Sometimes, not much goes on around here. As usual, I've been taking my camera out into the barnyard to capture a story, but one didn't really materialize last week. I'd go out, the animals would clamor for treats, then wander off and do their own thing again. Frankly, kinda boring. But me? I love it. Here's what got to see in one uneventful afternoon... Tia likes to be up close and … [Read more...]
Feeding Time Frenzy…And A Good Friend
December 1, 2015 by
It has been an icy cold, gray week here. Ugh. It snowed over Thanksgiving (we had a great time with family and friends, hope you did too!) and it has barely been above freezing in days. I've been hauling warm water out to thaw the water buckets multiple times a day. Even though one of the buckets is heated, it still freezes over during single digit nights. Mostly, I love going out and … [Read more...]
Where Oh Where Have My Pretty Eggs Gone?
November 23, 2015 by
What's up with these hens? I've collected at least one egg every day for the past four years. Now...nothing. Not one single egg in the past three, almost four weeks. I talk to the ladies, whisper sweet nothings into their ears. I implore. I cajole. I beg. No eggs. Not. One. This is not totally uncommon. Hens don't lay much when they are molting their feathers. The girls … [Read more...]
Last Tomato, First Snow
November 12, 2015 by
On Tuesday, I sat down on the patio in the blinding sunshine, all by myself, and ate the last homegrown tomato of the year. I ate it on a big slab of toasted ciabatta bread from Moxie, a new bread place down the road that has THE BEST BREAD EVER. It was slathered in olive oil and dusted with salt and pepper. It was unfortunately just a good, not a great, tomato. I think I should have eaten … [Read more...]
Pickles and Pepper
November 10, 2015 by
Well, while winter has definitely arrived in the barnyard—we've had a couple of nights drop into the teens—we had a glorious weekend. I cleaned out the garden beds and threw the tomato plants with the last of the fruit over the fence to the animals. Yum yum! I continue to clean feathers out of the coops on a daily basis. It's mind numbing how many feathers chickens can lose. The molt has … [Read more...]
A Beautiful Fall Day
November 2, 2015 by
As soon as I went outside to feed the animals, I knew it was going to be a special morning. The light was gorgeous. The leaves were starting to fall in earnest from the big elm that shades the barnyard and the goats were already out and strolling around, licking up the leaves one by one. Tia and Junie B. were snoozing in the shed, but hopped up and watched as I opened the coop doors. Then I … [Read more...]
The New and Improved Goat Shed
October 23, 2015 by
Well, it took a while but it's finally (mostly) complete. With an El Niño winter forecast—colder and wetter than normal—I wanted the goat shed to be more comfortable for humans (well, me) and beasts. Some improvements were just for the alpacas. I moved the dividing wall on the upper part so the animals would have more room. I made the back door to the south bigger and also enlarged the … [Read more...]
The Look-Alikes
October 16, 2015 by
We recently had a big end-of-summer party and I was showing the animals to some new friends who had never met them. I got the question, "How in the world do you tell all the chickens apart? Some of them look exactly alike. Practically half of them are all black!" Well, I DO have five all black hens. I had never thought about that before, really. They don't look that much alike to me. But I … [Read more...]
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