Rainy Days

Sept 6th

 Fall weather means lots of rain here I guess. For the last week or so it's been pouring at night and then maybe some during the morning and then clearing up. Not so for the past two days. It rained on and off yesterday and then has poured most of the day today. So what do you do on a farm when it rains? A lot still. Though the goats loathe the rain and will stay in the barn all day, they still need to be taken care off. They need to be fed more often, since they don't get out to pasture and the babies tend to be more vocal when they're stuck in their houses all day. Sometimes they get going so loudly it sounds like the world is ending, but really it just might be that one of them is sitting in the feeder preventing everyone else from eating. Yep, that happens pretty often. The chickens and the alpacas also don't appreciate the rain. Only the puppies didn't seem to care.

My fantastic breakfast: fresh eggs, homemade feta, tomatoes from the garden, and basil from the little plant in the kitchen

If you think they look miserable, you should see the ones in the rain

You really expect me to go outside when the grass is wet?

Hanging out inside for the day

 They've grown so much, a few even doubled in size from one week to the next, literally. The biggest are now around 8 lbs and they are complete fur balls. We let them in with the teens now so they can get acclimated to goats and they love them! They chase the goats around and a couple even try to curl up next to them. The goats however are not so happy. This morning when I went to feed them they puppies were chasing them around in circles in their pen. Once they stopped moving the goats were pinned against the walls while the puppies played in the middle. During the middle of the day the puppies were moved back into their original pen. They missed the goats so much that they went out in the rain and yelped outside the goat pen, just wanting to get in.

Run for your lives!!!!!!!

Thoroughly harassed goats

Just wanting to cuddle

Wet and muddy after their adventures

There were a few escapes today. The teen moms snuck out of their pen while I was trying to feed them. All five managed to get out and made a bee line for the stacks of hay. They took a little bit to get back in, one hard to be picked up. Later I was canning when I saw a rogue goat. Confused, I was heading outside when one of the girls came in to get help because all the preteens got out of their pen. They were wandering the driveway, all trying to eat one little basil plant (somehow it survived). So we rounded them up and put them back in, against their better judgement.

The major difference with the rain is that we don't really do outside projects. No grass mowing, weed pulling, fence repairs, etc. Instead we canned some pears today. The spiced pears turned out really well. I'm not normally a fan of pears, but these I could sit and eat till the jar was gone. Good thing they're sealed and labeled or else I would have a problem. Other people work on the website and facebook page, or run errands. A little more low key, but still plenty to do.

My Yogurt! Took me almost two days to get up the courage to try it, but it's pretty good! Don't know why this was so much scarier than the milk, cheese, or caramel

Blackberry Cherve