Introduction

This is the first post on my new blog, but then again, you probably know that. :) I live in a a small town in Western Nebraska, and keep my animals at a friend's farm.  My mini-herd consists of...

-Andy,  An Alpine/LaMancha, yearling doe
-Thomas Hunter,  Her 3 week old, Alpine/LaMancha/Toggenburg  buckling (That was an accident, will explain later)

-Rugby,   A Border Leicester lamb, for 4-H

-Stella, A Sufolk lamb for 4-H


All of these are going to be shown in 4-H this year, but only the lambs are being sold. For Andy and Thomas Hunter, (Who is going to be wethered) this is just experience.

Please don't expect any profound statements or stories, because you'll be disappointed. This blog is just going to be a place to share all of my little adventures working my lambs and spending time with my goats. These are farm animals, so there might be some mildly offending bits if you do not raise animals, too. Those moments will be few and far between, but just a warning.


To explain about Thomas Hunter being an accident, since I keep my goat at a friend's farm, she is around other goats, too. (including several intact bucks)   There was one buck, whose name was Gennis the Menace, was an escape artist. What happened, is that Gennis knew that Andy was in heat,  and used he "abilities" to get out of his pen. and into her's. Thus the start of  Thomas Hunter. She was a tad young to be bred, and she might be a little bit smaller than if she hadn't been bred.


This is going to be both my, and Andy's, second year in 4-H. I got third purple in showmanship. (third choice for first place). I did not show her in market, which is just body evaluation. Due to misunderstanding, I did not show her in that one, so we will never know how well she would have scored.  With my lamb last year, I got Blue in Showmanship, and Red in market. 

We also raise California White Rabbits, that run free in the back yard. It wasn't always this way, though. First they were in small cages, with a little run for exersice. Then they started the burrow. Now we expect the yard to cave in!(We had forty rabbits down there at one time! The fence worked great, until a rabbit that was too smart for it's own good learned how to jump on a hay bale just so and get out. It then taught all the other, dimmer, rabbits how to do it too! So we just took away the fence so it could be used else where. Then the neighbor's cats and dogs started getting quick meals from our babies. For a while nearly all of our little rabbits got eaten before they were two months old. We put the fence back up. We now have two littles at  the moment.

Then there are the dogs. Eddy is our medium size mix from the pound. We think he is has some border collie and some spaniel in him. He has been known to point at cats right before he barks at them. Then there are our three chihuahuas. There is Cocoa, a purebred chihuahua we were given to as a thank you gift when we found some one's dog for them. Peanut is her son, he is supposed to be purebred, but he doesn't look like it.  Sarah is also from Cocoa, but a different batch of puppies. She was born with a cleft palete, and bottle raised. At about two weeks, we took her into the vet to see what was wrong with her. He said that she had a cleft palete and that it would be best to put her down. We didn't, since we had gotten her that far, we weren't giving up now! Now she is nearly a year old, and thriving! She is the queen of the house, one bark sends then all scurrying!

 This is Sarah

                                              There isn't anything wrong with her, she is just very trusting!

              This is her with one of her toys. (You can tell how dominant she is by the size of her toys!)

 
And just an all around cute picture of her!

 This is Thomas Hunter, the morning after he was born! Cute, isn't he? Better than kittens, as my dad says!

 This is Thomas Hunter with his mama, Andy! He looks just like her!