Stories from the Farm

Glorious mornings

Posted by kenleighacres on February 25, 2012

Posted in: Ducks, Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, Llama, Photography, sheep. Tagged: canada geese, Chickens, Ducks, jacob lambs, Jacob Sheep, photography, Quail. 2 comments

We have woken up to a couple glorious mornings and nothing makes me happier than to open the blinds and see the sun shining!

It makes the sheep happy too!

My goal was to get an updated picture of all the lambs, but they had other things on their mind. These lambs were munching on the blackberry leaves.

This group of lambs was enjoying the grass with Magoo.

This lamb was being a funny guy

Luckily, I can always count on Maelstrom to pose for me, thanks little buddy. Their horns are really starting to grow. After a bit of work, I did finally get new pictures of all the lambs. They can be seen on our website – www.kenleigh-acres.com

After accomplishing that goal, it was time to go for a little walk and enjoy the morning. Azera was enjoying the grass while her lambs soaked up the warmth from the sunshine.

The chickens were scratching for goodies…

and having their morning dust baths.

My favorite little birds on the farm, the quail, were out and about and in the mood to have their picture taken…doesn’t happen very often.

I said ‘good morning’ to the pair of ducks living on our pond.

The pair of geese that have been hanging out here thought I got a little too close for comfort and off they went.

The boys were doing what they do best this time of year…hanging out.

I’m glad we all enjoyed it while it was here because it is now pouring and supposed to continue for the next couple of days. Hopefully the rain with trigger the next ewe to have her lambs!

February Lambs

Posted by kenleighacres on February 20, 2012

Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: 2012 jacob lambs, jacob lambs, Jacob Sheep, Lambing. 11 comments

These poor babies have been neglected on the blog! With 42 lambs on the ground, life has been a little crazy

Here are the lambs that have been born in February…

First time momma, Allegany, had a set of twins and has proved to be an excellent mother.

Gypsy is her ewe lamb. Gypsy means someone living an unconventional lifestyle and she may not be living one, but she is dressed a little unconventional for a jacob lamb. I think her extra black makes her extra special.

Rapscallion is her ram lamb, I love his one blue eye.

Next up was one of my son’s ewes, Echo. She had a pair of ram lambs. He named this guy Explorer because he was a real go getter and was exploring the whole barn while his mom was cleaning up his brother. My son had to keep picking him up and putting him back with mom.

Here is his brother, Silver. His name came from one of my son’s favorite shows at the moment – Lone Ranger.

Mollala, another first time momma, surprised and mystified us with this lilac ram lamb. Lilac is a recessive color gene in the Jacob breed and I really didn’t think she was a carrier. She was bred to Reno, a known lilac carrier. I guess she showed us

He loves to kick up his heels.

Rae-Ann, a well seasoned ewe, had her twin girls very close to the same time as Mollala.

Skedaddle is working hard to live up to her name.

Rae-Ann is helping her by teaching them how to skedaddle away from me. She is very protective of her lambs and doesn’t want me anywhere near them!

Sassy isn’t having any problem living up to her name!

The next ewe to lamb should have been Azera, but she continued chewing her cud and making us wait.

Cleora was happy to fill the time by having twins, a ram lamb and a ewe lamb. The boy’s name is Teague meaning fair or handsome and the girl’s name is Daedal (dee-dal), which means ingenious/skillful – I thought it was a cute name to match a cute girl.

Yesterday morning, Azera finally had her lambs. We are a little short on 4-horn boys this year and I was joking with a friend that maybe if I pre-named them it would help. So, I came up with Casanova, Romeo, and just in case there was a third one, Don Juan. Her actual due date was Valentine’s day and these names seemed to fit. I was shocked when she actually had 2, 4-horn ram lambs!!!

Romeo

Casanova

We are almost 50/50 – boys to girls, with 19 boys and 23 girls. We have a handful of ewes left to lamb and most of them should be done by the end of the month!

One of my favorite parts of lambing season…

Posted by kenleighacres on February 7, 2012

Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: antics, jacob lambs, Jacob Sheep, lamb, lamb races, Lambs. 9 comments

LAMB RACES!!!

They race back…

and forth while their moms are eating in the barn.

I wanted to video their antics, but every time I took my camera out, they were too tired from playing all day and would just fall asleep in the barn.

Very cute, but not very entertaining for taking video.

As I walked out to the pasture with them, I warned the lambs to save their energy because I wanted to capture the lamb races.

