Join me as I just wandered about the homestead and visited with the critters, enjoying the lovely spring weather! Miss Rana seemed just happy and ready for a little treat…
Buttercup has a love hate relationship with her little nephew. She will protect him to the death, because she is definately the goat herd Queen… but when you’re not looking, she nips him in the ear and shoves him. She doesn’t like him stealing her limelight. She is the GOAT DIVA… got it?
Daisy is getting to be a little better mom. It was like she had to sort of grow into the role a bit. She is protective, but a little scattered at times. But then goat kids can be pretty darn annoying and demanding. Sometimes I think we are confusing her “non-caring” with tough love. Anytime he really is in trouble, she is there, checking it out, and trying to figure if she needs to get involved. Daisy does not like kitties… she doesn’t mind the dogs, but when Luna gets too close to her little nugget, she gets very defensive. It’s funny because the cats could care less about the goats or any of the hoofies, for that matter. But it’s still cute to see her all protective of her little Jelly Bean.
We are waiting on Buttercup and Rana to have their babies. In fact, we’re not 100% that they are even expecting, but you never know. They were hanging with Howdy, the Angora buck for well over a month or so, and we know he was quite the little stud. I would suspect that they should be. Buttercup is starting to get a little udder and if you look at Rana, she’s got a little low rounded belly. I guess I could spend money on a pregnancy check, but part of me thinks it’s either going to be or not going to be. We know that the first possible date for the two girls would be July 17th. Which is still a good month away. I think we’ll know a little better in a few more weeks. By the first of July or so, we should start to see some very strong signs of whether or not we will have any more little babies!
I just adore Miss Bonnie… She is such a sweetheart. She adores her new herdmates. Even though she is big, she’s really not high on the whole hierarchy of the Windhaven flock, but she doesn’t mind. And she is so protective of the babies. We know so little of her life, her age, whether she had babies before, anything. But she’s got a bit of an older floppy udder, so I suspect that at some point, she’s had a lamb or two. I guess there is always a chance that she might be expecting, if Otis or Harley managed to have their way with her after she arrived. If so, she would be due around the time that the last two goat girls are possibly due. I think that would be delightful, because Bonnie would be a lovely mom. She babysits the lambs and keeps a good watch over them. I see her following right behind the babies, especially the three ewe girls. And their moms let Bonnie babysit. It’s so cute to watch.
Iris and Bridget come over to check on the twins and you can see how Bonnie is watching and yet, keeping her distance. She knows she’s still kinda low on the totem pole, but she is very much a part of the flock. Someone always has to be at the bottom of the pecking order, unfortunately. But I think she’s moving up a wee bit, because the mommas seem to trust her more than the yearling ewes.
When I took this picture, we were still waiting on Bridget to have her baby. As you can see, her low and round belly are a give away sign that another lamb is on his way. I won’t spoil it… but if you’re a Facebook reader you know our last lamb as been born… that is unless Bonnie is expecting! But most likely, the last one of the year!
I’m so happy to report that Rana and Rafeka are finally putting some groceries on and starting to look a wee bit better. The winter was very very hard on them. Angora goats are fragile… just not as hardy as many other farm animals. Especially white ones for some reason. When they were sheared at the end of February, Emily told me they were a little scrawny. Not life threatening, but were definitely a little underweight. It’s hard with fiber animals… from a distance they look robust, but yet you have to keep a hand under the fleece and feel their sides and back, and just keep an eye on them. I thought they were a little thin, but was very surprised to see how thin! So as soon as we had total confirmation on their condition, we started to make sure they got extra rations and some extra adds ons like more grain and sunflower seeds! Good extra protein and goats love them. It took about six weeks but now they are look fantastic. And I think they are feeling good too. I see them frollicking and jumping about a whole lot more. This past winter was just so hard and tough on everyone! I’m surprised that they were the only ones to be a little on the scrawny side!
Our sweet pony boys are doing so well. Really starting to get nice and shed out of their winter coats! And they look fantastic! Not too fat, just really nice and healthy. It’s hard sometimes to keep non-working ponies in good shape. They can get fat quick! We’ll start to do a little more work with them soon… we’d like to get Shadow used to the harness and saddle this year! We think he might have had a bit of training in the long past, so we want to start and work with that, see if we can get him to a state of riding and driving! I think he would like that. And Cody could use a little refresher as well. We hope to get a pony cart this summer… or worse comes to worse, we’ll build one! Hey, why not? Just have to figure out how to get wheel on a little box wagon… that would be fun!
Cody and Shadow love to play and one of their favorite games is Grab My Halter.
Basically, one of the boys tries to grab one of the other’s nose band or side of his halter. Once grabbed, the vistor gets to control the other’s head and pulls them around a bit until they get free and start over. It’s a good game to play when you have a belly of grass and don’t feel like running around like goofy colts. They stand around and play this for quite a bit of time.
Cody is really good at Grab My Halter and he often wins the game. Shadow gets kinda annoyed and usually walks off. Cody doesn’t mind, because he knows he’s the king of the game!
Happy little pony boys with their nice big lovely pasture… so nice and green. I just adore those two little doodles. They are so sweet. I could sit and watch them for hours. I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to have equines in our lives. We all love them.
The little pigs are being bad. The four boys and one of their older sisters have figured out how to get out of the pig pen and they root around the little house looking for worms and grubs. We have plans to remedy this situation, but the budget is tight right now. Hopefully we will be able to figure out how they are getting out and block up the area. They are so good at digging, I think they are just squeezing out and under the old yard fence! I can’t wait until we can get them a good and proper fence and enlarge their area considerably. Of course, being hogs, they don’t seem to mind too much, and their yard just looks muddy and yucky and they like that a good deal. In fact, Ebony has learned out to milk the waterer to make a lovely mud bath wallow for her and the children! They are pretty darn smart…
Raven the rooster has been adopted by the family of pigs. He lives with them all the time, and he roosts in their house with them. In turn, he gets to eat off their sloppy feeds and is doing quite nicely. He can fly out of the yard anytime he wants, but he would rather stay put. And the little piggies seem to like him as they will follow him around the yard and try to eat his tail feathers. He feels this is not proper of the children and lets Ebony know at any given opportunity how he feels about the bad piglet boys. But he likes the free meal so he tolerates it. I think it’s funny how the different animals interact with each other!
Well, that is my little wandering about and visits for this evening… it’s one of the most favorite times of the day for me. It’s easy to get caught up in client work and things I have to do inside and such, and I don’t always get outside for projects and such each and every day. I try to, however, and I always enjoy my evening stroll and visit. It’s just so delightful….
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