Escape from Farmcatraz and sunny goats

On Saturday I decided to take on a project I have been thinking about for a while. That is putting up electric net fencing in the front-near pasture and moving the ducks out of the pheasant pen for the fall/winter. This should improve the pasture as I noticed that where I had the ducks before, the grass grew in very nicely and weed free. It will also help minimize the mud in the pheasant pen. So to begin this project I first had to harvest the fencing from our hillside as it had been used to contain goats there last summer. Here's the view from up on the hill overlooking our new hay loft containing barn.

I created the duck pen and in the process herded the geese into it. I could not find the string to create a bald eagle deterrent so simply hooked up the charger and left the geese in there. This way I can also feed grain to the geese without the goats eating most of it. It is a good thing I did this because Sunday we had "Escape from Farmcatraz" (Tom's phrasing). That is one of the geese escaped, and we had to round him up. Here's the goose recaptured and heading back to the "pen".
So I want to make sure this fencing can hold the geese in before I move ducks out there. Plus it is stormy today, and I am tired- all excuses to put off the duck round up until tomorrow. But today there was a break in the storms moving through and a sun beam briefly came in through the south door of the barn. So I decided to take photos of our goat kids growing up a little. Here are Athena,
Mearth,
Sherlock,
Peewee,
Shorty,
and Mr. D.
Brown Sugar was looking awfully cute,
and Bambi was striking a pose.

P.S. Athena, Mearth and Sherlock are for sale.

New Trailer!

So to transport our new pack llamas, we have been on the lookout for a new trailer. We have a homemade thin one horse trailer that just is not going to work. So we have been perusing Craigslist and found a 2006 Mirage 6x14 foot livestock/cargo trailer on Bainbridge Island for a good price. So after Tom got off of work, we drove/ferried to Bainbridge and looked at it in the dark and rain. We were supposed to bring a cashier's check, but since our bank was closed on Veterans Day we withdrew all the cash our ATM would let us and brought that. We are mailing the difference in a cashiers check. So we brought the trailer home. Here's a cell phone photo of the truck and trailer on the ferry that night:

And here's Rocky and Tom in the truck, waiting to get to the other side.
We had not eaten anything since lunch so stopped to eat on the way home. We got home quite late, and both of us had to work early yesterday so are tired.

After work and in daylight we found some minor issues with the trailer, not seen in the dark. But none the less it is a nice trailer that will serve our needs quite well.

Breeding!

So today I put my breeding groups together. First I separated the rams. This is Jocko in his new field. His face has become quite battered over time.

This are the lucky ewes very reluctantly being led to their mates.
Here's the infamous "Shetland flop" in which a Shetland sheep being asked to something they do not wish to do will flop over and play dead. It is a very effective technique. I was unable to get a photo, but she actually did the flop in 6 inches of water we were wading through thanks to the buckets of rain we received yesterday. I hope it is not cold tonight for her.
Here's Jocko's group. He (Bitterroot Ansel) is in with Bing Bank Wink (a primitive mioget) and TPP Heidi (a moorit with gorgeous intermediate fleece).
This is Lewis' group. ShelteringPines Lewis is in with Donna'sSheep Mona (black ewe who carries spots) and Donna'sSheep Miss Lizzie (moorit who carries spots). Miss Lizzie is trying to get out through the gate.
These are the rams not being bred and looking on wistfully. One has soon-to-be-lethal horns so will be butchered very soon, and the other needs to develop and grow up first.
This is Everranch Jackson who is being bred to our Everranch Moll and Tanya- all of which are grey Gotland-Finn cross sheep. They will produce our first ever percentage Gotland lambs.Then the goats were put in their groups. This is Donna's Yahoo in with our Angora doe Angie. I am hoping for spotted Nigoras from this breeding.
This is a bad photo (thanks to the flash not working) of Ravencrest Luck of the Draw (Cody) in with Ravencrest Saphire Duchess. This combination has produced lovely blue-eyed buckskin kids in the past.
And finally our most recent addition Deliteful Ijaba Dean in with Donna's Meadowlark, Magpie and Patches. They are all related to our other two bucks so get the new blood. There should be some amazing spotting for these combinations.

Saying goodbye to dogs

So I had to say goodbye to Josie today. She was our Lab-Ridgeback dog that we had since she was a puppy three years ago. She is a really good dog- very active and friendly. But she dug a lot and dug a hole under our pasture gate, allowing two goats to escape, one of which was killed. So we could not keep her here. We found a nice home on acreage with three children to play with. They do not care about digging and do not have livestock. So it is a really good fit, but I am still crying. I am not used to giving away animals that I am so attached to, even if it is for the best.

We had already found a home for our Rottweiler Queenie who was also involved in the attack. We found a Navy home for her with older children and no other animals. So we found a good home for her too.

New pack llamas

So we purchased three pack llamas today. We have had guard llamas but have been looking for packing animals to help us with hiking and hunting. We found these wonderful animals that had been used for packing for years. They are quite well behaved and beautiful. Here's Chance:

Here's Oreo:
And here's Walker:
We also got pack gear in the deal. Here are some of the panniers and pads:
And here's a couple of the 5 packs:
So we are set. All we need now is a trailer and a trail!