Full house in the barn and Sheep Shearing

We're running out of room!  I am trying to juggle animals in the available cages and pens and I'm not sure exactly how this is going to work out.  

Fifty-two White Rock chicks arrived this week - one died within hours of getting here - poor little guy.  White Rocks are meatie birds...and every year I say I'm going to go with another breed but I don't - so here's to hoping that most of them make it to the butcher this year.  Right now they are in our home-made brooder.  DH and DS overbuilt a brooder box for me a few years ago.  It's as heavy as a box full of cast iron frying pans and looks like a coffin-for-two!  Thankfully it's so well built it doesn't need to be INSIDE another pen.  The problem is it will only last for a week and they will need bigger quarters.

I also have three very faithful hens sitting on eggs.  These are the Red Sex Links that everyone says have the broodiness bred right out of them.  I'm not so sure.  I've had to fight a lot of the hens for eggs in the past two weeks so something is kicking in.  We've never allowed any hens sit before so it will be interesting to see how successful they are.  We have about 70 hens and only one rooster - let's hope he was a busy guy! 

We also have 4 ducks sitting on eggs.  One white Muscovy, 2 black Muscovies and Pom Pom Head our Crested White.  These have all been good momma's in the past - we've just had some setbacks in their nesting boxes and had one family massacre by an angry papa duck.   We just let the ducks nest in their pens last year and those girls sat and sat and sat.  It should only be 4 weeks but I gave them a few extra thinking maybe my numbers were off.  Nothing hatched.  When I explained the situation to a farming friend she asked what they were nesting on.  Apparently a concrete floor with some shavings wasn't optimal because the concrete would wick up any moisture which is necessary for the eggs to hatch.  This year we got creative!  I had some leftover over stacking storage bins

 and used shavings on the bottom and a nice layer of leftover sheep wool that was headed for the compost pile.  Hopefully that provided them with a toasted warm place but we'll wait and see what kind of hatch I get before I get too excited.  P.S.  I didn't stack them but I did place large sheets of wood on an angle against the wall to provide them with some privacy.

In order to prevent another massacre by the papa ducks we need to put the fathers somewhere else as soon as the ducklings are hatched.  The twist is the boys don't get along with each other either so they can't be in the same pen.  They tend to work out their differences ok outside where they pester each other all day long - chasing, honking and beating on each other but in a small pen that behaviour could result in death.  I may need a spreadsheet to figure it out!  Springtime hormones oh MY!

Yesterday - we finally got the sheep sheared.  We had arranged to have it done earlier this week but the animals had been out in the rain and wet sheep are next to impossible to shear.  We kept them indoors for a few days to dry up and all was well.  

Mr. Sheepie looks ridiculous.  I guess all sheep look funny after being shorn but you wouldn't recognize this guy.  He's so tiny.  We've never seen him shorn before - there was more wool on him than flesh.  He looks a lot like a goat - a very tiny skinny goat.

The shearer was going to leave the wool but since I doubt I will have to time to learn how to spin this year I gave her most of it and just kept Mr. Sheepie's.  His was so matted it would probably have been rejected by the wool co-op anyway.  I'm sure there is enough for me to play with as it is.  The colour of his fleece is particularly gorgeous...next year it will be better as he skipped a year getting sheared!

Rebecca Parker - Sheep Shearer - Bethany Ontario middlekingdomfarm@gmail.com or  905 259 1102.

You may have read that my daughter and I took on shearing the sheep last year.  We only needed to do two and it was an adventure that I'm not sure I want to repeat any time soon.  Rebecca was great and we learned a lot of shearing tricks - maybe we'll try the calmest one and let her do the rest next year!

A difficult day on the farm

If you don't like sad stories then you probably don't want to read any further but this is part of life on the farm and the "making of a farmer" as well. I've been procrastinating for a whole week trying to finish this post but apparently I needed to do some soul searching first.

