Sheeps and Goats

Sampson is finally getting to work. We had been waiting to put him in with the sheep because Penny can be really mean and we were afraid she would hurt him with her horns.

The sheep weren't really sure about him. They don't let him get too close, but they also follow him when they think something is going on, they just leave a cushion between them.

We moved the sheep this morning. Four hours later they are back in the play area. I had used Dad's truck on Monday to get some hay (to extend the life of each pasture). We stacked all of that hay on the bottom level of the kids tower. We had hope that this would keep the hay from being messed up and keep it usable longer (the sheep like to spread it around and potty in it and lay in it, then they don't eat it).

I guess that didn't work too well

Penny's daughter Snowflake made the stack her bed.

RIP...

This has really been a week of deaths. It sounds bad, but I hadn't really thought about it until just this afternoon.

Last weekend a good friend of mine from my church in Philadelphia lost her battle with cancer. she was a wonderful woman who touched alot of lives and she is sorely missed. Then on Sunday we realized that Erica, our Alpine milk goat, had died. This we attribute to the fact that Penny (our brute of a goat) had head-butted her once too often and much too hard.

Monday Brindle runs off with the stray beagles and doesn't return (we are assuming he has meet a fatal end). Then in the news we learn about Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Billy Mays throughout the week.


Today we lost Gideon. This is hard for me to even write. When I came home from church he couldn't get up. We assumed that Kaiser was playing rough again and hurt him. He tried to stand and walk but couldn't. So I went in to get Eric so we could get him in the shade and get him some water. By the time I got back outside (about 90 seconds) he wouldn't even respond to us, so Eric picked him up and took him in the house. We thought maybe dehydration, but not even 5 minutes ago he was his normal happy self, he just couldn't get up. Within 5 minutes of being in the house he was gone, he had a seizure and stopped breathing.

We had alot of crying going on at our house today. Gideon was a great friend. He might not have always been the best puppy and there were lots of times when he tore up the trash and made us mad, but he was always there to give us love. He loved us so much he wanted all the attention he could get.

When he was a puppy and I was working on the phone and computer alot selling Herbalife, he would push the keyboard tray in while I was typing so I could pet him. And he was insistent that I pet him, because if I didn't he would just keep pushing in the keyboard and laying his head on my lap (so I couldn't pull it back out) until I spent time with him.

He had his share of flaws (trying to kiss all the women that came by for a visit, barking at any man that stepped foot in the house...unless they were sitting, tearing up the trash) but he was always there to lay his head on my lap when I was sad, or tired or needed a pick-me-up. He will be sorely missed.

Here are some pictures that I pulled together of our time with Gideon.

Gideon and brothers

Gideon and Darius (Darius and Isis drove him nuts when they would run up and down the stairs, but he always played nice with them)

Gideon loved to supervise the gardeningBaseball is now a tackle sport

Gideon loved when we moved to TN, he finally had enough space that he didn't want to roam anymore.

Gideon Kaiser and Nellie all snuggled up together

Soccer was a favorite sport after we moved. Gideon didn't often win, but this was one of those times he did.

I was cleaning up my picture folders this week and came across some pictures that fell through the cracks. So I decided to put them all here.

This first one is the frog that we found in the wood pile. It must have really liked it there because we had to step over it for a few hours before it jumped away.


The next is the turtle that we found in the clearing. We think it is a snapping turtle, but he pulled his head in so quickly we couldn't get a good look.

This is the tiny frog that Morgan found in the grass one day. We couldn't believe that it was so tiny.


Here are the sheep right after we moved them. They really love to eat their grain. They do whatever they can to get into their grain bucket.

Here is my cowgirl holding down a tree branch for the goats to eat the pine needles. She really loves spending time with them and playing with the goats.

Chickens

I realized that I never got a post on here that included a picture of the chickens in the 'chicken tractor' or 'egg mobile'.

After the chickens spent ?? weeks in the shed making a mess we got them out in the chicken tractor. We did put them in there a bit early. They were still a little small and we had to be really careful that they couldn't get out the bottom. We did have one bad morning when some had escaped.

That morning about 7 chickens were out in the orchard. Madison came in to get me to help her capture them, she was really upset since they were her responsibility. Kaiser (the Rottweiler) had already caught one and was proceeding to devour it. Brindle (little mutt) and Gideon (black lab) were chasing the remaining chickens. Sampson (Anatolian shepard-livestock guardian) had a chicken sitting right next to him and he just looked at it, then Brindle came to chase it and Sampson laid a 'beat down' on Brindle.

