The birds

When I got to the farm on Friday the starlings were thick in the tress. Not sure if they migrate or not, but they were all flocked together and chattering away like crazy.

I scraped up the last of the bale to distribute. I'm pretty sure this particular bale was made up of hay from along the road edge, as T said he's pulled a bunch of flattened pop cans out of it. I found a toothpaste tube, which confirms my road-edge theory. The hay itself is lovely, but odds and ends of things (and dust removal) is one reason why we shake the hay out before feeding. T said when he was farming he knew guys that would eat their lunch on the tractor and just toss the wrappers back into the baler. Bleh.

The horses got a new bale yesterday - no signs of trash in this one. I'm always amazed by how how bad a round bale can look on the outside, and how beautiful and sweet smelling the hay is once you peel off the strings & outer leaf.
The feeder calves & replacement heifers that G's keeping in the grain bin lot all clustered close - they've learned that when we feed we always throw anything the horses leave in the tire feeders as well as the outside & bottoms of the bales over to them. They aren't as fussy as the horses - they actually like the "caramelized" stuff, and they sleep on whatever they don't eat.

Not much news this week. It continues to snow and next week they're saying cold. I don't know if the flocking starlings are a sign of spring, but it's quite definitely still winter!

"How to ride a pony"

How to Ride a Pony
~Warning, possibly offensive~
poster from The Oatmeal

I thought it was funny... not sure what that says about me.

For what it's worth, the
17 Things Worth Knowing About Your Cat
poster is also entertaining,
appears to be more accurate*,
and is probably less offensive.

*no sources cited for any of these facts, so quote at your own risk.**
**Sorry, it's a librarian thing.
We like our facts verified by more than one source - LOL.

Sunday wrap-up

The tractor's issue - one of them at least - turned out to be needing the clutch bled. The horses have their bale.

And the weekend didn't completely revolve around sheep. I picked up a mineral tub for the horses. They always have a mineral block, but they've been hanging over the fence to gnaw bark. Since they're all round and not squabbling over the hay at feeding time, I'm guessing they're not getting something nutrient-wise from the hay that they need.

After much label reading, the one I picked up is intended for horses getting hay, but not grain. (It has some other attractive qualities, too, but darned if I can recall exactly what they were without the label in front of me.

At any rate, the horses were thrilled.

Star discovered it immediately and left the first teeth marks, but at one time or another they were all nibbling at it. They also upped their water intake - another plus. For now the tub's located up by the waterer, so if they're locked out of water while G fills corn buckets for the sheep we don't have to worry about them eating at it and then not getting in to drink.

I also removed windtangles and checked the geldings' sheathes for stud crud. Too cold to actually do a cleaning, but maybe next weekend. They're also due to be wormed, but I didn't want to introduce the mineral tub and worm both the same weekend, and since I remembered the wrong wormer when I picked it up.... Next weekend for that.

This afternoon we took Aiysha back. I'll miss her furry little body keeping my feet warm tonight.

And discovered that the cows had pushed through one of the upper gates and followed the tractor tracks down to the hay storage area. They were happy enough to be herded back where they belonged, though.



So the weekend started and ended with escapees - none of them equine, thank goodness. Fingers crossed that trend continues.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend, too!

Sunday

The lamb this morning...


We weren't expecting much - honestly, lethargic as it was when we brought it in, neither of us expected it to be alive this morning. But not only was it still alive, but hungry - and vocal about it.

No more lambs, and feeding went smoothly. Except for the tractor. With the battery holding a charge and the oil warm... it still won't move. There's water in the hydraulic lines, and it's frozen. We'll be hauling hay to the horses the hard way this afternoon.

Saturday

Bright, early, and cold we headed out to the farm. I pushed a bit of hay to the horses and then we hauled corn and fed alfalfa to the outside sheep.

Sorry, guys - no corn for you. You'll have to make do with your alfalfa bale.

The lambs, mostly too small to enjoy getting corn just yet, scurried and scampered out of the way of their mamas rush to the corn feeders. These aren't first-year ewes. Most of them are fairly massive, and the majority out weigh me by a fair amount. I made the mistake of being first in with a bucket, and found myself nearly swept off my feet. With a seething mass of wooliness thigh high all around me, the only thing that kept me upright was the lack of space to fall down.

T, bless him, stood by the gate laughing at me, because once I'd dumped the grain out I was stuck - wedged against the feeder by sheep shoulders. Their bellies are so round that there was space by the feeder, but I couldn't squeeze myself through the press to escape.

He finally took pity on me and dumped his buckets in the other feeder, causing a rush in that direction.

Tractor surgery was next. The battery terminals on the tractor were bad, and we weren't sure about the battery. Turned out it needed a new block heater cable, too.
Back after retrieving the tractor necessities, there were new lambs. Unfortunately, several of them were already dead - even inside the barn with the lamp heaters, it's just so cold...

This one was still fighting, but mama was more interested in already dead sibling to care. In the vet room where it's warm we got it dried off, a bit of milk down it, and hoped for the best.Aiysha curled up next the the little guy and washed his ears - I figured her body heat sure couldn't hurt.

With as much done on that front as we could, we headed over the the vet's to get chores done there. All was peaceful. So after one last lamb check (still hanging in there) we headed home.