Catching up

Well, it's not as if I didn't have any profound thoughts to express this past winter - it was just that I was pretty busy.

Best laid plans failed - we ended up with a group winter kidding. From December 20th through January 2nd, my does gave us 14 kids. This year the bucks will be REMOVED from the fields and locked up with padlocks after August! I truly thought everyone was bred, so I let them run with their boys. Silly me. Don't I realize after 3 years that goats don't read your planners!

I'll leave you with a different kind of baby - Born a week ago here. He's our first lamb this year.

LGD Follies or 'Farming By the Moon'

This morning starts with one of our LGD's going on what we have termed 'Walkabout'. He is half Anatolian and half Pyrenees, and sometimes that Anatolian need to walk MILES, not just acres, takes over.

I know his 'route' so I watched him from one of our hillsides as he marked his way down to the neighbor's and checked their barn and flocks...and knew he'd be up over the hill paroling the hay field afterwards.

Great job, paroling over 15 miles of fence line. But heck, what about those goats and chickens back in the OTHER pastures? I guess he assumed his partner would take care of them while he went for a jog?

He'll be back in training again, as it mostly has 'stuck' but he seems to like to squeeze through our front gate.

And so the adventure begins.

Goats making me wish I had a herding dog that wasn't too aggressive (found our Giant Schnauzer is too harsh with the fainters), my normally standoffish gelding has to be in our faces while we are replacing a gate. Can't find the cat. Other LGD ate all of this morning's eggs my hens work so hard at producing.

So I was perusing the September/October issue of 'sheep!' magazine, and was reminded me of the lunar activity of animals. I have worked with them in the past when working with their normal activity patterns - maybe time to freshen up on the logistics?

sheep! reads

October 11-18 Moon Above-Afternoons Moon Below-Midnight to Dawn

Basically, this means that the moon is above the continental US during the afternoons and below midnight to dawn. Animals are supposed to be most active at these times. The lunar activity also exists during the 'below' period, but not as strong.

HMM so much for the morning when they weren't supposed to be influenced by the moon!!!

Oh, yah, LGD is a livestock guardian dog!