Winter Recap 2016

Wait, was that it? Is winter over? With these warm temperatures this week, and the fact that I pulled a tick out of my bellybutton yesterday, it sort seems like it might be spring now? What a difference a year makes. Last year we were still buried under so much snow at this point. This year, the flowers are already appearing!

While this winter was remarkably milder than last year, I have to say that it was a bit more of a challenging year for us here on Glen Hill Farm. Last year, we had to deal with all that snow, and that was a pain in the neck, but we never once lost power. Amazing! Sadly, I can't say the same for this winter. We lost power about three times for long spells. We also had a pipe freeze in our upstairs bathroom and were without a hot shower for a few days.

And lastly, we had two main troublemakers on our hands:

Troublemaker One: The giant pine tree.
And Troublemaker Two: Our little goat, Cream.

First off, the pine tree. I love this tree. It is so cool. Huge. And such a big part of our landscape.

However, sadly, it is not behaving. We may not have had a lot of snow this year, but we certainly had some VERY windy storms. And there was one storm that was both snowy and windy. Our pine tree dropped many, many LARGE branches this during these winter storms. Luckily, no humans or animals were hurt (because I wouldn't let them near it). However I can't say the same for our barn. One of the large branches that fell put a hole in our barn's roof and damaged our chicken run fencing. Hmph. This is the same tree that, last year, dropped a giant branch on the barn ramp--where I had been walking not 10 seconds earlier. Very scary. Very dangerous. Our pine tree is officially on probation.


Lots of big branches down...


Damaged chicken run fencing...


The hole in our barn's roof, the chicken coop area...


The hole from the inside...


Catching the water as it came in through the roof...


Clean up time...




Now on to our second troublemaker: Cream. I had been warned that goats are troublemakers and escape artists, and Cream is proudly upholding that stereotype. :) In my last blog I wrote about how the goats jumped over their half walled-stall, into the next stall over. Well, we were able to catch this mischief on video after all and we figured out which goat was the ringleader. Ms. Cream. Watch Cream in action trying to escape here: Cream Jumping Up On Wall

We quickly put up some wire fencing to keep this girl down. I still catch her trying to jump up onto the windowsill. Crazy girl. (I call them troublemakers, but I mean it in a loving way. They really are fun and silly girls!)

Jonathan to the rescue! Thank you!...
 

Yes, Cream, this fencing is just for you!


She still jumps up on the windowsill.
Kit Kat would, too, but she's just not as good a jumper as Cream.
(Can you see Kit Kat trying to jump up in the picture below?)



Cream gave me another heart attack last week. That pesky pine tree also dropped a giant branch that broke the fence on the goats' ramp...



But we thought, no big deal--The big tented storage structure will keep the goats in anyway, right?

Um, wrong. Look where we found Cream:

(Can you see her? Look in the top left corner, on the roof!)...






And then, yes, she jumped off of that--about 15 feet down!-- to the unfenced side! (to the left!) Luckily, she was totally fine. Let's just say that this ramp fence got fixed immediately...

Sledding with goats...

Yes, I know that toilet is in the barn. No, it is not for goats.

There was some amazing lighting after the last storm!...

How do goats keep their feet warm in the snow?
By standing on their people, of course...

Eskimo kisses between Kit Kat and Cooper...

I love having a new set of tracks in the snow on the farm.
Tiny goat feet prints...

The hens don't love walking on snow.

This is Charlotte's egg. She's one of our Welsummer hens.
I LOVE the freckles!...

There were some cold nights this winter! See how the water in the blue bucket is totally frozen?
Good thing we also have the heated waterer...

This egg froze on a really cold morning...

Charlotte doesn't seem to mind the snow like some of the other girls do...

And if you're offering mealworm treats, all the girls will venture out in the snow...

Kit Kat trying to reach a vine to nibble on...

I dumped the frozen water from the goats' outside bucket.
Cooper had fun gnawing on it...

My goats must have a hard time making decisions.
They always seem to be on the fence....

These goats are growing!...

In related news, yes, this still happens. Even though they are getting so big...

Fern, Gertrude & Buttercup at the chicken waterer...

Cream, I said that is the CHICKEN waterer! (Look at her little tongue sticking out!)...

Jessie poking her head in to see what's happening in the chicken coop...

