Surprise, Surprise. Baaaaa! Continues

Well I came across an ad on Craigslist for a 1 week old female lamb for $25, and couldn't resist. I ran it by my parents, and they gave me the OK to contact the seller, to find out what breed she was. Within minutes we got a phone call from the seller to let us know she was still available, and that yes she is a woolie (I don't want hair sheep). I asked what breed? "Oh, her father is a Suffolk, her mother is a white face." There are a lot of white face breeds.... I told her we are already feeding a couple of lambs, and I handed the phone over to my Mom to arrange pick up. It turned out that she had several other people contact her, but didn't know anything about bottle feeding lambs, so she turned them down. But when I told her we were bottle feeding before I handed the phone over, she then told my Mom she had another one we could have free! It was born that morning, was a twin, and got separated from its Mother. She tried to give it back to its Mom, but she didn't want it anymore. AND SHE DOESN'T LIKE BOTTLE FEEDING. 

So we zipped on over and picked them up. She was very nice, and showed us their Mothers. I asked her what breed are her white face sheep (Hey it was worth a try.), but she didn't know. She said they are crosses of some sort. She handed me the tiny little newborn lamb. I checked the sex. Boy. I was surprised he had dents in his head like the girls. I asked if he would get horns, just to make sure, she said "No, oh its a boy. I didn't even check." I think its so funny, because every time one of our animals delivers a baby, that's the first thing we check. She did make sure that they got colostrum, so that's good, and said she would keep our phone number in case she ends up with anymore.

So here are the little darlings.

 Marigold

We haven't settled on a name for him yet.

I had a real hard time trying to get pictures, because they want to look right at the lens, and then the camera's battery died.

"Does that thing have any milk?"

Kimberly

Entropion/turn-in eyelid in lambs

When I was reading in Raising Sheep The Modern Way last night I came across the problem with the lambs eyes. It's caused by their eyelids being curled inwards causing their lashes and hair to rub the eyeball. In her   case its her bottom lids. Natasha Marie recognized this just from the picture I posted.

I have to say the forms of treatment did not sound very good. Stitching the eyelid to the cheek to hold it down, cutting the eyelid to make it open properly, holding the lids open with tape (I don't know how that works) and there was something in the book about injecting medication under the lid to form a bubble to hold it open till it heals. But I didn't quite understand it. I was tired, and it was late. So I put the book down. So this morning I did a google search, and this video is the first thing to pop up.

                        

After my Mom and I watched it a couple of times, we decided to give it a try. I held, while my Mom injected. We already had the necessities. The first eye went pretty smoothly except for having to make a needle change after the first one clogged, and then blew off spraying penicillin everywhere. So we got it full of 1 ml. and it looked great. Then for the second eye. For some reason she could only get a tiny bit of penicillin in it. At first she thought the needle was clogged, but it wasn't. She eventually tried a larger needle, and it still wouldn't fill the lid. For some reason she just flat out could not get it to fill the lid, like there was no where for it to go. But she got a little in it, and it was staying open properly. So we decided that between the little bit we got in her and the number of times she got jabbed would hopefully keep it swollen long enough for the eye to heal, and she got penicillin in all those jabs. Hopefully all will be well, and she took it like a champ. Oh ya, we also put more mastitis medication in her eyes. This stuff comes sterilized in a syringe , and is the same ointment they sell for eye infections, but much cheaper.

Then it was time to dock both girls tails. We already knew to band them with the elastrator, we just didn't know exactly the right spot. When the video for the eye problem finished it popped up with their other video for tail docking. I love the internet! I can't get it to embed the docking video, but here is the link http://youtu.be/ny06ppuH3Oo

And we finally settled on names. Myrtle, and Magnolia (Maggie for short).

Kimberly

Surprise, Surprise. Baaaaa!

I was out back with the goats, when my Mom came home from the feed store. When I walked up to the house, she had been unloading hay out of the back of her SUV, and she was talking to an older gentleman that was parked behind her. I was rather confused. I didn't know who he was. I assumed a neighbor from down the road. They were talking about measurements. Then he said "Well here you go." and opened up a cage he had covered in the back of his truck, and takes out two lambs and hands one to each of us. Then he gave my Mom a container of lamb milk replacer. That explained the measurements.

So as it turns out when my Mom went to the feed store, and this man came in looking to find a home for these lambs that his sheep rejected. He normally takes care of them, but he is going away for the holidays with his wife, and they don't have anyone to take on the responsibility of bottle feeding. I guess he has given lambs to one of the women at the feed store before, but today she wasn't interested. When my Mom saw them she couldn't resist. He told her he had a bag of milk replacer at his house, and he would pick it up, and then drop them off. No sooner did my Mom get home, and begin unloading the hay when he drove up. Turns out he went back into the feed store, and bought a container of the milk replacer instead of driving back to his house. So not only did he give her two free lambs, but he bought her a container of milk replacer too!

So I dug out the book Raising Sheep the Modern Way. I guess that will be my reading material for a while. And get this. The reason we had a sheep book before sheep. My Mom found it free at our local thrift store along with a llama book. Hmmmmm whats next, hehe.

I asked the guy what breed they are. He said there mixed. But I still wonder what they are mixes of. All I know is that they are wool sheep, not hair sheep, and they are three days old. My Mom said he told her there a male and female. I guess he didn't take a very good gander, they are both girls!

So here are the little darlings who don't have names yet.

The blackfaced one has yucky eyes. I put some medicine in them. Hopefully they will clear up fast.

Kimberly

Fall

I know I haven't posted in a reeeally long time. I haven't forgotten about my blog. I'm going to try to be better about posting more regularly.

