The Barnyard Today

The ducklings have just about doubled in size. I've sold the entire clutch of Mandarins - all eight - to one guy. He is driving 4 1/2 hours from Louisiana to pick them up. The best part is that he is paying $200 for the batch! Whoo hooo!! Poor Cleo, the Ancona, will be left alone again. But I'm sure ClaireAnna will see to it that she has some company.

This is Romeo. He is our 100% Boer, painted buck. We traded a horse for him. He is not turning out as nice as we had hoped, although we have changed his feed and are waiting to see how he fills out on the new stuff. I kinda wish I had the horse back! But....he will do till we can raise up another buck we like better. Or maybe sell some kids and buy one. I like his color! And his is friendly and easy to work with.

This is Brook. She is a pretty, black headed, half dairy, half Boer, doe. She was born here last June. We like the dairy mixed nannies because they give lots of milk and grow a kid fast!

This first doe is Grace. She is a high % Boer we will be keeping from this years crop of kids. She is only 3 months old and very muscular and healthy. I guess Romeo can get it right if he tries! The little red doe behind Grace has been sold to a 4-H girl.

Here are the dogs lounging with Summer in the foreground. We are mad at her. She is our nicest Boer doe but failed to have kids this spring. We are giving her one more chance and then to the sale barn she goes! The doe in the background is named Thacia, but we call her BB for Basketball Belly. She is older and her stomach has stretched out permanently. It looks like she has 2 basketballs in her belly, one on each side. She is NOT pregnant in this picture! She lost a teet to injury this year - darn it. She did manage to raise 2 kids on one teet, which is pretty amazing. But, she usually has triplets, so that is not going to work. We will breed her one more time since she gave us our best kid this year. Then, off to the sale barn she goes.
This picture gives you an idea of how gigantic Bo is. We don't know where he gets his height from. He is much taller then either of his parents. Ted is wearing his "summer" jeans since they give him a little circulation! He doesn't wear shorts on the farm no matter how hot it gets so this is his compromise. LOL
Doesn't Shani look dead???? She was tired from running ( her usual activity) and plopped down in the dirt. She paddled her front legs a bit to expose some damp cool dirt and then just lay here. As I took the picture, she opened her eyes, but kept her gaze forward and didn't raise her head. Hence the death pose! Funny!

PIG!

Here is Pig. Yes, that's his name. He is Kate's 4-H project and our future freezer pork. Ted made a quick shelter for him out of material we had around the barn. He loves it and is keeping it quite clean actually. He lounges most of the day on his pallets but does his "business" in a corner in the mud. We have only had him about 2 weeks but he has just about doubled in size. When we got him, he was about 50 lbs. By fair time mid September, he should weigh close to 280 lbs. What a pig!

The Lone Guardian and The Escape Artist

From a distance, all you see is a small, happy, herd of goats..........

But zoom in, and you will see WHY they are so happy. Bocephus! What a good boy! He is 17 months old now, all grown up and doing his job. He is just the best livestock guardian dog we could ask for. The goats trustingly follow him out to pasture each day. They come running back to their paddock if he barks the alarm. His bark, alone, keeps predators and stray dogs away from the barnyard. And by the way, he is GIGANTIC! I can pet his back without bending at all! And sweet and gentle as can be. He does chew up the stray halter if left in the barn. But we are learning to put them away. Other then that, he is the perfect farm dog!

Shani, on the other had, has abdicated every scintilla of guardian responsibility she ever felt for the goats and holds no loyalty to her brother what so ever. She has decided she is supposed to guard people instead. After spending their entire first year in the goat pen, we slowly allowed the dogs some freedom. For a while, all was well. But once Shani found our house, (a few of hundred yards from the barn), she never left. We tried everything to get her to stay back at the barn like her well behaved brother, but she has thwarted our efforts. She climbs fences and digs out of stalls and pens. She'll do what ever she has to do to get to the house so she can lay on the carport, waiting for us to come out. She spends her entire day in this spot and only goes back to the barn when we do.

What a little stinker! As of now, we have decide to let her hang out at the house during the day, but we have no choice but to put her back at the barn at night or we would never get to sleep. Remember, she is guarding us - from every single night time sound and movement. Bark! Bark! Bark! Thank you, Shani, but .....no thanks! So, much to her dismay, she is spending her night time on a chain in the barn - the only form of confinement she has been so far unable to escape! Poor baby! We love you anyway!

