Of Spring and Things.....

Gracie works the crowd for cookies on shearing day

 (I started this post probably close to a month ago...)

We've had a few days of really warm weather and a good, if somewhat violent, rain last night.  The grass is growing and the fruit trees are s-l-o-w-l-y flowering.  The sheep have been pretending to graze most days.  They are eager for those tender morsels of grass, even if they are on a pasture that hasn't any growth on it yet.  It gives them something to do and makes them happy.  Then they come back to the barn and pick through and mostly waste their hay at night.

I've been cutting them allot of slack lately.  Mostly out of guilt.  And because it looks like a geriatric hospital out there right now.

Patient Lanny Wilson gets his 10th 'haircut' --he is 11 this year

In case you haven't kept track lo these many years, I now have  have two sheep that are 12, two that are 11, several 10 and a whole host of 8 and 9 year olds.  Let's just say that sheep are like people--some age a whole lot more gracefully than others!

Shearing was a week ago last Thursday.  (perhaps a post about that soon?)  It turned out to be a good day in many ways.  However, it was also a bloody mess.  I don't know what the heck was up with the shearer and I don't know what the heck was up with me.  Scarcely did a sheep escape a nick this year and there were way to many that fell in the 'really nasty' range.  Something was certainly off.   Towards the end  I was just praying that they'd all live through it.   If that wasn't bad enough, the first several sheep I trimmed hooves on, I quicked.  One so severe that blood literally spurted out and splattered my shirt.  I've trimmed many a hoof in my day and sometimes I do misjudge, but what appeared to be overgrowth...wasn't on that day.   It was a mess.    My wondering mind blames the full moon.   I've had this shearer for 11 years--he is gentle with the sheep always.  He has nicked them, on one occasion bad enough to stitch up--but over that many years and that many sheep it seems small.  Until this year.   We have two shearers for this area.  Two.  I'll have him back next year, but I'm prepared to find out what the heck is going on if it goes this way again.   Something was certainly off.

Spring A Week Ago

One little yearling ewe lamb got off the shearing floor without me or apparently the shearer noticing she had a very deep cut where her shoulder and side join.  She is a light fawn moorit and truthfully sometimes it is hard to see cuts right away on the brownish background.  But I sure saw it when she was out walking around.  I kept thinking it can't be as bad as I think.....  It was.  There was a three to four inch triangle of flesh hanging down and it was deep.  Friday afternoon I tricked them up again, and caught her.  I fastened her in the stanchion and cleaned and stitched the wound.  It still doesn't look good, but she seems fine over a week later and it is slowly healing.

Spring Last Night---Flood! 

The day after it was like the walking wounded, when I gazed out upon my little flock.  I felt a little shell shocked, and they sure looked it.   However I must say they seemed to be in good spirits.  The ewe that I quicked so bad limped for a week.  Talk about guilt.

Back Gate -- stepping stones disappearing into the 'flood'

Another ewe did some super sheep hijinks while I was attempting to pen up and catch the little yearling ewe.  I think that ewe hurt her leg then --she limped for a few days.  There was allot of random limping it seemed there for a bit.

Sheep are unpredictable critters.  Do something that you think is relatively minor--like dose for worms or wear a skirt with big swirls on it--and they won't trust you for weeks.  Then again do something truly awful like catch them twice in two days,  once to shear and another to stitch them up and you become war buddies.  Go figure. 

Then the weather got colder and they looked so forlorn with their little nekkid shivery bodies.  Extra eats helped with that and fortunately the weather warmed back up within a few days. 

Finally when I thought they were getting better, Lanny Wilson, my big white Dorset/Merino wether started acting 'weird'.  He wouldn't lay down, and would stand looking depressed and shifting his hind legs back and forth.  His appetite seemed to be good...but he just wouldn't or couldn't lay down.  My first thought was urinary calculi.   It's always worst case scenario with me.  I consulted with the vet on Friday and decided to treat with pain reliever, muscle relaxer and something to break up urinary crystals.   After I gave him all his doses that evening (after a fairly moderate rodeo--he is a big boy) he urinated.  Well.  That was good...no blockage.  He finally lay down Saturday evening.  He was very relaxed.   Another shot of muscle relaxer the next day and he has improved quite a bit--he is walking more normal and was waiting at the gate this morning.  We will see what happens when the drugs wear off!   We think 'since he is at the age where he could have back trouble' (vet's words--I think he was poking fun at me...) that might be the cause.  He possibly could have gotten it hurt during shearing, although I remember him being very quiet through the whole thing.  At eleven sheep years though, I expect one becomes more fragile.

