This was one of the first sights that I saw this morning once my eyes could focus as I was waking up.


That would be Grace up on the ROOF of the old chicken coop (the new chick coop). I swear I think she is part gazelle the way that girl can jump. Once she figured out how to do it she was doing it all day.

Well, the fencing is complete. While the goats seem a little miffed at being confined, they can’t complain about being cramped. They have sunny spots and shady spots. They have rocks and hills. They have grass and mulch.


Where they took down some of the old fencing there were two cemented-in posts that I decided to put to good use. We cut them off down lower to the ground, and I made a play ramp for the goats. They LOVE it. I have never seen Princess Grace so excited. Tennessee Fainting goats, because of their myatonia, are rather stiff-legged. Because of that they are not big jumpers. Last night, however, she was jumping and kicking up her heels with joy at this new playground. It made me happy just to see her so happy. Today Evan and I went a step further and covered the board with roofing paper. The shingle material gives them great traction and will help to keep their hooves trim, kind of like a nail file would.


Princess Kate was so excited she frolicked around on the roofs of the old red coop too! This was highly unusual and frisky behavior for our usual shy and stiff Kate.

Just to show you how big Kiki and Grace have gotten, I’ll show you these pictures, once again proving that it is nearly impossible to get a good photo of baby goats. Or me for that matter. They are in constant motion.

The ‘silo’ chicken run between the goat house and chicken coop is under construction now. This will allow the chickens enclosed access into the goat house, but won’t allow the goats to get into the chicken coop (the chicken food makes them sick). I’m not sure that they’ll use this much is good weather, but it will be highly trafficked in the winter as they travel back and forth to lay their eggs in the goat house – which for some strange reason is much preferred to laying eggs in their nesting boxes.

The nesting boxes got a fancy valance I made. I’m hoping to entice them to lay more eggs in there and less in the goat house.

And even grumpy old Melina had a tender moment with the babies. The photograph is terrible, but it was so sweet I just have to put it here anyway. I’m almost ready to have them all start sleeping together. I think when I finally completely wean them, which should be within the next week or two, they’ll be ready to move in with the big girls.

The baby chicks are over a week old now and doing great. They seem to love being in the old coop, and are getting tiny wing feathers.


And this is what Evan and I are working on now:


They are jumping platforms. We’ve set posts into the ground at varying levels and I’ve screwed 3/4″ A/C plywood squared onto the posts. On top of that we’ll add some of that roofing paper for traction. In the middle of the platforms is an big old cable spool my sister got for me. It had a hole in the middle that I covered with plywood so nobody got a lef stuck in there. Hopefully they’ll have a lot of fun using them, and should provide exercise and entertainment in their new confined space.

I just don’t think life could get much better than it does here if you’re a goat.

I know. I haven’t been posting much. Things have been really busy around the farm and home. I promise if it’s not raining tomorrow I am going to take lots of farm photos so I can show you all of the changes. The new fenced area will be complete by tomorrow and, while the goats won’t be happy about no longer having the entire yard to roam free (and eat free) in, I’ll be relieved to not have to worry about the babies wandering off anymore.

The dreadful heat we’ve had around here for weeks is supposed to break tomorrow, so Evan and I have big plans to work outside building things.

I’ve also got some new linoleum prints to show you.

Good things come to those who wait.

My father used to say that to me all the time.

My favorite kind of mail arrived yesterday. While I was anticipating a call in the morning that my chick order had arrived at the post office, the call actually came at 9:30 PM from the next town’s post office, which I guess is a central processing center. Rather than let them sit all night after a hot day of traveling, I decided to run down and get them.

Bullet was SO excited to have new chicks. He loves to inspect them when they arrive and takes his care-taking responsibility very seriously. Somehow he drools and licks his lips, but has never ever hurt a chick, or chicken for that matter. Such a good boy.


Thankfully there was only one dead chick in the box. The last shipment I got there were more, and I had a lot of loss in the first 24 hours as well, so given how hot it had been yesterday I thought that was pretty good, but I was glad I’d gone down to Stamford to pick them up. Obviously I took the dead one out of the box before I took the picture. Poor thing.

