Forsythia Blooming

A week of warm weather got everything blooming. The trees are getting leaves and the grass is growing. It rained this evening so I better get the mowers ready.

 The willows have leaves. No flowers for them.

 You can hear Bonnie humming in this video. It sounds like a low pitch growling hum. She does it all the time.

 We got these forsythia after they bloomed last year.

 We were happy to see the pretty yellow flowers.

  The weeping cherry is blooming too. I took this picture before the storm got here. I was afraid the blooms would blow off in the wind.

  Paige has recovered from her ordeal at the doggie dentist.

 She wanted everyone to see how nice her teeth look now!

Too Much Calf

Norman is three weeks old. He's big. Really big. He isn't much smaller than Jerry who is almost a year old. He's too big for the barnyard so we set him up a corral in the cattle run-in shed. 

 Norman is an active boy. He races around the barnyard so Lisa opened the gate and he raced around the pasture. He raced back up when he saw us to see if we had a bottle.

 We put the sheep panels inside the cattle panels. That should hold him and keep the big ones out.

 He gets three bottles a day.

 Bevis came to say hi.

 Paige had her teeth cleaned today so Satin is filling in for her.

Norman

We had another nice day today. Lisa was gone most of the afternoon with Andy. He was over here visiting when we had some hauling that came up so we drafted him and his truck. The clutch in ours is really rattling bad so it can't do any heavy lifting. Thank you so much to Andy for helping us today and we were sorry to take up his whole Sunday afternoon.

 The cattle water tank hadn't been cleaned all winter so it was a little ripe at the bottom.

 Andy was keeping them busy with alfalfa cubes so they would leave Lisa alone. Bevis can be a butthead at times.

 The birds have been nesting in the tractor again. I got this one cleaned out and there was another one under the instrument housing.

 One of the trips Lisa and Andy made was to pick up Norman. He came from the same farm as the first couple of Larrys. The farm is out on Combs Ferry Road and the ranch manager is a friend of Cory White, Edith's hand.

 He is going to be halter trained. Lisa is going to train him in obedience and agility.

 The other trip they made was to Boonseboro to get some round bales. I saw the ad on craigslist while they were gone to get Norman. I called the guy and he said if we could pick them up before 4pm we could get them today. Lisa and Andy dropped off Norman and swapped trailers and headed back out to the other end of the county. We rolled the bales off then picked them up with the hay spear. These were stored outside so the strings were rotted.

 The grass is coming in really slow this year since the spring has been so cold. Most of the hay around here is already gone. We got lucky finding this. Maybe it will be the last we need.

 The sheep are getting grain too. They have more natural forage than the cattle because of their size.


 We piled the hay that came loose from the bales onto the small flatbed trailer.

 Lisa delivered it to the sheep while I planted onions in the garden. She planted a row and a half of lettuce after unloading the hay.

 Paige.

Bunks

The weather is finally warming up so we got a lot done today.
I got off early on Friday so we headed down to Liberty to get some bunk feeders for the cattle. The hay has run out and the grass hasn't quite caught up. We needed to give them grain but it isn't safe to go in with them when they are in a feeding frenzy.

 As with everything at the scratch and dent place in Liberty, the bunks were perfectly fine. We never did find the scratch or the dent. Since we paid about half of what they would be retail, it was well worth the drive down there. We took the van with the trailer since the truck has a bad clutch. Since we were in the van Piper and Luna got to go with us.

 We set up two panels and the bow gate to create a feeding station where we can fill the feeders from safety. By "we" I mean, of course, Lisa.

 They had never seen a bunk feeder but we were confident that they would be able to eventually figure it out.

 We were not disappointed. They spooked a little from the noise of the grain hitting the plastic pan. They got over it.

 Jones was not amused. That boy bunny was molesting her all afternoon.

 I tilled the garden again to mix in the bunny poo and compost. I also made the first two planting rows. These are for onion bulbs and lettuce seeds. It's still too early to plant the tomato starts.

 We took down the two old green gates to make room for the 16' wire mesh gate.



 We bought this gate last fall from the usual place in Liberty. The weather turned nice so it got put up today.

 We put a block for it to rest on to relieve the force on the gate post. We need to work on the latching mechanism. Eventually we hope to have an electric gate opener.

 The bradford pear is starting to bud out. Naturally the evil cows had to bust into its enclosure to eat the buds.

 We used the old green gates as a temporary patch. They didn't get too many of the buds. This poor little tree has had a rough life. We hope it does well.

 Paige.

Prime Dinner

Anne came to Kentucky to pick up her chickens and mutton. It was good seeing her and Sarah again.

 We had standing rib roast for dinner the other day. It was really good. This one was Charlie's.

  All my girls on a sunny afternoon.

 Anne and the newly CDX titled Sarah.

 Sarah wanted to see bunnies.

 The Blues.

 The garden finally dried out. Lisa worked on getting it tilled this afternoon.We hauled some bunny poo and compost in to enrich the soil. She worked hard on it with the garden weasel. Next year we'll get Andy to bring the big tiller over.

 Poo spread and smoothed out. Once it dries a little more we'll mix it in with the tiller.

 Paige.

Cheeky Breakfast

We had some jowl bacon for breakfast on Sunday. Yes, we ate hog jowls.

 It looks like bacon. The slices are wider and shorter than belly bacon.

 The meat packer asked if we wanted the jowl bacon. We said yes.

 It smelled great cooking. It stuck to the pan a little and the texture was a little different than your regular bacon. It was delicious!

 Paige.

 I had to modify the chain drag. I used an old piece of angle steel that I found by the pond a few years ago.

 It was six feet long so I had to cut it down to size. It had some welded brackets on the ends so I had to make two cuts.

 Next I drilled five holes to receive the drag hooks. The WD-40 was to lubricate and cool the drill bits.

 I added the piece of angle to hold the back of the drag down. The hooks were catching on the ground causing the ends to bounce back and get tangled. It wasn't hard to untangle but think about what it drags through. It will be better not needing to handle it so often.

 Paige.

New Arrivals

It's official now. The neighbors always accuse us of having an exotic petting zoo and now we are really exotic. The llama rescue people referred giraffe rescue to us since we have done so well with the llamas. Our shelters and feed situation are adequate for temporary foster care. Sheep and llamas are socially compatible with giraffes so we said yes to fostering two adult giraffes and one yearling.

 The giraffe people delivered them last night so we kept them in a corral until this morning. Lisa went down and turned them out and they seem to be getting along fine. The llamas don't pay them much attention and the sheep don't seem concerned. The male is in the pasture with Dolly and Martha. They said he might be aggressive with the rams.

 The female mom and her yearling daughter are quite friendly. They were in a petting zoo that had financial problems so they see people as food bringers. We need to get some giraffe biscuits, Lisa has a recipe to make them. Speedy ran up on them but she towers over him and he thought better of it. They are keeping respectful distances now.

If you want to help out with giraffe conservation visit http://www.girafferescueandporcelaindollmuseum.com/contribute