Sounds of the Months

 

Here are some videos that I made this year.  I like to hear the different sounds of the months.  This first one is in February, when we played with the dogs in the ice. 

This video is from the last day of April, which was the little lamb named April's first day outside.  

Jamie catches a snake in this video from May.  

The little chicks have feathers now, and are ready to go to their new homes.  This video was from thier first days, in June. 

Also from June, our flock of ewes with bird song.  The deep rumble is the ram, calling to the girls from his adjacent pasture.  

Here's a video of my flock as they emerge from the coop. 

Enjoy my sounds! 

Our First Lambs!

 

I was at the office on Friday when Brandon called with the surprizing news - we have lambs!  Our ewe, Lambchop, delivered two baby girls with no problems and no assistance from us.  Which is a good thing, since I had given up and assumed she wasn't pregnant, just fluffy.  

Brandon named the one with the brown face Derby...

and the one with the white face and black spot on her back April.  He thinks these names will help him remember how old they are.  

One their first day Lambchop let us hold and examine them, but she was nervous and made little grunting noises when the lambs cried.  They mind her well, and stay close to her side.  Now that they are bouncy I doubt I'll easily catch them again.  By their second day they were already playing and curious.  

Pistol Pete is in the little pasture near Lambchop and the lambs.  The night before they were born, he was acting strange.  Grunting and runnining up and down the fence.  I thought he was excited for his grains, but he didn't calm down after eating.  He acted eratic the whole day after the lambs were born too.  Phermones I guess.  He's rubbed most of his loose wool off by scraping his body on the fence.  

When he rubs on the fence, his wool forms strands of yarn that wrap the wire. 

I think the wool wrapped fence wire looks kinda cool, like a stripe of fabric down the fence.  Brandon does not agree with me!  

Wendigo has been extra playful now that she's an only dog again.  All the attention that was focused on the puppy is now hers to enjoy, and she's loving it.  

Sienna's Fence

Sienna inspired our fence project.  

Sienna started helping herself to our good nieghbor's chicken eggs, straight from his coop, and I was worried she would help herself to a few of his chickens too.  When she went to visit our far nieghbor during their daughters senior photos, we got some cute pictures and a chance to catch up, but we also got worried that she was so far from home. Our neighbor warned us that the highway was very close.  We decided to implement plans for a perimeter fence, ASAP.  On the back side of our little farm, the fence is wire on mostly metal posts that connect all the pasture fences together, but in the front of the house, we used wood posts, and painted them black.  

Brandon has been building all our pasture fences by digging post holes with a gas powered auger, or with old fasioned post hole diggers, and then tamping the dirt around the base of the post with a heavy metal bar.  It's slow, and exhausting.  

To speed things up, we borrowed a fence pounding machine, and Jamie came over on a rainy weekend to help install the posts.   Despite the rain, and more than two tractor malfunctions, we managed to get all the wood posts in place and return the machine on time.  

Here's a little clip of the machine in action.  It was amazing, and once they figured out how to get the posts in straight, it made quick work of a big job.  Not quick enough. 

I took lots of pictures the day we used the fence machine.  It wasn't very cold, so working in the rain was kind of nice and the drizzle made the tree flowers even prettier.  

Little redbud trees planted years ago are finally big enough to be a presence, and pair well with the apple tree near the hammock. 

While the fence was in the works, we tried putting Sienna in the pasture fences near the sheep.  It worked okay, but she didn't like being kept away from us and Wendigo, and we didn't like it either, so we would let her out.  

On Sunday we were working on the fence with both dogs, when Sienna took off after a smell.  She would do that - just take off after something, like a deer or a rabbit, and she could run so fast there was no stopping her.  Like when she would go shark eyed and chase a chicken.  Her instinct to chase would kick in and she had no self control. 

We worried all day, but then someone called our number from her collar and kindly told us where to find her body by the guard rail.  It was late by the time she was retrieved and burried under the apple tree.  

