Sheep Shearing

I really thought this was going to turn out differently than it did. Another adventure for us. The clippers we have for the horses didn't work out quite like I expected so we did it the old fashioned way more or less. With a pair of scissors, we found out the "Copper" the sheep isn't copper, he's black! Well, we didn't know, this is our first sheep. Copper went off his feed 2 weeks ago and I have been concerned with him losing weight since he's going to be supper one of these days. So, I did a little reading and decided he was hot. 3 hours later, here is the naked sheep. I am absolutely covered in lanolin. His wool was drenched with it. At least my hands are soft now! I think Copper is happy, he's been wagging the tail we never knew he had ever since we turned him loose.....

Happy Thursday on the farm

Today was a good day. Not too warm tho, plenty damp still. More like still sopping wet! Everywhere is muddy so I didn't even think about doing anything resembling gardening today. Nope, today was a clean up the messy farm day. As you can see, Pudge the cat was not helping. My son helped me all day, we got a ton of clean up done. First we had to round up our wayward Alpines, they have become masters of escape. No worries tho, both John Boy and Molly are gentled down and follow like puppies. So, we worked on fixing their pen in the pole barn so they'll stay put until we turn them out. Hauled out all the straw and set it aside for the gardens later on. Used cattle panel we had laying around and now they're where they are supposed to be! On to the old barn where there's an entire winters worth of loose hay, corn cobs and general trash to clean up. While we were knocking that out, I noticed my little grey rabbit was pulling fur. So a quick grab up job and move her to a bigger hutch with a nest box and this evening we have more bunnies!

On to the barn yard and cleaning up the misc hay strings and general junk that always seems to get left laying around. Got a bunch of the branches from our recent storms picked up and all the hubbys beer cans and mowed around the yard where it isn't swampy from all the rain.

I checked out the spot where we plan on building the new chicken coops and runs but it's pretty soft over there so no constuction in that spot for now. It'll just have to wait. Found a new batch of kittens, 3 of them and they're all grey.

Finished up about dark and just in time to pull the new batch of cheese out of the presses. This round was a new recipe for an herbed cheddar. It's Caraway seed cheddar. It smells awesome and I hope I can show some restraint and actually let it age for 30 days.....

Swimming Day

While we've watched it rain bucket loads over the past week, our ducks have swam all over the entire farm in places that should never have water. Now the farm is complete with ducklings in the bath tub! My kids thought the ducklings might need a little swim time, filled the tub a little bit and turned them loose. It's still too cold around here to put them outdoors with the rest of the ducks but their time will come soon enough. So, we'll just keep humming the rubber ducky song.......

Happy Easter from the farm

Well, it's that time of year again. For those of you that celebrate it, Happy Easter!

There he is, one of the 3 banty chicks still going strong in with some unknown chicks hubby brought home for me.

Wicked storm rolled thru here yesterday afternoon, drown us again with hard rain. I found a flooded spot on a backroad south of the farm, mine subsidence low spot filled up quick with water. Once again the ducks were swimming in the circle drive. Today is a balmy 42 degrees but it's sunny. Soggy barnyard, muddy horses and chickens and a runny nose! Sounds like a normal day around the farm. At least I don't have back spasms!

This week I plan on starting some coffee beans and some tobacco plants. I'll share pics when they sprout......