Giving the Goats Some Attention

Nothing was happening with just having Billy Shakespeare in a separate pen and every few days moving Dottie Belle into the pen with him.  He spends a good part of his day crying when he is alone.  So I gave up and 8 days ago moved him into the pen with the 3 girls.  I just wonder how many kids to expect the end of September.  Actually, I'm thinking I will move him and Dottie Belle back to his pen in a few days.  I do want to have some idea, if I find that I have a pregnant goat, when to expect delivery.  But for now I don't see any signs of any goat love.


Today was the day for worming the goats and giving them their tetanus shots.  We weighed each one and then used the great milking stand I got for Christmas to administer the worming medicine and shot.

Honey Bunny

Honey Bunny- 15 months old weighed 53 lbs.

One can easily tell that Honey Bunny is not a bottle baby.  You will not find any silly poses of her.  She is a very dignified animal. 


 Well as for the 3 bottle baby goats, I have all kinds of silly pictures and videos of them

Dottie Belle

Dottie Belle - 
14 months old weighed 46 lbs.

BS is begging to get in the girls' pen.

 Billy Shakespeare -
8 months old weighed 36 lbs.

Gypsy - 13 months old weighed 30 lbs.

Billy Shakespeare is still very much a pet.  He is really the only one who was happy with all the attention.  So he got brushed and his hooves trimmed.

Buggie Pays a Visit

The collage Connor included in Buggie's scrapbook.

My grandson's, Connor, Kindergarten class is known as Mrs. Harrison's Ladybugs. The children take turns taking their mascot, Buggie, home.  They are to take Buggie everywhere they go and write in the scrapbook about his visit.  First, Connor took Buggie to church.  They went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch.  And then they came over to Grammy's and Grampa's to visit with the goats.

The Ducks Have To Go!

Well, I've lasted almost a month with 2 ducklings in a crate in the house, but not another day.  









For the last 3 Springs, I have had 3 - 4 chicks in a crate in the house for about 6 weeks and was very glad when I could move them out.  

But this year I went all out and got 5 chicks and 2 ducklings. All of them were in one crate for a week and I  realized that the ducks were growing a lot faster and hogging all the water.  Also ducks are very messy.  I felt so sorry for the chicks, that I borrowed a crate from my neighbor and moved the ducks. 
 
 But the Donald and Daisy are getting smellier and throwing the straw and shavings all over the place. And they want to have water in which  they can splash.  MESSY.

So yesterday I decided the 2 hens, Gracie and Stayed At Home must go into the coop with the others.  Now there will be 6 hens with one large rooster in that coop.  That's really too many, but I let the hens out as soon as I get up everyday, so they spend the day running the yard until dark.


I spent most of yesterday clean up the coop and spread new sand for the ducks.

Dottie Belle checking out the new bigger tub.

 I bought a bigger tub for the goats and put their tub in the coop for the ducks. 










 I had a meeting last night, so it was dark when I got home. 


 I went to see if all the chicken went into one coop and found that Gracie and Stayed At Home were sleeping on top of the coop.  I grabbed them and kind of tossed them into the coop with the others as they were screaming as loudly as they could and the rooster came charging after me.


Then today, I needed to train the hens to lay in a new place since the ducks now claimed the nests in that coop.  I set up a nesting box under the old coop where all the hens now live and even put one of yesterday's eggs in it.  

But after several hours of  running free, none had laid in the new box and in fact the egg I put in there was broken.  

Gracie was determined to lay her egg in the coop.

Gracie flew up in my arms because she so badly wanted in her coop to lay. So I opened the outside door of the hutch and closed the door to the run where the ducklings were.  She laid her egg there and jumped out.  That was a good idea.

  Stayed At Home laid her egg in the "garage barn."  So I set up a nesting box using a crate and straw in there.  

Little Ace laid her egg in some tall Monkey Grass.  So I got 3 out of a possible 6 eggs today. 


Maybe that was all the eggs laid.  

Omelet, number one hen,  spent most of the day circling the coop. She was not very nice to any hen that came close to her. She spent a couple nights a week in the coop when she didn't want to be in the other coop with Big Foot. 

