Monday on the Farm

Monday is my one real day off... it's always a toss-up as to whether I should get tons of stuff done or try to relax.  Usually I manage to accomplish plenty of both.  ;) 

Today I particularly wanted to chip ice around all the gates, as it was becoming quite the tight squeeze to get through a couple of them, lol.  And it was a gloriously warm and sunny day - perfect because it softened the snow.  Here's the chicken pen - after the morning's work, I can now use the hook and eye latch again instead of blocking the doorway with an old chair to keep the dogs out. 

Speaking of the chickens, I'm now getting anywhere from 1-4 eggs in a day.  The dogs get any cracked ones, which is why Nala looks so eager in the photo below:

Blackbeak says hi: 

It was so nice out today that I left the door open almost all day.  Thane approved. He and Breeze are still playing musical crates, but I think her heat is finally just about over, so life should go back to normal soon.

The goats approve of this weather too - I caught them sunbathing out by the hay "shed."

Rhode is due in early April.  I do think she looks bigger!  :D

Nala is also (hopefully!!) due in April... I have an ultrasound scheduled for March 10th to confirm pregnancy.  ♥️ 

This afternoon I took Breeze down to visit the goats... I don't think she's been to see them since the first day she arrived!  She was pretty excited, and definitely had some desire to try to herd them. 

In fact, she was so excited that it took her a while to settle down after we came back inside the fence.  I think we'll want to practice just being calm near the goats for a while before we try any more herding.  Here she is thinking about trying to squeeze back out through the gate: 

Anyway... now it's time to do the final round of chores and then head to bed.  It's back to my day job tomorrow, but it was nice to have the beautiful day off today.  :) 

Happy Monday!

Following a Trail

I hear coyotes fairly often - I think they include my property in their loop every few days, sometimes a little more frequently.  

The other night, one sounded closer than normal - I was guessing he was on the other side of the log pile circled in the photo below: 

Today I went out to see if I could find tracks.  To my surprise, it looks like the coyote actually came much closer than that.  I followed his path for a while, and it was fascinating to see how he moved. 

He actually first came out of the trees about here:

He kept going to the left, behind the solar panel, taking advantage of bits of cover, and sometimes taking a few steps toward the dome, probably to keep an eye on the dogs.  

To the left of the solar panel, there is a snow bank and a brush pile.  He came over the snow bank and circled through the pile of brush, coming to within maybe 25-30 feet of the fence surrounding the dome.  I'm guessing that's when I got home from work, or maybe the dogs started barking, because it looks like he then jumped back up over the snow bank and took off running through the trees.

The pawprints were spaced about 4-6 feet apart while he ran.

I widened my circle and found a few more tracks, probably from the same coyote or his mate.  I would have guessed there were a lot more based on all the noise they make, lol, but I only found 2, maybe 3 sets of tracks.

I'm guessing this is one of the spots where one paused to "sing":

The snow isn't a great type for holding the shape of the tracks, but I got one picture of the pawprint:

So anyway... that was kind of a neat experience.  I'll have to dig out the trail cam and see if I can catch the coyotes on video again.

I hope everyone is having an awesome Monday!  :) 

Syncing Up

Cutie patootie Breeze is now in heat too. I had heard that girls in the same house tend to go into heat around the same time, and apparently it's true!

For a variety of reasons, not least of which being that I don't think the dome has room for 2 litters at once, I definitely won't be breeding her on this heat.  Maybe next fall.  :) 

Poor Thane is an absolute wreck, with both of "his" girls in heat... I am thinking through plans for the future to separate boys and girls on my property so that I don't end up with unplanned litters, and so that the boys don't stress out when it's not their turn to be a daddy.  I'm thinking a nice big barn is definitely rapidly becoming a necessity, lol.  In the meantime, I guess I'll be listening to Mr. Whiny complain all night long... for the next week or so!  😂😂😂🤪 

In other news, I'm getting an egg almost every day now.  I guess in a few more weeks, I could be getting as many as 8 eggs a day, lol!  Good thing the dogs like scrambled eggs.  ;) 

Anyway, I hope everyone is having an awesome week!  :) Happy Saturday!!

Third Time's the Charm

I think I mentioned in a previous post that Nala had gone into heat, and that I intended to breed her.  Well, that ended up being nowhere near as simple as I expected, LOL!

So a female dog's heat usually lasts about three weeks, but generally they are only receptive to male attention somewhere between 9-14 days into the cycle.  I faithfully counted days and scheduled Nala's first visit to her beau, Hunter, on her 10th day.  Well, HE thought she was ready, and did his absolute best to do his job... but she rejected him completely, lol.  Hunter's owner and I figured she needed another day or two, so I brought her back Saturday. 

On Saturday, she seemed marginally more interested, but Hunter's level of interest had dropped to almost zero.

I brought her home, quite disappointed that there were going to be no Butterscotch Farm Collie puppies this spring... and as soon as I got home, Nala started flirting like crazy with Thane.

I wasn't sure what to make of that, but figured she was winding down, so I just let the two of them flirt for the next few days... Thane was definitely interested, but quite half-hearted in his attempts to do anything about it.

But then yesterday, Thane's level of interest suddenly skyrocketed, and he came pretty close to becoming a daddy, LOL!  It was Nala's 16th day, so a bit outside the norm... but that just goes to show that animals don't always do things the way the books say!

I decided to see if we could visit Hunter one more time, just in case.  Hunter's owner was willing to let us come, and my work was gracious enough to let me off early.  So we drove the hour and a half to New Gloucester, Maine... and this time we had success!!  

As long as the breeding was successful, puppies should be arriving in early April.   💕💞💕 See the tabs at the top of the blog for more information on Nala and Hunter.

Lol, the real heroes in this story are behind the scenes, though - my family is watching Thane for a couple days... and apparently he is feeling quite sad and lovelorn and howled all...night...long...  😬