Promise Acre: Our Journey

[promiseacres]

Ya, well it wasn't a yes I will hold it was, yes I'll take your cash offer IF you pick up within a week and the buyer says, "YES, that sounds great", then 4 days of silence from the buyer...so I contacted her say what's up? Well my Dad says we're busy blah blah blah, so I told her I'd hold him til the date as arranged other wise I needed a deposit... Day before her time was up she contacte me to say oh I changed my mind.... So despite his pretty coat if he doesn't sell by May 1, will be making arrangements for processing...our own raised meat is sound very good right now!


Some of the chicks from Pearce


Here is one I'm not sure boy/girl
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Smoke recovering from her eye injury/trimming of her horn


RP


JR getting weaned

 

[promiseacres]

Been busy with the warmer/dryer weather we've been having.
Started worming sheep but ran out of syringes! :/
split and sold some ornamental grass.
Planted some butterfly bushes and a tulip popular my MIL gave us.
Planted potatoes and onions, now waiting on DH to get time to re till the rest of the garden. He did get the yard mowed though.
Been hiking/walking some.
let the horses out on some grass for the first time today! They actually came back to their pens willingly after a couple of hours!
Checked out the possible hay field, looks good if they get the trees out.....
Loving being able to put my laundry out. And I had a job interview! YIKES! AND it sounds like a very good "match" for this SAHM to get her out of the house some and help the local Extension/4H office! Will find out if they offer me the job next week. It'll only be 2 days a week other than around Fair time, so I think it'll work out. Our fair is pretty early this year (week of July 4) So the garden should be ok other than needing some weeding. I hope. Maybe I'll start using my time more wisely and not want to run away from my precious children so often. It will mean I probably won't be able to help with VBS... but we will see.

 

[promiseacres]

So did not get the position was told that I was in the top 2...but as I've discussed with many friends God has other plans for me! Like the farmers market this summer??

On Mothers day I discovered that most of my tomatoes and peppers got frosted...really wish the weather men could do their jobs better! DH insisted we run back to Ace for more plants that day b/c the next night was to be worse. We covered everything we could with sheets, buckets, ect and everything is good now. But now I have to replant which I'm struggling getting motivated to do. DH planted 1/2 the corn last night so that was nice.

This morning I decided to make upside down orange/pinapple cupcakes so didn't get out to move/feed the critters as early as normal and discovered that RP was in with the girls! UGH I know exactly what happened, Miss Izzy was hungery so decided he needed chasing. I think Miss Izzy is going to be finding a new home. Right now I put her in with the mares but man is she food aggressive! She is not happy unless she has food 24/7! and this does not work for me bc we "rotate" and just b/c you don't have food in front of you doesn't mean you need to be a total B and chase whoever you're with. I knew it was a chance with a 10 yr old jenny...where are all the nice donkeys that instinctavely protect? Atleast we have Bell who isn't doing TOO bad with the ewes and lambs. I'm really getting over the donkeys. They are the most obnoxious things...nothing at all like a horse. I have no clue how to train one b/c they would rather lay down than to respond to kindness.

 

[Four Winds Ranch]

I have to say, " I am with you on the donkey thing"! We have some too, and yes, they are a pain in the butt!!! :/
Sorry about your plants getting frosted!!!

 

[promiseacres]

one of my Mothers day gifts


garden



new flower bed


naked sheep (yes she's a hair sheep and wasn't shedding I felt sorry for her, luckily my farrier also shears... )

 

[promiseacres]

so finally got around to taking a fecal into the vets....good news low parasite count....discussed Brownies cough and decided it was possibly lungworm scarring or COPD. No other signs other than the cough so hoping she's ok. may need to cull her if it seems gets worse. And will keep watch on the parasite load. Oh and I sent in my membership and paperwork to reg. RP and Smoke, will add the others with color later. hope they get accepted!

