Missing Willow Farm

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.

Jenna’s once again got Bindi intruding on her personal space, and doesn’t complain one bit about it.  I think she enjoys the warm snuggly company.  We kept her kennel closed for a long time after her surgery to keep Bindi from accidentally hurting her.  Once we noticed that Jenna was actually laying on her bad side, we knew Bindi wouldn’t be an issue.  We do, however, keep her kennel closed at night to keep Bindi’s food and our kitchen garbage can safe from mischief.

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This isn’t a stray dog in our front yard.  It’s a coyote.  A primarily nocturnal predator out for a stroll the middle of the day.  Coyotes are the most abundant livestock predators in North America, causing the majority of sheep, goat and cattle losses.  Our neighbor lost several sheep to coyote attacks just this past week.  This one’s a little too close for comfort.

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Every time a lamb is born on our farm, Jenna claims it as her own.   She gives it her border collie laser focus.  I’m certain she would stay out there all day if we let her.   The lamb, of course, is more interested in meeting the chickens.

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When we went out to feed this morning, we were greeted by our first lamb of the year!  Kat had a little boy, isn’t he cute?  They’re both doing really well.  🙂

Three plus raised beds of garlic is what we planted last October.  The bunnies thankfully leave it alone, even though there’s not much else around to eat in the Winter.  The individual cloves sprout greens then it kind of goes dormant during the cold weather.  In May we’ll be harvesting scapes then digging up the heads in June/July.  We’re still using garlic from last Summer’s harvest. I sliced some really thin then put it in the dehydrator. After a quick whirl in a food processor, homemade garlic powder. Tasty!

Beatrice comes in for a close-up.  If she’s nearby when I come into the pasture, she always stops by to say hello.  She’s my favorite.  She’s friendly and cute and likes to smell my face.  I like to smell hers, too.  🙂

Jessica’s shaggy hair is magnificent.  Who knew a cow’s coat could be so lovely?  I’d brush it if she’d let me.

Feeding time for the sheep is in the morning.  We’ve got them trained to come to a small fenced in enclosure for their daily grain ration.   They’ve got two feeding troughs so there’s enough room for everyone to get in there and get their share.   Sheep aren’t as friendly (or annoying) as goats so having them all in one place gives us a chance to handle them when needed.  It looks like someone’s carrying twins!