Taking a Licking

One of our bulls has a thing for licking. If I'm close to the gate, he'll try to lick.

What he especially likes to lick, though, is Bo. The tie ring where I tie him to saddle him is on the post next to the bulls' gate, and whenever we're getting ready to ride, here comes the bull.

Bo: "Why is this bull's nose so close to me?"

Me: "He's just being friendly."


Bo: "Aaaaack!!!"
Me: *giggles*

Bo: "This isn't funny!"

Usually, Bo's a good sport about it, and lets the bulls lick him. Yesterday, though, I guess he was getting tired of it. Right after this he gave a big snort, which startled the bull and made him jump back. I doubt if that will stop him for long, though. :)

Pickles

We finally got back online about two weeks after we took the computer to the shop. They thought there was probably a power surge (maybe from lightning) that had caused the trouble. Remember, I had been working on pickles in the meantime?

There were just a few cucumbers to start with.

Then there were more.

And more.

I made lime pickles.

And Claussen-type (is that spelled right?) pickles.
And hamburger dill slices and sweet pickles that I haven't taken pictures of.

The heat has caused the cucumber vines to slow down quite a bit now, or maybe it has just slowed down my ambition for picking them. There are still lots of blooms at the top, though, so they may take off again later on, I don't know. This is the first time we've put out any cucumbers.

Who knows how many years it will be before we need to plant any more. :)

I Guess I Should Always Carry a Camera

This guy was spotted recently while I was taking a walk.
Look at the cool patterns on his shell.
So pretty!

Sheep Shearing

Sheep shearing day for 2010 came and went, and now there are bags of wool in the barn. The shearer got here pretty early in the morning and the sky was cloudy, so it made it really nice for shearing. There have been times when it was blazing hot by the time we got them sheared, making things really uncomfortable for the sheep, the shearer, and the shepherds. Here's what Velvet looked like last fall not long after we bought her. Of course, her wool grew quite a bit more over the winter.And here's what she looks like after shearing:Quite a change, huh? I just thought she was small before. The other day I mistook her for one of the lambs.

And here's Angus right after we brought him home. (He, too, grew a LOT more wool over the winter.)And now...This picture really doesn't do him justice. He's so slick and black and handsome! He almost looks shiny.

We fixed a skirting table in one of the sheds outside. I'm still learning...I had seen a picture somewhere of someone skirting using a similar set up. Before when I had skirted fleece, I spread a plastic table cloth out on the ground and put the fleece on it. This is SO much easier! And probably works a lot better, too, since some of the VM has a chance to fall through the grate and out of the fleece.Here's Velvet's fleece spread out on the table. The picture doesn't do her fleece justice, either. Somehow it's really hard to capture the color of her fleece on film. Or should I say "in pixels?"
I couldn't wait to wash a little section. Here's the result:

It has a really long staple, compared to what I'm used to, and is sooo soft. I'm planning on working on it again today, hopefully a bigger bunch at a time. I'm getting anxious to spin some up!

Another Lamb Report

I'm finally getting around to the next lamb report. That makes nine ewes, so lambing is over for this year. First, on the 21st, Rose had twin ram lambs. Here's Rose:
And here are the lambs:
Next, on the 28th I think it was, Hannah had twin lambs, one ewe and one ram. Here's Hannah having a little snack:And here are the lambs:It's kind of hard to see the one in the back, but he's kind of black and white spotted, but also with a spot or two of the dark curly fleece like the ewe in front. Her fleece is really curly all over with kind of white undertones.

We finally got all the ewes with lambs back together out in the lot, so that has made doing the chores a lot easier than when we had to feed and water several of them separately.

The older lambs, well, all of them really, are growing fast. I don't think I've ever seen any animal grow as quickly as lambs.

Catching Up with the Lamb Reports

Whew, it's been awhile since I've posted! Things have really been hopping around here. Eight of the nine ewes have lambed so far. Here's what's happened since last time:

March 18: Angus was probably really excited when he saw Sydney's ewe lamb:The black fleece toward the front is kind of short and crimpy, and the gray-tan fleece along her back is longer and more wavy.