Sad and Tragic Day

Missy had her foal. As you can see, she is another Lethal White Overo. Soon after this picture was taken, we transported the filly to the vet for euthanasia. This is our second LWO foal out of Missy and it will definately be our last. For an explaination of the whole situation, see this previous post.

http://harmonpfarms.blogspot.com/2007/12/tragedy-in-horse-barn.html

We had chosen a substitute mare to breed to Conclusive Mister but she failed to conceive. Last spring, we just decided that luck would be in our favor and it was Missy we wanted a foal from anyway, so....let's go for it! Hind sight is 20/20 and as of today, we sure wish we had chosen a different path. We knew there was a chance.....but we just kept telling ourselves that it wouldn't happen twice. But....it did. Sad day.

Duckling Triumph!

Yeah! We finally found something under one of our duck hens when we checked them tonight! Eight tiny Chinese Mandarins! Lucky for us, these are our most valuable ducks so we are really excited that the Mandarin hen did her job right - UNLIKE the Ancona or Khaki Campbell hens! Here is the whole clutch under the lamp. They will rest all night and then we will put them out in the barn in a stall with a heat lamp. We will raise them in the stall until they are sold. I'll post video once they are running around. These cuties are only hours old and still resting from the effort of hatching. ClaireAnna is begging to keep Cleo in the kitchen anyway. I'll let Dad break that one to her.

Mother's Day!

I got these beautiful flowers for Mother's Day from my wonderful daughter, Jes! Thanks Jes! I love them!

Duckling Disaster!

Spring is the time for farm babies and we have been anxiously awaiting our crop of ducklings. We had seven hens sitting on large nests of eggs. Finally, after waiting for weeks, we went out to check the ducks and found........ONE DUCKLING! That's it....and that's all we got....ONE DUCKLING! What on earth are we going to do with ONE??? We had planned to sell a bunch of them to the local feed store. We have no idea why all the nests were duds....we will have to do some research so this doesn't happen next year. And we do still have 2 hens sitting faithfully, so we are hopefull......But for now, "Cleo" is living in a makeshift brooder box under my counter in the kitchen. I mean..come on...you can't leave ONE DUCKLING all by it's self at the barn......can you?

A Giant Falls

We've had a couple of horrendous thunder storms lately, with high wind speeds. This giant oak is the victim of two of them. This oak must have been wounded sometime decades ago and had a large split about 15 feet up. At it's base, it was one of our largest trees, easily hundreds of years old. But above the wound the tree was split in two. ( You can see the decades old would in the second photo - Claire is standing on it. Well, a couple of weeks ago, one side of the tree fell and a couple of nights ago, the other side joined it. We have no idea how we are going to clean up this mess. We're hoping to find someone willing to cut it up for the wood, but it is SO big, that I doubt free fire wood would be worth all this work! We have lost several large oaks to storms and lightning in the last couple of years and need them all removed. However, the others are on our own property and can be left till we have time. This one has fallen into our neighbor's field and has to be removed immediately. Here's ClaireAnna having some fun.

Our Little Ranch Hand

We've never had an injured calf before other then the poor hiefer Jack Frost tried to stomp to death ( long story). But the other day we found one with a terrible wound to the hock. We have him in the horse corral for now ( the cattle barn corral is just too muddy/ poopy for this type of wound) and are treating him daily. I'm sure he'll be fine as long as we can stave off infection. He can walk and run without a limp but this wound goes very deep. Here are pictures of ClaireAnna doing his daily hydrotherapy and debriding and one of the calf happy to be back with his mom.

Musical Rooms Again

Due to the economy and the need for all of us to save money, Josh is moving back home! He will be taking Kate's room. She has moved up to Ted's parents. She still comes home for meals and visits but is enjoying having a little independence. Josh, on the other hand, will have to get used to living with us after several years of total freedom! We're keeping our hands folded and our thinking positive! Actually, we are both really excited to be able to have him back for a little while. We have missed seeing him regularily.

ClaireAnna Sings "God Of Wonders"

Here is the video ( sorry for the quality!) of ClaireAnna singing God of Wonders at the Pope County 4-H O'Rama. She also played her piano. She wasn't judged because she is still a Cloverbud, so no placeing for her. But, holy cow, are we proud of her!

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=katemary63&aq=f

You KNOW I can't resist chocolate!

