What happens on the weekend

We had a nice, hard rain while the sheep were out on pasture.  It washed them clean and I couldn’t help digging my hands into that wool.There are a couple of sheep in our flock that have really soft, tightly curled wool, like Clarinet’s here.  This is Philip’s favorite kind of wool.

A bit of spring time animals and blossoms.

Colors are coming back to the landscape.Sweet sleepy cat.Our favorite salad this winter and spring has been a bit of watercress, spinach, apples with a honey-mustard dressing.We’ve been busy cleaning out the pig nursery area again–hauling manure, pressure-washing, spreading lime–getting ready for the next batch of little pigs.  Philip and I will be picking them up on Monday.

What happens on the weekend

Sunny morning critters.I gave the pigs a straw bale this morning and they loved climbing all over it.  They didn’t give it up too easily when I was ready to open it and spread it under the heat lamps.Their fear of me is gone.  This little fellow really badly wanted to smell my face.  I let him sniff my nose, and then he tried to bite it.Ahh, the sheep.  So loving and sweet and non-biting.My chickens have settled in for the night.

What happens on the weekend

Days are getting longer and the blue eggs are back!Doing sheep chores–my sweet, “wait-y” dog sits patiently nearby while I’m working knowing the next stop is the big barn and breakfast for her.A bright, warm day–made the fields look really green.  It won’t be long till we can turn our critters out there.Sunny evening cat.

What happens on the weekend

What a busy week!  We got our sheep shorn, our last cutting of hay made and most of the winter cover crops planted.  We had our first killing frost of the season last night.  I had covered my pepper plants, but the cold got the tops of them anyway.

I started my day out with my new, favorite morning food–a pumpkin spice breakfast shake.  It is delicious, doesn’t sit like a rock in my stomach, and keeps me from feeling faint halfway through chores.Chihiro is my chore chum.  She follows me out to check on the animals on pasture and pops up in various different places in the barn.I haven’t found any eggs this week in my chickens’ nests, so I had to do something a bit special with the last three.  Philip got his sunny-side-up.  I scrambled my egg, added one of the last tomatoes, some dandelion and chives, with a bit of garlic and raw milk feta to top it off.A grainy photo of the bald eagle that visited our farm this afternoon.Then I went out to help Philip finish planting barley.I rode on the planter and made sure the seed didn’t run out.This is Bambi–she is 12 years old, retired, and has the run of the place.  She is a bit arthritic, so she doesn’t wander too far, but she loves to graze the cover crop in the garden and soak up the sun on the south side of the house.Our sparkling white flock.  They are the best.

What happens on the weekend

Autumn is here!  The crops are turning brown and the hum of harvesting is in the air.

Morning chores are wrapping up.  Philip watching the lambs busily devouring their hay.Sunny morning dog.

My dear little chickens are still laying eggs!  Each morning that I find an egg in their nest box, I feel a little surprised.  One of these days, they’ll have decided the days are too short and that they’re done laying until next spring.

What happens on the weekends

The lambs are arriving!  So far 15 ewes have given birth.  Five ewes gave birth to triplets, nine had twins and one ewe had a single lamb.

Two of the nine sets of twins were born prematurely.  The two tiny lambs on the right were born 4-6 days early, weighing 3.75 and 4.25 lbs.  They are next to two average size (8-9 lbs) lambs who really make them look itty-bitty.

This is the one of the preemie lambs that weighed 3.75 lbs. The other two premature lambs were 10-12 days early and were so small that even mouth-to-mouth couldn’t save them.

Claire is a fantastic mother and here she is with her three.  She had a normal delivery for the first two, but the last one (in front on right in photo) was being delivered as a tail-first breech.  It was a bit of a struggle to get him out and there was no way she could have delivered him on her own.  But everyone is alive and well and that’s why we try to be present for all the births.  There is some video footage of her newborns on vimeo.This little Americauna chicken ran away from my brother’s flock of hens and took over the sheep barn.  She makes it her business to clean out all the corners of the barn, piling the straw and corncob bedding up behind her.  The tops of the sheep feeders are a great place for her to keep an eye on things and she can easily jump down and chase away any cat that happens to get too close for her liking.  And at night she sleeps on the windowsill in the bank barn where she can monitor the sheep goings-on.A few of the lambs were old enough to be moved with their mothers to the “mixing pen” where we put 5-10 mothers along with their babies.  In a few days, if the weather’s nice, they’ll then graduate to the pasture.This little fellow and his sister were so happy to get out of the 4ft x 4ft maternity pen that they totally wore themselves out with all their skipping and hopping.

