New Arrivals

Tuesday, February 28th these two little cutie pies joined us on Rainy Day Farm.

Rainy Day Farm Hillbilly Bone (Billy)

&

 Rainy Day Farm Sunny in Seattle (Sunny)

came shooting into the world.  They got their names from Blake Shelton songs, since I am a bit of a fan, and since we already have a Honey Bee.

 Billy is the one in front and Sunny is the darker one in back. Sunny is the adventurer and the rowdy girl, while Billy is a super sweet snuggler like his dad.

 Their mother, Maddie, was kind enough to wait until we got home from Logan's scout meeting. She had Sunny so fast that I missed the birth and got there just in time to clean her up. I have never had a delivery go that fast and am so glad everything ended up ok. I am sooooooo thankful that she waited until I could be there to help.

 They are 24 hours old here and loved being outside in the fresh air. They jumped and hopped and ran all over the place. Made their mother very nervous.

This is just a few hours after they were born. Up and ready to take on the world. It is amazing that within minutes of being born they are up and walking around. I did have to give them a blow dry because the night was a bit chilly.

Here is a little video of their first day outside. As you can tell by all the hopping, they like being outdoors.

New Rainy Day Farm Arrival

Yesterday afternoon, Yasmine, decided to finally go into labor. I have been waiting all week for her to deliver. I have not been able to leave the house for long stretches at a time waiting and waiting.

 I went to church and worried the whole time, came home tired and grumpy and went and took a nap. Robb and I went out to check around 6:15 and saw that she was in labor.

 With a little pulling from Robb we got her out and she is happy and healthy. She was the only one so she should develop really well. She has mom all to herself.

Yasmine is such a good mommy and baby is just as sweet as she looks. Now I need to head out to the barn and snuggle with them. See ya later.

Fair Time Again

It's that time of year again, when everyone gets spiffied up for the County Fair. We got all the goats bathed, clipped, hoofs trimmed and smelling purdy. We loaded everything up and headed out. This is our first year doing our local county fair, which is just 7 miles from our house.

 Here are our stalls all decorated and ready for the fair goers.

 Addison & Logan hanging out in our tack stall. This is where we spend most of our time while we are at the fair. We snack, play games and chill in here.

 Here is Addison and Logan with Haley (who happens to be their babysitter) in their wether class showing their stuff.

 Landon even got into the action by showing our little baby doe Kristin. He even got a blue ribbon that he ran through the arena waving behind him like a kite.

 Here is our little wanna be cowboy.

 Our little man even took a header while waiting for me to get our fair passes and ended up cracking his head open and we had a quick trip to the ER for some steri-strips and a band-aid. He scared us all, but ended up being fine with a good scar story to tell. Never a dull moment with this kid.

This is what most of the goats spend their time doing, looking out the pens and wanting to go home to our peaceful pasture. This is one of our does, Yasmine, wanting a snack or a ride home.

We had a great time and ended up getting some great ribbon and our doe Sunna got the Best of Show ribbon. The kids loved it and that is what makes it all worth the work and expense. Until next year.



New Farm Additions

Well we have two new additions to the farm. My doe, Sunna, had her babies yesterday around 5 p.m. She delivered twin babies and had a perfect delivery. She had a carmel buck who will be named Rainy Day Farm Roy and an aguti doe that will be named Rainy Day Farm Kristin's Smile. They are being named after my good friend Kristin who passed away two days before this doe was bred. I know she was smiling down on me yesterday and was there the whole time. She sent me some adorable little babies that  just love to death.

 Landon absolutely LOVES the new babies. He can't seem to get enough of them and wants to live in the barn now. I had to bribe him with wii time to get him to come in the house with me.

 Addison was my barn helper, along with Robb, the whole time. She was right there handing me towels and holding babies so we could disinfect their umbilical cords. She didn't even get grossed out. She is definitely is my farm girl.

 Here is my super cute baby girl. She is so stinking cute. I am so in love with that little girl.

 Here is my boy Roy. He is such a typical by and is always nursing. He will be a chunk soon for sure!

 Sunna is being such a good mommy. She even stood still so I could help the babies start nursing. She is very alert and attentive to these little guys. What a gal. (sorry for the sketchy pic, this was from my phone)

Hope you all have a wonderful farm girl day! I'll be in the barn as much as possible with the new little Rainy Day Farm additions!

