Oh these animals...

they are amazing. It's been almost 2 days now since Audrey came to visit. The sheep are sort of ok with her, but still run when she gets too close.

                         But the boys, well, that might take a bit longer. Especially for Misha.

                                               

                                                   She likes Misha and follows him around.

He says, if I just don't look at her, maybe she's not real. So I'll just ignore her and maybe she'll go away.

But it's not working, Misha. She's real sweetie. And here to stay for awhile. You'll be just fine soon.

Isn't she just the cutest calf ever? We played hide and seek awhile ago, around the hay bale. She touched my fingers with her nose. She follows me when I'm out there. My husband talks to her and she likes him. I love this picture.

Rodeo at Outback Farm!

I had asked my friend Sarah if I could borrow her little Jersey heifer calf for awhile. Audrey is 6 months old now and needing to be on pasture. And I wanted a cow for awhile to eat what the sheep and alpacas won't.

So she called yesterday afternoon and said they were ready to bring her out. I figured it would take them 20 minutes to get here, a few minutes to unload her, then I would fix dinner.

Well, I should know by now that you do not make plans when it comes to animals!

This is my sheep and alpacas when they saw the trailer being backed down the driveway and heard the little cow baby mooing.

                                And yes, there is a calf in these fig bushes and 3 grown men.

I have this fence going across the driveway for when I move the sheep to the other side. It has a little place where the wire is all messed up. I had this thought that I should put something in front of it, but did not listen to me.

So we got the sheep to go to the far side so they wouldn't get out while we tried to get Audrey in. They were so good too! Stayed way up front.

And we let Audrey out of the trailer. And she took off through the little hole in the fence. Just as pretty as ya please.

That's when the rodeo started.

I called my friend Ron to come up and help lasso her, after about 20 minutes of chasing her all over the front yard. He and his wife Iasbelle came with a rope. He's got cows and horses, so I figured he could do this just fine.

 Not sure which video this is, but I took a few and this is not showing up for me.

It took another half hour to finally get Audrey caught and dragged across the yard from the fig bushes. 3 grown men, pulling and pushing this little 6 month old devil calf. It was SO funny!

And here she is, finally in the pasture she was supposed to be in a few hours before.

Misha was sounding the alarm and the sheep all huddled together. I had a cow with them a few years ago, so it's not like they'd ever seen a cow before. They are so weird.

Poor Audrey was so tired after, she laid down out there for the night.

This morning, she's doing great. And the sheep are still afraid of her. They'll be fine in a few days and she'll be a part of the flock. Isn't she beautiful?

                                                      And this is Audrey, herding them all.

                                                                  Hold 'em Audrey!

Never a dull moment around here. We had the 2 grand dogs for the weekend and Abby had come out to get them. I have to keep the chickens put up while they're here. They love chasing the chickens. So it was all nice and peaceful again. For a few minutes!

Really September now!

It is September now. And it has come in with some anger here. Woke up this morning and checked my phone to see if there were any messages. My daughter Abby had sent a message saying power was out in Flintstone. She lives on the same street as Mrs. T. Then a little later, another message saying it was back on.

I looked out the window and saw trees just about bent in half. Crazy rolling clouds moving fast. So got dressed, fixed a cup of coffee, took a few drinks of it, then ran out the door with the milk bucket.

Olga came out first. Got her settled in. Started milking. She lifted her right leg a few times. I can usually sense when it's going to happen and get the bucket out of the way. But the next time she got it. And I was almost done. Turned the whole thing over. Great, milk all over the floor now and the stanchion. So got her out, took the stanchion outside and hosed it off. Grabbed the broom and some more water and swept out loose hay with the milk on the floor. Got the stanchion back in. Grabbed Freya. Got what little milk she had and gave it to the cats. I've had the sheep out back with the goats, so haven't been able to let the goats out. So they have slowed down a lot. Which I am trying to get them to do, so I can go to once a day.

Then the sheep were acting crazy. So threw some alfalfa pellets and sunflower seeds in a bucket to feed them. Then later, I just let them back out to the front. There's lots of leaves and apples down that they were wanting. I opened the little side gate for the goats to go out to the "jungle".

Before I let them all out, I put hay in the racks. Little Galadriel came to me and just looked at me with her beautiful eyes. I felt her telling me to calm down. I named that sweetie right.

Yesterday, I tried to finish the bobbin of alpaca. I got tired. It's taking forever! So I started getting some wool ready for the next bobbin, to ply them both together. I want to make a sweater with this yarn. It's so pretty.

Then I realized how amazing it is that I have sheep and alpacas! Right here on my little farm. I can go out there any time just to pet them or talk to them. And get this amazing fiber from them! I just feel so blessed.

And this is so pretty to me. I love using the hand carders to make little rolags to spin. I finished that red basket up. I have 3 rolags of alpaca to spin, then on to the wool.

This is 14 sheep, 2 alpacas and 2 greedy goats at the trough this morning. Isn't that just so cool?

I also made some bug-off bars for a friend. Her boys love it and that's all they want on when they are outside. My studio smells good when I make things.

I'll have my 2 grand dogs this weekend. Daisy and Rousey, the Boxers. I love them. But my chickens will not have fun at all. Those dogs want to kill them!