Although lambing season is our busiest time of the year, there are times to sit and wait.  I like to spend those sitting, waiting times petting my sheep–I just love them.  I love the way their wool smells of hay, and their warm cud-chewing breath–especially when belched right in my face–smells of fermented forages.  How they like their ankles and briskets itched, and how they paw at me when I quit and they weren’t finished.  And how I like to dig in their ears and pull out the earwaxy crusties they have in there and how they will lie down next to me and chew their cud if I sit still long enough.  How piles of their shiny, black poobles just beg to be picked up and tossed at Philip.

–Dee

What happens on the weekends

I’ve got so many little ants running around on my counters and no matter how much I clean and scrub, they are always back again in a few minutes.  On the one hand, they’ve got their own little communities to feed and I don’t like to drown or smash them, but on the other hand, they get into everything and I do like my honey ant-less.

My gardens are coming alive!  The peas are up beautifully….

….and the cats have finally stopped playing with the onion bulbs long enough for them to get some roots in the ground.

Philip and I both love peppermint tea and we have a 2 ft. by 4 ft. bed of it.  Last year I dried nearly 2 gallons of leaves (and I have lots left).  It’s already off to a good start this year.

For years, Philip and I have wanted to get the sheep to mow our lawn.  This spring, we’ve finally had the time to fence off the yard and now, right outside my kitchen window, the rams are busy clipping and fertilizing.  They were glad to get out, but the extra room made them a little “rammy”.  King George hit Remus really hard in the side and knocked him over onto his back.  Now Remus is walking around a bit stiffly because of the blow.

Remus in foreground, King George behind him

Remus can be a real jerk though, and I’ve been on the “smashed” end of a lot of his charges.  So, in a way, I felt like he had it coming since he’s always so belligerent. Still, I don’t like to see animals hurting no matter how ornery they are.  We’ll keep a close eye on him for the next few days and hope he can walk it off.

I went to gather my eggs this evening and Grandma Cow was checking out a Jeep that was sitting in the neighbor’s driveway.  With all the spring grasses available, she hasn’t been too interested in her hay.

My last stop for the day was with the beef cattle out on pasture.  They were ready for some scratching and, as always, a fresh strip of grass to graze.  With spring happening earlier than normal this year, our pasture grasses are quite tall.  To get the most out of our grass and to keep the cattle from trampling a good portion of it, we’ve been moving them onto a new strip of grass three times a day.

–Dee

What happens on the weekends

Jasper loves to accompany us to the bathroom.  One of his favorite spots to wait for us, is in the bathroom sink, no matter (almost especially) if it’s wet and he has muddy feet.  This morning again, he met me with this cheery face and good-morning yowl.

It really feels like spring today.  The sun is warm and bright, and I do believe our cover crop is starting to green up a bit.

Grandma Cow and her little friend were enjoying the warm south slope in their pasture.  A red-tailed hawk flew overhead and frightened away my chickens that were happily scratching through Grandma Cow’s lovely cow pats.And then, with chores all done and the animals fat, happy and hugged……what could be better than sitting down to a breakfast of eggs, topped with broccoli sprouts that were still warm from sitting in the sunny windowsill in their honey-jar greenhouse.  Very good.

–Dee

What happens on the weekends

A calm, golden morning.  I was thrilled this week to find my chickens had begun laying their beautiful blue eggs again.  

Philip got me some Americana chicks for Christmas in 2006 and 8 of those little chickens are still running around.

Each year I think will be their last for laying eggs, and each year they surprise me again.  They lay eggs for about 5 months of the year, starting when the days begin to lengthen and ending when the days get shorter.Here are a few more tidbits from this morning’s chores.

This is Mr. Jesse waiting patiently for his breakfast.  When he was just a wee boy, his mother and siblings abandoned him in the sheep barn with the lambs.  He grew up with the lambs as his mothers and he likes to help them eat their grain each morning.  It took a few months for him to warm up to us two-leggeds, but he is quite friendly now.

I have a special thing for Grandma Cow, who is now in retirement.  On my way up to see the pigs, she was out warming up in the morning sun.  And then in the pig barn, someone was looking for a buried treasure.

–Dee

What happens on the weekends

The morning light was pretty today, although it was fearfully gusty and 18°.  I bundled up.   Friska loves these kind of days.  She enjoys the snow especially–loves to roll in it, bite it and run through it.  And the wind brings her nose so many delightful things to smell.

 I checked up on the sheep to see how they made it through the night.  They had all moved from their nighttime spots to the sunny end of the barn to soak up the morning sun.  Their little white breaths glistened a bit then vanished as they chewed their cud.

When I went to give my chickens some water, Grandma Cow pressed her nose against the chicken wire to watch.

She puffed some warm hay breath my way.  It smelled good, like honey and clover.

Chores took a good 2 hours longer with cold weather and I was frozen  till we finished.  I was quite happy to come back into the house and sit down to a big bowl of hot blueberry oatmeal.

Enjoy your warm places today.  –Dee