Cooper, there's no way that can be comfortable. Your poor neck!...

Poor little mouse. He *almost* made it through the winter...

Jonathan setting up one of our beehives. Bees arriving in May...

Cream and Kit Kat wanted to help...

Thanks, Grandpa, for my new "chicks"...

And just because it's so cute, here's a video of Cream harassing one of our hens, Buttercup. 

Look for Cream's happy dance at :20 : Cream Harassing Buttercup

Enjoy!

Escape Artists

Um, no. Get off the table, Cream!

Chillin' outside.
Cream, is that really comfortable?

Just mucked the goat stall. Aaah. Fresh and clean.
(Do I have to let them back in?)

This girl is cute.

I got the kids (children-kids) off to school this morning and then I got sidetracked when I checked my email. Before I knew it, I looked up and the morning had gotten away from me. I was running late to get out to my barn chores. Not a huge deal since the chickens always have access to food and water, as do the goats. They always have plenty of hay and they rarely finish the goat feed I give them from the night before. So, like I said, it was not a big deal to run a little late. The only downside is that the goat's door leading to their outside pen remains closed until I get out to them.

Conveniently, we have surveillance cameras installed in the chicken coop and goat stall, so since I wasn't quite finished with my computer work, I decided to just peek in on the goats through my phone to make sure they were doing fine.

Hmmm, that's weird. Where the heck are the goats? I moved the camera's angle around to the different corners of the stall. Sometimes they lay under their hay rack, so it's hard to see them, but no, they definitely weren't there either. Very strange. I turned on the sound for the camera. I heard lots of baaah-ing, but could not see any goats. This did not bode well.

I threw on my barn boots and jacket and ran out to the barn. I pulled open the barn doors expecting Kit Kat and Cream to come running out at me. When they didn't, I was even more confused. I was relieved that they hadn't trashed the barn as I was imagining (it's a mess right now with lots of things that have been haphazardly thrown in the aisles for winter storage), but I was still confused as to where the goats were.

As I had feared, their stall was empty. But the doors were all still shut and locked. Hm.

Then I looked to my left at the next stall over, which is set up as our "baby chick stall" at the moment (no baby chicks quite yet, but all the gear is in there), and there staring up at me were my two troublemakers. These silly girls JUMPED OVER THE HALF WALL...into another stall. Which is just hilarious. That they jumped over the wall that landed them in another stall! (Instead of jumping the wall that would have set them free to trash the rest of the barn.) LOL!

Troublemakers! This is where I found them this morning.
That is NOT the goat stall!

When I checked out the scene in the goat stall, I could tell that they actually had tried to jump over both walls (leading into the barn aisle and the next stall over) as they had knocked down everything on both walls. And I could also see that these little stinkers had moved their trampoline over to help them escape.

Too smart for their own good.
They moved the trampoline over to help them get over the wall.

I remember doing research about goats before we got them and reading that "if water can get through your fence, then so can a goat." Meaning that goats are very hard to contain. If they want out of somewhere, they are smart enough and persistent enough to make it happen. I'm just relieved that aside from a straw broom I found them munching on, they didn't seem to get into or eat anything harmful.

Sigh. Obviously, Kit Kat and Cream lost their rights to have their trampoline toy in their stall unsupervised. So sad. But you know what the saddest thing about this is? That I didn't catch their escape on video! I would have loved to see them scheming and eventually succeeding in their efforts! I can only imagine their crazy combination of agility and clumsiness that helped them over the wall. And the fact that they BOTH jumped the wall? Hilarious. You know that old adage "Would you jump off a bridge just because your friends did?"... The answer for Kit Kat and Cream would definitely be "Yes."

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Chickens are doing well. Minerva Louise seems healthy and has given us a few beautiful eggs--And then this crazy one appeared. But another healthy egg from her followed the next day. She'll always keep me guessing!

Er, thanks, Minerva

Reese peeking inside our house.

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Today is the 2 year anniversary of Cooper appearing on our farm as a stray!
Feels like much longer than 2 years ago. I really can't remember him not being a part of our crew.

This dog loves the sun.

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Jonathan and I started our classes with the Norfolk County Beekeepers at Norfolk Aggie this week.

It's a 10 week course. Lots to learn!