Sunny Day

The sun was actually out from behind clouds today. Can I get a double YEA?!!!!! We haven't seen it around these parts of the country in a long while. It actually brought the temps up to 50 degrees! HEAT WAVE! It almost melted all of the snow. I even heard birds singing today. If you closed your eyes and pointed your face into the sun, you could almost get the whiff of spring in the air. Almost.

The sun and warmer temps did get me into thinking about the garden and such. I started looking through the seeds that I have and thinking about the ones I need. I do start some of my garden with seeds, but we have so many local green houses around here,(5 if you don't count Wal-mart and Lowes) and they sell open pollinated plants, it's hard not to pick up a lot of our starters from them. I can't wait! lol. That's one thing that is good about Hubby going to Ga in the winter. He will at least be here for garden season.  That's a job for two people. At least, the size of our garden, makes it a job for two people.

When I was down at the feed store today,(the one that didn't burn down.) I noticed how much grain has gone up. It's outrageous!!!! I'm thinking about growing our own corn for the chickens. Hubby's dad has a corn crib at his house where we can store it.  We have a local place around here that shells it and cracks it for us for a small price. I might give it a try. Any suggestions on what kind to grow?

On another topic, the coyotes are getting really bad around here. I hear them day and night. Howling and yipping at each other. I'm even going to start carrying a gun when I go out to feed the animals. Can't be to careful. I'm going to start thinning out the pack. hehehehe

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, rambler.

Goat Chops

This weekend was cold. I mean COLD! And on one of those cold nights, when the wind was still, I got up in the middle of the night to put wood in the stove. As I stood there waiting for the fire to catch up, I heard the most awful sound coming from outside. Coyotes!!!!

I looked out the door. Standing on our pond dam were two HUGE coyotes! Howling and yipping and making all kinds of sounds. Some people might say,"So?" Well, our pond dam is not more than 25 yards from our house! And with it being that close to the house, they were even closer to the goat pen. They were less then 5 yards from the goat pen! 

Since it was so still outside and the wind was not blowing at all, I left the goats' door, to their house, open.  That way they could move all night if they wanted.  And now, there were two big coyotes standing really close to them.

I opened the door and yelled. They didn't do anything. I went outside and waved my hands and yelled. They looked at me and still nothing. It was like I wasn't even there. You know that saying about them being more afraid of you....? Well, someone lied! They were not a bit afraid of me. After a few minutes of yelling and waving and jumping up and down, they finally just trotted off down over the hill. It was like they were saying, "Well okay, I guess we will move."

I saw the goats were watching them with a LOT of interest. I don't blame them. I was watching them with interest too.

So at 3:00 a.m. in the morning I went out and closed up the goats in their little goat house. No goat food for you coyotes!

So until next time,

Small Farm Girl, coyote scarerer.