
Aren't they getting big? They even make the cutest little honks now!

I think we ended up with all girly ducks!

These guys are fun to watch...
Aren't they getting big? They even make the cutest little honks now!
I think we ended up with all girly ducks!
These guys are fun to watch...
It’s still cold and windy here, luckily we’ve been keeping warm by the fire with the last of this year’s wood.
Badger one of the horned black badgerface rams...
Bronco-The other horned black badgerface ram...
Birth Weight: 7lbs. 2oz.
Only three left to lamb!
Tally for now: 7 rams and 7 ewes!
Icelandic Lamb Buddies...
A little bronze turkey...
A little giant white turkey...
And then yesterday Mark’s birthday present arrived!
The label...
Teigen checking them out..
Mark's Top Bar Hive that he built
Mark removing the queen box...
Mark dumping the bees in...
Happily in their new home...
It has been a long day today. Sawyer and I have been outside all today with a ewe that lambed today and doctoring another lamb that was born yesterday that has scours. To top things off it has been really cold and blowy sitting up in the barn all day long. The ewe is a first time mom and had a lovely black grey ewe lamb, she wasn’t too sure she was quite ready to become a mom and sorta snuffed the baby to begin with. She lambed right in the middle of the breeze way of the barn where it was…very breezy and cold. I wanted to move baby and mom to a lambing jug and out of the cold, but I didn’t want to scare mom off. So we just stood and watched mom decide whether or not she was going to accept her new addition. She just stood there for the longest time dazed and just staring at her lamb as it crawled toward her, she finally decided to take a little lick and then another and another. Finally she decided that licking this little thing might be ok. After it looked like she was going to accept the little lady we moved her to the jug where she finished cleaning and drying her off. She even let her nurse eventually and both are now doing quite well.
Kolfinna's black grey ewe lamb, Bliss...
Dyr's ewe lamb, a moorit grey spotted ewe.
The pigs burrowing down into the straw trying to warm up...
Leeks in the garden with snow...
Chicken tracks in the snow...
Strawberries with snow...
The hens were loving where Mark had worked up the garden!
Mark rototilling the garden, getting it nice and smooth...
Strawberry rows that need weeding already...
Strawberry plants are up and going despite the cool weather...
Raspberry bushes leafing out too...
Asparagus needs to go in soon...
Rhubarb too...
Currents, Gooseberries, and Blueberries needing to be transplanted...
Two apple trees and three plum trees too...
A cowboy being too cute...
Watching a beautiful sunset on another day...
Lambing...
Our first milking experience.....
Taking a nap...
The little boys and girls decided to switch bedrooms this week, leaving a tired Teigen who took a nap in a dresser drawer!
Re-creating supper...ram stew...yum!
We ended up having to butcher one of our rams because of horn issues and we had a leg of ram for Easter that was a huge hit. It then lived on to be a wonderful stew found here. I have a confession to make here….I don’t like lamb…there I said it…so why do I raise sheep? To give me grey hair…oh no I guess that’s why I had so many kids. ;D I always thought it would be neat to raise sheep but what would I do with the meat? Why raise something if you can’t enjoy consuming it… finally bit the bullet so to say and tried the Icelandic version of it…and now I’m hooked! Even this 2 year old ram was milder than any other lamb I have tried thus far. It was so mild and actually tasted wonderful, not like an old sock. Problem solved!
Keeping predators at bay...
I think I was nearly scared to death the other night! At 2 am after checking ewes I checked to make sure the fence was plugged in by making the handle of the gate ark with the hot wire when I pulled it close. Last year we had 5 sheep killed by either coyotes or a mountain lion, so making sure the fence is on is very important. The kids had been out earlier in the pasture flying kites and must not have plugged the fence back in, so I headed over to the pump house to plug it in. The pump house is just yards from the house…I decided that night to just let Sawyer sleep and went all the way up to the barn in the dark by myself….and of course the whole way up there I’m thinking of mountain lions and coyotes as I walk past our ferocious sleeping-out like a light- guard dog and then all the way back down…so when I pointed my light over toward the pump house and seen two big glowing eyes and the outline of a big coyote…(at least he seemed big to a tired momma at 2 in the morning with an overactive imagination) I nearly wet my pants… or screamed… or something. But I must have scared it too ’cause it took off out there almost as fast as I did!
Anyway, looking forward to more lambs this next week and playing in the garden.
Here is the pair of barrows...
What *are* these things?
What *is* that smell?
They're even sorta cute...right now anyway.
But without the dizziness…I think! ;D I suppose spots are to be expected though when both our rams are spotted. We have been having a lambing-palousa today! My older kids were going to get up this morning and do chores alone, to let me get caught up on a little bit of sleep. I heard Tori leave to go feed the calf and smiled to myself and snuggled down in my covers to drift off only to be awaken a minute later by the door bell ringing and Tori yelling something about a lamb coming, but there only being a head out! So much for more sleep…it’s highly over rated anyway…coffee is better…lots of coffee…and maybe some chocolate…dark chocolate…yeah! Anyway I jumped out of bed and threw a baseball cap on, my coveralls, a warm jacket and gloves as I heard the wind blowing. Sawyer was already to the barn when I reached the gate and I heard him yell back that everything was okay and that the front feet were there too. Yeah! So we watched her (Kaffi, a solid black horned ewe) bring forth a big beautiful black spotted ewe lamb…
Kaffi's black spotted ewe lamb, weighing in at 10lbs. 4oz!
See the heart on her side too?
Me warming the lamb...
Louisa's moorit (I believe anyway) spotted lamb, Blotch.
Louisa and Blotch, some of Sawyer's sheep.
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