Hole in the Pond Dam

Can you guess why I'm taking this picture?

Look closer.....Do you notice anything in the dark hole?

Jael had 4 pups yesterday.  She dug this hole in the side of our pond dam and made a little cave for her pups to live in.  It is amazing how instinctive these dogs are.  She is our oldest female Anatolian Shepherd that we have in the pasture with our main doe herd.  She is 7 1/2 years old. 

Here is a shot of her in the "cave" with her pups.  This is the best my camera will get.  Just look at that pup on the right.   It just happened to be moving onto its back when I took the picture.

Isn't that just the sweetest little thing?

Happy Father's Day

I just want to take the time to say Happy Father's Day to all of the men out there that have in some way made an impact on a child's life. Especially to my wonderful husband.

she's learning to drive

he's learning to construct things

working on fencing together

working the livestock together

spending an afternoon relaxing by the pond

Getting the ride of their life

Showing off his mad skills on the bicycle ;)

Happy Father's Day to the world's greatest husband and father!  Thank you for making so many memories for our babies.  We are so blessed with two of the most wonderful children. I thank God that he has blessed me with the opportunity to raise our children with you by my side.  I love you honey!

World's coolest dad

Our past week's happenings

The flooring is officially complete! We are getting so close....I'm hoping that we get to move in at least by the middle of July. Fingers are crossed!  Our stove and microwave should be arriving any day...Yippee!

kitchen

I am sooooo going to enjoy having these two big windows.  This house is located more in the center of our farm.  All of the views from these windows are of the pastures.  That will be such a nice change.

living/dining room

We've also been seeing a lot of these kind of skies; and I'm so thankful to the good Lord for sending us all of the rain that we've received.  We have really needed it.  

soon to be rain

This past week, we had to round up all of our bucklings to make the final decision of  which ones were to go to the Oklahoma Forage Buck Test at the Kerr Center in Poteau, Oklahoma.  We were in a pasture without a catch pen, so Shane decided to use this small pen that we have out in that pasture (we'd had our ducks out there in it so the LGDs could get used to seeing ducks).   Davie, our border collie, went out and rounded up the bucklings and herded them right to the pen. 

The only problem was that they had to get into that pen by way of one small door.  Of course there were some that wanted to run around the pen and try to make an escape, but Davie kept after them and eventually got every single goat in that pen.  Shane would keep the door closed to keep those that were already in from getting out.  When Davie would get close with the others, he would open it so they could get in.  I'm telling you, that border collie is priceless!  I mean she has saved us many hours of frustration on getting those goats caught up.  There was a time when it was just Shane and myself on foot, with Shane being armed with a lasso.  Those days made for many laughs.  Shane did get pretty good at  lassoing  goats.  It was amazing... Of course we only had about 12 -15 goats then.  I couldn't even imagine doing that now. 

It's much easier to watch in amazement at how one dog can get out there and round up 100 goats and drive them into any area you want them to be in.  Truly amazing!

It's Mineral Time!

I put out minerals the other day, and thought I would show what kind of mineral feeder we use. This mineral feeder is made out of the bottom of a 55 gallon drum and a flap of rubber. I do believe Shane got this rubber from a plant that was going to throw it away. It was a belt off of some kind of machine. He just cut it to size.

We have a loose mineral custom mixed based on what is needed for our area.  This mineral is also available for not only the cows, but the goats and horses as well.  Many times they will be in the same pasture together, so we had to have something that they all could consume.  In the past we had used the PVC pipe mineral feeders for the goats, but the minerals always got hard and it wasn't feasible to use with the cattle and horses too.  I have a photo of the goats using this particular type of  mineral feeder in this post from last year.  You can click here and scroll down to see the photo.

I must mention that we do have several in each pasture.  They will all try to attack just one, so it is necessary (especially with all of our cattle) to keep several feeders out.  They tend to get rowdy if they are all wanting it at the same time.  They are more "well-behaved" when they have the option to go to the next one when the other is "occupied".   Also something learned through trial and error is that the rubber flap must be wide enough that when the goats climb on top if it (you know they will ) that it will not sink down into the minerals.  It will then open that tub up to collect pellets; not a good thing ;)   

Ducks On The Farm

We have added a few ducks to our farm. They are strictly here just for us to enjoy looking at. We got them when they were a little over a week old and raised them in a cooler until they got rid of all of those fuzzy yellow feathers and grew those nice white ones. It is so relaxing to me, to watch them glide across the pond so gracefully.  

Gliding Gracefully

They do tend to spend most of their time swimming in the pond or standing just in the waters edge.  However, there are times when I will catch them in the middle of the pasture out "grazing" for bugs.  It's the funniest thing to see those ducks working over the ground so quickly.  It's seems like they are having such a feast.  Of course, when anything appears to be heading in their direction such as a horse, dog, cow, goat, or human; they take off like like rockets to get back to the safety of the pond.  I really do enjoy having them around.  Thanks to my honey for "convincing" me that we needed some ducks  on the farm ;)

"Grazing"

Snack Time!

