October Brings....

Maintenance and Repairs

Farmer Keith has been getting ready for the winter,

the irrigation pipes & valves are drained (he still needs to pack 'em in),

he replaced the missing pieces of tin on the roof of the barns and tacked down the loose ones,

and shored up the splitting beam of this barn.

Fishing

We heard thru the grapevine (my knitting group) that the Hatchery was having some free fishing days. No license required and no limits, becausethey had too many trout in the pond - so Keith and our neighbor Dave went-a-fishing and came home with 20 trout each!

Grand kids

Amy, Kevin, Tyler & Susie came back for another visit! We had such a good time, it's so special to be able to see the grand kids so often!

They had fun playing with homemade play dough,

Tyler made a hamburger

Yummy!

We went to the Library for Story Time with Esther!

and did the Fire Interpretive Trail that is in Town.

Lots of fun, even with it being dampish and coolish out!
and of course there was plenty of coloring.

SNOW!

October 13th we had our first snow fall for the season,

and it was still on the ground the next morning.

Time to put a log on the fire.

Kevin helped Keith cut some wood out of the forest (logs that had already fallen)

Turkey Egg!

Thursday morning I found our first turkey egg, she even laid it in the room where the nest boxes are. It wasn't in the nest box, but at least it was in the room. I haven't found another since, but I keep looking.

Chicken egg on left, turkey on right.

We haven't eaten it yet, perhaps tomorrow - we'll let you know how it tastes.

Breeding
.......... on purpose!

Accidental breeding is much easier than this arrange stuff, let me tell you.

The first couple of weeks of October it was "Goat Rodeo" every day! Every morning we would find one or two of the baby goats out of their pen ("Turkey Gulch") We had no idea where their escape route was (still don't). Then Keith & I would begin the "chase, grab, leap, carry" dance. We are getting better at it. By the end of that week all 5 kidds were moved into "Fletchers Field" with the Big Girls.

Then it was time to try breeding - I separated the two males, putting Sparky in the Manger and closing Valentino out - where he had the outside area(The Dude Ranch) and Sparky the Manger to do the deed with Tuffy.

Well Tuffy couldn't concentrate with Valentino on the outside - as you can see in this video.

Towards evening time we look out towards the Manger and see that Sparky is in the field and Tuffy is hanging by the gate of Fletchers Field. Valentino was still in the Manger. Those two boys had busted the wooden gate!

We figure we had to give Valentino a girl. Keith chased Valentino out of the Manger, back into "The Dude Ranch", and repaired the wooden gate. I caught Tuffy, put the leash on her and walked her in front of Sparky and he followed us right back into the Manger. Meanwhile Valentino was on the rocks just outside "The Dude Ranch". He wouldn't let me come near him, so instead I put Ella May on a leash and pranced her in front of Valentino, he followed her like a dog on a hot scent, to Turkey's Gulch I lead the two love birds.

and all is well with the couple in the Manger .

The first few days there was quite a bit of activity. I saw mostly snorts, chasing, tails and tongues wagging, but no actual "deed" going on, and the girls would run up to me seeming to ask with hurt in their eyes, "why are you doing this to us?" I just apologized to them over and over.

But lately all is calm in both camps, so tomorrow I'm putting the girls back in "Fletchers Field" with the other gals and I'll move Sparky to "Turkey Gulch" with Valentino and the turkeys for the winter, since we can maintain heated water there and we can't in the Manger.

We just have to wait and see if anything happened between the males and females. I don't think they make a pee stick for goats....