The flooded back alleyway--I had to get the hay on the dolly through that mess.....the dogs were no help

Friday after I got home from work and the vet, I sat out and watched the sheep for awhile to see if Lanny could/would urinate.  While I'm watching him, I see Callum in the background going through his elaborate ritual of trying to find an easy way to lay down.  Cal had his back fractured (we think) many years ago in a ram fight.    While he has since them had an odd pacing gait, he always seemed to move and get around just fine, until a year or so ago.  Now he is stiffer and it takes him longer to get up and down.   Sitting with the sheep wasn't particularly restoring that afternoon.

And of course the sheep were high and dry in the barn awaiting their evening meal...thankyouverymuch...

I'm happy that shearing is behind us now.  I'll have to do some trimming on some that were in the rise, but the bulk of it is done.  I have 19 fleeces stored in the garage that I'll need to skirt for the second time, get weighed, labeled and sorted out into 'process' or 'raw fleece sales' .

For now though, I'm still spreading some seed on the pastures--only a little as it's very expensive--but there are bald places from the drought.  Most of the clover didn't make it.   Little jobs like that are keeping me busy in the evenings. 

A River Runs Through ....the Pasture

 Here it is a few days later and I still don't have this post completed.  Kinda the story of my life right now.  Anyway we got heavy rains yesterday--almost three inches-- so I'm pretty sure some of the latest seed I spread earlier in the week floated off to the river.  Little bitter about that.   The weather has also turned off much colder...again.  It's suppose to be in the 30s  tonight. Back to building fires in the stove.   Hope that beautiful growing grass doesn't get bit back. 

I'm pretty sure though after this spell of cold it is going to really be Spring. 

Sunset on the lake in my backyard.....

Hope Spring has sprung at your place!  

Really, Spring?

Woke up this morning to 34 degrees and snow showers.  I vowed last Monday that I wasn't going to build any more fires.  Done with it--no fire, no ashes, no wood to carry in.  It was 80 degrees Wednesday.  It dropped to the 40s yesterday.  Today is cold.  Tonight is cold.  Probably tomorrow too.

So, I'm building fires again.  I'm down to my last two sticks of dry wood--kindling is getting low too.  I have bunches of 'green' wood that is damp from all the rain.  I hope we don't have a setback on the grass or lose the fruit tree blossoms tonight. 

While 80 degrees is a bit much, a nice steady 70s would be great.   Like it matters what I think though.

On the bright side.  The sun did come out today!  Woot. 

And last night I harvested 17 wild Morels and the old hens produced two eggs yesterday.   Not sure if we will have more Morels, but that 80 degree humid day did pop them up.   The old girls have been laying steadily for several weeks--a couple eggs every other day.  Pretty darn good for three ten year old hens.  I'm proud of them.  I don't think they see to good anymore and maybe a little chicken dementia setting in (or maybe they've just decided to do what they please to do, regardless of previous schedules), but they still lay good eggs.   Two are Americuanus and one is half Americauna so all the eggs are a light green. 

Hope Spring springs soon wherever you are.   Last year we were ahead a month or so, and that didn't end well (drought).  This year we've had ample rain (as in lots and lots) and are now about a month behind.  So we will see where that goes.

Have a great weekend!

The Neighbors Are Back.....

Well, it's for sure now, Spring is  here.  You can't really go by the weather, what with it jumping back and forth from hot summer day to cold winter night temperatures.  The surest sign Spring has sprung is that the summer neighbors have moved back.   I have mixed feelings.

They moved back in Saturday morning, in their typical rowdy fashion.   I like having the place to myself, and would be happy to never have neighbors.  It takes some adjustment to get used to these guys again. 

For one thing they are a big family-- often having knock down drag out fights all over the place.  They can be just downright rude at times.  Their toiletry habits aren't very nice either--and that is all I'll say about that.  They aren't very noisy, but they don't work so they are always hanging around.  

