April 7, 2010

We've had six lambs born to three ewes so far - 3 boys and 3 girls. Here are some pics my daughter took today.
This little guy was born last Friday. I love the pattern.


These two were born yesterday afternoon, less than 24 hours before this photo was taken. The brown one is standing in the salt. Less than a day old and already an ornery turd.


Here's the brown spotted one again with his sister, eyeing that same salt lick.


Here are those two again with their mom, Annie.

First Lambs

The ewe that I didn't think was pregnant gave birth to twins early
this morning. It's hard to fast when the events in the barn are saying
feast.

Sent from my mobile device

March 30, 2010

Today I lamb-proofed the barn. Wouldn't want a newborn wandering through the bars into Porter's stall and getting squished. Thursday could be the first day of our lambing season. The timing isn't ideal with this being Holy Week but Luther made that decision for us when he went through the fence back in November. The call of nature is stronger than our best-laid plans, I guess.

It's supposed to be in the 60s and 70s and sunny here the rest of this week. Things should dry out nicely. I plan to prune the apple trees but beyond that probably won't get much farm work done. The Sacred Triduum will be our focus.

Anyway, things are growing and greening here. More to come as we get busy on the farm.

March 19, 2010

This is our Ayrshire bull calf, Porter House. He'll be nine months old next week. We just took him completely off milk two weeks ago. It's hard to judge his size by a photo but 1.5 gallons of milk a day up to 8+ months of age really packs on the muscle.

In late June or early July we'll put him in with Sugar for breeding and in October or November we'll put him in our freezer. Because Porter was kept by himself since our other calf went home in November, he's quite rambunctious and has pretty poor manners. I always take a riding crop when I go in the stall or pasture with him so I can slap his nose when he tries to force me around with his head. In the future I hope to always have a group of at least two calves so they can be companions and teach good manners to one another.

If breeding this way with a yearling works well, we'll probably do it every year so we don't have to rely on artificial insemination. We're fortunate to have an organic dairy with Dutch Belted and Ayrshire calves for sale in the spring and summer. My biggest fear about reintroducing Sugar and Porter is that he will try to go back to nursing. He's been separated from her since mid-October but old habits seem to die hard with these dairy calves.

All of our snow is completely gone here and the grass is greening up nicely. I have enough hay on hand to last until mid-April so I may have to buy a bit more.

Lambs could start coming on April 1st. We sheared the ewes last weekend and there are only two that I'm certain are bred with a third being probable. I think our one year-old, Annie, is open and the two (almost) yearlings are also. Thank God for that. I didn't want to deal with yearling mothers.

Anniversary

I just wanted to quickly acknowledge the 4 year anniversary of the Liberty Farm Blog, which began February 9, 2006. This is the 220th post.

February 6, 2010

I stepped out onto the porch to take a couple photos just now and found a few more on the camera that my daughter must have taken after the last time I posted pics on 12/31. See below.

It's pretty much impossible to know how much snow we got on account of the wind. In a few places I can see bare ground and in some places I walked though this morning to do chores it was well above my knees. We had to have gotten at least a foot. The wind is so strong that when I came out of the red barn after milking, the tracks I had made 20 minutes earlier were completely filled in. After my cheese is in the final press I plan to go out and plow/shovel. This is probably fruitless because the wind is supposed to blow 20 mph all day and 15 mph all night. I anticipate being snowed in tomorrow morning but we'll see.

This is me coming home from work the last time we had snow.


Here is the northwest corner of the red barn. The north facing corners of all our buildings are swept free like this with big drifts on either side.


Our house.


Porter House, the bull calf.


Warm & toasty!

February 5, 2010

Whew! I just looked at the clock and realized we were 25 minutes into the Friday night cocktail hour. So here I type, in the beginning stages of a snow storm, martini safely in hand.

The forecast here is for 6-10 inches of snow with areas near a line from Mt. Gilead to Canton receiving a foot. If you draw a line on map from Mt. Gilead to Canton it would go very near my house. We're comfortable with the woodstove burning and the stock are all bedded down dry with plenty of hay. Jennifer went out today and rented Zombieland and from our local redbox so we've got entertainment, too.

I'm currently reading The School On Heart's Content Road by Carolyn Chute and highly recommend it. Having read all of Chute's previous books, though, I just know it's going to end badly. Not badly as in poor writing but badly as in no good for the characters. She's nothing if not a realist.