There has been so many goings on, and with a lack of a camera for so long, I haven't documented a one! So here is a quick wrap up since October, and with any luck I can start keeping up again now that I have a new camera...
We adopted a three legged dog. She's smart as a whip, tries really hard to anticipate what I want, including herding the animals, and is suprisingly agile for a dog missing a back leg!
As you can see, she's come a long way from the picture that tore my heart out when I saw her on facebook last October.
We bought a buck. As intimidated as I was about buying an adult buck since we have human kids, let alone actually owning one of the smelly things on our small lot, I needn't have been concerned. He has turned out to be as people oriented as the girls are. In the off season he really doesn't smell like anything other than a slightly dirty barn...not near what they are reported to be, though come breeding season and rut, he will live up to that reputation I'm sure.
(For the uninitiated, intact male goats pee on themselves during breeding season. Which is, fortunately, during the winter when the neighbors windows are closed! Goat girls apparently find it irresistable. Ick!)
(For the uninitiated, intact male goats pee on themselves during breeding season. Which is, fortunately, during the winter when the neighbors windows are closed! Goat girls apparently find it irresistable. Ick!)
I happened into free almost adult turkeys on craigslist. I thought they'd be my trials to see if I wanted to raise a breeding trio of them. I fell in love with the silly things...
The rabbits are all moved into their new quarters that I built over the winter. Proud to say that, until the roof and the manure shelf, I didn't have a lick of help!
We downscaled, but concentrated the gardens this year. I like the size, and am keeping up with it well enough. (There's way more than this-don't let the pic fool you!)
The first call duck pen built out of recycled wood and feed sacks is done and waiting on a successful hatch. Call ducks are another new venture for us.
We found out our rabbits have a curly haired gene called "Astrex". The most recent litter produced a lilac astrex buck. I'm toying with the idea of trying to isolate the gene, while keeping the size and meat qualities of the flemish giant breed.
As much as I love them, we are down to just a trio of Muscovy now. My husband hated dressing them, and I certainly won't do it. Hubs pretty much lets me have free reign when it comes to the animals, I figure I'd better keep him happy by keeping the ducks to a minimum.
We built some much needed compost bins from free skids and feed sacks...
We also added bees....
and yes, that's a harvestable hive. I'm going to leave that as a teaser for you because I want to do a full post on it in the near future!
