Varvel Family: Cider Bend-April

Still learning a lot, and loving life on the farm.

Here are a few videos of Willow that I found when I was clearing off my phone to make more space. I love her! 💙

Playing with her rope.

They love to strip the bark off branches and carry them around, so we are always throwing them into the corral.

This is why Willow has such a salty personality! 😁

This video of sweet Clover was pretty popular on social media. She is so dang CUTE!

Easter:

We had a great Easter at Cider Bend!

We lit the barn up for Easter.

Happy Easter from our Cider Bend family!

😊😊😊

Always ready to ham it up!

I think Willow wanted to eat those big carrots! 😂

Happy Birthday Clover & Willow:

Clover and Willow are half sisters and were born on the same day. They had their 1st birthdays on Easter Sunday. Sawyer and Amanda were coming over anyways, so we had them join in on the donkey birthday fun. 😆 We had a cute little party with donkey birthday cakes and all!

Birthday cakes!

Cute little birthday girl!

Birthday princess!

Too stinking cute!

Yep, I'm that person-I threw a donkey birthday party. 😂

Yum!

They enjoyed their cake, and even Reeses snuck in for a few bites.

Willow chewed up her apple, and then spit it out right on Clover's birthday crown. Rude! 😅

Party guests! 😆

I can't believe Sawyer is totally rejecting Willow's advances. 😂

Happy birthday sweet girls!

Visiting the Goats:

We took Joyce and Phil out to visit the goats. So fun!

I love this video. They are so friendly; as soon as they saw us, they all came running to say hi!

Mark and Roxie.

This is a sweet little mama goat on the farm that wanted to give me lots of kisses.

Mark and Ginger.

Best parade ever!

Miscellaneous Happenings:

We got straw to throw down in the corral to help with the mud. I looked out to find Reeses curled up sleeping in it. She's a true farm dog now. 😊

Clover and Willow are excellent chore helpers. 😅

Since we're having the winter that never ends, I have to post about all the snow we just kept getting in April.

The girls were in denial just like the rest of us.

We took Clover and Willow to explore the garage of our house. They thought it was fun!

Mark did a big burn pile to get rid of all the old wood that was lying around from our barn construction. We needed the area cleaned up for a big project we were about to start.

While Mark burned stuff, I picked up construction garbage around the property and watched the pretty sunset.

😍😍😍

Willow helping me with chores again. 😆

And again, more snow!

We FINALLY had a warm day, and I found the girls taking a nap in the sunshine. So cute!

Oh, but don't you worry, it came back. 😐

We had dirt delivered, and the girls were very interested.

Clover might be tiny, but she is very determined. She takes her snacks very seriously, and lives by the motto, 'go big or go home.' 😂

We were rapidly running out of grass hay, along with everyone else, because our winter lasted so long. It was hard to find it, but luckily we found a really nice guy that had just what we needed. Three truck loads later, and we were all stocked up again.

Some walks are a little more wild than others. I was trying to film Mark and Willow run down the driveway, but Clover was not about to be left behind. She can not run without bucking, so she drug me down the driveway, kicking the whole way. I was laughing so hard, by the end, that I couldn't even breath. 😂

We were going to be watching our friends little dog for a week while they were on vacation, so we took her for a couple hours one afternoon, just to get her used to being here. Clover and Willow weren't fans. Get a load of sassy pants Willow! 😂

Moving Dirt & Making a Corral:

Now that the weather was warming up a little bit, and most of the snow had melted on the property, we got to work on a very big project. The animals needed a bigger area to run and play. It had been such a long winter, and they were ready to burn off some energy. We set to work making a 1/2 acre pasture corral/play area. There was a HUGE pile of dirt from excavating the barn that was right in the way. Mark rented a tractor for the weekend, and set out moving dirt. The tractor clocks the time you are in it, and it took him 10 hours of moving dirt before the pile was gone. Crazy!

He added some big dirt mounds where the corral will be for the animals to play on.

Having fun in his weekend toy. 😀

This is the dirt pile. It's really hard to tell from the picture how massive it is! And yes, it was snowing when he started. 😠

Making good progress!

Part way through moving dirt, he had to run up to Rexburg and get the fencing stuff.

When I took the girls on their walk, I let them try out the dirt hills. They were huge fans. Also, someone told me I looked like a Centaur in this picture, and I think it's the best thing ever. 😂

😃😃😃

Done! After 10 hours of tractor driving, the pile is moved!

Time to build a fence!

The tractor had a post pounder, but we only had it rented for the weekend, so after moving all the dirt, there was no time to rest. The fence had to be started right away. We needed to get all the posts in before the tractor had to be returned.

Phil spent a whole day here helping Mark. He is awesome! There is no way we could have done it without him.

