Creek Water

This ditch in the field is still full of water, mostly melt water from last year, but also from all the snow across the paddock.

Apparently it also tastes better then the rain water in their bucket.

The End of Uggo

I finally caught the little bugger, and despite my son's suggestion that I "put him down, I don't want to eat him" it was the end of Uggo.

And I felt more then a little bad about it, but he had the awful cross-beak and wouldn't stay away from the ladies. We tried keeping him in the barn and it just didn't work. So instead of having a whole new generation with that terrible genetic problem (hopefully) I had to cull him.

I really like Joel Salatin's saying about how they have really great lives and just one really bad day.

Well Uggo got a great year, one most people (and definitely never a commercial hatchery) would have given him and then one really bad day.

For the curious my kids went inside with daddy so they didn't have to be around for Uggo's end, and we didn't eat him. Because of his cross-beak he had almost no weight, but I did keep some beautiful feathers.

Goats are Trouble

 Like trying to keep water in with a sieve... 

All my hard-work for naught!

Even weighed down a good portion of the back fence.

How to test your electric fence
with out an electric fence tester...

To goats the grass is always greener on the other side

Tired after a long day of breaking out

Heat in March

 We're all trying to cope the best we can with this heat upswing. In June 25C wouldn't be a big deal, but we had snow on the ground last week & we're all sweating!!

Trying to find someone to come shear Billy & Andy really soon. If it gets cold again I'll make them sweaters, but for now the poor things are just dieing in the heat!

Andy made a new friend

Steak takes a dip

The ponies take a nap

Even Yakey has given up trying to escape the field

Steak Gets his Ear Pierced

My poor spoiled boy had a rough day

All cattle across Canada need to have an RFID tag in their ear before they can be transported to slaughter, this is so that the plant can monitor exactly where the cattle came from in case of a contagion.

It's easier to do the calves when they're younger... we didn't. They're quite expensive because they start in packs of 25 and it just wasn't top of our list, learned our lesson! (on the plus side we now have tags for the next 10 years unless we buy more cattle...)

We had the farmer we bought the cows from come by and give us a hand and things actually went very smoothly. My husband even got his hands dirty with a little real farm work!

Steak decided down was the direction to go
making the tag really easy for the newbie

First I got Steak back in his stall (he's been out in the sacrifice paddock) which was pretty easy, I just rang the dinner bell. Then we got his halter on, and by "we" I mean hubs & I stayed on the safe side of the walls while the farmer roped steak!

I don't want to suggest Gertie has an emotional
response on being able to touch Steak again,
she is just a very good moo-momma

With a quickly little ear pierce he was back on his feet none the worse for wear.

We're pushing his date back two months to catch a ride with the farmers calves, and I'll explain more about our grand plans for the summer later. 

This went on for quite awhile if you can
see how wet Steak is

Steak has been separated for 4 weeks, and as we've moved him into beet pulp in the evening as well I'm confident he's finally weaned off mom so this morning I let him back in with the other cows.

This was after conferring with the farmer that there was little chance of him injuring any possible calves*, as long as he doesn't go searching for milk again we'll all get along just fine.

*Next year I am WRITING THINGS DOWN STRAIGHT FROM THE FARMER!!! Our cows should be calving between 1 week - 4 weeks from NOW. So more restless nights for me waiting & worrying but I was so way off with their possible due dates... SO off (been waiting since January!!). 

Melted Snowmen

Mine we're nearly as pretty as the originals: http://www.crazydomestic.com/2010/12/melted-snowman-cookies.html

But the good thing about cookies is that it doesn't really matter what they look like, they're still very yummy!

Recipe was really easy to make, even the decorating was not difficult at all. I would actually try melting the snowmen heads on top of the cookies next time and cut out that step. As long as you watched them carefully I think I can do it.

I also want to add a touch of orange or lemon to the cookie base I used next time. They're really yummy but very plain.

Moulting Ducks

 Not the sexiest time of year.

Just don't tell Louie that!