My Haul

The kids got invited to a friend's house to play this afternoon and I got to have a little time to myself. It's wonderful and I was so excited that they got invited out to play. I hope they're on their best behavior and having a great time.

I decided to take the time to go see if Lowes had their cold weather veggies in yet. The broccoli and cauliflower did so well in the fall that I want to put in another round of them for the spring. They were in!

In addition, I got more collards and kale, since mine are being sluggish, swiss chard, since the ants and slugs ate all my seedlings, and brussel sprouts, just for fun. I bought the seed potatoes to plant in about a month and onion sets which are bigger than the ones I started from seed.

I also got 2 more blackberry bushes. Over the years, I have probably tried blackberries 10 times with no luck, but I'm determined to make it work!

Scilla, our new little Alpine, is a sassy little vixen. She came to me with a good bite out of her ear, which was reopened by a run-in with Kat. It's finally almost healed up, though she'll never have hair on the top of that ear again.

A couple of days ago, she ended up with this scrape to the inside of her leg. I'm guessing the older girls ran her through the Christmas tree or she did it in the stall waiting for her grain. I know that's how she re-opened it this morning. The stalls are made of rough-hewn lumber and she and Phoebe are always standing as tall as they can on their back legs until I get there with the grain bucket. I want to start feeding them on the stand, but haven't managed to get them through the gate without being pummeled by Kat or Onyx.

But Scilla just can't leave well enough alone. She goes out of her way to taunt Kat and Onyx and push her limits with them in every possible way.

Asher is doing well. He's learning what "leave it" means with treats. I'm going to have to parlay that into what "leave it" means for chickens.

I felt bad for him this afternoon. I was trying to bring a bin of chicken food to the hen house and Scilla, Phoebe and Onyx decided it was time to romp around me (presumably to see if they could get me to spill the content of the bin). One of them, I didn't see who, stomped on Asher. He cried out and growled. I don't like the idea of him growling at the goats, but this time it was well deserved.