Haven't Had Much Spare Time....

Lately.

I had been battling a cold for awhile last week, then Deb caught it, then.....

It between all that, I managed to eek out trips to two auctions, a couple of scrounge trips, company, baby goats, fence work, a wild storm and pig twicking.....

The last auction was this past Saturday (21 March 2009) I didn't get anything TOO spectacular but, I managed to bring home about 1000 "Bin Bolts" for my corn crib. I will probably end up cutting the existing bolts out in order to remove them. The $6 I spent on these bolts (and nuts/washers) will DEFINITELY save a BUNCH of money.
I also bought some good Hedge (Osage Orange) posts for 75¢ each....

Deb had a friend of hers (and her son) come for a visit last Friday and stay until Monday morning. Her son spent a lot of time outside, playing with our goats, LGD, and cats. He threatened to take Tractor Buddy home with him.

The cat told me that she DID NOT want to move back to Missouri.....

On Saturday - before the auction - I was in the barn to feed everyone, when I found Rosie (one of our Nubian goats) had had a baby. He was fairly small. Deb kept an eye on her so I could go to the auction. She called me a little after noon to say Rosie had had three kids - all boys.

I also received a call from the lady we got Rosie and Winnie from last fall. She said she had some male kids she needed to get ride of, too. She was running out of room, so she needed me to pick them up as soon as I could.

Sunday was fairly warm, but with a cool breeze, so it never developed into a great weather day. I did manage to "pig twick" some sticks out of part of the hay field, though.

Our visitors went home on Monday morning - just in time to miss the really big wind.

It started late morning - blowing sustained at over 35 mph, with gusts as high as 65 mph. I kept an eye on the radar, and decided that I'd better milk and get everyone to bed a little early. I was pleasantly surprised that ALL of the chickens were already in the coop by 4:30. They knew it was coming and baled....

I finished up feeding, milking, and bedding down at 5:20 and headed for the house. About 10 minutes later, the rain hit. It only rained for about 10 minutes, but it came down HARD. I didn't have the rain gauge out, but estimate about a half inch. Things weren't particularly wet.

Our neighbor had some damage, but we only had minor stuff - our dead TV antenna committed suicide, and 3-4 shingles are gone from my shop roof.

It could have been worse, there were several tornadoes in nearby counties. The lady we got the goats from said one was within a mile of her house.

I decided Tuesday (24 March 2009) would be the day to pick up or new goats. Since it was a COLD windy day, I hooked up the horse trailer I had scrounged a couple years ago for it's maiden voyage. I could have put the stock racks on the pickup, but it would have been a BIT breezy. In hind-sight, I'm glad I decided on the trailer.

In addition to the 5 baby goats, she also gave us 4 adult Does! Two are Nubian's, and the other two are Alpines. We've never had Alpines before, but they are a large goat. Deb thinks they look funny - their ears are erect - but I think they are kind of pretty. Four of the 5 babies are also Alpine. They are one day old and already bigger then the week old Nubian kid.

Here is a photo of the Does:



An Alpine kid photo:



And Deb spoiling the Nubian kid:



There are more photos here:

While we were loading goats and talking, I said that I had brought a cage for any stray chickens she had. So we set about with fishing "dip nets", to capture wayward fowl. I ended up with 11 more - several of which are hens - to add to the collection at our place. Two are Americauna hens, and several are a nice shiny Black Sumatra crosses. They are VERY pretty birds.

I have a LOT of work to do in the barn, and more fence to get done. I have about 50' of fence, and a creek crossing, that HAS to get done before May first, but I've got a good start on it.

I also even found time to get rid of 4-5 small stumps out of the edge of the hayfield. Just doing that will give me another 15' wide swath to mow.

We might even have SNOW this weekend! Not much, but it's time for spring.

I'm ready.