Oh! Yard Updates!

We've been busy the last few weekends. We built a big ol' run for the wee baby chicks and ducklings so they are NOT in the garage any more! (And the peasants rejoiced!)

It's got a giant piece of cardboard in there on either side with a heat light in there to keep them warm at night since it suddenly decided to go all "below freezing" here in April.

It's about 8 foot long and about 3 foot high. And freaking heavy. No one ever listens to me about assembly closer to final destinations. But the 35 chicks in there have MUCH more room than the 2 Tupperware containers they were in before and... They aren't in my garage.


We did this:

It's a 2 gate entry way. The kids kept letting the animals out when they were helping feed everything. It's not as much "help" if you have to go retrieve a puppy, goat, duck, chicken every 3 minutes because it ran through the gate (and they were getting crafty). So, we got a play yard with an auto-close gate and zipped it up to the other gate and Viola! A double gate system. Oh my goodness it makes it SO much easier. 

These 2 big boys have certainly earned their keep today too! I heard them barking - rather oddly - so I went out too see why. 2 big stray dogs were getting close to the fence with the birds. Their barking scared them off. At the same time, a hawk had just discovered the baby chicks. And while they *should* be safe in their new run.. I'm all for a giant ol goof barking at the huge hawk.


Now, while these big boys were doing their business, this little guy was certainly watching:

Little Adams is just so small. He's just not going to be any help until he puts on at least 30-40 pounds. He's so tiny. But he's cute! Even better? He sleeps in the dog house. With the goats. And Doris. Yes, Doris of Doom, Lambie, Jack, and Adams come piling out of a medium sized dog house like a clown car. Never Gets Old. EVER.

Lambie is getting bigger. I can't say "Big" because.. She's a pygmy goat. But still. Bigger. Oh, another thing that Never Gets Old?? Watching goats run! Not the *I'm horrified* run. But the All 4 Legs at a Time run..The just bound along in their odd goaty way. Even better? When they start flipping their back legs sideways with excitement while they do it. I'm still trying to figure out how to record that one.

The birds are maturing nicely from our first batch. The Reds are maybe 2 months from starting to lay? I don't really have any idea, but they're getting fat.  We also have these crazy ducks that are currently making better watch dogs that the poor undersized puppy. The white ducks are HUGE. Giant, massive, enormous ducks.

Guardian Dog!

As soon as we started even talking about "livestock", we also talked about what we needed to do to keep them safe. A fence - Check. A barn  - CHECK (finally)! Ways to keep them warm or cool in the random crap weather we have - Check (ish) we've figured out the heat light issue for now and have plans for the cooling issues should we need them. We have our rifle and shot gun hand (ish - kid safety trumps animal safety) should we REALLY have something big come up and need it. The last thing we had thought of (and I'm sure I'm missing things, but ya know I do that) was a big ol dog to stay out there and just eat the crap out of anything that bothers the animals. Now, yes. We DO already have 2 big ol' dogs. But, seriously, have you MET them? They can't catch a freaking mole, nor do they bark at strangers (in fact one of them barks to get let out to be petted by them), and one tries to eat the birds. So, we found us a livestock dog.

The term "dog" is a little bit generous though. He's a smite bit undersized right now, to say the least. We found out - a bit late of course (is there any other way with us?) that he isn't as old as we thought or were told nor even fully weaned. The bastards were just bad people when it comes to that. I get so angry when people do that. They apparently were just *done* with puppies and got rid of them because they wanted to, not because it was actually best for the puppy. Both the big boys we have now were both thrown out like that though and turned out to be the most fantastic dogs we've ever had, so I'm not worried with it. It just pisses me off that people do that.

Anyhow, little guy is named Adams.

He's a Great Pyrenees. He stays out in the barn with the chickens and goats and ducks except when it gets too cold even with a heat light - because I'm a giant pansy. He's smaller, right now anyhow, than the Rhode Island Reds which is freaking hilarious. The long term goal is to teach him to round all the birds up at night and stay with them and keep them safe from the coyotes and snakes and stuff we've started to find. For now, we crate him in the barn at night and just keep him warm and are getting him used to that being "Home" and not chasing the birds.

Saturday Swap

We went to a Small Animal Swap in a somewhat nearby(ish) town this am. We sold our first successful hatched chickens. Turns out that the Silkie Bantams were giant pansies and afraid of the simplest things including rain, bugs, each other.. Yeah. Small things. We took them up with us and sold them mostly to free up the space since we were having to cage them separately since they were actually SUCH pansies. While we were there, we picked up another cheap little doe bunny rabbit. I don't have a picture of it, but it will complete our breeding sets of rabbits. It's a New Zealand mix and is a fairly good size already at 7 1/2 weeks old.

This weekend past we also did this:

Put up a barn! Ok, a shed thing, but it works really well as a barn! All the animals fit with more than enough room for future growth, and it seems very sturdy.

We had a decent amount of help.

Grandad.. Friends.. You know. Those people that have skills and whatnots.. But YAY!.

And THIS.

This is how the boy carries the goat. And the goat doesn't care.