Hopefully, the girls will get used to the new set up.

I know Donald and Daisy are thrilled with their home.

How to Tell If It's a Boy or a Girl

For a couple of months the family has been waiting to learn if the fifth grandchild will be a boy or a girl.  This will be my son's, Paxton and his wife's, Courtney, first child.  The baby is due September 29, so we had to wait at least until the 15th week of gestation.  


So Saturday Paxton and Courtney had a very unique way of letting us know the baby's gender.

First they gave each of us an egg.

Each egg contained the same clue.

                   Paxton      Courtney  ?A Baby Boy!!!

They have decided to name him Jack Michael.

You Are My Sunshine

 You Are My Sunshine is the Louisiana State song.  It was recorded February 5, 1940 by  Governor Jimmy Davis who served as Governor of Louisiana for 2 terms in the mid 1930s.  In fact I was lucky enough to attend his 100th Birthday party in Baton Rouge in 1999.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNeAxOz2AsE

So that was my first thoughts when a fellow blogger Chubby Chatterbox http://thechubbychatterbox.blogspot.com/2012/04/sunshine-on-rainy-day.html sent me an email saying he had nominated me for the Sunshine Award.  He writes a blog that never fails to be interesting and likely make you laugh quite hard.  It's one of those you look forward to reading each day.

The rules of the Sunshine Blog Award are simple…

#1 Thank the person who nominated you with a link back to their blog.

#2 Answer a few questions about yourself.

Favorite color: Yellow

Favorite animal: Goats, but I'm sure if I could have a pet panda it would be be panda.

Favorite number: 7

Favorite non-alcoholic drink: Lemonade

Facebook or Twitter: Facebook.  I have a Twitter account, but never twitter--why do that?

My passion: Family, education, urban farming

Favorite flower:  Star Gazer Lily

Favorite Book:  Atlas Shrugged

Favorite painting: The Voyage of Life paintings by Thomas Cole

Voyage of Childhood

Voyage of Youth

Voyage of Manhood

Voyage of Old Age

And finally, nominate a few other blogs and include links to them:

 Here are my nominees:

#1. Gardening with Juanita  gardeningwithjuanita.blogspot.com

#2. Sprout N Wings  http://sproutnwings.blogspot.com/

 

#3. Debbie's Knowledge Train  http://debbiesknowledgetrain.blogspot.com

#4. Hiawatha House  http://hiawathahouse.blogspot.com             

Feel free to paste this pretty award on your blogs to show that you’re held in high esteem. I hope I get more awards because there are other great bloggers I’d like to nominate.

Easter with the Grands

Wow, it is so much harder to try to get the perfect picture with 4 children.  I took 65 pictures and 7 videos.  One has to have a very broad definition of a good picture.  All 4 children will never look at the camera at the same time.  That's just impossible.  But we have fun trying.

And throw 2 ducklings into the mix.

Let's try Mom, Dad, three children and 2 ducklings.

Caroline and her parents

Now let's try something really hard;getting all 4 grandchildren in one picture. 

Linda, my neighbor, planted rye grass so it was perfect for the Easter Egg Hunt.  Even a couple of friends joined in the hunt.

I Couldn't Pay My Bills Cause the Goats Ate Them

Gypsy and Billy Shakespeare on the front porch

Well maybe I really can still pay my bills.  Actually, I pay most of them on the internet, but I still have them mailed to me.  





But I do have photographic proof that the goats chewed on the mail and scattered the newspapers that were collecting on my front porch. 

I guess I have given up on Dottie Belle getting pregnant.  She has been with Billy Shakespeare for 4 months and no results that I know of.  But of course he was just a baby, 2 months old, when I first put them together.  But this is Gypsy and she is 13 months old and my smallest doe, so I've decided to let her get acquainted with B.S.  I can't say there was any romance the first day.  But they have spend a lot of time deciding who is in charge.

How to Enjoy a Spring Shower?

How to enjoy a spring shower if you are a Rose Bud.

 

How to enjoy a spring shower if you are a Rose.

How to enjoy a spring shower if you are Kennedy Rose.