rachels.haven's Journal

[rachels.haven]

Lol, my sense of adventure doesn't want to fall on it's face.
And thanks! Feeling a little better already.
I'm hoping to show hay in my barn for my next post. I want my own hay stash! (I mean, what if the local feed store ran out?! We'd have a goat mutiny on our hands! Alfalfa pellets and grain ONLY? No way. They've got to have their hay.)

 

[Bruce]

And you KNOW that if you don't have yours in for the season the providers WILL run out right when you need it.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Miss Rachel,

Haven't heard from you in awhile so wondering how things are with you and your family.

 

[rachels.haven]

We're doing okay. I've been giving the goats free choice alfalfa pellets and free choice hay from the local feed store. The hay is dusty and smells like weeds, but the goats aren't eating (or wasting) much of it anyway. Everyone is doing okay, and Angel is due to kid March 28th. Last night it looks like we got about 10+ inches of snow in addition to the thick layer that was already there, so I guess it's not spring yet.

DH and I did this last night.

 

[rachels.haven]

We decided the cattle panel stalls had to go and the does got their pen put up first. The door hinges come on Wednesday and the pallet goes. We're not letting the barn be a tool shed any longer. Does approve. Sorry about the glowing eyes. For some reason Angel's eyes ALWAYS glow in flashlights or camera flash or headlights etc. even if the other goats' eyes don't. The funny thing is she's the least devious one. She's sweet and extremely obedient (except for on the milk stand). It's not an indication of her being evil, lol. It just looks awful.

 

[Bruce]

NICE!

10" of snow! Way down there, wow. We got about 1" last night.

 

[rachels.haven]

lol, I was hoping for more like one (minimum was 4 though). Want to trade?

 

[Bruce]

Nah, I'm hoping I don't have to buy rims and snows for the new car until next fall. Don't need ANY more snow!

 

[RollingAcres]

We got about 2" of snow last night. I'll take that over 10" of snow! I am DONE with winter, Spring can come anytime now please.

 

[rachels.haven]

Hay delivery is coming tomorrow. It's second cutting grass mix from a farmers exchange 25 minutes from here. No analysis, but I bought a bale earlier and it smells good enough to eat and has alfalfa and clover in it too. The goats, well, they will eat it, but they would rather bellyache for alfalfa pellets.

I finished the barn renovation. Not sure if I posted about that earlier or not. I used my drafting class skills to draw up a plan that would have gotten me flunked out, but did the job, used to to order wood and materials from Home Depot, paid the extra $80 so we didn't have to buy a truck or shop with tiny...helpers...running around causing chaos, and the bulk of the delivery came the next day with hardware coming the day or so after that. I only botched up the hinges, which we could fix at our local Ace. DH and I put up the doe's stall (I think I posted about that), and we finished up the other side of the barn last week. With some of the extra wood and the welded wire I keep around I built hay feeders for everyone, so no more buying hay bags for them to destroy, so I think our barn renovation is done for now. ONTO THE CHICKEN SHED, I guess...and coveredrun, because I think we have nesting redtails in the yard behind us. It also appears they use(d) the barn as their relief station in previous years. I'd like to discourage because they're large hawks but mainly because it's disgusting down the back barn wall. Maybe us running around the yard all the time will help.

I got photos of the barn, but it looks like I took them on my phone and not on the camera, so I guess I'll post them later. Whoops.

I also got a batch of barred rocks from McMurray on Friday (this is Sunday) with a couple whiting blues and greens thrown in for the kids since blue and green are their favorite colors and I didn't want to order them a bunch (25!) of "grandma chickens", aka milli fleur d'uccle bantams. My mother loves them, but they look like predator snacks to me and they always seem a few crayons short of a box. I'm looking forward to when we can de-food waste our garbage again. Before I had it so everything edible when to the birds. Still a bit small at this point, IMO.