Tag Archives: Farm

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Waiting for Lambs

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I’ve been at Juniper Moon Farm for two days helping out and waiting for lambs. I’ve been lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time with Caroline, the new farm manager and bond with her over sleepless nights and shared trials.

I’m on next – to no sleep but I wanted to share with you some of the pictures I’ve gotten.

Angora Goats

Hannah and her babies, and Mrs. Doubtfire

Jekyll and Piper (sheep)

Piper with some of the expectant ewes

Angora Goat bucklings

Dakota, in labor

Caroline and Sabine

Dakota and her new ram-ling

Dakota and her new twins, back in the barn

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Honey Bee Cake

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A certain wonderful friend of mine recently gave me a new Honey Bee cake pan and a mix to go with.

I salivated over it for about a day and a half and couldn’t take the temptation anymore.

Into the oven it went.

And then into my belly.

Is that gorgeous, or what?  It’s a pull – apart cake.  But it was almost too beautiful to eat.

Almost.

Check out the detail.

What’s that?  The taste, you ask?

Well, let me tell you.  There’s honey in the mix AND the glaze.

And we made pigs of ourselves.

If you haven’t been keeping an eye on the Lambcams over at Juniper Moon Farm, be sure to check them out Thursday evening – I am taking on night duty with the always adorable and hard – working Caroline while Susan gets some much – needed rest.  If we have any lambs born,  we’ll be sure you get to see them!

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A Busy Spring

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Is spring always this busy?  I think it’s usually fairly busy, but this year has been the one to take the cake.

One reason is the new chicks and ducklings we brought home.  They are growing fast and beginning to feather out already!

Another reason is I’ve been happily helping out over at Juniper Moon.

But the big reason I am all tired and stressed out?

School.

In one way, I am really in love with home-schooling and how much flexibility we have.  I love that we had none of the illnesses that swept through the rest of the community this year.  That meant we were far more productive with other things.

I love that my older girls have learned how to knit and are learning cooking and baking.  I love that all of them have been participating in the many aspects of farming and animal husbandry.

I love that I have better control over what they eat, what they learn about, and who they learn it from.

What I don’t love?

My own insecurities and doubts. Those days that I don’t accomplish what I’d like.  That we’ve fallen behind my planned- out schedule in some subjects.  This was partly the plan; I didn’t want to plow through the lessons if they hadn’t fully learned them first. But it does make for very slow going at times.  And as we approach summer, it makes me panic.  I want a summer vacation!

And I constantly worry about how well I am doing with them.  I worry about how much they will or will not retain.  I want them to be smarter and more advanced than the public school kids, not less so.

On the flip side, I am at least sticking to a curriculum I really believe in.  I admire parents that are able to successfully manage an Unschooling Program, but honestly I think something like that with no set structure or goalposts would make me a basket case.  I like knowing that even if we’ve had a really lazy day we’ve accomplished something.

Even if that something is just a visit with Jerry for llama kisses, or a quick snorgle with a newborn lamb.

My kids can certainly tell you all about the circle of life!

Speaking of!

I have night duty at Juniper Moon tonight.  Susie has not slept a decent night all week and she has to pick up and drop off some fiber to designers out of town.  Her lovely new farm manager Caroline and I will hold down the fort (and maybe meet some new babies??) tonight.

If you’d like to tune in, you can check out the lambcams.  Camera one is in the barn with the babies who have already come.  You can find it here.

You can also check out the second cam here, which looks into the pasture.  Cam three looks into stall 2 in the barn.  Last night I watched a laboring nanny goat on cam 3 and then saw the new babies being brought into the barn at 2:30 am.  Check us out tonight, you may catch something fun!

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What’s Up, Buttercup?

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I know I’ve been negligent of late.  I haven’t been darkening the door of this particular blog nearly as often as I should.  It’s not for lack of exciting stuff happening, I can tell you that!

Lately, this guy:

has been working on upgrading Susie’s Lambcam.  The lambcam consisted of one average workaday camera that had to be moved around depending on where the action was, and a not so fantastic picture quality.  Honestly, I thought it was fantastic and wonderful because it allowed the world to click on Susie’s webpage and see a live picture of lambs and kids!  But as this is the sort of thing Paul does for a living, he just kept looking at it and muttering that one day he’d make sure she got a “real” system.

And his threat promise has come to fruition.  For the past few weeks he’s been working hard at it.  This has made it even easier for me to worm my way into daily farm life at Juniper Moon Farm.  I’ve taken it upon myself to be a kind of unasked – for volunteer.  Plus I need to visit these guys:

They’re lays happy to seeme.  Especially if I bring food.

And trust me, I LOVE feeding time.

It’s when I get to pet the sheep.  Normally they’re rather aloof.  But when there’s grain involved, oh boy!

All this volunteering to help out has been fun for me, and hopefully, helpful to Susie.  Yesterday started out seeming like a perfect mix of that.

She decided that since our local feed stores are perpetually out of sheep feed (and nearly anything else we ever need – ask me how I know) she would make a trip up to Northern Virginia where there was a confirmed presence of feed plus the other supplies she’d be needing once the sheep and goats started having their babies.

Of course I volunteered to check on everyone in the morning (she left super duper early – or, as Paul calls it, “Oh – dark hundred) when Paul stopped over to do lambcam work. Even mom was game to come along and see how large the pregnant ewes had gotten.

Imagine my surprise when we discovered a little lamb in the pasture, surrounded by the guard dogs.   Lambing wasn’t supposed to start yet!  We rushed that baby into the barn and under the heat lamp and set out to look for the new mama.  We herded (mom said “accused”) two possible mamas into the barn before spotting another ewe far down by the fence line standing over a small white blob.  A second baby!

Poor Susie got the shocking news over the phone, over 2 hours away. And then had to race home at superhuman speed.

Both lambs are doing wonderfully and mom and I got to feel like actual shepherds for the day.  I’m glad for the experience because I will have my own sheep as soon as humanly possible.

Just look at that little face.