Family Arrangements

 Nathan's family left last night and the house and farm sure feel empty without them! We had a great visit and I think they probably got the best October weather possible with only a few days of rain.

Between both of our families visiting we got the greenhouse all cleaned up (but we'll miss them all for more than just their working abilities!):

Our house might be feeling empty...but Thomas and Zeb's isn't. The girls have moved in!

I guess Thomas is making them feel welcomed? He sure was excited to see them...

Poor Zeb is left out. We want to put him with the goats but he wasn't happy about being away from Thomas on our first attempt. We'll have to make the change gradually. 

The goats were happy to munch on some plants that we pulled from the greenhouse. We may have made a mistake giving them the brussels sprouts plants - it seems that they can be bad for goats and May wasn't feeling very well yesterday or this morning. I don't think they're *too* bad though (unlike the rhododendrons).

Squishy has officially abandoned SoZH at night. I guess 'abandoned' is a bit harsh since he is old enough to fend for himself now. She goes up to her roost and he stays on the ground. Last night I brought him inside to sleep in a box since it was so cold....

Ryan hopes you had a happy Halloween! 

Thomas the Ramming Ram

 Nathan got published! http://www.powerhousegrowers.com/aquaponics-a-diy-approach-to-organic-gardening/
Look at how fast SoZH is growing! I guess it's to be expected based on the size of his dad...here he is snoozing on my knee in the sun:

He still isn't quite fully feathered and he likes to stay warm however he can.

I think Squishy is getting tired of having him cramp her style...I took over chick warming duties for a bit.

The dogs have been very helpful with chores lately.

Rearranging the wood chip pile:

Speckles helped, too. Her foot is finally looking much better! Took long enough...

Abby helping to clean the chick coop.

The goats have been helpful, too. 

Cleaning some fall brush.

Looking hopeful as I walked by with a handful of kale for dinner (our dinner...but they love it).

I noticed that they need their hooves trimmed so we'd better do that soon. I would hate to start having hoof problems with them! Oprah and Amelia (previously "no name")'s feet are looking good. They're in the electronetting paddock that we've been moving around the orchard so they can eat the nice grass there. Once they've spent another week or so back there, it's date time with Thomas! 

Thomas has been getting antsy. First he escaped from his paddock through a gate that he's always pushed on (we've since fixed it). Nathan came out of the greenhouse and found Thomas just standing loose out there, looking a bit confused. Thomas converts any emotion into the same action: ramming. Hungry? Ram. Thirsty? Ram. Curious? Ram. Annoyed? Definitely ram. I ran to get some grain while Nathan distracted Thomas to keep him away from Nathan's mum and grandma who were sitting nearby. You have one guess as to what Thomas did when he saw me coming with a bucket of grain. Yep....I dropped the bucket and hopped over the fence into the horse paddock. Luckily Nathan is braver (we'll call it brave) than I am and he managed to call Thomas back into his paddock.

Then, yesterday evening, while Nathan was at work, we noticed that the horses and cows were all in with Thomas and Zeb. Our landlord noticed first and commented that it was nice that we were letting the animals all intermingle. Nope, not on purpose...the fence at the back had come down. I started running around the outside of the paddock so that I could get to the opening to try and call the horses and cows through. Our landlord headed right into Thomas' paddock. I warned him that Thomas has been pretty 'ram-my' lately but he said that he'd gone in recently without any problems. He got to the broken fence first and Nathan's dad and I started pushing the horses and cows that way (we were along the edges of the paddock - easy escape from Thomas plus he doesn't seem to notice that you're in there if you stay on the edge), so that after they went through, the fence could be patched up behind them. At first, Thomas and Zeb just stayed off to the side away from the action....but suddenly Thomas must have felt some emotion and you can guess what happened next. For a big ram on stick legs he sure can move...he took off right towards our landlord, who was holding the fence open in the middle of the field. I have never seen someone climb an 8 foot deer fence so quickly. I wouldn't even call it climbing...it was more like his legs became springs. One second he was on the ground and the next he was up the fence, straddling the brace. I'm pretty sure I heard a shriek first, but in case he reads this blog we'll say that he jumped in manly silence. Even though I realize that Thomas could really hurt someone...I was laughing too hard to do much and wondering whether filming with my phone would be appropriate. Eventually we got it all sorted out but wow...it is worth having a ram just for the life-endangering entertainment value.

Island Hopping and our Feast

We've been so busy relaxing with Nathan's parents and grandmother that I haven't had a chance to update the blog! They got here last Wednesday and my parents and sister arrived on Friday for a big belated thanksgiving feast. 

Bright green home grown beans and brussels sprouts - boiling before getting put into this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/brussels-sprouts-gratin-recipe/index.html

Yum.

My thanksgiving plate. I have a lot of practice at piling my thanksgiving plate for a maximum 1st helping...but I think this one took the cake. Turkey was from Nathan's work, yams, potatoes and buns were from the supermarket and pretty much everything else was grown on the farm.

After a day of recovery from stuffing ourselves, we left for a trip to the San Juan islands. On the ferry, I kept saying how I really wanted to see a fox for the first time....and look who appeared within the first half hour!