I hadn’t really planned on having more chicks this summer, but I’ve experienced so much predator loss that I figured if I didn’t supplement with some new chicks come winter I’d have a pretty thin flock. Mypetchicken.com was having a great offer about a month ago – 25 all female chicks with free shipping for $50.00. That’s a pretty good deal, so I took it.

When you first put them into their pen, you have to dip their beaks into the water dish so they get a drink and know where the water is. It’s amazing to me every time how such a simple thing really does get everything off on the right foot. Soon they were all drinking and eating (they seem to find the food OK once they get the water thing figured out) and warming themselves under the heat lamp.

Now this is the first time IN TEN YEARS I have ever gotten a shipment of chickens in the warmth of summer. Because of that, I have always had a basement full of chicks for a month or so until they are sufficiently feathered out and can safely move to an outside coop. This time was going to be different. I was going to take advantage of the summer warmth and have a chicken free basement! I did put them into a temporary pen last night in the basement simply because I did not feel like working outside at 10:00 last night to get them settled. This morning though I moved them into the small brooder coop. By the end of the day though I had made the decision to move them into my now-empty old chicken coop. So after dinner Evan and I gathered them all up and switched them over. They seem quite happy out there now and when they are ready to go outside this coop will make it easier for them to do.


I have this buff cochin chicken that has been broody in the goat house for about a week now. It’s an odd situation though because she has no eggs under her. Normally when a chicken goes broody she’s not only busy laying her own eggs every day, but she’ll take any of her friends eggs that are willing to donate to the clutch as well. So this oddball has sat out in the goat house for days on nothing. She doesn’t come out to eat, and if you pick her up and bring her outside she gets very upset and goes right back into the goat house. I gave up a few nights ago and just let her sleep in there with Melina and Kate. They don’t seem to mind.

My friend Sue has had some luck in hatching chicks and sticking the just-hatched chicks right under a broody chicken. The chicken accepts the chicks as her own and everyone is happy. I thought I might try it with this chicken and see what happens.

Evan and I each grabbed 3 chicks and we tucked 3 under each wing. At first things seemed to be going pretty good. She kind of adjusted her wings a bit and seemed to be tucking them under her better. We sat quietly watching and waiting.


Then after a few minutes she reached under her wing, grabbed one by the leg with her beak and pulled it out from under her.

Things went downhill from there. She pecked her a bit and we scooped her up to safety. Then she dragged another one out and did the same thing to her.


At first we thought perhaps 6 was too many, as she seemed to settle down a bit with just 4 under her. Then after a bit she did the same thing. Grabbed two more and threw them out.


And once again, after she got 4 out she seemed to settle down with just 2 under her. No luck. A few minutes later she yanked the last 2 out.


Oh well. It was worth a try.

While I was delighted to find 3 eggs in the new nesting boxes today, the chickens are still completely infatuated with the goat house. The majority of daily eggs can be found in there. This one was in the corner of Grace and Kiki’s stall.


It’s like having an Easter egg hunt every day here at the farm! You just never know where you are going to find one.

I’ll leave you with a shot of the ladies enjoying some free ranging around the yard.

It is hard to believe how big baby goats can grow in just 12 days! Look at grace in that picture; she’s almost as tall as Princess Kate now! I swear I think they bred Cissy to a Gazelle instead of a Nigerian Dwarf goat too, since Grace can jump like you wouldn’t believe.

Everybody seemed genuinely happy to have me back home, and it was nice to see them all waiting at the door as late afternoon approached on Sunday and feeding time was near.


I was excited to find the new egg cartons I’d ordered waiting for me. I designed a label for the carton yesterday so they’ll be all set for sale at Free Range Friday. They are a 6-egg capacity octagonal carton for those people that just don’t use that many eggs.


And lots of progress was made on the goat house and chicken coop while I was gone, which I was very pleased to see. The rubber flooring and the cabinet was installed in the ‘human’ part of the goat house and it looks terrific. The cabinet still needs to be stained and a Formica countertop will be installed.


and the composite decking was installed too. I chose this multi-colored wood color and my father, a carpenter his entire life, thought that it was some fancy imported hardwood, so I guess it really does look pretty good.


