It's breeding season!

We lost one of our bourbon red hens last week. She was healthy but out of the blue, found her dead on a nest of eggs. She was about 4 yrs old. We also have another hen missing for a couple weeks , though I have not given up hope on her as I think she was the one laying most of the eggs....so thinking she may have went off to lay her eggs and nest. I would not be surprised to see her back in a couple weeks followed by her brood. 

The day after I lost my hen, I started my search for some babies. I had to cover a store in Kendalville, so I stopped in at Rural King to see if they had any (I have bought some from there before). Well, I struck out. I was standing there looking at the various chicks, ducklings and goslings when someone came up and was also looking at the goslings. I told them about the last geese we had. The male was mean- terrorizing people was a favorite hobby of his. I get deliveries on a regular basis for work and I was getting rather upset as I was finding packages in the bed of my truck...damaged and many times soaked as I did not notice them before it rained. It was costing me work, as without the materials I could not complete the projects. I called Fed Ex and asked for driver info, can't do that. How about a call from driver? Can't do that either. Well tell them to stop throwing packages in the bed of my truck! We will make a note, they said. Well, they still got tossed there. Finally Tom caught the driver pulling into the driveway and caught her throwing a package from her truck into mine. He said she reminded him of Aunt Jemima in both appearance and speech. He asked her why she was throwing the packages into the back of my truck and explained that it was damaging the packages and costing me work. She broke out in a banter that she was not getting out of her truck, no way, no how! Those geese were mean and they chase her and bite her butt! No way was she getting out. Tom could not help but laugh, and neither could I when he relayed the story. He told her that if she just stepped towards them they would back off....just keep facing them, but she would have none of it.  I tried locking the geese up, but they escaped. I finally relented and re-homed the geese (and I am sure they became someone's dinner). That winter I went to rent a trailer to hook up to my truck to haul goats, and found that the wiring on my trailer hitch had been ripped apart....the geese. So I swore, no more geese. As I was relaying my woes to the lady at Rural King, I reached my hand in to the gosling tub....and one climbed up in my hand. I picked it up and said, "you are not coming home with me". Then it laid its head on my wrist and snuggled in. Well, Hell! Sigh. Well, can't get just one.  I reached my hand in again and and another came up to me, so I picked it up and carried them up to the front counter. I guess it was meant to be, because the gal charged me duckling price, even though I told her they were goslings.  

I relayed the story to Tom after he got home and after he accepted my thought begrudgingly that I was going to keep them penned, I asked him what we should name them....he said Outta and Here. 

So here they are...

First outing

With Boomer watching over them

The real friendly one...Here

They have been good babies....as long as they get some cuddle time each night, they are happy and pretty quiet. 

So the search still continued for the Bourbon red babies. I lucked out and found an ad on Craig's List- and they were less than 2 miles away! I went and picked them up today. They are a week old, so not sure on the sex, so got 2 in hopes that at least one is a hen. If one is not, he said he would either buy it back or swap out for a hen. 

They were trying to sleep....will get better photos later.

Last weekend I decided it was finally time to breed the rabbits again. We have not had any signs of nefarious rodents or predators.  So I started with the French lops since I know who is the buck and who is the doe....only 2. Next I went to NZW's...checked one...doe....checked another...doe...hmmm. Last one I checked was the smallest and that was a buck.  I have my doubts that he will be able to get the job done, but gave him the smallest doe who was twice his size.  Next I started checking Californians. Doe, doe...another doe...doe...oh hell....all of them are does! So now on the search for a Cal buck and a NZ buck. So far none of the people on Craig's list I contacted has responded- but there is a swap meet coming up and one of the ads  is the commercial breeder who is always there. So I will catch up with him there if need be. Meanwhile, I am hoping these first breedings with the FL and the one pair of NZW's take. Ready for baby Frenchies and some meat in the freezer. 

I also had 2 of the collies come into season a few weeks ago. I bred Dot and Autumn...hoping to have puppy breath in a couple months. If Autumn took we will have roughs and smooths in all colors as she was bred to Randy. If Dot took, we will have roughs in all colors. If both took, I will be knee deep in pups for the summer :)

I got my milk stand built finally! A local guy I have bought stuff from before had an ad on CL to build picnic tables and I asked him if he could do my milking stand. He said he could and did a wonderful job and only $50! I am already now to start milking....soon as I get a floor in the milking parlor, which I plan to do this week. I have a yogurt maker and ice cream maker on the way, so will have something to do with excess milk instead of feeding it all to Gizmo.

I  picked up the bed rails for Brutus. Brandon is going to put those on tomorrow. I also found a killer deal on the little things he needs like a new passenger mirror, a bezel for the tail gate handle and a latch for the passenger door in the rear....and a set of Nerf Bars. Oh he will look so cool with those! It will have to wait until next check though...just hope my tires can wait too :)

Early Spring!

It seems as we got over this year and have an early spring. We had a couple weeks that were actually summer like so I got to get a start on my tan to avoid burning when I work outside. The baby goats Frick and Frack are growing well.  I let them out of thier stall today to see how it would go with the rest of the herd and it went well, Faline intervened if Buster got too near when he was rambunctious. So they are now able to hang with the herd with mom to keep them protected. I snapped a few photos of them while they were playing on a straw filled pallete.

They are not as freindly as Buster, but I have not had the chance to spend as much time with them either. They will come around. Loki who was scared to death of people when I first got him, now loves to be petted and scratched and comes up looking for attention.

I found a milk bucket finally and the strainer came in, so now just need a milking stand I will be ready to start milking every morning. I want to order a yogurt machine as I doubt I will use all the milk to drink. Next will be cheese making supplies.

I worked trying to get strawberries planted today. I only found a few plants had come up so bought more. I started to plant a realized there was more under the 6 inches of mulch Tom had put over them a few weeks ago. So only got 10 plants in as I spent lots of time cleaning out most of the mulch and putting it in the butterfly garden. 

I have more herbs that came back- now have sage, rosemary, mint, basil and parsley! Also I need to take the mint out of my butterfly garden- it is now taking it over. If I can find my trowel I will do that after work tomorrow. I have some people interested in buying some, selling it for $1 a pot and will use the money from that to get more plants.

We are hoping to get the garden tilled this weekend and start getting cold weather plants and seeds in.  Looks like Easter will be spent doing this before and after we have the family pot luck. Hey, maybe I can enlist some help from everyone in exchange for dinner! Kidding of course LOL