Meeting Wyatt

Well we have our two girls, Zelda and Basil. We picked up our little bucky boy, Wyatt on June 20th. Basil was curious, Zelda just wanted to hit him. He amused himself exploring his new surroundings and Basil amused herself with her favorite thing to do "eat." I kid you not she eats non stop all day long. I think after all the recent stress she's become a stress eater. Of course now she shouldn't be stressed and she still eats. Oh well I guess she's come to the right place cause that's our favorite thing to do too. We also have our two boys that will be companions for these three. Luke and Jesse came from Tranquility Acres. I'll post pics of them later. Tranquility is a top notch farm. These boys lived in the lap of luxury. They are adjusting pretty well. Luke is a lovie, lovie. He snuggles and wants to be rubbed all the time. Jesse is a little standoffish but is coming around quickly. At first we have to coax him to come to us but now he comes right up. Luke like to butt Wyatt around a lot and since he's quite a bit huskier Wyatt is learning how to move quickly. I'll post pics of their new home which is at our new home next time. We are almost finished redoing an old farm house, well at least it will be "almost livable" soon. So far it's been quite a job trying to work and live in two different locations but soon we'll be there for good. It's going to be fun. Gotta go get some goat kisses:-)

Harvesting garlic :-)

UUMMMMM!! Under out house smells like garlic. I planted it last fall and it has grown very nicely. Vince dug it up today as Zelda looked on. I think she really wanted to help. Basil just kept looking for vanilla wafers.

I think I'll plant some more in the fall. This should last us well into the year. It's a polish garlic and is just a little hot but not so much.

It's been a long sad week :-(

Whoever said goats were "hardy" animals evidently meant old hardened goats. Our poor boys had a big struggle this past week and didn't survive. First Doc (he's the one on the far right) got sick. We tried everything we could think of. Jenny was researching web sites for information and we thought he might make it but Sunday morning he had died. Then Monday morning Vince said Tobi (the one on the far left) was acting funny. So I went down and sure enough he had the same symptoms. We took him to the vet immediately and they did a few things and he came home. He still seemed to be struggling but at least he didn't appear to be in the pain Doc was in. As I held him in my lap he looked up with his wobbling head and his eyes just seemed very distant. Sure enough Tuesday morning he was worse. We took him to the vet to be put down. They tried a few more things during the day but we had to let him go. We took his little body to the lab to see if they can find out what happened. I think the 4 days we went through this seemed like weeks.


Well that leaves Basil all alone and anyone who knows goats knows you can't have only one goat. They will scream till it drives you mad. So we found "Zelda." She lived in Jacksonville. She's 11 months old and a real sweetie. She loves to be loved. Her favorite love is vanilla wafers. We actually took Basil with us on the 3 hour drive and she seemed to enjoy it. Zelda and Basil had to work out their positions but they seem to be enjoying each other now. We took both of them to the vet for a wellness check and they are good to go.

Now the buck is coming next weekend so of course he's going to need a buddy too. Saturday we will take a drive to Mebane to pick out two friends for him, yep I said two. Why two, well why not. What's one more goat???

Basil is still "demanding" that we come out and love on her about every two or three hours. We're hoping that will stretch out a bit soon. As difficult as this whole thing has been it's beginning to seem like we will soon get it all under control.

Chickie Town

After building a wonderful chicken condo in the back yard we have since decided to sell our house and move to a place with more land. What with the accumulation of so many animals now I guess that is the next logical step. In order to get the chickens a place that we can take with us, we decided on an old camper. So far it's turning out to be a very nice pad for the girls. We decided to leave the bathtub and put dry dirt and stuff in there for them to take their dust baths in. They will have their own "spa." It will be much larger and since the roof had leaks we removed the old air conditioner and put a metal roof on giving it a "cathedral ceiling" inside. Vince is going to cut a hole in the middle of the poop shelf so his bucket will fit right under and he can just scrape all that "garden gold" right into the bucket.

They will have an entrance on each side somewhere around the middle and we will build them a portable run that attaches. By doing this we can put the run in 4 different locations before we have to move the trailer. That way they have new ground regularly and it doesn't get all nasty in one spot. I'm hoping the mobility will help keep the mice and snakes off the scent too.

Speaking of snakes, I've decided I need to learn to live with black snakes, as long as they aren't eating my chicken eggs that is. I didn't realize black snakes keep the copper heads in check. So it will be hard and I'm sure there will be more than one scream heard but I'm going to try.

Back to chickie town, I plan to paint the exterior in retro pink and green with daisies on it. In big bubble letters on one side we'll put Chickie Town. I'm sure people are going to think I'm one crazy old lady before it's all over with. I think life's short and you have to enjoy it while you can!!!!