Wildlife

Wildlife seen here:

coyotes
buzzards
hawks (not so many recently, but they used to LOVE watching the chicken coop)
bats
western shovel-nosed snake (in the FRONT ROOM! Yikes!)
100s of cottontails
geese (wild)
ducks (wild)
gophers (does that count as 'wildlife'?)
mice (ick)
lizzards
burrowing owl(s?)
great horned owl (landed on the back porch and watched us through the window!)
many small birds of which I don't know all the names

Plenty of black widows, brown spiders (scientific, I know), FLIES, and the occasional camel spider (which do bite, I learned. Owie.)

Milk Total

I didn't milk Penny this morning; she had her kids with her through the night, helping them recover from the traumatic disbudding.

Belle has gotten extremely impatient the last couple days. This morning she was SO full, she had to waddle very slowly to the milking stand, but after about 10 minutes, she decided she was DONE. I could tell she wasn't empty; she was about 1/4 from being done. There ensued a mighty battle of wills and wits. 10 minutes later (and several close calls with the milk pail) I have succeeded in getting about 6 more squirts. She got a strong scolding as I put her back in her pen. I went to fetch the kids and walking back with them, watching her with her head through the fence, I all of a sudden wondered if she figured out the pattern of: grain, milk, kids. I think she knew that when the milking was 'done' she could have her kids back. I might have to figure out something else, because wrestling with a 120# goat at 5AM isn't exactly what I had imagined...Still, she gave just under 1/2 gallon.

2 batches of ice cream, 2 batches of yogurt, 2 batches of rice pudding, and there's still a gallon or so in the fridge, with more to come tomorrow. Love this!!!