Silly Goose

This is my Silly Goose. She and her counterpart Big Boy are excellent alarms. They make all kinds of noise when strangers drop in for a visit. I try to hold her each morning and give her lots of pets which she tolerates. She likes to pluck at my bracelet or watch.

She's a little more violent with the mini farmers, preferring to pluck at their hair. They think that's a good thing and bow, offering their heads to her to be plundered.

Big Boy is not as friendly, and I'm pretty sure he is a boy because he's larger and developing a dewlap under his chin. He'll let me hold him but isn't as calm as Silly Goose. She follows after me when I go into their area and demands my attention.

We have discussions about the happenings at the ranch. She keeps an eye on everything for me while I'm away.

Other Things in the Pumpkin Patch

Here are some others seeds I snuck into the pumpkin patch. You have to dig through the huge leaves to find them, but they're doing well.

Honeydew Melon

A Cool Looking Gourd

Gimme the Keys

Big Mamma is the oldest and wisest. She can open gates. She does it when no one is looking. I think when we bought Violet, the other goat she lived with who allegedly had a "hand inside her mouth" passed that hand on to Violet who then gave it to Big Mama.

Here she is trying to steal my keys so she can steal my truck and go for a joy ride. I have to keep one eye on her at all times and slip the secret gate locks in to keep her from letting all the others out.

Sometimes I get in a hurry and forget the secret lock. Then I look up in the middle of milking only to find three escaped goats charging toward the stand to sneak some grain for themselves. Not Big Momma. She sits back and watches with that little devious smile on her face.

Lizard Houses

Part of permaculture design is attracting beneficial critters into the garden to do the dirty work for you. One of our favorite creatures to attract are lizards. They love to eat up any sort of nasty bug that wants to eat our garden goodies. Farmer C is in charge of lizard house construction. He builds them primitive little shelters made of rocks and scrap boards so they have a place to bask or hide as needed.

In the morning, there are dozens of lizards zipping around the gardens, hard at work. Here are a couple of prime examples:

Farmers C and K checking on our "workers". 

Night Patrol

Some days we don't get out to do the chores until after the sun has set. On nights like tonight I drive extra carefully so as not to squish the Night Patrol...

They move pretty fast!

Cow Search Begins

Holstein Bull in the distance and Rain, Rain, Rain!

Today we went on a cow search. We're hoping to find a reasonably priced small cow near us since we do not own a livestock trailer, and we've never dealt with large livestock that stands as tall as, if not taller than, us. We went on a journey to an animal rescue farm called HoofsnHorns located over in Picture Rocks. A very kind and personable lady runs the farm and she has taken in a lot of animals that really need a place to live out their lives in peace. She has goats, pigs, cows, waterfowl, chickens, dogs and a lot of other critters.

We were greeted by two happy-to-see-us dogs who walked with us to the cow pen. My husband had never been up close and personal with a standard size cow before, and I could immediately tell by the look on his face that this was a little intimidating. There were several cows there to meet, two of which were for sale, Rose and Ellie. One of the holstein mommies was very happy to get my attention and scratches. When I moved on to go to the next area, she came up behind me and bumped me to let me know she needed more scratches.

These cows were HUGE. They could look me in the eye. And they were beautiful. And I bet they make a LOT of milk. Did I mention they were HUGE? Sweet girls though.

Waiting on the porch for the rain to stop.

At that point it started to rain and then pour! We had to hurry up out of the cow area and take shelter on the porch where a lot of the rescued animals were already hiding out from mother nature. We met cute goats of many sizes and ages and a sweet deer.  It was obvious these animals are well-loved.

If you'd like to learn more about HoofsnHorns, stop by the website. Shelby sells goat milk soap and other homemade items to help support her animals. You can even sponsor an animal by donating for hay and feed.

Thank you, Shelby, for letting us meet your cows!



Sheep Closeup

Braveheart, Lucky the Ram and Baby Sheep #1

Since we've had the Barbados sheep, they've been wild things, leaping to the far end of their pen in fear whenever we approach, make a sudden movement, sneeze, or breathe too loudly for their liking. Just about all the pictures we have of them when they're not being held, are taken from far away. Not even worth posting on the blog because you could hardly see them. That was simply the closest we could get.

Recently, Farmer G decided that he was going to tame those sheep.

What better bribery for tameness than grain? So each day for a couple of weeks he went in there with a handful of grain. And each day they came a little closer. He swears he can pet this little one, in the forefront, on the head for a second before she darts away. Her nickname is Braveheart. She's figured out where food comes from and also that the first one to the food gets to eat the most of it.

Lucky the Ram is the second bravest. Check out his curly horns. He's getting more masculine every time I look in there. He's doubled in size since we got him. He and Jorge were having a battle for dominance last week so it was time to move Jorge out. He's a goat after all. The sheep are much happier with only their own kind in there even though little, sweet Jorge is the gentlest guy ever.