What's up on our Brackettville farm?

It's nice in southwest Texas right now. The days are the perfect temperature, high 60's to low 70's. The nights stay above freezing, sometimes in the 50's. But we haven't seen precipitation in a long long time. It's like a desert here. It's dry and dusty. Everything is coated with dust. No, not dust. Powder!
Blog editor's note: It's 39 degrees and misty today (Tuesday, Jan. 27) with an expected low of 30 tonight.

The problem with no rain is no food for our animals. No rain means no grass, no clover, no legumes, no nothing. So when the cows or the goats see us coming, they chase after us. They assume we have bags and bags of feed with us. I never carry feed. I might have to start though. Being hounded by hungry goats must be something like being hounded by hungry paparazzi. They're relentless, aggressive, pushy, and rude.

Below: The goats had caught up with us and seemed ravenous.They were so riled up from the chase that a couple of them expressed their anxiety by butting heads. You can see them, near center, as their head-butting begins.

Below: The headbutting is really half-hearted. Just nervous energy really.

Below: The two quit their squabble quickly, more intent on food than proving superiority over each other. They both look over at me and one begins to bray. Hysterical.

Below: Can you believe the dust they've kicked up running towards us?

Below: Funny that just a few feet away from that rabble of goats and that dusty haze is this placid tank full of fresh water.

Below: We were walking along the creek when we spooked the cows as they were coming to drink. If we'd been in the car they'd have come running. Car+man=Food. Man Alone=Something to be suspicious of.

Below: how cute is this calf? I wanted to cuddle her!

Below: The guys had this bit of camo cover draped over a deer blind which was, oddly, set into the back of an old Jeep/Mule thing. It had an interesting swirling pattern to it, I couldn't resist swirling it a tiny bit more in Photoshop

Above: I don't know if it's the lack of food or what, but lots of mommas seem to be abandoning babies. All the goats are dropping kids right now. Three have come home with us so far, only two have survived. They're so terribly cute. Nasty, filthy, dumb as dirt, but cute cute cute. I'd rather their mothers kept them. Taking care of baby goats is a real pain.

Baby goats are proving very difficult for me to shoot!

A couple more are here.

Ho hum shots from Brackettville

Not a lot going on in front of my lens this week. Shot these two in the yard, yeah, very ho hum. But I gotta keep my feet wet and if you are wondering what life looks like in a tiny little rural town in southwest Texas, then here you go. Wish I had a telefoto lens for my digital, the cardinals have set up house in our carport thanks to a bag of seed my husband spilled there. They're around constantly now and they're an amazing splash of color in our otherwise drab, and dead looking yard.