The tale begins with the weather which was exceptionally nice last week.  My son and I were cleaning up fallen branches from the previous weeks ice storm and checking trees for damage.  Once that was done - we were on a roll.  We decided since we had all the tools out that we could cut down some shrubs so we can widen the driveway.  No problem - they came down without too much trouble but that's when the real trouble began.  

I thought - HEY free food for the sheep and donkey.  They are looking hard for green food at this time of the year.  I threw a branch over the fence to judge their reaction and they didn't seem overly interested but munched somewhat on one of the branches.  I had a niggling feeling...so I pulled the branch out thinking it would probably be wise to check it out on google before I gave them any more.  We got busy cleaning up and I forgot to check. 

Hicks Yew

The next morning my best ewe Bonnie was dead.

I knew immediately what had happened - it was the shrub.  It's all well and good to tell yourself that "everyone makes mistakes" but that wasn't helping at that moment.  I was responsible.  I had killed her.  In my mind it became a wail - I killlllllled her.  I was heartbroken. I spent some time kicking myself and crying - ok - sobbing.  The wave of guilt was not a pretty sight.  If Bonnie had died of anything else maybe I wouldn't have felt so bad - or so responsible - or so stupid.  Ack.  

My soul searching began when I recognized that if one of the kids had made this mistake I would have been much more forgiving.  Hmmm... why was that?  I could hear the words in my mind that I would have used to comfort them and realised they were NOT the same words I was telling myself.  This was the beginning of wisdom - with more to come.

I didn't have much time for a pity party because I had to decide what to do.  I had only given token thought to this inevitable outcome in our farming career so I didn't have a concrete plan.  After checking Google-that-never-fails and sending a panicked text message to a sheep farmer friend I figured out the best course of action.  I needed to bury her.  That would have been a terrible enough task if the weather had been sunny and bright but it was cold and pouring rain.  At least it suited my mood.  Have I ever mentioned that we don't own a tractor?

I learned more than one lesson that day.  First off when you dig a hole in the pouring rain in the corner of our field you hit clay at the three foot mark. If you mix clay and rain water you end up with boots that weigh 50 pounds each and it gets really slippery really fast.  If I believed in penance I think I would have been paid up by the time I was done.

The shrub we were cutting down was a yew.  It's a very common landscaping plant in the city and as far as I know we only had one of them.  It's now been burned in the fire pit so there is no possibility of repeating this specific tragedy. Google told me that it would take only 1 ounce of yew to kill a 150 lb animal and that it was a common spring time event because animals are extra hungry for green food at that time of year. 

Yesterday a farming friend quoted a common farming maxim - "if you have livestock - you will have dead stock".  That's life on the farm.  

We are human so we make mistakes. That's where forgiveness comes in.  It would have been easy for me to forgive one of the kids - it was much harder to forgive myself.  I wondered why.  I got to thinking that maybe it was because I'm a Mom.  I've spent my life taking care of other people. I feel it's my RESPONSIBILITY to prevent bad things from happening. More than anything I work HARD to prevent problems.  I'm the one who sees the danger in swinging from the ropes in the barn - you could break your leg or fall through the floor in some spots!  I'm the one who sees the danger in using an axe as a weight to throw a rope over a tree to hang the tire swing.  I'm the one who says - be careful on the hammock to the kids when they get kind of wild - just before it breaks.  Isn't it a mothers JOB to make sure everyone in her charge - and the occasional random stranger - stays SAFE?  It's what I do and that day I felt like I'd failed in the animal momma department.

That's life - isn't it. Despite all my warnings (or maybe because of them) no one fell through the barn floor, no one got hit in the head with the axe and the injuries from the hammock incident were minimal but some days no matter how hard I try things don't go right with life or kids or animals.  Oh yeah - maybe I'm not the one really in charge.  Maybe it's not ALL my responsibility.  That's a thought.

