Ragdollcatlady's Just a Little Patch of Weeds Farm journal

[ragdollcatlady]

I can't believe 4 days have passed already....Macs baby was 6 days already so I HAD to do his disbudding and then I decided to do the other 2 boys too. The little girls horn buds seemed too small. I won't wait too long, but another day or 2 would be better. Spell is super watchful over her personal herd of babies. A strange cat came around the garage tonight and she sat up like a dog snorting at it! It couldn't get into her pen but she let me know it wasn't one of our residents.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

A few more snapshots of the kids

Big brother goes over and literally lays on top of everyone else.... Excuse me I'm just getting comfy!!!

The triplets

YAWN!!! life is soooo tiring being a baby!

This one is quite the boot kicker...kicks them every time I go out there!!! Just has to check me out!

Baby girl taste testing the camera strap...

Testing out moms breakfast....

 

[Goat Whisperer]

So stinkin' cute!

 

[OneFineAcre]

Very nice

 

[bonbean01]

 

[ragdollcatlady]

We just came back from Disneyland!!! Family vacation before the kids all take off for colleges in the deep dark wilds beyond our little town..... ooohhhh!!! Scary!

This was the best family vacation so far besides camping.... Vacationing with a family of adult children is much easier than vacationing with little kids! I felt sorry for all the exhausted, worn out, cranky little tikes we saw in strollers, napping on the ground, stepping on all the flowers, throwing tantrums and getting scolded..... all in the "happiest place on earth".

Thankfully my monsters were all really cooperative and fun to hang out with..... I never even noticed the eyes rolling or any embarrassing "I'm just here with my mom" looks...... They must've saved those for when I wasn't looking.

PICS:
Trying to get pics of the kids was nearly as easy as herding flying cats.....

Before they woke up....

Look out Cadbury Bunny...Have I got some ears to give you a run for your money!!!!

And the flying begins (even on sport mode, most of these came out blurry... speedy little buggers!)

Launch 2

Karate Chop 1

Prancing, Hopping.....

and Pirouette.....

Standard flying pose, feet up, back straight, ears back, look ahead ......

I missed the majority of the "scrambling" as they are just insanely fast!

 

[ragdollcatlady]

And just in case you have nothing better to do than look at more pics, a few of the herd out working on weed patrol

StinkerBelle and Jane

.........

Georgia

Little Italy

Kalamity Jane

Katastrophe Jane

Rigatoni

HazelNutzzy

Hazel, Bellini, Rigatoni, and Colbys back half

Brie

Peach Bellini

 

[ragdollcatlady]

So today we worked on the bucks. In anticipation of offering him for sale, I shaved Captain Jack. I wanted to get an updated pic for the add and for my website. I plan on trying to get pics next weekend, and I like about a weeks growth, so we will see if I have to shave him again later. We also did all 4 boys yearly vax, hooves trimmed and treated for lice.... YUCK!!! Tis the season for the poultry and goats to have issues with lice right now, so no surprises, just doing whats gotta get done so they can be bug free.

We used an old metal sheet (originally from an above ground pool) to corner off a section of the girls pasture for a mom and kid spot so I can move Spellbound and her personal herd of kids out of the kidding pen. Hopefully tomorrow evening we will be finished with the last of the netting and they can move outside.

Spells little moonspotted buckling is so in your face friendly, my DD asked me if he was a bottle baby? Nope, just loves attention. Flash Gordon, the black one is a little pig. He isn't all about the attention, because he tries to sneak back around mama for a quick drink while everyone else is getting snuggles...

Reese is about ready to pop. I saw white goo today and she could go as early as next weekend.....Day 150 would be the 16th, 145 would be the 11th, and if she chooses day 142 or so..... that would leave us around the 8th.... She should have at least 3 again.... and I hope they are all girls like last year!!! I need a little brown buckskin for my Djali Denali replacement (psssst...if you are taking requests, I would love some blue eyes too!)