March 21: I found Rachel (a Rambouillet) with her first lamb, a little white ewe, whose fleece is already kind of long and wavy.
Still March 21: The sheep did something they've never done before in all the years we've been raising sheep. I went to check on them about 1:30 that afternoon, and nobody was doing anything. When we went out to do the evening chores, awhile after 5:00, I looked in the little shed out in the lot and found two ewes with three new lambs! They had both apparently lambed at almost exactly the same time. Now this was a pickle. One ewe had twins, and one had a single lamb, and neither I nor they were sure who belonged to whom. Abby is an older ewe and not in the best of shape, and Violet is a younger ewe. It looked like maybe Abby hadn't been able to get up yet, and that Violet had licked everybody off. I helped Abby to her feet and she promptly went outside to find something to eat. She soon came back, though, to see about her lamb/lambs.

Two of the lambs were black and white spotted (one ram and one ewe), and looked like they were probably the twins, and the other lamb (a ram) was tan and white. The lambs were trying to nurse first one ewe and then the other, and Abby and Violet would go from one lamb to the other. I was afraid one of the lambs wasn't getting any attention, while one was getting attention from both ewes. I got a little colostrum on my fingers from Abby and got in the lamb's mouth several times to at least give her a taste. I thought about separating them, but was afraid I wouldn't get them with the right ewe, so we decided to leave them all together and let them work it out. I really think probably Abby had the twins, and Violet had the single tan and white lamb. That night when I went back to check on them, the lamb I had given the colostrum to was nursing from Violet, and the next morning, she was nursing from Abby. Now several days later, they're still all together, and seem to be doing okay. Maybe they've got it figured out or maybe they're just helping each other.

March 22: Rose had twin ram lambs in the barn, but I don't have pictures of them ready. We're still waiting for Hannah to lamb, so hopefully I can post pictures of all of them next time.

Again, whew, things have sure been busy!

The Next New Arrival

When we put Scarlett in the barn the other night before she lambed, we also got in Rachel and Lily because this year is their first time lambing and we wanted to have them already inside in case they needed any help. A little before 10:30 Tuesday night I went out to check on the sheep, studied them for awhile and thought Rachel looked like she was breathing faster than normal. No other signs, just breathing a little fast. I decided I'd come back in for awhile and then go check on them again later. So, about 10 after 11 I went back out to the barn and found Rachel just standing around, but Lily was hard at it in front of the hay rack.

She didn't seem to be making much progress, but sometimes it takes awhile, especially since this was her first lamb. She made several attempts, and I could see his front feet and nose occasionally (which was a good sign, at least, since he wasn't coming backwards). After awhile I began to worry that if she had too much difficulty, even if she was able to do it herself, she might be so exhausted and traumatized that she wouldn't have the energy to take care of him as she should. So I finally decided to help. I went back to the house and washed my hands. (Also took off my ring. Remember what Billy Crystal said about his watch in "City Slickers"?) Then it was back out to the barn.

Lily was still working, but still not making much progress. She'd get up and walk around a little, but seemingly to no avail. So finally as she worked, I got hold of his front feet, tried to make a little more room for him and pulled out and down. I could tell he was pretty tight. We kept at it for a little bit, and finally got his head where I could see it. In the midst of all this Lily scared me by getting up a couple of times and moving around. I just crawled after her, and then pulled some more. I could tell then that one of his legs seemed to be farther back than the other one, and decided he was probably stuck at his shoulder. After a minor adjustment, out he came!

Lily jumped up and started licking him. He shook his head around, and it wasn't long before he was trying to get up.

It was about 10 after 12 when I came back in, so, needless to say, I didn't take any pictures of him that night. But the next morning I did!

See the little brownish black spot on the tip of his ear? By yesterday, it had dried some more and didn't look as dark, but you can still see it. Angus is excited about it. (Don't tell him, but Lily had brown on her ears when she was a lamb.)

First Lambs of the Season!

