What Have We Been Up To?

And the farm animals take over the blog! Clearly, the humans have been too busy to blog lately, with their homeschooling and church and cleaning pens and stuff, so we thought we animals would share a few words on what we have been up to around here!

We finally got some rain around here, and the "goosies on the loosies" as that house mama calls us like rain better than any of the other animals! Why? To play in, of course! But also, because weeds mean that we eat fresh greens that the other animals don't reach. Mama says that means we are brats telling everyone else about it, but we are the guard geese after all, so we should get some perks!

House mama, also known as the feed lady, she tried to pull some weeds down by her garden recently. We told her this was unacceptable, as they were the salad bar we hadn't gotten to yet. Finally, we got her to leave the piles for a couple days so that we could munch a bit before she did more work.

She still has more to prep for our eating. We are done with the other piles, so she had best get busy!

Just because the geese roam all the time doesn't mean they are the only ones with good treats! Despite getting our own salad bar in our pen that Wyatt keeps stocked and growing for us, we still get baskets of sprouts!

It is like a party when the red baskets come out in the middle of the day!

We even share with the guineas! (Well, most of the time, anyway!)

Breakfast time is the best time in our pen! Okay, well, we think we get the best dinner, too! We have the house mama and our Bailey trained to bring us bottles twice a day, and then Daddy Powerstroke lets us have the feeder . This is our look that says, "We are cute!" We know you agree, and the Brahmas that share a fence with us in the grow out pen sing along with us.

The house mama is always excited to see melons doing well. What we like about melons, is that the chickens get lots of melon and then they are in better moods!  They complain less about us singing at night when they are in good moods, and I think I heard this kind of melon called a honeydew...

Just in case you were missing out on some of my cuteness, I am Freedom's Prayer!  I am pretty sure the world is here to cuddle me!

Did we mention we are masters as coexistence? The goats might say we complain about them singing, but we keep our rooster in line, and also have a pet snake in our pen. If you look closely, you will see his tail over by the old feeder we like to stand on.

This guy doesn't bother us hens, and our nesting boxes and new feeder are up off the ground. The desert comes with mice, so we let this guy wander around so the mice don't bother our nests, and in turn we nest up high and only try to sit on eggs up in the loft where Wyatt keeps our straw. The added bonus- the bigger our Wyatt gets, the funnier it is when he tries to get eggs from us up there! Then we all stand around in the door to our hen house and watch him... Did I mention bonus points for anyone who can get him stuck up there so he has to call for help?

Why yes, the chickens tried to take over! But guess what! We are just too cute to ignore!

My brother was being silly and trying to wrestle with our Dad, so I decided to play peekaboo from my favorite house. Dad also likes to pose. Don'e tell the house mama, but he leaves a pile of poop near where he poses on purpose. She says he wasn't well socialized before our Bailey brought him home, but Bailey says that means he will do just fine in our family of homeschool goofballs. Not sure what that means, but she always scratches our ears and brings us food. And, if we cry really loud, she will come out over and over to check on us!

Well, that is the world according to the bucks, the geese and the Big Pen. We dare the does and the others to outdo us!

Monday Evening Fun

Charlie and I went to get the kids at camp last Friday and Wyatt couldn't wait to get home to his dog! Excuse the very grainy photo, but it was dark, and I am still learning the flash on the phone camera =) Shadow and Wyatt were so happy to see each other! Shadow was crying and jumping and just so happy to have him home.

Shadow was happy to see Bailey, too, but there is just nothing like Wyatt Clay in her world. When we went to pick up the kids, we were met with counselors who invited her to stay for the remainder of the summer to be a counselor in training, getting her ready to be a counselor next year. Wow! So excited, but lots of time away. She will be home most weekends though. So after attending an all day college class Saturday, we washed everything and she went back to camp, leaving her animals with Wyatt and I until Friday!

Wyatt likes to tell everyone he doesn't like the goats, but we know the truth. Really, he just likes the bucks, and 4-H won't allow him to show just them, so he enjoys them here at home. While Let Your Light Shine is the crazy friendly bottle baby who is completely at home in the house, Freedom's Prayer is Wyatt's favorite, hands down.

