Kitty love, who knew?

We had a few cats as I was growing up but I don't really remember much about them.  A big orange cat named Danny was part of the deal when I married James.  He had taken him in as a stray.  He ran away when we lived in NC and we kind of wondered if he went off to die because he hadn't been taking care of himself like he used to.  Who knows, maybe he was just hanging out with the wrong crowd.  That was about 18 years ago.  We haven't had a cat since then.

Then along came Willy.  She has become part of the family and we all love this little girl.  I had no idea I would like a cat so much.  The world is her playground and everything's a toy or a source of entertainment, especially Baxter's head, feet and tail.  She rarely lets up on him.

A few days ago she watched as I marked a stringer for the boat deck stairs.  She's good company and never once questioned if I was doing it right.

Baxter and I have been in a funk lately.  I don't know if he's missing Lex or if his allergies (he has a rash all over his body) are getting to him and he doesn't feel well.  I hope he's not allergic to Willy.  I'm going to ask the vet tomorrow.  I felt kind of bad today because I took Willy away in the car to be spayed.  Last time I took his friend away he didn't return.  I promised him she'd be back by this afternoon.  Unfortunately that wasn't the truth.  The vet wanted to keep her overnight because she needs her vaccines and they thought she was too small to handle surgery and vaccines all in one day.  They wanted her to have a little more time to recuperate as she only weighs a little over 4lbs.

I brought Lex's ashes home today and spread them near where Rosie was buried.  It was sad all over again.  Baxter and I will snap out of our funk, I'm sure.  Willy is a really fun distraction and we can't wait till she's back to her Williness.  

Fix you

I've had so many conversations with friends this week that make me think of this song.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY9b6jgbNyc   James went  to Ohio Wednesday to spend time with his mom as she recovers from a fall.  As I've said in the past, I don't do well as a single person.  I miss having James nearby.  It would be easy for me to hole up in my cocoon and not be very productive.  Luckily, I have some awesome friends and almost as awesome animals to keep me company.  That may sound really pitiful but I just had a conversation with a friend that makes me think I'm not the only one who feels this way.  I've been lucky this week to spend time with some dear friends nearby and then at night, when it seems most quiet, I've spent time with my animals.  I'm not sure who's fixing who but it doesn't really matter, does it?  I'm really lucky that when I feel stuck in reverse I have family, friends and animals to "guide me home, ignite my bones and some ones to fix me".  I'm a lucky gal.

Signs of fall

Soon we'll be seeing pumpkin patches with for sale signs and Halloween costumes in stores.  It seems like one minute we're complaining about the heat and wearing flip flops and then we blink our eyes and it's time for sweatshirts and boots.  I'm ready for sweatshirts but not winter coats.  I love fall.

Last week I let the pigs (8 of them) out of their few acres.  It always takes them a day or 2 to figure out they can cross over the line where the electric ribbon used to be.   Now they have about 10 acres to explore where we planted pumpkins, turnips and other greens.  It's hard for me to find them in the tall grasses these days.  I have to listen for grunts and watch the weeds move.  Last night I went out to give them some tomatoes and pumpkins.  It's fun watching them tear into the pumpkins.  As you'll see in this video my buck,  Cooper, was interested in something other than squash.

Raisa and Windsor were wondering what all the commotion was.  This pumpkin had been growing on their side of the fence but they showed no interest in it until the pigs broke it open.

I wish we got more pumpkins than we did.  The field planting wasn't as successful as we'd hoped.  Maybe James will give me one of his gardens to grow just pumpkins next year.  His prepared garden beds seem to be able to grow anything these days.  Here's a pumpkin from his garden.

For those of you who raise or know goats, as you watch this next video can't you just smell Cooper?  I can.  Wait, maybe that's because I've got Cooper stink all over me.  I can hardly stand to pet him or even be near  him.  I can touch him with one finger and I swear my whole body becomes coated in a layer of buck yuck.   Cato is still  young and is stinky but not nearly as obnoxious.  I give him a year or 2 to show his true bucky-ness.  Bucks in rut are a sure sign that fall is approaching.

They're going to have to wait till October to have their way with the girls though.  I don't want kids born before March.

