Buckshots Booby Trap

Today my neighbor "Pops" and I were out farting around in the pasture. We checked out the baby goats, speculated on when the other does would kid, and had a nice time scratching the horses. When we went to see the bees we noticed all three upper boxes on the hives had been knocked askew leaving the frames slightly exposed. I figured Buck must have knocked into them a bit or gotten nosy while sniffing for honey. I mentioned calling the beekeeper to straighten them out since I try my best not to mess with them but Pops just started fixing them. He straightened out the first one and the bees were relaxed so as he started to fix the second as I tried to fix the third. It didn't go well for me and instead of the top box sliding into place the whole stack moved. Of course the bees came out and started buzzing me, then chasing me and getting in my hair. A couple landed on my arms and face but by this time I was getting away from the hive as fast as possible. I got stung on my arm as I pulled my pony tail out and was shaking them out of my hair, then stung in the middle of my forehead as I flailed my arms like a moron and screeched like a harpy. While I was running around like a dummy Pops fixed the third box and didn't get stung at all thank grilled cheesus, but my dog Jack and I each earned ourselves a few bee induced welts. Lessons learned- Buck and I are both stupid for getting near the bees. DO NOT TOUCH the BEES!!

Spring has Sprung!

Spring is rushing in to meet me. With so many changes coming fast it's been hard to focus on the farm. It finally hit me smack in the face though when I came home to KIDS!! Holy crap they are the cutest not-out-of-my-hoohaw babies ever!! I of course invited some friends over to meet them and they proved to be the cuddliest most enchanting little goats ever! Here are some great pictures taken by my girl "S".

We named them Apple and Aja, Apple being the girl. Even though they are squish-em-til- they-squeak cute now, I know that with out training they will soon be evil on four legs that cannot be contained by fences. So let the training commence. Aja will be up for sale in a few weeks and Apples fate has yet to be decided. Taffy their super sweet and shy mommy (she was a baby that I traded for last year) has also started training as a milk goat. I must admit, she already has better manners that those two turds Rosey and Posey. Rosey and Posey have a little game they love to play called "stick your nasty foot in the bucket" and they always do it right as I'm finishing up! A few angry times I've even had the entire bucket of milk dumped on me by one of the goaty minxes! You know how in the bible the "goats" are the bad people and the christians are lambs? Well now you know why, goats can be a royal pain in the ass, even gods ass evidently. Anyhow check out these photos and appreciate the peace and quiet at your place.

Well, it's fall here on the farm. The leaves are falling from the oak, things are getting a little greener, the mornings are frequently cold and afternoons hot, but mostly around here fall means babies. You might not think about it but here in on the farm fall means batches of chicks to be raised, winter gardens bountiful and lazy must be planted, and it's breeding season. This is our first year breeding our does since I bought them in milk this spring. Rosey, Posey, and the adorable Taffy will all be bred to Tahoe.

I bought Tahoe this spring when he was only 8 weeks old. He came as an unexpected addition to a Nigerian Dwarf milk doe I bought. I seriously considered wethering him and taking him to the auction but he was so cute and sweet. He frequently escaped and he was so friendly I would pick him up like a baby and carry him all over the farm. After we realized that a Nigerian Dwarf doe wouldn't give enough milk to sustain a family of four we traded his mom for a young La Mancha doe named Taffy. I chose to keep Tahoe for breeding because of his smaller size and friendly personality. I didn't realize that Nigerian Dwarf goats could become fertile as young as 8 weeks old, and this lack of oversight means that Posey may be giving us fall kids instead of spring kids, whoops! This will be Taffy's first freshening and I'm excited to see how she milks, he mother and sister are 2 gallon a day milkers! Rosey also seems to have gone into heat so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that in five months we'll have a bunch of sweet kids playing king of the mountain in our pasture.

