new beginnings

the standing water is gone, with only alittle mud left from last week's storms.   more than 8 inches of rain fell over 5 days.  the side yard was a lake, complete with 3 swimming ducks.  all of the animals were under cover, except for lucky and his two girls, who happily splashed from puddle to puddle all week.

the weekend before the storms, the enoch's came to pick up cain and abel.  they finally finished their shed, and were ready to begin the adventure of sheep ownership.  james helped to load them, which is always a good time.  the family brought some sweet feed for treats, which the lambs nibbled once they were in the truck, and we gave them a container of pink salt with selenium to start them out.  fortunately, their departure wasn't too traumatic to the other sheep.  animals move on more quickly than humans, and are usually doing well after a day or two in a new environment.  the family emailed pictures of the shed and the boys a couple of days later.  their shed has a foundation and french doors (fancy!).  the twins are in good hands.

we have a new furry creature in the house.  james brought home a 3-month-old yorkie puppy from the set of little fockers.  seems no one wanted to take him, though he is impossibly adorable.  his name is banjo and he is the tiniest dog i've ever seen.  he follows tango everywhere and eats 4 times a day.  he's big on stuffed animals and toys that squeak.  tango never really understood the concept of play (he was obviously deprived as a puppy, or reprimanded for playing), so banjo is trying to teach him.  tango's being very patient and remarkably tolerant.  banjo is fascinated by the birds and sheep, who tower over him.  the cats don't seem too intimidated, but they haven't quite figured out exactly what he is (a large gopher?  a squirrel with no tail?).

we'll be on serious lamb-watch starting next week.  every evening and morning, i walk by the pen to make sure there isn't a little one on the ground already.  we'll start separating the boys and girls this weekend.  skittle is really huge (i think she uses pregnancy as an excuse to over indulge).  i sneak her and sarah a couple of apples in the morning before i go to work.  skittle invariably finishes hers before i've driven out the gate, then trots over looking for more.

sowing and reaping

we're having a warm spell in january.  it's been sunny, in the 70's and it feels like spring is in the air (though i know it isn't...yet).  our caretaker, dusty, is out of town for a few days, so i was up early on both saturday and sunday.  washed the perches and went to the feed store on saturday, cleaned the coop and put fresh bedding in the sheep's shed on sunday.  the sheep seem hungrier than usual, probably because the soon-to-be mommas are ravenous.  we've been supplementing them with grain and alfalfa.  sarah has a kind of wild look in her eyes, and always seems to be prancing towards the next snack.  skittle is huge and kind of waddles, vacuuming up anything edible in her path.

pattie's doe, ellie mae, had 2 kids during new year's week.  i visited them on sunday.  jingles is a mostly-white, mostly-nubian buck and belle is a mostly-white, adorable little doe.  fortunately, ellie mae had an easy delivery and pattie didn't have to assist.  she's already burned jingles' horns - also known as "poling" - which is done when nubs just start to emerge to prevent horns from growing.  she's going to use an elastrator to neuter him in a couple of weeks (ouch).  the kids are only nursing from one side, so pattie has to milk ellie on the other side each day.  

over tea and leftover christmas cookies, pattie showed me her 2010 ledgers for the goats and chickens.  she's keeping a record of "dollars in" (egg proceeds) and "dollars out" (feed and supplies) for her chickens, as well as a daily tally of eggs layed.  we chatted about egg prices - i'm thinking of raising ours by a dollar - and she gave me a bag-full of 18-pack cartons that she saved for our bantam eggs.  i left her with a stack of pages from sand hill preservation center's website.  sand hill sells heirloom potato slips, and pattie would like to plant sweet potatoes but was having trouble finding anyone who would ship to california.  she's also keen on planting chayote, partly because the whole plant can be eaten - leaves, tubers and fruit.  i've never tried it.

our neighbor jim stopped by on saturday with a tiny blood orange sapling.  he works with treepeople, distributing fruit trees locally.  apparently he had also brought a tree to pattie (an apricot), along with a few grandkids who were excited to see jingles and belle.  we introduced jim and pattie a couple of years ago, knowing that jim was a big fan of fresh goat's milk, and both were farmers at heart.