Sienna was the best bad dog I've ever had.  She chased and killed, and barked all night.  She jumped and scratched with muddy paws and head butted those she loved.  She stank like the skunk she harrassed and the dead things she loved to bring home to chew, and had ticks and burrs, and sticks tangled in her tail.  We thought she was great and wanted more than five months of life together.  We will finish her fence before we get another dog.      

Ernest is Ours

 

I mailed the mandatory veternary inspection form today, along with this photo of Ernest.  These were the last two items I owed the equine adoption agency, and now Ernest should be offically ours!  

I'm not sure Rufus is as excited by this as I am.  You mean we have to keep him?  Ernest passed the vet inspection, getting good ratings for his coat and foot condition.  He did have to get his teeth "floated," which meant he was sedated, rigged up with a wicked looking metal halter that pried his mouth open, and his teeth were filed with an electric grinder.  The vet said older equines sometimes have the outside of the teeth grow too long, and that's probably why Ernest was packing his cheek with chewed food, which isn't good for his teeth.  Ernest balked when he saw the needle, but once that part was over he handled having his teach filed pretty well.  He wobbled and sneezed from the sedative for the rest of the evening.  

Our ewe, Lambchop, never had a baby.  Brandon is nearly finished with the fencing on another small pasture, so we can rotate our grazing, and we have two more ewes on order for May.  We're not counting lambs before they hatch, of course, but we're hoping that next spring will find us with lambs for the freezer.  

Sienna, our newest livestock gardian (ha!) dog, killed and ate one of my chickens yesterday.  Sigh. 

I ordered chicks, which should come in the mail at the end of May.  I'll raise them in my brooder until the have feathers, and then they are for my parents or my friend.  It will be fun to have little chicks again! 

We might have flurries tomorrow, and a few nights of below freezing temperatures, but I think winter is behind us.  The frogs are calling furiously from the neighbors pond, the birds are in a twittering frenzy, insects swarm my headlamp during my nightly rounds, and the plum tree has so many blooms that the air smells like candy! 

Snow Day Morning Chores

 

Finally, a work day snow day!  We had perfectly picturesqe snow on Christmas day, but I already had the day off so it hardly counts.  The perfect snow day is an unexpected day off, right?  

Especially if you have a collection of fuzzies to keep you company.  Sienna puppy is growing so fast, but I predict she will not be as large as Wendigo.  I've been reminded that I thought Wendigo was a challenge when she was Sienna's age too, but now Wendigo seems a perfect angel compared to Sienna. 

Sienna chases, chews, and pounces but it's so good to have a dog that will do all my chores with me again.  Wendigo limits her exhertions to protect her bad knees, but Sienna sticks with me no matter how many trips I make to take to visit the goats.   

We begin our mornings chores with a visit to the donkeys on our way to the mobile chicken coop.  Good morning Ernest - what a big yawn!  

The mobile chicken coop has been moved into the small fenced paddock next to the donkeys.  This gives the chickens their own space to eat and assemble at the coop without being harrassed by Sienna.  The chickens can get out of the fence through gaps, but they tend to stick to the tree lines and back fields to avoid the dog.  I miss seeing them near the house, but it's nice that they keep their mess to the back of the farm now.  

With only ten hens, a rooster, and two guinea fowl, there's plenty of roost space in the mobile coop, yet five of the hens are roosting in the cedar trees at night.  They are taking a risk that a racoon will nab them while they sleep, but they roost so high in the tangled branches I can't fish them down and re-train them to the coop.  Cross you fingers that Sienna and Wendigo take their guard dog duties serisously.  

I moved the chicken food to a lidded barrel near the coop, and I have water buckets near the fence that I can fill from the hose.  I secure the coop door open in the morning, spread chicken pellets on the ground, and bust the ice from the water bucket.  Sienna waits with the donkeys while I tend the chickens.  On this snow day, instead of the normal excided exodus when I open the door, all the tree roosting chickins quickly hopped inside instead.  I don't blame them for wanting their feet out of the snow.   

Look!  Eggs in the nest box!  

After a winter break, my hold hens started laying again when the days began to get longer. The giant white eggs are from the little white hens, and the smallest tan egg is from the giant red meat hen.  

