She had an intruder last night. Sometime between 2:30 and 3:30 a.m. A bear decided it had been hibernating long enough and it was hungry! My Mom has been a friend of the birds for as many years as I can remember and has many, many feeders out for them. Not anymore. This guy ripped down all her feeders, carried off her biggest one and ripped the big wooden feeders right off their posts. 
She had a small metal garbage can on her porch filled with seed that it proceeded to roll off on the ground and consume 90% of the bird seed. It was a very quiet bear - my dogs didn't hear a thing. Neither of them barked and Banjo was outside on the front porch. 
She had a small metal garbage can on her porch filled with seed that it proceeded to roll off on the ground and consume 90% of the bird seed. It was a very quiet bear - my dogs didn't hear a thing. Neither of them barked and Banjo was outside on the front porch. 
We followed it's trail beyond the house into the back pasture where the sand was soft. It was easy to see his prints. Jacob followed his tracks to the edge of the pasture towards the woods. 
It left enough sign behind that it was here and what it ate. I hate that my Mom cannot feed the birds. She enjoys that so much. The advise we received from the Pro's is to take down all our feeders and leave them down for a week. If the bear comes back and their is no food supply, it's likely it won't return again. We have done as they suggested and are keeping our fingers crossed that it doesn't return.
This is my 2
This leggy little fellow is 
This single white crocus was in the opposite garden, I think there may be more but they haven't emerged yet. Iris and lillies and my bleeding hearts are s-l-o-w-l-y poking their heads up through the soil. With the wind and cool temps, the soil in my gardens is very dry. Rain is moving in and tomorrow should be a blessed rain day which everything will appreciate. 
She is a great mother - instinctively knowing exactly what to do. These little guys were born within 10 minutes of each other and both were on their feet within minutes. Strong and healthy, just the way I like it. We have named them Barnum & Bailey.
This is Bailey. They are both very sweet and already love to be cuddled. The orange pigment around their eyes indicates that they will be both be moorit in color as adults even though Barnum appears black right now. Koko is the first of seven ewes to lamb. Looks like it's going to be a busy week :)
WE had a busy weekend and accomplished many farm chores that needed to be done. The little house with the blue plastic is our duck house. We moved the duck house and ducks from the back garden into the cow pasture. I thought they would do a good job cleaning up after the cows and they will all have plenty of room. That and I need the garden space. The frame of the duck house is an awning frame that DH recycled from a job he did. There were two of them and they were going to throw them in the dumpster. We have used both of them as duck house/ chicken tractors by using small chicken wire and this heavy duty plastic for weatherproofing. They are lightweight and move easily. Works great and they didn't cost a fortune. The cows and the donkey checked them out and when they found out they weren't edible, they weren't interested for very long :) 
This is my row of parsnips. They overwintered fine in the garden and are doing nicely. Most are big enough to harvest. 
While moving the ducks, we decided to separate out the males from the females. The males are incredibly aggressive to the females to the point where they injure them if they can gang up on them. One male is more than enough to keep the eggs fertile. The other boys went into the freezer. We raise Indian Runners and were happy at the size when dressed. We skinned them and it was much better than the usual dip and pluck method. DH halved them and is now looking for duck recipes as I write this :)
This is the spring paddock where our ewes and new lambs will be turned out once the grass is growing. 
The last pygora kids born to Lace on 4/13/09. Lemon & Lime - they are doing wonderful. They are going to be a champagne color. They explored outside briefly yesterday afternoon. Hopefully they will do the same today and I can get photos of them exploring to post.
Lambing is imminent. Should be just another week before we start. I have some very hefty ladies :) Daphne (closest in the photo) is showing signs of being close, a swollen udder and she gets very affectionate just before she delivers.
Gus & Squirt have graduated.....they now go out to the big pasture with the cows everyday. They are loving this :) Donkey and the others checked them out thoroughly for a few minutes but after that everyone settled in and these guys are now just one of the group. They sure love the "hay anytime we want it" service. They are both thriving. I couldn't be happier with these calves.
Twin doelings!! This is what we found when we went to the barn early this morning. What a great way to start the day. All delivered, dried off and eating their first meal and, of course, adorable :) They are going to be caramel color like Papa Amos, the angora. They are average size. Mama goat is fine. She had her warm molasses water and now they are all having a nap. I think the lesson I'm supposed to learn here is that I have really fat goats! Four doelings this year out of four babies. I'm certainly happy with that. 
My DH brought me home this lovely Easter lily that adorns my table and the smell greeted me this morning as I made my coffee. They are gorgeous this year. A favorite of mine and I look forward to having one each year. It has several unopened blossoms and should last a couple of weeks. 
Can you believe the size of this goat? I say she will have them Easter sunday. It's really any one's guess - I know one thing.....she won't have them until she's ready :) I've been letting the 3 does and the two doelings out in the front paddock the last two days to enjoy the sunshine. 