Construction of the silo has begun. This and the roof are the last pieces that need to be completed on the two barns.


The fencing is really coming along as well. I wanted them to get a bit more done before I put up pictures though. It’s a really large area that will be fenced in, and I’m so excited to be able to have all of my animals in that large area and not have to worry about the babies wandering into something dangerous.

Now that the inside of the goat house is complete I felt it was time to “move in”. I hung the curtains that I’d found at a bargain price a few months ago, hung up a chalk board so I can write down supplies I need to buy, a clock, and I couldn’t resist the adorable battery-operated paper lanterns I found at Joann’s Crafts today for 70% off.




It’s all so wonderful, outrageous, fanciful and completely over-the-top terrific. My animals have no idea how lucky they are. Although I have to say that sometimes when I’m scratching Princess Kate and she’s looking into my eyes with those gorgeous yellow eyes she has, I think she knows. Remember, she came from a goat meat farm. I’m sure she’d heard stories.

Since I haven’t been at my farm in almost two weeks, I figured I might as well post something new here in this category, so here it is.

There are quite a few old establishments in town that have very cool signs. I have always wanted to photograph them, so yesterday and today, using my cool Instagram iPhone app, I did just that.

Aren’t they all fun? I’m so glad I finally took the time to do that.

Well, although I am DREADING going back home to the 100 DEGREE HEATWAVE they have been experiencing, I am VERY excited to see all of my animals – especially Kiki and Grace. I’m sure they have grown in the almost two weeks I’ve been gone. I’m sure there are lots of changes to the goat house and chicken coop as well with the construction. Updates will be coming on everything if I don’t die from heat stroke.

Jive’s nickname was B.A.D. She never was ‘bad’ — it was short for Big Assed Dunn. Her coloring was dunn and she has a really big rump.


She also had a very frizzy forelock that somehow, early on, got named “The Magic Pouff”. The kids even made up a song about The Magic Pouff.


The last two days have been pretty bad. Traveling to Wyoming is always a long day, but when you know you’re going out to put your horse down, it just can’t get much worse. Couple that with getting 2-1/2 hours sleep, forgetting your suitcase at your house and not realizing it until you get to the airport, delays on both flight legs, being seated apart from your children on both flights, and having someone so fat sitting next to you on the longest flight that you can literally feel the sweat through his shirt pressing against your arm that is flowing over into your very limited personal space. Just to top things off the girls’ suitcases didn’t show up in Jackson. Great.

Our first stop was to see Jive. Luckily Dr. Theo was outside with her when we got there. She looks great. She was happy to see us. I couldn’t help but hope that some miraculous event had occurred during our day of traveling and she was all better. As soon as she took her first step I knew nothing had changed. She had nerve blocks on her, but you can see how painful each step still is for her.

The girls and I promptly burst into tears when she took her first painful steps. We stayed with her for quite awhile. Her appetite is still very good, so we had her out eating some grass, talking to her and loving her. We promised Dr. Theo we would come back again in the morning to say our final goodbyes. He would not let me be there for the ‘actual event’. He wanted our last memory of her to be a pleasant one.

I was completely wiped out when we finally got home. I have now cried myself to sleep for 3 nights running like a heartbroken teenager. I forgot how exhausting that can be.

This morning we found Jive already out eating some nice green grass when we arrived. There’s absolutely no concern that she’ll run away in the condition that she’s in. If I thought her condition was bad yesterday, it had deteriorated by this morning. On several occasions you could see her back legs almost give out on her, and we thought each time that she was going down. She somehow managed to catch herself each time, but if yesterday hadn’t been enough to convince me that this was the right thing to do, (and it had), this morning sure was.

It was still awful.

Awful.

Awful.

Awful.

I can honestly say that she seemed to know what was happening and seemed thankful for it. She was as loving and sweet as always as we all gave her a final brushing so she looked her best when she went to meet Cissy up in Heaven.

