A Mystery Afoot...or Ahoof...

So I just got home a little while ago, and started lugging a bale of hay down to the goat pen.  I had left the goats penned this morning because I left for work super early, and I knew they would have finished the bale of hay that was in there.

I was carrying the bale of hay on my back (NOTE - this should only be done while wearing a hooded jacket with the hood up, or you will get itchy hay down the back of your shirt!!), so I was walking kind of bent over, with my eyes on the ground.  I was about halfway to the pen when I noticed something...a small, cloven hoof print, and fresh goat droppings (AKA tiny Tootsie Rolls, if you ask the dogs).  

I thought, "Uh oh..." and suddenly forgot that the hay was heavy as I booked it over to the goat pen.  

I dumped the hay and peered into the pen...empty.  Botheration!!

The issue is that there is a bunch of hay built up on the floor of the pen.... I've left it because I figure it makes pretty good bedding.  But my pallet gate doesn't always close all the way unless I kick the hay out of the way.  And looks like I didn't kick it away well enough last night, and the goats were able to squeeze through the gap.  And because the gate is a part of the fence when it's open, they were then able to waltz right outside the fence.  

Sigh.

So I looked around at the big empty field, and decided I might as well see if the goats were in hearing range.  So I hollered, "Goats, goats, goats!!!" And then tried baa-ing...it was a pretty awful attempt, and I hope my neighbors didn't hear it.  :P 

Then - o happy day!! - I heard rustling from the other side of the pen... and four little faces peered around the corner at me.  Hooray!  I'm very glad I didn't have to go wandering through the trees looking for them!  

The boys came right over when they saw I had fresh hay, but Rhode decided to be a princess and had to be convinced to step over the little puddle outside the pen.  

So my four little explorers no doubt had a grand day, but I'm happy to report that they're now tucked safely back into their pen with a fresh bale of hay.  :P 

And I've learned a lesson about making sure I properly secure the gate!!!

Two Blessings

Two exciting things happened this week...

One, my amazing, wonderful church family gave me a basket full of housewarming gifts on Sunday...mostly gift cards to the local grocery store and to Paris Farmer's Union, but also the promise of a cord of firewood, a nifty little butane stove, and some canned goods.  I was totally blown away with their generosity - it's so amazing how God provides!

The second exciting thing can be viewed in the picture below:

If you've been following my blog, you know what a miraculous photo this is.  All three dogs... loose... together.

Yes, you heard that right... I had Nala and Thea loose together yesterday and today... and there were no fights. 

That is HUGE.

Things still look a little tense occasionally, especially during chase games, so I'm keeping a close eye on the girls... but I can't tell you how much of a relief it is to not be terrified of a face to face encounter between Thea and Nala, but to be able to just let them run loose together.

In other news, I'm greatly enjoying my cook stove...lol, I've made two different recipes involving fettuccine and shrimp.  Both were delicious.  ;)

And I'm still working on general organization inside the dome, as well as in my lean-to.  I have a potential plan for hay storage, and am working on finding a source that can sell me the 100-120 bales I think I need to make it through the winter.

Anyway, good night, and happy Wednesday!!

Soup's On!!

The cook stove is up and running!!  :D 

Sadly, the fridge does require a small amount of electricity to run... so I guess I will be figuring out how to set up my solar panel and all the related parts... send help, lol!!  

In the meantime, after I finish my hot soup, I think I will go pick up some cookie dough to bake...  ;) 

An Autumn Day at the Domestead

I had a nice, puttering kind of day...I got a fair bit of random stuff done, but also got to sit and enjoy the glorious weather for a few minutes here and there.  :)  

Here are a few random pictures from the day:

Nala...today I worked on keeping her from pacing obsessively around the outside of the chicken pen, lol.  I think it'll take a while to break the habit, and even longer to get her safe around the chickens when I start letting them free range, but I'm hopeful that she can be chicken-proofed eventually.

Part of the view from my porch.  We're definitely past peak foliage time, but there are still plenty of colorful patches.

My big rooster...who I've heard crowing a LOT since his buddies disappeared from the coop early Saturday morning, lol!!

Oh, and an interesting update on Little Miss Floofle...I've been keeping an eye on my special needs chick, and today I posted some pictures of Miss Floofle on the Icelandic Chickens Facebook group to ask whether they were seeing the same thing I was seeing...and they all agree - she is actually a HE!  I'm not sure Little Mister Floofle has quite the same ring to it....  ;P  

The goats are doing well:

Here's a view of the domestead from the goat pen.  I've given some thought to trying to move the goat pen closer to the dome so that I don't have to lug water as far in the winter, but we'll see if there are enough time and resources for that project.

Thea...all I have to do is point at an object and say "hop up," and she jumps up.  She's SO athletic!

Need acorns?  I've got about a million in my driveway!!

Got the greenhouse just about done...we'll see if this helps keep the water from freezing in the pump in the middle of winter!

Can't leave out handsome Thane...lol, I tried letting the chickens out of their pen for the first time today, and poor Thane was a wreck.  I think he was genuinely worried about them being out of their normal area, and would not rest until they were all back in the pen!  

Happy Monday!!

