Just kidding around!

I have a very tolerant donkey!

Hope all of you who celebrate it had a very nice Christmas!

Esme

Saul

Finney

Poor things! I made them dress up!

I've been on edge for days, because last Tuesday, Penny the pregnant goat seemed to lose her "plug" and start displaying some early signs of  "I am ready to kid!" Her ligaments all loosened up around her back end. So we brought her (right) and Genny (for company) into the barn.

Penny (right) has been stressing me out every since.

Genny is left, Penny (preggars) is right.

Penny on left, Genny on right.

This was a few days earlier.... wide load! Finally got that stupid ear tag out.

"I'm not pregnant!"

"Why do I have to be in here?"

Aaanyway, no kid(s) yet. Spoke to the vet today, because Penny has also got a cough so we've put her on penicillin. Apparently birthing is stressful and sometime animals (cows in particular) develop pneumonia when brought in the barn, and God knows we don't want that! He also said that they can take up to a week to give birth after the ligaments soften!

My friends who know more than me have all confirmed that I'm not imaging all this and she actually will give birth soon. Meanwhile, we haven't been getting a lot of sleep and I obsessively run down to the barn to check on her to make sure nothing's happening. I have been waiting since Tuesday for Gordon to set up the baby monitor thing he bought but it ain't happening, which is too bad, because it would save me a lot of trips to the barn.

But Emerson is not perturbed...

Not one iota!

Send good vibes for an uncomplicated birth sometime soon. I'm sick of worrying! We only figured out she as pregnant a few weeks ago when her udder starting swelling. She apparently got knocked up sometime before she arrived here at the end of August.

Happy Boxing Day!

Furry weekend

I bring to you...

...a donkey felfie! And my damn pre-Christmas cold, which fortunately you can't catch through the internet!

And a pony felfie! (selfie with farm animal = felfie!) Finney is all fluffy for winter.

Saul. We've had weirdly warm weather this month. Got a dusting of snow yesterday, but it's supposed to be 15C on Christmas eve, so no hope for a white Christmas. It almost always has been a white one since we moved here. Bummer!

The boys, wondering if I might have treats.

And everyone piled into the warm basket of laundry yesterday...

Mootie, Pip and Archie!

Mootie didn't quite fit, so she performed her death-defying balancing act.

Meanwhile, Emerson was happy to nap on the bed!

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Yes, pigs DO fly!

So, we've been having work done on our granary, including a new roof. When I got home the other day, there was a Christmas card in my mailbox that said "Merry Christmas from your favourite elves! Hope you like the gift!"

But I couldn't see a gift anywhere. Looked all around... nothing. So off I went to the barn to do chores. And when I came up the steps from the lower barn half an hour later, I finally saw it...

THE MOST AWESOME GIFT EVER!!

Our very own pig weathervane! Luc, who does lots of work here for us (including the granary) found this, and he and Shawn (who looks after our garden and also helps out Luc) went in on it, and waited until I was out for the day to install it on our new granary roof.

What they didn't know is that I have wanted a cool weathervane since we bought out first house in 1996. And this one is PERFECT! The pigs' pen is in the old carriage shed attached to the back of the granary. Now they have a flying pig to overlook them in their pasture!

Shawn took the above pic while he was on the roof installing the weathervane.

I feel pretty lucky to have such kind and thoughtful people in my life. We just love this.

And here's a pic of Tristan, who thinks the cats get way too much attention. But he does like a good cat bed...

Oh yeah, Gordon fell off his doofus horse Sandy at our riding lesson last night! He's fine. She tripped (she's a klutz like her daddy!) and he sort of slithered off with a soft thud. I was riding ahead of him at the time and just saw him hit the ground. He was fine and got right back on again. It has been quite the week with Sandy... first she tosses us out of the cart at driving camp, now she's dumping Gordon!

I think he would have stayed on were his seat just a little more developed. She went down on her two front legs when she tripped, and Gordon lost his balance.

But we still love her! She is just four years old and still learning. :)

Oh boy... or girl!

Sigh...

Apparently Penny got herself knocked up before she arrived here at the end of August.