I want to say thank you to A Sonoma Garden for the Pharmaca gift card I won on their blog back in late August. My Mom and I finally got around to making a trip over to one of their stores. I had a lot of fun picking out my purchases. There is certainly a lot to choose from. I settled on the Flora Udo's oil 3.6.9 , Rainbow Light food based calcium, and a bottle of Home Health castor oil. I have to say I've never used castor oil, but I don't know how many times I have read about the different uses for it, so I figure its a good thing to keep on the shelf.

Anyhooo, my Mom and I gathered up our large bounty of heirloom pumpkins, and winter squash from the garden. Since we don't have anywhere to store them, we piled them all up on the front porch. Some of the varieties we grew are: Jarrahdale, Dickinson, Sucrine Du Berry, Sweet Dumpling, and Delicata. My Mom made 2 pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving, out of a Jarrahdale, and they are sooooo good. I don't know why, but I had it stuck in my head that the flesh of the blue pumpkins is also blue inside, so I got quite a surprise to see when cut open they are bright orange.

The pasture is going dormant, but there is still a little green for the goats to nibble on.

The goats have really been working hard on the berry bush nextdoor.

I really don't know how they managed to push the vines over.

They exposed this young mulberry tree that had been devoured by the vines. I was surprised that they didn't eat the bark off of it. I guess it must not taste as good.

Grazing their way home.

 Violet is ALWAYS the last one home. She gets so sidetracked eating that she doesn't realize the whole herd has gone home and left her. And of course she has to bawl the whole way home. She's so cute and sweet. Each goat definitely has their own personality.

Vicky enjoying some of the 12-row Bantam heirloom corn I was saving. I gave her this piece, and she ate every kernel off the cob. (I guess I need to clean the spider webs down there!)

I strung up some of the peppers my Mom grew. These are a few varieties of habanero's.

Fish peppers

They have such pretty stripped colors.

These is the habanero plants after all the peppers have been picked. They are at least 4 1/2 foot tall.

 Filius Blue peppers that my Mom got from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

I just picked a bunch of these the other day to save some seeds. They are soooo pretty. They change color from purple - cream - yellow - orange - red. While picking I found a nice big red pepper, and took a nibble off the end. Boy was that a mistake! There hot! I was glad I only took a nibble : ) These tiny little peppers are packed full of seeds. I only had to open maybe 20 peppers to get several hundred seeds.

I have so many pictures that I just haven't gotten around to posting. I will try to get some more up SOON.

Big Dogs, Big Brambles

Lizzy (my Moms Boxer) was out playing in the pasture today with Rhett and Scarlett, while my Mom worked on the electric fence next door. I had to grab the camera. They tower over her! And they are still growing.

They are the sweetest dogs. They are like the draft horses of the dog world. Gentle Giants.

Vicky snuck into our pasture, when I was in the neighboring pasture with the goats. Rhett and Scarlett love her, but the feelings aren't mutual. Their size scares her to death. Look at the size of their paws compared to her.

I need to think of a caption for this picture.

My Mom put up more strands of electric wire in our neighbors pasture, so the goats can work on the enormous wild blackberry bush over there. So yesterday I brought the goats over one by one on a leash, and let them find out what electric wire is. That way they wouldn't run right through it before they got zapped. Then off they went to the bush. It's hard to get a picture that shows just how big the berry bush is.

See the goat eating off to the right. And those are tree's growing out of the top.

I think they will be eating on this ginormous bush for a looooooong time.

Kimberly 

Away

I know, I know. I haven't posted in a really long time.

I didn't forget about my blog. I have been busy getting some things done around here, and haven't really been feeling well. Tomorrow (place scared face here) I am getting 3 teeth removed. Including a wisdom tooth. So I will be away for a while longer. This will be my first time getting adult teeth removed, and I am terrified. PLEASE keep me in your prayers for a easy, and speedy recovery. My Brothers wedding is in less then two weeks, and I have to be in pictures.

I have not worked on the cow hide yet. I haven't forgotten. Its going to have to hold off till fall, when the flies are gone. If anybody out there has any advice for me, please, I am all ears.

I haven't tried this, but thought it was pretty cool. How to peel a hardboiled egg without peeling. http://thehomesteadsurvival.com/tim-ferriss-peel-hardboiled-eggs-peeling/ This blog always has the coolest posts.

Kimberly

Green Beans Galore

My Mom planted a 75 foot row of Provider green beans in the late spring, and today was the first big harvest. We tackled the row together, and it seemed never ending. Our bowls were brimming, so we began dumping them into a large box. Bowl after bowl, we made our way down the row. When we reached the end of the row our box was full. We will have our work cut out for us tonight snapping away.

The breezy weather has been wonderful today in the 80's, but I am not looking forward to the 100's again this weekend.

My Mom with our bounty

Guinea Pigs, LGD's, and The Sun

Sir Locksley

 Ringlets

 He love to have his chin scratched. He was eating some orange, so his face is messy.

Even his whiskers grow in ringlets.

Flower

 Her hair had already been cut when I bought her. I think they said she is Silkie. Her hair is soooo soft, and has a very high sheen. Her colors make it very hard to get a good picture of her.

She has a black face, but white whiskers. So cute.

Rhett, and Scarlett

They sure love the irragation water. 

 It was so sunny it bleached Scarlett out in the picture.

Handsome boy.

Scarlett is a bit more silly. Their tails are giant, you just can't help but play with them.

The Sun

We had 1 day last month, that the sun had this very strange dark ring around it.

It was very hard to get good pictures of exactly what it looked like. The sky was very blue, like the above picture. The ring around the sun looked like a dark cloud. The edge of the dark ring was a rainbow.

Kimberly