ahhhhhh summer....

Well....it's been awhile. I know, I know. I'm supposed to keep up on this thing. Problem is, I'm finding waaaayyyy too many other things to do. It's a good thing.

Let's do a little recap, shall we?

The Milking Situation

Things are looking up! I got myself a gggrrreat little contraption called a 'hobble'.

(see above photo)

It's a little nylon set of velcro handcuffs, or should we say, 'hoofcuffs' for animals with hooves. Each time Wild Child hops up onto the milking stand and starts to kick away, I slip these bad boys on her back hoofs, and VIOLA!

I can freely milk both sides of her udder with no kicking, moaning, or crying. Fantastic! If we can even remember that far back, I had shared in my last post that Cheap Trick, her not-so-little-anymore-but-still-nursing buckling was partial to only one side of her udder, and that she preferred me not to touch that one side. Well......WE CHANGED THAT.

And, although Mr. Cheap Trick is still hanging on, barely, we are up to about three cups a milk a day. Which is nice! I am VERY excited for him to stop nursing, so that we can have more however. Since I'm addicted to cereal!

Ah....and here's the culprit himself!! He's so cute though, isn't he?

Nom Nom Nom...


Pasture Time
Here's the crew enjoying their new and improved pasture! I worked really hard today to fence off a large area of prime riverfront property for these lucky goats today. The thing is....we REALLY don't want to have to mow it.

Here is a good view of the pasture these goats spend their lazy days inside of now. On the left is the driveway and on the right and back side is Jack Creek. This pasture is fenced in using a mobile electric fence powered by solar. LOVE IT!


Egg-thirty!
My girls are finally done with the moult, and lookin pretty fine in their new feathers!! It has been about 8 weeks since they stopped laying eggs (no eggs during moult)...soo....anyday now!! We are pretty SICK of waiting!! I still love them though. My little hennys.

MOOOOOO

Calfy!!! Lookin good, brotha!

*calfy is not ours, he is on the property we caretake.

**calfy is going to get eaten in the fall. shhhh don't tell him.

Frisbee Flats, AKA: The Backyard

Me and Hattie relaxing up on Frisbee Flats behind the house.

It's a pretty spot. Smells good too with all the sagebrush and Lupine abloom.

still life: whiskey ginger with Lupine

HAY!

Look what Ed built us! It's a keyhole hayfeeder for the goats!

The design of a keyhole feeder stops the goats from pulling their heads back out to chew, and in turn dropping fresh hay onto the ground. They are PICKYabout where their food comes from and wont eat hay off the ground once it falls! Who knew??

Garden Grumpypants
Yeah so......remember all my awesome plants that I grew from seed? Yeah.

Well....long story short. I put them in the ground, and then they died.

I. WAS. SO. MAD.

But I'm ok now...in the above picture you can see what all of my seedlings looked like for about a week after I put them in the ground. It was cold as heck. Imagine that!

*my broccoli is doing great I will have you know.

New Animals!

Above is Molly the mule! (thanks annie, had no clue)

She is so pretty. Normally. Apparently she has just rolled in some mud though....
There is also a new (white) horse named Ghost.

Ed and I went for a successful horseback ride last night. Such fun. We just walked around the house properties, but for us, it was a big step without the horse trainer around. Next time we hope to hit the trails. Stay tuned!

My baby chicks arrived from the hatchery last Monday. In total, we received 32 chicks. 24 of them Cornish Cross meat birds, and 8 of them are egg birds (a rooster in the mix as well)....

I have never dealt with Cornish Cross birds before, and will never buy them again.

They are of poor quality and we have already lost 7 for no reason.

I know how to take care of baby chicks. They are warm. They have food. They have vitamin-drenched water in abundance. I am not happy! The hatchery was kind enough to reimburse me for the first five, however, so I can't complain TOO much.

But next time, I will go with a different variety of meatbird for sure!

Non-rainy Days Are Good.

Wow, who are THESE goodlooking folks?!

Oh wait.

Ed and I spend last Sunday afternoon relaxing down by that river.

It was pretty epic, being the first *warm and sunny* day of the season...LOVED IT.

Can't wait for more!

I'm sorry that this post is so all over the place, but I am trying to catch you up with all the latest gossip around Jack Creek! It's hard!

Give me some credit here.

Take care and wear yer bugspray.