Fearless

Molly is growing up fast and is totally fearless. I can't turn my back on her or she will be off getting into some mischief.

She has no fear of the sheep - none. She runs into their pen and hops at them, then she seemingly gets distracted and turns her back on them - no fear. I have to watch her around the rams as she runs right in with them as well, and they can be dangerous.

Today the goats were out and Molly was right in mixing it up with them. Addison was trying to headbutt and ram her but Molly was too nimble. She was no help at all, all she was doing was creating havoc. The Commander had to pick her up so Sara could herd everyone back to their pen. It is amazing to watch Sara work, she gets right under the hind legs of any goat who tries to hold their ground and literally lifts their hind quarters off the ground and runs them to the barn (like a wheelbarrow race).

Sometimes fearless crosses the line to death wish, and that line is crossed when Molly tries to herd the cats!

Molly got the drop on Chai Chai here, but since that time the claws have been out!

New Friends

The loss of Jeepers and Alma had me very sad for quite a long time and I really questioned the idea of having sheep here on the homestead. Their tragic loss was followed by Kia getting very, very sick, I thought she was a goner. I gave her a full cycle of Banamine, pro-biotics, iron shots, and wormer. I had the vet come out and examine her and take a blood sample. I was afraid she had some kind of wasting disease.

The blood tests came back clean, the fecal sample showed no worms, and Kia has slowly recovered. At one point while Kia was sick I gave here a small injected dose of Selenium, that is the only thing I can think of that may have saved her. I plan on getting a bit of loose Selenium and adding it to their minerals. I am told we are not in a Selenium deficient area but I'm thinking a little extra may not hurt.

I don't think Kia is pregnant, and her baby Ava is questionable. That leaves Gardenia and Azalea who may have lambs, that just wouldn't cut it for another whole year of production so I made a big decision to add a second flock.

I added two (hopefully bred) Icelandic ewes from Sunrise Sheep, they specialize in leadersheep.

The black and white badger faced girl is Zoe and the Black and silver girl is Lara.

The purebred Icelandic sheep are about 25-33% bigger than the Cascade sheep and I'm worried about being able to handle them. They sure are beautiful though....

We really had a difficult time getting them into the barn the first night.  The girls were skittish and it took three humans and little Molly (that one is fearless) to put them away.  Since then they have marched right into the barn every night no problem. I hope they are as intelligent as advertised and I am looking forward to having lambs from both flocks this Spring!

This Year....

The spool in the goat pen January 10th this year....

The spool in the goat pen last January. Notice the difference?

The lack of snow this year has me worried about a drought come this Spring, are you worried as well?

Molly the Mutant

Molly is a mutant. She has one brown eye and her other eye is 1/4 brown and 3/4 blue.

She has somehow discovered some non frozen soil to dig up, a true miracle in Northern Minnesota in January.

She is growing faster than wet gremlins who are fed after midnight.

...and she has a mutant EXTRA toe on her back foot! It is very odd, loosely attached to nothing but skin and it even has a sharp claw.

Molly tries desperately to herd the cats, Chai Chai is not impressed. Molly will try to get on Chai or Mocha's back and usually gets a "slap" for her troubles. The goats on the other hand don't usually fight back. The Commander reported to me that he caught Molly actually riding up on Mavericks back! I knew it was true because she smelled like stinky goat buck for the next several days.

Patch does not like the new dog at all..."raspberry sound"!

"I thought the dogs were supposed to play OUTSIDE!"

Nope, the floor is littered with dog toys, gloves, shoes, anything Molly can get her mouth on. Sara is going crazy as she started out jealous and is a compulsive retriever. The extra toys and puppy love have poor Sara wound up tighter than the core of a golf ball. It doesn't help that Molly follows Sara everywhere and emulates her every action.  (Note the huge bag of dog food in the background, food consumption has gone WAY up!)

Patch finds the whole thing a bit amusing but he doesn't have time for their frivolity. As the oldest he has to set the example.

Random Artwork

Better eating a sandwich than one of my chickens!

Making Candy

My daughter got a candy making kit for Christmas and has had a lot of fun with it! I told her she could make a few batches so long as she didn't make a pig of herself.

She loved the whole process of stirring the mixtures and laughed throughout the entire cooking process. I had an odd feeling that she was making funny faces at me while my back was turned.

This one tasted best after it had been refrigerated, especially the pink candy center.

I was surprised how good the homemade candy tasted, it was quickly eaten up. I missed my chance at this delicious morsel by a whisker, I was too slow to the fridge!

The kids hogged most of the candy but the entire creation and cooking process was very enjoyable, a real mother daughter project.

On a side note I purchased a carton of Large eggs during the Christmas cooking season as the hens production had slowed down to a trickle. I had two Large store eggs left over this weekend and decided to use them for breakfast...can you tell which two are home grown and the two that came from the store?

When I was cooking with the store eggs I felt that they were so much smaller than what I was used to that for every recipe that called for two eggs I used three. If these eggs are classified as Large I would hate to see anything smaller!

Love Stinks

I have been keeping a close eye on Addison and it looks like she isn't going to come back into heat, I think she has been properly bred!

Seems Maverick has done his job to perfection! The day he arrived Addy was all over him, wagging her tail and flaunting herself.

The girls don't seem too interested in him anymore, in fact they seem to try and stay up wind from him.

Sometimes Love Stinks!