Here I Am Again

Willow is still with us--she will be 17 this year.  She is my first Shetland.

It's been a long, long time since I last blogged.  I'd like to start again.  I'm not sure how that will go.  Maybe just pictures, a few stories here and there.  The farm is still ticking along.  Still have collies, cats and sheep.    I don't raise lambs anymore, and the sheep farm is more like a Care Center for the Aged and Infirm.  Keeps me pretty busy.   

The year of 2017 was filled with some awful things, terrible losses.  We lost my Dad.   Someday I might talk about that more.   But not this first blog back.   

Stunning Sunset--the skies have been glorious this past year.

Monumentally I joined Facebook.  Kinda hate it, kinda like it.  But it seems the way to go nowadays and I'm 'in the loop' now with what goes on--and I get to see lots of extended friends and family photos.   Plus I got some good hay out of it, when my hay supplier moved away and I didn't know where to get the winters supply.  So there is that.  

My internet connection at home is...so....slow....that I can't really do much computer work at home, so I tuck it in around work.  I hope (someday) we get out of the dead space and get some decent internet connectivity again.  Maybe if certain companies would see fit not to oversell their customer base that might help too.

Neighborhood Watch.  Chickie, Rosemary, Persia & Eve

There are 14 left in the sheep flock.  I sheared 17 with scissors this past Spring.  My shearer had to retire due to health concerns, and I didn't know until it was time to shear.  It was an interesting experience.  I guess I get to do it again here in a few months.  

Girls (Minty, Carly & Ashley) with their hunter orange on.

I bought a new camera!  So excited to have a good camera again and taking lots and lots and lots of pictures.  And I've started trying to be creative again too...sometimes I do better than others--but have  been dabbling in painting--acrylics, oils, watercolors and have taken up needle felting again.  Still learning on that, but love it.   Hoping (someday) to get a little building for a studio, so I can leave projects out to work on (impossible with kitties in the house). 

Oil and Gesso Forest Scene

Indian Creek Snowstorm--Watercolor

Oh.  And I'm feeling lots better health wise now.  Got myself pretty sick with diabetes before I went to the doctor and figured out what was wrong. Still have some ground to gain back but getting there.  Things had piled up around here too, so am trying to catch up from several years of not feeling good.

Needle Felted Chipmunk

Needle  Felted Doe

And I think that is a good start.  I always have liked to blog and keep a record of the homestead, so my goal is to do that again and I hope some of you are still around to journey with me!  Now for some pretty pictures.    

Grey Pony--Acrylics

Awash In Spring Things

So I forgot to post this, a little outdated...but here you go....

Tang "the Kid"---nearly a year old and busy all the time

It's that time of year!  Along with the  warmer days, and the lovely green grass comes so many things to do...and they all need doin' now!
 

A glorious Spring Sunrise

The sheep are sheared (hallelujah) without incident and 18 fleeces are awaiting the final picking over and processing, but they'll have to wait their turn.

A variety of lettuce--planted in March and ready to pick!

The Collies were all carrying their messy winter coats around--mats and all.  Two have been bribed and boosted up onto the grooming table to brush, de-tangle and trim.  Carly still awaits her beauty treatment...then it'll be start over time again, as more coat sheds and tangles in the other two.  A bath is badly needed by all three.

Callum & Willow  hanging out in the Assisted Living wing.  Callum is 11 and his mom Willow is 14.  They have their own stall at night and their own grassy paddock in the day.

The tomatoes, peppers, peas, carrots, squash and pumpkins all had to be planted.  Still have a few things to get in the ground, but it's looking better.  Everything will need to be mulched soon, before the weeds consume them.   The day after shearing I headed out and did some plant shopping over at the Mennonite communities.  I may or may not have bought 34 tomato plants...it's all a blur and I don't remember.   By 'sharing' (willing parties or not) with my Mom, Sister & Niece  I pared it down to something like 14, 15, 17 something plants...or so.    I have lots of different heirloom varieties.  I did confine myself to 2 pepper plants--yay me!

Beautiful roses from my Beautiful Niece

The yard and pastures are running amok and neither the sheep nor I can keep up with it all.  I'm having to mow and mow just to keep everything from turning into waist high weeds and seed heads.  We've had some lovely rains--and it makes a difference.  I turn the sheep on the big pasture during the day and let them run the front pasture (which surrounds my fenced yard) at night.  Eat! Eat!  I tell them.  They look like bowling balls with legs.     

Cookie time for Gracie!  Her eye is completely healed.  After spending big bucks on prescription meds from the vet, and no relief for her and nothing to lose we went another route.  Plain triple antibiotic ointment for people smeared in her eye daily and supplementing with L-lysine for a week made for a dramatic turnaround.  I'm so happy.  

Did someone say Cookies???   Blackberry is another cookie monster and you have to watch your fingers with her! She is a Willow daughter too.