I went to bed that night feeling somewhat better having processed some of these thoughts but I woke up with just a touch of dread.  I went out to the barn early - just make sure all was well - that's code for see-if-anyone-else-had-died.  I felt a bit sick.

God knew the exact remedy I needed because what I found was not what I was expecting.  There in a little patch of sunlight was a new baby ewe lamb.  Little Bonnie is doing well (and so is her friend Clyde who was born three days later.)  Death and life on the farm in less than 24 hours.  I didn't even know the momma's were pregnant for sure!

I'm glad I'm not in charge of everything.  I am glad that there is grace for me when I make mistakes. I am delighted to have a front row seat to the miracle of life on the farm but I'm beginning to recognise that being a steward of life means having to deal with death too.  That's a lot harder but part of becoming a farmer - because as I've often said:  Being a farmer is hard on your heart.

Without LIFE there would be no death but without DEATH there would be no life.  I choose LIFE.  I choose to engage in LIFE. To snuggle baby lambs and baby kittens, to scratch Ben the Ram under his chin, to hug Maybe the donkey, to pet Levi the dog, to hug my kids and my husband and my family and my friends and tell them I love them.  To LIVE because that's the kind of living that makes LIFE worthwhile.

Springtime mess and baby lambs

It feels an awful lot like spring outside today!  The sun is shining and everything is melting into muddy pools of mess.  The baby lambs are bounding around in the paddock and the ducks are pooping on the back porch.

I wonder sometimes if I have given you a romanticised version of life on the farm.  I am about to burst the bubble!

This week has certainly been a taste of spring.  It's been a little warmer each day - getting to above freezing most days which make working outside much more pleasant - and LOTS more muddy. (I am pretending that we won't get any more snow but I am probably just fooling myself) The back hallway where we come into the house and leave our barn clothes is also the main entrance to our home.  Right now it's dirty-with-bits-of-hay-and-shavings and full of poopy muddy boots.  Right outside the door is the ducks favourite place to hang out because it's out of the wind and it faces south so it warms up and melts there first.  I often look out the kitchen window to see 6 or 7 ducks splashing in the melting snow and talking to the cats.  They get along really well with the cats trying to get friendly and the ducks mostly ignoring them. The ducks are always trying to get the last of the cat food as well so there's lots of flapping and noise when they fly up on the table - I've already mentioned the poop.

The walkway to the driveway was an ice covered slope until DH and son sprinkled it with a mixture of sand and salt from the local works department depot where you can get it free for the taking.  We were not aware of the salt until it was too late - it's not my first choice because the damage to the grass and it's not great for the ducks or chickens feet either. They did such a good job but went completely overboard on the amount required to do the job.  Now the walkway is a muddy mess - but it's not slippery!








The driveway is all slop.  Half frozen and half mud we just sorta tiptoe through it to get where we need to go - thankful that there is plenty of snow to walk through to clean off our boots afterwards.


The eaves-trough leak right above the main entrance to the barn so now there is a puddle big enough for the ducks to swim in right in front of the door.  You need to be careful not to slip but quick enough not to get too many icy cold drips down your back from the melting roof.  The water from this new little pond backs up and runs into the barn creating another muddy icy patch to navigate.

Oh joy!

The other day through a series of mishaps most of the sheep got loose.  As I came out of the house all I could see was the whole flock running down the driveway towards me headed pell-mell back to the paddock. Even little Opal - 5 days old was running with sheer abandon through the mud and ice.  If sheep could grin - I'm sure they were all grinning.  What fun for them - not so much for me. 

This morning we needed to dock the lambs tails.  We should have done it sooner but it's a two person job so I was waiting for my daughter to be at home.  The best time to do tails is when they are still confined to the lambing jug.  After about day 4 those cute little buggers can run faster then I can!  We managed to catch the first two without too much trouble but Opal gave us the run around.  I'm sure it would have been comical to watch.  

