Lori's Worldview

I've been reading the book "Amish Peace". The Amish never seem to be in a hurry, but they are always working. An Amish woman said - You do each job in turn and it takes as long as it takes. Hmmm, I like that philosophy.

Lori's Worldview

I'll try to catch you up on the summer activities. No pictures yet, as I still need to develop the film. No, I don't have a digital camera. It is better to take animal pictures with a film camera - the picture taking is quicker.

Anyway, the day-old baby chicks arrive in mid June. 25 Black Australorps, 10 Silver-Laced Wyandotts. I had ordered the new chicken coop kit a few weeks earlier, thinking it would be here in plenty of time to set it up and move the chicks from their brooder at about 1 month old. Well..... the coop took 6 weeks to arrive instead of 3 and it still had to be assembled. Needless to say the chicks outgrew their brooder BEFORE the coop was ready. With the help of Nancy and Trish we quickly built a small pen to give the chicklets some running room during the day.

Again with the help of Nancy and Trish the coop kit was assembled in one day, another day for the roofing and anotherfew hours for flight netting to cover the entire pen. Flight netting is wonderful to work with compared to chicken wire. It stretches and can be pulled tight. The chicklets could then be moved to their new quarters.

So time passes, the chicklets continue to grow. We are hearing funny "crowing" noises that sound more like a goat yelling. Finally a couple weeks ago, some real crowing! Now I'm checking for eggs everyday - none yet- but soon I hope!! I added the red heat lamp to the coop, just in time for the 15 degree frostly cold weekend. And then... the fox attack. In the middle of the day on that 15 degree freezing morning, a fox killed 7 of the young hens (the bantams are ok). Ok, so now I'm outside putting flight netting over the entire chicken run. Have to work on Monday, so didn't get all the chicken wire up around the panels. I'm keeping my fingers crossed at work. Monday evening everything is ok. Tuesday morning - as I'm doing chores - Matt one of the bantams roosters lets out this strange sound. I look to see TWO foxes right outside the chicken yard!! I run around the haystack and yell, they take off down the valley. I think ok- we're safe for the day - but NO and hour and a half later as I'm ready to head for the job I hear the dogs next door barking. I look out the window to se THE FOX coming down the fence line. I fly out the back door and down the hill (barefoot with the temperature about 30 degrees) - don't think my feet really touch the ground. By now the fox has hopped through the 6 inch square hole in the panel and has a chicken on the ground. Yelling like a banshee I scare the fox, who lets go of the chicken and tries to bolt out of the pen , is trapped momentarily then finds a hole out to the goat pen and away. The goats look rather surprised as this furry beast flies through their pen!

Anyway, the hen has a couple bites on her, but hopefully she will be ok. Used lavender oil on the wounds and gave her a drop of Rescue remedy in her mouth. Nancy came up and helped me ge chicken wire all around the pen. The chicken yard is like Fort Knox - it's even it bit hard to get in the gate. Hopefully we have foiled the foxes. We'll see if they show up again this morning....
to be continued

Lori's Worldview

Arlo and I have been taking a break from the computer stuff as much as possible this summer - we'd rather be outdoors! Hope to get this going again soon!

Arlo's Worldview

It's me again, don't I look nice with a background of green grass :) . I finally learned the sun dance, so now the grass in the pasture is really growing. I remembered to do a rain dance last night - we go 1/2"! Mom Lori says we need to remember the rain dance all summer, so it stays green.