A few people have told me I'll bring Willy in the house once winter comes because I'll feel bad.  She keeps finding her way in the house so I've let her stay for a few days.  It's hard to get her back outside when I think she needs to go out and do her business.  When she sees me coming she runs away.  She loves the stairs and our whole house has pretty much become her jungle gym.  She has claimed the day bed in the den as hers.  I think she and Yogi are already friends.  He chatters away with her lying right next to his cage.  I wonder how long till he learns to say Willy.  He has yet to say Baxter.

This has nothing to do with fall but I haven't talked about the donkeys in a while so I thought I'd tell you what's up with them.  I moved Willo and Jaz over to the yard, where Chy and Wilson have always lived, for a change of scenery.   It took them maybe half a day to figure out the pecking order but I was pleased to see on their second day they were sharing the small donkey barn.

I can't say I'm excited to see them using the old goat barn.  I worry the floor isn't strong enough to hold 2 mammoth donkeys.  I hope all 4 don't go in at the same time.

The big donkeys get more attention now that they're over here closer to me.  I'm hoping their calm temperament rubs off on the smaller ones.  The farrier recognized the change in behavior right away.  Usually Chy and Wilson have one hoof they don't liked touched.  This week they behaved beautifully for all 4 hooves.  Jaz is really beginning to look old and maybe the young donkeys will liven her up some.  I'd like to get some weight on her before winter so maybe I'll have more luck with that now that I can watch her more closely.  The small donkeys are fat so I need to be sure to feed Jaz separately.  

A true sign that fall is near is the stink bugs have arrived.  Maybe Willy will not only be a mouser but also a stink bugger.  I had a video of her watching them but I couldn't get it to upload.

Happy almost-fall.

Betty

I know what you're thinking, she's a beauty, isn't she?  Yup, and she's all ours.  She may be a bit rusty and the bucket is cockeyed but she's younger than me (just a little) and she runs better so that means something, doesn't it?

I talked James into looking for a tractor with me so I can bush hog the field.  I've been abusing our lawn tractor by making paths through the pasture to accommodate the animals and fencing.  It was eating up our belts and I was getting tired of our repair man lecturing me.  James, being the accommodating and oh-so-sweet husband he is, went along.  I think he came around to the idea after our friends went above and beyond and brought their tractor to our house to give us a lesson.  We knew nothing about tractors and this was just what we needed so we didn't look like complete idiots when we went to test drive one.  If we did, the sellers were kind and kept their poker faces on.  They trusted us enough with their tractors to let us take them for a spin.  

We found Betty, a diesel Ford 3000, on Craigslist and drove an hour and 40 minutes, bought her and she was shipped to us the next day.  It came with a finishing mower so today I cut some grass. We're in search of a 6' bush hog.  Anyone know of one for sale?  I videoed myself driving Betty but realize watching a video of someone driving a tractor isn't nearly as much fun as driving it.

Tonight's reading is a nail biter; the Ford tractor owner's manual.  There's a lot I need to learn.

Goat milk caramels

A few days ago someone from my Yahoo mini goat group posted this article about how goats are the trend of the season.  http://news.instyle.com/2014/08/22/beauty-cleanser-ice-cream-goat-milk/  It does seem like goats are showing up on more and more Facebook posts, but that could be because I have lots of friends with goats.  The article made me think I should be more creative with my goat milk soaps, lotions, ice cream, etc.

Feeling inspired, I decided to make goat milk caramels.  Did you see the price on the caramels in the picture?  It looked like you got no more than 4 or 5 caramels for $8.00.  I wanted my candies to be made with strictly goat cream and butter, no store bought butter for me, by golly.  I began with 3 1/2 gallons of milk.  First I had to warm the milk to 90 to 100 degrees because cream doesn't separate unless it's warm.  From the 3 1/2 gallons of goat milk I got just over 1/2 a gallon of cream.

The cream has to be chilled to make butter so the caramels would have to wait, which I guess was good because I had grass to cut.

A few hours later I removed the 2 cups of cream I needed to make the caramels and used what cream was left to make the butter.  It made quite a bit of very white butter.  Much different than Raisa's butter.

