Happy Easter & Farm Updates

Happy Easter all my readers, especially Don M. from Texas! We had a great Easter, lots of time at home, a scavenger hunt for Easter baskets (that silly bunny), and dinner at Grandma Butchy's with my sister and her family. The boys have eaten WAY to much sugar, and took very late naps, so they are still up, but chilling in the great room with Diego.

SHEEP: I had hoped that Annafleece would give us an Easter lamb or two, but no such luck. The seventeen lambs we currently have are doing wonderful. The poor sheep are still hanging out in the garage, we had another couple of inches of snow this weekend, along with plenty of rain. Sam, Northwestern's neglected child (see previous post) was lucky enough to travel to school with me last Wednesday. Dressed in a pull-up, he followed me down the halls, slept under my students' feet at the table, and won the hearts of hundreds of children. We even took a quick morning walk down to Isaiah's daycare to visit 25+ preschoolers. He's still getting three supplemental bottles a day, his mom just is not producing enough milk or being a good mom. I'm afraid I know her future outlook...

GARDEN: I've been busy transplanting seedlings and planting more seeds. Last fall I made a few crazy purchases at an online gardening center auction that involved a LONG drive to pick up. But one of the purchases was a three shelf galvanized steel cart. It works perfect in the back porch, in front of the sliding glass door, with some lights wired to it. I start my seeds on the heated concrete floor and then transfer them to the lighted shelves to grow. They are doing great. Gwenny and Lyle, my gasoline free roto-tillers.

In related news, we've decided to add another garden this year. This one is between our driveway and the sheep pastures. Instead of working myself to break up the sod, I'm working the pigs. We installed portable electronet fencing, and opened a spot in the pasture fence for the pigs to move in. What three snouts can do in a day is amazing. I've been spending some time with them throwing chunks of sod into the pasture, but they are doing most of the work.

Speaking of PIGS, we will definitely have more in the near future. Gertie is starting to show that she is caring some baby red wattles. We are most excited about these additions. The pigs have done a number on the large pasture, but we are planning on building them a new pig pasture soon so that we can disc, plant and get the large pasture ready for rotational grazing of the sheep.

GOATS: The goat girls continue to get wider and wider. I gave them all CD&T boosters today. This vaccine is an important one to help the baby goats immunities when they are born. I cannot wait to see what we get from their breeding to Jeri's boer buckling. He had some nice color, so we'll see what we get. We are all looking forward to fresh milk again too.

KIDS- HUMAN VARIETY: The boys are loving the arrival of spring weather. K has stepped it up in the chores department. He is now able to get a bale of hay from the hay loft, onto the wagon and hauled to the sheep. Some grumbling is usually heard, but he can do it. His favorite job lately is anything that can be done while driving the lawn tractor. Having outgrown the battery powered gator, he's suffering through power withdrawal. He's also been stepping up and giving Sam most of his bottles when he is home. Don't worry, he still has plenty of play time, including playing in the nice black dirt mud, and tracking it into the mud room, and across my floors...or chasing the chickens around the yard with a stick...or "helping" his brother into the giant puddle along the driveway...

On this Easter I feel truly blessed to be living the life we are living. It's hard work, but things are starting to pay off. After Earthfest and some other opportunities I've had in the past month to share the what and why of our little farm with others, I feel so good about the life that Nate and I are creating. My boys are so happy, and learning so much every day. Watching K tell his kindergarten class about a five-day old lamb's life, and how to care for him. Or seeing how happy Is looks when he gets to help me transplant plants (he wanted the Easter bunny to bring him his own spray bottle for Easter, for some reason that didn't happen.) This summer is looking to be a very busy one for the farm, with new additions, and opportunities. I just hope that I can continue to enjoy every minute as much as I have been. Who knew that working this hard could be so much fun?

Lamb Count at 17, with two more to go

Cooley

Lambing has been going well so far, with some firsts this year. I'll run down the chronological list and then hopefully add some photos, though it's a challenge to take good photos in a garage, especially when there is 5 inches of fresh snow outside and a howling north wind so you don't want to leave too many doors open.

3/31 J.J.- twins, ram lamb died of possible PEM, ewe lamb is moorit (brown) with white markings, named Avoca

4/4 Pamela-single ram lamb, small, moorit, had to be bottle-fed first two days because Pamela's udder is so horrible, think this is her last lamb.

4/4 Splash, this yearling ewe gave us a large black ram lamb.

4/6 Cocoa, second lambing, Cocoa gave us a moorit with lots of white facial markings, named Cooley.

4/6 Fiona, twins, one ram, one ewe, both moorit. The ewes name is Erin Go Bragh.

4/10 Scar, twin ews, one white, one moorit. Tillamore Dew is the white ewe, Tyrconnel is the moorit ewe.

