Valentino!

Girly-girl gave birth to a Boy on Monday evening, April 21.

Only one kid, but he is a big one, he looks almost as big as the other kids look today!

We named him Valentino, because he is so pretty and looks like he has make-up on his eyes.

It was very Sunny on Tuesday when I took these photos, I was fighting shadows and bright sun.

He is only 12 hours old in these shots.

He has waddles like his Mommy!

(the little piece of furry flesh under the neck area)
He seems to get along just fine with the other Kidds.

On a sad note - I think Pork Chop is not feeling well. A lady stopped by on Tuesday to see the goats - she has raised many a goat in her past - and she thought that Porkchop's stomach was bloated and that she might have an infection in her uterous because she is still dripping blood - another lady said on Saturday that this is normal - but I think I am siding with the Tuesday Lady because it explains why Porkchop is behaving so mean towards me. I've called the vet and I'm waiting for a return call. The good side is that Porkchops udder looks fine and she is able to nurse her kids and they look just fine. So hopefully a shot of penniscillin will do the trick - of course that will delay when we will be able to drink the goats milk, but a healthy goat is what's most important.

Tuesday April 22

There was still a little snow on the ground, but the sun was shining on Tuesday.

Spaetzle was enjoying her frosty treat!

Some Daffodils didn't fare the snow fall well,

while others didn't seem fazed by the ordeal.

Rubarb is coming up,

and so are the hay fields.

We think the buds on the fruit trees have survived this cold snap....at least so far so good.
The lilac's are budding,

and the pussy willows are almost done.



Zoe's favorite spot.


Well maybe Spring is here.

Sunday April 20

Will this Winter ever End?

This Old Farm House

We have been experiencing a mouse problem.

Felix doesn't really help us keep the critters out of the house, so we don't really know what to do about it. I think Zoe has been helpful because we haven't had as many as last year - they always come upstairs when the weather starts to change to Spring.

We have had one that has been very annoying because it has decided that the bottom shelf of our kitchen cabinets is where it wants to play. The mouse has been having a blast running, and doing what mice do, on our dishes.

We took everything out and washed it all in very hot soapy water. We realized that the Lazy Susan that Mr. Whitehall put in (really he must have built the cabinets around the lazy Susan!) had to go. Behind the Suzy was a hole that we are sure the mice are using and things fall off the Suzy, never to be found again.

Keith got out his tools; hammer, crow bar, mallet, and went to work.

I had a video but it doesn't look very exciting, just Keith banging away on the boards.

When he finally got it out we found what the mouse has been eating...

Popcorn!

He must have gotten it before I put the stuff in glass jars.

It was a mess, but I got hot vinegar water with baking soda and dissenfected the wood work. Keith screwed a board over the hole, and I tried to make it a little pretty with placemats.

Oh well at least there are no more mice and it is clean, even if it doesn't look like it!

Cinder Loves Her Food!

Lately Cinder has become possessive of the food. If any of the other dogs go to the bowls to eat, she immediately goes over and watches or chases them away. With Hank she usually gets him growling because she eats with him...I took a video, unfortantly the one where he is growling and she is whining didn't turn out, but this one is pretty cute just the same.

Pork Chop's Kidds Born April 11

Pork Chop and Kidds Videos

Here are a few (quite!) videos of the baby goats.

Farm Woes

For the past few weeks we haven't had any electricty to the barn or yurt. No electricty means no electric fence. To remedy that problem, Keith hook five extension cords together, plugged into our first lamp post (which still had power) going out to the barn. That gave us just enough power for the fences, but not anything else. When Richard & Arlene came out that had to use battery power & candle power. . .

At least this didn't happen in the dead of winter.

To make matters difficult, Bill our electrician had no clue as to the source of the problem.



At the same time that we were out of power, the water to the barn went kaput. We had at least two leaks. Keith fixed the first one, but the second one was the big one and requires him to dig in the goat pen. We believe that the cow knocked the frost- free pump handle around too much making the connection under ground come apart.

This is where the Farm Chore came in. We needed to move the water tank out so Keith can get at the source of the connection and to get the tank closer to the well so I could use hoses to fill the tank.



In the meantime, Bill got hold of someone who had connections to a special tool that can detect where the electric break is underground, without having to dig the whole trench up trying to find the break. They came out Thursday evening and sure enough found 2 breaks.

The first one, look like it was a bad wire to begin with. Bill cut it so he can put a splice where the bad section is.

The second break looks like a gopher was the cause of the damage. While digging the section, Keith found a gopher tunnel, and when he came to the wires, he saw that one section had been gnawed. They think that the bad wire cause the gnawed wire to burn and then blow up.

Or something like that, I didn't get it completely, but that's the gist.

Bill didn't cut these wires, this is what they found.



My theory is that it was really a weasel.

When he gnawed on the wire there was just enough electricty to surge through his body creating "Super Weasel"!

A weasel who laughs at Rabbit Wire!

A weasel who is three times as large as the average ermine.

If you happen to look out at night you may see him crossing the field because he now glows with his new found powers!



Anyways it looks like our woes will be repaired sometime next week.

Weekend of April 5

Arlene was the first to arrive for the weekend, making her the Lucky person who got to play Farm Chore with me. The object of the game was to empty, move and fill the water trough.

She was an excellant player. Why we had to move the trough is another episode.

Richard arrived Friday evening and then Reuben came by train Friday night.

Keith was away in NYC (another post for that trip)

Saturday was a big day in the Valley, because it was Firemans & EMT Appreciation Day. The Entiat Women's Club do a annual Spaghetti Dinner/ Auction to raise funds for the volunteer Fire Dept. It was a blast having Arlene, Richard & Reuben there. I was busy in the kitchen most of the day, but got to hang with them for a little while, long enough to bid on an afghan, which I won - nobody bid against me.

On Sunday we did a fun hike up a Hill on Longs Trail.

Here is a slide show of the hike.