I guess the worst thing about them is that they are nosy.  Very nosy.  And their place is just across the fence from my side yard.   They tease the dogs and it's a struggle to keep them from barking at them all the time.   When I sit on my deck, there they are---they'll come up and hang out just over the fence and there is no privacy.   Everything I do seems to fascinate them, and I've even caught them looking in my windows!   It can get old. 

Yes, I've talked to them about it---but it falls on deaf ears.   So much for the peaceful days of winter.  They've been coming back every summer for years and years now,  so you'd think I'd be used to them by now.  

They do hunt coyotes though, so I often feel better about the sheep during the summer.  However they do the same with the deer so it makes it tough for the deer to rearrange their grazing habits. 

But I do have to say....I'd rather have these gals for neighbors any day than most people!  Even if they are nosy. 

It Makes All The Difference....

....Sunshine that is.....

...I believe Mr. Rooster agrees....

Spring...Day Two

Ice encased miniature daffodils

It's still raining, and is grey and deary. Hmm...sounds allot like all my posts over the winter. However next week is suppose to be nicer with more extreme temperature fluctuations (70s). With all the rain we have gotten things should really go green in a hurry.

The trees wear clattering necklaces of ice

I'm still a little bitter about yesterday, but that is the way it goes, I reckon. I've been preparing for weeks for Shearing Day. House cleaned and shiny (which it won't stay), things mostly picked up and tidied outside, panels moved around to set up catch pens and alleys, needed equipment carried out to the garage.
Not to mention the food prep. The roast is cooked and shredded and will go into the freezer, ready to pop into the crock pot to be made into BBQ sandwiches. The worst part is I had some good help lined up and willing to devote their day to 'the cause'. Now the shearer is pretty much booked up most weekends so I'll have to go to a weekday, when everyone has to work. It's pretty hard to pull it off without some help.

I also (in vain hopes) went ahead and got everyone into the barn(s) the night before, which now will make them super suspicious and not so easily tricked into going up. I'll have to re-set up the catch pens tonight. Even the ram and wether went up nicely. Callum (the wether) won't be that easy again, since he hates being confined with his bully brother.

There was the usual drama with Rouen, the super watch sheep. I had everyone into the catch pen, contentedly eating hay, so I tried to slip up there and close up the gate. Well...Rouen saw me coming and she started to make her move. No hesitation on her part. So I ran the last few steps which of course made all the sheep frantic and try to bolt. Through last second slamming the panel across the opening I stopped the stampede, and the only escapee was Rouen, but it was close.

I went ahead and shut the rest into the barn, and set up another catch pen for Rouen. I expected a long drawn out walk down, but surprisingly she came right in the new pen. I started folding the pen down to a smaller space so I could catch her easier. At the last second she saw a two inch opening between the panels and made a dive for it. I also dived and grabbed her. So there we were at a standoff of sorts. She was down on her knees, head through the panel, determined to get out. I was down on my knees, with a tight grip on her determined to not let her out. The panels acted as a head stanchion on her and I couldn't get her backwards, not to mention that they were toppling down on us. After much muttering on my part, and unwiring a panel I got us to the barn and shoved her in. I mean, really, Rouen was that necessary? She just looked smug and started eating hay. I fully realize that if age was not slowing the old gal down, I would have never won that battle. Rouen is 10 this year, but she can still cause a ruckus. After she was safely tucked into the barn, I noticed my arm was bleeding--probably from gouging it on one of the cattle panels. Another to add to the yearly "Rouen" induced injury list. Lest you think Rouen is a wild out of control sheep, she isn't. She is very sweet, loves scritches and treats and much attention. However she is a very alert watchful sheep and she has a thing about being 'caught up' for various treatments. She can tell immediately if something is amiss and will remove herself from the area--you can only hope you aren't standing in her way.

Rouen induced injury number......

On the weather front, we just missed getting a bunch of snow. A little further west and north they got 12 inches and more in places. Here we got a little freezing rain, some sleet, and lots of rain. I think it's suppose to rain throughout the day and then warm up tomorrow. I'm ready for it.

Ice sculpture outside the window

Yesterday when it was so nasty the birds were just besides themselves. They were constantly at the feeder and fussing at and jostling each other around. It looked like something out of newscast for Black Friday.

The drive-thru was a madhouse......

..and you wouldn't believe the lines at the store!