Here's the recipe I followed.  http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-soft-chewy-caramel-candies-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-180832   I doubled the recipe.  This was not specifically for goat milk caramels but I hoped it would work even though I wasn't using commercial cream and butter.  I haven't made much candy in the past so I got a little impatient waiting for the temperature to reach the soft cook stage.

Finally it got darker in color and reached the 245 to 250 degrees when I could quit.  My hand was so hot holding the candy thermometer.  I didn't have one of those instant read digital ones.  If I was to make these more often I might buy a digital thermometer.

I'm pleased to say it was a success and they're delicious.  I especially like the ones I sprinkled with sea salt.

Will I make them again?  I think so.  If someone will pay me, let's see....this recipe made about 100 candies.  That would be about $160.00 worth of candy.  You bet I'd make them.  Place your order below.  Maybe if I make the sea salt and bourbon vanilla caramels I might sell a package or two.  Those sound interesting.  They're very time consuming to make so I can see why such a high price is put on them.  I'm glad I made a double batch.

Next I need to attempt to make the bath truffles and cappraccino ice cream.

One of a kind, Lex 4/16/01 - 9/03/14

We sure are going to miss him.  I don't think there were many people who met Lex who didn't like him.    He'd follow anyone anywhere.  We even had a few workmen here once who asked if they could take him home.  For those of you who have read my blog over the years you've seen what a good sport he was when it came to me dressing him up in costumes.  That was how good natured he was.  He would let us do anything to him, except give him baths.  Baths were scary.  I could go on and on with stories about how good he was with children but there are too many.  He loved kids.

A week and a half ago Lex had a seizure.  I had hoped it would be a long time till he had another and we'd have him for another year at least.  Unfortunately the seizures became more regular this week and we made the hard decision to put him to rest.  He looked out the windows as we rode to the vet and eagerly, although a bit wobbly and breathless, walked into the examination room.  The vet and vet tech stroked him and offered kind words as we watched through foggy eyes.

Even today as we waited in the waiting room at the vet he drew the attention of a stranger.  "Nice looking dog".   A nice looking dog with a heart of gold.   

Kevin, you were awesome!

Kevin when he arrived at Elk Cliff Farm 

If you're going to raise a pig for your freezer you'd be lucky to have a pig like Kevin.  I think everyone who met him liked him, that is, except for our other pigs.  Maybe we didn't give him enough time but he never fit in with the others so we brought him over to the yard, close to our house.  He got along wonderfully with the standard donkeys and Baxter.

He was an escape artist.  He knew which gates weren't hung properly and figured out how to lift them off the hinges.  He discovered the sliding door to the donkey barn also swung out when you pushed on it.  He took advantage of my forgetfulness when I didn't latch his gate.  Luckily he was so tame and people friendly he would just hang out in the yard until we'd find him loose and he'd follow us back to his fence when we called his name.  Every morning when I was across the road and had finished up milking the goats and cow Kevin would begin carrying on.  He could hear my car from a couple hundred yards away and wouldn't stop hollering till I got back.  He greeted every car that drove up our driveway.

As his appointment with the butcher approached I hated to see him and Baxter playing, running up and down the fence line having a grand old time.   It made me feel guilty and a little sad.

Today was Kevin's last day at the farm.  I cried a bit as we got ready to load him in the trailer.  A friend of ours built a crate and wanted to try it out using Kevin as the guinea pig.  We wondered how it would go coaxing him in, if we'd need a ramp, if he'd destroy the crate because he didn't like being closed in, etc.  Even in the end Kevin was agreeable.

He rode along the whole way looking very at ease and happy, like he was out for a joyride.  I didn't cry at the butcher because Kevin made it easy.  He looked happy right up to the very end.  As it should be.

Ok, I'm crying now.

Folly

fol•ly (ˈfɒl i) 

n., pl. -lies.

1. the state or quality of being foolish; lack of understanding or sense.

2. a foolish action, practice, idea, etc.; absurdity.

3. a costly and foolish undertaking; unwise investment or expenditure.

4. a whimsical or extravagant and often useless structure built to serve as a conversation piece, lend interest to a view, etc.