During evening chores, I tend to let the boys out. Shine gets a couple bottles of milk, and the boys all get to visit with the other animals around the farm as they wander.

Uncle Obediah and Daddy Powerstroke watch the young bucklings as they explore and play. Shadow loves this time too, since some if the boys play with her and pretend to let her herd them.

When Shadow herds Shine or Obediah,  the run for the pen, and then when she turns to get Powerstroke or Freedom's Prayer,  they pretend to run up behind her like they are going to head butt her in the rear end.

Below is Obediah, pretending to jog for the gate to the boys' pen. This was right before he and Shine dashed together after silly Shadow. 

Once back in the pen, the boys play together, wrestling, butting heads, or turning their plastic houses into toys. 

While Uncle Obediah prefers to play  turtle, the bucklings like king of the mountain, or in this case, Freedom's Prayer was in the mood for rock the boat. 

Sometimes when I catch the animals playing, they stop and stare at me as though they are trying to look innocent. This time, though, Freedom's Prayer posed for the camera! 

The boys are growing up fast, but I think they have also been great fun for the rest of the herd and the whole farm! 

Playtime for the Little Bucks

Sometimes, you just have to rest up for the fun, right? 

After a nap in the computer chair, followed by a bottle or two,   Patriots Dream Let Your Light Shine was ready to go back out to play with his friends in the buck pen.

Obediah believes that playing turtle with parts from a plastic house is th best game ever. Second, in his opinion?  Hide and seek with the same thing!  Still, he is a good uncle and plays head but softly with the young bucklings too.

Daddy Powerstroke let's them play balance on his back, but I can't seem to get a picture of it!

Funny how they don't want to have their photos done with the fun stuff, as soon as I pick up the camera, they stand up and stare at me! 

Patriot's Dream Freedom's Prayer

My name is Patriot’s Dream Freedom’s Prayer, Freedom for short.  My dam is Get Er Dunn Silver and my sire is Jaune Ranch Powerstroke. I was born on March 26^th, 2014 with Patriot’s Dream Let Your Light Shine. I like to climb up the nursery house and jump on buckets. My brother and I also race the farm dog, Shadow. Since I’m not quite ready to leave Mama Silver, I play with Treasure through the fence. At the fair, the judge said that, even though I wasn’t cooperating, I was a more promising buckling than a buck from a longtime breeder! I liked chewing on the fancy purple ribbon and making Bailey carry me since I wouldn’t walk. When I grow up, I’ll be a striking gray agouti, just like my dad, Powerstroke.  I’m looking forward to attending my next show in August, while Shine is a light caramel just like our dam.

I get to come in the house for health checks with Bailey and my brother, Let Your Light Shine.  Shine is a bottle baby, because he got a scratch on his neck when we tried to visit the buck pen. Bailey had to take him in the house to keep him healthy.

Baby Buckling Update- 8 Weeks Old

It is hard to believe that the precious duo is now two months old!

On Thursday, Bailey got their hooves done again, but they refused to cooperate to get on the scale on Friday afternoon. Here are some updated photos and their weights....

Let Your Light Shine is Mr Curious. Since he still spends about half of his time in the house, he is very comfortable inside. He has gotten into several capers lately, from trying to sneak onto the counter to steal cookie dough to jumping on Bailey's back to sneak a ride to

borrowing from Shadow Paws' book and sleeping with his head on Bailey's pillow.

Let Your Light Shine weighed in at 19.74 pounds, And he is trying hard to catch up to his brother!

At least we know all that milk is actually going somewhere!

He also loves a good ear scratching...

And chin scratching! He knows he has it good!

Freedom's prayer, his mama Silver's favorite, isn't too sure about the house though, so we had a harder time getting any decent photos!

He did ask to go out and return to his hollering mama from the get-go!

Freedom's Prayer weighed in at 20.6 pounds! Still growing beautifully, and while he really didn't show it off in the house, he is growing beautifully and maintaining the great looks that earned him the first title in his prospect buckling class.

Even if he won't stand still for the scale!

I do love the goofy look he gave here though!

We feel very blessed to have them doing so well and Shadow is loving have Shine in the house to play with!

Another Weekend...

