Missing Willow Farm

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Hooves on our farm get trimmed a few times a year.  Just like fingernails, they grow and need to be cut back.  It’s easier to trim the goats than the sheep because the goats will go up on the milking stand.   Each one gets some alfalfa and grain in the bucket and they mostly just stand still and let us groom them.  The sheep weigh at least twice as much as the goats and aren’t quite as docile about being handled so they get put on their wooly butts and are trimmed sitting down.  Usually while wildly flailing their legs.  I never escape that one without a few scrapes and bruises.  We trimmed the goats and have set aside another day to deal with the sheep.  I’m so looking forward to it.  Not.

Since I took my finished January quilt block in to my localish sewing studio in person on the correct day (there are many rules to this process), they gave me a free pattern and fabric to make February’s square.  Here it is.  It was hard.  I took it in on the correct day in March and have the free March one now.  It looks even harder.  I know I am teaching myself a lot of things with this project.  Like how to quilt, use my new sewing machine, follow a pattern, humility.  I’m going to do every single months’ square mostly because I’m stubborn.   That’s how I roll.

When we applied to become an Animal Welfare Approved farm, one of the requirements was to document a farm emergency plan.  It seemed a bit much for a couple who considers themselves resourceful and who spent 10 years in the fire service but it was required so we did it.  As it turns out, when we came in from chores this morning we discovered we’d lost power.  It probably has something to do with the two inches of rain we’ve had in the past few hours.  At any rate, the house has a generator and the barn doesn’t and that’s where our brooder is.  So we ran out and put them in a box, grabbed an extra chicken light (you all have an extra one, right?) and brought them in the house.  Yes, that’s a toilet in the photo.  They were cozy in our spare bathroom with the door closed to keep the cat out!

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If the sheep and goats are out grazing when we arrive for morning chores, we race them to the barn.   Being inside the barn with them out is the only way to put hay out in their feeders without being molested.  They kind of gang up on you trying to eat a bale while you’re still hefting it to the feeders (and they weigh about 50 pounds each).  The animals do, however, know what’s going on inside and anxiously and noisily wait for the barn doors to open.

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Tractor Supply is a dangerous place in baby chick season!  We’ve got them situated in our brooder box out in the barn.  These little beauties are going to grow up into hens who lay colored eggs.  They’re americaunas like Cranberry.  I can’t wait to see what color eggs everyone lays!  We should find out in August.

After giving us lots of enjoyment on our deck out by the jacuzzi, I think we’ll feed it to the goats this month.  We’ve certainly gotten our money’s worth, considering it has amused us since November!

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Jenna has gone from ‘help me’ annoyance with Bindi coming into her kennel to tolerance to something that looks a little like happiness for the snuggly visitor.   They do nap together but always wake up when they hear me sneaking up on them with my camera.