Then I said that I wanted to see a grey fox...and look who was posing in the leaves by the road:

The million dollars and orca sightings that I hoped for next didn't appear...but this unimpressed baby alpaca did.

Possibly unimpressed because his wool went towards this:

Some more fall in the San Juans:

360 degree ipad photos:

Now we're back on the farm for some more fall sun. 

Relaxing with the chickens:

Saul is growing into a gorgeous rooster.

SoZH is huge! He takes after his dad.

Zebra Head got stepped on accidentally by one of the goats when I was scaring them away from the chicken food. He wasn't putting any weight on his leg at first and we were carrying him in and out of the coop. Now he's getting around well but still limping. It seems to be his foot that's injured but it's hard to tell. Hopefully it will keep healing.

Garlic is all planted:

Magpie hanging out on my car. I decided to move it off the farm before the goats hopped up on the roof.

We made the tough decision a few weeks ago to bring Ewean in to be slaughtered. After treating her feet diligently (and since we've had her!), she started limping again on a different foot than the two that had already had issues. We checked her again and another hoof was infected...she seems to be an animal that is chronically susceptible to foot problems and we were worried that she'd continually infect the other sheep. It was hard to do since I'd let myself get a bit attached to her, but we brought her to the butcher this morning. Hard lesson learned to be very careful where you purchase livestock from!

Family Day

Squishy's been getting pretty antsy in her pen so I let her and SoZH come out for a sunny afternoon. I was worried that the other chickens would pick on the chick and that Squishy wouldn't protect him - I kept a close eye on them the whole time. 

The other chickens were very interested at first but Squishy is a good mom; she chased everyone away - except for the baby daddy himself. I think it's unlikely that roosters know when a chick is theirs, but ZH was sure nice with his son.

After scratching around and eating some cucumbers, it was time for a dust bath.

SoZH wasn't sure what was going on at first.

He kept trying to cuddle up to mom and she'd shove him away with her feet. 

Adults only in the spa.

Then he suddenly caught on to how good a sunny dust bath feels.

Pure dusty bliss.

A little splintery, but mostly blissful.

Family at the spa.

Meanwhile, goats were hanging out in their favourite spot.

They go up on that table to sun themselves, chew their cud, groom themselves, wrestle each other...

Abby used to think she was the only table hopper on the farm.

"Wheee!"

"What??"

Speaking of "what??". 

Little Brown (probably the chicken with the most original name of all) seems to be going full kamikaze on Ryan.

Winterizing

 We left for our trip in summer and somehow came back to winter! Actually, I think it became winter while we were away...specifically while we were in our tent without jackets, hats or sleeping bags. I'm not sure how we thought that camping with only hoodies and a duvet was a good idea when going 5 hours north at the end of September...but we all survived. 

 Abby and Ryan seemed pretty content riding in their crates. Not having to share the cab with muddy dogs was fantastic.

We saw lots of bears.

Fishing for her cubs.

This guy got tired of us pretending to be wildlife photographers. He sauntered right over to the truck and posed for us (I think people must feed him). We decided we'd better drive away when he looked like he was about to jump up and stick his head through the window. Sometimes it's hard to remember that good photos aren't always good ideas...

There were tons of eagles - everyone loves salmon.

We went whale watching.

Giant humpback mouth.

We also got to see Steller sea lions swimming around! 

Ryan wasn't interested (or invited to join) in wildlife viewing.

As soon as we got home, I rushed to check on Squishy and the 2 eggs. We got home on day 24 of brooding and the eggs should have hatched on day 21. It was dark out so I reached underneath her and felt...an egg. I was so disappointed thinking neither egg had hatched, when suddenly I heard a little "peep! peep! peep!" and out popped one little chick from underneath Squishy.

Little Son of Zebra Head (I'll just assume he's a boy for now) is adorable. Squishy is being a good teen mom and showing the chick where to eat and drink while keeping a watchful eye on the dogs and other chickens. 

I moved the pair of them into the new barn today so they'd have more protection from the wind and rain, and Squishy had a chance to dust bathe for the first time in a month. She got so overzealous that she kept stepping on her little chick. I don't think he knew what was going on when he kept getting dirt kicked all over him. 

New Barn pretty much finished. It isn't the most beautiful thing...but it's functional. The only problem is that since it's only 3-walled and fairly high, it's still drafty inside. We're thinking of building a half wall at the back out of bales of hay and covering them with a tarp for extra wind protection.

Squishy and SoZH's new digs.

Their neighbours:

I built a pen in the barn yesterday and Maggie and May are sleeping there now, until Thomas and the ewes move in at the end of the month. We've been letting the goats out to free range during the day and it's been working well. They go back in their stall on their own throughout the day for a rest and a drink. There is so much for them to eat on the farm that I can't see them trying to get out of the perimeter fence (famous last words). Once the ewes and Thomas and Zeb are in the barn, the goats can have the sheep shelter that we'll set up in the side yard for them as a warm overnight spot.

Oprah's scratching post - unfortunately I had to dismantle it to build the new pen. 

Ewean's foot is looking better after antibiotics but it still isn't healed. We gave her another injection yesterday and we'll check it tomorrow. This constant rain isn't helping it dry out and heal.