Tag Archives: Pets

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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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Where Oh Where Has My Little Blog Gone…

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Spring was supposed to have sprung, and we have indeed gotten blooms all over, but we are also expecting up to two inches of snow by the end of the weekend.  So today was cold and overcast and that made conditions ripe for two things: napping and cooking.

Maddie and Gulliver are frequently snuggled up together.

Have you met Gulliver?

He’s not reeeaally our dog, but….

He actually belongs to Susie.  Susie left him with us awhile back when she was away for a long week of meetings with yarn company designers and whatnot.  Then there were various people staying at the farm for a few days here and there and Gulliver is not actually the kind of dog that does well with lots of different people.  SO…..since he seems to like us so much, he has stayed.  And since there are a lot of farm stay guests still in and out and April promises to be very busy (lambing starts!!)…..you get the idea.

Plus Paul is in very much taken with the little guy.

The point is, Gulliver likes napping.  That makes him very popular with us.  Especially on a lazy, cold late – winter / not-quite-spring day.

But it wasn’t ALL napping.

Maddie made Chocolate Irish Cream Cookies and I made some Ham and Cheese Pretzel Bites.

Both were a smashing success.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to figure out how to work off the bajillion calories I stuffed myself with today.

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Jerry & The Goats Go on Holiday

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Remember I mentioned not too long ago that I was getting the animals ready for new pasture?  Today we loaded them up and brought them to it.

Jerry steadfastly refused to get into the trailer until I brought in a pan of his favorite forbidden treat – chicken food.

It took longer to get them loaded than it did to move them to their new stomping ground.  Which, by the way, you might recognize.

Running to their new pasture.

Some new friends joining in.

Do you know where they are now?  That picture was a dead giveaway.

Any ideas?

Here’s one more hint.  One of their new friends:

They will be in this new paradise while us humans figure out our living arrangements.  The chickens are all still in our backyard.  Jerry and the goats get to romp in a huge pasture with all the fresh grass and hay they can eat until we find our own huge pasture for them.

So……where are they?

(I would totally do a giveaway for this but it is just WAY too easy!)


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And Then There Were Even More….

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Because we really really needed more poultry.

The thing is, no one tells you how addictive poultry is.  Or that poultry is the “gateway” livestock.  You get a hen or two, thinking  fresh eggs, how quaint.

Then you realize how funny and cool chickens are and you think how neat it might be to have one of those rare breeds that looks pretty out in your yard.

Before you know it, you’re poring over poultry catalogs, checking out the amazing varieties of plumage and egg colors, checking to see what breeds will hatch their own eggs and who the best layers are.

Then you think maybe you can sneak a guinea fowl or two in there because why not?  You already have chickens, it’s not so much of a stretch!  Besides, they eat ticks and chase away strangers!

But WAIT!

Have you SEEN those adorable ducklings at Tractor Supply?

Heck, if I am going this far, why not go all out and get some goats!  And a llama!  And……well, you get the picture.

We brought home two new ducklings – they’re Pekin/Runner crosses, and they are being called “Fanny” and “LeQuack”.  We have no idea what genders they are.

Also we have two small chicks of unknown breed/gender.  It’s a risk, but they were too cute!

One is a tiny yellow puffball with black spots, and the other is a dark brown with some orange. We were told it’s an Ameraucana but I just noticed it has feathers on it’s legs, so I am not so sure!

Finally there’s two of these Mottled Houdan girls. I am in love with the feather hat!  One is for Susie.  Our friend Jenny named her “Liberace”.  The one we are keeping has been named “Delia”.

Soon Paul’s going to have to talk me out of geese and turkeys!

 

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Nashville Puppy Whirlwind

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On Thursday I left the chaos of the household behind to drive 10 hours to Nashville with Susie and Jenny and two giant puppies.

The puppies were from the pairing of two of Susie’s Livestock Guard Dogs and were born this past December.  At ten weeks old, these two are HUGE.

