Out the backdoor

Posted by kenleighacres on February 23, 2011
Posted in: family, Farm Life. Tagged: , , , . 8 Comments

My son and I have been sick, so we have been spending a lot of time looking out the backdoor. 

Luckily, we have a lot to look at! 

A pair of Canada geese.

They are here most of the time and have even started eating the leftover duck food. 

We have had a LOT of rain and the wild ducks are taking advantage of the extra water.

The ‘open’ (not bred) girls have been kicked out of the barn and are complaining to me daily.  They liked the cushy life and extra good food the mammas were getting.  I keep telling them there are sheep who don’t see green grass for months and they should feel very lucky 🙂

We have a trio of pheasants that are constantly teasing me.  I see them all of the time, but as soon as I put a camera up they are gone!  I finally got a couple of pictures of them.

Not the best pictures, but still sharable.  I love the roosters and all of their colors.

Probably the funnest to see, are the baby nutria!  I am not a fan of nutria, but the babies are kind of fun to watch.

I am FINALLY feeling better and my son should be feeling better soon after a trip to the doctor this morning.  Just in time for the forecasted snow!  I have mixed feelings about the snow, especially with more lambs due soon, but a little bit of snow would be fun.

Lamb updates!

Posted by kenleighacres on February 11, 2011
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing. Tagged: , , . 19 Comments

You could say that my life has gone to the lambs!

We have been busy here and everyone is excited about the new arrivals…

especially Magoo.  He loves his sheep.

Here are all of the new lambs…

Legacy had twins – Thea and Rowan – by Reno

Fenwick – Wrangler x Liberty

Adelaide – Abraham x Azera

and her brother, Merlin.

Tristan with his pretty blue eyes – Reno x Rae-Ann

and his sister Bess.

Abraham and Infiniti produced this little doll – Guinevere.

My son’s ewe, Lulu, had a ram lamb and…

a ewe lamb by Abraham. 

He has named the boy Abraham Jr. and the girl Morgan.  He has been a great help with all of the lambs – bottle feeding, pen cleaning, docking tails, and giving shots.

Delight had a ewe lamb by Abraham – Gloriana.

and Flirt had a set of twins last night.  A 4-horn ram lamb, Caliburn, and…

a ewe lamb, Juliana – by Abraham.

Abbey, the bottle lamb, is doing really well.  If I sneak up really quiet, I can catch her sleeping with her mom and sister. 

We have 5 more ewes due at the end of February.  I’m sure Veronica can’t wait! 

For more farm stories and fun click on the link and you’ll go to Amy’s “Verde Farm” blog.  She is hosting Farm Friend Friday.  There are a whole bunch of fun, farm blogs just waiting to have you stop in and say hi!
Check them out.
You’ll be glad you did!

A broody hen

Posted by kenleighacres on February 7, 2011
Posted in: Chickens. Tagged: , , , . 11 Comments

Now we have had a few broody hens and they have helped hatch quite a few chicks…but this hen takes the cake!

I found her yesterday protecting her treasures…

the other girls weren’t sure what to think of her.

If they got too close…she would fan her tail, open her mouth, and make evil noises!

She was determined to stay on her nest and I was very curious to see what she was sitting on.  I cautiously picked her up and had to laugh at what I found…

a pile of rocks 😉

She was very proud of her pile of rocks!  I’m not sure where she found these rocks or who she had helping her, but they are beautiful rocks.

She was madder than a hornet and quite upset that I disturbed her and her happy family.  She marched outside and proceeded to tell the whole world about it.

And then in true chicken fashion, she found some tasty morsels and forgot all about her rocks.

She is back to sitting on her rocks and I am feeling bad for the poor girl, so I may order some hatching eggs and give her a ‘real’ job 🙂

DIY Custom Tags for your handmade items

Posted by kenleighacres on February 6, 2011
Posted in: Crafting. Tagged: , , . 5 Comments

 For Christmas, my mom gave me this really cool paper punch.

I was excited to use it, but I wasn’t sure what I was going to use it for 🙂

That is until I made all of these…

18 bars of felted soap!

Once they were dry, I needed to tag them with ‘something’ so I could write the scent of soap and price.

I had a box of stamps, but I didn’t want to use a plain, square piece of paper…

then I remembered my paper punch and went to work.

I love how this particular punch has scalloped edges…it looks like a wooly sheep!

Once I had a bunch punched, I stamped them with one of my favorite stamps…

I found this stamp on Etsy awhile ago and I was sad to see that the shop has closed 😦

If you want your own sheep stamp though, I did find this one…Custom Sheep stamp.  I also found this stamp that says Handmade By.

I used a piece of yarn and voila – my felted bars of soap are tagged, priced, and ready to go!

If you want a truly custom stamp like this one…

you can order one fairly reasonably through Rubber Stamps.  They also have self-inking stamps that you can customize with your contact information. 

The punches can be found at your local craft store and come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. 

Happy Crafting!