5. follies, a theatrical revue.

6. Obs. wickedness; wantonness.

After a friend told James our boat project reminded him of follies (see #4 above) in Europe,  James has decided to call this our folly.  Now that I think of it the project also fits the first 3 definitions.  

It's coming along and we're figuring it out as we go.  We get lots of people hollering up from their tubes or kayaks, asking us what we're building.  Some people say, "neat" and smile.  Others have said, "I've never seen that before".  Many, though, have nothing to say after we answer and have a confused look on their face.  I think there are a lot of people who don't understand building something just for pleasure.  As much fun as it's been building the deck, I'm looking forward to moving on and pressure washing the boat, putting the shade sail up and working on the inside.  Even more, I can't wait to sit on the deck, relax and enjoy the view of the river.

Here are a few pictures that have nothing to do with the boat but are still fun.  I took this one this morning because I love watching different species sharing.  Yesterday the donkeys were in on this but this morning I had them back in their own space.

This next one is just funny.  Chy and Wilson are usually shy with strangers but for some reason they remember my mom even though she only sees them once a year.  She brings them their favorite treat, black licorice.  She can hardly walk in the lawn without them running her down to check her pockets.  This is Wilson and Mom sharing an ear of corn.  In this instance my mom may want to read definitions numbers 1 and 2.

Boat Project - take 10

How long have we been at this?   I guess I should ask, how long have we not been at this.  I went back through my blog to see when we got the boat "free" on Craigslist but can't find the post.  I think it was at least 3 years ago.   I did see we began putting the posts in for the deck in December 2012.

So, we're back at it and this time we're going to at least finish the deck.  Hopefully we'll get to fixing up the boat this year too.  The deck is in the shape of the boat, kind of.

The boat is pretty well land-locked now.  Only a flood can carry it away and soon we'll have it anchored so that can't happen....hopefully.   Building this reminds me of building our outdoor kitchen.  It's a fun project that doesn't have to be done but will be a fun place to play.  As is our style, we didn't think ahead when we planned the deck because fastening joist hangers to round posts and figuring out how to lay boards on a deck that is not square makes the job way more difficult than we expected.  We're making it up as we go along and taking one step at a time.  Once again the phrase "good enough for who it's for" will have to apply.  When the deck is done we'll be able to pressure wash the boat from above and then paint it and make it water tight.  Lastly will come the interior.  As of now we just plan to build a platform bed in there but we'll see how carried away we get.

We're already in the planning stages for how to shade the deck.  We've ordered some poles from which we'll hang one or 2 shade sails.  Kind of like this.

Part of the plan for the deck was also so we can store kayaks, chairs, etc. under it.

We're having fun.  I hope the next time I blog about this will be in 2014 and not 2016.  Even though we won't be launching the boat in the river, I look forward to breaking a bottle of champagne on the bow sometime in the near future.

Why do we do it?

Sometimes it's fun to dream of living somewhere else.  James and I have a fantasy of moving to New Zealand (we love New Zealand) or a foreign speaking country to live for a year and learn the language and culture.   On days when I dread weed-eating or cutting grass, or look at all the stuff in our yard that needs attention - On the days when the weeds seem too much for James to attack, or it takes hours to pick and clean peas, beans or blackberries, or his hands are yellow from squeezing mexican bean beetle larvae - When the electric fence needs to be moved or animals escape or predators get our chickens.  These are the days we ask ourselves, why are we doing this?

This weekend James and I went to visit our friends Mike and Laura who live in a gorgeous house on Lake Norman.  I'm envious of their meticulous landscaping and their beautifully decorated and spotless house.  It was a relaxing weekend just hanging out, catching up and having nothing to do but eat, drink and be merry.  Perfect.  We had many conversations about traveling and where we'd like to live.  We always do this with them.  They like change as much as we do.  James and Mike paddled one morning while I pretended to fish and Laura  and Kramer (puppy) kept me company.

Yesterday morning we boated to breakfast.  How spoiled we felt.

Later we floated.

