Icicles Everywhere

We've come to understand that the land teaches us what we're made of. We handled teen degree weather with no water over Christmas, we handled dryer than dry summer with little to no water, and now, we're learning how to deal with ice. 

As we luckily still have water, we're keeping the animals stocked up with plenty to drink. Rob's been enjoying crushing the ice when it starts to form to keep the water liquid. The goat girls have been thirsty as they're milking their kids. Nutty has been urinating on his beard constantly as a rebellion for our separating him from others. The donkeys haven't really changed their habits with water, but the coos, that's where it gets fun. 

My coos have spent more time outside today than in the barn. They would drink the water from the trough as the sleet pelted them. Tonight, they were covered in icicles! Flora was upset I wouldn't brush her, but c'mon, I don't think brushing you when your fur is ice is a good thing. The pups love the potty breaks hearing the icy ground crunch under their feet. The cats are staying warm and dry inside and the chickens don't seem to notice anything different going on. 

Tomorrow is supposed to be the worst of the weather. We'll keep forging through as we always do!

I rolled down the window and the ice stayed! There's no window in this pic

Smart Mamas

We're slowly getting a hang of our new madness around here. Fiona is still the queen, but she's allowing Ciarán some leeway on the rules for now. We've doubled our feed/hay and Ciarán still acts like we're starving her. Does she actually care if anyone else including her daughter Coorie get to eat? No, not really. That's ok, we'll adjust accordingly and keep everyone happy and full. 

The donkeys are completely cool with being left alone right now by the others. Between the goats having kids and the new coos, they just hang out on the edge and look like gossiping sisters talking about the others. 

The truly amazing thing is how all the does have bonded together now. Cookie Doe had twins this morning, so we decided to let all the females stay in the nursery (the weather is cold and icy anyway). There's a heat lamp in one corner and a plastic dog kennel with the door removed in the center of the stall. The mamas are herding their young into one of the two locations. If it's too hot, they go to the dog kennel, if they're too cold, the heat lamp. They're all so cute and snuggly, but several mamas wanted my attention that they wouldn't let me take pics. Tomorrow's weather is going to be even worse, so we'll just keep everyone watered, warm, fed and happy until the sun comes out again!

Fur Real!!!

We are Fur Real Farms and we're brimming with fur right now. The does started throwing their kids out like they had a pact to all deliver within the same 24 hours. I am not releasing the sexes yet, because I want to get clearer pics as I announce each one to the world. We've had five does deliver, two (Scotchie and Spice) with twins. Unfortunately, Sundae's doeling didn't survive even though we tried everything. I'm still wondering if there was more we could have done, but truly I think she was just too weak from the start. She's with Fergus now. 

However, the remaining six are cute and playful as can be. Scotchie's twins like to hop around, Cocoa and S'mores are overprotective mother's, and Spice will literally give you her kids for some treats. 

That's not all! Friday night, in the midst of all the kids dropping, our two newest coos arrived! Ciarán (proposed Key-Erin) and Coorie (coo-ree), formerly known as Hershey and Tiny. Ciarán, meaning dark, is three years old and is mother to Coorie, meaning snuggly, who is five months old. Also, Ciarán is pregnant! All the coos are getting along and slowly Ciarán is accepting us. What's awesome is Brogan totally has a crush on Coorie! 

This week the weather is supposed to be cold and wet, so barndo building probably won't happen much. Just as well, I'm going to be busy with all my animals giving them so much love!

Just Wow

The barndo is really coming along! The roof is done, the interior ceilings and cross beams are done. We picked out granite today, it's all coming together!

I think some are confusing my carport with the porch, but they'll figure it out once the cars are there. I don't know when that will be, but these guys are really chugging along!

As I close this weeks round of blogs, I'll say there are no new kids yet. They're making me wait for them, but they're doing well and that's all that matters. Maybe this weekend we'll have some new furry friends?

Muck Boots

Everyone will tell you when you get a farm, the first things you'll need are fences. Nope, you need muck boots. I don't care if you have animals or not, of you'll garden or not, if you live on farm land, you need muck boots. What are muck boots? I honestly couldn't tell you exactly, but I've got some. They're sturdy boys, waterproof and they're somewhat easier to put on and take off due to a stretchy ankle bit and boot strap. All I know is you can step in all sorts of things in these boots, hose them down and be done with them. 

Granted, it's our winter right now and I've got the tendency of stepping in all sorts of stuff. I don't try to, the animals actually push me into it. But sure enough, these boots do their job. In the summer though, it's croc season. Some may say flip flops, and that's fine, too. I actually have croc flip flops so I'm covered either way. But again, you need shoes you can hose off and not wear in general public. 

Fine, yes I still wear them in general public, but I try to hose them off first. I'm lazy and if I've already got shoes on when it's time to go, then that's that. I generally smell of goats and cows and donkeys now, so it really doesn't matter if I've got added flavor under my soles. 

Rain Delay

We finally got some rain today! Boy howdy, we sure needed it. Although, we don't need these winds we're getting tonight!  Why do cold fronts in Texas always got to come in like a speeding bullet? Just weird. 

Because of rain, I'm late in all things pretty much today. I was late waking up, I was late getting this blog out, but I wasn't late in feeding the animals. Nope, I know better!

The workers should be back tomorrow and we're still on kid watch. I asked Cocoa when she's going to deliver, and she just looked at me bored. When I was due with my own kid, I was so ready for her to pop out!

Banding & Billies

I figured I'd get the educational blog out of the way for this week. As we still wait for the kids to be born (I'm guessing tomorrow since it's going to be raining and cold), I thought I'd share our thoughts on banding and billies. 

Males have it rough on farms. At birth, or shortly thereafter, it's decided whether a male will one day be able to reproduce or not. As we've seen how Nutty is during rut, and the fact he got the job done for the ladies, very few intact males are needed. Depending on how varied you want your bloodline, is how many billies you have. We're not into goats for their bloodlines, we're in it for their milk. 

So, most if not all of our bucklings born will become banded. Essentially a river band goes around the sac and it dies off due to lack of blood flow. It's humane and it makes them into wethers. The only males I would consider keeping intact to sell are those who are naturally polled (out of Cocoa or Caramel). I haven't decided how many wethers we'll keep as is not wise to count your chickens before they hatch. Or rather, count your kids before they're born.