Grass Clippings

J was finally able to push the mower around the yard this weekend. The biggest problem with the first cutting of the season is how thick it is.

I was able to rake some on Sunday.
I guess the rest of the yard and picking up the piles will have to wait until tomorrow. At least I'll have a lot of mulch for the garden.

Top Dog

Emma has had her hands or should I say mouth full trying to keep these two puppies in line.

They probably out weigh her now by 50 pounds each. They still try to play with Emma but I don't think she enjoys it much anymore.
First she gets very rigid with her tail sticking straight up and starts growling at the puppies.
Then she goes at one and either gets her mouth over theirs or on their throat.
Then the puppies do what they always do, fall over with their legs in the air.

State Judging Contest

We just got back from the State 4-H and FFA horse judging contest.

There were probably over 200 kids total. When we got there I was asked if I would listen to the FFA reasons because one of the judges had backed out.
This was one of the Quarter Horse Geldings. There were only 8 classes. 2 QH halter and 2 pony halter, 2 hunter under saddle, western pleasure and western horsemanship.
I caught V and E standing entirely too close together during close inspection.
V placed 6th in halter in the Senior Division, and E was 7th in halter and 7th overall in the Junior Division.

Never Clean Enough

It never seems to matter how much cleaning up we do, the animals can still find that loose bit of wire that is inevitable on a farm.

J went to check the cattle and found that the Hereford bull had a piece of barb wire wrapped around his hind leg.
J got his calf catching pole thinking he might be able to hook the wire and pull it off. Unfortunately, it was twisted on itself and wouldn't come off that easily.
He ended up having to get the cattle in the barn and catch the bull in the chute to remove the wire. No harm done. It is nice that the Herefords are so calm and easy to handle.

On a different note, I am surprised at how clear these zoom pictures were. I balanced the camera on a fence post and all of the pictures were taken in the same spot.

Happy Sweet 16

V asked me not to put her on the blog today because she didn't think she looked good after doing farm work all afternoon. She decided later it was OK.

Happy Birthday V.

Seeing Double

Apparently today was twinning day.

Two sets of goat twins were born late this morning.
The one from yesterday is still doing fine. Sometimes Bea goes over to it and nudges him with her nose. So far the dogs have not been to rough on the baby goats but these two nanny goats today have been pretty rough on the dogs.
J had to work at the market today so it was up to me to check the cattle. I found a bull calf that had not been cleaned off wandering by himself and a new heifer calf clean and dry being hovered over by the cow. I tried to get the cow to stand still for the bull calf to nurse but she wouldn't have any part of it. I ended up having to put him in the front floor board of the truck to bring him to the house. I guess we have a bottle calf for the time being.

Kidding

Our goal for the goats this year was to kidd a little later than last year. This way maybe we could avoid the bad weather and let them stay outside. I put up the temporary fence about 10 days ago in hopes of getting a little more grass to grow.
Saturday when I went to feed the dogs, the goats all came up to get salt. It was the perfect opportunity to get them in with very little work. The next part of the plan is to sort out all of the ones that aborted earlier and turn them back out. We might get to that tomorrow.

We had our first one born this afternoon. The puppies seem very interested but have left it alone for now. I guess the test will be if he is still here in the morning. Bumble looks like she could be licking her lips.