Sorry that I haven’t blogged in awhile. I had a computer crisis. My hard drive tanked. Thanks to my husband, it’s all fixed.

We’re having a rainy, cool summer here in New England. My garden is lush, but the vegetables haven’t ripened. The raspberries are rotting before they ripen. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the blueberries will turn blue. But, the meadow is full of briars and brambles and spiky goldenrod – all plants that goats love to eat. Everyday I put leashes on Pip and Caper and take them out there to graze. They’re learning to follow and not pull, bucking like little ponies.

I’ve trained the goats to target my hand – they touch their noses to my outstretched flat palm. They’ll follow that palm anywhere. I’ve had them jumping up on the red muck buckets using the “target” cue. Very cute, but, more importantly, anything that keeps them busy, active and challenged, is something that reduces the likelihood that they’ll get in trouble.

A painted turtle has moved into the water feature. It’s beautiful and I hope it is as wily as the big Koi and knows how to avoid predators.

We’ve also seen our share of wild turkeys, deer, hawks, coyotes, and bluebirds. Several of you have noticed the sparrows that are living in the HenCam coop.  Every morning, they panic because they can’t get out of the barn. When I open up the door they scoot out. Silly things.

You’ve probably also noticed Betsy and Lulu in the nesting boxes. They’re broody, which means they think that they have to sit and hatch eggs. Neither are laying, or actually on any eggs. Useless. Have you seen me pick them out of their beds and unceremoniously dump them on the coop floor or shove them out the door? Being broody puts Lulu in a VERY bad mood. She huffs up and looks like a mini-wild turkey tom. She attacks the rabbit. She makes angry noises. I’m hoping she’ll snap out of it in a week or so.

We’re still working to get the goatcam up. Losing the hard drive set us back a bit, but it might happen this week. I’ll let you know.