On Saturday morning when I went outside, Belle was standing in the lot with a white ram lamb! She probably had him sometime up in the night, because he was already dried off and out running around with her. When we bought Belle, she was really wild, but she's calmed down a LOT since then. She stomped her foot at me when she thought I was too close to the lamb, but I finally got close enough to pick him up and carry him to the shed so they could have a private little place of their own for awhile. I held him where she could see and smell him, and she followed me right into the shed.
She did lots of talking to him after we got in there.Angus has a separate little space of his own in the same shed. He did things the old-fashioned way...waited in the waiting room.
He still hasn't passed out any cigars. Maybe he just hasn't had a chance to get out and buy any. :)
Then Saturday evening when we were doing the chores, I noticed that Scarlett looked like she was thinking about lambing. So after doing some shuffling, we got her over into a little pen in the barn. When I came back to check on her awhile later, she had a little white ewe lamb!
The other girls should be lambing before long too, so hopefully more lamb pictures soon! :)

Do You Get This Excited...

...when it's time for supper?

Jade and Velvet do. :)

Meanwhile, over in the other pen, we're still waiting for lambs. The girls are looking closer every day, so maybe there'll be some lamb pictures soon!

Do You Think the Bill Collector Would Believe Me...

...if I said...

...the goat ate it?

In the midst of doing chores the other day, I went to the mail box and got the mail, laid it on the wagon, and left to do some other chores. When I came back to the barn, I found Monkey (whom you can't seem to keep in any kind of pen, and has now become pretty much a "free-range" goat) tasting the mail. :)

Waiting for Lambs

I've been studying the girls every day to see if there's any sign that there might be some lambs any time soon.I was actually a little worried for awhile as to whether there would even be lambs this year. The ewes didn't seem to show any signs of being bred, and remember the rocky start they had with their suitor?

We put the ram in with them around the 10th of October, and according to this sheep gestation calendar, we can start watching for lambs the 4th of March. They don't really look that close to lambing to me, but like I said, they weren't too thrilled with Angus when they first met.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I'm excited to see what the Rambouillet/Shetland and Suffolk/Shetland cross lambs will look like!

Sheep Manners

Me: "Levi! You know it's not polite to talk with your mouth full!"

You Know You're a Farmwife...

...when your husband brings you home one of these...
...and you're excited about it. :)

As long as I've been feeding square bales of hay to the sheep, I never knew there was such a thing. (We'll just say they're new.) It's kind of hard to see in the picture, bit there's a razor blade down at the bottom of it kind of like those letter openers. You use it for cutting the twine on the bales. I'd been using a knife, when I remembered to bring it, or just pulling the twine off over the sides if I didn't. If you've ever tried that, you know how hard it is to do, especially when the bales are packed tight. I'd been leaving a knife up on the barn shelf, but something got up there one night (I'm thinking raccoons after Geronimo's cat food crumbs) and knocked it and some other stuff off. The knife either disappeared down into the hay on the floor, or the coons ran off with it.

(I'm not sure if this is connected, but my husband brought this to me the next night after I borrowed his knife.)

Anyway, these things work like a charm, and you can hang them up on the wall to keep the coons away from them. :)

Goat, Pig, or Cat?

Thought I'd show you this picture of Geronimo, the barn cat. He's begun taking his meals on a shelf in the barn.
The reason? Monkey the Pig, er, I mean Goat, has developed a taste for cat food. If Geronimo is eating anywhere she can reach, the next thing you know, she's stealing his food.Don't worry, this particular sack she's diving into is cracked corn. I try to keep her out of the cat food if possible. It surely can't be good for her, can it? If I don't close the lid on the barrel where the cat food is when I leave the barn for a minute, upon my return I find her trying to get into that sack, too. One night when the wheel barrow was parked beside the feed barrel, she managed to climb high enough to reach Geronimo's "out-of-reach" shelf anyway.

Don't be surprised one of these days if I post a video of the world's first meowing goat. :)

Cafeteria Style?

Monkey the Goat during evening chores:

"Hey, don't they keep cattle food in here? I wonder what it tastes like?"

"Maybe I'll just go up to the barn and see what they've got up there."

"What? The sack isn't open?!"

"Um, excuse me, a little help here..."

"There, that's better. Thanks!"

"Mmmmmm. Corn. Delicious!"