Cider Bend-June

We've had lots of fun on the farm in June! It keeps us busy and working hard, but it's so fun and worth it. It's cool to watch the process of building a dream from scratch.

Every time we clean out the donkey's stall, they like to roll in the hay dust.

The goats are still a big hit with visitors, and keep us very entertained.

We've been halter training the goats, and it's hilarious! They do better when they can stop for snacks. 😁

 

June brought a lot of afternoon thunderstorms, and we love it! Sometimes when the wind picks up, and the clouds roll in, it gets Willow a little fired up. This was an especially fun show she put on. 😂 The dramatic jump over the ball is the best! 😆

We did our first goat stall clean out. It'll definitely need to happen more often once they get a little bigger.

Mark took a trip down to AZ for our niece's wedding, and I stayed home to take care of the animals. Willow loves me when I'm her only option, but Mark is hands down her absolute favorite. She missed him a lot while he was gone. He got all the Willow love when he got back.

When the goats eat, they don't just nibble from the edges. They go all in....literally! I often wonder if they can breath in there. 😅

Then they usually walk around looking like this for the rest of the day. 😂

The goats have really liked their new hay feeder. We went down one evening to let them out in the pasture, but only two of them came running out. Roxie was stuck in the feeder. I don't think they realize how big their horns are getting, and somehow she managed to get her head in the feeder, but couldn't get it out. We tried everything to get her out. She was stuck in their good. We ended up having to cut a section of the feeder out to get her free. 

Stuck little Roxie.

Here's the section we cut out.

The goats are really testing out their horns. So far they have been really soft with each other. They don't really try to but us with them, but they have done it once really soft to Reeses. She didn't mind one bit. 😄

Now that they are getting a little bigger, they love playing with buckets, balls, cones, and whatever we put in the corral for them.

I let the donkeys out in the pasture for about an hour every morning. When the donkeys are out, the goats get to have free reign of the whole corral. I usually spend time with them in the corral each morning. They follow me wherever I go, and it's so funny! If I run, they run! If I walk in a circle, they walk in a circle. They are so cute and friendly!

Reeses and the goats have become pretty good friends. She hangs out in the pasture with them. The goats play this cute game of chase with Reeses. They try to sneak up on her, and get as close as they can. When they think she has spotted them, they take off running. Reeses is totally deaf, so she just wanders around not having a clue what's going on around her. It's a total one sided game, but the goats don't know that, so it provides a lot of entertainment for them. 😄

Clover is incredibly fast, and when she gets the zoomies, it is my favorite thing! I love to watch them run! It never gets old. Sometimes I get nervous though, because she runs so fast, and doesn't know when to slow down. She gets a little crazy, and I'm always worried she'll fall.

When we first started letting Clover and Willow out in the pasture, they would have so much fun, that we couldn't catch them when it was time for them to go in. It was quite a sight to see Mark and I out there for a half hour each night chasing donkeys around. Trust me, they are impossible to catch if they don't want to be. They got better as time went on, and now they are great. Every once in awhile though, they still get a little sassy, and the chase is on. It's funny unless I'm in a hurry and need to be somewhere. 😅

As you can see from the following pictures and videos, the animals are still quite helpful when we are doing chores. 😒

I raked the goat's whole corral area, and when I went to get the wheelbarrow to pick up the pile, the goats had started playing in it. They they took a nap right on top of the pile! They have a whole corral, but the pile I made was clearly the best spot for them. 

😩😩😩

Willow stands on my piles too, but mostly just because she wants me to rake her. 😆

This is a total Ginger vibe. 😆

Clover and Willow aren't super vocal, but I love when they do a good bray. Willow brays a lot more often than Clover, but when Clover wants to, she can be quite loud for such a tiny little thing. I finally filmed it. If I go back upstairs in the morning after I feed them, and don't take them on their walk, Willow gets quite distraught, and lets me know it. I needed to run upstairs for just a second before I took them walking, so I filmed it this time.

Our orchard is doing amazing! We got cherries already, we have lots of apples on one of the apple trees, and we have pears on one of the pear trees. We didn't think we'd get anything the first season. It's fun to watch the progress.

Apples

Cherries

This is the cutest pear! The birds better not eat it! They already ate some of the cherries!

Goat halter training has been hilarious! We don't usually use the halters, because they just follow us around, but we still want them trained for them. You never know if you'll need to take an animal off the farm for something, or need to halter them for a vet visit. It's just a good idea to have them used to them.

Here's a cute video of the goats coming in from the pasture. They are seriously so cute and fun to watch.

We're still having a blast on the farm. We have some big projects lined up for this summer, so stay tuned.