Saturday Yaks

Whole herd together

Gaia

Niobe and Octavia (and Gaia)

Niobe

Eirene

Vorenus

Yak hugs

Practice Makes Perfect

A few days ago, I woke up early in the morning and realized my husband wasn't in bed.  I found Adam standing next to the door that leads to the bedroom porch.
"What on Earth are you doing?"
"I'm listening."  he replied.

I listened too.  And then I heard it.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeee

"That," I told him "would be your chickens.  Practicing."

The roosters haven't gotten the hang of cock-a-doodle-do.  It eludes them, somehow.  But every morning, around 5:30 am, they're out there.  Like clockwork.  Practicing crowing. 

EEEEEEEEeeeeeee.

They aren't doing so great at it.  Every once in awhile one of them with get all worked up and try for a Eh Eh Eh EEEEEEEeeeeeeeee but ultimately gives up and goes back to EEEEeeeeeee.

All I can say is, they have dedication.  And at least they only practice for ten minutes. 

Every morning.

Here comes the sun

After four straight days of rain, the sun has finally come out.

So we present:  yaks in the sunshine

Bread and Tomatoes

For some reason, August has decided that it wants to be September, and the weather here has been downright miserable.  Sunday?  Rain.  Monday?  Rain.  Today?  Not raining, but cloudy and wet and gross.  Tomorrow? 

Rain.

So I could go outside and photograph wet drippy yaks, but that would only make me cold and annoy the yaks.  Instead, let's pretend it's still summer and not barely 70 degrees outside.

Today we took these:

Put them in the pot:

and canned pasta sauce

Roasted Garlic Sauce with plum tomatoes.  Pretty awesome.  To note, those are not our tomatoes.  Adam's parents have an amazing garden and have been canning in quantities that put our measley five quarts to shame.  They gave us a bunch to do some tomato canning of our own, because seriously, the garden is exploding with tomatoes.

And bread, because there should always be bread:

Ciabatta bread recipe from here.

Photos

Two days before vacation, my previously trustworthy Fuji displayed the fatal "focus error."  After doing a lot of research online, I found that this is pretty much the camera equivalent of having a stroke.  Cures abounded, ranging from hitting with your hand, dropping it (gently?!) on the floor and taking the whole thing apart and hopefully putting it back together in the correct order.  Alas, none of the traditional cures worked, and the evening before we left found us driving frantically to Scranton to get a new Canon Rebel XS.

But everything works out in the end, because the new camera takes some amazing photographs.  Most by Adam, who has been running around the farm with camera in tow, clicking at everything.

And my favorite, this shot Adam took of Vorenus this week:

Home Again

Last week we took our summer vacation, leaving the farm in capable hands. Not much happened.  The yaks got a little bigger.  Amadeus, our resident idiot, gave himself a concussion by flying into the side of the coop.

Really, it's not his fault.  When you buy 25 chickens, you apparently get a free one thrown in.  Amadeus was our free chicken.  And with his ridiculous feathers, he can't see.  At all.  So while all the other chickens can fly through the door, he flies into the wall.  Which does nothing to improve his already meager intelligence. 

But otherwise, things are calm and peaceful on the farm tonight:

It's good to be home.

Inside and Out

It's a beautiful evening here tonight.  The air is nice and cool, there's a lovely breeze.  The birds are singing in the fields, and our yaks...

are inside the barn. Nature surrenders. 

Charlie's Angels did come outside for some fresh air:

That's Gaia, Octavia and Niobe striking a pose.

We tried to build a rabbit run:

But in the end, without the right tools, we too surrendered. 

Chicken wire 1, Adam and Liz 0

Unfoiled by the unhelpful chicken wire, Nimbus came to hang out on the porch and show off her new summer haircut.

We also got about two ounces of fluff off of her, which is four ounces of angora total for our first bunny shedding.  No pictures of Nimbus getting plucked though, as she fought the entire process tooth and nail.  We're hoping next time it'll go easier.

Nim may have other ideas.

The lesson not learned

Apparently, knowledge really is only half the battle.

No food, no treats, just chicken feed.  Either she's now doing it just because she can, or my dog has developed a bizarre craving for Agway's Chicken Grower.

Also, we need to fix our fence.