Missing Willow Farm

Hanging out in their own mini-flock, this year’s lambs are an adorable united force on the farm.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

If you’re anxious for fresh veggies from either your garden or the farmer’s market, you could consider growing sprouts.  I found sprout seeds when I was cleaning out a kitchen cabinet that we’ve had forever.  I put a tablespoon of them in a pint jar, covered them with the green sprouting lid in the photo (although you could just as easily use a piece of pantyhose and a rubber band) then rinsed and drained them every time I went to our kitchen sink.  Just over a week later, we had crunchy sprouts for salads and sandwiches.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

With a bottle baby, we find ourselves out in the barn in full dark to give her the last feeding of the day.  It gives us a chance to have a peek at where everyone beds down for the night.  About half of our sheep and goats share the barn.  The remainder are near (or in) the hayfeeder.  The chickens huddle together on their roost.  This is the one time we can pet each and every one of them.  We have a few that squat down when they see us wanting to be petted, the rest usually run away.  The dogs are on the job.  They greet us at the gate to make sure we’re friends then go back to their posts on opposite sides of the pasture where they can see everything that goes on.  Good dogs.

Nymeria proves her sister isn’t the only cute kid in the barn.

Sheep get rounded up for grain on a beautiful snowy morning.  When Jenna was convalescing, we had to do this task ourselves.  Needless to say, there were mornings when a sheep or two missed out on their breakfast.

Summer won’t be this size forever, but for now she loves to be carried around like one of Paris Hilton’s pocketbook dogs.  There are advantages to being raised by humans instead of goats.  You get lots of attention!

Here’s our newest addition.  This lamb’s mama is probably the best in our flock.  After every baby is born on our farm, we dip their navels in an iodine solution to help sanitize and keep germs at bay.  That process obviously requires catching the lamb.  When we grabbed her, mama freaked out because she couldn’t see her on the ground any more.  She immediately decided our border collie had taken her (an obvious conclusion if you’re a sheep) and charged her.  Repeatedly.  We gave Jenna permission to protect herself.  That command is called ‘GET IT!’  Lots of ramming (the ewe), lots of nipping (Jenna) and lots of screaming (me!).  Jenna’s only got three legs now and can’t turn on a dime any more.  We shoved the lamb in the ewe’s face and they trotted off in the rain.  We had considered putting them in the barn for the day but decided mama knew what was best.  Jenna seemed exhilarated by the experience.  What could be better than getting permission to nip a sheep??

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It started as an advent calendar, but I don’t really have much Christmas paper stash and had a set of really cool zombie photo booth images…  There are 24 drawers for treats – gummy candy brains anyone?   The night sky was painted black then covered with black glitter glue.  The moon glows in the dark (because everything’s better if it glows in the dark!)

Here’s a picture of the little ewe we helped birth a few days ago.  Could she be any cuter??  The mom was a little shell shocked afterwards.  I was worried at first that I’d have another bottle baby on my hands but after being penned together in the barn, she’s realized this is her baby and has figured out how to care for her.  They’re doing very well.

Lambs and kids gravitate to Milos, these three little girls like to be near him.   They seem to know he’s their protector even though we’ve got such good fences that nothing harmful has never gotten in, thankfully.