annoying to listen to!

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Western Scrub Jay babies :)

We have been listening to their horrible screeching for a week now.  Their nest was on the hillside across the road, but now they have left the nest and like the trees behind our bedroom…especially early in the morning!  I didn’t appreciate their ‘wake up call’ until I saw the parents pulling wasp nests off the eaves of the house and eating the larvae, I found that I can live with the noise.

It has been fun watching them and the interactions between the adults and the babies.

There are 3 babies and even though they look like adults, they certainly act like babies.

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Anytime the adult comes near them, they throw their wings out and open their mouths and scream for food.  Last night we saw the adults showing the babies how to forage for bugs in the grass, sometimes they would feed them and other times they would fly off.  Tonight they weren’t feeding them at all.  They were showing them where the food was, but that was it.

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Tonight’s dinner was catfood…glad the senior cat’s expensive food is going to a good cause – ha!  This is one of the adults.  They would grab a piece and then fly off.

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The babies were left to fend for themselves.  The look on their faces was priceless…

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and then they started begging from each other.

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I did a little search on Wikipedia to find out more about this little blue bird and was amazed, they have found they are the only non-primate shown to plan ahead for the future.  They can also remember locations of over 200 food caches!

aka Magoo, our Llama.

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I was surprised to see him standing so close to Carrera with a pleasant look on his face.  I soon realized, it was her standing next to him.

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She pushed her luck when she turned her head towards him…there’s the look I am familiar with.

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Then she really pushed her luck when she looked at him with a look of ‘what is your problem?’

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He tried getting her to move with the ‘intimidating’ head down, neck thrust.  She wasn’t impressed :)

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In fact, she decided to give him a little bit of lip back!

Magoo really does like his sheep, but he also has a big personal space bubble and prefers they stay OUT of it!  He teaches the lambs early on that he is NOT a jungle gym and there is no way they are to climb on him.  It looks like Carrera missed the memo on giving Magoo his space.

Here is a little video clip of Magoo doing his job.  Luckily, it was just a trash can that blew out of a trailer on the road that he was concerned about.  He alarm calls at the very beginning and towards the end, such an interesting noise.

I know a lot of people are going to think I am crazy, but there are a few of you that will know what I mean.

It has felt like July for the last couple of weeks.  Dry and hot, especially for the usually wet and cool May we are used to.

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Our roads don’t usually turn brown until late June/July.

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The sheep were very unimpressed with the summer like weather.  Poor Dreamer was carrying a lot of wool.

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Ah, now that is better.

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The ewe lambs spent a lot of time snacking on blackberry leaves and enjoying the shade.

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The ram lambs could have spread out in their shade, but chose to snuggle and lay on each other – silly boys!

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They weren’t the only ones that chose to snuggle in the heat ;)

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I think Kate had the best idea…hanging out in the stock tank.

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This is the view today and it feels a lot more ‘May’ like.  The sheep all seem a bit happier and I am happy to see the little bit of rain because it means we will have green grass for a little bit longer.

2 months since I last wrote a post…what???  That can’t be!

I guess I can’t argue with the date on my last entry, but it sure doesn’t feel like a couple of months have gone by.

So, what have I been up to???

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Up to my armpits in sheep :)

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Bronwen FINALLY lambed.  She had two lovely ewe lambs – meet Chiffon and Magnolia.   I wish I could say she was the last to lamb, but she wasn’t.  Calgary was the last to lamb a week later with two ram lambs.

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I’m not a fan of April lambs, but it was fun having little babies again.

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Remember the soccer lambs, Blizzard and Ruby?  They have successfully become part of the flock and love to help lead the flock out to pasture.  Blizzard has become my little buddy.

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It only makes sense because his uncle Dreamer is my biggest buddy :)

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I have been busy keeping up with Kate’s full schedule.  When she isn’t managing the pasture rotation…

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she is ridding a local college of the pesky geese.

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Paisley doesn’t get to help Kate chase the geese, but she loves going with us.

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The boys have been doing a lot of fishing…

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we didn’t catch any fish on this trip, but the sunshine sure felt nice.

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A friend and I took a little roadtrip to California to deliver some sheep.  We found a lot of sunshine there!

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My Felt Pups are continuing to keep me busy and I love the stories and the connections people have with their dogs.

Ok, that was a VERY brief overview, but at least I feel like I am a little caught up and can get back to posting regularly.

What do you do when you are a 9-year-old boy with a couple of bottle lambs???

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You teach them how to play soccer!

It all started when the lambs were returned from their temporary mom, she did a fabulous job raising them and feeding them every few hours, as bottle lambs require at a young age.  She called a couple weeks ago and said it was time for them to come back to the farm.  Our son was thrilled to take over their care and has done such a good job with them.

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He has been reading to them, mainly from a book about playing soccer.

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Today was such a nice day, they decided to try their new-found skills out on the soccer field.

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I love how you can capture moments like this, it truly looks like Ruby just head butted the soccer ball.

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Sometimes a player gets distracted and has to be called back for the game…good thing he has been teaching them their names!

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Back to the game!

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They had quite the cheering section and I think a few of them were a little jealous.  Maybe he can recruit a few more for a full soccer team.

Where have I been???  It has been a month since my last post…that can’t be possible!!!  I wish the time had been spent playing and napping, but that title wasn’t for me…

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It was for the lambs!  They spend a lot of time, napping and…

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 playing and…

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napping and…

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and PLAYING!!!

We have 53 lambs on the ground and should be done but there are a few girls that were covered late, so we will have a few more lambs at some point.

I love watching them!

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They find the funniest things to chew on and ways to keep themselves entertained.

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Padme and Crimson are waiting for a ride on Petunia :)

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Nap time is always better when you have a sibling to cuddle with…

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a mom to watch over you…

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or a cozy bed to sleep in ;)

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Play time is always best when done with friends!

Along with keeping up with all of the lambs, I have also been busy with the Felt Pups…

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Kep, the Border Collie, makes pup #100!  As you can see, they have been doing a bit of playing as well :)

and COLD!!!

My internet has been less than reliable the last week and it is now rainy and muddy again, but I still wanted to share these photos ;)

We have been stuck in a weather funk, ok maybe I have been in a funk because of the weather. Whatever it is, I have been very thankful for the brief moments when the sun shines….

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and watching the lambs race around the pasture certainly helps :)

It has now been 11 days since my last post and we have had 12 new babies in that time period and it has been frosty and foggy for all of them!

The still pregnant girls spend a lot of time wandering out to the pasture…

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back to the barn…

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and giving their poor legs a break.

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This picture makes me laugh.  Althea has now lambed, but her legs look so little and it is exaggerated by the big boy, Dreamer, standing behind her.

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Dreamer is really cute with the lambs.

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Seeing the babies snuggled up next to their mom is one of my favorite things about this time of year.

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At only a couple of days old, they are already trying out what is edible and what isn’t.

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As the title said, we had lots of frosty mornings with the temperatures in the low 20′s.  I am thankful the next batch of lambs is going to come in a bit warmer weather.

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Aragon is also happy to be waking up ‘frost free’.

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We are all happy to say ‘good-bye’ to that bank of fog that would roll in mid-morning!

We have 23 lambs and this next week looks to be extra busy with 17 girls due.

Here is a small sample of the lambs we have.

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For those interested, you can visit our website to see a listing of all our lambs.