She’s gone now I believe. Theo was supposed to do it sometime today after we left. We were all so upset that I couldn’t even walk into his office when we were done. We just got in the truck and left. I know he understands, and I’m sure I’m not the first person that’s done that.

I’m just glad her pain is over.

She was truly an amazing horse. Many people have wanted to buy her from me over the years. She had the sweetest temperament and was amazing to ride. Gentle enough to show Maia the basics of barrel racing last year,


Yet spirited enough to enjoy the thrill of working cows with me.


I’m sure that the love one has for their first horse is not unique to me. Unfortunately the bar was set pretty damn high with Jive and it’s hard to imagine every replacing her.

I was very, very lucky to have been able to share part of her life with her.

For the past few years this has been my favorite view; in the saddle, riding Jive on the endless trails in Wyoming.

On Friday night I got the devastating news that when I get to Wyoming I have to put Jive down. I don’t have a choice. I’m heartbroken.

I’ll tell you my understanding of what has happened, but I may have some of the facts wrong.

Jive sustained a terrible injury this winter. She must have reared up playing with Louie and got her front foot wedged in the metal fencing. She was like that all night. When she was discovered it took 3 of my friends to get her leg out it was wedged so tight in the fence. This is an injury that kills most horses, but Jive has been struggling to recover all spring. While she had spent the winter boarding with another friend, this spring she went back to board with my good friend Terry, who was not as pleased with her healing progress as she would have liked to be. Terry has been carefully monitoring her leg and was pleased with the progress of the healing.

I rode her just 3 weeks ago and was so pleased with her progress.

About a week after I left in June Terry said she started going really lame and was in pain. She thought it was an abscess, which Jive is very prone to getting, and brought her to our vets, Dr. Theo. No absess could be found, and no normal pain treatment seemed to be alleviating her pain. When Theo x-rayed her, he discovered that her coffin bone had somehow become badly deformed. Our best guess is that because of the injury this winter she was putting too much weight on her other, most abscess prone, front leg. Somehow this has degraded the coffin bone and created scar tissue. There is nothing that we can do about it. Orthopedic surgeons have been consulted. Theo is just keeping her pain-free with blocks until I can get out there.

I’ve cried a river of tears since Friday, but kept the news to myself for over a day. I couldn’t talk about it yet. It was my father’s birthday yesterday and I didn’t want to put a damper on the event for my kids. Although it is my policy to speak openly and honestly with my children, my good friend Lisa Adams just happened to do a blog post on her site just the other day on this very subject. Taking strength from that article, this morning I couldn’t avoid it any longer so sat the girls down to tell them. It was hard. We all cried. It makes me very sad that my son won’t get to see her before I have to do this, as I don’t pick him up from camp until this coming Saturday.

Terry advised me not to be there. She said it’s awful to witness. But I feel like I have to be there for her. I feel like I’ve let her down.

I have had so much death this spring on my farm already. I’m tired. I’m weary. I can’t believe I have to do this.

Tonight will be the ladies third night in the new coop. Now I’ve never said that chickens are all that intelligent. Entertaining, yes. Intelligent, probably not. They are also creatures of habit. Yesterday we had heavy rainstorms come through late in the afternoon. I thought this would be an easy way to get the girls to jump right on in to their new coop and get out of the rain. I locked the goats in their stalls and opened up the big door. Nope. They would rather stand out in the rain looking longingly at their old coop, and wondering why they couldn’t get in there anymore.

Me and my girls went over to a friends for dinner last night, and when we got home it was fully dark out. I went out with a flashlight to investigate the situation, and was pleasantly surprised that probably 18 of the ladies actually did go into the new coop when it got dark out and were happily settled on their roosts. The other 11 were huddled out in the pouring rain by the ramp to their old coop. I went and scooped them up in my arms, two by two, and put them into the new coop for the night.