As you can see, they didn’t really listen The old concrete pile is always a favorite with the lambs.

Time to head back to the barn for the night.

Canby is so cute, she has to stop and make sure all of the lambs have made it out of the pasture.

Every once in a while, a couple lambs will fall asleep and not realize the rest of the sheep have headed to the barn, a double-check is always a good idea.

They all made it to the barn and the lambs indulged me by racing around. Thanks to my husband for putting this video together for me. Enjoy!

Jacob Sheep Lamb races

They wore themselves out and were panting in no time

Good for the Soul!

Posted by kenleighacres on February 3, 2012

Posted in: family, Farm Life, Photography. Tagged: calves, cows, horses, photography, race horse, race horses. 20 comments

Taking pictures, from horseback, in the sunshine…it doesn’t get much better than that!

This morning I went with my brother and one of his friends to move the cows to a new pasture.

There wasn’t much ‘moving’ to be done because the cows were headed to the new pasture when we got there, they must have gotten the memo that was on today’s to do list.

That was ok, because it was still a great day for a ride.

In addition to managing the cows, my brother also manages the race horses for the company he works for. Here he is ponying one of the soon to be 2-year-olds.

He was such a good boy!

Going in water and over little creeks and he didn’t even flinch when the dogs were running around him.

Such a pretty horse.

This was Nelly’s first time ponying another horse and she did a great job, even though she wasn’t very happy about it. He was being sweet, but was in her space and touching her – two things she was NOT ok with!

You can’t move cows without a couple of dogs, this is Newt.

This momma cow came down the hill with two calves. From what we could tell, both are hers!

I can’t put into words how much I enjoy just going outside and taking pictures, it really is good for my soul.

and look…a picture of me! Since I am the one with the camera most of the time, this doesn’t happen very often. I made Wyatt work for me a little bit more today than the last time I rode him. He is a big, funny guy.

The smile says it all, we had a great time in the sunshine!

Kate’s other job

Posted by kenleighacres on January 31, 2012

Posted in: Border Collie, Dogs, Farm Life. Tagged: Border Collie, border collies, canada geese, canada goose hazing, goose population, photography, using border collies to chase geese, wildlife photography. 6 comments

My border collie, Kate, is a huge help here on the farm…

she is wonderful with the moms and babies.

Even when the babies get a little too curious.

But she also has another job. It is our duty to keep a local college free of geese. Here is a little bit of information regarding hazing geese with border collies. The most effective way to humanely control the goose population is to introduce a ‘predator’ into the environment. Since it isn’t practical (or safe) to reintroduce wolves, coyotes, and foxes into commercial and residential areas, specially trained dogs are the natural answer. Geese that are harassed on a regular schedule by border collies will seek a safer place to live and raise their young. Geese are beautiful and I love watching them, but when each one of these guys…

is leaving 2-3 lbs. of waste a day, it gets nasty, pretty quick! They also eat 2-5 lbs. of grass in a day - leaving a muddy, poop covered landscape behind them.

Kate and I have been visiting the college for 3 years and the flock of geese that called this location home has decreased dramatically. Unfortunately, it is the perfect place for flocks that are flying through to stop and take a break. This gives Kate steady work and she loves it!

She is always looking, but we couldn’t find any geese on the ground today.

The sky was full of them.

and plenty in the pond, but nothing for my girl to focus her attention on.

That is, until these three flew in.

I love this goose and have been trying to get good pictures of it for quite a while.

It is some sort of cross - the colors and patterns are so fun.

As an extra bonus, we had geese to chase when we got home as well. I have been very careful to save our grass for my mammas and babies, there are plenty of empty fields in our area for these guys to get a free meal somewhere else!

Enjoying the break…

Posted by kenleighacres on January 29, 2012

Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: 2012 jacob lambs, Jacob lamb, Jacob Sheep. 2 comments

in lambing and from the rain.

The weather has been delightful and the sheep are enjoying the grass. They haven’t been very happy with me for the last couple of months because I have locked them off the good pastures, but they are happy now!

These boys would love it if I opened a couple of gates for them as well.

The young girls, like bide a wee Shana and

Ruby Peak Penstemon are looking very cute to them.

The lambs are all growing, but still sticking close to mom.

Some are more ~~obsessed~~ in love with their moms, than others.

Bronwen and Delight are just the opposite, their lambs are quite independent and it drives them crazy! They are always chasing them down and scolding them. The poor lambs are usually just taking a nap

The break in lambing hasn’t been 100%, this little beauty was born during the night. Her name is Pizzazz, it fit her flashy coloring!

