Office Window and Goats

Check out the view from my new office window.  The office that's now crammed into my bedroom!  I like it though, even if setting up a home office in the bedroom preceded weird dreams where my boss set up a bizarre command center in my room.  My work life has invaded my subconscious private life!  

Here's a close up through the window screen right behind my laptop.  The donkeys entertain me by rolling in the dust while I wait for my slow internet connection.  All that brown area in the fence in the middle ground is the summer garden covered in old hay from the animal bedding.  See those white shapes in the garden?  Those are chickens digging in the garden beds behind the supposedly chicken proof fencing.  This is a problem.  

Donnie, our newest goat herd member and hope for future kids with nice udders, has stopped being such a cry baby.  I think he's finally accepted that his new life doesn't involve animal crackers.  Poor guy.  If I could have animal crackers without eating them myself, I would give him some. 

Little Lips, Peaches granddaughter is a scrawny little goat.  She's spry though, and the only goat that likes to play with Donnie.  

Here's Peaches daughter from last spring.  She's a hardy goat like her mother, but has horns and likes to jab me with them.  There's a chance she's pregnant from Donnie, although I don't see any evidence.  Peaches had a date with Little Buck back in December, so she's due to deliver in May.  She looks like she's got twins to me.  

When Newnoo jabs me with her horns I can imagine how tasty goat burgers would be! 

I don't let Little Buck and the River brothers out to graze with the rest of the goats.  Mostly because they are hard to separate back into their own pasture, but also because the River brothers get riled up around Wendigo and have been known to ram her with their heads.  With her creaky knees, she can't get away quickly.   The girl goats don't pay any attention to her as long as she's laying down.  

Donkey Manners, Sidewalk, Goat Routines, and Spring Weeding

Yesterday Brandon and I took both donkeys on a walk around the little farm.  Ernest patiently let me put a halter on his face, and walked behind Brandon like he's had some practice using his walking manners.  Rufus was his same old silly self - balking at new objects, bumping into me, pulling ahead, kicking up his heels when asked to walk through a puddle.  Everyone had a good time.  Once the donkeys were back in their little pasture, we handed out some treats and Rufus put his ears back with jealousy and bit Ernest on the side.  This caused Ernest to run and kick up his back legs, which flipped manure onto Brandon's face, and nearly sent him tumbling backward over the water trough.  Ack!  Rufus!   

Check out our new sidewalk project!  One of the things we miss from our old house is the very civilized sidewalk from the driveway to the front door.  Now that we live in the land of clay soil, we understand mud in a whole new way.  

We've been tip-toeing from paving stone to paving stone for several years now, trying to keep our work shoes clean during the mud seasons.  In the summer months the clay soil is so firm setting stones is extra hard work, so Brandon is taking advantage of the soft spring soil and the extend days at home to create a continuous pathway.  Our own little piece of suburban comfort!  

The red bud tree I planted when we first moved to the farm is putting on quite a show this year. 

With the dirt that Brandon excavates for the sidewalk pavers, I'm filling in the herb spiral and re-arranging stones.  There's a few sage and oregano plants still living from last year, but most of the spiral is ready to be planted.  I have dreams of basil pesto.  

I'm making a habit of letting the goats out to graze each evening.  They are funny with their strict routine of where to eat.  They come out of the gate and head for the lush grass behind the tractor barn, then spend some time in the honeysuckle vines on the property boundary before wandering through the front yard to eat the rose bushes and pear tree, then to the bush honeysuckle near the hammock woods, then back to grass where they started.  After an hour of this, they are ready to follow me back to their pasture in exchange for a few treats.  Their chins are green right now from the new grass.  

I'm off to a good start with pulling weeds in the greenhouse.  I have only the center bed planted, and I meticulously pulled every tiny weed from the whole bed, and then transplanted some of the extra lettuce seedlings.  If only I would keep up with the weeding all spring.  Come on Rain, you can do it!  

Greens!  

Peas and onions, too!  

Ernest and Other Big Things

After weeks of phone calls and paperwork, our new adopted mini-donkey, Ernest, is finally here!  Ashley told me that she saw a mini-donkey listed on the Kentucky Equine Adoption website, and when I called to inquire, the only thing they could tell me about him was that he was about eleven years old and fat.  He belonged to someone who let him graze a huge pasture, and obviously made sure he was well fed.  The trainer he went to live with after he was put up for adoption said that she's seen over two hundred obese horses and donkeys, and Ernest took the prize.  She was periodically measuring him with a tape while she put him on the diet, and he's already down two hundred pounds!  

He's got some jiggle in his walk!  He's a sweet guy, and still very shy.   

Despite Rufus interest in getting close, Ernest keeps his distance.  When Rufus sniffs him, he kicks up both back legs and makes a funny snort.  He doesnt't get much ground clearance with his kicks, and makes us laugh. 

Here's a little clip from his first day.  Rufus is the gray donkey, and Ernest is the brown shaggy one.

Brandon and I rescheduled our flights for our big trip for later in the summer.  I don't know if we will be able to take our trip later either, but by rescheduling the flights we didn't loose our expensive tickets when international travel was advised against.  We're glad we didn't go when we said we would - we might of been trapped in a foreign country in quarantine! 

I'm working from home now instead of going to the office, which I find challenging.  It's hard for me to focus on report composition when the spring time bird song and garden chores are calling to me through the open windows.  Brandon and I took a trip to visit our blue bus in the woods.  Small wildflowers were blooming, and the trees were starting to open their buds.

Everything was as it should be there  - quite and peaceful under the trees and above the river.  

The seeds I planted in the greenhouse have germinated, and my plan is to thin the small rows and transplant the extra's to other beds.  I want to focus on greens in the greenhouse, beans and sweet potatoes in the summer garden, and rutabagas and spaghetti squash too.  We're eating a lot of these lately as we focus on our healthy diet.  Since I know I'll be working from home for the next two weeks, at least, I'm encouraging myself to take advantage of this opportunity to control my own schedule.  I'm trapped in self-imposed health camp!  Exercise, sunshine, vegetables!  

I think I can stay home for two weeks no problem, but I bet Brandon has a hard time.  He likes to get out in the world.  He's already planned a full schedule of chores, including working on our paved pathways while the soil is soft, and changing all the fluids in the tractors.  I can tell he's looking forward to mowing season!

Rufus is looking forward to lunch!