of the gate posts inside the barn this weekend. Then Neil will get as much of the barn framed up and closed in as he can. We need to do a little rearrangingof the animals to make room for the new alpacas. We should be busy this weekend!

By the time Neil was done moving boxes it was near 8pm and he was hot and tired. We opted not to go into town to see fireworks and just spend the evening relaxing. I had planned a dinner to help make it feel like a holiday and it sure turned out great! We had marinated steaks on the grill, grilled corn on the cob (in the husks) with a spicy horseradish butter spread and baked onions with rosemary and cream. The baked onions were a new recipe I tried and they were oh so good! So easy to make and so tasty... you have to try these!

Onions Baked with Rosemary and Cream

INGREDIENTS
6 medium yellow onions, with peel
2 cups chicken stock
extra-virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
3 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped (I used dried)
1/2 cup heavy cream

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
Slice about 1/4 inch off of the tops and bottoms of the onions. Cut in half crosswise leaving the skin on, and arrange cut side up in a shallow baking dish. Pour the chicken stock over and around the onion halves, then drizzle with olive oil. Season liberally with salt, pepper and rosemary.

Bake uncovered for 1 hour in the preheated oven, or until onion is easily pierced with a knife and liquid has reduced by 1/2. Remove the dish from the oven, and pour the cream over the onions. Return to the oven, and continue to bake uncovered until the pan juices have thickened slightly and onions are browned, up to 30 minutes.

I am bushed tonight...

Spent the day around the farm just doing a little of this and a lot of that. Mowed a bit of the lawn, got a bunch of stuff moved around to their proper homes, took some brush back to the brush pile, etc. But most of my day was spent getting the goat barn fixed up for the new kids (the goat kids that is).

First I had to move it to where I wanted it to live... the tractor helped with that. The little "barn" was a mobile poultry house in it's former life. To keep the poultry in the house when it was being moved it had two layers of wire mesh attached to to its entire underside and attached to each of the three ground level crossbeams. All this mesh needed to be removed as it was difficult to walk on for the little goats and for us. I ended up having to use wire cutters on every stapled attachment. Once it was free from all four sides and the three crossbeams getting it out was another challange. Again I had to cut each piece of both layers into sections to get them out from under the crossbeams and out the small door. All this must have taken about 3 hours if you don't count stoping for lunch for the kids (the human variety).

Once that job was finally over I then raked the ground inside the barn. I had already raked this ground prior to moving the barn over it but this is part of the property that is covered the worst with broken glass and other trash. After I raked it a second time it was time for getting down on hands and knees to pick out the remaining bits and pieces. Like other areas I have cleaned up I know that as the animals stir up the ground more will be found and I will be picking it up for months yet... but it is a clean as I could make it for today. Once I was happy with how that looked I covered the ground over with shavings to give the kids a nice clean ground to play in.

Through all this the little goats were hanging out in the dog crate to keep them safe. But they were pretty bored after spending most of the afternoon in there. It was so much fun to watch them in their new and improved barn. They ran around twirling in the air, jumping up and down, head butting the other kids and just having a great time! They are oh so cute to watch!

By the time I finished up with the goats it was time to get everyone else fed for the night. It was dusk by the time all the rest of the livestock was fed and I took some time to just lean on the fence and enjoy the sight of our animals grazing out on the pasture, the puppies (our 70lb livestock gardian dogs) chasing each other around the field and the fireflies twinkling among the grasses. It sure was a peaceful sight to me. It was quickly broken by the screaming of children asking for me to swing them... sigh... so much for my peaceful moment. :)

Oh, Evan caught his first firefly tonight all by himself! He came up to me with a juice bottle with the firefly already in it. An important event in a young boys life.

Can it really be Friday already?

What a day... I am soooo tired tonight!

Our day started with loading the trailer with trash for the dump. This was not just 4-5 bags of household trash. This was the "stuff" that we have been picking up from around the yard, out of the barn, in the woods, etc. We had to stop when the trailer was full. Then off to the dump which is about 35 minutes from our house. They have a neat set-up where they weigh your vehicle on the way in and again on the way out. You pay by the differance in weight.

Once home, I started right away on painting the grey primer on the new barn walls that Neil has been installing. I started on the end of the barn with the excisting chicken coop. The plywood that the previous owner's had used for the exterior walls had very deep grooves in them which ment every one had to be cut-in with a brush before I could use the paint roller for the flat surface. It took FOREVER to get that one section of the barn done! Once past the chicken coop the painting just flew. The roller did a great job on coverage with no cutting in at all... yeah! Both Evan and McKayla helped with the painting along the way. I think McKayla got more paint on her then on the wall but she loved it and she washes!

By the time I finished painting what I could, cleaned up from that and got the kids in the tub in was almost dusk. I had just enough time to run out to the garden to plant garlic and peas. Then I watered all the beds covered them back up to protect the seeds from the birds and headed inside for the night.

We are having leftover spagetti for dinner with homemade garlic bread. Then a movie with the kids and bedtime. I am going to sleep like a log tonight.

Old and New buildings

There was frost on the car when I woke up this morning. It didn't last long and it was a beautiful cool day to be outside working today.

We had several things happen here at the farm today. First a representative from U.S. Buildings was scheduled to stop by to talk with us about putting up a steel building for Neil's garage/work shop. They have a "Display Referral Program" that we wanted to know more about. The program allows you purchase a steel building at a discount if you agree to have other interested people come and look at your building and talk with you about it. In the end we ended up buying a 25x32 foot building. We need to assemble it ourselves... it's like a big erector set! It will be delivered a week from this coming Friday.

Later on we got a delivery of 3/4" crushed rock that Neil wants to use for drainage in front of the barn, his new garage and under the deck. The kids loved having the big dump truck come to the house. They played "king of the mountain" on the rock pile all afternoon.

Around the farm, I continued to rake and remove the trash/rocks/tree debris from behind the barn. It is going faster then I thought it would. Still.... it will be a long project before it is finished. Neil started framing in the front of the barn. I am so excited about this! This is going to change how the whole property looks! Evan wants me to paint the barn red... I tend to agree. :)

For dinner we had spaghetti with meat sauce... nothing fancy but I did make my first loaf of bread in the new bread machine: Italian herb bread. It was very tasty! I can tell the bread machine is going to be getting a work out here.

Finally, Neil got a job offer today! We're very excited about it and after talking it over I am pretty sure Neil is going to except the offer tomorrow. If he takes it he was be starting sometime around June 1st. I wish he didn't need to work off the farm but until we are up and running with the alpacas one of us needs to work fulltime.