4/11 Jacobs, twin rams, both black with white head markings. The least flashy lambs she has ever had. One is substantially smaller than the other, but both doing well.

4/12 Darla, her first lambing, while Nate and I were both at work. She had the white ram all dried off and fed when I got home. Kohen was very bummed that his favorite girl's first baby was a ram, we are leaning toward wethering him for a pet for the boys, hence, he received a name: Jameson.

4/12 Emma, first lambing also. Single black ram lamb.

4/15 Poppy, single ram lamb, moorit in color.

4/15 Northwestern, single, huge legged ram lamb, more on this crazy story later.

4/16 Shrek, twins, one moorit ram, one white ewe, the ewe is named Shanahan. I had to seriously assist- as in hands dirty, get in there and help. The ram lamb was coming out nose only (normal presentation is nose with two front hooves. Nate held her head and I was able to hook a finger around each leg and slowly ease it into proper position. Once his position was good she delivered him in two minutes. Scary, but happy that I was able to help.

4/16 Time, single ewe lamb, black with krunet. Had to try and help on this one too. Nose and one hoof. Poor Time was straining and nothing was happening. Being a first time mom, and small, I was not successful in getting the second leg lined up, but had to slowly help Time deliver this huge baby. We did so without much damage to Time, though I don't think she likes me much right now.

So, the lamb stats are as follows:

-18 lambs, 17 alive

-10 rams, 7 ewes.

-4 white, 4 black, 9 moorit lambs, with lots of white head and facial markings.

Northwestern (1/2 Jacobs, 1/4 Shetand, 1/4 Suffolk) just doesn't want to be a mom. She gave birth to a large ram lamb on Friday, while Nate and I were both at work. Kohen helped me move babe and mom to a jug, I knew right away that there was an issue because Northwestern didn't follow her baby like most of our ewes, I had to lead her. The lamb had been licked clean and had nursed, but she still wasn't showing much interest. My suspicions were confirmed when she jumped out of the jug and tried to escape. This happened multiple times over the next 12 hours, even though we increased the height of the jug walls. She would only let the lamb nurse when I held her still. We ended up tying her and have been supplementing him with some saved milk from Pamela as well. The corner might be turned, this morning she was visibly upset and noisy when I took him out to give him a bottle. Hopefully a couple of extra days in the jug will firm up the bonding.

Annafleece and Marie have yet to lamb, and neither looks too close. Cornelia is the only remaining ewe, a yearling, and she does not look to be bred. My hope now is that our weather returns to spring so that this snow melts and everyone can be put back out on pasture. Speaking of pasture- the pigs have done a number on the big pasture with their rooting in the soft mud, They are very happy to be exploring. Well, until the snow came. Lyle was not excited to get up yesterday, wander out of the shelter and encounter all the snow. He looked around, and headed back in to lay down. The girls were a bit more adventurous, Gwennie was running and jumping with the snow.

Lambing 2011

Killbeggan, Pamela's ram lamb.

J.J and Avoca

Yes, lambing has started, and I have been remiss in blogging about it.

J.J. got things going this year with the set of twins I blogged about earlier. We ended up losing the ram lamb before he was 24 hours old. Everything I've researched points to PEM, caused by a thiamine deficiency. Thankfully, no one else has had any symptoms.

Pamela decided to go second this year, with a small ram lamb about 4:30 am on the fourth. I'm in the habit of turning on the lamb cam if I wake up at night, and squinting to look for lambs. She was helpful enough to lamb right in front of the camera and was licking him off when I looked at 4:35. We've decided this will be Pamela's last lamb. Her udder is horrible, it hangs low, gets huge, and is not the buffet it should be for a newborn lamb. For the first two days I was milking her and feeding the poor little guy. He has finally gotten big and strong enough to nurse, but primarily on one side. I am still milking the other side of her udder in hopes that he can eventually use it.

Shearing 2011

Thor with Annafleece, he jumped right in and helped.

Since there is a break in the lambing action (darn it) I decided I better post about last Saturday's shearing. We have had Brian Fitzpatrick shear for us each year, and he always does a great job. He lives a considerable distance away, so he usually only makes one or two passes this far north each year. Shearing was set for Saturday evening. All the sheep were in the garage, tables ready, sheets and tags ready.

We had a good crowd this year: Judy and Jerry, Jeri, Tim & Karlene along with Thor and Autumn, Sandy, Nate's mom Jan, my parents, Auntie Linda and of course Gramma Butchy.

After a good meal of bbq beef, salads, mac and cheese, onion casserole, and other goodies, we got to work.

All 19 sheep were shorn, and everyone had a good time. The rams were brought back to the pasture and decided to put on a show for everyone since they didn't recognize each other. I appreciated all the help. Nine fleeces were sold fresh off the sheep, so heading in the right direction there too.