Barn

The barn is filled with lots of fun things. There are chickens to pet and love on.



I couldn't get one of him "rocking" or bouncing the chicken. That part just didn't show up. Maybe mommy needs to let him take a chicken home to "baby" while she baby's the new baby. His cow granny had a pet chicken one time.


If you run out of chicken energy you can always pet er pull the goats ears.

If that isn't enough then join in Goat milking 101!

MN is teaching a friend K to milk goats.

Last I heard K had it down great! They are happily milking goats and chattering and ....... I guess they will come in some time to eat.

Sadness and Excitement....

We lost a dog today, an old well loved dog, Shilo. We aren't even sure how old he was. He has been having hip trouble for a bit and just showing his age. He started going down this weekend and lost the battle today. As my dh said it seemed he just lost the will to live. He was our pet me dog. At his biggest he was about 150 LBS. of love! He came as a puppy that could fit through the 4x4 (for just a few days). My DS who brought him home said, "This is a GUARD dog, NOT a pet me dog." Funny he forgot to tell Shilo about it. He was always the biggest pet me dog we owned.

As I was driving around in the Ranger having a cry and talk to God about loosing Shilo I discovered a nice size bull snake coming OUT of the barn. I sat and watched him a bit, just enjoying the distraction. Then I went and yelled at kids to come see. They went back and got a camera so we could have memories of the first snake of the season. This was a very slow moving snake that we got lots of pictures of. I did stir him up enough to get him to coil and hiss. A bull snake gets it's name because it looks much like a rattlesnake and when disturbed, sounds almost exactly like the rattle of a rattle snake. For those that are a bit squeamish about snakes, pick your feet up now.........

As he slithered by some 4x4's I got a guesstimate of how big he was. As his head went past the last 4x4 I marked which 4x4 his tail was on. Then I counted 17 squares. That is a snake about 68 inches long or 5 ft 8 inches. Not the biggest one we have found around here. We had three in the barn a few years ago that were just under 8ft. I know this because they were laying stretched out beside an 8ft piece of paneling. :)

Pictures!

OK for those that get ice and snow a lot this isn't a big deal, but here it is.

Since I had the camera out I decided to get barn pictures too.

This is Daisy's new calf. He is less than a week old. Pretty isn't he. Think STEAK!

Life goes on in the barn, eggs get laid, goats get fed......

I saved the best for last................. Cowgranny these are for you!

I was told to Blog!

So I will blog!

Lots of stuff going on. First prayers for my DIL that is due any day. She ended up in the ER last night. She hadn't been able to keep anything on her tummy since the night before. They gave her a couple of IV bags to re-hydrate her and some meds for her migraine that started after the tummy bug. DS said she was feeling no pain when he brought her home. She is really hoping to have this baby before the first. He son that lives with his dad in KS is here for the "event" and Christmas. She doesn't want him to miss it. That on top of just ready!

Our freezer is taking shape. It now has a freezer wall that separates the freezer from the frig part.

This is the few from the pantry door. The first room is the frig. The second picture is from the freezer. It gives you an idea of how big this is! Next step is working on the doors so that they work right. Then he has to get electricity back there. It is as far as possible from our main electrical box.

I wanted to share a picture of our tom cat. This is Rambo. Yes, he does live up to his name. As you can see he is a rather large cat. I don't know how much he weighs. My dh was tossing him out the other night and figured he was around 20-25 lbs. I know he is HEAVY. If he had a tail wonder how big he would look. I have "measured" him when he is on the floor using the 12 x 12 tile as my ruler. When he is stretched out he is almost 2 tile long. He can put his chin on the side of the bathtub without stretching.

We have lots of lambs now. They are all black and white or white. I don't think I have any totally black ones yet. I gave up keeping count.

I took my camera yesterday to feed since I knew

I had new babies. As they see me drive up here

they come.

As you can see some of the sheep and goats are more than willing to climb right in the ranger

with us for a bite of feed.

This is one of last years bottle babies. She doesn't know she is a goat. She would probably ride in here if I let her.

Here are my new babies. I am going to watch the smaller one to make sure the bigger one doesn't push it off to much and it doesn't get enough milk to grow well. If I think that is happening we will have a new bottle baby. I know that will break hearts around here.

We have been blessed with some awesome sun sets and sun rises. I seldom get sun rise pictures because the view from the house isn't that great. The view from the house at night is incredible! Here is one of the 10 or so pictures I snapped last night.

Tonight we plan on going in to town and looking at Christmas lights. It should be fun. I may try taking my camera and seeing if I can get some pictures. Tomorrow we are having my BIL and SIL for the day. Yea! We are going to keep it simple and just visit. I wouldn't be surprised if BIL doesn't have to get involved in freezer work. :) The weather should be beautiful! We (I) plan on someone grilling chicken on the grill. Our highs will be in the low 70s.

