Now that's some play structure! I'm pretty sure one of them can move into it when they turn 18! ; ) Speaking of them growing up- we officially enrolled O in preschool to start at the end of them month or the first week in September! It's coming up so fast, my little school girls. They are both very excited and ask, on a regular basis, if today is the day I will drop them off for school. We've been school clothes shopping, school supply shopping and lunch box shopping. I think we're pretty close to set. Now we just need to work on that bed time...
We also have a little bit of sad news to report. We lost Pixie, our sick Barred Rock pullet, last week. Poor girl had just been getting worse and worse, so we had to put her down. Current count is now 12 pullets and one young rooster. Rudy, the rooster, has still not been able to re-integrate with the girls. I tried when we put Pixie down, since he'd be alone in the garage once she was gone, but he was pecked bloody again. So, for now I have made him a temporary "bachelor pad" in the goat "mini-barn" that the goats decided not to use. Who knows, in the future if we end up with another boy or two, maybe we'll just let them all crash there with Rudy. As long as they can get along, that is.
Speaking of Rudy and the animals down in the goat pen. Tonight they sure had it in for me! Well, I guess it was pretty much just the goats being trouble makers, but they all had a part in it. First off, the goats have figured out that Rudy is in the mini-barn, so when I go in to feed him or change his water, they try to get in also. They know that chicken feed is tasty, but they are not supposed to have it, which makes it all that much more appetizing! The door can not be latched from the inside, so when I am in I am constantly attempting to keep the goats out or kick them out when they get in. Well, tonight I had a tray of mealworms for Rudy and a bigger tray of them for all the girls. Now, Dallas and Dixie were not left out, I had brought them a bunch of carrots and left them happily munching while I went to give Rudy his surprise treat. Well, the goats scarfed down those carrots in no time and were busting into the mini-barn to see what I had for Rudy. I had not-so-smartly put the larger tray of mealworms for the girls on the roof of the mini-barn when I went in, so with the goats trying to push in past B & O (who wanted to watch Rudy eat the mealworms, of course) and the door being bumped back and forth, the tray of meal worms came crashing down. Mealworms everywhere. I don't know if you know what mealworms are, but I hate them. The chickens love them. I do not touch them. I pour them onto the tray and set them down for the chickens to enjoy. Well, here they were on the ground, attempting to escape into the dirt and straw. Ugh. I had to pick them up. I tried to do it using some straw, kind of like chopsticks, but it wasn't working so well. Then Dixie decided she could jump up almost completely onto my back while I was bent over searching for mealworms and try to eat my hair. Lovely. So, I just started picking up the darn mealworms and tossing them into the tray as quickly as I could so I didn't have to touch them much. Yuck! Dixie continued treating me like a jungle gym, and I'm pretty sure Dallas joined in a time or two. I had almost all of them picked up when Dixie decided whatever was in that tray must be yummy, so she grabbed the tray with her mouth and knocked all the mealworms back onto the ground. At this point I lost it. The neighbors must have thought I was crazy. I yelled at the goats like they were misbehaving children. I yelled at B & O to help me... what I expected them to do at 3 and 5 years old, I have no idea. They did nothing. It must have been a show to see. Well, Rudy had been inside enjoying his treat undisturbed, so I took what I had left of the girls' worms and tossed them in for them to devour. Which they did, in under 3 seconds. This is why goats are livestock and not domestic pets. They are not well behaved and they will poop wherever they stand. They may be as friendly as our dog, but we are reminded of the differences just about daily. ; )
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