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 :)

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.

The new girls

Tuesday had me picking up some purebred Nubian does. Molly a 3yo had kidded 8 weeks ago and so was still in milk. Frosty the yearling doe came along for companionship. I've built a little milk stand and the girls (human) think it looks like a toy-in comparison to the cow size stand. I'm quite proud of my handiwork and it has made milking much easier. Currently I'm getting about a 1/2g a day from Molly. I hope to increase this with a twice daily milking routine. She's also very thin, probably a 2 on a 5 scale body condition scale. They both seem to be settling in very nicely. I don't think the yearling had ever been outside, she had been living with about 50 other goats in an old dairy barn. Molly I know had been in the barn for at least 8 weeks if not longer. Now that they have settled in they seem to be enjoying the sunshine (yes, we finally had a few days of sun )and the any time grazing. Initially they wouldn't seem to graze unless I was out with them but now they seem to have it figured out. I've never had goats that seem so hesitant to eat, I know this will soon change and they will be eating everything.

Last Dexter calf, bull, was born on Friday and all the little ones are a joy to watch jumping and playing together.

Pasture rotation is working WELL!!! The area that has been fenced off since late last fall is mid thigh in mostly grasses, appears as though at this point the weeds are being out competed

by the grass YEA!!!!!!

enjoying the sun!!

Little Dominick was born on Monday, I don't think he weighed 35# at birth but he is making it up quickly. The fence that they are behind is 48" tall so you can see that mom is quite short

The plants in front of them are daylillies and Iris's so you can use them for scale on the little guy, I figure he's probably 24" tall.

hehehehehehe so excited!!

Calf was born on Monday 5/16 at 6:20 p. Shorty has had trouble with her last two calves not being able to find the teat because she is so short, I resumed training Shorty and began milking her tuesday and supplementing the calf. Had suspicions this morning that the calf had finally figured out the any time fast food situation so the evening milking was for us. Dominick the calf is definitely nursing off of mom and so I plan on continueing to milk her for our use, cheese, kefir, butter etc. I am SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

Still awaiting one more calf for the season. Broiler chicks are getting huge and will be processed in three weeks.

A sign of spring

Yea, saw my first hummingbird of the season this morning. Rose breasted grosbeaks are here also.