My son, DIL and grand son will be traveling tomorrow if their plans work out. They are heading to visit their grandparents then on the next day to AR to her parents for a few days. This is usually a slow time for the truck so they are using it to show of their son.

As usual when I start blogging I get caught up in it and then am late to the barn. I am off here to go see what surprises await me there. All be blessed!

LOL I hit post as I walked out the door. It didn't post so back from chores no surprises.

What I am doing instead of getting ready for Church...

Yesterday we got a new dinning table! Yea! This is our old table.When it was a circle it was a good sturdy table, but add 3 leaves so we could all fit under it like this and it was much like setting at a see-saw. I have been looking for a couple of months for the "perfect" table at my low end garage sale price. We found this solid oak table and 6 solid oak chairs in the paper. It was over what I wanted to pay, but it is also a very very well built table and chairs. I was excited because it had 2 huge leaves. Making the table 9 ft. I can use the 9 ft table, but not and cook at the same time in the kitchen. One less leaf allows me to have 8 chairs under the table and room to move around the kitchen.

I did splurge and buy material for a table cloth and a new plastic cover to go over my material. I had wanted to use something fall like, but didn't find any that floated my boat. I did find John Deere that I loved! What do you think of the finished product?

Now on to what I am doing today. I decided to take the camera as I went to do chores. I am getting quite a few lambs. They are so cute. Here are a few pictures of them. Yes, they are just as soft as they look. If you look at the spots you will see that they are all different lambs. I have lost count of how many now 10-12. Most are spotted, I think 3 are white and one is white with a black head.

After I fed my sheep I went to the barn to milk. Is this a bunch of beggars or what? All but one cow is a milk cow. Most are not being milked right now. The blond one is due soon. The others have orphan calves on them. The horned one is our one and only beef cow we have left. The donkey isn't sure if she is a cow or donkey.

This is the one milk cow I am milking. How is this for milking the lazy way? She isn't giving a lot of milk. She is giving about a gallon a day plus 2 coke bottles for the bottle babies. It is keeping us in milk and sorta keeping a friends little ones in milk part of the time.

Now I saved the cutest for last. Tell me doesn't this sleeping armed baby look just like is dad? Don't you love it? He is crazy about guns already. He knows exactly what sound a gun makes.

Mainly a barn ramble

First I want to share this grand baby picture! See the shiner?

It really wasn't a shiner. It is chalk! Some how he managed to get it on that one area of his eye. The kids spend hours playing with sidewalk chalk on the porch. I am sure he some how put his face in a chalk picture as he went scooting off the porch. That is his new thing. He doesn't go to the steps. He lays down and scoots off. The problem is our porch is tall so he has about a foot drop after he scoots as far as he can before gravity takes over.

I sorted my sheep and brought them to the front side this weekend because I knew the were close to lambing. I just didn't know how close.

This is one of a set of twins. The other one and mama didn't want their picture taken. :)

Here is what happens when I ring the dinner bell.

This is a close up of my assorted sheep and goats. They are waiting on me to pour feed out for them. I have every color and just about every assorted breed you can buy here in W. Texas. None are "quality" or pure bred stock. They are gentle and hardy.

All of these but two should be expecting. They are the daddies to all the new babies. You can see the billy in the center of this picture. He is the red blob.

Today I am making bread. I haven't found the time or energy to do it in a week or two. I know that everyone will be thrilled to have fresh bread instead of crackers with meals.

Monday night when we came in from Junction I really didn't want to fix a meal so I cheated. I fixed biscuits and gravy and called it supper. Kids thought they had gotten a treat beyond words. It was quick and easy!

Yesterday I made stroganoff out of left overs. I had potato soup that needed using, the rest of the gravy and some mushrooms. I cooked some parsley and garlic noodles added the warm gravy mixture. Tossed a couple of table spoons of sour cream in and called it lunch. It was a hit! I guess I need to find something to really cook for supper tonight. I have avoided cooking all week it seems. :) We are getting low of freezer food, mainly beef so I am having to be more creative.

Monday

Here are the promised pictures of the goat getting ready for her big day!

First the goat, Angle gets a touch up coat of nail polish on her horns and toes.


It is 6:30 AM and about 40 degrees.

Ribbon time! This was a labor of love for sure! Each bow is held on with a rubber band.

Sale time!

This is the lady from Rehab learning about MN and the fact she wanted to do this.

Here she is showing off her goat in the auction ring. There were lots of laughter and smiles at her goat. Junction at one time was the Angora goat capital of the World. This sale barn has sold a lot of angoras, but seriously doubt one as fancy as this.
MN has such a serious face here. She told me later that when she came out and everyone was making a big deal and taking pictures it made her uncomfortable. "Mom, that's not why I gave them Angel. I wanted to help people."

This is MN showing the goat to her new owners. In front of the lady in blue are two cute little girls about 2 and 4. They are the new owners of Angel. Angel brought in $95 for Rehab. This is a maybe $20 goat.