Missing Willow Farm

Backlit by the low evening sun, this little one struts her stuff!

Maya’s just over a month old, and almost half the size of her mom.  She’s the queen bee of the lambs, they follow her everywhere.

LC (aka Elsie, aka Little CoCo after her mom) had a kid of her own this week, a little doeling.  We’re calling her TLC (aka Teeny Elsie, aka Teeny, aka ‘T’).  She’s a stocky, solid little darling.

Jack’s rolling around in the hay feeder, letting us know it’s time to bring another round bale out.  He’s helpful that way.   Actually, it’s because there’s poop up there from the goats.  We can’t keep them out of it.  It’s a cattle feeding ring, so won’t keep the smaller animals out.  Including Jack!

Jack got a new wubba in his Christmas stocking.  He doesn’t give it up… ever.  You have to snatch it from him as he’s backing away.  Having two to toss wears him out faster than just tossing one.  This is a game we play with him morning, noon, and afternoon.  Border collies have a lot of energy to burn!  We fared very well with the snow last night, just a few inches.  That is on top of three days of hard rain so the driveway is too slippery to even walk on, much less drive.  Good thing we don’t have to go anywhere today.

Everyone congregates in the barn.  We’ve had three days of steady rain here, with heavy snow expected tonight.  Amazingly, our pond hasn’t overflowed (yet).  We have gas for our generator and Fritos.  What else could you possibly need for an impending winter storm?

The fishing line fence came down for the winter a while back and the deer have invaded our garden.  Thankfully, they don’t bother the garlic and are just mowing the grass between beds.  Still… move along!  You can see where Brian is replacing the wood on a few of our beds with cedar.  He’s planning to upgrade them all eventually.  That exact spot down by the pond is where the prior owner of our farm was going to put in an inground pool.  I think the greenhouse and raised beds are a much better use of that flat, sunny spot!

The lambs have found each other and stick together like glue.  We have another two since I got this photo (it’s been raining cats and dogs the last few days).  One of the new ones was abandoned by his mom so we’ve got them penned together and so far so good.  Every time we check on him he’s up and active so we’re assuming he’s able to nurse when we’re not hovering.  It’s hard not to hover.

Every year we leave our Christmas tree out by the jacuzzi so we can enjoy it out there all the way until Easter.  This is Jack’s first Christmas with us and when he first saw it out by the spa, he made a beeline to it and lifted his leg.  So much for that!  It was delivered straight to the pasture and the goats stripped it bare within a few hours.

We now have kids to join our lambs.  This little doeling doesn’t like being picked up much.   😀