The 'chicken tractor' or 'egg mobile' is a really neat contraption. It is a movable chicken coup that allows the chickens to graze and eat bugs. It keeps them contained, they have a place to roost under the roof and they have a place to lay their eggs that we can get to easily. The olny drawback is you have to move it daily and it is very heavy. I can move it by myself, but the girls can't.

We have been so busy lately I didn't have time to post what we have been up to. So here is a rundown of what has been going on at our current home with the sheep:

Fri. May 22: We needed to move the electric netting and the sheep. They ate the grass down almost to the ground in the 3 weeks since they have been here (although they left the stalks of the longer grass and it still looked like there was grass and they didn't eat it evenly, they left lots of spots that were still long). I in my wisdom (or not), decided it would be a got idea to just use one of the fences so they would eat it more evenly since they like the edges so much more than the rest. My parents came over to help and we penned them in one side while we set up the second one. Then we had the chore of getting them across about 160 feet without fencing them, right. They ended up splitting up and the group in the new pen just wanted to get back to those in the old pen. Long story short, it was a mess. Finally they were in and the electric was working. They should be good in that for a week or so......or so I thought.

Sat. May 23: Eric and I set up the second net to get it ready for the next sheep move. We put it half in the grass and half in the garden (so the goats could eat the weeds). We got it all done (even though it was dark) and the next time we move the sheep should be easy since the openings are right next to each other.

Sun. May 24: We had to move them already!!! Eric moved them this morning since they ate the grass to the group overnight. This one should last is at least 3-4 days since there is some really nice grass and some weeds....or so I thought.

Mon. May 25: Not even 24 hrs and they are a mess. They mashed all the grass and ate all the weeds and now they are all muddy since it has rained all day. Eric decided we needed to get the next netting set up tonight so I could move them in the morning before Homeschool Co-op classes. I was already in my pjs, but hey, I live in rural Tennessee, so I put my muck boots on and we got it started. We had it all laid out (decided to use the chain link as part of this section to make it larger) and were mowing the line (at this point I must tell you it is dusk and my vision is impaired) when....I mowed over the netting. That was the end of fencing that night.

Tues. May 26: After Science and the park some of the group came back to our house for dinner. After dinner we needed to finish getting the netting up. I took some time to cut out the mowed part and retie the ends. Then we finished putting it up and it went really well. We decided this time we needed to make a chute to get the sheep from their current pasture to the new fencing. We set up plastic posts and strung some polywire. We thought it would work great, they just needed Madison to encourage them to go. She did as asked, but the sheep decided to stop for a snack, and then one touched the wire and got shocked, so they all bolted....in three directions, luckily we got them all in. Now they have some really good grass, more than the last section, but less than the first. This time it will last at least 4-5 days...or so I thought.

Wed. May 27: Twelve hours after being put in the latest section the grass is over half gone already!!

Thurs. May 28: 8am and I am setting up the netting so we can move the sheep. They will be right next to the current section on the back hill, easy to move and check on them. It was readly hot and the hill is steeper than it looks. With the help of my mother we got it all finished and the sheep were moved. This is the best grass they have had so far. Eric suggested we put the other net up on the last spot on the hill and we switch the back and forth each day or two. So that is what we did, and we got it all done before it got too dark. Maybe the grass will come back better this way and they will last here longer...or so I thought.

Fri. May 29: They already ate almost half in one day. So I moved them into the last hill pasture, hoping that they wouldn't eat it too fast. We also gave them branches for the trees we had to trim to put the netting up. They loved them and gobbled them all up.

Sat. May 30: The grass was almost down to the ground at spots, and other spots weren't touched. I moved the branches off the longer grass hoping that they would eat it and our idea would work....it didn't. They finished that pasture in a total of 36 hours, once again we moved them back to the previous pasture so we could move the netting.

Sun. June 1: This time we will be putting the two nettings together again (hoping that we can keep from moving it for a few days, we have no illusions anymore). We put the netting in the area with the trampoline and play tower, since this really did have nice grass. It is thick and lush and on the longish side. It was a real chore putting the two nettings together and doing it with only those two nets, but we did it. This time when we made out chute we used more posts and 3 lines of really tight polywire. It actually worked, they all followed Madison and went right into the new pasture. We then got the rest of the netting up and electrified and finally got in the house at 11:30pm. This time it really should last a week.

Tues. June 3: It still doesn't look like they have even eaten the grass, yippee.

Fri. June 5: They are finally starting to eat some of this section really close to the ground. We will need to move them soon, but hopefully it can wait until Sunday evening.