Animal swap

Went to the animal swap Sunday morning looking for some goats. We found a set that was in our budget but they looked scraggly. Christine and Randy found some good looking ones. Four Boer goats all nannies two with kids that are due at the end of August. The other two are supposed to be with kids. We'll see. Three of the nannies are yearlings and one is 2 years old.

We'll they bought them. My bank account suffered a major financial leak. If we sell off the male goats we can recoup our money. The seller delivered the goats to the house.

Randy and Christine put together a pen for the goats next to the chickens. Hopefully the goats will deter any predators that go after the chickens. Two of my older hens wouldn't go in the coop in the evening. I think they are unsure of the goats being there. I had to trap them in their old coop. I used a fish net on one of them.

The coop is finished

I finally finished the coop. It looks pretty good. The chickens spent their first night in it Saturday night. No mishaps Sunday morning when I let them out. I'll post photos later.

The coop

Finished the screening of the coop yesterday. I have to proof the edging around the bottom of the coop and it will be ready to test. I will test it using some bait is see if the raccoon's or possums can get in.

I'll be angry if they can. I spent a lot of time and effort on this.

I currently have 12 older chickens and 10 chicks. Plenty of room for more chickens in this new coop and I can put some in the old coop too. Or I can put a couple of goats or sheep in them. The animal swap is this weekend. Might bring home a new critter or critters.

Hot Tin Roof

WOW is it hot. Saturday Christine, Randy, Matt, and myself put the metal roof on the pole barn. We put 30 sheets of 13 ft., 24 ga. steel on the 24 ft. X 45 ft. barn. Poor Christine was feeding the sheets up to Matt and I. She was hating life, but she stuck to it. I'm proud of her. Randy was helping sometimes. Kathy was fixing dinner (Mexican). It was good.

Sunday I didn't do much. Randy and I went out and tied the trusses together on the pole barn. Then went to Warren's farm to look at some Morgan horses. We are looking to breed HD to his stud and maybe get a yearling colt for me to work with. The price is a little high so he'll work on him.

Christine and I also started our Cleanse Sunday morning. We are shooting for 10-12 days. We went 7 days last time we started. Basically it is a detox cleanse. Ridding the body of toxins from processed foods and other "not good for you" products that we put in our bodies.

It was rough getting up this morning. Now here I am in the cube wishing I was doing a hundred other things at the farm. Expecting rain tonight. Hope the roof holds.

Horse Woes

Christine rode her horse (HD) Thursday evening. Apollo went crazy in the pasture being by his self. I had a halter and lead rope on him trying to brush him and apply fly spray. As HD went out for a ride Apollo reared up and I had to let the rope go or take a chance of getting hit. I hate to say but Apollo is either going to get worked by me during the day, every day or he finds a new home. I can't have an unruly horse at the farm with elderly and young people around.

Chicken coop

I almost have the new chicken cop finished. I am picking up the last of the wood today. I will check the security of the coop this weekend. I will do this by putting tuna fish cans inside the coop and see if anything can get to it. I'll let you knoe the outcome. I'll post photos this weekend.

This morning as I drove down the lane to go to work I noticed the live trap was closed. I looked inside and it was empty. I suspect someone was playing with it and triggered the release. I reset it so hopefully it will be occupied this evening.

Much needed update

Been busy lately so I haven't had a lot of free time to write. Christine and I went down to Biloxi, MS to visit my relatives. It was nice spending time with my grandson and everyone else of course.

While we were gone a racoon got into my chicken coops and thinned out my flock. I lost about 6-8 chickens. A couple of them were laying hens. When I got back home I set the live trap and caught 2 racoons. I relocated them to the after-world.

Christine's belly dance troupe, www.tribalattitude.org, and friends performed at the local casino. It was a blast. We received a lot of positive feedback. May do it again next year.

Gas prices are killing us ($3.79 a gal). It costs a small fortune to cut grass. We are looking at getting a few sheep and goats. I'm still waiting for my horse to be purchased. I'll hold my breath.

I am in the process of building a bigger coop. I am building it in the lean-to off the barn.

Planted the garden this past weekend. We didn't put as much in it this year as we did last year. Hopefully we have enough to last through the winter.