No new lambs yet, but there are a couple of ewes that are toying with me. Getting up in the night to do barn checks isn't working out too well. Once I get up the kittens think it's time to wake up and play and play and play. I'm sure kittens can play quietly, but they choose not to in the middle of the night. It's much more fun to thunder through the house crashing onto and into anything in their path. I'm getting a little sleep deprived. I wouldn't even being going out to check on the ewes if they weren't acting so fishy all the time. The annual 'mess with the shepherd's mind' game has begun.

That's all that's happening here. Hopefully I'll get shearing re-scheduled soon and the sun will come out and the temperatures will warm up. I've got some pictures to post of the little ram lamb, but they aren't very good. He is always on the move, and getting restless for some playmates!

Have a great week!
(p.s. Coming soon---kitten character review.. or something like that.)

Oh Wretched Spring....

Surely not you too? Must you follow the miserable steps of Winter?

Today is your day, Spring. But where are you? Why didn't you show up?

Are you in the face of the sad, (stubborn) dog who waits at the gate in the rain?

Or in the pile of cats on the unmade bed? Frankly this looks more like Winter to me.

The cold dismal rain that falls, doesn't feel like your warm, life giving drops, Spring.

I don't see you in this dejected rooster standing huddled in the rain, either....(and neither do I know why he was standing in the rain)

Or, in the (unshorn) sheep piled up in the barn out of the cold, miserable rain.

Ah..but wait! Here you are! Spring has shown up after all. Ants in the house. Of course, yes, it's Spring...

Disclaimer: This was posted in a fit of the sulks. Yes, today was suppose to be shearing day. It's not. It's raining, it's getting very cold and we will most likely have snow by nightfall. Bitter you ask? Yes, yes, I am.

Could It Be?

....signs of Spring?

The welcome color of crocus. Do you see the hidden bonus?

There it is, a sluggish bee,
throwing off winter's lethargy.

This weekend has been just beautiful. At last Spring has escaped the grip of winter, peeling her icy fingers off one by one. At least I hope. The sun shone, the temperatures were in the 60s--even the mud was reasonable. Enough to make one wax rhapsodic, er, or something.

Maples budding out

Saturday I got quite a bit done. Never enough of course, as the list grows longer, but still it's a good start. I was able to get seven of the sheep 'worked' including all five of the possibly pregnant girls. The other two were Blue the old ram and Rouen, my old Shetland girl.

The girls wait nervously for their 'spa' treatment and (required) cookie treats that follow

Most of the Shetland's feet were in great shape, even with the wet winter. And there were only a few that did some half hearted thrashing around, which was nice for a change. All five girls seem to be preggers and have little udders developing. Only a week until the first possible due date!

Also barn cleaning is in full swing, as I do my usual down to the wire clean up of the lambing stalls. About eight loads out so far and much to go! Once the stalls are clean, I'll go ahead and set up a couple of lambing jugs. I've been assembling the panels and working on lamb proofing as I go.

Relaxed woolly sheep. Notice the giant sheep in front of the hay bale? That is Lanny Wilson who normally lives with Blue the ram.

When I wanted to do something that didn't involve lugging heavy loads of sheep muck or flipping sheep on their bums, I worked a tiny bit on the travel trailer (remember it?) It is a bit overwhelming as I haven't the slightest idea on how to do some of what should be done. After days of studying the door and looking on the nets AND finally in some books I had, I was able to figure out how to remove the old torn up screen from the door. Now it's all pulled out, and the doors are scrubbed down and it's ready to have the new screen installed. I'll let you know how that goes! I also took out the old plexi glass peep window in the door and bought a new piece for it. Still have to find something to remove the old adhesive and it'll be ready to put into place. Still am clueless on how in the world to get those torn screens off the inside windows....

Cats soaking up the sun--Noah

One of the nicest things about the weekend was that the hose unthawed and I was able to water the sheep without lugging buckets of water to them. I think there were maybe five days all winter long that I had the luxury of using the hose, so this was a much welcome break.

During 'break time' I sat out on the front porch in my Adirondack chair and soaked in the sunshine, sounds and smells of Spring.

Hot dog. Can we get my pool out yet? Boone asks.

Rain is suppose to move back in this week, and I'm sure we'll have some more cold spells, but this weekend restored hope. I'm taking a couple of vacation days Monday and Tuesday so I hope to get some more things marked off the list. Tomorrow it will be off to the big city to stock up on supplies, as once it commences lambing there won't be many opportunities to get out and about for a few weeks.

