Ugly Phase

I get a kick out of how all animals and humans have that awkward pubescent phase. Let's be honest, there's at least one yearbook photo of yourself that you would rather not ever see again. Well, our Orpington chicks have reached this stage. Boy howdy, they are most definitely not cute right now. 

I'm not even going to take a pic of them because I do want to forget this phase of theirs. They've got some of their cute chick fuzz left and then feathers are popping up through it. Because they're lavender, the feathers are growing in dark against the light fuzz. It's truly like seeing a long dark curly hair in your bowl of white rice. I'll say it outright, they're ugly right now!

I know this is just a phase and soon they'll look good again. In the meantime, Rob's in charge of feeding them. He's the mama hen anyway. 

When they were cute haha

Stubbornness

There's one theme you'll constantly recognize with me and animals, stubbornness. Sometimes I let them have their way, but other times, I'm going to hold my ground. Tonight was a ground holding night. 

As we've had Ciarán and Coorie for almost two months now, I had still yet to really get to pet Coorie. Ciarán is one of those helicopter moms and I let her get away with that for awhile. Tonight though, I needed a win. And a win is what I got. 

Without treats, without protection, I braved the cow stall during feeding to try and brush Coorie. Remember, she has had zero human touch thanks to her mama. While Ciarán was stuffing her face, I cornered Coorie and started brushing all Highlands favorite spot, just behind their horns. That's all it took. After that, she let me continue brushing her, petting her, and loving on her. The poor girl has a ton of matted fur, so I'm going to continue working on her in the days to come and hopefully as well, win over her mom. 

Just ask Rob, when I get my mind on something, no animal is going to best me. I'm more stubborn than any of them, bar none!

Bluebonnets!

We didn't plant them, we didn't even know they were there, but we have the smallest little patches of bluebonnets! It's spring y'all. 

With spring usually comes the cleaning part. Usually, for regular people I guess. For me? It just means I put the sweatpants away. What else am I supposed to do? The barndo isn't finished yet and there's no point in deep cleaning the RV as everytime we open the door more dirt blows in anyway. So yeah, y'all clean, I'm just going to enjoy our tiny patch of bluebonnets. 

Plumb Lucky

It felt like we waited forever, but the plumbers started today! What's even better, we only forgot one thing on our house plans for the plumbing side. No really, only forgetting one thing is actually good if you look at how much we changed the electrical!

So, the one little itty bitty thing we forgot was the water softener. Unfortunately, we have zero floorplan available for that. Luckily, we do have a we'll house (well, we will) and it can go in there! The plumber was upset we wouldn't have a hard water line going into our house, but the only purpose for hard water is to water the grass, which we don't have, and we can find a different way to get water there. Yay!

The plumbers aren't as conversational as the electricians, metal guys, and stud masters were, but this was only the first day. I'm sure I'll wear them down in no time!

Dress Up

Lately, my schedule has been extremely hectic. If I'm not going, I'm coming and vice versa. But today, I took a little me time to spend with the kids as we'll be opening up their adoption soon. 

One of my friends had sent me the cutest pic of a goat wearing a floral crown and tutu that I decided to try and duplicate. Well, my goats don't just sit still, so we did the best we could. It was fun and I got some cute pics out of the deal. 

This week promises to be more of the same in terms of craziness. I'm not joking, everytime I cross one thing off my list, three new things get added. I was told there was front porch sitting in the country, I'd like to get to that point!

Rainy Evening

I'm so freaking proud of Rob and I! Since we don't have accurate weather forecasts for our little slice of heaven, I've been paying more attention to how it actually feels outside. I started noticing a change around 5 and told Rob we should probably get the animals in. They didn't fight us, so I'm sure they were sensing it, too. Once they were all put away and the pups had a quick potty break, we settled inside the RV and two minutes later the storm rolled in!

Y'all don't know how great a feeling it is to not have to slip and slide through mud to get livestock inside. We'll still have to slip and slide in the morning more than likely, but that's a tomorrow problem. For now, everyone have a great weekend and we're just going to enjoy the rain. 

Yep, That's Next

As the days are getting longer and warmer, I realize that we do indeed need to provide more shade for all the animals. We don't really have trees, although we will eventually plant some, but it looks like we need to do some loafing sheds or something as well. 

Last year, we didn't have to separate anyone from anyone and that was great. This year, we've got some boys who will need to be separated for a short time which leaves the only shade, the barn, as a luxury for the girls only. We're not even done with the other projects I've got going, but yeah this is next. I don't want Ciarán to get even moodier, ok? You try telling our big, pregnant, hairy black cow she can't have the barn, I dare you!