farmtalk, hometalk

Farmtalk

P took the day off the farm , so when I arrived I went to work helping R catch baby goats and team them up with mothers, and grained the rest of the main herd. Then we pulled the task of relocating two of the newly wethered bucklings off the hill and bringing them into the main herd.

R took Pablo and I took Carmella's brown. I had him on long rope lead, and the few times I got him moving forward, he would bolt to the end of the rope and then pivot around to the right, so I was once again in the position of being ahead of him and trying not to drag him.

R wasn't messing around and had Pablo in the lead, both front legs locked forward leaving drag marks as they went down the hill. I should have had it easier in the rear postion, but the little guys were certain they were headed towards doom and refused to lead.

We dragged them over the foot bridge and across the road.

Once onto the front lawn, I tried looping the lead around his butt and pulling and both ends at the same time with no better luck. R shoved Pablo through the gate, and we each took one of Carmella's brown's horns and dragged him in the rest of the way, with me cajoling, "Don't you want to see your Mommy?", and Boss observing from the house sunporch.

Once through the gate, trailing little pathetic bleats, I watched as Carmella's brown singled his mom out of 50 goats, and went directly to her where she was lyng down, and touched noses. She stood up and he turned and trotted off. I felt very emotional. LOL.

These boys had been up on the hill for nearly a year after weaning late last spring.

Later I was describing the scene to Boss, and she interjected, "did she butt him? They often do...."

I replied, "Maybe that is why she stood and he trotted off..."

Ah well....

The next task was securing the goose house door , while Boss held the two more vicious ganders at bay with her broom and pan.

Then I built a new gate-the one that busted in the Pollux incident-guess I finally cooled down after a couple months...lol... and had the gate built and installed in an hour or so, with shiplap scrap and some screws, recycling the old hardware.

Homefront:

At the home front, the russet potatoes went in, the little lettuce, spinach, cosmos, and cleome seedlings were watered, and a few red pototoe sets went in as well.

I prepped another bed for probably tomatoes next week.

Missing the dog. Stayed up late viewing all the humane societies in the state last night. I think a mixed breed rescue sounds like a good plan. Seeing their pictures, makes me want to take ten!