wintertime and the living is breezy

a wise sweater-chop supervises

goose ballet

strider!

annie warms up inside

junior is ready for rabbit season

tito flirts with camera

herschel fully recovered from rehab

a rare shot of camera-shy eunice

snow day.

warning! dexter spoiler alert!

little bit turns one.

yes, our wild and crazy black mouth cur pup turned one yesterday. although we spoiled her with a special peanut-butter filled bone and an overflowing chow hound, i think the best present of all was the weather. sunny, sunny, sunny, with a chance of more sunny!

biddy's birfday bone

"lil'ann, wanna see my bone?"

"lulu, i got a new bone!"

"want it? can't have it!"

"haha! i will steal all the chow while the dogs fight over bones!"

i guess we raise hams????

i have come to the realization that my animals possess a sixth sense when it comes to paparazzi. i whip out a camera and they instinctively turn their heads and pose.

lady dinky

the boot

choppy cheese

"weddy for my cwose up"

even the goats do it!

hot dog!

today was a scorcher. the first of this year. heat index near 100. and uncompromising humidity. the dogs have found creative ways to cool off. while i long for a pool. or a margarita. or both.

jeliza-rose finds carport naps helpful

choppy gets a tasty beverarge

then crawls under the saturn shade

and practices his mechanic skills

delray finds flashing to be quite refreshing

while little bit finds solace in making other dogs hotter

cherry yarn.

just finished a new skein of yarn today. still experimenting with colors. i used black cherry kool-aid and some red & blue baking sprinkles for this one. mohair compliments of bianka the goat. i can't believe how well her fiber accepts color. so vibrant. and not to mention, oh so soft.



and now for some gratuitous doggie pix...

mole patrol

razor guarding the laundry

lazy annie

positive thinking.

wish i had something good to post. but things have been not so pretty on the farm. stressful is more like it. winter has been rough. most of the problems revolve around the GLOPs (our guardian dogs). their goat hair-pulling escalated into physical harm on our older goat, bernadett. it breaks my heart to see bernie in pain. but i'm hoping and praying and doing everything possible to rehabilitate her. she spent the night in the house (and i babied her by giving her lots of wheat bread, alfalfa hay, and vitamin water). we gave her a shot of penicillin, some aspirin, and a dose of probiotics and wrapped up her wounds. today i moved her to an isolated kidding pen in the barn. she seems more comfortable outside. and tonight, i'll probably put her daughter bianka in the pen with her to keep her company and warm.

so, what do we do about the dogs? we are going to have to keep them separate from the goats during the day. their chewing on the goats is actually common behavior for livestock guardian dogs of their age. and most people don't allow young dogs 24 hour access to goats. we gave it our best shot, and it didn't work. so this weekend we are going to begin fencing in our front yard (which is over an acre). the GLOPs will be in the front yard during the day, and sleep with the goats at night. fencing the yard was something we wanted to do anyways so that our indoor dogs could be outside off-lead.

in the meantime, i have to keep lil'ann on a lead during the day. she is the instigator. she seems to have an irresistible desire to "play" with the goats. she's not very pleased about being in "time-out" but it's better than the alternative (giving her up or her accidentally killing a goat).

i love bernadett so much. she has so much personality. i need positive thoughts right now to help get her through this tough time. we need her here.

bernadett

deficient dogs, braying burros, and one cured chicken.

our GLOPs have been bad. well, actually only one GLOP, lil'ann. she's going through a very destructive adolescent phase. you know the dogs that pull all the stuffing out of toys and scatter it across the lawn... well, imagine if they had a furry goat to play with instead. i believe she learned this horrible habit when patrik was sick and his hair was falling out. just recently, she started doing it with our healthy goats. regular scolding has not helped. neither has a tea tree no-bite bitter spray. it is very stressful on the goats, obviously. and very stressful on jeliza-rose (her sister) who finds this behaviour very upsetting. i have been able to salvage most of the hair but we are afraid one of the goats will get seriously hurt. so drastic times, seek drastic measures. a shock collar and a video camera have been obtained. i've been spying on her for the past few days from the comfort of my living room. so far, she has been absolutely perfect. maybe she figured it out. maybe her phase ended. maybe it was the full moon. regardless, i'm waiting here inside with my remote control just in case.

meanwhile, cripple creek needs a new name. she is doing brilliantly. and has grown most of the feathers back on her head. the weather has been exceptionally warm so she has been enjoying being out and about.

and stella loves to holler. especially when there is the possibility of food involved. today's surprise afternoon carrot snack was loudly received.

out for a stroll with cripple creek

oh my god! carrots!

a word from the GLOPS.

hewwo. dis is wil'ann. i was given puhmishun to make an announcement. furst off, GWOPS wuv snow. it's twoo. we do. it doesn't bodder us at awl. secondwy, our twin pygmy goats viowet & daisy just turned one yeewrs ode dis week. happy burfday cwackah goats. we awso hurd dat some baby chickuns waz hatched. i tink wike sevunteen of 'em or someting.

dat's my sistah jahwiza-woses finding out how many chickuns waz borned.

awso newswuthy... owiver da beagle waz adopted by a nice wady named patty. he moved to da city wast night to wiv at hiz new fowevah home. and finawy, we haven't escaped in monfs. da new ewectric fence is a weel doozy. oh, and baby snakes stinks.

stinks!

it's raspberry harvesting time...

feeding the GLOPs.

i am dedicating this post to the spectacle that is "feeding the puppies." it seems crazy to still call them puppies. they are big girls now. but i can't quite call them dogs. doesn't seem right. they aren't full grown. and they haven't even had their 1st birthday party yet. they prefer to be called "the gorgeous ladies of pyrenees" or GLOPs. so, GLOPs it is.

the GLOPs, unlike all other barn animals here, do NOT graze on pasture. they try it every so often to see what all the fuss is about. but they prefer diamond dog food. it helps them grow "fat and sleek." however, even though the pups don't like grass, goats LOVE dog food. they love any food, really, if it makes noise and comes out of a bag or a scoop or a dish. ditto the pigs. and the cows. and the donkey. and the llama. they hear the food hit the pan and things get crazy. so, to keep the chaos under control, the dogs get to eat behind closed gates. chaos still ensues, but it is controlled chaos.

who want's some GLOP food?

we do!

no excuses.

the sky opened up. rains came and washed away the hot. i was actually cold last night. so i should write, right?

first off, donkey is still pregnant.

secondly, i am at war with bugs. everyday a new insect invades my garden. the latest, colorado potato beetles. they must be terribly disappointed. i am nowhere near colorado. and i don't grow potatoes. still they like to graze on tomato plants. i just can't believe the damage that has been done to my plants. luckily, the bugs only like unripe fruit. so the tomatoes that made it past the cute little baby green stage, have survived. and i do believe i will partake of my first red sun-riped tomato this evening for dinner.

the puppies have graduated from being confined to the barn at night to full-time free range 24-hour guardian dogs. they have been doing a great job. barking, growling and sounding scary. keeping our field free of coyotes during the wee hours. needless to say, they don't sleep much at night. poor things are just downright pooped during the day. but we are very proud of them. our goats now get to graze at their leisure. not just when we open the barnyard gate. freedom seems to make for happier healthier animals.

cabbage loopers like brocolli

future dinner

oooh, the damage done


what guardian dogs do during the day


happy freedom

mineral area farm.

we live smack in the middle of mineral area, an area of missouri known for it's mining towns. so it only seemed appropriate to supplement our animals' pasture diet with some well needed mineral blocks.

no stella! you can't eat the whole thing!

lil'ann loves her salt.

so does bianka!