Missing Willow Farm

Alexis had a lamb a few days ago, a little ewe.  I’ve been chasing them around the pasture trying to get a photo and was finally able to catch her at feeding time.   I think she’s the prettiest one so far which is amazing because her mom is kind of homely (for a sheep).  Alexis had her first ever lamb last year but it died from a birth related trauma so this is kind of new for her.  She’s very attentive, a good mom.

Normally, we wait until Easter to finally get rid of our Christmas tree.  Between New Years and Easter it lives on our deck next to the hot tub. With our crazy weather this year, the daffodils are blooming already so it just seemed time to put it out.  The goats go crazy for it and the sheep get right in there.  Jessica even had a nibble.  We used to have a few pines in our pasture, they were the first to go when the goats arrived.

Nellie escorts her newborn lambs around the pasture to introduce them to everyone.  One of Hermione’s triplets drops by to say ‘hey’.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Nellie Belle had her babies late yesterday.  Two little ewes.  She was so big we thought she may have had more in there.  The first one presented breech, tail first, so we had to assist.  Our sheep either give birth near dawn or dusk.  I much prefer the early births because it means the temperature is going to get warmer, not colder.  Poor Nellie has so much milk right now she walks funny.  They spent the night at the little barn, we moved them into the big pasture this morning so are now making new friends.  Our cow Jessica greets all the babies with a lick of her black tongue.  I guess it’s her way to say ‘hey’.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

We had a beautiful day yesterday and got the baby goat out of our living room and into the sun.  We took Jenna out to keep an eye on her.  She did a fantastic job.  Today the baby went out to the barn to be with her sisters.  I’ll still go out and bottle feed her.  She was getting tired of watching the TV, anyways.  😉

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Twice a year we vaccinate the goats and sheep.  We do it ourselves, it’s one of the responsibilities of raising animals.  Kat is quite interested in what’s going on with her little one.  Most everyone is really good about it.  They don’t fuss when they get stuck at all, it’s just getting them in position that’s sometimes difficult.  As usual, Beatrice is the worse.  She’s the worse  behaved during shearing every year, too.  She kicks and kicks and makes it worse for herself (and us).  See how she’s covered in mud?  Brat!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

She seems to be thriving.  Our border collie Jenna is extremely interested in her.   Our cat Bindi not so much.  We’ve got her in a cat playpen in the middle of our living room.  When it comes time for her to join the rest of the herd/flock in the pasture, I’m sure she’ll miss the TV.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Hermione surprised us yesterday afternoon with triplets!  All three are girls.  When we found them, two were well cleaned off and running around.  One wasn’t.  We tried to get her to nurse but Hermione had decided two are quite enough, thank you, so she’s a bottle baby.  We brought her inside, cleaned her up and fed her colostrum.  She’ll have just that for the first 24 hours, then we’ll switch to goat milk from last season that we’ve stored in the freezer.  When she’s strong enough, she’ll go back into the pasture and I’ll feed her there every 4 hours.   Right now, she’s warm and cozy and keeping Bindi company.

Nellie Belle looks like she’s about to pop.  She’s rotund and her milk is in.  We should have a new lamb (or two) any day now.

That’s 400 square feet!  Brian turned over our potato/pumpkin patch this week.  We’ve got seed potatoes being delivered early next month so we need to get ready.  Every time the tractor comes out to work our little patch of land I’m grateful that none of the ‘real’ farmers around here can see our place!  What we probably should be using is a rototiller, but when you’ve got a hoss piece of machinery for scraping our half mile driveway and handling large round hay bales, it just makes sense to throw on the tiller.  We turn the raised beds by hand… honest.