Photo update and a few words about our time off so far.......

                     Meet Lucy( left) and Sarah( right), they are Cortney's bums for Spring 2011

 We'd like to introduce Angel, her twins. They are some of the newest additions to the farm.

Angel, her twins and another dairy goat and her kid are from a situation where severe abuse was involved and they were removed and we adopted them.  Angel is a cross breed, must have some Angora in her, as she has different hair. Angel's twins are obvious Boar and they will go to another home as soon as they are weaned( part of the deal)

 This is Cinnamon, she's a Nubian cross and is very sweet. She has a single kid born on March 31st( a little buck, soon to be a wether)  She has been milked before and is coming on 4 yrs old, as her 4 yr old teeth are just coming in.  We don't have any history on either of these sweet nannies, they were vaccinated, wormed and are in need of lots of TLC. Both are very thin, even after a month worth of time, after being rescued by the animal control.  They are not papered, not even purebred, but a good start for us and they needed a home otherwise they were bound for the sale barn.  We were contacted early last week and had to make a decision within a couple of days!  We were scrambling to clean out a spot, get the required feed and mineral( that they've been placed on since the rescue)

       This gives you the idea of the size difference and they get along well.  Yes, they have horns, not much we can do. Animal control did band them, but it may NOT work and they are not at all aggressive.

           Cinnamon's udder and she's still being built up so we'll only milk a little in the evenings for the next few weeks until she builds up more and the kid is up and more active.

 Cinnamon's wether( he was banded today, as well as debudded)  He's so cute and has such long ears!

                               Sleeping sound in their new little hut

                          Angel and the twins playing on the feeder.

                         The buck( on the left) and the doe( closest ) are both are very active.

                          Lucy and Sarah checking out the goat kids and nannies.
As you can see life is never dull, nor will it be for some time to come :o)   I hate to run but I've got to go milk Cinnamon :o)

Blessings and we miss you all, and promise to be back as soon as possible.

The Red Light district is back.....

 This morning at 7:15 am our Freedom Ranger chicks arrived U.S.P.S.  We got them settled in right away and were glad to see all are lively and doing great!    I just love chicks, they are truly amazing and so fun to watch.

  I always add 2Tbsp. Organic Apple Cider Vinegar and 1Tbsp. honey to their water for several days, it gives them some added electrolytes and it certainly doesn't hurt them.

 It doesn't take long for them to figure out where to eat!  We grind and mix our own chick starter, here is a post from last Spring of our recipe. I would like to add we also add in greens, ASAP and worms and bugs, you know things they'd naturally eat if they had a mama *wink*

 Cortney, her bum lambs( Sarah and Lucy), who are now here at home with us and Annabel's dogs( Trixy, Lacy and Jake) enjoying lunch outside. This was before our Spring snow.

 This is a ewe and her triplets( only two pictured) Cortney managed to get hauled in from the pasture( soon after they were born)  Twins aren't bad, but triplets, that's a challenge. Two are a milk chocolate brown( 2 girls) and a speckled one( boy)

                        It's hard to see this little lamb, but Cortney just loves the black lambs, so do I :o)  It's funny this black lamb was a twin and the other sibling is white.
                        I'm not sure what the count is now but I think Annabel and Cortney are at least half way through lambing.  It's such a joy to see the lambs all racing and bounding about in the corral areas outside the barn.

                         We still have snow on the ground and it's forecasted to snow with rain mix for the next several days, then get back to sunshine and mid to high 50's by mid week, next week :o)
                          Cortney has Driver's Ed this afternoon, so a quick trip to the city and back home again to check on the chicks as well as feed the bum lambs. I'm looking forward to this weekend, this whole week has been so hectic and crazy, I'm looking to enjoy some peace and quite, down time and NOT have to run anywhere.
                        Blessings to each of you today.

2011 lambing season is underway!

This is the first lamb of Annabel's lambing season, born a week ago. Now, so far the last total we had was 13 lambs, of which all but three are twins. 

This is Cortney's 4th year working with Annabel and this year she'll be doing it alone for the most part. Her Dad and I are so proud of her and she is proud of herself and thankful that Annabel has worked with her and given her the opportunity to learn all of the skills she has, in dealing with sheep.

Here is the little fella just inside the door of the barn. The wind was blowing so hard the day this photo was taken.

Annabel's new herd dog, McKenzie. Coyotes have become such a problem in this area, now even the cattle ranchers are suffering losses of calves.  Annabel shared with us, of how she saw tracks where McKenzie had chased off some coyotes. McKenzie will be worth her weight in gold if she keeps the coyotes at bay, especially during lambing.