Little Abbey

Posted by kenleighacres on January 31, 2011
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing. Tagged: , . 9 Comments

Abbey has become a special girl. 

She was born with a lot of flash and she has the personality to match.  Unfortunately, she spent too much time baaaaing and carrying on and not nursing like she should have.  For some reason she couldn’t figure it out???  Now to be fair, her mom is a little different, she only has half an udder.  She had a terrible thing happen to her by a shearer before she came to live here – you can read her whole story here.  Abbey is determined to nurse on the side that doesn’t have anything to nurse on.  I tried helping but Aimee wasn’t very cooperative.  All of Aimee’s twins in the past have figured out sharing the one side, so I left them alone and hoped they would figure it out.  Unfortunately that didn’t happen.  Early the next morning I went out to check on everyone and little Abbey was screaming her head off and after an inspection of her tummy, I could tell that she still hadn’t nursed!  I was very thankful that she was still vigorous and she quickly took the bottle I offered.  The poor girl used up all of her fat reserves and I noticed her having a hard time maintaining her body temperature, so she got a jacket.

      I’m not a big fan of bottle lambs…there really isn’t anything like mom, but it is nice that she still has a mom and sister to hang out with.  She has moments of confusion though…

do I stay with them…

or do I come to you?

In the end the bottle wins 🙂

She is doing really well and doesn’t need her jacket anymore.  I love seeing her kicking up her heels out in the pasture!

It is a far shot, but I am still hoping she may catch on from her sister and figure it out 😉  Until then, I will continue my late night and early morning feedings!

A t-shirt…really?

Posted by kenleighacres on January 24, 2011
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep. Tagged: , , . 10 Comments

Yep, I did afternoon chores in a t-shirt!  We are having a stretch of spring like weather…the birds are singing and all of the farm animals were soaking up the rays.

Wren took it to another level though…

she started rolling around and…

scratching her back just like a horse.  I’m not sure I have ever seen one of our sheep do this.  She was in heaven!

She was having so much fun, Bliss had to come see what she was doing and see if she needed to do it too 🙂

In the sunshine you can see this boy’s blue eyes and look at the little spot developing on his nose!  By the time he is a couple months old, all of the pink should be pigmented black.

Veronica was content to just stand in the sunshine and chew her cud.  She looked quite content!

I haven’t posted many pictures of the young boys this winter – they have mostly looked like drowned rats.  Not today…here is a picture of Durham and Ringo.  I LOVE their horns!  Ringo is such a nice boy – he has the temperament I wish all rams could have…calm, non-combative with his fellow rams, a good amount of respect for humans, and nice to his girls.

The ewes also thought it was a great day to have lambs…7 new lambs in total!

Ellyn and Lancelot – these beauties are Patchwork Abraham x Bide a wee Althea.  Althea had a ewe lamb and a ram lamb, both are lilacs and I think they are both 4-horn.

Walter – a 4-horn ram lamb – Kenleigh’s Wrangler x Kenleigh’s Celeste.  Celeste had twins, but the 2nd lamb didn’t make it.  A sad and unfortunately, unavoidable part of being a shepherd.  I know there was nothing I could have done to help this lamb, but it is still hard.  I am very happy that Celeste has a healthy lamb to dote on.

Dolly had twin ram lambs.  My son is thrilled!!!  Dolly is his ewe and he really wanted boys – I don’t know why, he just did 🙂  These lambs are Kenleigh’s Reno x Bide a wee Dolly.  This one is a 4-horn…

and this one is a 2-horn.  It was close to bedtime, so they don’t have names yet.

Abbey, a black & white ewe lamb and Avalon, a lilac ewe lamb – Kenleigh’s Reno x Kenleigh’s Aimee

At the same time Dolly was having her lambs, so did Aimee.  They were one big happy family when I found them!  The lambs thought it was great to have two moms.  Luckily, it was easy to sort out who belonged to who 🙂 

I love Avalon’s face markings!

Time to go to bed and prepare for the possibility of more lambs tomorrow!

Don’t be hasty

Posted by kenleighacres on January 19, 2011
Posted in: Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , . 13 Comments

While I was out taking pictures of the sheep this morning, it hit me just how fast the lambs grow and how much they can change in a very short period of time.  I was also reminded to hold off judgement and not be hasty when deciding if the lambs will ‘make the cut’ or not.  There is a LOT involved in this breed… some of the qualities such as percentage of color, spotting pattern, and structure are somewhat obvious at birth, but fleece and horns are very hard to evaluate at a young age.  Fleece qualities can be seen at birth, but they can change – a consistent fleece can end up being quilted and a fuzzy fleece can surprise you sometimes.  Horns are definitely the hardest to get right – they can change in the blink of an eye, especially when there are 4 of them.  To make matters even more confusing, there are all of the traits you can’t see…mothering ability, hardiness, temperament, and the essence that makes a jacob a jacob.  Being hasty and making rash decisions can be detrimental to a breeding program. 