I love Spring, but it's a time when I just see so much that needs to be done and none of it should wait, that I feel overwhelmed....then slowly slowly I'll start to make some headway as we fall into the hot steady drone of summer.  

Minty poses while on a walk. 

And so I'll just leave you with some pictures and hope to soon be back to post again.  Enjoy the season!

Carly Sassy Sue

 

Ashley plodding along.  She likes neither wet ground or humid weather and is just a touch of a drama queen about it.. 

What I thought was a lovely photo of Minty...until I saw the tongue sticking out....

Brenda Lee....she was a 'drought' baby and lost her mommy to a terrible accident, so she has been spoiled a bit.  The goat stand is her own personal feeding station so the other sheep couldn't bully her out of her food.   I caught her just standing there on it the other night...perhaps dreaming of a shot of corn.

And lastly....the lovely Trinity and the Big Rotten Sage (and his teddy bear) have a quiet relaxing moment....

Just Another Snowy Day

This seems to be the winter that won't stop and we haven't even had to deal with the brutal conditions that many have faced this year.  Saturday we got another round--cold, some freezing rain, about five inches of snow.  It made for interesting chore times.  Sunday rolled around and the temperatures had risen into the lower 30s and I was able to snap a few (zillion) pictures.  I have lots of 'help' with the chores.  Here are a few examples.

 Carly & Tang checking for rats in the hay barn.  

Not helpful, but another thing being dealt with right now in this cold weather--Gracie has something wrong with her eye--it seems to be ulcerated but cause unknown.  The vet prescribed ointment and that didn't work (besides the fact it would get so cold it wouldn't come out of the tube), now she is on prescription drops that had to be filled at the human drugstore--and Gracie DOESN'T have health insurance!   Not to mention that she has not been very cooperative about it.  She is thrilled that she finally has gotten on the list--after all these years-- to get grain at night now too--the only way I can bribe her into the 'torture' chamber.  By the way the eye looks much worse now. 

Not sure who is wooliest--Ranger the Shetland (sheep) or Minty the Collie (Dog).  Minty thinks she is the boss of everybody so she was on guard to bark if Ranger moved on inch closer.  He isn't impressed. 

Ashley appears to be helping by pushing the sled, but actually she was waiting to walk in the path I broke.  She is lucky she is cute. 

Dog Down!  A little emergency snow between the toes removal.  Right in my path too. Never mind that it's slick, I'm dragging a sled with hay and coming off a small incline. 

Tang isn't crazy about the snow, but he is pretty serious about 'helping' with the chores.  See he is growing a little!

Fritzi (Center) and a pack of girls around him wait patiently for hay.  The true story is I got a different pair of coveralls and they can't decide if I'm friend or foe.  Fritzi is also trying to look cute and innocent because he has been on my black list since he rammed me one morning.  Long story--but let's just say he perceived an injustice when I let Gracie instead of him finish off some leftover old-folks grain. 

Tang inspects the leaning tower of hay feeder.  Could be a little cleaner Ma!  

Tang checking hay quality.  Not so good in this bale, Ma. 

I think we should feed this bale tonight points out Carly.  She is so pleased with herself because she got up the nerve to jump up all over these hay bales.  She thinks it's so awesome she should get a treat every.single.time.  I don't know why she looks all clean and groomed here, because she isn't--they are all pretty grimy. 

Yikes!  Don't leave me out here alone with this mob!  Run Tang Run!

Meanwhile back in the house the cats are working hard at keeping the bed warm.....  Actually there is a heated 'half' blanket on there so it's kitty toast central.  The one I wanted to lay on it was Meshach my soon to be 18 year old man--but he is stubbornly laying at the head of the bed where there is no heat.  That is Sage's teddy bear laying in the middle, keepin' warm with the cats.  Left to right Trinity, Gabe, Tempe (Torti), Sage, Noah & Meshach in the very back.  Verity and Chaco were probably under or behind the stove......

 

 

 

 

Hope Spring will come soon and that you are all making it okay through this winter!

Summer Days

A Glorious Sunrise

Summer is moving fast now.  We've  had a dry spell, and rain would be much appreciated to revive my fading pastures.   However we are still far ahead of last years awfulness.  At least the sheep have had grass for most of the summer.   

Same morning--stunning colors--even with the light pole photo bomb!

Since I can't seem to find the time or discipline to sit down and get a post done (although I've got several started!), I thought I'd just put up a montage of summer this year.  I've also been working on sprucing up the blog--if you'd like to look I've added new pictures and a few buttons on my sidebar.  I was especially excited to get the weather widget on --easily amused obviously. Hope your summer is going well!  

Sweet old Willow--she is 12 this year--getting her special eats in the morning

Golden Rain Tree in full bloom

Queens Anne Lace

Field of Wild Flowers

Ashley

Minty

Carly

Buford---Stray kitty with a loud mouth and higher taste standards than any stray kitty should have. 

