Livestock

The first thing most people ask when they hear we have a llama is “does he spit?” The answer is, yes, but he has never spit on us. He does spit at Larry all the time.

Larry often gets a little too friendly with Louie. Usually it is around feeding time or when we come up to the fence to deliver water. Louie isn’t feeling the love.

His ears perked back up after the spitting episode. He likes me.

When the sheep realized I was just bringing down water they went back to the hay. They like hay.

Larry is getting ready. We’re hoping he is around 900 lbs. His date with destiny is on December 10.

He gets grubby rolling around in the hay.

Louie in full koosh.

The Door

 

It has been down in the 20’s and 30’s the last few nights so we got to work on the hen house door. It has a smaller door for chicken access.

We got the second window installed.

Lisa painted the door.

The chickens finally figured out the small door.

Approved for Occupancy

We moved the chickens today! It was quite an event. Anne and Marianne came up from South Carolina for the festivities. Barry heard about it and decided he couldn’t miss it either. It wasn’t too hard getting them in there. We just shook the corn bucket and they followed it out.

We still need to make the front door

but they have their laying boxes and roost in there.

This window is finished and the other one will be done tomorrow. It just needs paint and have the Plexiglas installed.

The cage door opens in and has wire on it.

The mansion yard still has grass in it for now.

Anne is holding Sarah her new German Shepherd Dog puppy.

Lazy Afternoon

More hen mansion progress. It’s getting close so we keep pushing for the finish line.

Lazy afternoon for Piper, not the rest of us.

Siding installed on the front and gable ends.

Gable siding. There will be a shutter over the window that we can open in the warm weather. It will have clear plastic so they’ll have light in the winter to encourage egg production.

Gateway in place. The sill is a 2x12 buried about 8 inches in the ground.

Nicely painted, Piper approved interior.

Chicken Catcher Fail

We worked on the hen mansion this weekend. No surprise there. We’ll get it done eventually. It was unusually warm again, high in the 80’s. It’s really strange for late October in Kentucky to be so warm.

Lisa painting the inside. Piper and the hens came out to inspect the progress.

I was trimming the tops off of the fence posts.

Paige and I went over to the pond to collect a couple of rocks. We needed them to help hold down some of the chicken wire.

 

 

We were out working until sundown.

The Fall Drought of 2010

The drought actually began in July which is when we last had any decent rainfall. Everything is brown and dry. But there is still work to be done and animals to take care of.

Lisa painted the front fence and we added the fifth board on the bottom. We also attached the welded wire to it under the cover boards. It looks a lot better now.

We fixed the stretcher by the sheep’s lower gate a couple of weeks ago with the help of Andy and Heather. We used pieces of a cut utility pole for the posts. Longtime readers will remember that the old one was damaged in one of the winter floods.

The lambs are doing well. Everyone was patiently waiting for the feed buckets.

Fall color!

Jersey Larry is doing great. He is gaining weight and getting tall. He prefers the mare and foal mix to the calf food. Wouldn’t you?

His hair is nice too. Lisa brushed the burrs out of his tail today. Yes, he is pampered.

You didn’t really believe the sheep were waiting patiently did you? It was a sheep stampede as usual.

Chicken Mansion

We have been working on the hen house. Soon the chickens will be moving in! It will be so nice to have them out of the barn.

The barred rocks are growing nicely.

No eggs from the rocks yet. The reds are earning their keep, we’re getting about 15 eggs a week out of the three. We keep telling the rocks that they look tasty so if they want to stay out of the freezer they need to start producing.