Momma pig just delivered the cutest pigs - they are spotted. I have never seen anything like that before. You have to look close to see them and I will get better pictures later. We have baby chicks that will be pasture raised and will have a new home that they can get in and out of and can be moved around. This will be much nicer and bigger than what they had before. It is still under construction so no pictures yet. It looks like 3 more Ewes are ready to give birth - we have babies everywhere.

We are still getting some snow over here we woke up to it this morning. The rains came in and it was all gone by noon. We might get some more tonight but we will see. We have had 3 pigs give birth and we have 2 more to go. All the goats have birthed and two of the ewes so things are happening around here. If you want to see the babies give us a call.

We had a fellow from Idaho come to shear the sheep and the alpacas. He had already done 55 that day at another ranch and then finished up at our place. It has been snowing all day today so the alpaca looks pretty silly running around without his fleece.

The babies have started arriving. We have 3 baby goats and a new calf. The rest of the calves will come in April. The bull got out early this spring so this was a surpise and we are hoping this is the only one for now.

The ice is gone and we ended up with a lot of wind latley. We are now awaiting the arrival of baby goats and sheep. They will be followed by pigs and cows. The next few months will be busy but a lot fun watching all the young ones grow.

The new arrivals are doing well. The pigs like their new shelters that Jose built for them and the puppies are being introduced to the goats and sheep. All are doing great. Now if we could just get rid of all the ice.

New arrivals!! We took delivery on six pregnant gilts (female pigs) for breeding purposes last week. This will give us somewhere in the 85 to 90 pigs per year. The boar (male breeding pig) will arrive sometime this summer.

Predators can be a problem on any ranch including ours. We shot a coyote the middle of this month which was very close to our birthing shed where we are keeping the goats. Coyotes are extremely intelligent animals which I like having around for the diversity they offer to the ecology food chain; we just can't have them so close to our animals. This episode along with previous encounters has prompted us to get an Anatolian guard dog as a puppy which will be on the Ranch in the next couple weeks. It will be raised with the sheep and goats and will protect them. The alpacas have done a very credible job of watching out for the sheep and goats when any intruder, including our house dog Friday, but the Anatolian will offer some added protection.

Next arrivals will be in February when the birthing process starts.