I always find it so amazing how those goats can eat the thorniest plants.  It's like snack time for them when it comes to briars and prickly weeds.  So thankful that we have the goats in our pastures.  They really have improved them.  They eat what the cows aren't interested in and it balances it all out.

The photo above is our summer project, once the remodeling is completed.  The wooded area at the bottom of this 40 acre pasture will be enclosed with portable electric fencing and goats will be put to work on it. I think it's about 12 acres. Several years ago we had someone come and cut the big trees off of it hoping to open it up into pasture land.  There were some smaller trees left behind, along with some brush, and you can see it has taken off in just the few years.  It was not top on the priority list of things to get done here on the farm, so once again, it will be snack time for the goats!

** Oh, before I forget.....the turtle in the last post was lucky because a pellet barely missed him and became lodged in the tree limb.  If you look closely you can see it below the turtle.  I just zoomed in to take a picture of the turtle ( he was so far away ) so we could get a good clear picture of him and didn't notice the "missed shot" until we uploaded the pictures on the computer.**  

The Lucky Turtle

Can you look at this photo and tell why this is one lucky turtle? Look closely..... I'll give you a hint:  Dillon has decided that it is his duty to rid the pond of all turtles and snakes. 

Our ponds are full of these creatures.  At any given time, you can see their sneaky little heads pop up out of the water, and then disappear just as quickly.  I've been told that they eat on the fish in the pond, so I really don't like them even more.  A couple of years ago Shane bought a pile of bream fingerlings and put them in the pond with hopes for us to be able to have some good fishing.  Between the Blue Herons and turtles, I don't think those little fish stand a chance.   

It has been HOT!

It has been so HOT the past few days! Whew! I'm talking HOT and dry. I went out yesterday to try to get some photos for someone interested in purchasing a kiko buck from us, and these fellas were like, "Lady, I aint gettin' up and out there in that sunshine to pose for you. I just got my belly full and plan on staying in this here shade." I couldn't blame them. I actually wanted to sprawl out there with them too because by the time I walked out there to where they were, I was hassling like a dog on a hot summer day.

Gold Digger [ our unicorn : ) ] and Elvis chillin in the shade

Sunday afternoon, our kids went to stay with their grandma for a couple of days.  Shane and I didn't know what to do with ourselves!  He decided it was time to fire up the old Shovelhead and go for a spin.  It's been a while since the poor thing had been fired up, so she needed a little assistance to get going.  It was so nice for us to get out and enjoy the scenery.  It took me back down memory lane.  I figured that day that it had been 7 years since I had sat on the back of that thing.  It was funny, because I had to get used to being a good passenger without all of that moving around and leaning correctly in the curves.  For those that have ridden, you know what I mean.  I told Shane we should do it again soon.  It made me feel young again ;)

The flooring has started going down that will be in the kitchen/dining/living/utility rooms.  It is a vinyl plank flooring that looks like wood.  It's supposed to be pretty durable.  We shall see.  Hopefully it will all come together soon.  It was quite hot yesterday working in the house.  We have the power on, but the AC isn't working correctly, so only the breeze of a few fans were on us.  It was in the 90's yesterday, and I could certainly feel it ALL day! 

Hopefully, I can convince the goats to pose for me today to get those photos before it gets too hot and they are not in the mood.  Photographing livestock is a challenge, I must say....Especially when the photographer is out there battling horseflies like crazy and hassling because she's out of shape and can't stand the heat!  Wish me luck!

"Fence-line weaning"

Our colt has turned 8 months old and it has become time for him to be weaned. 

Shane had saddled up his mother recently, to take her for a short ride, and the colt went absolutely crazy when she was out of sight. I could only  imagine how he could hurt himself if we were to separate them completely. Shane ran  2 strands of hot wire and put Dixie (his mother)  one one side while the colt is on the other side. They are able to be close enough to each other for comfort, but he can't nurse. He also has the company of 2 of our geldings on his side of the fence.  He's been hanging out with the fellas not paying too much attention to his mom. 

The palomino on the left is Dixie, his mother.  He is the bay at the right.  Sonny, the paint, is one of the geldings.  The weaning has went much better than I expected.  No running wildly and behaving psychotically.  So so so thankful for that!

Finally!

Houston, we finally have the cabinets installed! Hooray! 

Thank you Lord, for my hard working husband!

We also have a kindergarten graduate too!  So thankful the kids are on their summer break! 

Mal and her most favorite teacher Ms. Charles and one of her classmates.