Four Little Packages

I went to visit my friends Terri and Mark at 4 Ewe Farm today; they have the equipment to process chickens, and had offered to help me with my four extra roosters.  It was definitely sad to see the boys go, but in my mind, this is a necessary part of working toward having a self-sustaining homestead.  The deed was done efficiently, and I have the satisfaction of knowing that the chickens were raised humanely.  I'm looking forward to my first taste of homegrown, heritage breed chicken - I've heard it's VERY different from what you buy in the grocery store!

Eventually I would like to have a separate pen for young roosters so I can let them grow a little bigger before butchering them, but that's a project for another year.

So now I have ten hens, and one rooster.  I wonder how this guy feels about waking up and suddenly being King of the Coop?  :P

I was also excited to visit Mark and Terri because they have 3 Scotch Collies.  I felt like I was meeting celebrities, because I've seen Terri's dogs on one of the Facebook groups I've followed for 3 years now, so it was awesome to meet them in person.  They're all gorgeous and wonderful dogs, each with his or her own personality:

Jack, old but still the dignified Farm Manager.  He's pretty much the epitome of an old-fashioned farm Collie.  

Vega, a busy, bossy blue merle girl who reminds me a lot of Thea.  She's wicked smart, and loves her job of making sure the other dogs don't get too close to the chicken butchering area, lol.  

And the youngster, Quid, who is goofy and easy going, and supremely handsome:

So it was a good day.  I'll let you know in a few days how the chicken tastes!  :) 

Happy Saturday!!

Mid October Update

It's been brought to my attention that it's been quite a while since I've done a blog post!  I keep meaning to, but there hasn't been a ton to write about, so I've let it slide.  

Here are some general updates, though.  :) 

1) Thea is still with me, and is still available.  I haven't tried letting her and Nala be loose together in a while, so for now, Thea goes to my parents' house while I'm at work.  When I'm at the dome, I either have both girls tethered, or I have one loose and one in the crate.

2) I have a bit more firewood...I bought some from a guy at church.  If anyone in the area needs wood, let me know, and I'll get you his contact info...it's $235 a cord, delivered.  Dry, but not fully seasoned yet. 

I cut some more of my own wood, too...some of it with a hand saw, LOL.  Ironically, using the hand saw was almost as fast as the chain saw.  I just looked over my chainsaw manual again the other day, and learned that I have a lot more maintenance to do than I had realized.  I should adjust several things and sharpen the blade before firing the saw up again.

I was thinking of stacking all of this year's wood on the west side of the dome to act as a bit of a wind block.

3) I've used my woodstove a few times.  It seems to work pretty well...though it does NOT work well as a cookstove, LOL.  It took 45 minutes to get a can of soup up to a tolerably warm temperature.  :P  (It was a rainy day, and I couldn't use my little propane camp stove.)  The propane guys are coming to bring a tank and hook up my cook stove and fridge on the 24th - yay!  

4) Here is a pretty picture of Thane watching the goats.  He really wants to meet them...and I want him to meet them, but I keep forgetting to grab his leash first, lol, and it probably would be wise to have him leashed for this.

5) The remaining goats seem to be happy and healthy.  I really need to prioritize putting up some sort of primitive hay storage structure, though, and buying 100+ bales of hay to make it through the winter.  Plus, I'll need to button up their pen quite a bit more...right now, it's open on one side.

Here are the goats peering suspiciously from the top of their hill.  I tried herding them with Thea...I think they're more nervous about her than they are about Thane...they can probably sense that she means business, whereas Thane is basically a big teddy bear, lol.

A gang of goats:

Rhode hasn't gone into heat yet, but when she does, I'll be taking her back to the breeder to visit a buck...so Butterscotch Farm should have an itty-bitty kid or two running around next spring!  :D  And fresh goat milk...lots of goat milk, lol.  (I won't be able to sell it for people to drink, though, due to Maine state regulations.)

6. The four extra roosters don't know it yet, but this is their last week of crowing.  Saturday, I'll be taking them over to a friend's place and learning how to process them.  I'm sure I'll be sad, but of course, this is an important part of having a homestead!  

7. This past week, I got my little greenhouse kit in the mail.  It'll go over the water pump to hopefully keep that from freezing too deeply in the middle of the winter.  I started assembling it on Thursday.  

One layer in...so far so good:

Lol, I got all the way done (or so I thought), and was very disappointed, thinking I had read the measurements wrong, because it was too small to stand up inside.  I was thinking that I would need to build a little cinder block wall to set it on.  And then I thought..."Huh...why are there so many spare parts?"  And then I picked up the instruction sheet and studied it more closely...and realized that I had skipped one whole section of the greenhouse.  So I added in the "spare" parts, and sure enough, the greenhouse is actually tall enough.  LOL.  I'm thinking it's a good thing I decided not to repair antique music boxes as my career.  ;P 

So here's the frame over the well:

I need to level out the ground (I'll probably use gravel) and put the cover on.  But hopefully this thing will hold up okay to the weather, and will help with temperature control.  It'll also help keep out bacteria from rain water and passing birds.

Oh, and I bought a water test kit...need to get that done so I can see if I can drink this water.  It hasn't killed the dogs, goats, or chickens yet, so I'm guessing it's okay...but I'll still check it first.  

I think that's a pretty good update of what's going on at the Domestead these days...at some point, I'll have to start having visitors out!  I probably should do that before it snows, lol...  :P

Anyway, happy Sunday!!  [This picture is not from today...I wear church clothes on Sundays. ;) ]