Two of our rams weren’t necessarily my favorite when they were born…

 Wrangler as a lamb

Reno as a lamb

There were qualities that I just didn’t like when they were born, but I held off judgement and watched them mature.  I can remember noticing them at about a month old and going ‘wow, look at you!’.  In both cases they continued to get better and better.  I will always be thankful to Joan that Wrangler stayed here instead of going to California 😉

  Here is Wrangler as an adult…

 

and Reno as an adult.

They both taught me a good lesson…so for now I am thoroughly enjoying the lambs 🙂 

 Queenie with her little Duchess.

She doesn’t need anybody telling her that she is cute – she is full of herself!

 Holly is still smiling and is very happy with her babies. 

 Emeline makes it very hard not to like her 🙂

A fine winter morning!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 10, 2011
Posted in: Ducks, Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep, whippet. Tagged: , , , . 7 Comments

I love this kind of winter morning…crisp, chilly, and beautiful!

The ducks managed to keep a little spot of their pond open overnight and they were enjoying the sunshine this morning.

The girls were all happy to see me…

but were quickly on their way.

I’m not sure what makes the thistles so delicious on these frosty mornings, but they are a favorite.

Would you like to know why Duchess is smiling this morning?

Holly finally had her lambs last night and now she has some friends!

She had a very large boy, weighing in at 10.5 lbs.  His name is Ector.   

Sir Ector was a knight of the Round Table and Arthurian legend says that he was King Arthur’s foster father.

The little girl is a bit more dainty, weighing in at 5.5 lbs. 

Her name is Emeline. 

The name Emeline is old German for ’embracing everything’.  It was a royal name in medieval England.

Paisley of course thinks it is a fine morning to stay inside and enjoy the warm fire.

A change of plans…

Posted by kenleighacres on January 7, 2011
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing. Tagged: , , , . 8 Comments

I have decided to change the naming theme for this year’s lambs.  There are several reasons for the change, but it all started with the lack of inspiration I was feeling with the previous theme.  A couple things happened today that pointed me in this new direction.  The most important being that Queenie had her lamb! 

She had a ewe lamb.  A ewe lamb that needed a name similar to her mother’s, Queenie, and grandmother’s, Princess.  I watched a King Arthur movie this afternoon and then I read Mud Ranch’s blog about Castles today – see the theme?  So, the naming theme for this year is going to be Medieval names… 

and this girl’s name is going to be Duchess.

Queenie looked like she was getting close this morning, so I decided to check on her and do the afternoon feeding before I headed into town to pick-up my son from school.  She looked closer, but not imminent.  I continued feeding and was headed out of the barn when I saw her laying down.  I did a double check and saw that her water bag was hanging out!  Wow, a lot closer to lambing then I thought!  ‘Good timing Queenie, I have to leave right NOW!!!’  I was concerned about leaving because she is a first time mom and I would be gone an hour.  I didn’t really have a choice, so I told her to check in with the older girls if she had any problems and rely on her instincts. 

She did a fantastic job.  The lamb was cleaned up and nursing when we got home.

I moved them to a small pen and gave mama some hay and dipped the lamb’s umbilical cord. 

The rest of the ewes were very interested in what was going on…

and poor Holly was really wishing it was her lamb!  Soon Holly, soon…

 

Finally…warmth!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 6, 2011
Posted in: Dog Photography, Dogs, family, Lab. Tagged: . 6 Comments

Is it crazy to think 41 degrees is warm?  I would never think this in any other season, but after having temperatures below freezing for several days in a row…41 feels kind of warm!  Unfortunately, with the warmth comes rain, but I think I am ok with that.  I really don’t like being cold.  My brother lives on the other side of the state and the temps have been in the -20’s.   I think I will stay on this side of the mountains and I will definitely stay on this side of the country!!!

While it was dry and cold and before the rain came, a friend wanted me to photograph a couple of her dogs.  We set it up for today, but then the forecast changed and the rain was coming sooner than planned.  So, yesterday afternoon we met at the dam for a photo session. 

The first dog she wanted pictures of was her lab, Tru.

She runs agility with him and he was such a good boy.

The ducks kept swimming by taunting him.  They couldn’t get him to move though…look, but not move 😉 

The other dog she brought for pictures was Piper.  She is a rescue and absolutely adorable.

My son really wanted to bring her home or go find one at the pound just like her or keep our eyes open for one just like her.  He ended up being ok with having his picture taken with her. 

Luckily, we also brought Rose and Paisley.  He decided that Rose really was the only dog he wanted.  

She was so happy to get out and stretch her legs.  She likes to stretch out like this and then pull herself across the ground with her front legs!  She was spayed a couple weeks ago and has been crate bound.  She was thrilled to get out and run and jump and spin and play! 

I think we were all happy to get out and stretch our legs!  I love the view here and the clouds were so pretty yesterday.

Enjoying the dry weather, but dreaming of sunny skys, shorts, and flip flops!