Missing Willow Farm

The farmer’s market has been closed since early December but we’ve continued to sell eggs throughout the cold season.  We put our phone number on every egg carton and our customers have been coming to the farm to buy them.  One customer asks for 5 dozen every time, we don’t usually have that many available.  They are so tasty because we feed them a high protein chicken food , cracked corn and all of our veggie table and garden scraps.  They love stale bread, too.  They run up to me every morning to see what tasty treat I’ve brought them and jump up to take it out of my hand.  A person with bird phobia would probably freak out with chickens jumping up at them but I love it.

Jack hangs out by the waterer impatiently waiting for us to be done with animal chores so he can move sheep around for us.  He gets to boss them around twice a day whether they need moving or not. We never finish our chores fast enough for him.

In the pasture, my view of my boots always includes a goat named Summer.  She was one of Hermione’s 2012 triplets.  The smallest and youngest and weakest, aka a bottle baby.   I’ve raised other bottle babies before, including Mina and Bella who were our very first goats and a lamb or two along the way.  None are as attached to me as Summer.  I should have named her Shadow.

Tis the season to get these babies in the ground.  These came from our local Southern States, we also saved some assorted fingerling potatoes ourselves from last year.  We’ll spend the morning in the garden then the afternoon in our pottery studio.  A good start to the weekend.

Aren’t we raising some adorable kids?!

Look what I found in the chicken house this morning!  We’ve been removing the chicken feeder at night and putting chicken food into the live trap.  See the boards laying around it?  Those were used to ‘disguise’ the trap.  I guess it kicked up a fuss when it was captured.  Too bad we didn’t have our stealth camera set up, I’d love to have seen a little video of that.  Is our problem over?  Hard to tell.  As my friend Helen says,’How do you know you’ve got the right one… he’s wearing a mask!’  Now what to do with him?  It’s illegal in Virginia to relocate them.  I have a call into a girlfriend who is a beginner taxidermist.  Hopefully she wants it.

Here’s one of our Katahdin rams.  Instead of wool, he’s got hair.  It feels kind of like some dog breeds.  Hair sheep are becoming more popular with shepherds.  They don’t require shearing, which if you’re a spinner, that makes no sense.  If you’re a shepherd without an easy source for getting rid of fleece, it’s a pain and an expense.  The shearers we used this year travelled all the way to Virginia from Michigan, and we were thankful to be able to use them.  Hair sheep are also more resistant to intestinal parasites, which is a difficulty in this part of the country.  Probably every part of the country.   Hair breeds supposedly make up approx. 10% of the world’s sheep population and are growing in popularity.  We’re happy to have a few in our flock.

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I spent the last few days visiting family in central Florida, where I grew up.  My parents live on the St. Johns River, here’s some typical scenery from a leisurely boat ride with my dad.   I also visited with my daughter and her husband.  They are expecting their first baby in just two months.  We had fun working in the nursery, shopping for baby stuff and eating spicy food.  I bought the ingredients to make kimchee for the first time, I’m interested in any tips you might have if you make your own.

Eugenie had her lamb the day before she was shorn.  A little ram, we named him Phillip.  Beatrice is his grandma.

Jack whizzes by on his outrun to gather sheep for their breakfast.  You’ve gotta love a dog with a job.