    This is one of two Llamas Annabel has with the sheep as well, "Dillon" says Hello! He is very curious and doesn't hesitate to come right over and see what you are doing.
   "Denver", Annabel's other Llama is not so friendly, but he watches over his sheep!

    In this photo of the sheep grazing, you can see the dust blowing( sort of looks like Dust Bowl 2011, I sure hope not.) That evening we had wind gusts up to 80mph.  These winds did damage( tearing down fencing, damaging roofs and even blowing over sheds) in the city closest to us, the news forecaster called them micro bursts

    I'm not sure how many of Annabel's ewes are due to lamb, but it sure is fun to drive up to the barn and see them jumping and playing!  I know that Cortney is hoping for some bottle lambs, but also know that Annabel is hoping just as much NOT to have any bottle lambs.
   We'll post more photos of the lambs, maybe later this week

   Saturday Mike worked on tearing apart some hydraulic cylinders he was given to repair, Cortney cleaned her room and helped me trim up all but our plum trees. Our established apple trees were a mess of sucklers. For some reason the "Wealthy" seems to have 50% more sucklers than the "MacKintosh"*sigh*  I trimmed all but the very top ones, Mike came and did those because I won't crawl up on a ladder tall enough ( not afraid of heights, just unstable ladders*wink*)  We have two established plums to trim and top and we'll be done with the fruit trees, then onto finishing cleaning up branches from the fruit trees as well as the elm Mike took down in our front yard, last weekend.  Maybe if our weather holds and we don't get alot of moisture, we can begin cleaning up some of our larger flowerbeds, getting the seeds shaken in for our flowers this year. You see; I love to garden, but I am an admitted lazy flower gardener, LOL!  I like to just shake the seeds back in and see what comes up. It's ALWAYS beautiful and besides God combines colors I would have never thought to :o) 
   Yesterday was our local volunteer Fire Departments annual "Chili Feed" So most of our day was consumed with setting up, serving, visiting and then clean up and tear down.  They netted around $2,000 between their Silent Auction, Chili dinners, and Donations. The Fire Dept. was very happy with the turn out.  Cortney and I enjoyed visiting with old friends, as well as meeting and making some new ones.
It looks as if our CSA memberships may be; "SOLD OUT!" A lady approached me and asked if we still have memberships to our CSA available, I shared that we still had one 1/2 share and we were waiting in a deposit for a "Full share". She said she and a friend would be splitting one and I told her the 1/2 share would most likely suit their needs the best. She's going to drop off her deposit this week
 I bid on one silent auction item, as a surprise for Mike, it was a toy replica of a Farmall IH Super M tractor, just like the two we own. It became a bidding war and unfortunately I had a cap and lost the bid*sigh*  Cortney's necklace had several bids and I believe it sold for $35, which was good, the materials involved were approx. $25
   Not much else new here, just working, cleaning( Spring type) and enjoying our warmer weather.
   Blessings for your week
                     
                    
                         

"Fhoto" Friday

Cortney worked with our friend, Annabel, on Wednesday morning. She works for her during lambing season, as well as off and on throughout the summer, as needed.

                                       Moving the lambs, after weighing and marking for sale/butcher.

Heading back to their pasture. Somewhere in this herd, are Brownie and Sonny, the bottle lambs Cortney raised up this Spring.

                              "Dillon" ever watchful, he is one of two lamas our friend's have to protect their sheep.
This has been a particularly hard year for our friends, as the losses due to coyotes has been high.*sigh* A beautiful view of the valley.

"Jake" and Cortney," Bringing up the rear!"  Jake is a Canaan dog and he's in training for herding the sheep :o)

Almost there! Look at the beautiful view from the hill.

                                             All done, taking a break on Cortney's foot! Jake is such a character! LOL!
                                            The scenery is beautiful.

                                          Heading back to the house( left to right) Lacy, Trixy and Jake. Jake and Lacy are Canaan dogs and Trixy is a mix( beagle and ?)  Cortney loves "the gang" and they love her, of course taking cookies for them helps!*wink*
                                           Thank you Annabel for permission in using your beautiful photos :o)

We've been busy, busy here harvesting, preserving and cleaning up the garden. Bless Cortney's heart, she collected/ harvested all of our cukes, zucchini and her pumpkins yesterday while I was canning and making supper.
She ended up with a wonderful harvest of pumpkins from 6 plants,they produced 35 pumpkins!  She's been taking orders, we'll keep 5-6 for our use and she's hoping to sell the remainder and some Indian corn bundles, advertising with a sign at the end of our drive.

Blessings for your weekend everyone :o)