Bye Bye, George

Since we got rid of that big goat we had, Capricorn, George has become progressively more obnoxious. He butted the other goats and wouldn't let them eat. The last straw was earlier this week when he pounded against the gate in their shed that separated the goat/sheep area from the grain and hay storage area, until he had successfully broken the latch and opened the gate. He let everyone into the storage area, where they ate a bunch of alfalfa, trampled the chicken feed bag, trampled the hay and straw and made a big mess. They also left goat and sheep poops on the platform of the new chicken coop Rich is building, which is attached to the goat/sheep shed. Plus, his little hoarse voice has been growing louder, and he has been more demanding, and starts yelling at us at about 3:00 to be fed, and doesn't stop until we feed him his molasses coated grain. Enough was enough. I put an ad on Craig's List and sold him for $15, to a good home in Carlton where his companion animals will be a horse and an old dog. Too bad so sad for George, who we loved and hated at the same time. But it is a relief to have him gone. The other animals behave much better!

Jane (James) is a Rooster Too!

Uh oh. So I'm behind in posting, but about last weekend, Jane (James) started crowing. He is a Silver Spangled Hamburg Bantam.

And here is a better picture of Henry, since the one I put in already was so dark.

Henry is a Rooster!

We have been wondering if Henry really was a rooster. We thought he was, because even as a baby chick he was bigger than the rest. He started developing a comb earlier and his comb is much bigger than the others. But I looked at pictures on the web last weekend, and it seemed that the roosters had much bigger combs than Henry does. But then we also noticed that he is still loosing baby feathers from his butt.

Yesterday, however, the bluebird people were here to check on the bluebird nest, and Lauri, the Bluebird lady, was quite positive that Henry was a girl. I was excited about getting dark chocolate brown eggs, which is what Cuckoo Marans lay, but I was puzzling over what to call (her), as there are no queens of England named Henrietta. We have Victoria, Mary, Elizabeth and Jane, after the queens. And Henry, after the kings.

Rich got up early this morning and let them out. I was dozing, trying to sleep a little longer. At about 5:40 am I was half asleep and woke up to a strange squawk. Or was it a crow? Outside my window? Then I heard it again and there was no mistaking. I got up, and there they were, on the back porch. Rich was laughing.

Henry is a rooster! Sorry the photo is so dark - there wasn't a lot of light yet I guess.

Rich and Danny left for work and left the front door open. As I was sitting here, I heard little noises at the front door. Evidently they have now found the front porch! I had to use the flash for this one:
That's Victoria in the lead. She is the boldest. I had to close the door, or they would be roosting in the living room right now.

70#

I bench pressed 70# at the gym tonight. I got a gold star.

Busy, sunny weekend

Saturday Rich put the finishing touches on the chicken yard and temporary chicken house made out of our old shower stall. We moved the chickens in and they were very happy to finally be outside with lots of room. Lots of fun all day eating bugs and scratching around in the dirt and eating all the leaves off the little roses that we foolishly included in their yard.

Last night we went out to dinner and so weren't here to supervise chicken bedtime. It was their first experience with night and darkness, as they have lived their whole life so far under a heat lamp. They didn't know what to do, and when we got home we found them huddled together in one corner of their yard. We had to pick each one up and put them into their house to get them to sleep in there. They did the same thing at dusk tonight, so again I picked up each one and put her or him into the house. They will figure it out. Just a little slow.


Today it was time to start shearing sheep. We have been working up to being able to catch them by letting them out of their yard to graze in our yard and not threatening them at all. So today they trotted right out. We closed a couple gates and then chased them in to their inner corral and trapped them. Then I sat in there with them for quite awhile just reading and ignoring them to calm them a little. Then Rich came in and we got ahold of Percy, and put the halter on him. Rich held him while I sheared. I think it took us about 2 hours. Had to flip him on his back first so I could do the belly. Then we stood him up and tied him close to the fence so I could do the rest. He has very dense thick wool. No shots during because we were both a little busy, but here's before and after!
Not a great job - lot's of second cuts and I didn't get him close enough, but not terrible for the first time either! I didn't quite finish, because I was being so careful not to cut his skin as I was doing the final trimming around his butt, and I cut my finger. Lots of blood, so I had to go in the house and deal with it. Hopefully we can catch him again. We have to wait a couple weeks to do Grizel. It's supposed to rain next weekend. It will also be good to give her a little time to forget about being trapped!

After we were done, we pulled our lawn chairs up closde to the chicken yard, opened a few beers, and watched chicken TV. Rich commented that we used to watch baby TV. Many years ago. Sigh. Since we have no grandchildren to stare at and marvel over, we're making do with toddler chicken TV.

Harrison Ford & Kelly Osbourne

See, exciting things do happen in Newberg, I just never find out about them until after the fact.
Harrison Ford is shooting a movie in St. Paul. At some dairy farm, I guess. They had highway 219 closed last night from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (we know this because we went to the Woodburn Outlet Stores), and the reason for the closure (which we didn't know at the time) was for filming. From what I read, they will only be filming in St. Paul for a week or so. They will be in Oregon for a total of 3 months, some in Portland and some other locations.

And rumor has it that Kelly Osbourne was in rehab in Newberg about a month ago. Didn't see her. Oh well. Maybe when I'm retired I'll hang out in coffee shops in Newberg and learn more about what's going on!

A Lovely Neighborhood, Except for This One "House"

Something exciting happened, not just in Newberg, but ON OUR STREET!
I saw them out there when I left for the gym yesterday evening - I just thought it was Ken Summers out there BSing with other neighbors...
Not so! Read all about it here...

It's the "problem" lot between Paul & Katherine's house and Stan's house - the one the people stole from Carol and then burned down the house and pulled a trailer in. This guy in the article is a renter I guess. The people who stole it from Carol don't live there anymore. We learned all this gossip at the annual water meeting a couple weeks ago.