Yesterday was a sad day as we said goodbye to Freddy - the first lamb born on the farm last spring.  We sold him to friends of ours but neither of us has a truck or a trailer so we had to get creative.  We made a temporary "holding cell" in the back of the van and placed an old piece of carpet on the bottom to catch the mess.  My son and I managed to get JUST Freddy out of their pen and tied an seatbelt-like strap around his belly.  He was not impressed but we had to move him from the barn up a slippery hill and into the van.  There's no driving down there in the winter time.  It was quite the show!  Freddy fought us all the way as we pushed-pulled-dragged him to the van and hoisted him in.  It was like taking a very strong naughty dog for a walk!  All went well and out home made "holding cell" did the job really well.  I am still looking forward to the day we have a proper trailer!

For all the muck and mess I wouldn't trade living here for the world!  Isn't she sweet!!

Three little lambs arrived today.

We welcomed another sweet little lamb to the farm today.  She arrived this morning and was promptly named Opal...  

As I finished writing that sentence my son came running in to say Mom - there's another baby.  Oh dear - we only have one lambing jug set up and this was Mom number two!  We all headed for the barn and a few minutes after we arrived out came number three! One girl named Ruby Mae and one boy we've named Jed.

These are certainly happy days!  The first two years I was so stressed with what could potentially go wrong that it took most of the joy out of the process.  There's always the potential for things to take a wrong turn so it's nothing to take lightly and yet for the most part everything just happens on it's own and personally I think it's best that way.

We bought a beautiful lambing jug from the feed store a few years ago.  It has four parts that clip together like a big 4x4 dog cage with no top or bottom.  It's great but it's on the expensive side so we just bought one and crossed our fingers that no two ewes would lamb out at the same time.  Ha.  Not today.  We have lots of leftover pieces of 4x8 plywood, 2x4's and random other items like wooden doors and heavy cement bricks.  Living on a farm will turn me into a hoarder yet!  Today it came in very handy.  We blocked off a corner in the pen, added a heat lamp, straw, hay and a water bucket and made the "walls" out of the wood.  It's all being held up with chicken crates and a kids wagon.  Creative huh?  and much cheaper too.

I'll be out a few more times tonight checking on the lambs and the mommas. Ruby-Mae seems to be drinking less than Jed and I'm not sure if she just needs a little nap or a little encouragement.  

So we are now the proud owners of 11 sheep.  Who woulda thunk that would happen a few years ago - when I was planning to raise goats!  I'm so glad we didn't!  I love my sheep.  They have taught me by example the meaning of many of the "sheep" verses in the Bible.  They are stubborn, scare easily and can be so sweet and loveable all at the same time.  

I took a few pictures of Hubert this weekend - the lamb born just before Christmas.  He's a huge "little guy"!  His papa is from another farm and I can't believe the size of him!  He's a little shy - it this picture he's hiding behind a friend.

We had some visitors this past weekend.  Too bad they missed the babies!  One special little helper was very good at collecting eggs and feeding treats to the sheep and donkey.

A baby lamb in time for Christmas!

There is nothing sweeter in the animal kingdom than babies.  Little baby Hubert is no exception.  He is a mischievous and playful little guy and we're already falling in love.  

Sometimes the best way to do things isn't exactly how they happen...and such was the case with our newest ewe Juliette.  We bought her from a friend who had left the ram running with the ewes all summer so he had no idea when she was due to lamb just that she looked good and pregnant.  She's a purebred Canadian, has been a mom before and had a sweet disposition - exactly the character traits I was looking for.


We'd been checking her often the last few weeks and expecting a baby-any-day.  Nothing.  Nothing. Nothing. I was getting just a little concerned because we have a weekend away planned and I didn't want to worry about lambing in the middle of our 25th anniversary dinner! Thankfully that won't be a problem.  My DS was putting the animals in for the night and came running back to tell me that Juliette was going to have her baby any minute.  Hurrah!

