Not a lot of excitement on the farm this month. Everyone is doing great!
To be honest, I have some big races this summer, so my running has ramped up, and my time spent on farm stuff has decreased a little bit this month.
I did get a couple great pictures of the barn with beautiful Idaho sky backdrops. Each time I go outside and see scenes like this, I feel very grateful and I definitely count my blessings that I get to live where I do.
Chickens:
Story time! I had been noticing that the chickens were all of a sudden going through a lot more food than usual. I mentioned it to Mark, but I don't think he paid much attention. It kept getting worse and worse. One morning I lifted the lid of the chicken food and a mouse jumped out right on my foot! So I started thinking it must be the mice eating the food. A couple weeks later I was dumping out the chicken's water so I could take the water container into the barn to give it a good cleaning. When I dumped the water, I noticed that it ran straight into a hole, and all of a sudden, no less than 6 wet mice came scampering out! I told Mark I knew it was the mice eating all the food. He said there is no way 6 mice could eat that much chicken food, but that he would set a live trap. He set the trap and the next morning I checked it. What I found was the picture below. There were 14 mice in the trap! That was just the start, over the next week we caught a total of 24 mice! They had made this elaborate tunnel system under the coop and were just living their best lives. We weren't going to kill a whole family of mice, so Mark made a few trips a couple miles away to Twin Bridges to let them all go. 😆 I'm sure it will continue to be a problem, but now that we know, we can set the trap out at random times, and catch any new ones that try to move in. Chickens are supposed to be little raptors and eat the mice, but mine just watch them scamper around and make friends with them.
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| Freeloaders! |
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| The chickens have started laying really good! I'm back to selling eggs! |
Fridge clean out day is a favorite in the coop!
Goats:
Ginger, Roxie, and Dolly are doing great. We have kept up on our goal of getting them out for a minimum of 10 walks per month. It'll be harder once we start training the donkeys for their burro race, but so far it's been great. They love their walks around the property.
My favorite thing is when Stormy is waiting for them outside the barn. The goats are curious about her, but timid at the same time. Ginger runs by her really fast and then checks behind her to make sure she isn't being chased. 😂
Donkeys:
We're starting to have some beautiful sunny days, so we were able to get Clover and Willow out for a few walks in March. They love to get out, but they get bored if I take them on the same route every day. It's hard to take them anywhere different on my own. It's almost time to start getting them training for the 'River & Rails Donkey Dash,' so I made a whole list of places to start training them this summer. They will love it!
Cows:
Ace and Opal are doing great! They are dirty messes, but it's still not warm enough for outside baths yet. Here are a couple videos to show off their cuteness!
Cats:
Stormy has been doing great. She is the easiest cat to have around. She just does her thing, but we can tell she's grateful for the help we give her. She definitely loves us and claims us as hers. She spends a lot of time at our sliding glass door in the back, hanging out with Floof and Michem.
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| Stormy made the cutest little bed in the straw. She fits perfectly in it all curled up. I didn't change out the cows bedding for quite a while because I didn't want to mess up Stormy's bed. Sorry cows! 😅 |
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| She also has permanent RBF, which I think is hilarious, because she's actually quite nice. 😂 |
We had another cat show up. We think it's a girl, but aren't positive. She is super tall, with 4 white legs, so I call her Socks. She is incredibly friendly, so I assumed she belonged to someone, but then I realized she was super boney, and when she steals Stormy's food, she tries to eat so fast she gags. I feed her when she's around, because I can't stand to see an animal starve. She hangs around here pretty regularly now, and seems to get along pretty good with Stormy. She wants to be friends with everyone, and even goes on our goat walks with us. The goats aren't quite sure what to make of her boldness, and she is not one bit scared of them. She wanders around the donkey corral too. Hopefully Clover doesn't try to stomp her. 😅
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| Socks and Amanda |
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| She's really quite cute! |
Michem and Floof are living their best lives. Floof is best friends with everyone, and although he's annoying, he has the most darling personality. It's even hard for Mark to get mad at him. 😅 Michem is really coming out of her shell. She is not nearly as timid as she used to be. She even likes when we have visitors now. She has lost a lot of weight and she looks and feels so much better. She is a lot more energetic and playful now. The video below is how we exercise her. 😂
Barnyard Bookclub:
I have so many fun ideas to do on the farm, but we are always so busy that it's never the right time. I decided if I wait for the perfect time, none of my ideas will even come to pass, so I finally just went for it. We had our first two Charlotte's Web Barnyard Bookclubs in March. They were so much fun! Such a great group of kids! The kids read the book ahead of time; some on their own, the younger ones with their parents or older siblings. The bookclub was an hour and a half long. The first half hour was spent discussing the book. I wasn't sure if the kids would stay engaged that long, but they did awesome. The next half hour was learning about and interacting with all the animals. The final half hour was spent making the cutest Wilbur and Charlotte treats.
I didn't take many pictures, especially during the animal interactions. I need to be focused and it's just too crazy to get my camera out. I'm grateful for the mom's who took pictures and sent them to me.
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| I spy Charlotte! |
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| All set up and ready for the kids to come! |
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| Check out Willow. She was thrilled to have friends over! |
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| The donkeys got lots of love! |
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| Treats for the goats! |
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| Everyone got to pet Tillie and Fern. |
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| We fed the cows. Ace wishes everyday was book club day! 😄 |
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| Collecting chicken eggs. |
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| Making Charlotte.... |
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| So dang cute! |
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| They decorated their cupcakes to look like Wilbur. |
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| I love how they turned out! |
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| They could do photos in the booth when we were all done. |
This farm life suits me so well. It's a lot of work, but there aren't many dull moments. Some people thought we were crazy for taking on this endeavor later in life, but it's even better than I thought it would be. I truly love it!
