Groom Day

11:42 PM, 2 February 2010
Temperature: 43 F, clear

Today was a nice sunny day, which was appreciated by most if not all of the livestock. The pregnant ewes spent much of the day sunning themselves while lying down.

Woke up at 8 and fed and watered livestock. No remarkable events; the new ewes continue to try to eat the birds' feed when it's set down. They've trampled the birds' feed dishes so for now we've gone back to scattering the feed as it creates a wider arc and makes it harder for the sheep to eat it all before the birds get a share.

During the course of the day picked up a 20 lb bag of rabbit feed - mixed alfalfa pellets, pumpkin seeds and dried fruits (banana and mango notably). It was a little more expensive than the competitors but it was also the largest size bag available. All the rabbits seemed to truly appreciate this new addition to their diets.

Bottle training them is not going very well. The buck of course has no way of getting at the water bottle so we're having to stick with dish for him for now; we may migrate him to a larger cage when the girls are in grazing arks to try to get him trained on that. Minnow's bottle though turns out to have a slow leak as the vacuum seal isn't particularly good; false positive thus on thinking she was drinking from it. The other three girls, only one of them seems to reliably use the bottle, and not enough for the level to have dropped more than 1/3 in 24 hours.

Cleaned out buck's cage today as he has the most confined setup. He appreciated it greatly and spent the time flirting with the three girls in the largest cage while his container was emptied and refilled with clean straw.

One of the barn kittens, Slightly, continues to have sniffles. As he's not gotten over it in the several months he's been with us it's time to call in a vet. Going to see if we can combine getting the necroscopy on our dead duck with a vet visit for that purpose. Ideal would be a farm visit instead of having to schlep live and dead animals around and traumatize the live ones; pretty sure the dead duck's beyond traumatizing.

Spent some time with Minnow in lap grooming her this evening. She appreciated it but the warmth of the room combined with the arrival of house cats kept it comparatively shorter. She is a very affectionate creature, though; if she weren't angora it'd be easier as even 68 degrees is just too warm for her.

Received word today from the previous owner of our new ewe lambs that although they're too young to be bred, that's only a preference as technically they are old enough to be recognized as 'eligible' by the rams. This moves up plans to move the ewes into their own pen to as soon as feasible. Priorities currently stand at erecting said pen and completing the grazing arks. Next week work will also begin on greenhouse and garden construction.