One of my beautiful daughters with 2 day old Baby Hubert

Such excitement!  We missed all the other births because they happened in the middle of the night so I really was hoping to be here for this one.  We got back to the barn just in time.  DS had already moved momma into the lambing jug to keep the other sheep at a distance. A lambing jug is a small enclosure - about 4 feet square - that provides a safe place for momma and baby to be for a few days after the birth while they bond.  It might have been better if she hadn't been confined before the birth but by the time I got there it was going to happen any minute so we just left her in the jug  

As soon as we got there I could see tiny hooves appearing - everything was happening exactly the way it should.  A few minutes later baby Hubert arrived into the world and all was well.  

I am just amazed at how energetic he was - struggling to get up on his feet and succeeding in less than 5 minutes.  He was wobbly to be sure but even that didn't last long.  Momma was doing her job licking him clean and very attentive and careful as she moved around the pen.  It didn't take long for him to figure out how to nurse...it really is a wonderful experience to be sitting on straw in a dimly lit pen with the wind whistling outside and animals surrounding you watching a miracle happen.

All the sheep and Maybe the donkey had their heads over the rails to watch what was going on.  They were very interested in the new arrival and when he wobbled over near the corner of the jug they all took turns sniffing him.  It was so sweet to watch them welcoming the newest member of their family to the world.  

I thought Juliette was for-sure going to have twins.  She was huge!!  I waited and waited to see if another baby was coming but after a few hours I concluded that was it.  I went to check on her several times that night and at 11 pm I finally decided all was well and it was time for bed.  We left a heat lamp on all night but he was toasty warm every time I checked.

Hubert's fate is still up in the air.  His bloodlines are pure-bred Canadian and he will likely sire bigger lambs than our Shetland ram Mr. Sheepie ever will.  Should we keep him?  Should we sell him? Decisions decisions!

Another successful birth and addition to Shalom Engedi Farm and I am happy to report I lost a lot less sleep over this birth than the previous ones!  I think I'm getting the hang of this farmer bit and I can tell you it's better than I ever imagined!

Sheep Shearing Newbies and the Very Bad Haircut

Mom - remember the famous haircut you gave me in kindergarten?  Well - I can top that by a mile!  Today was sheep shearing day - way later in the season than it should have been for various reasons.  You know how there are things in life that just have to be done and because you're the one standing there - you get the job.  That's how it was.  I made several calls to nearby sheep shearers and didn't get a response...time flew by with everything else going on at the farm add to that the weather being murderously hot so yesterday we faced the fact that we were going to have to do this ourselves.  

How hard could it be? (famous last words!) We watched several youtube videos and I had already read every sheep book I had on hand (which is saying a lot because I own MANY)  We knew we would just have to do it and learn as we went.  Yesterday we stopped by our local TSC store and picked up the shearers - an Oster Shearmaster for $399.00 for those of you who want to know specifics.

I brought backup.  Without my kids - I wouldn't have gotten the job done.  The youtube videos by Kent Gwilliam show the proper way to do things but by the end we just mowed the fleece off in whatever manner we could in order to get it over with.  Our guinea pigs I mean sheep put up with a lot.  Once we managed to catch them and flip them over on their backs into the proper position we realised that this was going to take awhile!  Holding them in that position while cutting is MUCH harder than it looks.  With arms, legs and backs shaking from fatigue and sweat pouring off our faces we did manage but OH dear - this is one job you have to finish once you start so we got creative.  It took three of us but we finally figured out that if one of us - mostly me - held the sheep by the head she would actually just stand still without much struggle.  My daughter and I traded off clipping and she did a great job under the circumstances.

They look absolutely ridiculous!  More like old yellowed foam that had been left outside for a few months.  We started off thinking maybe we could shear the fleece off in one big piece like the pros - in the end it was just chunks but we didn't care.