Hope you all have a great week!

Tired dogs. Snoopervising is hard work!

p.s. anyone who thinks cats are aloof and disdain attention, tell that to the cats. This post has taken twice as long as needed, due to the revolving door of needy cats.

Saturday Musings

Am I going to have to start screening what I watch, so as not to contribute to little kitty delinquency, Noah?? (He was fascinated with this show until a need for a nap overtook him...)

Today is 50 degrees! The birds are singing and there is just a tiny hint of the smell of Spring in the air. The skies are still gloomy, but once in a while the sun will attempt to break through. Yesterday was the same and the two days before that, while still crisp and cold, were sunny.

After I got off work yesterday and got home, there was much accomplished out in the yard. Granted nothing glamorous---but re-stacking the woodpile, gathering up and burning trash, and just general tidying up of all the piled up mess of winter. It was remarkable how I felt my whole attitude changing.

The ground is a muddy mess, but it's a fair trade-off for a few days!

Yesterday I finally, finally got my studded snow tires! I've had them ordered for almost two weeks (ordered the Monday after the Friday I almost ditched the truck). Each day I would call, and each day the guy would say, no, they aren't in, but they'll be here tomorrow. I believed him for about four days. Even he got fed up this week and called a different supplier, and they were indeed in the next day. Guess it's a little late in the season to be ordering them, and they are a little hard to come by. Now I have studded tires on the back and 'snow tires' on the front, and that should tremendously. Let's see if it restores my confidence..... Studded Snow Tires (2) = $180.00. Peace of mind...Priceless...

You can't hardly see them, but those beautiful little steel studs are there under the muck.

Also on the way home from work, I stopped at a local Mennonite sawmill and looked over their selection of Firewood. They have racks of wood up by the road, with a locked box, and big sign that says 'Honor System' in foot high letters. Each rack of wood is labeled according to the amount and it's worth. Mom and Dad stopped there the other day and noticed some 'slab wood' in a couple of the racks. I decided to stop and see if it was something I could use. Slab wood, for those who wonder, is what is left from the tree once it runs through the mill. It's usually covered with bark on one side and is very thin, so that it burns easily. While this stuff is green, it still would help stretch out my dwindling bits of dry wood. So I loaded up the 'ten dollar' rack and headed home. But not before sticking my ten dollar bill in the box!

It was threatening rain so as soon as I got home, I unlatched the side gate and drove the truck into the yard to unload the slabs. The balance were put on a pallet with a heavy duty tarp over them, with the rest going into the breezeway or house. If these work well, I'll probably get one more load in the next week or so.

While I had the truck close to the house, I loaded up some things that needed to go to the garage. Once I got the slabs unloaded, I worked on cleaning up and re-stacking the wood pile, so I could cover it up better. When it's cold, snowy, rainy (etc etc), things tend to get messy--wood falls or slides off here and there---and is often left where it lands. It's always a good feeling to restore order.

This morning my 'big' job was cleaning out the stove pipes inside the house. With all the green wood I'm having to burn, I knew it was time to get it done. The other night I could hear crackling in the stove pipes, and immediately shut down the dampers and got the fire suppression stick ready 'just in case'. Thankfully the creosote didn't continue to ignite, but flue fires are a real possibility with the wood heat.

This is bad...You do not want your pipes to look like this! Under the coat of ash dust is shiny black creosote.

Of course there are about a million little things I see that need done, in the light of a Saturday morning, and I found myself being distracted from one task to the next, until I realized what I was really doing. Stalling. If you haven't guessed I hate cleaning out the pipes, as it's a messy awkward job. Did I mention messy? No matter how hard I try it still ends up with ash and creosote gobs in the floor. Taking the pipes down is easy enough, but getting them back up is a challenge, as they seem to shrink, shift around or something.

Once the pipes are down, I take those two sections outside and clean them. The pipe that extends from the wall stays in, so I have to crawl up in a chair and with one foot on the stove, work the poker into the depths of the pipe, scraping and raking out the build up. I hang a plastic sack from the pipe and scrape the loose debris into that--this is what is called 'having a third hand'. (Note---there is no fire in the stove, as I let it burn out during the night so everything is cooled off). Once that is done, I scrape out the section that attaches to the stove, which is usually full of ash dust. Now put the pipes back up and clean up the mess, and it's finished! The whole time Meshach is bossing me around cause he is cold and why won't I get the fire going? Meow..meow..meow....

