One of Life's Simple Pleasures

Taking a walk on an early fall morning...

Just the 6 of us...

(Left to right - Lee, Valentine, me, Angel, Gerty and Cuji leading the way). This picture cracks me up - I love how you can see Valentine's goatee and Angel's tongue hanging out.

When we take off for our walk in the morning, if we don't take the goats with us, Gerty cries and cries. "DON'T LEAVE ME!!!" So, she comes running, ears flopping and bell jangling.

Valentine, the Alpine, likes to do a little off-roading on our walks.

And Lee gets to practice his roping.
Always a great way to start the day!

Cowgirl Relections on a Saturday Afternoon...

How true! Growing up in Michigan, I did not have horses, goats, chickens or bunnies. In fact, the only pet I had as a kid was a dog. As I got older, it became my dream to one day have a little ranch with LOTS of animals. I always wanted "one of everything". I'm not quite there, but we've got our hands full with the animals we do have and love every minute of it.

From Michigan small town girl to Arizona cowgirl. The Wild West, who'da thought it???

How do you top a pig post?

I'm having a hard time this week trying to think of something to top my weekend piggy posts. That little porker was pretty darn popular!

I finally decided that it's not about popularity, anyway. I went outside this morning with camera in hand, looking for something blog worthy, and here were these two... "Hi mom! What's for breakfast?"
By the way, Valentine has been behaving herself much better lately. She has yet to tear down the new goat house, so that is a plus. Gerty has thankfully recovered from the dog attack back in February with no problems. Both are fat and happy as, well,.... pigs.

Life is good when you are a goat around this place (or any other animal for that matter).

Struggling....

My poor garden is barely hanging in there, struggling along in this 100+ degree weather. My tomatoes are finally starting to ripen, so the plants just need to hang in there a little bit longer. Once these tomatoes are done, I'll rip the plants over and start over in about a month for a fall crop.The herbs are faring a little better, they are in a part of the garden that gets more afternoon shade. Every morning, I cut some mint, catnip, oregano, sage and rosemary for the bunnies. And I'm still getting a few jalapenos from my one lonely plant. It might bounce back for the fall, I'm hoping. (I love this wooden bowl, a recent thrift store find for $2.99. Deal!)The mammoth sunflowers are not doing too bad. I guess that is why they call them SUN flowers? I like to plant them around the garden - a few here, a few there. Their leaves are huge, so they provide shade for the plants below them. And they draw bees to the garden, which is good. The birds usually end up eating the seeds, but if I catch them in time, I'll give them to the goats who scarf them down, flower head, leaves and all. They do leave the stalk, though. I guess even goats draw the line somewhere...
My plan for next year is to erect a shade canopy over the main part of the garden that I can put up and take down as needed. Add that one to the "to-do" list...

New Goat House

Rather than spend all day on Saturday building a new house for Valentine and Gerty, I found a used shed for sale on Craigslist (and for a fraction of what the materials would have cost us to build one ourselves).

Not the most attractive looking thing...But a coat of paint does wonders! I had red paint left over from painting the chicken coop and bunny casa (wouldn't want our animals' houses not to match...)

We did have to reinforce the house with plywood on the inside "just in case" you-know-who decided to test the walls out...

So far, the house is still standing. Hopefully, it will stay that way. You never know, though, she looks like she is plotting away.

Stay tuned ...

Snow in the Desert

The rest of the country has been getting hit with snowstorms, so I guess it is our turn! Although, you can hardly call this a "storm", but it is snowing here, which only happens once or twice a year.Bandit came off a ranch in Wyoming, so I'm sure he knows what the white stuff is!

Piper peeks out from under her shade cover....

while Gerty peers out from her house and Valentine, always the curious one, ventures out to check it out.

We'll enjoy the snow while it lasts...which will probably only be until tomorrow!

Happy Holidays From Our Family To Yours!

This year I had Mary of Mary Richmond Design create a Christmas card for us with all of our animals. I e-mailed pics of everyone to her and she took it from there. She did a GREAT job! Horses, goats, dogs, bunnies, right down to the chickens, everyone is here with their santa hats on. (Bandit, Phoenix, Piper, Sassy, Sandie, Snuffy, Angel, "chickens", Ginger, Digger, Sandie, Patches, Nutmeg, Turbo and Bulldog).

We all wish you a Very Merry Christmas!