Two sheep created this 3 X 1.5 X 3 foot cube of wool.  That must be like wearing 5 winter coats at a time.  They did look relieved afterwards but I wasn't sure if that's because the shearing experience was over or they were enjoying being cooler and lighter and much thinner.

We knicked them in a few places due to our incompetence so we rubbed on some Polysporin and we'll check them over the next few days to make sure no infection sets in. After we let them out in the field we stood back to watch for a minute and I turned to see my daughter in tears - she felt bad for cutting them by accident.  After a little cry, a hug and a few words about how we did the best we could and we're still learning and they will be fine we went off to do the rest of the barn chores. Next year will be better.


I've mentioned before that farming is not for the faint of heart.  Some days you have to do things you would rather not do or that are at the far end of your abilities.  That's life isn't it?  We can choose to sit in our safe little worlds where we never challenge ourselves to do new and different things or we can step out into new territory and grow and learn.  Life can be rough and tough and dirty and messy - I wouldn't have it any other way - it's the price of being truly alive in my world. 

On the Lamb - three sheep and a donkey

Today was one of those days that I was glad to see come to an end.  Actually most of the day was great.  I got in the baking mood - banana bread, gluten free flax bread and Swedish cocoa cookies - so my son was on his own for chores in the barn this morning.  He doesn't mind working alone when we've done a big cleaning the day before and since the weather was actually feeling unusually spring-ish it was a beautiful day to be outside.  All went well until…

Evening chore time.  It was already dark when he went out to put everyone into their pens and feed them for the evening - really dark.  The kind of dark in the country makes city folk feel right uncomfortable.  I'm a country girl now so I can't admit to being afraid of the dark can I?  We have a yard light - most farms have one.  It's as big as a streetlight in town. I hated that big stupid light so much that when we first moved in and we discussed taking it down mostly because it shines in my bedroom window at night and keeps me awake and it makes a strange hissing sound.  How very annoying.

Moments after he left to do the chores DS came running back to the house with a panicked look on his face - MOM THEY'RE GONE.  THE GATE IS WIDE OPEN.   Oh my - by THEY he meant the ram, two ewes and the donkey!  I was really hoping they would be in the back field close to the house - I don't know why - they never go there.  HEAD FOR THE OPEN ROAD is their motto.  First we ran around with a big flashlight - ONE big flashlight that we had to share.  (Another one already on the list for the next stop at Canadian Tire tomorrow!)  Then I stopped to gather my thoughts - they obviously weren't anywhere right close by- the animals or my thoughts either for that matter.

 

Think first. 

Then act.

Pray first of all so you can think and then act!

In between running around I was praying hard.  OH GOD HELP US FIND THE ANIMALS - it's pitch dark and I don't know where to look AND THEY COULD BE ANYWHERE  ...getting eaten by coyotes, hit by a car, being beat-up by the neighbours stallions AGAIN or just not ever coming back... but you know where they are - please show us.  Great example of pray and panic in the same prayer!

Next stop back inside to see if any neighbours had called - I wasn't sure if it was good or bad - but no phone calls.

Then we grabbed the car keys and a bucket of grain.  We headed off down the road - first one way and then the other.  Nothing.

Back to the farm.  I didn't know what to do.  I looked down at my feet in frustration and fear and  SAW SHEEPIE FOOTPRINTS!! OH - footprints in the snow!  We found more tracks leading to the east across the front yard so we got back into the van with the big flashlight.  We drove slowly down the road and to our immense relief there they were...standing huddled together looking very lost in the front yard at our neighbours several houses down the road (who weren't home).   I honestly think they were relieved to see us! We quietly stopped and Luke hopped out with the grain.

What I saw then amazed me. It was just like the children's picture books...they followed him all the way home and right into the barn.  I could hardly believe my eyes after all the trouble we've had with Mr. Sheepie - they all just followed him home.