Fall also brings rain and mud. The pond is back and the stream is half full. The stream bed is going to have to be dug out, it's running slowly. It's been raining for a couple days and the mud at the pasture gate is two inches deep already. Of course I was busy playing this summer and still need to gravel the pens, thank Grilled Cheesus for 4WD. I've also been thinking a lot about kidding season and am looking forward to the cooler weather allowing us to build some new pens. The ground's much easier to work now that it's soft too.

One of my favorite things about fall is not having to water the as garden often. I've started putting in the fall and winter crops. Lots of root vegetables, chard, and some herbs. I let the lettuce reseed itself and our soybeans are starting to produce. The pineapple sage I've been cooking with all summer has beautiful delicate scarlet flowers. Tiny radish and carrot seedlings were brutally thinned by the chickens a few days ago so I'm going to have to reinforce the garden fence. Chickens are devious about sneaking in and snacking on the sprouting seedlings. Stay tuned for pictures of the newest residents of the farm...Snowflake is the proud nanny of a new batch of chicks and the babies Mama hen has been raising in the garden have fancy feathered feet.

Buckshot Gets Bored

Recently my escape artist horse has had a much harder time getting out. Since he can't leave he's found some new ways to amuse himself around the farm. He's gotten into the chicken coop and I mean all the way in! He's so big the roof was resting on his butt and he got a couple scratches for his effort. I worked quite a while cleaning paddocks today getting them ready to put gravel in to help with drainage. My nosy horse came to "help" by knocking over the muck buckets after I filled them up. He also "helped" Mango finish her food even though she didn't offer. Buckshot has always been very nosy and will come snoop on the house and look in our windows. Two mornings ago I heard weird thumping on the porch but the dogs and cats were all in. When I went to let the dogs out a large section of our screened in porch was missing the screen. I am not positive that he did it, but my dear husband is convinced that the noise I heard was Buckshot rubbing his booty on the porch to scratch it and tearing down the screen. I thought it sounded like something was in the porch maybe a raccoon or possum. Whatever it was I still have to mend the porch.

Buckshot the Bad Alarm Clock

Oh man, where do I even begin this time. Buckshot, my very nosy horse, has been up to no good lately. It all started with him learning that if he leaned on the gate it would eventually open (since remedied) and he could leave. His first trip got me an early phone call from Animal Control. This time I was woken up at 5:50 am by someone laying on their horn in my driveway. "Hey do you have a horse?" someone's yelling. I fly out of bed and grab the nearest article of clothing, running for my boots and the back door. About the time I'm headed out the wide open back gate I realize that the "clothes" I pulled on is a skanky sundress I wear before bed, I keep heading down the driveway towards a large delivery van and a huge 300 pound guy with super long dreads down his back. He's yelling about a horse and pointing towards direct buy around the corner. I turn and there is Buckshot walking as fast as he can down the side walk heading towards the freeway exit ramp and morning commuters on the 680. The giant guy offers me a ride and I am thinking "oh hell no" and my kids are asleep in the house, but I have no chance of catching Buck before he gets to the freeway so I hop in anyways. So we go tearing out of the driveway and hauling tail around the corner Buckshot spots us and spooks. Buckshots answer to every thing scary is "speed" so of course he starts trotting up the 680 ramp heading straight for 70 mph traffic. I jump out of the van and run catching him about 30 ft up the ramp. In my panic I hadn't grabbed a rope so I start home holding him by his halter, not very safe but I have no choice. Buckshot decides he's scared of the squishy direct buy grass so I switch him sides. When we come to the end of the sidewalk there is a teeny bit of water in the gutter, maybe 1/4 inch, Buckshot is petrified and refuses to walk over the water and leaps over the gutter instead, somehow I hang on and don't get my arm pulled out of the socket. When I get him back home he's "scared" of the gate and doesn't want to go in. After a quick reminder that I am in no mood to tolerate any funny business he walks through with no problem. Now that we know he can open the gate for we've added an extra lock you need thumbs to use. I give it a month!