Life with Skipper

Life with Skipper has been fun and a bit of a challenge. He is so much fun to cuddle with. I can't sit down without him bounding in from the other room and snuggling in my lap. He also LOVES to go to bed with Addison and snooze with her until it is time to go in his kennel.

There have been challenges too. Like potty training, chewing and running away from us outside. I have not been able to do enough training so he is still a little rough around the edges. I thought my husband was going to kill him or me the other day when he got out and took off to the neighbors. We live in a very rural area with creeks, wild animals, and loose neighbor dogs that won't hesitate to have him for a snack. My wonderful husband launched himself in the air and over a log to catch that tiny little rascal. He is surprisingly fast for such a little thing. I have to admit, that one more lap around the pasture and I was ready to leave him to his own devices. I realized I need to work out more so I can keep up with him. Yikes!

Landon always keeps things interesting and has to explore as much as Skipper. He thought he would try taking a nap in Skippers kennel. He barely fit.

The kids love to have him around to play with and snuggle up too. He loves to be with them and when they go outside without him he paces the house looking out at the window, not believing the betrayal of not taking him with them. He also gets VERY excited when we come home. He can hardly contain his excitement. His little tail just beats back and forth.

And finally, this is his favorite place to keep watch on the family. This chair faces the family room, kitchen and hallway. It is the greatest vantage point for such a tiny guy. Irresistible isn't he?

Crazy Goat Ladies!

You know you love your goats when you ask a bunch of men to move a barn 30 miles so the goats can get to their new home and be happy. Yes, we are officially CRAZY GOAT LADIES! My friend Kristin's family needed to move and couldn't take their goats. Her daughter, Katrina, wasn't comfortable sending them to someones house that didn't know anything about goats. So, we decided that if they could get the barn here to our house, that we would take take of them until they got a new house built. For payment I get to keep the barn. Sounds fair to me!

So the said guys spent ALL day long figuring out how to move, haul and replace said barn. Took them two house to figure out how to get it loaded with out busting into a million pieces. They even managed to get it all they way here without any police stopping to ask them what they heck they were doing with a building on a trailer.

It took all of 15 minutes to get it unloaded. Notice that there are seven men in this picture and two are actually working? Looks like a government job to me! Hehehe. Men's minds are truly amazing at figuring out how to accomplish an impossible task that we women set for them.

The goats are adjusted and loving all the new space to roam. They are all getting along great too. It seems that the more the merrier is true with goats. So a BIG thank-you to all those guys who took time out of their day to help us crazy goat ladies! Men rock!

New Addition to the Farm

Sorry for being such a post slacker this month. I have been busy and lost a little of my blogging mojo for some reason. But, I am back and have lots to post about, starting with this little cutie pie.
I have been wanting a little dog for the house for a while now and have been searching for over a month. I first tried doing the rescue thing, but after filling out several LENGTHY applications where I had to practically give away my children before I ever thought of getting rid of the dog. I applied for several dogs and was denied for one reason or another. I finally found one and they adopted it out from under me. I was going to pick the dog up on Friday and someone took her on Wednesday. I was NOT HAPPY! I really think they should let you know ahead of time that the dog could go before you get there. Anyhoo, I just quit the whole rescue thing and and started looking for a breeder.

I found a lady in the paper and found out she new my next door neighbor, go figure. We headed out in the snow with the munchkins and found this little guy. His name is Skipper and he is a black and tan Pomeranian. He is 7 months old and so much fun, and did I mention he is cute? This is so great because the breeder taught him everything, so we don't have too. He is socialized, potty trained, and good with kids, cats, and other dogs.

He fits right in and acts like he has lived here all his life. He loves the kids and lets them do just about anything to him. He even slept on the foot of our bed last night. He has my husband wrapped around his tiny little paw and even road on my husbands lap this morning in the car.

He is a quirky little thing too. He eats his food one kibble at a time and takes it over to the carpet to eat, he never eats at his dish. Too funny. He also tries to bury his snacks in the carpet by pawing like he is digging a hole and then uses his nose to try and cover it up. I am sure he is wondering why the carpet doesn't seem to cover his treasure. Funny boy. Welcome to the farm Skipper.

Fur Babies

Last week we had a few nice days of sunshine and of course I headed out to spend a little time with the goats. They are so fun to go out and play with, they love to be scratched. They also love to climb in my lap and get some pets. Here is Maddie getting a back rub and loving it.

