Our animals did a good job of disillusioning us of the thought that we were falling into a good rhythm around here. We’d past the point of getting the hang of it, now we were starting to think we might even be (dare I say it) experienced! Yeah, maybe not. Animals can be humbling like that.

Pepper is on a milk stand strike. What is a milk stand strike? Why, it’s where a goat refuses to get up on the milking stand. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know what that is. I didn’t know what it was until she went on one. To be clear, it’s not that she didn’t want to be milked. Au contraire, milking relieves the pressure in her udder and she looks forward to the grain she gets. She just decided she didn’t want to be on the milking stand. And I know she wasn’t hurt and unable to get up there on her own, because when I put her up there she bounced into the kidding pen with a leap that would be the envy of most kangaroos. She simply doesn’t want to be on the stand. Fortunately, I’m tall enough to get my arms around her and lift her onto the stand; poor Rachel has to milk her on the barn floor the nights I work late.

Then, inexplicably, the strike ended and she willingly leapt onto the stand and calmly munched her grain as though nothing had happened. This lasted for, oh perhaps five days. A week maybe. And now she’s back on strike, refusing to get up there and needing to be lifted. She’s a pain.

Why does she refuse? I don’t know. Maybe it’s a dominance thing. Maybe she’s feeling moody. Maybe she doesn’t like the sunflower seeds I added to her grain. Or maybe she’s just being mean. Whatever the reason, it is known only to her.

The young pullets we bought back in the fall have started to lay. I’ve been getting nervous because most pullets (hens who haven’t started to lay) usually begin egg production around 18-22 weeks depending on the breed. This would have been the beginning of February. I wasn’t too worried quite yet, as most birds stop or slow down their laying during cold weather, but I was definitely starting to wonder. And then I found an egg… in the barn… ON THE STUPID MILKING STAND! The goat won’t get on the stand, but the hens seemed perfectly fine to hop up and lay there.

It’s come clear that they’re making use of unapproved nesting sites. I searched to find other eggs in the barn but didn’t find any. That’s okay. I’m sure we’ll find them at some point. After they’ve gone rotten and we accidentally step on them. For now, the cold snap we had last week was beneficial in that they didn’t leave the coop and they just lay their eggs in there. Hopefully this habit sticks.

Some days I think I’m James Herriot. These have not been them.