The fact is, stray dogs and cats are plentiful in rural Arkansas and we see them all the time, hanging around along the road, running through the fields, in the woods. One day, though, a particular little pup caught my eye. He was hanging around the highway about 1/2 mile from our farm. I saw him many times over the course of a couple of months and as the days went by, he got thinner and thinner and lost his hair. I was so tempted to stop. I'd slow down to get a better look at him.... but we have a policy...no strays. We just can't take on the responsibility. I had mentioned him to Ted. He had seen the pup too and admonished me, "Don't you dare!" "I know, I know...", I replied. We already have 2 rescue dogs and 2 livestock guardians. Four dogs is enough! And there are SO many stray dogs that come through the farm....we just have to stick to our guns.....right?

Well, one day last fall I opened up the back door to find a visitor on my stoop. The same, sad little puppy I had been seeing on the highway. He found me! When Ted came home that evening, the girls and I met him outside with cautious grins on our faces and eyebrows raised in anticipation.....what's Dad gonna say?? "Well, I sure hope you fed him" was all. We had. You see, this little pup was literally skin and bones. He was pathetic. Later that day I talked with Josh, who had recently moved into a rented home with a fenced back yard. He promptly came over and took the pup to his house. Josh and Lily nursed "Miller" back to health and look at him now!

A beautiful, stocky, shiny, healthy chocolate lab! Josh and Lily just love him. He lives back at the farm now since Josh is moving home. Isn't he pretty! He sure has come a long way from his days on the highway. He loves water and will retrieve anything you throw for him. He is happy and energetic and sweet. Here is a video of Miller. Watch that tail! It's like a baseball bat!

Smart and Chexy Two

Well, Chexy IS all grown up. She turns 2 years old this month. I foolishly procrastinated registering her with AQHA, but I finally got that done this past weekend. I believe her official name will be "Smart and Chexy Two". I think it is so cute and can't believe that no one has used it yet. There are so many horses with both "smart" and "chexy" in their name it boggles the mind. But I checked with AQHA and as of Sunday, that name was unused, so......I think we'll get it!

Most people would send Chexy off to the trainers this spring, but I am holding off. I just don't feel the need to start the wear and tear on her joints and legs this early. I will send her in late fall I think, or even next spring. We took her out and groomed her and took pictures for her registration yesterday. She was such a good girl. ( Of course she's in her winter woolies still ) I do have her listed for sale but it would break my heart to actually go through with it. I hope no one calls about her. :) I just love her so much. She has a wonderful, affectionate personality. She is definitely the best bred equine on the place. Some of the famous horses in her pedigree are:

Smart Little Lena

Lean With Me

King Fritz

Chexy Lady

This is her sire's pedigree:

http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/lean+on+fritz

This is her dam's pedigree:

http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/broadway+jazz+bars

Post Script: I sold Chexy to a girl in Oklahoma who will do reining with her.  I can no longer ride stock horses due to my hip and back issues.  Chexy was a love and I miss her terribly.

Go Green and White!

I have to acknowlege how out of date my blog is....Sorry, I've really missed working on it. But I have been very busy this winter. I've also had camera trouble and have had a hard time figuring out what was wrong, if I should have it fixed, and if I should spring for another camera and if so, what kind! Still haven't figured it all out. My pictures right now are terrible but they are all I have.

ClaireAnna was a cheerleader this winter with Upwards Basketball. She just loved it and did a wonderful job. Upwards also has girls teams so next year, she is going to play and then she will decide which she likes better, playing or cheering. Upwards is a para-church organization that puts on low-competition basketball leagues through local churches. The kids learn Bible verses and have devotions as part of their practice. The games are fun and have a half time devotion for the parents. There are 8 games, 1 every Saturday for January and February. Here she is in her uniform. "Go Upwards, Go Grean and White!"





After the game, the girls get sticker awards to put on their megaphones for best cheer, Christ likeness, most spirit, leadership ect.. ClaireAnna was always proudest when she got best leadership.

January?

I took these pictures today! Jan 3, 2009. We reached 73 degrees. Took a nice hike to the creek with the girls. ClaireAnna and her best buddy Dayna played in the water and Kate did all but go swimming! Yes, I know I need to do my holiday posts. I will get them done tomorrow I hope! Right now, we're headed back outside to feed and work with the horses.

Letherneck's Cool Hand Luke

Luke has been gone a couple of years now, but I thought I would just post some pictures. I think about him and Indy all the time. I will always miss my boys.