Well, there were no babies for Babs this week. I'm not sure what this means. It could be she's not pregnant but would like to be. Or it could mean she got pregnant a week later when she revisited Buddy. Or perhaps she just likes the idea of a baby box. I don't think rabbits can have hysterical pregnancies.
Like the returning sunlight after the solstice, joy is beginning to once again creep over the farm. Bear is finally recovering from Moosie's death.
A few warm afternoons and all of a sudden everything is thinking spring has arrived. Of course, "warm" is subjective in this case. Since New Year's Day morning chores have required me to walk out in temps below freezing.
I'm sitting at my desk, looking out the window at thick dark clouds. Rain, or even snow is predicted for Christmas day. That has me thinking about moving my truck across the road. This is because I didn't move my truck last year when we had an unusually heavy snowstorm for New Year's Eve. I was stuck on the property for three days because snow became ice and my driveway has a steep angle. Not that being stuck at home is a hardship. This year, I took the prediction seriously and stocked up for everyone. Lord knows I won't starve to death, and neither will my animals.
Sometimes you get lucky … you sense that the ducks are about to takeoff, raise the camera to your eye, nail a focus and maybe you get the initiation of the flight
Well, I did it. I got Radha her own puppy. This past week Bear hasn't been able to play with her at all and she was clearly bored.
I finally got the first rabbit tractor finished! Is it perfect? No, it's definitely a prototype, although I fully intend to house a rabbit in it. However, it has square corners and is solid, and light enough to be pulled easily across bumpy ground. And it is so completely covered by wire (some of it pieces I hand wove together) that I can't imagine any predator in the world breaking into it. This includes Radha the puppy, who is at the top of my predator list.
Hey, if cats can have their own word for a situation gone seriously wrong, then sheep certainly deserve a word to describe yesterday.
That's right. It's weaning time. Yesterday afternoon I locked the seven little lambikins into one of the alleyways, away from their mothers. No more sheep milk for them!
Yes, I'm borrowing from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, but that snippet is the only piece of poetry (if that's poetry) that I know, and I kept repeating it today, "Chins" being the way I was saying the shortened breed name for my new rabbits.
Once again, I'm going to offer a couple of updates before I start talking ram lambs. That's because in my last post I mentioned that Moosie was hurting again.
I know, I know. I mentioned I was installing new fences last week, but with the chaos of that day, I didn't really appreciate what I'd managed to make happen. Now that a week has passed, I think...I hope...no, I'm certain this was exactly what I always wanted.
Of course, it wouldn't have taken much to improve on last week, but I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
Summertime, and the living is easy.
This Gambel’s quail was sitting on top of the desert olive bush in the back yard, looking back at One and me and asking the question, “do you really want to try to get me?” well in response I shot him and One was frustrated by her inability to climb up through the safe haven of that bush.
First, a turkey update since the black hawk just interrupted my blogging by trying to take a baby turkey. Tom's girls laid about three dozen eggs and settled down to brood at the beginning of May. It was bad from the beginning.
No, not the puppies, although they are growing by great big leaps and bounds. Only two weeks ago they were cute cuddly not-very-heavy things. Now I swear they weigh twice what they did when they came and are all legs.
Before I get to today's post I want to do some updating. The puppies are doing very well. They have mastered "sit" and the art of herding chickens and sheep, when they are not herding dogs.
I gotta ask. Are these not the most stinkingly cute critters you're ever seen? Ducklings! I got ducklings and it's not even Easter yet.
I thought I had them. But N-O-O-O. I have burrowing chicks.
First, I apologize that this post is a day late. Work came out of the woodwork yesterday, chores and tasks falling over each other, all needing to be completed NOW.
I intended for my new chicks to arrive a few weeks ago, but their delivery date coincided with Oak Creek making its foray onto my property. Fortunately for me, I heeded the warning of the USGS and put off delivery until "sometime in early March." "Sometime" turned out to be Friday.
It started with posts on Facebook. Folks from my local area were sharing maps of the predicted storm. It looked like a lot of snow was going to come down in a very short period of time.
Most of the time I love living next to Oak Creek. The water tumbles merrily in the cool shade of the tall trees as the otters hunt for crayfish.
Before I get to the dog part of this story, I thought I'd update you all on my newly completed brooder coop. At last, after sorting through all the many bits and pieces of this and that cluttering my barn, buying as little as possible and when necessary from Restore, the coop is done and the barn is clean.