This was the first time these guys have built a fence. Mark does lots of research, so I never worry about him not knowing what he's doing. There was a bit of a learning curve at the start, but it didn't take them long to get into a groove.

I helped too! I was in charge of marking the ground with the paint, carrying tools, and rolling the posts to their spots. Mostly I just stayed out of the way. 😅

I also ran around trying to catch voles. Every time we moved a pile of poles, there was a vole under them. I never did catch one.

Once the big posts were pounded in, they did the t-posts, which we really didn't think we'd have time to do. Whahoooo!

It was a big relief to have all the posts in the ground. We thought that would be the hardest part (psh, little did we know). Mark had another project he wanted to get done before returning the tractor. He worked late into the night by headlight to get it done.

This was our poop pile. Not a very pretty sight on the property.

Mark used the tractor to dig out a new poop pile spot! A man that will give me the poop pile of my farming dreams is a total keeper! 😁

Oh, but he didn't stop there! He made a ramp, so that I could just push the wheelbarrow up the ramp, and dump the poop right over the edge. That is true love if I've ever seen it! 😍

Thanks you tractor for all you're hard work! We were sad to see you go. We hope to own a tractor of our own in the next few years.

Over the next week, Mark finished the fence. It was a huge job! His hands and fingers swelled, and he had some tendon issues, from twisting so much stiff wire.

Getting started on the first side!

That is an amazing man right there!

The fence was looking so good!

He was even out there working on it by headlights. Seriously, he's the best!

I never thought I'd be so excited about a fence, but I love it!

Last step was the gate!

Reeses was a huge helper. 😊

Gosh I love this sweet, old, girl. 😍

That was SO much hard work! You're probably wondering if it was worth it. Watch the next video to see just how worth it it was. That's all Mark needed to see. 😄

We have two more project to get started on soon. A goat playground, and a hay barn. Stay tuned....

Welcome Home Ginger, Roxie, and Dolly:

We were so excited to bring the goats home! They were a little timid at first, and I was really worried about them. They had just been weaned, so I was worried they wouldn't eat and drink enough, and be sad and scared. They stayed in the kennel we transported them in for about an hour, but once they came out, they adjusted so good. They made themselves right at home, and seem to really love it here.

A little too timid to come out.

Once they came out, introductions were made.

The donkeys and goats were very curious of each other.

So cute!

After they ran around exploring and playing, they took a nap in the sunshine. 😊

Dolly and Roxie are sisters in a set of triplets. Ginger is from a different mama, and is a week older than the others.

Here is a video of their first day home. They are hilarious! Stupid Instagram wouldn't let me download the reel with the audio, and that's what makes it so cute. You can see it with sound on my Cozy Corral Instagram.

I know I always depict Clover as a sweet little angel, and trust me, she is....until she's not. 😅 I take them on a walk every morning, and now that spring in finally here, the grass is coming in nice and green around the property. I let them stop for a few bites in front of the house. When it's time to carry on with our walk, Clover won't budge. She puts up quite a fight, because she doesn't want to leave the grass. I told Mark about it, and tried to film it for him one morning. It was hard to film, because I have Willow wrapping herself around me, and Clover refusing to move. Total circus! 😆

Sawyer & Amanda Meet the Goats:

Sawyer and Amanda came over to meet the goats. Amanda is a goat whisperer, and had them snoozing in her lap.

😀😀😀

So cute!

At one point, she had all three of them, but Ginger is too busy to stay for long.

💖💖💖

Oh Ginger! 😂

Loves For Mark:

Mark is everybody's favorite at the farm. Willow is a total daddy's girl, and saves all her hugs for him. 😊 I made a really cute reel of this moment, but depending on the audio I use, sometimes I can't download them.

Ginger-Roxie-Dolly:

The goats have been so much fun! It's been a big learning experience for us, because we didn't really know much about goats until now.

I found that all three of them would squeeze themselves into their feed bowl, and that's where they would sleep. I decided to buy them a dog bed, hoping it would be more comfy, and they would stop pooping in their food. 😅

Here is how it went! 😅

Winner Winner! They did it!

Sometimes they revert back. Does 2/3 count as a win! 😆

I'm not even sure what was going on here! 😂

I sit in their stall with them for a few minutes each morning. Here is a little video series of what that's like.

Here is the result of the weirdness from the last video. 😂 I'm wondering if her head gets itchy where her horns are growing in.

Goat sneezes! 😄

In case anyone was wondering how it is to halter train a goat....

This is how it is! 😂

Okay, but seriously, how cute is she in her tiny little halter! 😊

Sweet kisses

💖💖💖

All brushed and looking pretty.

My sweet girl is happy because her piggy and sloth got washed.

Mark was cleaning out the waterer, and he had lots of help that he didn't ask for. Willow likes to be in the middle of EVERYTHING! You can tell by the video how much she adores him though. So stinking cute!