Jemima and Jeremy

Friday our neighbor stopped by. We started talking about the power outage we had earlier in the week. He was surprised that we did not have a generator. he had a second one that he wasn't using and told us we could have it for a good deal. Todd checked it out. Turns out that the generator came with 2 ducks.
I guess these 2 ducks were not getting along with another two he had and he wanted to separate them. At their original home they used to live with chickens, the chickens left (to our freezer) and the ducks took over the hen house. They had never been on the pond. They loved it.


Now they are free to roam. They have stayed pretty close to the pond. They are eating all the time. Hopefully, they are eating things we don't want. Like weeds, algae and bugs in the pond. They also like the grass.

It turns out that Todd was told that I wanted ducks. I don't remember telling anyone that. I did think it would be fun to watch ducks on the pond, and it is. Watch what you think out load around your children. Now the three little ones are fighting over whose ducks they actually are. The ducks do not go near anyone so I am not sure why any particular child would want to "own" them. They don't cuddle, they even swim the other way when you get close. Oh well.

Sticking with our literary theme I named the girl (we are assuming they are a male female pair) Jemima from Beatrix Potter stories. Jeremy just goes with Jemima. I can't tell them apart and we just call them "the ducks". But it is fun to give them names.

I hope I can get one of the children to build them at little lean-to. They didn't like the hard rain we had Sunday.

Chickens and young ladies

I snapped these pictures while I had the camera out taking pictures of our new goats. Who by the way have settled down a bit but don't like to be more than a few feet from each other.

This is one of our new Ameracaunas trying to figure out how to get back with the flock.

This is Esmeralda. The day we picked up the chicks she was walking funny and we thought it best to leave her with the 4-H leader and let her deal with the eventuality of her death. Well 2 weeks later she was doing just fine so she got sent home with us. She got picked on when we first put her in with the others. But after a couple days where they could see each other, but not pull her feathers out she go a long much better. She is smaller than the others, but if she lays eggs like the rest we'll be happy.

This is my friend George. Chicks grow and change faster than people babies and remember much less. But she will always have a place in my heart. N has chosen her to be one of her show birds for the county fair.

This is Whitey (G's bird of choice from this group), Phantom (N's bantam), and one of the no-name birds.

N found this outfit at goodwill and has decided that for the costume parade for rabbits and poultry at the fair she will be Elpheba from Wicked (AKA the Wicked Witch from Wizard of Oz) and Zoser/Flops (her bunny) will be a winged monkey. In wicked he has a name,but I can't remember it, you will have to ask my Wicked expert.

Speaking of....

J stuck this silly pose as I walked by:

Then she sat down on a log with the pond in the back ground. I thought it would make a lovely picture. But she wouldn't smile. I asked why and she said she hadn't brushed her teeth and had food in them.

So she did a quick swish and clean her teeth the best she could. I couldn't see anything, but she is conscious of stuff in her braces that she is ready to be rid of.

In the end I got a beautiful picture of my eldest young lady.

Elinore and Marianne

About 9 weeks ago I saw an add for two female pygora goats not too far from us. G had talked about getting some sort of fiber animal for some time. We visited them along with our 4-H leader and decided we wanted them.

Today was the day to go pick them up, now they are almost 9 weeks old. We left from church to drive to Lapeer. After a couple stops, lunch and TSC for last minute necessities and the latest MaryJane FarmGirl magazine, we were almost there. Even Todd asked "Are we there yet? Lake Huron should be right over the next hill."

We arrived to find a note taped to the door. We were about 45 min after the time I had said we'd be there. But the number the owner left for me to call wasn't working. So I hid the money and found the kids with their mama.

None of them were real sure we should be there, but the kids are little enough that they could be convinced. The Mama was small enough to handle too for that matter being 50% pygmy

They were very quiet on the way home, cuddling together in the borrowed animal crate.

Their grand entrance into the barn

Heidi had to see what was going on. (or maybe she was looking for a treat.) She responded with a motherly bleat to the kids' little baby bleats. We have to keep them separate for a period of time. Kind of like quarantine when you bring animals into a new country.

They were hesitant to come out of the crate, but came eventually

They found the water and salt block right away, but weren't too sure that we were safe. When G put the grain in their stall they got busy with that. It took a bit for them to be sure the alfalfa was good, but when they did they munched away and got closer to us.

If we got a hold of them they would sit quietly on our laps until we let go. Then they were off to the other side of their stall.

I can't tell them apart very well yet. Marianne has curlier hair on her body, less hair on her head and is bigger. She was the one to go to the grain and alfalfa first.

Elinore has more fluff on her head, but is smaller and less curly on her body. She took a little longer to warm up to her new home.

Here is an up close of the fiber:

It is still short because they are babies, but it is very soft and curly. Their dad's fur is very long and curly.


In this picture they are standing right in front of the door to their stall. The top of the door is about the same distance as from the bottom board to the top board.

After we had the girls settled and had moved on to other things, Todd was putting his good fishing poles away in the barn when we heard hollers for help.

Nothing panicky, but obviously something he didn't want to deal with alone. One of the goats (he can't tell them apart either, he might never be able to) had jumped the gate to the stall. He managed to coral them then head to the house for the cordless screwdriver.

The outside of the door.

