Crazy Storm Last Night

We continue to have atypical weather as fall continues. It's been unseasonably warm with only a few cold nights that actually feel like fall. Last night, a huge storm pushed across the U.S. and hit us starting about 9:00pm. There was wind, rain and a spectacular lightening display all followed by a tornado warning with the rotation about 8 miles from here in downtown Mocksville, at about 11:15pm. Crazy!

This morning, I walked the farm- the whole coop was flooded. The ducks had the worst of it and now have their very own 2-4" deep mucky muddy pond in their coop. The chicken coop faired better with only a bit of standing water at the low part near the door, but the whole rest of the floor is damp. I pulled tree limbs out of the fences all along both paddocks. In the goat/donkey paddock there used to be a dry creek that is now gushing. It bunched up a huge mound of brush where it passes a fence post- like we had beavers move in. All the animals are fine. Dinkey Donkey is soaking wet, not sure if he chose to stand in the rain or if Roscoe wouldn't let him in the shelter. The ducks and chickens will be enjoying the smorgasbord of worms and grubs that washed to the surface. Yummy!

In general farm news, the goats are only being milked every other day as they continue to produce less. Scarlet has now been bred so we'll be expecting babies in late February from Merry and late March from Scarlet. Once we dry them off completely we'll put all the goats and Dinkey together.

The rabbits are now all together in the moveable pen (also flooded and full of debris). If nature plays along we are expecting baby bunnies this weekend. We'll see. I'm just glad they're all getting along and can get out of the hanging cages in the coop. Chuck and Willow are eagerly awaiting "bunny nuggets".

More deliciousness on the way in the form of ducks. The Pekings will be processing age in 3 1/2 weeks. They grow so fast. They have their underbelly and wing feathers and are starting to get the last of their back feathers in. They have moved out of the baby brooder; spending their days in a small paddock and their nights in a separate coop area. The older ducks now get to free range during the day since I'm not as worried about creepy crawlies if I have to climb down in the creek to get them. So far they've been happy with their pools and coming up to root around in the fish pond. Hopefully they won't find the creek today since it's very high and moving way fast; I'm not sure how far down stream they'd go.

I'd really like for the weather to normal out a bit, and am wishing for a drier and milder winter than we had last year. Cold and wet is not a fun time to be a farmer.

Baby Pekings on their first day out of the baby brooder.

Chicken trying to see if she can get away with eating my new mum.