Ok, so about THE STRAY. He's a goat. His name is Darby and he is 9 weeks old. So here's the story. A person that Mom Lori works with said she had a friend who bought a baby goat as a pet for the children - Mistake #1. They don't have other goats or know anything about goats - mistake #2. They live in the city - mistake #3. They get him when he is only 3 weeks old and bottle feed him on COW'S MILK from the store - yuck! - mistake #4. Now he is bigger and is lonely cause he can't stay in the house, he makes friends with their dog, but yells when the dog goes inside. They leave him outside all by himself! - mistake #5. So now they don't know what to do with him. The original owners won't take him back, like they said they would - BAD PEOPLE, and they paid $85 for him!!! - mistake #6. SOOOOO now he lives here......grumble, grumble, grumble - mistake #7. The original agreement was that we would sell him at the end of the summer with the other wethers, but he's so friendly it might not work.
Mom Lori says I need to be nice to him because he needs a friend. He really is ok and I'm trying to be nice - but he is weird!! I thought I had an identity crisis - this guy has no clue he is a goat!
The triplets try to play with him, but he is more scared than friendly. He lives in the Oberli house at night, cause they are the least aggressive. He has to go into the hay barn to eat alfalfa otherwise he doesn't get enough to eat. AND HE GETS A BOTTLE!!! I wish I still could have a bottle.....
The other people's children were playing "butting" games with him - mistake #8. So now we have to teach him that you don't do that to people and you aren't supposed to jump on them either.
Darby has nice coloring - black with white ears and nose - Mom Lori said it's too bad he wasn't a girl so we could add that color to the herd.
So if anyone wants a weird pet goat .......

Bye, Ar ()

Arlo's Worldview

Wow, lots of stuff going on around here. Let's see first Mattie had triplets and Gingerbread decided to help her (they're part of the Oberli family). Mom Lori says I need to explain who is the Oberli family. These are the Oberhaslis - they are Swiss dairy goats. They always come in brown with black trim. I'm a nubian, in case you didn't know. So Gingerbread is now feeding Robin (the girl). Gingerbread was still milking from her last kids BUT she is due to have kids herself in August - it's going to be interesting...hehe.

Then Annie Twinkletoes had triplets - lots of babies around here..... They're ok most of the time EXCEPT when people come to visit the barn! Everyone goes gahgah over the babies and IGNORES ME!!! I'm the friendly one... geez. Anyway the blond one is Cinnamon - we don't get kids her color very often. The last time was about 17 years ago - that was Cinnamon the first. She died a few years ago - so now we have another Cinnamon!!

Nancy came over on Monday to help Mom Lori fix something. First they had to fix the barn door that Brigit broke..... naughty Brigit!

Then they worked on taking apart the collapsed part of the chicken pen. While they were doing that Frances (a buff cochin hen) made a run for it. She climbed up a 2x4 and onto the chicken wire over the pen. It was really funny to watch Nancy and Mom Lori try to get her down..hehehe. Even after they got her down she try for an escape a couple more times - this time she to Frank and Millard with her - hahahahaha - it was really funny! THEN the best part was the mouse explosion. Nancy moved a straw bale away from the chicken house where it had been all winter and mice went EVERYWHERE!!!! And Nancy is scared of mice - it was really funny. The chickens caught a couple of them to eat - good protein - so much for the circle of life.

More later - I have to tell you about the stray - but I need to go chew my cud for awhile.

Ar ()

Goat Philosophy

Hi this is Annie, I'm the pregnant goat in front with horns. So goats hate snow - as Arlo has stated in the past - therefore the best way to get around is to follow Lori. Lori breaks trail and we all line up behind her. But then of course to get back to the barn, we are all in the way and no one wants to turn around in the deep snow, so Lori has to break trail back the other way. Works great for us!

By the way I'm due to have my kids on May 13th. It's my first time so I hope Lori is around to help. But if not my mother, Iona - she's the spotted one looking the other way- will be there. Also my Aunt Iceni (the white one behind me) will also be available. So I should be ok.

Bye, I need to go lie down.

Arlos' Worldview

Hi Everybody,

We had triplets born yesterday - they're Oberhaslis. They had to wear coats cause of the damp weather. I never got to wear a coat, I guess cause I lived inside the house. TeHe.

Anyway no pictures of the babies available yet, but here are some more pictures from the snow storm two weeks ago. The 3 pictures above are the chicken pen collapsing. The chickens were safe in their house.

I just love dancing - I guess I figured out the rain dance, since it didn't snow this weekend. Now I REALLY need to learn the Sun Dance - this cloudy weather is no fun!

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