Missing Willow Farm

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Nellie Belle surprised us with twin ewes yesterday, not 24 hours after Kat delivered her little rams.   They were patiently waiting next to the barn for us to let them into the ‘nursery’, where they’ll spend a few days with Kat and her lambs.  The first photo is a little family portrait, with Nellie’s 2010 lamb Lexi and this year’s babies.

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Our first lambs of 2011 were born last evening.  Lambing on our farm typically happens right at dusk.  Our Katahdin hair sheep Kat had twin boys, 30 minutes apart.  The first one delivered normally, the second was hind feet first.  Normal delivery is when both front hooves and their little face presents first, like Superman flying.  She cleaned him up while the second one presented.  It showed two little hooves, too, but they were the back hooves.  We had our OB kit at the ready just in case it was needed.  Thankfully it wasn’t.  We both are trained as EMTs and have both delivered human babies so the lambs are no biggie deal.  You need to intervene if there’s just one leg presenting.  This is Kat’s second year as a mom.  Miss Kitty was her first and still sticks to her like velcro.  They were born 4 months to the day from when we brought the handsome ram 802 to visit, which means they’re our little Graham’s babies.  Gestation runs from 147 to 153 days.  Go Graham!

Marsha (small white) and Cranberry (large green) started laying again today.  Yay!  Our bantam hen Nugget is the only slacker, but she lays such tiny eggs it’s easy to forgive.  I had to buy a half dozen eggs last week and was not happy about it.  I refused to use them for anything but baking.  We’re definitely spoiled with our freshly laid eggs.  When we lived in a suburb of Raleigh, NC our homeowners association had a bylaw that said no backyard chickens.  We laughed about that for many years as we certainly had no intention of raising chickens at the time.  Now I can’t imagine life (at least breakfast) without them.

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We’ve had a little warm spell here over the past few days, which enabled us to check on a few things.  I planted some carrots in an outside raised bed (not one in the greenhouse) late July as an experiment.  We had carrot tops before our hard frost which died off then the ground froze.  Frozen ground kept us from digging around to see if we had any carrots underneath the soil.  I’m happy to say the answer is yes!  Also, we had a chance to check on our bees.  Our bees didn’t survive our harsh winter last year but this year, so far, they appear to be thriving.  The warm day encouraged them to step out for a bit to check for pollen.  Not yet little guys, give it a few more months.  We ordered another colony last night, expanding our tiny honey operation.  Eventually these bees need to pay for themselves!

Ours is out by our hot tub.  We cut our tree down in November, the day the tree farm opened for the season.   We enjoyed it through December with lights and decorations.  It went out on the deck next to the spa in January, where it still smells of pine whenever you touch it.  That is our 5th hot tub if you count the one that was here when we bought the place.  We wear them to death!  The previous owners had one sunk into that very spot on our deck when we first moved here.  We got rid of it and decked over the hole and moved our own up there.  Just the two of us.  It’s amazing what two engineers can do when they set their mind to it.  It’s in our plans to completely redo the deck, maybe this year.  Maybe next.  It runs the entire length of our house and methinks needs an outdoor kitchen and a screened room and a wisteria covered pergola.  A girl can dream!  Anyhoo… we’ll keep our Christmas tree out there as long as it’s enjoyable, as we do every year.  Not bad for a $24 investment now four calendar months ago.