Hay Season 2011 - Part 2

This is the beginning of the first load of bales....John looks ready to get it done!

This is what John looked like after the 5th load of bales!!! LOL!!! We actually found this mask in the barn and John scared his sister with it! We need humor to get thru the day!

Here you can see the truck and tractor getting ready to start making bales of the grass that has been drying for 3 or 4 days in the wind rows....

When it's a hot day this cab must be wonderful - air conditioning!!!

It's two fields that we picked up you can see the other one past the dip with trees growing in it...

I think it's so cool to watch the bales get formed and tied by the baler....can you imagine how hard it used to be in the old days when people used wagons, horses and a lot of pitchforks?!!!

Below you see Al in the cab, always helping us to learn about the fields and the process of making hay, THANK YOU Al, every year you are there and we really appreciate everything you do. John, in the hat, is my hubby and Alex is his step-nephew and the helper of the day, he worked side by side with John all day and helped us bring in all those bales!! Thank you Alex!!!

John's little sister drove the van and did a damn good job of it, no one got run over!!! She also took all these pictures which is why you don't see her in them! Then of course there is Lindsey (see below picture), she bucked just as many bales as the guys, our daughter is one tough lady!! That head of fuzzy hair to the left is me, I threw them up and she stacked...or we'd switch, what ever it took to get it done! 320 bales...but we had to load them up into the van, then drive over to the barn and unload into the barn...so it was like handling 640 bale....each one twice...ugh! And we've got several fields left to go, if it wasn't raining this whole last week we'd probably be out there still!!

Hay Season 2011 - Part 1

We've struck a deal with the owner of the barn and are going to store a portion of the hay crop in here for the winter.

It was build by some people we know and rebuild about 15 years ago, used to be part of a dairy homestead so it's quite old. The owner's folks homesteaded here and raised their family, he's now in his 80's and rents out the original home to a lady with horses. She doesn't really use the barn so we get to.

Below is the small door (stoop down or you'll hit your forehead!) that leads to the lower level where we stored half the hay. You can see the van we use to collect the bales from the field and deliver to the barn for storage.

Below is the old milking parlor, looks like it has stantions for about 6 cows at a time.

The fencing is all old and weathered, the fields are full of red seed heads of the grass we feed all winter long.

Introducing the Contessa of Little Rascals Farm

This is Tessa, the new Contessa of Little Rascals Farm
She is a Maremma Sheep Dog

She's 8 weeks old and traveled all the way from Spokane WA to live with us!

Here is Chica...Tessa's new best friend ever! They love to play slobber & paw (dogs version of slap and tickle) and take long walks and long naps together!

This is Ronnie and Coco, Ronnie is still trying to figure out how to get up on the couch.

This is what nap time looks like around here...Ronnie and Chica are on John's lap and Tessa is snuggled between two cold feet! She likes the coolness,
I would too if I sported such a lovely fur coat!!!

Ronnie, the Nubian goat

This is Ronnie, she came to us via a friend who wasn't sure she was going to make it. She was cold and hadn't eaten in awhile when she found her.

She figured if anyone could save her it would be Lindsey, my teenage daughter, who is somewhat of a goat-whisperer. Luckily Ronnie showed up on the day the vet did to read some tests (required every year for the dairy license), and the doc suggested we tube her and showed us how it's done. So for 3 days we tubed her a couple ounces every few hours and she started to fill out and put some weight on. She totally refused to take a bottle though. Finally we took her back to her birth mom for a visit and one look was all it took!! She latched on to that teat and drank her fill!!! No more tubing for her! We figured out her secrete that she couldn't tell us. She preferred the real teat to a rubber one! So three times a day I take her out to the dairy and put a momma goat up on the stand and let Ronnie fill her tummy with fresh warm milk!

Ronnie has some interesting marks on her back...looks like a dog! I almost called her Siris, but Lindsey said she's a Veronica and we shortened it to Ronnie.

As you can see, Ronnie has favored goat status in the house! She gets to wear diapers and live in the house, she sleeps in a cardboard box lined with towels in Lindsey's room, and when she's at school Ronny tries very hard to figure out how to jump on the couch! She's only a few days old and barely as big as her best friend Chica, the Rat Terrier. They like to crawl up on John's lap and take naps together!!!

Shetland Lambs

We've got 8 lambs this year, 6 white and two brown, all the babies are happy and the moma's are too!

This little girl thinks the best place to lay down is on top of mama!!!

Feeding time!

This is how you feed baby goats!

With all these mouths to feed it's time to call all baby goats sitters!!

My Babies!

Melody is saying these are mine!

She gave birth to twin doelings and decided to crawl into their little box to help keep them warm!!! Born 2.24.2011

Triplets!!!

It's a tripplet year!




Yesterday morning we woke up to Lovie Dovie and her tripplets. Then this morning I got up earlier than usual and raced out to the barn to see if there were more and Spot gave us another set of tripplets, and Penny was shifting from one leg to the other with a funny look on her face. When I got Spot taken care of and in a smaller pen Penny came in and started dropping another set of tripplets!!!!! Now Carrie is in the birthing area making funny noises and looking like she might give birth in the next 24 hours and she always gives tripplets! It's a tripplet year!!

Milking Season 2011 has begun!!

Melody's Twins 2011


First is Lela...then Harmony comes along....

Here is LIndsey toweling off Harmony...

Melody is a wonderful mom, she's taking time to clean and dry off her girls with her tounge, it helps stimulate circulation and drying them off as soon as possible is important to help them stay warm. They both stood up within a couple minutes of their birth which is a very good sign....then they promptly fell over!!! LOL!! Nothing cuter than the first few steps of a baby!!!