Escapees and New Pasture

I spent a day working on getting the electrical fencing around our lower pasture put up.  We moved the cattle into the lower pasture it doesn’t have very good grass but it needs to be mowed and the cattle are great mowers.  We are still giving them fodder and hay so their nutrition stays up.  They will have about 2 weeks in this pasture then we will move them into the corner pasture (hopefully) and then back to their regular pasture. 

Unfortunately something is wrong with our portable charger.  So all the work we did putting the electric fencing around the fence was for nothing.  One of the neighbor’s kids left the gate open and the cows walked right out one afternoon, thank fully another neighbor saw her and put the cow back in. Then last night as Darling Husband and I were getting ready for a date we got a call.  Rollo was out.  This COW and her son are problems!  

 

Mourning Dove

Stick Boy and a friend were playing outside and BAM, a baby Mourning Dove fell out of a tree a few feet from where they were.  A Blue Jay was diving at the baby bird.  Teen Son found a cat carrier to keep it in while we waited to see if it would live and if we could find a home for it. 

We kept it safe and warm until Oldest Daughter came home with some baby bird food and a special dropper.  That baby bird had a lot of spirit and even with Dakota watching the cage it escaped twice.  Oldest Daughter thought the bird would be safe in my laundry room but in the morning when we went to check on it, it had escaped its cage and after a few minutes of panic we found it beside the door.  Oldest Daughter and her boy friend are caring for the baby and think it will be ready to go with his other doves in a few days.

Late Night Phone Call

It has been a crazy few days.  Yesterday Darling Husbands phone rang at one in the morning.  We both shot up in bed and about 329 bad, horrible things went through my head in the seconds it took him to answer the phone.  His brother’s voice cheerfully says “What are you doing up so early in the morning?”  Maybe people who have no kids or animals can turn off their phones at night.  Since we have kids and animals we sleep with the phone by our heads.  My brother in law was stuck at the Emergency Room at the Hospital.  He had crashed his dirt bike and dislocated his shoulder, was dropped off at the hospital and needed a ride home but he wanted to have DH pick him up on the way to work and take him home.  We looked at the clock.  Darling Husband said I can’t leave my brother in the waiting room for 3 more hours.  So he left to pick up his brother.  Darling Husband finished the night sleeping in his truck at his work. 

When Darling husband came home from work he was understandably exhausted.  Our 9 year old was the only one home when it was time to take care of the animals.  It took poor Stick Boy and me almost 2 hours to do the fodder, feed the chickens and put them away,

attempt to put the sheep away,

get 11 sheep put away, feed the cattle, put 4 more sheep away,

walk the dang dog because we still have Maxwell and her baby out, go back and get Max and the lamb in.

Weed Eating the Driveway

The grass in the pasture with the cattle isn’t growing because of no rain and too many cows eating it.  The grass is growing along the driveway, so we decided to let the cattle graze it one day. 

Watching the cattle isn't such a bad job.

  We have a gate on the top of the straight away but not at the bottom so we used the cars. 

We also tied 3 of the sheep along the fence.  They enjoyed eating all the fresh grass.  

 

Egg using the truck as a scratching post.

Hope making sure my chair is safe to sit in.

Lambs

Sunday afternoon Dragster had her lamb. 

Look how big the chickens are already.

 When I was at work Monday morning, Deer had twins.  

When it was time to put the animals away for the night we found another baby.  

Then a lamb was born every day until Thursday.  

 

Rain and Sheep

 

 

It has been a very dry year.  Even though the sheep have most of 10 acres to roam and eat they have taken to running into the pasture and sneaking the cattle’s food in the morning.  We received a little over an inch of rain in early March and we are seeing some grass from that rain. 

 

 

The FFA sheep and our original 8 sheep are kind of 2 different herds of sheep.  The FFA sheep love the dogs and want them around while the rest of our sheep would rather the dogs run away.  They are starting to interact more and it’s fun to watch the dogs try to stay calm when they really want to lick the sheeps faces.  A few of our sheep are looking very pregnant and I wonder how much longer we have before we have baby lambs. 

New Lambs

It has been busy.  Driving Son is still exhausted as he recovers from ADEM.  We will have a meeting with the school to help make sure his needs are being met.  So far our school has been amazing at helping him, but we are realizing his healing will probably take the rest of the school year. 

The house dingbat (also known as Dakota) ripped into one of the chicken coops and killed one of the baby chicks.  College Girl has been working with the 2 surviving chicks so they are super friendly.  It’s fun to be able to carry the chickens around.    

 

We bought 2 lambs for Driving Son to raise as his FFA project for the fair.  Tessa immediately decided they were her babies and we are now seeing the Livestock Guardian part of her temperament.  The first time Darling Husband drove the fork lift near the Lambs, Tessa was sleeping near them and they ran and jumped on her then stood behind her as the fork lift went by.  Tessa knows the forklift isn’t a threat if you are under a tree so she looked up and went right back to sleep.  We have not worked with the Lambs as much as we should and they are still very skittish with people, but if Tessa or Luca are near they feel safe and let you get near them.  We are doing an experiment with the Lambs: one of them is getting grain and free ranging daily, the other is getting fodder and also free ranging daily.  

We are keeping College Girl's chickens with the sheep.