The rain is supposed to start again this afternoon, but the break in lambing is supposed to continue for another 6 days. We’ll see if the girls agree with that forecast!

Ready, Set, Go!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 26, 2012

Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, Uncategorized. Tagged: 2012 jacob lambs, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, Lambs. 9 comments

I think this is what the girls said to each other because it has been absolutely crazy here! Since Elan was born on the 20th, we have had 15 new lambs. This brings the total to 30, with 11 more girls left to lamb.

Here is a quick recap of the new babies and their names…

Delight’s ram lamb, Gallivanter – to go about in search of amusement. He is such a cute little guy.

Amber’s lambs – Brouhaha, a noisy commotion or uproar, and his little sister Banshee, feminine spirit in Irish mythology. The last week has been a noisy commotion for sure!

Celeste surprised me with this ewe lamb, Bountiful. She is a big, chunky girl and Bountiful just fit

Veronica’s ram lamb, Gusto – hearty or keen enjoyment.

and her ewe lamb, Hoopla – joyous celebration.

Sahara had two more ewe lambs (lots of girls here this year, not really a good thing when you want boys). Enigma – puzzling occurrence.

Quandary – a state of perplexity.

Girandole - spinning firework/showy composition, and Maelstrom – powerful whirlpool that sucks you in. These are Savana’s ram lambs and they are keeping her very busy!

Canby had two adorable little girls. She is a first time mom and gets an A+ from me.

Her girls are Persnickity – fussy about small details…

and Panache - flamboyant.

Pacifica’s ram lamb, Rambler – one that rambles.

and her other ram lamb, Jester – joker, prankster, provides general entertainment.

Another one of my son’s ewes, Petunia, had a blue-eyed beauty. He hasn’t come up with a name for her yet. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with

Lamb races are just around the corner and I am enjoying this little break before the rest of the girls start lambing.

Meet Elan!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 22, 2012

Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: 2012 jacob lambs, elan, Jacob Sheep, lamb, Lambs. 2 comments

The lambs are keeping me busy, but I wanted to introduce you to Elan!

I am thankful she was born in the barn because this girl was born running. Elan means vigor, enthusiasm, full of confidence and this girl fits all of those categories!

You could also say she is full of herself…

‘I don’t want my picture taken!’

‘Well…maybe just one.’

‘Ok, go ahead, snap away. I am pretty cute, aren’t I?’

We had 3 more lambs today, bringing the count to 18.

You can see pictures and information on our Jacob Lamb page.

A whole lot of excitement!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 20, 2012

Posted in: Chickens, Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, Photography, sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: Jacob Sheep, Chickens, 2012 jacob lambs, heavy rain, flooding. 4 comments

Between the rain and the lambs and the flooding…yesterday was a crazy day!

It started at 3:00 when Wren had her lamb…

She was very proud of her new baby.

Her name is Zesty and it matches her lively personality!

My next trip to the barn was for Queenie…she finally lambed! She has looked like she was about ready to lamb for days now! She had two beautiful, little ewe lambs.

Fanfare – A loud flourish of brass music.

Ballyhoo – flamboyance.

Queenie has a bit of flamboyance and has a royal air about her, so these names seemed very fitting for her girls.

My third trip to the barn was for morning feeding and to check on Liberty, what I found was a bit of a shock…water in the barn! The snow we had at the beginning of the week melted and our area has been pounded with rain since.

The ditch in the pasture was over flowing into the ditch next to the barn which was over flowing into the barn.

The water was quickly headed towards our hay, so I grabbed what I could and diverted it until we could do something about the ditch along the barn.

I knew there was a reason why I hadn’t taken the trash wool to the dump yet! Along with a couple straw bales it did the trick and gave me some time to call for help. My brother headed over and we cleaned out the ditch and dug it a little deeper in places. It started flowing along the barn and headed to the creek…most importantly it stopped flowing through the barn!

While we were digging trenches and getting soaking wet, Liberty went about having her lamb…

Here they are shortly after birth.

Poor mama, he was born with BIG horn buds!

His name is Bodacious – remarkable, noteworthy.

Along with the rain, came high wind and we lost the tree in our ram’s pasture. The boys really loved sitting under it, they are going to miss it.

This morning is much calmer and the chickens are very happy to get out! I was a little leery to let them out during the heavy rain because they really are bird brains and stand out in it and get soaked. My husband had to rescue one of them from the creek a couple weeks ago!