Happy Birthday Becky and Hurricane Sandy

Happy Birthday to my sister, Becky!   She's doing a great Birthday Project, so check her blog for a post about it coming soon. 


Seems we're getting a hurricane around here.....  We're on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, so we're going to get hit fairly hard.  I kept trying to will Sandy away, but she wouldn't listen.  So far we're getting some wind and a good bit of rain.  We found a new leak in our house....seems as soon as we repair one another one shows up...

But we're prepared here.  We've filled jugs and jars of water, since we're likely to lose power.  

And I got out lots of candles, lanterns/flashlights, and an oil lamp so I won't have to bumble around in the dark.

We also got the generator ready, the chainsaw is on standby, and we've got 2 coolers full of ice waiting in the mudroom.  Oh yeah, and we filled both bathtubs with water so we can flush the toilets.  We don't lose power very often, even during last year's hurricane (only lost power for 1 hour), or the crazy back to back blizzards we got in 2010 (more pics here), but we want to be ready just in case. 

Most of the animals are in the barn.  The goats...

The sheep (minus the 2 ram lambs, who are weathering the storm in the main pasture)...

Two of the rabbits (the two does are in a large hutch and have shelter from the storm)...

And Tucker the outdoor cat was in there somewhere.  The chickens are in their coop, and really mad at me for it.

The dogs are roughing it...

And our indoor cat is sleeping in front of the pellet stove right now.  They've got a tough life. 


I decided to be productive this morning and make some soap.  I'm so excited to cut into these batches tomorrow, because I tried some new oxide powdered colors, and I can't wait to see how they turn out.  The brown one at the top of the picture is Gingerbread. The middle one is Hot Cocoa, and the bottom one is an evergreen soap...I haven't picked a name for it yet. 

I'll try to update if anything interesting happens.  The worst is supposed to hit us this evening/tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes.  If you're on the east coast, stay safe!

Wordless Wednesday-Baa

Bean (above)

















Darla (L) and Barley (R) above

















Ram Lamb, Bean, and Darla

All the PrettyGoats

 June and Ida, my does, have company at the moment.  Mammoth is still here, and so are Loretta and Dolly.  Loretta and Dolly are owned by June's former owners, and they're here to be bred. 

















It's hard to get a clear shot of all 5 at once!  

Feeding time gets a bit chaotic. In the pic above, Dolly is on the far left, then Loretta, then June with the collar, then Ida in front, and Mammoth (of course) all the way to the right.

They have all been very well behaved and it's neat to look out and see so many pretty goats.

It's amazing to see the differences between goat behavior and sheep behavior. My two ram lambs are in with the goats. Until sheep breeding season is over, they can't be in with the ewes.  The goats definitely push the ram lambs around and I even sometimes have to give them their own hay away from the goats. 

Mammoth should be leaving today, and then Loretta and Dolly will go home sometime soon, so it'll be back to normal.  It's nice when things slow down for the winter. I dried June off last week, so I'm not milking anymore.  Once the breeding ram goes home, it'll just be my animals once again.  Chores are getting quicker and quicker, which is so nice!  I love the animals, but it's nice to have a break now and then!

BYBTWD

 It's Bring Your Bunny to Work Day!  Well, not really, but I had to bring one of mine to work today.  This is one of the does from my first litter, and she's going to a new home today.  I haven't posted about the rabbits much, but I will soon.  The rest of the litter has been processed (they're meat rabbits), but when it came time to do this rabbit I hesitated.  I checked and saw it was a doe, and she was very friendly and pretty, and one of the biggest ones in the litter, so I decided to hang on to her.  I don't really need a third doe, so I decided to sell her.



She rode to work in the back of the car, and is waiting until her new owner comes to take her home.  She's enjoying herself so far I think. She's got plenty of hay to munch on, and has had visits from coworkers, and a carrot. 

I hope I don't regret selling her, but really, 2 does is plenty for me right now.  And the good thing about rabbits is they multiply fast enough, so I can always get another!