Missing Willow Farm

Wayne is one of Nellie’s boys.  His brother’s name is Garth.  He has a little hint of brown on the tips of both ears which makes him adorable.  Party on!

Brian was out doing heavy chores with the tractor for a good part of the day when Jack and I went out to feed the animals.  Jack went nuts when he saw him on the other side of the fence.   He’s such a daddy’s boy.  Every time Jack makes a fuss over Brian, I tell him I want a puppy of my own for Christmas.   It’ll never happen but a gal can dream.

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.