Why don't we do this all the time?  I don't mean stay at Mike and Laura's house.  I think we'd get kicked out eventually.  I mean, why don't we play more?  Why do we think we need to fill our 4 freezers with vegetables, fruit and meat?  No two people need all the food we raise.  We don't need 4 donkeys, 3 dogs, 8 goats, 10 pigs, rabbits, 2 cows, chickens, a parrot and a kitten.  Or do we?

On the way to and from Lake Norman James read to me a book some friends gave us, See You In 100 Years, http://www.amazon.com/See-Hundred-Years-Logan-Ward/dp/1939990033
In this book a young couple leave their jobs in NYC and move with their 2 year old son to rural  VA and live like it's the year 1900.  What they did made what we do here seem like childs' play.  It's a great book and I highly recommend it to all my homesteading friends.

When we got home last night James spent hours in the garden picking blackberries then making blackberry jam while I visited the animals.  Today I thought of the book as I used my electric milking machine, made butter, spinning the cream in my food processor, butchered 3 roosters and scalded them to remove feathers by heating water on an electric stove then chilling them in ice water.  James picked 5 dozen ears of corn, cutting off the kernels, then microwaving them before freezing.  He also dug up potatoes, picked tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, carrots, etc. (manually, of course.  no electric involved in this).

Our house smells really good right now of roasted chicken, lemon squash, onion, potatoes, carrots and tomatoes.  When we eat this we'll feel satisfied we grew this all ourselves.  I can't describe why this feels so good.  Does it taste better than store-bought food?  I don't know if everyone would say it does.  It's more than that though.   We saw these vegetables grow among the weeds and beetles, we know how this chicken made it to our table.

This morning as I milked Raisa I was entertained by Keri (our livestock guardian dog) and Cato (our young buck).  They've become good buddies as of late and they play together often.  I wonder how Keri will feel when Cato begins trying to breed "her girls" this fall.  The play may turn to something rougher.  This playing makes me smile.


We'll still dream of living elsewhere, maybe on a small plot of land in a European country where we can buy our veggies and meats daily at local markets and butchers like the Europeans do, or maybe in the US in a condo so we can travel wherever the wind blows us, without having to care for gardens and animals.  For now we feel fulfilled and our land, animals, dirty fingernails, aching back and full tummies (getting bigger all the time), ratty clothes, old home, poorly decorated but filled with wonderful dinner aromas, are the life we choose.

It's time for me to head to the field to feed Keri chicken scraps and her food, give the pigs the leftover corn cobs, scratch the mammoth donkeys and lounge on their backs.   I love this time of night.  This is one of the reasons "I do it'".  James is checking on the garden once again.  I doubt he has to do this but I think he wants to.

Summer sunsets

Summer skies are the best.  Sometimes it's so black out but we can see thousands (maybe millions) of lighting bugs in the field or against the mountains.  It's magical, really.   I've tried taking photos of them but can't capture them on an IPhone.   Lately I've been going out to spend sunset with the animals.

When we visited Key West many years ago I remember going to "sunset".  People gathered on a pier (?) and watched the sun set while street performers and vendors did their things.  Where Adam lives he and friends often gather at a pier on the sound side for "sunset".

We don't have large bodies of water to watch the sun set over but our sunsets can be just as stunning.  These next pictures have been taken over 3 different nights this week.

Hitchhiking on the river

Neither Lex nor Keri will venture far in the river.  They don't like their feet to leave the ground so we can't coax them to swim.  Baxter, on the other hand, swims quite well, though I'm not sure if he's excited about it either.  I really want him to ride my kayak with me so I'm determined to convince him he loves the river.

Yesterday was his first ride.  A few days ago he jumped on my tube with me in it so I thought it would be a no-brainer getting him on the sit-on-top kayak.  Not so.  I kept begging him but he was too interested in other people nearby or exploring the shore.  Finally I drug him aboard and moved away from land quickly so he wouldn't jump off.  I kept him on for about 20 minutes then paddled toward land where he jumped off into deep water and had to swim maybe 10 yards.  I'll be glad when  his life jacket arrives (hopefully Wednesday) so he swims easier and it doesn't look like he's working so hard.  I thought that was good enough for one day.  A little at a time.

