A Four-Horned Visitor

This little 4- horned ram is so cute! He's not very big because he was born earlier this year. He's still young. He'll be much bigger once he's full grown.

He'll be with us for a few days. He doesn't have a name. He's in a stall because he has 4 horns. If I put him with my goats or my other sheep, he may try to fight them. Horns are good for fighting! I don't want any animals to get hurt while they are here. 

He is getting adopted by a charter school in Pleasant Grove who wants to start their own little herd of Navajo Churro sheep. 

They adopted my two little lambs about a month ago. One is named Punkin, and the black one is named Kisba. 

The sheep will have a fence between them while they get to know each other. Then it will be safe to have the new sheep with horns in with the sheep that don't have horns.

The little chicks are growing! I'm still making sure they stay safe inside the barn. I really don't want the hawk to snatch one out of the pasture for a chicken nugget snack!

This hen looks a little sad. Her feathers are coming out. Chickens loose a lot of their feathers in the fall so that they can grow new feathers that will keep them warm all winter. 

Humans wear sweaters and coats. Chickens grow new feathers.

I make sure they have a different kind of food with more protein to help their feathers grow in a little faster. Can you see all the feathers on the ground behind her? 

You have probably heard a rooster crow before. I thought you might enjoy seeing what a rooster looks like when he crows. Do you see how he stretches out his neck and stands a little taller? 

Were you a little curious about Leia's small ears last week? She has ears, but they are so small! She can hear just like any other goat. It doesn't matter how big or how small a goat's ears are. Next week I'll show you a picture of a goat with floppy ears.

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Our garden grew well this year! I am harvesting some of the vegetables that grew.

All of these potatoes grew in one small garden bed. These are small potatoes. They will be delicious in potato salad.

There are still a few small potatoes buried in the dirt and on top of the dirt. They will grow new potato plants next year. 

Most of my plants grew very well this year! I was really excited to make tomato sauce and pickles and sauerkraut. 

I let the wild sunflowers grow in my garden so the bees would come visit. Bees help to make plants grow.

Its fun to watch the bees as they gather pollen to make honey. As they visit each plant to pick up more pollen, they leave a little pollen from the last plant. That's very helpful for plants and vegetable gardens to grow.

The bees helped us grow some big Crenshaw melons!

And some yummy string beans!

Here's a photo of Stormy waiting for her lunch. I better go feed her before she gets too hungry!

Make it a great week!

Echo and Stormy

 Our mama cow, Echo, had a calf on August 20. Tim named her Stormy because the day was a bit stormy.

Cooler weather is always nicer for calves. Sometimes they overheat and get sick when they are born in the middle of summer. It can be hard to keep a new born calf warm in the cold, dark winter.

Fall and Spring are my favorite times to have calves.

Echo and Stormy did well for a few days, but then Echo got very sick.

The vet said that sometimes things happen when the mama cow is having a calf. The vet can't always tell what happens, he or she can just see that they are sick and help the cow try to recover.

We took care of Echo for 12 days, and then she passed away. We had lots of help from many neighbors and friends as we tried to save her life. Friends brought watermelon and corn for her to eat. Other friends built special equipment so that we could lift her up to see if she could build strength in her legs. Other friends brought fly traps so she wouldn't have so many flies sitting on her. We built a tent to keep her out of the hot sun. We gave her all the right medicines at all the right times. We were all very sad when she died. We cried a lot!

Stormy is doing very well. She gets a bottle twice a day. She loves her adopted mama, Sadie.

Sadie never had her own calf, but she loves being a mama cow.

In the spring she fed a lamb! That's very unusual! Cows don't usually adopt lambs!

Sadie adopted Stormy, too. Sadie doesn't have enough milk to feed Stormy all the time, so we make sure Stormy has bottles every day.

Stormy loves humans!

Stormy and Sadie hang out together on the farm. Sadie thinks she is Stormy's mama. That works for us! Last night Sadie was yelling because she couldn't find Stormy. Stormy had fallen asleep by the fence out in the pasture. It was dark, and Sadie couldn't find her. 

Stormy is a fun, easy going calf. The neighbors love to come visit her. If you come to Cider Day in a few weeks, you'll be able to see her out in the pasture.

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We decided to get another goat to help feed Stormy. She drinks between one gallon and 1 1/2 gallons of milk every day. That's a lot of milk!

This is Leia. I call her Princess Leia because I thinks she is very pretty. It looks like she has no ears. She does have ears, but they are tiny! Leia is a LaMancha dairy goat.

Princess Leia loves getting milked! She's waiting her turn. Sometimes she waits patiently. Sometimes she gets excited and jumps up on the stall gate to see if I'm ready for her.

There are lots of different kinds of goats, just like there are lots of different breeds of dogs. 

This is River, our other dairy goat. River is a Saanen dairy goat. She gives about 3/4 of a gallon of milk every day. Leia gives 3/4 gallon of milk every day, too. 

We have plenty of milk for Stormy because of our two sweet goats.

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We've had some new chicks born on the farm this fall! It seems unusual to have chicks in the fall. It's a good time because it's not very hot. It's not snowy and cold yet, so the hen can keep the chicks warm without any trouble.

This hen hatched 2 chicks from all those eggs. I decided to put her and her chicks in an old water trough so that they would be safe from the other chickens, and predators like hawks.

A different hen hatched out four chicks, but only one survived because of the predators that seem to be circling our fields so often.

I hope you have a wonderful week! I hope that you will learn to read so you can read all about the things that are interesting and fun for you!