StinkerBelle was actually bred 2 days before Reese (Reeses daughter from 2 years ago) so hopefully they will be OK together in the kidding stall. She will be a FF. Both were bred to Spartagus.

Collected the 9 lavender sebastopol goose eggs and put them in the bator today.... hatching goose eggs is more difficult than chicken eggs, so I am hoping that once I can confirm fertility, I would be so grateful if a couple of my scovies decided to sit and hatch them for me..... Once confirmed, I can offer eggs for sale. I know my new gander is getting some lovin cause the geese make such a ruckus about it all!!!

I am totally overrun with chicken and duck eggs right now... something like 6 flats in the fridge, not counting todays collection!!! I would hazard a guess of 3-4 dozen a day right now! But I can't incubate any more yet either because of the goose eggs needing higher humidity which messes up chick development! I totally need more bators!!!!!!

Oh hey!!! So I finally got to the bottom of why DH wants turkeys this year. I have been puzzling and trying to figure out the why...... Normally he might ask, 'so you planning on raising turkeys this year' and I may say yes or no, and what, when and why etc.... but this year he asked me about 4 times already and was even asking specifically about the heritage kind rather than the broad breasted.... Weird conversation for him to bring up, though I have talked it over with him plenty and we have had many turkeys of both kinds over the years. Usually the conversation would be like, 'how many birds do you have? and you are getting more what? WOW!That is alot of birds! Where are you going to put them?' I was wanting to get Lilacs and Sweetgrass specifically, but Porters was sold out of specific breeds ages ago so I thought I might just raise a few broads for this year and see about next years waiting list. So today DH mentions we need to get turkeys. I asked if he wanted to stop by the feed store to see if they came in yet, then remembered that he was wanting the heritage instead. He asked if they would all be dumb like Amelia and try to take the kids out of the yard, get them lost and stuck in tall weeds, etc.... "um yeah most likely..." she took good care of them, but wanted them to forage over many acres a day, but we only have a tad over 1, so she tried to take them to great beyond and never came back with the same number she left with. When we had taken and penned the babies, they survived well and were delicious! So he says well they should have their own pen where the babies can be safe and they can reproduce naturally... you know like the ducks do. Sure I say, that would be ideal.... Then the truth reveals itself, he says..."yeah so that way we can have something other than duck to eat!!!" The kids and I love muscovy and we eat it often enough, but truth be told we eat chicken more....just Friday, we had 3 beautiful roosters magically turn into some fantastic tacos! He is so funny! DD and I have started calling duck, "beef" because if I season it like beef (say in tacos), he doesn't know the difference...happily eats it without asking what it is!!!!

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Reese and Stinker are in the kidding stall. I may let them out for some sunshine later, but I had to bring them up....I was just too uncomfortable leaving them outside since it gets pretty cold at night and Reese has had long strings of white goo for several days now, has been talking in her "sweet mama" voice to Spellys kids and wanting me to stay with her. I hope she waits until Saturday night or sunday...better timing for me. My nigerians seem to prefer kidding at night which I prefer since I am now home at night.

I have 4 goose eggs developing veins !!!!

Since I can't use the bator for chicken eggs right now, I am going to leave the silkies to do their thing. I had a lone baby silkie hatch a few days ago so I may see if one of the 4H kids wants it for a pet. It looks like it will have a killer crest, but it had trouble hatching so it has curled toes.

We are supposed to pick up the kids market goats this weekend. They are pretty red wethers. I think one has a few small spots too.

 

[ragdollcatlady]

Nothing from StinkerBelle or Reese yet! They moan and groan with nearly every breath and can't seem to get comfy. If Reese didn't burp so much, I would be worried she might just fill up with gas and float away. She should have at least 3 in there but her poor tired lady bits surely can't hold out much longer. Those kids are just gonna fall out any minute! Kinda like when you forget to latch your purse and turn too fast, spilling 17 pens, 138 coins and "girl stuff" all over the floor in front of a whole line of impatient customers at the grocery store (I'm just sayin')... I mean, won't Reese be embarrassed when she turns too fast and her kids just fall out?!?!