What he likes best about the river is rolling in things, chasing ducks, sniffing about, biting leaves in the water and watching/visiting people.   A group of people on tubes floated by and talked to him.  As they were approaching the small rapid just below our property Baxter raced down shore to catch up to them.  This is where I ask you, what happened next?  Take your time.

Yes, he jumped aboard the tube of a woman/girl (I couldn't see her well, just heard her).  I thought she'd throw him ashore but she didn't.  She continued to float down the rapid with him on her lap.  I kept yelling to him to come, and to her to push him off so he could swim to shore.  James paddled to the top of the rapid and finally the woman pushed him off.  I don't know how hard it was for him to swim to the edge but it wasn't too far.  James then coaxed him into his kayak and brought him back.  He said Baxter's heart was beating really fast.  He settled into the ride with James and looked much more relaxed.  I think he was just worn out.

Maybe it's not such a good idea to make him love being on the river.  I need to teach him it's not ok to take rides with strangers.  

Learning about electric fences

In the past we've used solar chargers and polywire to move animals around to different locations within their woven wire fences.  This works great with goats and donkeys because they're very sensitive to a small zap.  The pigs though have been testing it more and more this year so I decided to electrify the top wire above our woven wire fence using a fence charger and a car battery.  This way I can tap into that power and move the polywire anywhere within their fencing with just a few clips.  This was working great.   The battery gave the fence a much stronger charge, as James and I can personally attest.  After a month though, the battery lost power.  I was told it would take a long time for the electric fence to run the battery down.  What I hadn't really noticed was that the johnson grass had grown more than 6 feet tall and was touching the wire for more than a hundred yards and was probably sucking the power from the battery.  So today I began weed eating the fence line while James was using hand trimmers to clean up some more fence line on the other side of the field. We have about 2 miles to do.  Not all of it has grass touching it but we need to keep it low.  I have no idea how much line the weed eater used up today.  It seemed like I was forever untangling grass around the head of it or adding more line.  Johnson grass is tough stuff.

After 10 hours of very hard labor and gallons of sweat, (ok, it was probably less than 2 hours and I did get a little warm and itchy) I quit and asked James to join me and the 3 dogs in the river.  I'll get it done eventually.  I charged the battery back up with a trickle charger but for now I have the solar charger keeping the pigs in.   Willo figured out her fence isn't hot and has been leaving it to graze now and then but Jaz is still too afraid to test it.  Maybe I need 2 batteries to keep switching out to keep the fence charged once I get the grass off it.

Is there anyone out there who wants to give me advice about charging a fence with a battery and charger?

I know a blog about electric fences isn't very interesting so I'm including a video of Baxter and Willy to add a little cuteness to this post.

How to make a mom worry

As most of you know, Adam is a tour guide at Wild Horse Adventure Tours in Corolla, NC (the Outer Banks).  If you're ever there you should take a tour with him.  He's great and knows just what to say to show you a good time.

As great as he is about knowing just what to say to tourists, he's just as great at knowing what to say to his parents to make them worry.  For those of you with young children who think you want them to tell you everything, well, no you don't. Adam has always been a child who liked to share information with us - good and bad.  Here are some recent texts.

"Someone drown today during one of my tours.  They were looking for the body :/"

"Oh no, that's awful.  How old, do you know?" 

"Don't know yet.   Probably find out tonight.  It was way too rough to swim today."

later on.....
"Boy was only 16."

"I got a new surf board"

"That's great"

"I'm so incredibly sore.  I got my ass kicked by some waves yesterday.  Apparently even if there's a red flag surfers can go out but no one else can swim :)  It was so rough.  I could feel the rip currents pulling me out.  Rip currents are what surfers use to make it easier to paddle out to the waves.  My legs are sore, back, shoulders, abs.  It's crazy."

Today I'm reading about Hurricane Arthur that's approaching the Outer Banks.  I'm sure there's a red flag out at the beach in Corolla.

"Are you working?"  You won't go out in the ocean during the storm right?"

"Yea, I'm working.  Won't go out.  Haha"

And if I'm not worrying about him and Melissa I'm worrying about their dog, Maia.

