Almost Done!

With kidding and lambing I mean. Our last dairy doe produced triplets and we have two ewes to go. Lots of lambs were born this last week. Now comes the hard part. Deciding who can stay and who goes on the sales list. At this point I want to keep them all! We have had quite a few badger patterned lambs this year and so today I ordered small tags for their ears. I don't want to put the large scrapie tags in just yet and so many look alike I don't want to loose track of who belongs to who!

I have cut my dairy herd a bit or thought I had until the little black doe above was born. She is staying. I have only opted to keep one other doe this year but since I kept 4 last year that is not saying much! Most of the kids have been sold already and many will be leaving over the weekend. That means next week we will be having lots of extra milk.

Soggy Sheep and Shearing Day

It rained all night. I lay awake all night stewing over the fact that our shearers were to arrive at noon. Not sleeping did not make my sheep dry this morning. As expected they were soaking wet. After calling the sheep up to check, I sent them back out in the pasture hoping the wind and soon to appear sunshine would dry them. Thankfully our shearers agreed to be on call.
In the meantime I baked and delivered bread and arrived home to open the gates for our intern who was to arrive soon after. With her help we fed all the dairy kids. Next on the list was cleaning the barn hall in case the shearers were able to get here. Our final barn chore was to comb the cashmeres, trim hooves and worm. By this time the sheep were dry and I called the shearers. They would arrive around three.
That finished, we had a quick bite of lunch and started on the garden. She weeded the strawberries while I picked our cheese coop order. Once back we worked in the garden until the shearers arrived. She headed home and I headed to the barn.
Unfortunately shearing was not as smooth as I had hope and one of our girls got a pretty nasty gash. She was being a very hard to handle and the shearer could not get his blades turned off. It scared me half to death and I really was afraid she might bleed to death! We finally got the bleeding stopped after about 30 minutes.  They finished up with the others and we finished her standing up. We cleaned the wound, packed it with antibiotic ointment and started her on penicillin. Four hours later we were done. We cleaned up and evening chores were finished. By this time it was almost dark. We were mentally and physically exhausted and called it a day!

Musical Pastures

This time of year pasture space is a bit limited since our front 5 acre field is blocked off for hay. I spend a lot of time moving the sheep and goats around. Today was another huge undertaking because our shearer is due Friday and all the sheep need to be close to the big barn with lots of lights. Most will follow for grain as I lead them down the drive but then there are always the naughties that no matter what, will test a saint's patience. Today was no different and after the first two trips all were relocated except for 3 wild cashmere kids and 5 Icelandic lambs. Even with 3 of us it took quite a bit of time and lots of chasing! Finally all were caught and CARRIED to the barn. Once there, they all had to be divided again. Sheep in large pasture, cashmere's in smaller pasture, young dairy does back to upper pasture and milking girls in the side pasture. Now all that was left was to round up the guardian dogs that had happily escaped. They can be more frustrating than the sheep!
Finally everyone was situated for the time being and hopefully the next big move will be when we open the hay field again.

Other things on our to do list were checking the bees. We were shocked at the new hive. They have already filled a honey super and will need another one this week. Tomorrow I will be off to get more supplies. Fingers crossed we get some honey this year!!

We call them our "Buns and Roses" hive ;o))

I am still moving plants from the kitchen garden and got a bit more moved today. Only two large clumps of rudbeckia left and then I will fill back in with top soil.
At the end of the day we collapsed filthy and tired but thankful. Our meal tonight was BBQ brisket, deviled eggs and salad all from the farm along with homemade mac and cheese.

Revamping the Herb Garden

Our intern arrived today and together we went to work on the herb bed. It has been an herb/perennial bed combo for the last few years but I want to make it a true kitchen garden. After weeding and cleaning the winter trash from the beds we dug most of the flowers out. (I still have a few to go).Those will be relocated to other beds and the natural areas I am working on. I left the echinacea and comfrey and plan to add a few additional medicinal herbs.

After the beds were cleared we started adding the new plants.
Several cherry type tomatoes went in. All different colors including a "Green Grape" and "Brown Berry".( I can already picture a colorful fresh tomato salad with basil and goat cheese!) A lovely carnival cayenne pepper that produces different colors on one plant went in as well. We also planted a row of "Tango" celery and a variety of lettuces.
In addition to the vegetables planted, many new herb plants were added including a spicy oregano. More of the old standards like parsley and thyme were planted along with a mint that went into a pot, lest it run amuck and take over. Still to go in are spring onions and the malabar spinach that will be transplanted when as it comes up in the bed from last year's seeds. It is not quite finished but well on its way to becoming a fun and somewhat funky little garden!

Once finished, we enjoyed a lunch of lentil soup and fresh goat cheese. We then made our way to the greenhouse where she picked out several plants to create a patio garden at home. Once again, with her help a lot was accomplished!

I Need A Rainy Day

The weekend promised 2 days of clouds and showers. It didn't happen here. Others things that did not "happen" were laundry, running the vacuum cleaner or soap making. The dishes didn't  get washed on a regular basis and my family begged to eat earlier than 8 p.m.
Instead I mucked the barn, weeded the strawberries, cleaned out flower beds and made lamb checks.
Today I promised to catch up in the house....but the sun came up. And it was warm. And the birds were singing and the grass needed mowing. And the laundry is still not done...
However, pots are filled with bright flowers and new flower beds have been created!

I also harvested our first  few asparagus of the season.

And best of all we are finally able to cheat the babies out of some milk... 2 gallons today. I brought it in the house, strained and added the culture right then. Cheese tomorrow!

p.s. Supper was ready at 7:40!

Lots of Lambs!

The Icelandic sheep have surprised me with lots of lambs. I really expected lambing to be later. Lots of beautiful colors and patterns this year and finally we are about 50/50 on ewes and rams. Yeah!!

A Strange Garden

We are having a strange spring and it is in turn creating a strange garden. It feels as though as we have skipped spring altogether and gone straight to summer. It has been downright hot for the last two weeks.This time of year I should be planting cool weather crops and have put a few in. They are struggling in the heat. I plan to put a few more in but will also put in several of our hot weather crops. The plants in the greenhouse are growing by leaps and bounds and need to go in now.
So today I planted cabbage and broccoli along with tomatoes and green beans! A few celery plants went in along with some radishes. I had hoped to plant more but storms were brewing and thunder rolled in the distance. I opted to hold off on a lot of the plants just in case we have some hail tonight. This will be the year of the mish-mosh garden!