Busy Saturday

Over the past week, I had a breakthrough with Gaia, who has suddenly decided that humans are ok and humans who come bearing grass are more than ok.  I got her to take grass from me, which was a big success for me, since Adam has gotten to be the first one to feed all the other yaks by hand.  But Gaia is my favorite, and I'm glad she warmed up to me first.  It also helps that she's a clover addict.  Humans with clover are her favorite.

Sometimes I have a little help from Thora

who has taken to her role as a farm dog as well as any newfie could.  She particularly likes supervising mucking out the corrals.  (I think it's all the new and exciting smells to roll in.  Very gross)

Adam had a much bigger breakthrough though, as he got to feed Eirene and Gaia for the first time from inside the corral.  No fences, no barriers.  It helped that Pullo was inside the barn at the time as he makes pretty much everything more complicated.

Adam and Gaia

 and Eirene

Afterward we got the lavender beds by the corral planted:

and took a nap on the porch. 

Chicks

Monday morning, at 8 am on the dot, I got a call from the post office.
"Hello, this is Beach Lake Post office.  We have chickens here for you."
Me:  "Oh... I didn't know that they'd be in so early."
Her:  "Yes." 
Long pause.
Her:  "You can pick them up at any time.  Any time."

Baby chicks are cute, but they are also very noisy.  And noisy baby chick peeps apparently do not enhance the environment of the local post office, particularly on an under-caffeinated Monday morning.   

Since this is my first time mail ordering chickens (you really can get anything off the internet) I had no idea how exactly they'd show up.  How do you ship live chickens through the mail?  In a small chicken sized box, with holes punched in.  And if you order baby chicks through the mail, it is perfect acceptable to walk up to the mail counter and tell the clerk that you would like "six stamps and a box of chickens please".  It's a little strange.

So we have 25 baby chicks of the "Feather Footed Fancy" variety from Murray McMurray Hatchery and they are settled in and doing nicely.  We added two more heat lamps as it got cold last night and there seemed to be a baby chick shoving match under the single heat lamp. 

Niobe

Niobe is Adam's favorite little girl.  He's spent the last weeks inching ever closer to her and she's spent the last few weeks inching ever closer to him. 

What's great about Niobe is that, in addition to being utterly adorable, she also has a sweet personality.  She's the first girl to try to interact with us, but isn't pushy.  Actually, if dainty could be used to describe a several-hundred pound bovine, Niobe would be dainty.  Adam's started to be able to feed her by hand and she very gently nibbles at the grass rather than snatching it out of his hand- like some other yaks we know (ahem, Vorenus).  She's still a little skiddish, but it's nice to see one of the girls warming up to us.

Honey Buns

On Saturday, Adam and I went to Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, which was awesome but HOT.  We're used to Rhinebeck, which happens in October and usually on the coldest weekend so everyone huddles into the fair ground buildings, happily insulated with wool, and it's OK to breathe down someone else's neck while digging through piles of roving.  In Maryland, not so much.  It was into the 90's on Saturday without a cloud in the sky. 

There were some fantastic vendors and I picked up some fantastic roving and petted a lot of beautiful wool.  However, the best wool purchase of the day was a little...wiggly.  And came home in a cat carrier.

This is Nimbus:

and this is Storm:

They are French angoras and they are nine-week old sisters. 

Storm is a blue:

And Nimbus is a broken sable:

They are getting settled into their new home, the rabbit hutch saved from when Adam and his sister were kids with pet rabbits, repainted a classy shade of barn red and with two spacious new bedroom additions.  These bunnies live in style.  Nimbus is very friendly and likes to check everything out, while Storm is a lot more cautious and a bit flighty.  They are so super soft, it's indescribable.  Like petting fluffy clouds.  They also really enjoy each other's company and will usually share a box, sleeping on top of each other.  Nimbus also likes to groom Storm if it appears that her sister hasn't been very thorough behind the ears.  Very sweet girls.  We're so excited to have them at the farm.