Buckshot's Latest Adventure

My horse Buckshot is a pretty funny fellow. He likes to go for walks and will test the gates to see if they're locked. Evidently he found an open gate this morning because at 7:55 AM I received a phone call. "Hi this is Solano County Animal Control, do you own a white horse with brown spots?" I immediately started running for the door "Yes, I do. Where is he?", they tell me "In front of the fire station". I am hauling ass out the back door headed across the pasture when I see Buckshot and two escorts standing at the pasture gate. Some nice men (they must be my neighbors down the street) saw him walking down the sidewalk headed towards the underpass (and the freeway) and walked him home, the guys called the police when they realized that the pasture gate was locked and couldn't figure out how to get him back in. I guess he didn't bother to mention that he had come out the backyard gate and down the driveway. We've found him in the driveway a couple of times and I am starting to wonder if he can open the backyard gate. At least he wasn't at the bar again this time! After all this when I was walking him back in he kept giving me this look like "What Mom? I stayed on the sidewalk." He was being so calm and sweet that I hopped on for a quick ride around the yard and cuddle before giving him his breakfast. That was probably his plan all along. I can see him out in the pasture plotting "If I open the gate and leave someone will call Mom to pick me up. Then I'll make cute faces until she gives me food."

My Sweet Mango

Yesterday was worming day for the horses. Mango, our rescue horse, has been steadily gaining weight after being nearly starved to death when we got her. To worm her I needed to know how much she weighs, so I grabbed a weight tape and measured her. The initial reading said that she still weighed 807 pounds, this was what she weighed when I brought her home but I knew she had gained, I can see the difference! I then realized that even though she's gained weight the height of her withers and depth of her barrel would still be the same so I moved the tape down her barrel and averaged what I found: a little over 1000 pounds! Whoo hoo, my girl's not starving any more! Here are some before and after pictures, she still has a ways to go but 200 pounds isn't a bad start!

Chickens are like chips you can't have just one...

After moving in I realized that the spiders and bugs were every where and I needed hep to control them but pesticides are a no go for me. What to do? Chickens!! There was an old beat up chick brooder on the property that I could re-purpose into a coop for the time being. So I check craigslist and head down tho the feed store to find some chicks. Of course you can't find any chicks in October, but we find some half grown chicks, a meat chick, and a mostly grown hen at the feed store. The guy at the feed store tries to sell me a bunch of crap that I don't need, but me being stingy I leave with my chick(en)s, feeders, and a bag of food. I get home, set the new chickens up in there home, and wait. And wait, and wait. Finally in December we get our first egg! Yay!! What do you do with one farm fresh egg? A whole lotta nothin' that's what! With in a few days we had more eggs and our first lemons too. This led to a delicious from scratch Lemon Merengue Pie that I refused to enter in the Christmas Cook Off and ended up losing (again!). Next year will be different and I vow to "bring the heat" to this cook off! And really? I got beat by an apple crisp, what kind of BS is that? Next year I am NOT responding when Eric's boss (one of the judges) asks what I brought, I think I got set up. Anyways, before long the chickens start getting picked off by the hawk (buh bye Monster Jack O' Lantern and Meatbird) so we get some more chicks. Enter Catchatorie, Terriyaki, and Whitey. The neighbors dog promptly comes over and kills Catchatorie and Whitey, leaving us with three chickens again. Finally after weeks of searching I find a FREE flock on CL that I drive very far to pick up, netting (haha) me 7 more hens, some of which are older. Spring rolls around and I start buying chicks like crazy (Orloffs, Austrlorps, Americaunas, Andalusian Blues, whatever I can find that's exciting), figuring that I can always grow and sell them to feed the horses. Then my friend and I decide that we should grow our own Thanks Giving turkeys. After a very wet spring there were ticks everywhere so I grabbed some Guinea Keets to clear those up. The icing on the cake? Last week I purchased a flock of nine laying hens! Anyhow, it's now June and we have 27 chickens, 3 Guinea Fowl, 2 ducks, and 6 Turkeys, and lots of eggs.