Breaking Ground

The grader finally showed up.  Well, the second grader anyway.  The first one promised to come out "in a week or two."  After the first week he said next week.  After the second week he said defiantly not next week but maybe the next.  When I tried to pin him down he said get someone else.  

 Everyone is concerned with the view.  J said,  "do you want to just sit in the house and look outside or do you want to get out an do something?"   I don't think it will block much and if the building looks nice what's the problem?

 Looks like we'll be getting out to do something.

 He's moving the topsoil off first, it's only about 3" deep then grading the area.

It's a bit scary to have such a big change.

Bee Swarm

J went to get something from under the house when he noticed this on a Cypress branch. 

 The bee's have swarmed.  We called the man that gave us the hive and his first question was "how high up are they?"  He is getting older and doesn't like to climb ladders any more.  When J said they were on the ground he said he would be right over.

 After getting his gear on he took a new hive over to the swarm,

 shook the branch they were on,

 and started sweeping them into the hive.

 While he was here he went ahead and took out the mite medicine he had put in last fall in our hive.

Once the queen goes in the rest of the bees follow.  He left the hive here until evening then came back to get it.  He said he had lost several of his hives this winter due to the cold weather.  Our hive must have been healthy in order to have swarmed. He added a super to our hive so maybe this fall we'll finally get some of our own honey.

The Prom

Back in February V planned to go the the prom with her then boyfriend Chas.  After we bought her dress, Chas called it quits.  V then went through several boys until she found Dakota who seemed to want to go to the prom.  He is from a different school so there will be 2 proms.

 His school's prom was yesterday.

 V spent hours getting ready.  The weather was perfect.

 Another couple (cousin Laura), came to the house for dinner, then off to the prom.

 It took 2 1/2 hours at the saloon, a couple hundred bobby pins, and a can of hair cement.

 Isn't it beautiful.

She went all out and had her nails professionally done too.
All of this and he was too tired to dance and left the prom at 11:00 and didn't even go to the after prom activities like they had planned.   Needless to say, V was a bit angry.  They are suppose to go the V's prom this coming week but I'm not holding my breath.  I told her she may need a back up.  I think it would be nice if she would just go with a friend and have fun instead of  putting so much pressure on an iffy relationship.  Can anyone else give her advice?

Garden Gold

There's an old shed on our farm that we store a hay wagon under.  The goats like to hang out there sometimes.  And where there are goat there is goat manure.  I have never cleaned out the shed so I thought this would be easy to get to and put on the garden.

 I had 3 big tubs filled in no time.

 Next came spreading in in rows in the garden.

 Look how fast it worked.  Just kidding, that's some volunteer lettuce that I had to work around.

 We've planted broccoli, lettuce, spinach, onions and cabbage so far.  I am not looking forward to all of the weeding to come.

And I'm finally getting enough asparagus to make a good helping.

Cattle Working

We got the fall calving cattle up today to work.

 There are about 40 cows in this group.

 The pens have a major obstacle in the middle, an old chicken house.  The calves a lot of times run into it, but today a cow decided to enter.  The problem was she tried to exit through the smaller opening.

 After a major struggle she finally freed herself but left behind a lot of hair in the process.

 J had 6 heifers for me to pregnancy check.  My arm gets a little tried between cattle.

 You can see was the green grass turns into.

V and E were on Easter break still today.  V went with a friend and his family to see a Titanic museum tour.  That left E to stay and help us.  She is alway wonderful help and very pleasant too.  We vaccinated and dewormed the calves, implanted the steers with Ralgro and had one open heifer.

Sunrise Service

We got an emergency call from the church secretary yesterday wanting to know if we had a small 4 legged animal the preacher could use for the Sunrise Service.  She had sheep but the lambs were too big and wild to hold. So, of course we did, we had 58 to choose from.

 It was a beautiful morning for the service.

 I picked out the little triplet that we are supplementing with a bottle.

 She got held for the entire service and didn't make a peep or mess.

 She was a big hit to feed afterwards.  She is now named Bunny.

E dyed the deviled eggs this year as found in the Life in the Little Red Farmhouse blog. (I love E's Easter shirt)

They were a big hit.

Kid count:  60 with 31 nannies kidding.  Two older pet goats, Squeeky and Tinkerbell, and a yearling didn't kid. (they might later in the summer, we'll see)

Bottle Babies

We have a few goats that we are supplementing with a bottle.  They are staying with the herd and in some cases trying to stay with the mother, but not getting enough on their own.

 This is a twin the mother isn't letting nurse.

 This one is a triplet that was born smaller than the others and just isn't keeping up yet.

 This triplet the mother won't let nurse.  It stays with her and gets to nurse if the nanny is distracted but as soon as she sniffs it she'll move off.

 Tickle only has one kid.  Since she is a bottle goat herself, I can hold her to let the other ones nurse sometimes.

More on her tomorrow, but she will be taking a trip to the Sunrise Service.
Pictures today are courtesy of sister C.  Thank you C.