We thought for sure it would be tall enough, but one of the kids had shown us her climbing ability when we were trying to get her out of her original home: She was on top of a box that was on top of an old kitchen cupboard. She jumped from there into the adjoining goat stall. After we got her sister out of the stall the climber jumped back in from the next stall. Then while we were securing the pen she climbed to the top of a pile of hay bales. Actually, with my back the way it is, it was easier to get her down from there than up into my arms to carry her to the van.

He grabbed an extra board and made the door a bit taller.

They supervised the redesign of their new home from the top of a dog house. We got the dog house for Hugs and Heidi. Hugs (the dwarf) like to stand on it to be tall. Heidi doesn't need any help to get up. She is our resident mountain goat. Todd and G made a small pasture for Hugs and Heidi. Heidi won't stay in. The fence is standard cattle panels and the door is a palate that has been added to so that it it taller than I am. We wondered if Heidi didn't "tell" the kids how to get over the door.

It should be plenty tall now, but we have checked on them a few times. It seems to have worked. They have been calling for their mama, but haven't escaped again.

Goodnight Heidi, take care of the babies.

My Friend George

Our 4-H club had the opportunity to incubate eggs and hatch some chicks. We wanted to add to our laying stock so we borrowed a rooster to fertilize some eggs for us. He was low rooster on the totem pole at his home so he was enjoying life here. We didn't enjoy his noise as early as 4:30 AM and as late as 1 AM. So when we had all the eggs we needed he went home.

There was a bit of a mishap with the incubator and only about 18 of 70 eggs hatched. N fell in love with a little black fuzzball and bought him with some birthday money. He came with 4 other chicks. So we brought home 8 baby chicks: 1 old English Bantam and 7 Americanas (the bread we currently have). We were also given 4 Rhode Island Reds from another club member. The club will be trying to hatch more, but we don't have the rooster to get more eggs. The one we borrowed isn't coming back anytime soon. And we only wanted 4-6 more laying hens (odds being that more than half the babies would be male and become dinner) so club members were generous in helping us build our laying flock.

The baby chicks came home when they were 5 days old. We tried to have them in the garage, but they acted very poorly so we brought them into the laundry room. I like having them in my office and got to know them a bit. One in particular would stretch its neck out to see who was looking at it. I started calling it George since is seemed curious.

I would get him out and he seemed quite content to sit with me as I drank my afternoon iced coffee and checked my email.

Not too long after these pictures were taken the chick smell began to overwhelm the office and they moved outside. George has forgotten who I am and runs for cover when any human gets close to the chicken tractor. Oh, well. The good news is that it appears that George is a pullet (girl) and I won't have to eat my friend. Amazingly of the 12 baby chick we brought home only one appears to be a cockerel (boy). Come October we may start a small egg business or more to my girls' liking a bakery specializing in rich desserts containing lots of eggs.

Goat Quiz Bowl

Here are a few pictures from the goat expo in East Lansing. I was at home with the other children, but J went along to document. This is the Jr. quiz bowl team from Saginaw County. They have been meeting since January to practice goat information.

G and two other "goat kids" about her age worked on solutions to a problem solving scenario, then had to present it to a judge. G also did an individual speech and a craft. She received 2 ribbons and tons of fun and experience.

New kids

G wanted another animal this season. She went back and forth between sheep and goats but was sure she wanted a fiber animal. We had a guy look for us then we looked. IT took a while but I finally found these listed online. They live about 1.5 hours from here. We went to see them Wednesday. It was a long wet car ride, but with "expert" advice from our 4-H leader friend we put some money down. Now we have to decide about dehorning them or not (G's research project for the weekend) and wait until they are weaned. We decided to name them Elinor and Marianne (from Jane Austin's novel Sense and Sensibility)

This is them curled up in the cupboard with their mama (a pygora) guarding them. This is their papa an angora goat. Look at all that fiber!!

Actually our first new critter of the season was N's birthday present. She had been wanting a bunny since last year. While Todd was away on business I took the chance and bought her a mini-lop with a hutch and feeding equipment. Todd didn't complain and Natalie was thrilled.

His given name was Floppy, but when we found he is a boy Natalie wanted to change it to something more masculine. So now he is Zoser a character from the musical Aida.

Unrelated....

Why in the world did I think that G would get her "computer school" work done outside?

Distracted by little sister:Distracted by whatever was happening over by the pond:

I am sure there were many more distractions,

but it looks like she did concentrate for a little while at least.

My birthday present

I asked for something BIG for my big birthday.

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It was so big it couldn't come on my birthday.

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It was so big it had to be delivered.

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I actually isn't one thing it is many many many things.

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Any guesses?

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FOUR cubic yards of hardwood mulch.

It was delivered Friday late afternoon. It didn't even get to rest for a day. By Saturday at 3:30 PM it had been put away.!!!



It's amazing how quick 7 people can get things done. Especially with someone inside preparing food.


The only drawback....well I think it is a drawback....but G didn't!! G learned to drive the tractor. Of course my country girl loved it! It made me nervous, but Todd supervised closely. She didn't run over anything important.Bobby helped too. Mostly in the form of encouraging kisses while I was on my hands and knees spreading the mulch between flowers and plantsHere I think he thinks the photographer (J) is going to give him a treat.





We had enough for both front beds, the horseradish/rhubarb patch, around the north vegetable garden (I have/will have herbs pl anted here), the walk out the back garage and most of the border bed along the back of the house and walk out. It looks soooooo much better.
I love my present.

Thank you Todd!