Missing Willow Farm

Summer the bottle baby is nibbling on hay and grass now.  Of course, everything tastes better when it’s handfed.

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Milos came over to me a few days ago while I was feeding the bottle kid, laid down beside me and closed his eyes.   That is how he told me he wasn’t feeling well.   We kept an eye on him and noticed he wasn’t chasing cars along the fenceline like he usually does.  Taking our guardian dogs to the vet isn’t an option.  They are unmanageable.  150 pounds each of  ‘don’t touch me’.  We tried to lure him into the barn with food.  He knew something was up and refused to go in.  The next day we were finally able to capture him in our sheep handling area.  One of the baby goats crawled through the fencing and kept him company.  Brian cornered him and laid on him while our vet gave him a sedative.  While he was knocked out, he got a thorough assessment, his matted fur trimmed and a new flea collar.  We weren’t able to get near either of them last year with a flea collar.  He was found to have a tendon injury so will be on meds for a few days then hopefully good as new.  I’m just glad our vet didn’t have to dart him!  And FiFi still needs a new flea collar…

Sunlight first thing in the morning makes for perfectly backlit photos of our critters.  I took my camera out this morning because I kicked myself for not having it yesterday.  I sat down after chores to rest in a pile of hay next to our feeder and found myself with two baby goats in my lap (one asleep), a goat nibbling at my jacket collar and our cow licking my boots.   I felt like Snow White in the forest.

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They are just adorable!  I’ve been calling them Summer, Nymeria and Shaggydog after the direwolves of Winterfell (vague literary reference!).   Summer is my little bottle baby.  She’s a little bigger than her sisters, which makes me happy because she didn’t start out  that way.  I can’t get a photo of the three of them together because she runs to me whenever she sees me.  Maybe I can use a long lens to catch them at play.  For the last few days I’ve noticed her romping with the lambs.  Interspecies play time.

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I sat down by our Ritchie livestock waterer to feed the bottle baby and Augusta wandered over for a drink.  She pushes the float aside with her mouth to get to the water.  Our sheep normally run off when I approach them at the waterer.  I guess since I was already there, I wasn’t too scary.

Lambs have a natural camouflage in the winter.  The snow doesn’t seem to bother them at all.

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With the ground covered in snow, our grass is covered which means the critters need a new bale to munch on.  This is a complex project.  The goats are closed in the barn, the sheep in their pen.  The tractor bay needs to be closed as soon as it’s opened to keep the cow out of the square bales which are stored in there.  The dogs need to be bribed with treats to keep them away from the pasture gate (the round bales are kept outside the pasture).  Then when the process is reversed, it’s a party!

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We finally had our first snow.  It’s just beautiful.

Bottlefeeding a goat is fun!  She comes tearing at me full speed when I enter the pasture.  Thankfully, she spends the rest of her day playing with her sisters.   The only difference between them is where they take their meals.

Jenna had surgery on her remaining rear leg on Valentine’s day.  She had a benign skin tumor removed, so she has stitches again.  Poor baby.  It’s certainly not kept her from going for a ride, or from asking to chase her wubba or from her sheep.  As far as Jenna’s concerned, it’s business as usual around here.