Never was I so glad for a quiet and DARK country road.  No cars to spook them which could have been disaster and so dark that none of the neighbours even knew what happened!  Those are about equal in scale in my mind.  The first time Mr. Sheepie visited the neighbours was bad enough (see my post on "Boys - Oh Boy") I just didn't want to have to face them again and ask if they had by chance seen three sheep and a donkey wandering by.  So, our secret is safe (as long as you don't tell anyone!)  

Back at the barnyard in the light of the big yard light we tried to figure out what happened.  Luke is not 100% positive he locked the gate after bringing the compost into the paddock early today but I've also seen Maybe (the donkey) play with the chain and she could possibly have managed to open it herself.  Tomorrow we'll be adding an extra chain, a bungee cord, duct tape, all the bailing twine in the barn and whatever else I can think of so we don't repeat this scenario. 

All is well.  Everyone is back where they belong.  The fence and the driveway gate at the front of the property have just become top priority again and along with that extra flashlight we'll be buying more light bulbs for the big yard light - I love that thing!

Boys - OH Boy!

We've had a rather exciting addition to our farm in the past week - Mr. Sheepie.  We did try to give him another name but we called him Mr. Sheepie while we were thinking about it and the name has just-plain-stuck.  Mr. Sheepie is a Shetland Ram - a beautiful light and dark brown mix of kinky hair with curly horns. Remember the horn part - that will be important.

He arrived via an ad on kijiji and was delivered by his owner who was a wonderful wealth of information of which I took full advantage.  In our conversation I also found out he was a long lost relative of the previous owners of this farm - insert - very small world - here.

Mr. Sheepie has a purpose on the farm like all the other animals we raise.  He's here to make babies.  Hopefully really cute babies that will one day provide us with pasture raised lamb.  He quickly made himself right at home and met the girls and Maybe the donkey without incident.  All was well in my little corner of the world until two days later.

The phone rang.  It was my neighbour.  She had never called me before.  A sense of dread came over me...oh are you missing a sheep?  I sure hoped not but after a description I recognized the escapee - Mr. Sheepie.  At this point - no worries - he was safely tucked away in a pen in their horse barn and I could come and get him whenever I was ready.  I don't know what we were thinking but we grabbed a halter and leads with the thought that we would just hook him up and walk him back home.  Oh how naive!

The neighbours took pity on us for underestimating how difficult it was going to be and offered to put him in the back of their jeep and transport him home.  All went well.  We were feeling like real farmers.  We had a problem and we had a solution...until Mr. Sheepie jumped out of the back of the jeep in between 4 adults and took off - towards the stallions.  Sigh...this is where things really go downhill.

We circled around seeing that he was headed for the field of 8 of the hugest horses I have ever seen.  Somehow to him they looked less scary that 4 adults with a bucket of feed so in he went.  The horses sensed the presence of the devil himself and set out to eradicate him.  They grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and swung him around like a dog toy.  They kicked (and thankfully missed) him. Meanwhile I stood back praying he would live while simultaneously calculating the cost of a new Mr. Sheepie.  My neighbours in a show of what it means to be the most-awesome-neighbours-in-the-whole-world went into the field to try to ward off 8 angry stallions.  After what seemed like an hour but was probably ONLY 5 very-long minutes they managed to grab Mr. Sheepie from the jaws-of-death and drag him - still unwilling - under the electric fence to safety.  Mr. Sheepie lived to see the inside of his own stall in his own barn that night. 

Now back to the horn part.  Yeah - you would think he would have been grateful but OH NO.  He has escaped his pen more times than I can count by pounding the walls with those lovely horns.  We have reinforced and repaired every-single-wall.  We would think THAT-SHOULD-DO-IT and he would bust out another wall, jump the interior walls of the barn and head for the open road.  So we've now chased him all over the property, down the road and back into the pen over and over like a repeating nightmare.  Yesterday he was standing at the back door when we came out to do chores.  That was the last straw! 

Tomorrow Mr. Sheepie will meet his match - Mr. Electric Fence.