Good morning, Rufus!  Are you anxious for your breakfast hay?  I break the ice on the donkey water and give them a couple flakes of hay.  I've been told that mini donkeys can live on a single flake of hay per day, and a flake is approximatley four pounds of hay.  Rufus and Ernest love to eat, so I give them each a flake in the morning and each another at night.  They would eat even more if I gave it to them, but Ernest is supposed to be on a diet.  I've been cutting little maple saplings from the tree lines and pitching them in the fence.  They eat all the little twigs and peel off the bark!  I think they get bored without something to chew on.  Especially Ernest, who nibbles on the wood gate.  

I need to weigh a flake, because I may be giving them way more than they need, and Brandon is worried I won't make it through until spring with the hay we have stored.  I can easily use a bale each day, and we won't make more bales until the end of May.  I do have one last giant round bale from the year before, so maybe we'll squeak by.    

The goats are living in the fence in the woods behind the zip line field.  Can you see the little shed in the photo?  It's a bit of a walk from the hay barn or the water spicket, so I get plenty of steps during my chores - even some wieght lifting as I carry hay and water.  

My nephew and I walked to visit the goats when we had our camp fire thanksgiving pie celebration, and he mentioned that all these animals seem like a lot of trouble.  Tell me about it - Ha!  I told him that I spend about a half hour on chores in the morning, and another in the evening, so I get an hour of outside excersize every day, rain or shine, because if I skip it my animals will suffer or die.  Talk about motivation!  He said he spends an hour outside playing basketball every morning since he can't go to school.  Why didn't I think of that! 

Unlike the sheep, who rarely need their hay basket filled as they spend all their time grazing grass, the goats are voracious hay eaters, and hay wasters.  Can you see how much hay has built up inside their fence?

The goats are standing on nearly two feet of hay they drop from their basket, and once it hits the ground they don't eat it.  It's good for them to have clean hay bedding, and all that organic matter heats up as it composts and makes a nice warm bed for them.  Brandon found a big wooden crate dismanlted in the dumpster at school.  He brought it home, reassembed it, nailed some tin on for a water proof roof, and cut a little door way into it.  The goats think this goat house is the perfect place to cozy up out of the weather, and I laugh when I see them all come squeezing out of that little hole like clowns from a clown car.  How do they fit?   

The last chore is to feed the wolves dogs.  

Wendigo thinks it's rude to take photos of her with her mouth full. 

Seinna looks ferocious when she chews! 

Orange Puppy

 

We got a new puppy!!  While I was away on Saturday, with Jamie, helping Farmer Joe butcher ducks and geese, Brandon found a listing for a female Great Pyrenees puppy for sale.  By the time I got home, Brandon had already been in conversation with the farmer, who wanted reassurance that we had land and livestock.  Out of a litter of eleven puppies, she felt this one in particular had the right livestock guardian temperament, and didn't want to sell her as a house pet.  

On Sunday, Brandon and I drove all the way over the Ohio River and into Indiana farm country, to arrive at a tidy llama farm.  The farmer's kids also raised show rabbits and goats for 4-H projects.  She said she had been raising llamas since she was fourteen and in 4-H herself.  From the detailed records she provided for our new puppy, I could tell she has honed her 4-H record keeping skills.   

Unlike when Brandon picked up Wendigo from the mountains in eastern Kentucky, where she was crawling in a ditch, un-weened, and covered in fleas, we felt we were on an interview to see if we were allowed to have this clean and well groomed three month old.  

The farmer referred to her as Orange, because she was assigned that color collar at birth.  We've changed her name to Sienna, since raw sienna is Brandon's favorite orange paint color.  Sienna is so much like having another Wendigo puppy that I keep slipping up and calling her Wendi! 

Wendigo is not sure how she feels about Sienna.  Ever since we brought Sienna home, Wendigo has had a worried look on her face.  Sorry, Wendi, she's here to stay! 

We've decided that Sienna has to stay in the kennel at night and when we aren't home, at least for a little while as she gets used to her new home.  The first night she howled and barked all night long.  Wendigo joined her, and I got no sleep.  I was complaining about it to a friend, and he said that's how all of his dogs have ended up sleeping in the bed with him - he just can't stand to let them cry!  