Today was a beautiful day, but while my kids were down at the beach playing, I was picking up farm supplies to sustain everyone while I’m away in Wyoming for two weeks. I was so excited upon my return home to discover 2 eggs laid in the new nesting boxes! Yesterday I amused myself by watching the chickens frantically trying to get into their old coop to lay their eggs to no avail. At the end of the day I found over a dozen eggs in the dog house and 7 in the goat’s hay rack.


Tonight my friend and I again locked the goats in their pens (if I didn’t do this they would just jump into the chicken coop and eat the chicken feed, which upsets their stomaches). Then, in addition to the two ramps they can use to enter the new coop, we opened up the big door as well and sat back to watch. As the light began to fade, we were so excited to see that a fair amount of the ladies actually did go into the coop of their own volition. Some chose to use the ramps.


Some chose to go in through the big door.


and some we had to be a little more forceful with.


Over on the goat side of the farm, Grace came down with a bad case of diarrhea yesterday and Kiki wouldn’t drink her bottle for a full two feedings. This is completely normal for a goat of their age and I’d been anticipating it. As baby goats begin to eat more “adult” goat food and hay their rumen starts to develop (goat’s have four stomaches and this is called a rumen). This almost always triggers a bout of diarrhea. Happily, after only one treatment of the medicine they were feeling better and this by last night Kiki was again drinking her bottle enthusiastically. They were actually both always in high spirits, but they just had upset tummies. They will stay on the medicine for four days total just to make sure it doesn’t come back.

I gave them a bath yesterday afternoon for the first time. Not because they were dirty, but they just didn’t feel as clean as they did a few weeks ago. They’re goats. They live in a barn. I don’t know what I expect. Anyway, they felt so wonderful and smelled so delicious after I could have eaten them right up.


That’s about it for the farm today. We’re hoping for a full attendance roster at light’s out tomorrow night in the chicken coop.

While the new chicken coop is not completely finished yet, it was finally finished enough to move the ladies into it today.

As it started to get dark and they were all gathering closer to the coop, Maia and I scooped up as many as we could and put them in their new home. There were a few that I couldn’t catch, so I waited until it got dark and they were all settled into the old coop, and my friend Cyrena and I went in and plucked them one by one off their perches and put them into the new coop. With my solar light on, this is what they looked like as the last of them were settling into their new home.

I don’t expect to have a hard time transitioning the girls into this new coop. It’s so much larger and nicer than the old one. And because of it’s size, higher ceilings, and ventilating fan in the cupola, it is much cooler on a dreadfully hot day like today than the old coop is. However, I’ve gone through this enough times transitioning chicks from the brooder coop to the big coop to know what to expect: Tomorrow I’ll keep the old coop locked up. I suspect that at nightfall probably half of the girls or more will go into the new coop on their own, but the other half will fall asleep outside of the old coop because that is what they know. I’ll scoop them up and put them into the new coop, and every night there will be a few less to scoop up. In a few days they won’t even remember what the old coop was like.

Well, it seems like it has taken an awfully long time (uh, because it has), but the chicken coop, while not finished completely, is now ready for occupancy. Sunday I put straw in all of the nesting boxes, the roost was finished today, and Maia and I spread out pine shavings inside. The goats were much more fascinated with the new building than the chickens were.


And I’m not sure what this chicken thought of the new ‘viewing windows’ in the nesting boxes.


So tomorrow I’ll start to transition the girls over to the new house. It will take a few days I’m sure. I’m hoping to have them all happily moved by the time I leave to go back to Jackson on Monday.

In other farm news Grace and Kiki seem to be growing before my very eyes. They have finally gone from 4 bottles a day to 3, and I’m really hoping to get that down to 2 soon. They are eating much more real food like goat feed, hay and other goat foraging-type food, so all of this will help in the weaning process. Grace is now such a skilled counter jumper in the house that I’ve stopped letting them in as she leaps from floor to kitchen table over to counter like Spider Man, wreaking havoc everywhere she goes. Kiki just looks on like she’s either jealous or very disappointed in her sister’s bad behavior.

And the goat house got the upper board-and-batten siding on it’s front and back today! It looks so – finished – with it on!

Once they finish the siding the decking and roof are next.