Saturday, August 27, 2011

Beauty of Butterfly


One of my favorite photos to date.

beauty

Tons of butterflies have invaded the flower garden this year, it's always in movement with at least 4 different species that I can ID. We also seem to have a companion Northern Harrier a beautiful hawk, that I had not seen previously. Orioles are still coming to the feeder another new event for this year, and a plethora of hummingbirds that are trying to keep my sugar supply low.

Goats are doing well although Maggie decided to somehow get out this morning and was having a good time gallivanting around the barn. She seemed VERY glad to see me come out to do the morning milking though.

Cows are currently mowing the front yard, I love this system, mowing and fertilizing in one step with no use of gas on my part. Weather has been absolutely beautiful lately, 80's and clear skies for about a week now.

Upcoming plans include extending the pastures permanently, and keep rotating the livestock through the current pastures to keep weeds down and the animals well fed.

Not much else is new although this seems to have been my busiest summer, a bull out for lease, cows coming in for breeding, a new heifer (traded heifer for heifer) lots of interest in the Dexters, the milking routine.

hope this finds you all well and safe :)

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

I see spots

I finally was able to find a quality dairy doe with spots!!!!!

She's a yearling Nubian and came from a wonderful couple, the previous owners had the nicest, cleanest place I have seen in some time. All goats were friendly, well fed, shiny coated and everyone of them had their feet trimmed. I had been getting very frustrated in my search for another doe, but can recommend this farm w/o reservation.

Stumpy, our little bull calf for the year is absolutely adorable, suspect he may be a shortleg, but he looks just like a miniature "bob" his sire.

Pastures are looking great this year with all of the rain we have had. We've lost quite a few trees in all the storms but fortunately they have all been box elders or other 'crap' trees.

Currently getting a dozen or more eggs a day, really need to start taking them to the farmers market.