In a phone call...

"Maia followed us out into the ocean 50 yards.  She has so much muscle her body sinks so just her head sticks out.  We've ordered her a life jacket though."

Join me on the deck

James and I are in the Outer Banks visiting Adam and Melissa this week.  We rented a really nice house in Corolla with a pond just off our deck.  The pond is covered in lots of green water plants/algae/lettuces??  Whatever you call it it would make fishing very hard and you probably would have to be very brave to put your feet in it.

It's teeming with wildlife.  There must be thousands of turtles and frogs and all kinds of swimmy things in there.  There are probably lots of snakes too but I haven't seen any yet.  I love watching the life move through this marshy habitat.  Nighttime brings a concert like I've never heard before.  It's much louder and busier than the frogs in our hot tub.  I wish I could get pictures of them.  There are many varieties, or at least they have many different voices - high beeping sounds, chirping and low croaks of bullfrogs.  It usually starts with just one frog, then a few more join in until it sounds like everyone in the pond has joined the chorus.  Slowly a few drop out until it ends in a solo.  It gets quiet again for maybe a minute and then starts all over again.

Also living in there are ducks and nutria.  I'd never heard of nutria until yesterday.  They look like beavers only their tails are more like a rat and they only get up to 25 lbs.  We've seen several of them.  They're a nuisance here because they eat every kind of plant and can eat up to 25% of their body weight a day.  I like watching them though.

Tomorrow I'm going surf fishing.  Get ready for some pictures of big fish, or at least some big fish stories.

How can I be expected to get any work done?

I really try to get stuff done, I do.  Today I went down to the river to do some pruning and clean things up but I took Keri and Baxter with me and I kept wanting to watch them watch the river and play in it instead of work.  It was so distracting.  The noise you hear is the wind.  A storm was brewing.

I don't know if the storm had the piglets wound up or what, but they sure were excited.  As I filled the water buckets I was entertained by these busy, floppy eared, spotted, mud-covered bundles of energy.

They reminded me of puppies as they destroyed this piece of plastic they'd found.

Maybe if I lived somewhere boring, without animals and great views I'd get more done.  Thank God I don't.

This is adorable, right?

It's a little odd but I still think it's adorable.

They do this several times a day.  Perhaps Baxter has always wanted to be a mom, or a dad, or a cat.   Maybe he's always wanted to be a pacifier for a cat.  Or maybe he just likes tummy massages.

It's noisy here tonight

As many of you know I've given up on my spaquaponics garden.  Let's face it, James is the gardener.  I'm the animal person.  The ugly spa is still on our back patio and is full of green rain water which I have to keep emptying.  It's rained the past couple days so it's filling up pretty quickly.

While we have no use for the hot tub, some critters do.  Like I said, I raise animals.

Windsor's growing up and more of Baxter and Willy

I realized I haven't blogged about Windsor since he was born in April.  He's really growing into a nice looking steer.  Tonight he decided I might be ok afterall.  He's been coming closer and closer to me every day and I can tell he's curious about me but he has yet to let me give him a real massage like his mom begs for.  When I milk he lies right outside the barn gate and watches.  As I fill water buckets he stands close to observe.  Tonight when I went out to feed Keri I gave Raisa a rub down.  As I did he came closer and closer until I could touch his nose without him running away.  Eventually he made a nest in the tall grass and laid down.  As I got closer to him to take pictures he didn't jump up and run away like he usually does.  Check out this handsome guy.

 I love the black rings around his eyes and nose.

Raisa has shed out nicely and is very silky and shiny.  I miss the curls on her head though.

I'm pretty sure Willy thinks Baxter is her mom.  She tries to nurse from him a lot and he usually allows her to nudge his belly for a while but if he sees me watching he jumps up like he's embarrassed.  Sometimes while she's doing this Baxter licks her all over like a mother would.  It's so sweet and comical.

The piglets are getting out and about more often but I haven't gotten them on video yet.  I like the way they lie side by side.  Look at those bright pink noses.  I was afraid if I got a closer picture they'd get up and run away.  They're still kind of afraid of me.