Because they are a fairly rare breed (Maremma) there is no shortage of farms looking for them.  Susie’s friend Cindy in Texas was thrilled to take in both puppies, and proposed meeting us halfway between here and her farm.  That turned out to be Nashville.

Our bestest friend Jenny came along to help with puppy transport and we were off to Music City!

It’s a ten hour drive from here to Nashville but those sweet little pups gave us no trouble.

We met Cindy at the hotel along with friends Mary and Karen and the pups were handed over.  I think they were a little shocked at just how big these 10 week old “babies” are.

The next morning we had an excellent recommendation from the hotel staff for a great breakfast spot – The Pancake Pantry. We ate the best pancakes of our lives, and trust me, we know from pancakes.

After we ate we decided to check out some of the little shops nearby before heading back to the hotel.  We wandered into A Thousand Faces, a cute little shop right next door.  None of us had been to Nashville before, and this was shaping up to be an incredible trip.

They certainly did not fail to deliver a plethora of neat stuff!

From there the day got better and better.  At one point we found a small pub and had coffee and tea and the waiter refused to allow us to pay.  This was after we’d spent almost two hours in another shop talking to the owners about all manner of things.

The people in Nashville have to be some of the friendliest people anywhere.  I don’t know why this surprised me so much, but I can tell you it is true.

I think perhaps our favorite part of our entire stay, however, may have been breakfast the next morning, before we left to head home.  Some of the locals had told us to check out The Pfunky Griddle.  Nashvillians know how to eat!  This great little restaurant has griddles in the center of every table, and when you order what you want it is brought to your table in raw form so that you can cook it yourself. Sounds crazy, no?  But, we ordered omelets and french toast and it was AMAZING.

(Um, this pic was taken with my ipod, but you get the idea!)

We cracked our own eggs and added our own toppings and griddled it up!

We were all three very sorry to leave Music City.  I promise we’ll be back.  My only regret is not taking more pictures.  Susan had some really great ones – check out her blog post about our trip!

This Weekend in Pictures – Nashville Edition

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Hoof Trimming Day

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Emily is our guest photographer today for an exciting round of de-worming and hoof trimming!

Okay, maybe not so much.

The only excitement is the hilarity Emily finds in the difficulty I have wrestling the goats onto their backs.  They. Don’t. Like. It.  They fight it very, very hard.  At one point I was fully sitting on Finn’s butt, trying to get him onto the ground, but he wouldn’t give in.  Thank goodness he’s relatively light, because I finally had to pick him up and set him down.

Anyhow, de-worming and hoof trimming are things that get done fairly regularly with livestock like these.  Goats naturally carry a parasite – load in their guts that does them no harm.  Only when it builds up to an overload does it become a problem.  For this reason, goat – keepers worm fairly often.

I tend to not de-worm on a rigid schedule; I don’t have a huge number of animals and I’d rather the parasites not build up a resistance to the meds.  Since I have so few and I am around them so often I can keep a good eye on them and judge their “load” size by the colors of their gums or the insides of their eyelids.  If these are a nice, dark pink I don’t worm them.  If they get to be a pale pink, or worse, greyish color, this could mean they are becoming anemic from an overload of parasite.

Today I gave them meds for two reasons. One, it’s been a couple of months and I figure with the warm weather returning it was a good time; and two – I am going to move them into a new pasture soon.  (More news on that to come).

Once meds were given we got to work on hooves.

Hooves get trimmed whenever they start looking too long, or when you worm if you’re doing that on a regular schedule.  If you let them grow they’ll cause foot problems for your animals, so they’re super important to maintain.

Fortunately goat hooves are very easy to trim.  They do tend to get full of dirt and poo and nastiness.

Frodo decided to chew on my boot while I was working on his brother.

Jerry was humming and concerned for his boys.

Milkshakes only let me do her front hooves today.  I didn’t feel like wrestling her back down, so I’ll get the back ones later.

Otherwise, we’re all spiffied up and good to go!