A beautiful and productive week on the farm.

It's harvest time at the farm - probably my favorite time - except for spring!  DS and I spent a day in the garden harvesting squash, tomatoes, swiss chard and potatoes.

DH spent the day planting the 4 apple trees and 2 pear trees that we purchased a few weeks ago.  We decided to wait for the weather to cool down to plant them and today-was-the-day.

We used the red-neck method of drip irrigation for each tree...a pail with a hole in it!

Did I mention how much I love fall...and dear Hubby for spending most of the day digging holes and for agreeing while he was still working on this project to build me a greenhouse...I am a blessed woman!

Introducing our menagerie

We've added quite a few members to our animals family at the farm and it's time for them to be properly introduced.

Perhaps the most beloved-of-the-barnyard is Maybe the donkey.  She's an adorable little sweetheart that was given to us by friends.  She's a Jerusalem Donkey so as she gets older the black cross down her back and across her "shoulders" will become easier to see.  She's almost a year old.  If you've never heard a donkey-you-love hee-hawing I must say it's almost heartbreaking.  She sounds off if she hears us in the distance and wants us to come and pay her some attention.  She is a sweetie-pie and her main function is protection for the other animals.

Next are Flanders and Lambchops the ewes.  We "borrowed" a ram last fall and had both ewes bred.  The rams name was Jacob - I referred to him in an earlier post.  Farming is not for the faint-of-heart!!  We kept Jacob as long as necessary and then we - ate him.  He was the first animal we ever had butchered and picking him up after the fact was a lesson in real-life food production.  I don't think we ate any of the meat for 2 months just trying to adjust to the whole idea.  Unfortunately both of the ewes had miscarriages so no baby lambs at the farm this year. The girls have an appointment with the sheep shearer in the next few days - I'm sure they will be relieved to get rid of their huge winter wool load.

We have added significantly to our chicken collection.  so much so that we have lost the exact count!  There are approximately - give or take one or two - 40 hens running around the property with old-lady names like Annabelle and Clarabelle.  Most of them are Red-Sex Links, but there are also 6 White Leghorns, 1 unknown breed hen and 1 Black Silkie named Granny Pearl.  You can call them what ever you want - but they all come running when you holler HERE-CHICKIE-CHICKIES and walk towards the barn with a bucket in your hands.  They know who loves them - I mean feeds them!

Along with our hens we have two gorgeous roosters.  Solomon is the big shot Rhode Island Red.  He cockadoodledoos at odd times throughout the day - never mind mornings only and seems to have a very large EGO.  He sure knows how to strut his stuff.  Our other smaller rooster is Fred.  His wife's name is Ethel.  Poor Fred had a big fight a few weeks ago with a large duck and he his still licking his wounds.  We're not sure he is going to make a full recovery.  He is eating and drinking but he still looks rather sad.    It's too bad because he was a masterpiece of colours and flowing tail feathers and I was hoping he and Ethel were going to make beautiful babies together.

Some of our most entertaining members are the ducks.  We have two families.  The first we raised from day-olds last summer.  They were cute little fluffy bits of yellow when we got them.  Now they are all white Muscovies.  Sir Winston, Sir Francis (a girl), Lady Bella and Lady Gaga are never far from each other and they move as one when there's trouble afoot.  The other family of ducks are 2 Rouens - Harrison, one I can't remember the name and a Crested White Duck that I like to call PomPomHead.  The ducks have a small swimming pool outside my window and they are a JOY watching them splash and clean themselves in it.

Other than an assortment of cats - some of whom are going to have kittens soon and a spoiled-city-dog-turned-country-dog named Levi THAT'S OUR MENAGERIE.

So that's all for now - really - until the eggs in the incubator hatch in a few weeks or until the next CAN'T-LIVE-WITHOUT-IT-CUTIE comes along.

It's all my moms fault - she never let me have any pets as a child!  Love you MOM!