Spring is evident everywhere! The two Shetland Sheep ewes lambed in the last two weeks producing four little girls. I hit the jackpot!!! The lambs are half Shetland and half Rambouillet, a type of sheep known for its luxurious fleece that is so soft that you can make underwear from it. They are large sheep so the cross with the much smaller Shetlands will help with size and I hope to retain the wool quality. The girls are just darling and I am bottle raising them. Their moms, as are all Shetland Sheep, are genetically quite feral and I don't want to perpetuate that wild, flighty nature. By bottle raising them, I will make them the tame sheep I need around my farm.
We have had such frequent rains that my garden is still unturned for this year. I have replanted the raised beds that I had started last fall with tomatoes, peppers, onions, and such but there is so much yet to plant. The forecast calls for a good chance of showers every few days for the next ten days so it will be a really late garden this year. In response I am going to plant some things in pots to be transplanted to the garden. This works for cucumbers, squash, and such but won't get my corn started. Gee, I long for a delicious ear of fresh corn!
April, my angus calf that I adopted after her mother rejected her, is growing like a weed. She takes a bottle from me and then nurses two of my goats so she is very well fed. She has come to follow the goats out to the pasture for the day and enjoys life in the outside world beyond the barnyard. The two goats are on the end of their milk production and one is actually due to kid at the end of May or early June. She is a dairy goat bred to a Cashmere-producing buck so I hope to have both good milk and fiber production. Because it will have a use beyond dairy, buck kids are okay in this cross as long as they produce fiber. They will be neutered and join the weed eating bunch.
Then there are the hens! They are really going at it with the egg production. It was so sparce all winter but now it is nearly 100%. They are such good eggs and I love to use then in everything. However, they are so much fresher than the store-bought ones that I can not make anything that requires boiled eggs. They simply are so fresh that they won't peel. About half of the white remains stuck to the peel. I have searched online and tried all of the suggestions to no avail. I have even put aside a dozen and let the "age" for two weeks and they still were too fresh to peel. Sure makes me wonder how old the eggs are that we get at the store.
Spring is truly wonderful on the farm but all the growth is working me to death. There is always something to mow, cut, weed-eat, or trim. Speaking of which, got to run and get the lawn mowed since they are calling for showers yet again tomorrow.
We have had such frequent rains that my garden is still unturned for this year. I have replanted the raised beds that I had started last fall with tomatoes, peppers, onions, and such but there is so much yet to plant. The forecast calls for a good chance of showers every few days for the next ten days so it will be a really late garden this year. In response I am going to plant some things in pots to be transplanted to the garden. This works for cucumbers, squash, and such but won't get my corn started. Gee, I long for a delicious ear of fresh corn!
April, my angus calf that I adopted after her mother rejected her, is growing like a weed. She takes a bottle from me and then nurses two of my goats so she is very well fed. She has come to follow the goats out to the pasture for the day and enjoys life in the outside world beyond the barnyard. The two goats are on the end of their milk production and one is actually due to kid at the end of May or early June. She is a dairy goat bred to a Cashmere-producing buck so I hope to have both good milk and fiber production. Because it will have a use beyond dairy, buck kids are okay in this cross as long as they produce fiber. They will be neutered and join the weed eating bunch.
Then there are the hens! They are really going at it with the egg production. It was so sparce all winter but now it is nearly 100%. They are such good eggs and I love to use then in everything. However, they are so much fresher than the store-bought ones that I can not make anything that requires boiled eggs. They simply are so fresh that they won't peel. About half of the white remains stuck to the peel. I have searched online and tried all of the suggestions to no avail. I have even put aside a dozen and let the "age" for two weeks and they still were too fresh to peel. Sure makes me wonder how old the eggs are that we get at the store.
Spring is truly wonderful on the farm but all the growth is working me to death. There is always something to mow, cut, weed-eat, or trim. Speaking of which, got to run and get the lawn mowed since they are calling for showers yet again tomorrow.
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