She started bagging up and bulging out last week. My friend who breeds Boer goats think she's due in about two weeks... or maybe sooner. Maybe a Christmas kid... or kids. She has bagged up more since I took this photo a few days back.

I'm having a heart attack because I know zilch about kidding! However, I am learning and am also going to talk to the farm vet soon. When the time gets closer (if I can tell, geez!) I will start bringing her and a friend into the barn at night in case baby is born then.

If you'll remember, Ophelia gave birth to her piglets on Easter Sunday in 2014. I am really hoping this goes as smoothly as Ophelia's deliveries did. I have a lot to learn in a short amount of time!

Meanwhile...

...it is so mild and muddy here, I am having to clean everyone's hooves thoroughly every day. Finney is very good now about having his hooves picked out! Saul the donkey, however, is magnificent! I don't even need to tie him up, and he starts lifting his foot for me as soon as I touch his leg, then stands perfectly still while I clean out his foot. I have such good animals! :)

Meanwhile, in the house...

...Annuk was keeping an eye on things!

I put that china rooster up there so the cats wouldn't knock it over. Sigh....

Yet another farm bromance!

What have we here?

Why it seems that Saul has more than just one kitty buddy!

Keaton seems to have taken a shine to him too!

It's okay, boys. What happens in the stable, stays in the stable!

Unless, of course, I share it on the internet...

Driving weekend!

This weekend we are doing horse driving camp at the place we take riding lessons. It was tons o' fun today, with some drama thrown in.

This is our Fjord horse Sandy being a very good girl. Let's just say that at the end of the day, I gave her a new nickname: Satan.

Harnessing is fun. I didn't know what to do with the bit I was holding here.

We finally got everyone hooked up, though! 

Sandy was driving like a dream.

Oh yeah, tons of fun.

Then we hooked her up to the two wheel cart...

Aaand we all went outside!

Things were going just fine...

 

See how happy we are? Then Sandy spooked, spooked again, and took off. Then she kicked back at the cart and freaked even more.

After maybe a minute of us careening around the field, the cart finally turned over and out we went. The funniest part was that I had my iPhone in one had and refused to let go of it! It was still in my hand when we hit the ground.

We're fine and so is Sandy, but the cart will need some repairs...

The spokes exploded!

And there was some bent metal.

After our instructors finally caught Sandy, they wanted to work her a bit more in the field with a little sled thing. But she took off again, into the woods!

The horses back at the farm were all staring, wondering who the crazy horse was!

Rose caught her and walked her back...

... and then she got driven inside for another half an hour until she smartened up. More training to come! We're fine if a bit muddy, and the cart can be fixed. Sandy just got spooked and we couldn't stop her.

Tomorrow we're going back for more! There will be a team of Shire horses to drive and a team of miniature horses, plus we'll do more work with Sandy. I can't wait! Glutton for punishment...

Last night, I had a great riding lesson with my horse Roo...

We both got pretty sweaty! That's my new-to-me saddle. It is SO comfortable.

Hope you are all having a good weekend that is less eventful than ours was today! :)

Tough day for the goats, but the donkey is smiling!

Sorry for not posting sooner... the past week was nuts. Speaking of nuts...

Poor Kevin and Geoff were finally neutered today. In the above pic, the vet was giving Kevin his anaesthesia, and my friend Luc was helping hold Kevin still while the co-op student watched the back end.

It didn't take long for the drugs to take effect. I learned today that goats are very sensitive to these drugs and can even have a bad reaction and die. Fortunately Kevin and Geoff came through with flying colours.

I will spare you the gory pictures I took!

Geoff was propped up against a bale of hay while he comes out of it, so that he stayed upright. He would have been prone to bloat if he'd been laying on his side.

Bambi also got knocked out and had her horns trimmed. (Sorry for the blood in the photo on the boys' "operating table"!)

Her last owner debudded her improperly, so her horns continued to grow, curling around into her head. She will have to have them trimmed periodically for the rest of her life.

Saul, who is already gelded, was just glad it wasn't his turn today!

Kevin and Geoff are staying in the box stall to heal up for the next few days, and I have to give them a daily shot of penicillin. I am getting pretty good at giving needles to animals!

Hope you're all having a great week. Better than Kevin and Geoff's, anyway!