Taking on twins...rooster and me tango...I've got grass!

Taking on Twins
Our twin neices are staying with us for the summer. My sister-in-law is a single mom and she is working two jobs so for the girls sake this seemed like the better option so they wouldn't have to be in daycare all the time. They are 4 yrs old--soon to be 5 on Sept. 27th. They are sweet girls but need a lot of training. We've had them for 2 weeks now and it's gone really well. They miss their mommy so much but I'm trying very hard to love them like I love my children. Some day we hope to adopt (there are so many children in AZ that are in foster homes and need parents) so this has kind of been a preview as to what adopting an older child would be like.

Here are the kids helping me make bread (DS isn't allowed to help because he just eats it!)

Rooster and me tango...
We've been letting the goats run around a bit during the day--they are such foragers and love to eat the leaves and bean pods from the desert trees--and there certainly is a lot to eat! They have amazing balance and will stand on their hind legs and reach up to eat from the tree--very deer like. They are so much fun---EXCEPT when they hop on to our cars!! Goats love to play and climb and they will get on the top of my minivan! The only way to get them down is to switch their little behinds! My goodness! They do get into mischeif that's for sure. They love to eat the other animals' food and they love to eat our plants (they ate every leaf off of my new baby orange tree!) and they also love to scratch their backs on the chain link and chicken wire. That ruins it because eventually it starts to bow out in the middle from them pressing their backs agains it. Well to get to the point, Ester loves to scratch her back on the chicken wire on the chicken tractor that houses the rooster and a hen. In doing so, she must have opened the door because I look out my window and low and behold there is the rooster walking about like he owns the place. "Oh noooo...." I say to myself. I HAVE to go outside because I have all my evening farm chores I have to do and I do not want to be chased by the rooster again. I think God is trying to make me face all my little silly fears with having to take care of the horse when she got stuck and now this. I could wait until the sun goes down to do the farm chores but it will be dark then, and if Jersey (the horse) gets hungry enough she may try and jump out of her pen. Sundown will be way past when she should have been fed so she very well may try and get out, and then I'd have to deal with a horse out. But I think I might rather take that risk--Jersey is a nuisance but atleast she wouldn't attack me! And then I notice the chicken coop-the wind blew the door shut! GREAT. If I wait until sundown I'm going to have a bunch of confused chickens trying to find home and I just got them trained to all go in the coop....it's settled...I'm goimg to have to go out there now.....I walk out onto the steps to see what the rooster will do. He's a good fifty feet away and I'm basically standing in my doorway so I'm not too scared. He immediately notices me and starts to walk my way. He was staying by the water this whole time so he is definitely coming after me. He's walking slow and checking things out but he is definitely coming towards me! I go inside and close the door. Apparently he still thinks he is the boss! I have to show him I am higher on the pecking order! I'm not going to use that silly broom again--it doesn't even shoo him away--it just makes him mad and comes right back it doesn't hurt him so it really doesn't show him anything. I'm going to have to hurt him a little to show him I'm the boss. So I walk outside, grab some rocks and wait. Here comes the rooster again. Walking slowly and cautiously but definitely coming straight at me. I read on a website that a way you can sex baby chicks is when they are a couple months old throw something over their heads and a hen will duck and a rooster will look up and watch it and then chase it. So I take one of my rocks and lob it over his head and sure enough he goes after it! And then he realizes it's a rock and comes at me again! This time I am actually trying to hit him but it misses him by 10ft--I am a horrible shot. He goes after the rock again and I make my break for the food shed to feed Jersey and open the chicken coop. On my way to the coop and Jersey here comes that DARN ROOSTER--he's only 20 ft away and advancing! I start throwing rocks--I only have 3 in my hand so they better count! I miss with the first one but the second one I hit him square on his side, right in his wing! He squawks and jumps in the air flaps his wings and walks away! Hurray! I have shown him I am higher on the pecking order! I walked back inside with no problems! P.S. Please don't call the humane society on me! It was all in self defense! P.S.S. The rooster is fine and still as ornery as ever :) P.S.S.S. Anyone want to buy an over aggressive attacking rooster that is out to seek revenge?

GRASS!
So I've been trying to grow things--food, flowers, grass--nothing is working. The food all got eaten as soon as the little shoots sprung up (I'm thinking it was either bugs, birds, rabbits, mice or all of the above), I planted tons of flowers and they never grew and same with the grass. I followed the directions with the flowers and grass perfectly: till, weed, wait 2 weeks, till and weed again, plant seed and cover with manure/compost, rake over seed.
Well... this second time I heavily seeded the grass and skipped the raking step and just covered the seed very well (about half and inch thick) with compost because I had a hunch it was the ants taking all my seed and I think I was right because now I have grass growing--hurray!
As soon as I would lay that grass down (and it's bermuda so the seeds are very tiny) almost instantly I would see ants coming and taking the seed. I could imagine them doing that all day long--I'm sure they would have eaten it all! So I found if I covered the seed well and if I kept the ground moist (which is what you are supposed to do anyway until the grass grows) the ants had a much harder time finding the seed. The raking seemed to turn the seeds out so the ants could find them better. Skipping that step helped tremendously. And we also sprinkled corn meal around the nearby ant holes--I'm not a fan of pesticides (all though I do use the spray stuff on the perimeter of the house--I can't stand creepy spiders in the house) and the corn meal seemed to work.
I just replanted flowers so we'll see if that grows. But having the bermuda will be great for the goose--they will eat pretty much grass only if it is available. If I can get the grass thing down I'll see about planting a bigger pasture for Jersey because that would save a lot of money on the food bill for her!
God bless and good night!