Another weekend sets with the sun...

Last week began in the low eighties temperature wise, but topped a hundred by Friday. That is a lot of adjustment, and with no coolers as of yet, we haven't been nearly as productive as we would have liked to have been. Nevertheless, we have enjoyed a little fun and a little progress...

On Friday night, Bailey and I attended and volunteered at home school graduation.  It was really beautiful, and very individualized. I love that the youth shared their interested and future plans, and that they shared scriptures and the parents wrote each child a blessing. 

While we were off enjoying that, the boys loaded a new shed on the trailer and brought it home. I think it will be greatly useful, once we figure out how to get it off the trailer!

Despite not getting home until half past midnight Saturday morning, I awoke to run errands around 7. Not the 5:30 I was hoping for, but got my plants watered and animals fed and headed in to market on the move. Armed with four boxes, I went to go meet with some folks.about a free futon frame.  It was strong and sturdy, but will need a good painting - sounds like a perfect job for Wyatt. We bought the primer after church on Sunday, so once he gets that done he will decide whether to camo paint it or go single color so that it works with the camo bedding he really wants on it!

Wyatt will graduate from Sunday School up into the youth group in a couple weeks, but has decided that he really likes hanging out with the younger youth too, so he has volunteered to be a helper in the class while Bailey is teaching. Since they hadn't found a regular teacher to work with Bailey in the four and five year old classroom, this gave me time to join her, so we are now official. Bailey is really excited about doing the lesson planning and teaching with them!

After church, we picked up Wyatt's paint and a few other things, then went by the grand opening of the new tractor supply. Wyatt found a chicken feeder he thinks we should try in the big pen, and Bailey saw these pop top inspired table and chairs she wanted a photo of for future project inspiration.  Many of us were wondering what this would mean fr local feed stores, and aside from being open on Sunday, I don't think too much. THat have some neat things you don't already see around here, and I am told you can get a great price on hog panels for projects, but aside from that, they don't presently carry organic, and I don't see itt really competing with much of what I find locally. (Yay, local!)

I had been wanting to try some of that orange organic/ green cleaner folks keep talking about, so I looked up the recipe and threw some in a caning jar. Now, to wait two weeks and run an experiment on what it does and doesn't work on! Anyone have any advice for me on this one?

I moved the stack of fodder trays to a new spot, on top of the chest freezer, and brought back the older boxes. The open sided trays are allowing them to dry out too much. I have been researching and talking with Bailey about putting together a drop irrigated full system, this is our last set of comparison trials before that.  Everything we have in there right now is wheat for sprouting.

This two boxes of tomatoes we knew would have a lot of ones for the chickens. I also knew that with no cooler and the sudden heat, the good ones wouldn't keep long, so I took what I needed for a few night's dinners, turned the other good ones into tomato sauce, and sent the rest to the chickens!  Happy chickens, and a happy canning moment.

Shine and his brother Freedom's Prayer continue to grow and show their little personalities. We didn't get their weights done, so we will have to do feed and weight and an update on Monday.  Little Shine loves his playtime out in the pen, and his time racing Shadow through the yard.

Shine also especially loves playing with his patient old crazy aunt Treasure. Treasure and his mama, Silver, share a dam, while Treasure and Glory share a sire. 

We had really hoped to get more done on the doe barn, but hte heat made us a little nervous about doing quite that much exacting stuff over our heads when we continue to feel like we cannot possibly drink enough water. But we have more evening time at home Monday night, and hope to get the second roof truss up.

 We did, however, get the roof support we had been talking about in to the new project pen. I also got the door turned around, since I had it opening into an area where the roof hadn't been planned to be so high. After that, I might be able to get in an hour on it in bursts today, and the kids can start priming and painting their design for the front!

The cooler evening times go quickly. Still, we will post grades at the college this week, so I am looking forward to a little more time at home with the kids to get caught up on the school work and get through these big projects. I also need to get to several more!

Anoth good part about working outside in the evenings is the beautiful sunsets here.

I think the animals enjoy them just as much as we do, with Powerstroke smiling away and the animals coming into their energy as the earth cools and the sky turns its colors.

Well, now it is time to get moving into another wild week! All the best to all of you!