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! 

Mish Mash

I was really hoping to do a blog post today where I could just put up some of the nice pictures that Nathan and I took over the weekend, instead of talking about ailing animals or plants. The animals, unfortunately, didn't cooperate with that plan. 

Abby had to be rushed to the vet on Saturday for staples after a visiting friend's dog chomped her head. He wasn't happy about being locked in the yard and Abby happened to be standing closest to him. Poor Abby - what a belated 9th birthday present. We're keeping her off the farm right now so that the wound stays clean. She has been pretty sleepy and swollen but I don't think there is an infection (keeping my fingers crossed). 

Ryan has had to take over duties as farm patroller. 

While Abby takes a more "hands-off" approach with her farm staff, always maintaining distance and professionalism, Ryan prefers to become one of the gang and form real relationships with the staff. He even takes lunch with them.

Sometimes this can lead to a bit of a power struggle when the workers forget who's boss. Unfortunately, Ryan ran away from the conflict and left his cucumber behind.

Meanwhile, Abby was inside having a power struggle of her own. She isn't sure why the other house patient seems to be getting much better treatment than her.

As if Speckles' bumblefoot issue last week wasn't enough, today I found Dorothy all puffed up with her eyes closed in the coop when I went to collect eggs. This is very unusual when all of the chickens are usually running around the farm foraging in the morning.

I'm not sure what's wrong with her so I tried a few treatments. First I gave her a warm bath in epsom salts in case she's egg-bound (can't pass her egg). 

Then I gave her some epsom salts in water orally in case she's constipated, and some apple cider vinegar in water for dehydration (and because apple cider vinegar is one of those 'cure-all' kind of things). Oh, and a bit of olive oil in case she her crop is blocked up. I basically covered most of the home cures in the book (or in the google, in this case). So far so good - she made a giant normal poop on the towel, is eating her scrambled egg and grain mix, and then perked up enough just now to jump on the table next to my computer to stare at me. 

It might seem funny to blog readers to see a post one day about slaughtering chickens and then a post a few days later about treating a sick chicken and serving her scrambled eggs on a plate (chickens love their own eggs). We want all of our animals to live happy, pain-free lives. Even if some of them are for eating, they still deserve to be healthy and well treated. That should be a given when keeping any kind of animal. 

We'll stop short, though, of orthodontics for our animals...even though I'm pretty sure Zeb could use a set of braces. Maybe a headgear, too.

The ever-so-photogenic Thomas.

You couldn't get a better setup if you tried. This little frog was hanging out on an artichoke flower.

Our artichokes were inedible! They were fibrous and the heart was just a mass of white strands. I'm not sure why... if you let them flower they sure are pretty. I don't think I'd bother growing them again, except maybe as decoration.

We never did get a swarm of bees in our hive but we are definitely getting pollinators in the greenhouse.

Lots of butternut squash were pollinated and are growing well. 

We planted our fall crop - cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, lettuce. 

Seedling sprouting in a grow bed.

The newest grow bed. This would be the perfect height for picking bush beans. Picking them from the ground is back breaking!

And finally, I call these "Three Girls", or alternatively, "A Good, Bad and Fantastic Date".

Thomas the Tank Engine

Yesterday while preparing for the evening arrival of the newcomers to the farm, I noticed that something wasn't right with Lucy. Normally she's full of energy and she likes to egg Abby and Ryan on to do this:

and this:

 Instead she was just lying down and she looked really out of it. When I realized that she couldn't stand up and was having muscle spasms, I rushed her to the vet. It seems that she has eaten some kind of toxic plant. We have no idea what, or if that's actually the cause, but the most important part is that she is better today than she was yesterday. Her pulse and temperature are back up to normal and she is interested in food. She's still at the clinic now (I brought her home last night to give her fluids here) and I'll go pick her up in a few hours. Poor little Lucy. 

Even with the Lucy illness we managed to get the fences, gate and shade shelter all ready for the farm's new arrival: Thomas the Ram!

He looks a bit different than photos of rams on Google images, but I guess this is just what Dorper x St. Croix rams look like.

Just kidding...we might use google for everything but we aren't *that* bad. That's Thomas' llama friend, Zeballos. He was sent along with Thomas since with his sheep friends gone (the woman who sold them to us sold her whole flock) he will be lonely. He could have lived with the woman's cattle but apparently they are too messy for him and he doesn't like to eat near them. Llamas choose one spot to defecate and then stick with that spot - they don't like to get dirty.  

This is Thomas the Tank Engine:

Like with any ram, he should never be trusted and you should never turn your back on him. His old owners told us that they only go in with him if they have to, and if they have their Border Collies with them, since he will respect the dogs.

As soon as they left - possibly before they'd even driven back through the gate, this happened:

That's Thomas, backing up to charge Nathan. The Border Collie is missing since he took one look at the ram, tucked his tail and ran off to go roll in some grass or something...maybe to eat some kale. Luckily Nathan is quick and he side stepped Thomas a few times before I sent in backup.

I think Abby will do a good job of keeping Thomas back if I go in to that paddock. When she went in there with Nathan and barked and circled Thomas he backed right off and stopped charging. 

Thomas demonstrating the "Flehmen response" when checking out his future ladies.

Thomas loves grain, too - but I'm only going to feed it to him through the fence. I don't want him to have any desire to approach me when I'm in the field with him. When he got impatient for more and started to ram the fence I walked away and came back when he had stopped. I *will* train this ram! You can see the new ewe in the background. She hasn't stopped calling for her lamb that was just weaned.

Handsome Thomas. Look at that mane! You can see that the lambs aren't exactly nervous anymore. I need to stop wearing flip flops in there since they get so eager they step all over my feet.