They're not afraid of the other pigs though.  It's interesting to see how all the bigger pigs have welcomed them and everyone gets along so well.   Black Olive is an 8 month old Large Black gilt.  Yesterday and today I saw her go into their shed, lie down on her side to expose her nipples  and let the piglets try to nurse off her.  They'll try and try until they discover she has no milk.  Black Olive is happy to get a 5 minute tummy rub from them.  Mickey doesn't care that the piglets are trying to nurse from someone else.  I think she likes the break.

Lots of cuteness at the farm right now.

Strays make good buddies

The second Baxter walks out the back door Willy comes out of her cubby hole on the back steps.  She runs right to him.  I could waste lots of time watching them.

Piglets, finally

This afternoon when I checked on Mickey she looked lethargic and uncomfortable.  I knew it wouldn't be long till piglets arrived.  All the other pigs were very interested in licking her backside.  At this point I wished I had separated her from the rest.  Wendell was a little too interested in her and kept wanting to make more babies with her.  The poor girl just wanted to be left alone.  I think I heard her say something very mean to him but I can't repeat it.  I mean, c'mon, give the poor girl a break, will ya.

I was probably irritating her too by standing close by but she ignored me.  Just as she was beginning to push a storm rolled in.  I ducked into her tiny shed but so did 4 other pigs who wouldn't leave me alone so I had to venture out into the wind, rain and lightning and found shelter in the horse trailer.  Roxie and one of the black hogs waited out the storm in the trailer with me.

When the storm subsided I went back to see how Mickey had progressed.  I missed the first birth.  Luckily I got there in time to video the second, which was a breech birth.

It was a long time till the third arrived.  A young family arrived to ask if I had any pigs for sale.  I invited them to come watch with me.  They also raise goats.  We enjoyed visiting and they were happy to watch with me.

She only had 4 piglets total, which was disappointing, but I'm going to chalk it up to a young boar and gilts' first time.  These 4 little guys (or girls.  I haven't checked yet) are going to be very fat because they're nursing well and she has plenty of milk.

The last one born has almost as much black as he does white.  I'll have to get a picture of him tomorrow.

Mickey seemed wiped out afterwards and was happy to be stroked and babied.  For the last hour she hadn't made a sound but when I petted her she purred.  Good job, Mickey.


I'm sure I'll have better pictures and video to post in the next few days.

Willy or Wilhelmina

We've been adopted.  Three days ago I saw James stooping in the woodshed.  I went out to see what he was doing and caught him giving milk to a very tiny kitten.  We don't know where he/she came from.  We've recently lost all our chickens to a predator or predators.  I'm wondering if maybe the same animal got her family or maybe she was just dumped here.  Whatever, she seems to like us and calls to us constantly.  If we aren't spending time with her she seems happy to have Baxter hang out with her.  He licks her and she rubs against him and follows him.  I've seen him carry her in his mouth which worries me a little but I don't think he's squeezing her and she doesn't seem to mind.  He must remind her of her mom.  The 2 of them have similar coloring.  Baxter has spent lots of time with her over the past 3 days so they've already bonded.  Today was the first time Lex has spent any time with her.  They were both nervous of each other at first but it didn't take long till they decided to be friends.  She's moved from the woodshed, to the garage or under the Toyota, and now to the steps by our back door.  If she hears us walking in the house she cries.  She's cute but we don't want a house cat.

Today James said, "so, should we give her a name?"  I named her Willy.  Tomorrow I'll look more closely at her to see if I can tell if she's a boy or girl.  I had to go online to see how to tell the gender of a very young kitten.  I think I know now.

I thought I was going to be blogging about piglets today.  Yesterday morning I was able to express some milk from Mickey's teats.  I've read that once they have milk they will farrow within 24 hours.  Mickey isn't following the rules.  It's now been 36 hours and she hasn't begun nesting.  Maybe tomorrow morning but I'm not counting on it.  See how round her tummy is.  If you watch long enough you can see hooves and noses pushing on her sides.

 Here are the happy parents-to-be spooning.  I had just given Mickey a tummy rub and Wendell wanted one too so he pushed up against her so I'd do him.  I think Mickey fell asleep.