Stewart Creek Somethings

Tethered learning

I have to say that feeding the animals can be a chore.  When everyone needs feeding it takes me over an hour to get to all the different critters.  This may seem like a long time but surprisingly it can be pretty relaxing.  Now that all the sheep have had babies its just a matter of wading in and getting hay in all the bins then shooing the sheep away from the grain feeders long enough to throw in a stream of grain.  They will literally mob you when they know you have grain.  If you are not careful you will end up on the ground under a pile of sheep going for the treats.  They do not care where you are in that mad scramble to eat more grain than anyone else.  The horses just want their grain.  They don’t really care about the hay and the price of the grain is being petted from above.  They try to lean away and still eat the treat but it is not possible.  They know this but still try and lean away.  We just keep petting them, they are calm enough they just keep eating.  They are not real big on something coming at them from above. 
I need the dogs to keep the cows out of the machine shop while I am dragging a large bale out with the tractor.  Otherwise, the cows get into the hay and start tearing it up.  Zeke keeps them at bay.  The puppy, Mouse, does not like the tractor but is stuck to Zeke with the harness so he is getting used to it.  The alpaca get a few flakes of hay and then it is off to check on the chickens.  My baby chickens are starting to lay.  I have a had a few tiny eggs in the last couple of weeks.  Pretty quick I am going to have to thin out all the boys and only keep one. 

Today, I worked on the front fence some more.  I thought it was dog proof, but Sprout proved me wrong.  I have to put some wire over the gate next to the trash shed/out house.  He can squeeze through the slats in one place.  Mouse has been staying off the run and in the yard.  We are still putting Zeke on the run.  He is far more persistent at finding holes in the fence.  He will also jump through the fence between the barb wire strands.  It cuts him but he doesn’t seem to care, hence the reason he is on the run and the puppy is not. 
We went out to feed the new alpaca some bread and apples.  Only the new black colored one would eat from Annmarie’s hand.  No one else was willing to try it.  I did feed our bull some apple.  He is such a good boy.  We had a second calf today!! I saw it when I got off work this morning.  It is doing good, I have seen it eat a couple of times and it walked the length of the driveway once today. 
I spent about an hour today picking up old metal pieces of scrap in front of the machine shop and over by where the old blacksmith shop was located.  Every spring I do this, the metal just seems to float to the top of the ground.
Mouse has been able to go out with us without the buddy leash to Zeke the last couple of days.  He will listen to us and return to us even with the animals present.  This is a first big step for him.  We need to be able to call him off the animals at any point. 

Our walk in closet is starting to come along.  The cabinet builder was building drawers the end of last week so hopefully they will be installed this week.  It would be nice to have a useable closet again.  Our clothes are starting to stack up all over the house. 

I have

New walk in custom closet in progress