Beating the heat in the barnyard
When you live in a barnyard, and it’s hot as blazes, you do what you gotta do to cool off. You stay in the shade, stand in front of the fans, drink lots of electrolyte water, and….
Find yourself some cool mud.
Yup, mud.
Here’s how it goes for the alpacas. Rascal climbs into the water trough, cushes, and displaces lots of water over the side. This makes mud. (No rain=no grass.)
The other alpacas take advantage of this by folding their legs up under then and cushing in the cool mud. Yippee! Alpacas with muddy legs!
Here’s how it works for the chickens. The air conditioning compressor by the house has a drain of some sort that drains cool water into the ground. This makes mud. (Remember prior note about no rain?)
In the late afternoon, the chickens come into the yard and stand in the muddy water. Nothing dumb about our birds!
I’ve not yet had the need to go join the animals in the mud. However, if the electricity goes out and I’m not answering the front door, you might want to walk out back and start looking for mud!
Foul Weather Conditions
The weatherman’s “Wintry Mix” (translation: sleet, snow, and other yuk) that greeted us this morning required that we adjust our usual feeding arrangements. I was super glad DH was here to help do some of the heavy lifting as we moved feed troughs around.
The boy goats ate in the small chicken coop. (It’s important we be able to lock them up so that the other animals get to eat.)
The alpacas ate in the barn. Both animals got hay-from-a-bag today.
The sheep and girl goats ate in their shelter, more or less.
Only the rabbits, snug in their weather-tight, insulated building, wondered what all the fuss was about.
As for me, I stuffed rabbit fur in the bottom of my boots, put on my knitted hat, leather gloves, and insulated overalls, and was quite snug myself.
And the lion laid down with the lamb, or in our case, the alpacas laid down with the chickens.
Eggs in the hidey hole
Alan came over this morning to do some de-constructing for us. Our small chicken coop had this wooden structure in it that, for lack of a better description, looked like a set of bunk beds. Ken wanted it gone, so Alan tore it out.
Just look what he found.
We don’t have many chickens that lay white eggs, so I’m guessing they’ve been there 2-3 weeks. Wish I’d known it!
My own chicken whisperer
My husband loves chickens. Chickens love my husband. Truly, it’s the darndest thing I’ve ever seen. They come to him and plop down at his feet so he will pick them up!
Once he picks them up, they coo like morning doves (or is that mourning doves?).
I think if Ken had his way, we’d have hundreds of chickens, and not just for the fantastic eggs. He likes to order lots of different types from the hatchery and, to his credit, they are beautiful to look at. They roam all over in back of the house and in our southern-most pastures where it’s safe. Occasionally they venture over into the north pasture, but Buddha and MudBud chase them back “where they belong” (where the dogs think they belong, anyway).
Chickens are fun to watch, particularly when one of them has a worm and all the rest of them are chasing her down!
Chickens have long memories, too! We have a Buff Orpington that we moved out here with us from the city. That Buff remembers that Ken used to come out to the chicken yard with a pitchfork and turn up dirt for her. Of course, underneath were big juicy worms. To this day, when I try to do anything in the compost pile with a pitchfork, that Buff is right there waiting!
I’m glad Ken likes chickens, and I’m glad the chickens like him!
Friday Morning on the Farm
I slept in this morning. So to punish myself, I had to feed and do my morning chores before breakfast and coffee.
Here’s what was going on ….
I cleaned the floor of the Big Loafing Shed.
The sheep took turns looking in at my progress as if to ask, “Are you done yet?”
They wanted to come back inside in the shade!
There was some snacking going on …
And some announcements being made …
There were animals doing their jobs ….
And animals taking a nap …
Others were just trying to find a breeze!
What is it about this bench that is so comfy?
Now that I’ve had my coffee, I’m off to process some fiber!