Flock In Flux

Gracie Leads the Flock When I Am Out Front!

 
  It has been a hard year around here in the sheep flock.   To date there have been five of their members that have died.  For the most part it has been the effects of old age, but there have been a few tragic incidents as well.   Losing Lanny last month was the kicker--he was my 'big white' wether and steadfast in moving them along. 

Gracie Says--I'm Retired! 

What this amounts to is that the flock has evolved from a sort of calm little entity to a silly, leaderless bunch of dopes.  For the most part.  They have no leader.  There are plenty of bullies, but while they want to push other sheep around they do not want to be the one to choose where to go, or how long to stay, or to walk that first step to pasture.   A leader sheep is priceless...especially a gentle, tame leader sheep. 

Flock on the Run

They are attempting to work it out.  No one really wants to be leader, they just want to be top sheep.   I have never seen them so unsettled as they have been this Spring.  They won't settle down to graze certain pasture areas, so that I must keep them penned in tight in those areas if they are to graze it at all.  Otherwise they will fearfully venture into those pastures, and at the slightest inclination or even a fit of imagination will send them fleeing to the 'safety' of more familiar areas.   By the time they do this fifteen or twenty or thirty times a day it doesn't leave much time for grazing.  They end up tired, stressed and they go 'to bed' (night paddock) hungry.   While I really do not particularly care if this happens to the younger sheep who are the prime instigators, I do worry about the older members of the flock.  Their hold on health is often fragile at best. 

Luna Says--Not Me!  I just want to lead a quiet life in the background! 

For many years I  had 5 to 6 'big white sheep'--Dorset/Merino crosses, who are worlds apart from the Shetlands in temperament.  Docile, slower and flocking in nature they helped keep the more spirited Shetlands grounded.  Adding to that was that most of the Shetland flock were more 'mature' and had worked through their silliness.  Now I have only three 'big whites' and a large balance of six year and younger Shetlands.  The elders in the flock have now reached the point where they are being pushed out of their positions due to frailties of age and try to keep a lower profile.  So basically--as in many areas of life-- you have a bunch of young inexperienced thugs trying to run things. 

Ford Says--I'm trying to lead--stupid girls....

This Spring has been cooler than normal, and the nights have been lovely and cool.  This has brought out even worse behavior in the ewe flock over the last week.  It's not the wethers (of which I now have three) that are causing problems at the moment--it's the ewes!  They have been fighting nonstop every evening when I pen them up for the night.   Brenda Lee, last years ewe lamb is moving up the chain (or trying) so there have been some knock down drag outs with her and the other young ewes.  This is fairly normal.  However, having five or six ewes start randomly chasing and beating the be-jeebers out of another ewe isn't that normal and is painful to watch.

Eve Says--no way, I'm scared of my shadow!

The corker though was the other night I heard Callum (my old wether) give a mournful little ahhhhh (that is his version of baa), and another sheep bleating.  It wasn't dark yet, and I went out to see what was up.  The sheep are usually very quiet unless it's feeding time or something is 'up'.   I could see that there was a group fighting, but didn't see anything amiss, until my eyes fell onto the grey sheep thrashing on the ground.  My  heart dropped.  I went running out there to see Willow, who at 12 is my oldest Shetland, on the ground apparently having a seizure.  She was thrashing madly about on her side, and all the common ailments of sheep-on-grass went screaming through my head in the space of the few seconds it took to get up there.   However my mad dash to her side 'cured' her right quick and gave her the impetus to leap to her feet.  I surmise that she was broad sided and knocked to the ground by one of the younger ewes, and because her back was downhill she became 'cast' on her side.  I managed to get her and her son, Callum into the smaller pen for the night.  She happily ate grain and nibbled hay and seems fine after her mauling.

One of these is a the chief instigator of brawls & mayhem.....

The next night I penned up her and her two daughters and later Rosemary went in with them.  Rosemary is a timid sweet peace loving soul and also the brat packs victim of the night.   But I mistakenly thought they had settled down and later let everyone out.  I  heard Willow bellowing and went out to see one of the black ewes chasing her in and around the barn, walloping her every chance she got.  I went up screaming and chased the evil ones out of the barn, and Willow put herself in a stall, which I closed the gates to and kept her up all night.  A little grain and she was up in there last night without me asking which helps allot.   At least she is safe from the mob mentality at night.

In quieter times....

I think with the weather warming up this phase will pass for now.  But it would sure be nice for a leader to step forward ---Ford is trying, Callum does what he can (he is old and crippled up), Gracie (my 12 year old Dorset) says she is retired...and so it goes.  

I'm not sure there is anything to do about it, just wait them out and hope they mature some this summer, or work it out, and try and keep the old folks safe.  At least so far we have ample grass and am praying that we do not have drought this year!