I captured it! Look!
That’s Lydia standing on top of Lezlie - who isn’t anybody’s mother! Then, the adults in the background are (from left to right) Phoebe, Delta, and Molly. But, look at that Lydia! She jumped up there, and I scrambled to get my phone out, get the camera app open - all the while telling them both to stay still! I’m glad I was able to get a photo. Meanwhile, I wanted to talk a little about my arch-nemesis, the DR, or as I call him, Dr. DOOM.
Here he is. He is, basically, a weed whacker on steroids, with a gas engine that you start by pulling the rope, just like the lawn mowers of our childhoods. See those tiny green plastic straws sticking out at the front? That’s how he cuts down the weeds. They spin around at high speed. What I don’t understand is, with such tiny straws, why does the entire machine have to be so freaking enormous? Because, you know, it’s not self-propelled. I don’t know how much it weighs. Probably 60-70 pounds. And, note the design - there are only two wheels. Where the third wheel of the tripod would be - at the front, where the straws come out - there is just a solid plastic thing that you have to push over the ground. Dr. Doom and I had a pretty blissful first date. My first experience with him was whacking all the weeds on our driveway and parking area. That is the flattest land on our farm. It was a blast, whacking all those weeds. I got big enjoyment destroying them all. Our second date, however, was where the trouble started. No place else on our farm is without holes. Seriously, every animal here (except the goats) dig holes. Here are the holes the chickens dig, looking for grubs.
Here are the holes the dogs dig, burying their bones (or whatever their little canine brains are thinking about - a lot of times they just dig the holes and walk away. They don’t put anything in there. Apparently it’s all about the joy of digging).
And, here are the holes the skunks dig. Probably making homes for themselves.
In any case, holes like these are everywhere I need to whack weeds. I know you can't see them, but every field of weeds that looks like this is lousy with holes:
Do you know what that means for pushing the non-self-propelled, and pretty heavy Dr. Doom? It makes it into a highly aerobic and also strength-building exercise. Sometimes I pray for him to run out of gas. In other news, the kids are now eating hay. When the sides of the tubs are too high for them, they just jump into the tubs along with the food:
This is Pippa, standing in the food tub her mom, Phoebe, is eating out of. OH! And I cleaned out the chicken coop and gave all the nesting boxes fresh straw this week. See how nice?
Also, remember how, weeks and weeks ago I got freaked out by a broody hen who wouldn’t get out of the nesting box, and Jan was out of town, and I had to text her to figure out how to get the eggs? She told me to put on the bee-keeping gloves. Well, I don’t need no stinkin’ bee-keeping gloves now! I just reach right under those hens with my bare hands! HA! I’m going to be a farmer! I am! Oh, and here’s something I truly love: The goats all know our morning routine. When the sun comes up, they start watching our houses. They know that the dogs get fed first, and then the chickens get let out of their coop. Then the milkers get milked, and then the babies get returned to their mamas. This is a photo of the back pen. They are the last to get hay in the morning, but they watch the entire sequence, all lined up near the fence like this. I just love them.
Also this week, we continued to struggle to get Rain’s girls fed. I think I mentioned last week that she feeds her boy, and the two girls have to struggle to grab the other teat while he eats. But, if he’s not eating, Rain brushes them off. So, best case, those two are only getting half the amount of food he’s getting. So, we’d been bringing Rain in, putting her on the milking stand, and letting the two girls just drink their fill. But, a lot of times, they couldn't fill up on what milk she had. All the milkers come into the milking room in the same order. Every time. They know the order, they like the order, that’s how they do it. Delta comes in after Rain. Delta was the mother of the two premies who didn’t make it, so she’s got no babies drinking her milk in the yard - we have to milk her twice a day, instead of once a day like everyone else. But, one day this week, Rain left, Delta came in, and the babies didn’t follow their mama out. Once Delta got on the stand, they just started drinking from her! What a great turn of events! We’ve had them drink from Delta every day since - and we’re kind of hoping that they start drinking from her out in the yard. They have definitely started growing since we’ve been getting them fed this way!
This is Delta, with Ocean on the side we can see, and Puddle on the side we can't. I wonder if Delta is glad to have the babies to wet-nurse? She seems to like having the babies drink better than she likes being milked. I hope she develops a close relationship with them. She is their aunt. She is Rain’s half-sister. So it kind of makes sense. Good job, Delta!