Fancy, technical ash/creosote removal system....

I'm hoping that there will be some nice days next week, so that my Dad can see about the outside chimney. If I know there will be some nice days, I can burn a chimney cleaner stick, which really helps loosen the buildup and much of it will fall. The only drawback is sometimes the loosened bits of creosote flakes will float up and block the chimney cap. That is why I need to have a few nice days!

I've also been washing pet bedding like mad and hanging it outside. It's been terrible trying to get this stuff washed up, since the weather has made it impossible to line dry the blankets. This is mostly Ashley and Boone's bedding. Hound dog stinky Boone is getting a bath in a little bit too, but he doesn't know it yet. Shhh...don't tell him!

Wow... I just stepped out to hang more laundry and it's nice out there. The sun is actually shinning now, and the dogs are all stretched out soaking it in.

Blue, the merino ram seems to be doing much better. Lanny (the wether) is enjoying hanging out with the ewes although he looks like a giant next to them. It's quite comical.

Back to Blue...he is now getting two pounds of mixed grain a day (divided into a.m. and p.m. feedings). He won't eat the hay I give him, although I suspect he is still munching on the big round bale. However I bought some alfalfa hay cubes for him, which he can't eat, unless I bust them with a hammer. He will eat them then. Does anyone know if alfalfa pellets would constitute enough roughage for him, if he isn't eating hay? It would be fantastic if they did so I could switch him to that and just feed out the hay cubes to the rest of the sheep that have good teeth. Save me some time breaking up the cubes! I may be just being imagining things but he looks to me like he is putting on a bit of weight.

Well, I better get out into that sunshine before it hides again. It's peaceful at the moment in the house with 'kitty quiet time' evidently in effect. Two in front, one behind the stove. Two in the closet and two on the bed. Sage is up poking around into something though. (Yes..I do periodic head counts, especially when I'm using the washer! ha...)

Purple Finch at the Feeder...

Have a great weekend! Hope you are getting a little taste of Spring in your neck of the woods too.

Of Butterflys, Morels, Clover & Unicorns

Okay...maybe no unicorns. But check out this Butterfly! This gorgeous feller(a) was hovering over the less than glamorous barn lot, when it caught my eye. It was still there when I got back from rushing in to get my camera. I did a little quick research, but my book is kinda limited. I think it's a Kite Swallowtail, but if someone knows for sure what it is, I'd love to know. I have never seen this flashy butterfly around here before. It was very obliging to having it's picture taken, maybe a bit sluggish in the early Spring air.

Then there was the little walk I took out into the front ram paddock (minus rams). It hasn't been consistently warm here, so it was quite a surprise to see the morels popping up everywhere! My Mom has been harvesting these little goodies from this paddock for years, so I let her know they were up. She came up today to harvest them, since we are suppose to get some freezing weather in the next few days. Normally we might have left some of them to grow a bit, but with the cold air moving in, we cut most all we could find. A few were left and a few crumbled and scattered, to hopefully reseed. When we got done, we had nearly a pound and half! It still seems pretty early for them, but I'm just glad they were discovered before they froze off. Tonight I had my first taste of morels after all these years. Mom sent some home with me after she fried up a mess of them. Very good.


The grass is greening up and growing like crazy. We had a good rain this past week--actually several of them--and it really made a difference. Again with the cold snap moving in, there will probably be damage to the grass, but it sure is a pretty sight today.
Clover field....
Yesterday was a rare perfect day in the Ozarks. Sunny, warm, blue sky. It sure was appreciated and enjoyed. Today was still mild and sunny, but the wind was a pistol and made working outside a challenge. I did get some planting done in the 'salad' garden. Onions, carrots, spinach, lettuce and beets today. My tomato plants are growing steadily and I think they might be outgrowing their little pots! The peppers finally came up and are about two inches tall.

