Let the Fighting Begin

In this corner weighing just a few pounds, is Peaches the current champion.
I never knew that you could cross a goat with a mule, but here she is.
Her opponnents again are 2 humans weighing..........just never you mind !!!  

The referee is giving last minute instructions.......

and called in an assistant to monitor unorthodox holds.



It looks like the champ is going down ..............

But no, after the initial pinning she kicks out and repells the bottle !!!
For the next three rounds she continued her defense against the brutal
intrusion of the nipple and repelled all attemps to force milk into her system.

The winer and still champion....Peaches

New Kids on the Farm



Meet Peaches and Fern.  We purchased them Wednesday morning and haven't had a moments rest since.

Fern is a 7 week old Toggenburg/Saanen cross.
Note Bear in the background.

Peaches is a 2 week old Boer/Saanen cross.

Fern thinks the world is hers to rule and acts the spoiled Princess role.
She is very smart and inquisitive.  She also loves to eat paper and plastic and has eyesight to rival an eagle.

Peaches is the traumatized baby, she had been de-budded the night

before we bought her, and had her last meal from mom that morning. 

We cannot get her to feed from a bottle.  We have tried everything

we can think of and have seeked help from the internet.  She eats hay

well enough and nibbles on Goat Chow and grass, but we know she 

needs goat milk too.  Any suggestions? 

For now we are raising them in the Pallet Palace, today we transferred the rabbits to our garage storage area.  Fern pointedly ignores us when we enter this door, but cries pittiously when we leave.  It really is heartwrenching and she carries on for up to 20 minutes. This troubles poor old Bear who thinks he is their mother (much to the goats dismay) and tries to get in to them.  But the goats don't trust my big black male dog yet.   Neither does my wife !!!  

Garage in a Box

Last fall we purchased a 12' x 20' x 8' plastc canvas garage from TSC to store our lawn and garden equipment in. 

It was hurridly constructed just before the first snowfall on a somewhat level piece of ground and anchored down in sand so I was worried that it wouldn't survive the winter and spring winds.

As winter starrted I was worried about the buildup of snow on the roof but I needed to remove it only a couple of times over the winter.  The slick plastic and wind took care of most of it and the sun on the dark color took care of the rest.  Only a couple of ice storms caused me to worry enough to bother cleaning it off with a broom from the inside, a couple of taps to loosen it up and it slid right off.  The white interior made it plenty light enough inside and I was surprised at how warm it was inside out of the elements.  The tubular steel frame gave enough to withstand the 60-70 mph winds and somehow the four 30" tie down auger/spikes held it all down in  the sand.. 

The ratchet down straps were nice too.



What really surprised me was that the plastic zippers for the doors on each end held up to all of that abuse.  My neighbor has had one of these up for the last 8 years and the only thing he has done to it was to add a vent kit to it.  He says they retain dampness inside if you don't.  They make a few different models of these Garage-In-A-Box  things and one even has windows.  We are planing on moving ours this summer and setting it on a foudation.  So all in all I think it was well worth the $250 sale price.

My old Assistant Cub Scout  Leader and lifelong friend commented on it the other day and said it was a shame we didn't have one of these when we were camping.  It sure would have been nice.  It would make a nice hunting camp too.  You could erect bunks and a stove inside and still have all kinds of room.



We were even considering making pens inside for small animals like goats. This thing has a lot of potential.