BABY ANIMALS!!!

They're cute! They're cuddly! They make you forgive me for being so negligent at blogging!

A chicken being raised by a turkey:

Clara. Seriously, this must be the most adorable lamb ever born.

Kaylee and her ears. What is she looking at??

Do you see the white speck at the top of the photo? That's Bill at the back of the field and the goats certainly can see him.

They love him because he spoils them. Kaylee especially loves him. She isn't really sure about me, but whenever Bill is in visual or auditory range, she cries for him. And he always goes to scratch her ears and give her some fresh mulberry branches. Totally spoiled.

Let's pretend I'm going to start blogging regularly on Fridays. I think can handle that?

Look at this picture of my dog

Have you ever seen anything cuter?

No. No you have not.

How do your kitties grow?

Remember when Coop and Corrie were so tiny Bill could hold them both at once?

This is what it looks like when I try to do that now...

The farm in Early June

I have these visions of monthly updates showing the progress of very specific things, like the gardens and animals...but the follow-through has been lacking. But, I'm willing to try again if you are. It's not very exciting in the beginning (a lot of photos are for reference), but there is some serious cuteness at the end.

Here is the state of the farm on June 6, 2013. It's been amazingly temperate and appropriatly rainy. After a few hot summers in a row we are very glad! It was like this the first year we lived in this house and we have fond memories of a friendly summer.

The kitchen garden currently has a mostly-finished drip irrigation system, tomatoes, peppers and 4 eggplants.

Over on this side are mounds of winter and summer squash, plus a few melons.

This time last year, the black caps were nearly done but today they are still very green. This is more consistent with 2009 when we picked two jars full in late June...except this year we have about 100x more plants as we stopped mowing much of the property and the black caps have taken over. These are our cultivated ones with some netting to protect them. Suck it, songbirds!

Our pasture is green! There is a haystack in the middle of hay Bill scythed earlier this week. This is the first year that we're farming grass.

Cauliflower and beets (background).

Carrots:

Dent corn:

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Pumpkin patch.

Oymygosh this is so boring!! How about some Martha and Rose to make it more interesting?

Kaylee and Saffron in perspective with some really tall (and yummy) thistle.

Kaylee and her ears.

Saffron chewing on my finger...

...and being a snuggle goat.

This chicken and the two turkey hens are co-parenting four chicken babies. It's odd, but seems to be working.

This chick was born yesterday. The knitted one was completed today.

That's it! Maybe I'll be back with a review of how all this stuff is growing in July. Well, not the knitted chicken obviously...but the other stuff.

That new car and goat smell

Earlier this month we bought a new car. We were hoping to keep the old one until our next scheduled trip to NY in the fall, but it was not to be.

The first cargo we carried in the car can be seen in the back window of this photo:

Need a closer look?

Goats, naturally. Two 8-week old Nubian doelings. They very sweetly held their bladders during the hour-long trip until we released them into the barn.

This is Kaylee (aka "The Ears" - they stick right out of her head).

And her half-sister Saffron.

The sheep are very skeptical, but they all seem to be sharing space alright. The goats are curious, friendly and sweet. They are a bit timid about going outside by themselves, but they seem to enjoy eating the thistle, and that rocks my world.

This is Poofy. I went to take a photo of the adorable chick poking its head out from her wing and every time I snapped a picture, a new chick popped out. Can you see all three (plus the backside of the fourth)?

I leave you with goats being adorable: 

Sheep and baby chickens

Spring is just a time of cuteness. Are you ready?

This was our first chick of the year, born last week. Bill stole her from her mom to bring her into the house and show me. Bill is a big softie when it comes to baby chickens.

Here are our sheep. From back to front: Donna (well, Donna's butt), Clara, Rose (the little lamb) and Martha. 

Martha and Rose, her lamb:

Clara, being brave and scared at the same time as she usually is:

Baby chickens! They are all one week old today. There are six under the care of Poofy, who is an excellent mother. A few other hens are sitting on eggs now. Some of them are a bit more scatterbrained, but if there are new chicks, I promise to show them to you when they are fuzzy and adorable.

A moment of self-realization

I was out in the field this morning when I had one of those moments that temporarily blows your mind. You know the kind when a bunch of little acts finally adds up all at once to a wacky realization?

I had just shoveled sheep poop out of the barn and was watching the chickens and turkeys run about as I started to fence in an area for just zucchini and cucumbers that is the size of most people's full gardens. I was thinking about Bill's coworker who is visiting us (the sheep, really) this afternoon and what this might look like to her. And it blew out my brain.

To outsiders, I'll bet we look like farmers. My jeans are ripped and covered with grass and dirt. My dusty work boots covered with straw (and manure!). I think I smell like hay. No makeup. Hair doing whatever it wants. Dog, cats...old farmhouse with mud tracked into the kitchen and tools everywhere. Picnic table overflowing with tomato and pepper plants. Half the front field tilled up.

I feel like we aren't playing anymore. That this is totally now a thing that we're doing and my brain just realized it.

WTF! I'm a farmer. Who does that??? Crazy.

A full accounting of sheep will come soon, but in the meantime here's a photo of Bill and Clara.

Say "awww."