Yesterday my Dad helped me put out two round bales for the sheep. I am going to have lots of hay left over this year. I think this is the first time ever, that I've had a surplus of hay. I'm not sure, but I think I have at least six big rounds left, not counting the two I just put out. Blue and Lanny ate one bale all winter! The one I just put in with them should last them well into summer. They will get some grass supplementing once their other pasture gets a little more growth on it. The ewes are less than thrilled with their round bale, hoping instead to be turned onto that lovely grass on the lower pasture. Not yet girls, not yet...

Have a great weekend.

No Shearing Today

Not that that bothers me. Not that I'm bitter. Nope, not me. Not sulking either.

So it's March 28th, Spring is sprung and all that. Grass is green, flowers and trees are a blooming... and it's snowing. Or will be, before this day is over. Right now, I think it might be trying, I can't tell. It's sideways precipitation with a whitish cast, so draw your on conclusions.

It has poured on and off since about 3 a.m. this morning. Yes, I noticed the time, because it would be even worse if it didn't rain, since I canceled the shearing. Talk about bitterness. Wow, that would have not even been the least bit pretty. There are inches of water standing around, and the paddock is a muddy mess. So I'm justified, and everyone can suffer for it. At least the sheepies can crowd in the barn, when the rain gets too heavy. Before the day is done, snow is suppose to move in and well, the eventual accumulation seems to be up in the air...so to speak. The temps are in the upper 30s, and once again, I have a roaring fire in the stove, and my feet are cold.

I keep telling myself we need the rain and all that nitrogen will be free fertilizer if we get snow. See I have one, maybe two positive thoughts here.

I've been preparing for shearing for weeks now. So much to do. My house is pretty darn clean---and I even cleaned off the book shelves and sorted through and culled some. I listed sixteen books on PaperbackSwap this morning. (Although my motives are not entirely pure in this. Sure I needed to clean the bookshelves and sort and get rid of, but I'm also totally out of credits! What if a book on my wish list comes up and I have no credits? Hyperventilating here...) Anyway. The bookshelves are clean, and I better take pictures now. The house is cleanish. I had food bought for shearing day, I had people lined up to come and help. I had panels set up in the garage ready to pen sheep up. Shearing is a Big Deal, and I really get stressed about it, in case you can't tell. But this happens on occasion. I think this may be the second or third year I've gotten rained out. I have no large barns to keep sheep up for several days ahead of time. And they must be dry to shear. Neither do I have anywhere for the shearer to work inside. We set up in front of the garage, which is a nice flat area and near enough to the house to plug in the equipment. So in the end, the weather decides whether we shear or not. (Can I add the word wether in there too??) Like it or lump it, thems the breaks.

In other sheepie news... well there isn't any. River was due Friday and is just standing around chewing her cud and taunting me. I think she is waiting for it to start snowing before she lambs. Duckie may or may not be due next week. The little lovely flock of solid moorit lambs continue to grow. Eve and Conway (sorry little guy) are now out on pasture with the others during the day. However Rosemary is stall bound until her wee ones grow just a bit more, or the weather clears up, whichever comes first. So far the two bigger lambs haven't 'found' each other yet, but I expect they will soon. In case you lost count the it is 2 Ewes--2 Rams.

Thanks to Michelle at Boulderneigh, I had a dream last night that there were twin moorit gulmoget lambs born here. (If you don't know what a gulmoget is, check out her blog---what a cute bunch of lambs!) A ram and an ewe, no less. Within the dream at one point, I questioned how I could genetically have moorit gulmoget lambs, but blithely ignored the impossible answer, instead showing them off to a large group of admirers, one of which was the shearer. No, I'm fine really. In this dream I also had a very large two story barn. A fine, fine barn. Except the ewe and lambs were on the second floor, lambed in a very narrow isle, with one side a sheer drop off. Analyze that if you want.

I've rescheduled shearing, but it will now be on a weekday, if I can get off. The shearer is booked Saturdays through April and into May. If the sheeps dry out, I'm going to try and hand shear Duckie Monday evening. I would like to know what is going on under all that wool. If that goes well, I may also shear Tabitha, Blackberry and Rouen as they are all on the suspects list after the (two) ram breakouts last fall.

And that's about it. I'm being lazy today, catching up the blog, listing books, paying bills. Oh, and making frequent trips slogging out to the barn to see if River is done chewing her cud and lambing..for crying out loud. Ahem..

Would You Look at That!!!

