Then while we were at the goat farm meeting Jadis, the breeder pulled out this adorable little doe to show us as well.
Well if you hadn't guessed it, my daughter's birthday gift was a goat. She had wanted a pure white goat she could call Jadis and we found this sweet little Alpine/Toggenburg crossed with a Boer. We had done all our research on breeds and concluded we were not purebred snobs. Not at this point anyhow. What we wanted most was personality and colour. This little doe had the colour and though she is a little shy as she hasn't been handled much, we met her mother and loved her sweet disposition. Mom is also an outstanding dairy goat, producing 10L of milk a day last year. So if we decide to go in that direction, Jadis has good milking genes. Then while we were at the goat farm meeting Jadis, the breeder pulled out this adorable little doe to show us as well. Don't you just love the heart-shaped marking on her forehead? She was tamer than Jadis as she had been handled often as the breeder was preparing her for showing, and of course my farm princess fell instantly in love with her. And of course, we couldn't bring just one home to live a lonely life on our farm. Usually, I do lots of research before bringing any critter home but lately I've noticed I'm beginning to jump right in. Not that I didn't do some research. My biggest concern was confinement, but other than that I figure we'll learn as we go. The good and the bad. Isn't that half the fun? And since these goats are my daughter's, she got the fast-track lesson in hoof trimming. She's a natural. Looking forward to all the stories we'll gain from these two new little additions.
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My favourite middle child turned 18 today. But I will forever think of her this way. She has always been our little princess, but today she was officially crowned "farm princess". Tomorrow I'll post what she got for her birthday, but here's a hint. Happy Birthday to my beautiful farm princess!
It's all Odette's fault. If only she hadn't been so dang pretty with a personality to boot. My oldest couldn't resist when Odette batted her big doey eyes up at her. She was completely smitten. She'd had rabbits before, but none compared to Odette. Her love for the large furry rabbit, caused her to want another. And another. Really, I thought it would stop there. I mean, seriously, three large rabbits was more than enough. But then middle child wanted one. Then discussions of breeding were heard whispered around the farm. Whispers got louder, bloodlines got researched, emails were exchanged with breeder, and then this happened. And this. And this. Yes, that's four new rabbits came home today. And that last one, above, is pregrant and due any day now. My girls went out to the breeder's and brought home two breeding pairs. But these aren't just any breeding pairs. They're family! Well, Odette's family. The girl above is her sister from the same litter, and the rabbit in the photo above her is their Mommy! Daddy and brother are in the buck cages in the first photo. The breeder had been breeding for personality and so we leaped at the chance of buying Odette's parents when the breeder decided to downsize. Her siblings were just a bonus. A pregnant sibling, an added bonus. And I think as bribery, the girls bought these from the breeder for me. Three muscovy ducklings. They certainly know how to kiss up.
The storm we had the other day brought in directly behind it a heat wave. The worse of it was yesterday when the day time high was 33 degrees, breaking the record of 31 degrees for June 8. I felt bad for the animals and ensured I went around checking on them and making sure all watering containers were full. When I was refilling the horses water trough, Cowboy came over to me. Being black I figured the heat and blistering sun must have been extremely uncomfortable for him. So without thought, I lifted the hose and started spraying him. I figured he'd turn and bolt, as did Chase, but he stood there basking in the cool spray. Even when the water struck his nose, he didn't so much as turn away. Aww, that feels good! Then he went and rolled in some dirt covering himself with a nice cooling layer of mud. Ryder and Emma spent the entire day in the pond. They do everything in unison. While the kids kept cool wrestling in the kiddie pool.
Woke to an early morning storm. After it passed through just before dawn, I grabbed my camera and went outside to look at the damage. Sorry for the bad quality of photos, as the sun hadn't quite yet fully risen. We had flooding. But at least the horse's watering hole got refilled. High winds flattened tall grass. And took down branches. But left in it's trail gorgeous skies.
I love living on our farm. There is always things to do..chores to be done, mouths to feed, gardens to tend, property to maintain..I never suffer from boredom. True, there are days that I am overwhelmed, exhausted, filthy, stressed, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Accept include more time. Time I would give solely to my boy. My days are so full, that when I crawl into bed at night, I realize that I hadn't spent as much time with him as I should have. Or wanted to. But today I had to drive one of my daughters to write an exam an hour away, and while she was in her exam, me and the boy drove over to the lake where we had about an hour of kid time. He climbed monkey bars, skipped rocks in the lake, swung on the swings along the beach and walked barefoot in the lake. But you know what? I think from now on, I'll ignore those weeds, let the grass grow a day longer, muck out manure later, put the laundry aside and instead call the boy outdoors to play.
I let the chickens free range today. But don't know if it can be deemed free "ranging" when they never left this flowerbed. All of the older chicks but two were enjoying the bounty of this garden, Sue Ellen and Minnie Mae were kept separate in the chicken run as Sue Ellen appears to have acquired a small injury. Nothing major I don't think as I believe the other chickens would have attacked and killed her if it were. Minnie Mae was in the run to keep her company. On the first day in the chicken run, in the huge rush to spill out of the rubbermaid tub, Sue Ellen somehow got her leg caught and has had trouble keeping her weight on it ever since. Poor girl, and with the crowding in the brooder, I can't imagine there is much room to stretch out and let it heal. Looks like I'll be wipping together a sick bay brooder sooner then I had wanted to.
This is the interior of my greenhouse. Nothing is growing in there. I planted back in April and we got off to a great start. Within a week I saw little sprouts breaking through some of the preplanted pots, and thought for sure I'd see lush rows of greenery by now and the preplanted pots spilling out of their confinement needing to be replanted. But sadly, they are pathetic little dried up leafs. Not sure what happened. I've been a good girl and have watered daily. True, I don't have the greenest thumb, but come on, all you need is earth, water and sun and nature does the rest. But wait a minute. This is the outside of my greenhouse. I know nothing about greenhouses, this one came with the property, but wouldn't a tree that huge and that close create an awful lot of shade? And by george, I went in and checked and it does! No wonder nothing is growing in there, it isn't getting any sunshine! And back in April when I first planted, those branches were still bare allowing plenty of sunshine to peak through into the greenhouse. But I could be totally wrong. I know nothing really about gardening. I've had a few vegetable gardens in the past and never had any problems growing anything. But, maybe I've been too preoccupied with all the new critters arriving at the farm and haven't given my greenhouse enough attention. I truly thought I had, but the evidence speaks otherwise. These are--were--my strawberry plants. I had been so looking forward to planting them and getting a wonderful harvest from them. I was going to plant them over the Victoria Day Long Weekend but I got sidetracked. And I didn't have any spare wire or fencing to go around them because I didn't want to have some critter--wild or domesticated--helping themselves to them. Again, not sure how this happened. I moved the pots to the ledge that had the most sunshine and would check on them through the window daily to make sure they were still okay. Then today, I look and this is what I see. However, I should know better. looking isn't good enough. I think the lack of growth in the greenhouse put a damper on my enthusiasm and going in daily stretched to two days then three, until the heat fried these poor babies. I watered everything again, for what good it will do, then went out and did what I'm best at. I played with my critters. Linking up to Farmgirl Friday Blog Hop over at Deborah Jean's Dandelion House.
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