Come on, play with me!

Kid goats in deep slumber until ....

"Are you awake?"

"Want to play?"

"Come on, let's play!"

The big willow tree introduction

The babies didn't make it

Through no fault of her own, Nostra's baby goslings didn't make it. She is dealing with the loss in her own way.

Ever Vigilant

Goat kids in the corral behind Nostra and the Ryana Goslings in the gosling tractor (aka red crate) right beside her.

Weekend drama...

Two female goslings were abandoned by the same Momma shortly after hatching. Nostra has decided that the goat kids no longer need her undivided attention, and has moved on to watching the goslings. She takes her job very seriously!

Mondays are the best! #3

I only say that Mondays are the best because weekends are full of drama. Drama, drama, drama. I'm done with weekends! Monday is the day that the pace slows down. A slower pace is just fine by me.

Three geese gone between Friday night and early Sunday morning from apparent fox attacks. Two of these nests were right up against the house too.

Yesterday it was time to move all the nests into the chicken corral. Not an easy task...when geese are sitting on them. Geese are not very willing to give up their spots, or have their eggs moved, no matter how much you hype up the new location with amenities (corn and water).

Female Handler is known among the geese as the Queen of Corn. She handled the treats, dropping them along the path to the corral, and Male Handler moved eggs and nests. Much to his surprise, one nest was chirping!

One goose rejected the new spot and did not return to her eggs. The other goose couldn't find her nest, or couldn't believe that her nest moved. She spent the evening poking the wire trying to figure out where an opening might be.

The third "chirping" nest was discovered by its Mamma goose who promptly sat on the new gosling. The Handlers were worried about the overcrowding in the corral, but knew the chances of survival were far greater than out in the open right now.

Mondays are the best! #2

What is it about weekends?!?

The egg laying hen, the only egg laying hen at the moment, wasn't feeling well last weekend. Female Handler opened up the corral in the early morning to let the chickens out. Muñeca seemed to be nesting, so Female Handler left her alone to finish up on other chores. A check in the chicken coop an hour later revealed no egg, and no sign of Muñeca. She was found fairly motionless near a bush. Muñeca is rarely motionless so this raised an alarm. Female Handler got down to her level and had a peek at her vent. Seems she was straining to expel something, and straining a bit too hard.

Some thought had to go into figuring out the Google search parameters, and after some quick reading, Female Handler decided Muñeca might have an egg stuck. Egg binding can kill chickens within 48 hours if left unattended.

What she needed was a bit of spa treatment! And if egg binding turned out NOT to be the issue, the spa treatment certainly wouldn’t hurt her.

So what constitutes a chicken spa? Start with a warm bath (to clean the vent), and a little bit of oil lubrication at the vent. Canola oil was selected because it was handy. Then Muñeca was put in a cat carrier (that was out and ready for the new arrival of goat kids) with a warm water bottle under a layer of straw. A towel draped over the carrier such that it was dark inside, and there Muñeca rested until early the next morning.

The next morning Muñeca was alert, and happy to leave the confines of a dark cat carrier. And there in the straw was the residue of an egg.

Whew!

It took her a day, but she's back to laying (on Monday!).

Mondays are the best! #1

Weekends always tend to bring out the unpredictable.

I have a friend. He's a black cat with a touch of white on him. He and I would hang in the driveway and hunt mice and tuco tucos together. We tend not to talk much, just enjoying the silent comradery of going after the kill.

My friend decided to enter into the inner garden and go after an hornero's mud nest near the chimney cap. This is a thick cement chimney cap that does wonders for keeping out the rain. It does not do much for keeping out cats, or allowing easy access to rescue cats.

My friend fell down the chimney. Quite a fall, I must say. Contrary to what Santa does, he did not come out into the living room. He remained on a shelf, within the chimney, unable to go back up, and certainly unable to slip through a small air vent that extends the width of the chimney. Unless, of course, he lost a LOT of weight, and even then pretty impossible.

So...the Handlers did what any person would do, faced with this predicament. They gave the cat something to eat by sliding a styrofoam tray through the narrow opening (water too), and then they searched on Google: "What to do if a cat falls down the chimney."

Search showed in April of this year, a fire department in the UK busted a hole in the chimney to remove a cat.

Ok...this is the UK, and they just voted themselves out of BREXIT so should we be surprised that this was the option they selected to remove a cat from a chimney?

Strangely enough, this was the option that mini Female Handler selected as well. This was NOT one of the options the Handlers selected. The first option was ....lower a 10-Liter wine basket down the chimney and have the cat climb in for the elevator up.

On second thought, that's a totally ridiculous idea. It was REJECTED! The rejection was accompanied by much hissing and swatting of the basket.

I decided it was nap time.

The Handlers have been meaning to trim back this juniper near the front porch. (Has anyone read If You Give a Mouse a Cookie?)

(Makes you wonder what exactly is that patch job on the chimney where it widens...)

 

Long story short, my friend managed to use the juniper branches as a ladder to escape.

Baby bottoms - who can resist?!

Thank you South African Airways!

(the blanket)

Babies!

She was the first....

And the second...took his sweet time thinking about whether he really wanted to come out just yet.

but finally he graced us with his presence....Mr. White Dude.

Soon....

Don't get me wrong...I'm not a sick pervert (feline) who focuses on female private parts, but Blanca is looking pretty good these days as her body prepares to welcome new kids into this world. Soon, the time will be quite soon ...