We've been taking leashed walks around the farm so she knows our boundaries, and she's met all the other animals.  

She's irresistibly sweet and her fuzzy coat is as soft as cotton.  It's all we can do to make ourselves go to work.  Who wants to leave home when there's a new puppy (and an old puppy!) to play with!  

Rambling Story of Recent Things, and Then it Snowed

 Rufus has such a good kissy face!  I have some photos to share, of recent things. 

We harvested green beans.  Lots and lots of green beans.  My parents came, and we gathered round the bean harvest, and picked all the little beans from their shells so we can save them to plant next year.  The focus of the 2019 summer garden was green beans and sweet potatoes.  I did my best to harvest and eat the beans as they ripened, so by the time the last of the beans were ready to save for seeds, we were glad to take a break from stringing!  If I plant all those seeds next year, we will be covered up in green beans.  

Would you like to admire Turkey?  She's grown into a giant bird, who coos softly, and squeaks loudly for food.  She's a champion pear eater, and sleeps on the top perch with the chickens. 

Brandon and I dressed as our future selves for our Halloween costume this year.  We sprayed our hair white and grey, emphasized our wrinkles, and added age spots.  We also nearly caused a fender bender while taking selfies in the car!

We joked that the best part of going to a party at the age of one hundred and three is that we could wear our most comfortable sweaters and no one thinks it's unacceptable to take a nap during the party! 

Somehow, despite his busy schedule, Brandon managed to squeeze in enough moments to build an addition to our barn.  

 

It's a an extension of the roof line, that perfectly shelters the tractor.  I was happy to move the tractor out of the hay hoop barn, to make room for my hay bales.  Now the tractor is nearer the electricity, which is good in case we need to plug it in to warm up, should we need to use it this winter.  

Wendigo was galloping around and hurt her knee.  Her good knee.  So now she has one bad-ish knee, and one pretty bad knee, and she hobbles.  It's no wonder I tweaked my back trying to lift her into the car for a visit to the vet - she weighed in at one hundred and three pounds!  The vet took scans and said that her hips are a little bad, which probably puts pressure on her knees. She likely has tears in her ACL tendons.  Wendigo's only consolation for her limited mobility is that the pain medicine goes down easiest when embedded in hot dogs.  She doesn't mind a twice daily dose of hot dog one bit.    

The main route away from home was flooded one day last week.  I turned around to try the other route...

and it was flooded too!  It's an odd feeling to be trapped at home, but nice to have an excuse to stay home from work. 

It was past time to harvest the sweet potatoes.  The vines were so pretty all summer, but I was unconvinced there would be real potatoes under the ground.  I was wrong!  

It took me about five digging sessions, but I finally made my way through the entire bed.  I didn't have to dig too deep, as most of the potatoes were in the top layer of loose organic garden soil, and not into the clay subsoil.  Even still, it was a lot of work and I couldn't help but dream of the giant bin of organic sweet potatoes at the grocery, all clean of dirt and harvested by someone else!  Especially when I would carefully excavate a giant whopper of a potato only to turn it over and find that some type of rodent had gnawed all the way through it!  Grrrr!  

 

Even though we shared about a third of the harvest with the voles, the other two thirds make an impressive display on the dining room table.  

My root cellaring book says to cure the potatoes for ten to fourteen days at eighty-five degrees and ninety percent humidity.  Yeah, right.  Who has a sauna fit for potato curing?  To store them after they are cured, the book says they need a relatively warm and dry root cellar, or they do well wrapped in newspaper and stored in an unheated room.   All the potatoes in the bowl have chewed places, or were damaged during harvest.  I've been cleaning them up and baking them.

Brandon prefers that I cut off the chew marks from the voles. So picky!  Ha!  Even uncured, they are delicious.  Maybe they were worth all that effort to dig, after all. 

We did all that stuff, bean harvesting, Halloween partying, barn building, dog toting, flooding, and potato digging, and then it snowed.  Nice.