Here is baby Kat hanging out on one of the spools. She loves to have her picture taken and is such a good girl about waiting for me to get the shot I want. Looks like I need to do some painting this summer on the spools.

Here is Landon handleing Sunna. I wanted to get a picture of them together with her looking at me, so Landon decided to help me turn her head, but she though he was scratching her and insisted on standing perfectly still.

Here are brother and sister, Rocket and Kat. Cute pair for sure.


Maddie & Duke hanging out on the slide.

They are so much fun to hang out with. Hope we have lots more sunny days in the future.

Eggsellent Layer

I am so excited that my Ameraucana hen has finally started laying her beautiful blue/green eggs. I was starting to wonder when she was going to lay. I have had her since last spring and she just started to lay a few weeks ago.

She is my smallest hen and therefore gets picked on all the time. She is a sweet chicken and just goes about her business and doesn't seem to mind being alone most of the time. I was so excited to finally see the beautiful shade of green in the coop. The looks so pretty next to the brown eggs. It is like Easter all year round.

I don't have a name for this little lady, so if you have a good suggestion for me please leave me a comment with a name. I have named all my other hens after all my Grandmothers and Great-Grandmothers.

This Rhode Island Red is Lucille. She is my feistiest hen and will peck you in a second. She does this because she has a bum leg and walks with a limp. I am sure she pecks because she is making sure to defend herself. I think my horse stepped on her. We nursed her back to health and she is just fine.

This is Gerna, one of my newer hens. I am not sure what type she is, I think she may be a Sexlink but I am not 100% sure.

This was my first green egg and I also found this ginormous egg in the coop the same day. The picture does not do it justice, but trust me it was HUGE. I am sure one of my chickens was walking funny for the rest of the day. When I show my husband he asked, "Who died?"

Goat All Nighter

Things worked out for Addison and I to go to a friends house and help her deliver her two baby goats.
Addison hanging out with Max waiting for the babies to come. Addison and Max hit it off and became the best of pals. Max did have a wicked long tongue and was quite fast with it.

We weren't quite sure how things were going to turn out with the labor because the mama was having some trouble. So I kept Addison in the house until we knew things were OK. She then came down and held the new little doe, while her brother was being born. Addison loved the experience, since she missed the birth of our babies last summer.

Here is the proud Mama (Trinity) with her new little ones. She got one of each, getting a doe and a buck. They were healthy and adorable.

Here is the little doe getting her first spa treatment. It was really cold in the barn, as it was 3:30 in the morning, so we were helping her get dry and warm. It was a really LONG but rewarding night. I finally got to bed around 6:00 am. As long as they are healthy it is worth it.

There were both cold and wet so a hairdryer was necessary so they didn't get chilled. The buck thought he was a tough guy and didn't need no stinking spa treatment, so he kept trying to walk away. Just like a man! He was thinking of that Brad Paisley song, "I'm still a guy" when it came to the pampering. He sure was a cutie pie.

Our First Loss

In the middle of being busy for the bazaar one my goats got really sick. Max got sick and after spending many hours caring for him and worrying over him we had to put him down. This was a hard blow because we had only had him for a short time and he is the first loss we have had here on the farm. It is frustrating to watch an animal suffer and there is nothing you can do to help them. So farewell to Crosswynd Farms BT Maxwell, I hope he is in a better place and is free from his pain.

Rainy Day Farm Additions

We have a couple of new additions to the Rainy Day Farm herd.

This is Maxwell (Max) and he is a three year old wether. He is here on a trial basis and I am having to work with him a lot. He has not been trained and is quite the handful. We shall see if he gets to become a permanent member of the Rainy Day Farm herd.

Maddie is our newest doe to join the herd. She will be one in December and we have been waiting for her a long time. I have been begging her owner to sell her to me and she finally relented. She is a super sweet girl and gets along with all the other goats. She also does well at the shows so we are excited about her. Isn't she a cutie pie.

I also updated the pictures of our Rainy Day Farm babies. They are 4 months old now and still super cute.
Rocket is finally speaking to me after being wethered. He would not come near me for a month after I took him to be wethered. I guess goats hold grudges. He is still a sweet boy and good with the other goats.
Kat is the loviest little goat we have. She is the first to come up to me for attention. I think she would love nothing more than to become an indoor house goat. We just love her to death. (sorry about the picture, I took it with my phone and the sun was really bright.)