Sometimes a girl just needs a moment by herself.

This past week I have been on a search for our winter's supply of hay for the animals. Our alpacas and goats get one type of hay while our cows get another. I managed to located some nice leaf fescue hay in rolled bales from a gentleman just 8 miles north of us in Virginia. We took our trailer up this afternoon and picked up five bales. He is going to hold another five bales for us since we don't have a lot of storage here for them.

While he was loading up the bales McKayla found a quiet place to be alone for a bit. She looked so small in the wheel well of that big ol' tractor but she also looked mighty comfortable too!

Pictures from today...

View of the pastures from the deck.

Evan and McKayla with new goat kids (3 days old).

Alpacas Finley and Sidney grazing.

Evan and McKayla during a hike in the woods up on the old pig shelter.

Nigerian Dwarf goat: Gabby. Isn't she pretty?

McKayla relaxes on the deck with one of our new cats, Jet.

My stash grows...

I am so happy today! I had ordered a bunch of yarns so I could start knitting on a few Christmas gifts and make the kids some felted mittens for the winter. Well, my package stuffed full of wonderful yarns came today... yeah! Unfortunately, I can't show a picture of my new stash or tell you completely what I am making since most of it is earmarked for gifts. But, there is some fun stuff in there that I am looking forward to working up in the next weeks.

The pattern for the kids felted mittens (and matching hat for McKayla)comes from a free online pattern by Sallie Melville, auhor of "The Purl Stitch". You can find the pattern "Felted Mitts & Hat" here in PDF format.

New Kids Update

I was out to the barn early this morning to check on our two new goat kids. I was pleased to find them both up and nursing. It looks like Mary Jane is being a really good first time mom too. I will keep them separate from the rest of the goats for a few more days to make sure they are well bonded and gaining weight well. This picture shows them a bit later in the day but still not yet 24 hours old.


She doesn't look very happy in this picture but really McKayla was thrilled that she could finally hold the new baby goats. She would carry them around all day if I let her.


And finally, here is one miserable dog! Poor Emie, one of our two Anatolian Shepard LGDs, wants nothing more then to be closer to the babies as well. She did not leave her post all day.

Welcome the New Kids on the Block

No... not the Boy Band from the late 80's.

We arrived back home after our day in town right at dusk. I knew I needed to head straight to the barn to get chores done as I was losing light fast. I pulled the Suburban down to the barn to use the headlights for more light. What did I see as I pulled up?

Emie, our LGD, intently licking the back side of our Nigerian Dwarf goat Mary Jane. I knew instantly that Mary Jane must be kidding (as in giving birth - NOT being humorous). I got out of the Suburban and confirmed that there was a wet dark mass on the ground. I sent Evan up to the house to get some towels. In the barn I got dinner for both LGDs and got a reluctant Emie to leave Mary Jane and go into the catch pen I always feed the dogs in for their meals.

I then turned my attention to Mary Jane. This was her first kidding but she seemed to have handled it well. By the time I got to her the second kid was on the ground but still attached by the umbilicus. I checked the airways of both kids and cleaned off any remaining membranes from their nose and mouth. I picked both little slippery kids up and moved them to an empty catch pen in the barn. I had to come back for Mary Jane as she didn't follow and seemed bit confused. By that time Evan arrived with the towels and I rubbed the kids down to get them as dry as I could. In the process I checked and both were little bucklings; one black with white on his head and the other mostly white with buckskin spots. McKayla of course wanted to hold them both but I told her that it was important that we leave them alone so Mary Jane could bond with them. So, they watched from the outside of the catch pen as I worked on the remainder of the evening chores. By the time I was done both goat kids had gotten up on their shaky legs and started looking for a teat and their first meal.

I had to drag the human kids back up to the house so I could put away groceries and make dinner. I had to promise we would come back down to the barn later and check on them.

About an hour later we returned to the barn to find the black one curled up sleeping and the whiter one nursing vigorously. We watched for a bit more and I felt comfortable leaving them for the night. It will be fun to see them all dry and in daylight in the morning.

After our cold weather spell last week the temps are back in the mid 70's again. I have a hard time staying inside when it is so nice out. So, I spent some time cleaning up the yard. We had a few over sized boxes that needed to get broken down and put in the Suburban to take to recycling on our trip into town tomorrow. There were some broken toys and the small wading pool had cracks in it so it had to go. Some of the pool items needed to be gathered up and put away for the season (we drained the pool the beginning of October). Other items needed to be moved off the deck and down to the work shed. Not a lot of effort made a big difference in the yard.

Took a break for a light lunch which the kids and I ate out on the deck it was so nice. The kids and I then took the tractor into our woods and brought out three tractor bucket fulls of cut fire wood. Neil had cut to length a bunch of down trees to burn but ended up leaving them where they fell do to lack of time. We gathered some up, brought it up to the house and got it all split and stacked under the deck. It will be enough for a few weeks at least. I will keep working on the fire wood project on the nice days and try to stay ahead of what I burn.

Oh, and since the weather was so nice I had the door off the deck open all day so the cats could come out and explore if they wanted too. Jet, the large and braver of the two, came out for quite a while and wandered about. He was quick to dart back inside if anything startled him though. Fringe I never saw outside but he might have come out when we were down in the woods.

Just a nice day to be outside working today.

Chicken Little

I was doing my normal chores in the barn this morning when I heard the muffled sound of a baby chick. I knew I had two ducks setting on eggs by the hay bales in the barn so I went over to investigate. I lifted the first duck and there tucked in beside 6 duck eggs was a single chicken chick. Muscovy duck eggs incubate for 35 days while chicken eggs only take 21 days so I knew that mother duck was going to be stuck on her remaining eggs for another 14 days. The little chicken chick could not stay under mother duck all that time.

I removed the chick and with a lack of a better place to put it (it is getting too cool in the chicken coop at night for a single chick with no mother) I set up a box in the house for it. It will have to stay here in the house until it is old enough to regulate it's own temperature and can move out to the barn. A put the box in the bathroom to keep it safe from our new cats. I don't want them to get a taste for young chickens!