Granted this probably isn't that exciting to some of you who live in environments more conducive to this kind of thing... but hey, I'm excited!Tartarian Cherries

Not quite ripe Stella Cherries

The other day while out mowing, or some such chore, I happened to look up at the cherry trees. Wow, oh, wow! (exact words, yep) I couldn't believe all the almost ripe cherries hanging off the tree. I was quite thrilled and amazed. Then I meandered away from the tree and promptly forgot all about them. Suddenly tonight in the midst of taking pictures of lambs I remembered the cherries! I don't have any idea what the connection is--lambs---cherries--but at least I remembered. I grabbed a bucket and headed down to the tree. It had lots of ripe cherries hanging in beautiful red clusters. I went back and got a ladder. I ended up picking about 15 ounces of them. There are more, way, way up in the top. The birds have discovered them too, apparently. I wasn't too happy about that, but then the birds were decidedly ticked about me being there in 'their' tree too.

I don't know what it is about these cherries... but they seem so exotic! I mean picking my very own-just-like-in-the-store cherries is pretty special. There is also a story behind these trees. Back in 1995-96 I had to have my two lovely blue Merle Collie girls put to sleep within months of each other. They were 9 and 10 years old and it was horrible to lose them. Hanna was my first ever collie and she was the most perceptive dog I've ever known. And she was gorgeous. And she knew it. Mara was her half sister and was a Smooth. Mara was a complex and sensitive girl. They were my best buds and we had lots of adventures together. Mara developed bone cancer and Hanna congestive heart failure. It was a terrible time.

The next Spring I wanted to do something to remember them by. I ordered two cherry trees and planted them near their graves. This Spring the trees are 11 years old, and this is the first real crop they've produced. Over the years each tree has had a few cherries here and there, but usually they get frozen back. This year though--this year they are glorious! Mara's Tree is the one currently loaded with ripe cherries. It is a Tartarian Cherry (I think that is correct). The cherries are very tart. Any ideas for their use? Hanna's Tree will have fewer cherries, but they are larger and slower to ripen. It is a Stella Cherry.

Such a lovely treat!

Bad Tree Falling

Several weeks ago, while Mom was still in the hospital, we had a night of severe storms that went through the area. While we really had very little storm activity, we had lots of rain here at home. However in the middle of the night a rather strange strong wind came up and blew things about. The sky was clear at the time.

The next morning, I did chores as usual, and headed off to the hospital. When I got home later that evening, I decided to walk into the back upper paddock Blue (the Merino ram) and his buddy wether, Lanny Wilson normally run in, so I could rearrange fences and move them over to the other side of the ruins. It was with consternation that I saw this huge tree down on the fence. All the way down the fence. It managed to fall in a straight line, and took out at least 20 foot of fence. Squashed flat from what I can see. Posts all smashed too. It was very fortunate that I had penned Blue and Lanny up in a smaller paddock for a week or two, so that I could load a Bale Box Feeder for them and not have to worry about feeding them, since I would be gone so much.
This particular tree has been a burr under my saddle for some time. It's a Wild Cherry Tree and once they wilt they can be deadly to livestock as they contain cyanide. The Tree has been half dead for years. I was sure it would go down in the ice storm---a nice time for it to collapse since it wouldn't have leaves. But no, healthy big trees went down all around it, but it stayed firm. This year it seems to have revived itself and had put on a profusion of leaves and blossoms, just in time to crash to the ground. The tree was on the neighbors side of the fence, so is 'technically' his tree. He runs heifers in the adjoining field. In fact, when I discovered the downed tree the heifers were happily lined up snacking on the leaves. Uh oh. Well, the word was passed along to the owner, and he came and put up some tube gate panels around the leaves on his side. I stacked some limbs across the trunk to keep the cows from hopping over into my sorry little pasture. He has promised to 'take care of it', so I hope he does. I'll donate fence posts and wire, but I suspect that I'll have to be doing some internal fencing as well, since those deadly leaves will be laying about a good bit of the summer.

In the end, I had to re-route Blue and Lanny through the ewe paddock (while the ewes were shut out into the pasture) and into their second pasture on the other side of the ruins. It got a little dicey when Blue ran allot faster than I thought an old fat ram should, but it actually went smoother than I anticipated.

It's amazing what all mischief can happen on a farm (even a small pretend one), when you have your attention focused elsewhere!