I finally got all of my annuals planted, garden is done til 2nd planting of beans and corn. Everything looks good other than the beans... oh well. Up to 15 tomatoes and 10 bell peppers! I'm going to be very busy this summer.

Oh and Miss Shanarae who's not shown an signs of a tummy has some udder changes...so we should have a foal next month excited to see what my boy throws!

Izzy is still here but have a couple of leads, one has promised a deposit if she likes her after I send more photos. so will take them at chore time tonight. .. Bella will be sad but hope this will help her bond with the sheep, she's letting me give her a good scratch in the mornings but RUNS ! if she sees a halter.....goofy critter.

 

[promiseacres]

Sooo we just got back yesterday from a short vacation to visit some friends in St Louis. It was a great time but we had barely been gone 24 hours when we started getting phone calls! Yep a neighbors dog (husky chow mix? ) decided to "play" with our sheep and our sheep attacked him (ya the owners words tonight when he did take time to stop about the incident). Fortunatly we seem to have some good other neighbors and there was quite the party at our place to patch up Smoke, yep Smoke the ewe who's already had her eye/horn incident was the one to get tore up. She got punctures on her jaw, front leg and a chunk of flesh missing from her rear leg just above the hock. And the neighbor who was caring for everyone was totally on board giving shots and changing bandages so we didn't have to cut things short. This just proves to me that Smoke is a very good Mama because I KNOW she could of ran away but had to had been protecting the lambs. No one else, not even Nautilus (my mini stallion and my baby! ) got into the pen in the chaos ??? had a bite on them. DH told the dog's owners if we see the dog on our property it WILL be shot no questions asked, they accepted this and did agree to help with Smoke's meds and bandages. (no vet was called due to the holiday weekend and good experienced neighbors) They swear dog is home for good on a logging chain. It was utd on rabies at least, but these people have an infant! Supposedly this dog would never hurt a child and is just a pup..... This dog sure had the instinct to take my poor Smoke down! She ended up in the hot wire.... oh and the guys wife couldn't figure out how to get threw the gate (it was locked) so instead of climbing over it she went thru the hot wire..... DH was asking me about a LGD...but I really don't know how we'd work one without a barn for it? And really not sure about how much they eat.... IDK maybe it could have a dog house? We talked that we are adding another hot wire between the 2 and 3 wires in the pasture (there's only 4 HT hot wires b/c it's only used during the day when it's "SAFE"). But with a husky/chow coat I doubt this dog EVER felt a thing....yes it makes me feel better to know his owner got bruises on her legs from it. Little Bell (donkey) is starting to bond with the sheep but she's only 10 mos old and I'm sure just ran. I think she'll bond better once we get Izzy sold even though they aren't penned together they still see and talk to each other.

On a good note we had a really great time. Our first vacation in 6 years and with kids....

 

[elevan]

Glad you had a good vacation. Sorry to hear about Smoke and the dog.

 

[animalmom]

Looks like you went up in the Arch. How did the kids like it? Hope the day was clear and you all had a great view.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

So sorry to hear about the dog attack. You are very lucky to have such good neighbors that could care for your injured girl until you got back.

By the way I don't know if anyone else does this, but when I am at the vets especially if it is near a planned vacation, I always try and update my "if we are out of town an there is an emergency" authorization info. Both for phone numbers (if they can't get ahold of me, my mom knows which animals are most important to us and can make a treatment /dollar amount decision over the phone for me) and a preset dollar amount that the vets are authorized to treat any of my pets if they are absolutely unable to reach me and time is of the essence. Usually it is $200 for any of my cats or dogs and $150 for a goat. I don't have any vets that will treat chickens, ducks, turkeys or geese....but if they would, I think $50 would be safe. This would just be enough to stabilize them and hopefully we would be in contact by then. This provides peace of mind for me and my babysitter (animal sitters are babysitters here). All they have to do is get the animal there and keep trying to get ahold of us.

Hope you don't have to deal with that dog again.

Glad you had a good vacation.