What’s new around here?

The goats were the lucky recipients of the leaves.

This is one of the smaller branches. They’ll be feasting on the big limb for a few days.

Then we moved the tire swing to a lower branch and added a wooden top. Guess what? Goats swing.

And this one’s for you, Andrea!

This evening we went to pick up a wooden bridge I bought on Craigslist from a nice lady named JoAnn. We thought this would work great to go over the area where our drainage system runoff goes. Every time we leave town it rains and my daughter has to ford the muddy mess twice a day to feed the animals. Plus, let’s be honest, goats don’t like getting their feet wet either.

JoAnn and her daughter Justine showed us around their place. Justine pointed out bird nests in the tree in the front yard. Then we went around back to see the chicken coop they just had built. I had major coop envy. It was a so cute and an engineering marvel, with a pulley rigged door, oil pan poop collection tray, and predator-proof yard. It had all the bells and whistles. They have young Ameraucana, Orpington, and Silkie chicks. I hope they are all turn out to be quiet little hens when they grow up. We also saw their raised garden beds, huge compost bin, and bat house. I even scored some free tomato and sunflower plants JoAnn grew from seed in her greenhouse. I will be planting the sunflowers tomorrow in a special place of honor overlooking the animal yard, but out of the reach of the goats! I think the chickens are going to love it this Fall when I throw a big old sunflower head into the yard. The “mystery” tomatoes are going into the raised beds today. You can’t ever have too many tomatoes, can you? I have a feeling the answer is “yes” and I will become that annoying neighbor with bags of overripe tomatoes to pass out. It will be JoAnn’s fault.

We have met the nicest people through the Craigslist Farm and Garden listings. With the exception of Thelma and Louise, our feed store chicks, all of our animals came from Craigslist ads. Michael says if Banning doesn’t stop jumping the fence, he going back on Craigslist!

“No I’m not. Mamagoat’s a pushover. Literally”

After a stop at In & Out Burger we got the bridge home. It fits perfectly over our muddy area. Plus it’s strong. It holds me and three goats!