april showers

a storm is coming - it's grey, cool and winds are gusty.  this may be the last significant rain before summer.  james and i cleaned the sheds this morning before he went to work (hopefully they will dry out by afternoon).  we had some drizzle this morning, and the rain is forecasted to start early this evening.

went to pattie's to pick up 2 quarts of goat milk for james.  she also gave me 3 tiny sweet potato slips, rooted in a jar of water, which i planted in a pot in the garden when i returned home. next weekend, i'll plant the snow pea shoots and get some seeds started.  clover is covering the garden now.  the figs and pomegranates have small fruit on them, as do some of the boxed saplings planted last year.  all of the citrus are flowering, along with the two giant avocados.  the pollen in the air keeps me blowing my nose constantly (didn't know i was allergic to avocado blossoms until we moved here).  fortunately, the bees are back, i've seen them hovering around the hose hook-ups, drinking the drops that fall when the water's on.

stephanie is deteriorating.  she can no longer stand, and one of her legs has a small tremor.  we're still feeding her by syringe and trying to keep her comfortable.  it's hard to watch as whatever is effecting her brain continues to progress.  i wonder if we're doing the right thing by continuing to feed her...i'm torn.  there are times she is alert and times when she seems to fade away.  i wish there was more i could do.

what we thought was a bad foot, has turned out to be a muscular or neurological issue for henrietta.  she can't stand well - settles onto her hocks instead of standing on her feet.  other than that, she seems normal.  she was picked on by the other hens, so we separated her in the pen with ivan and his friends.  dr. martin gave her a steroid shot on saturday, saying that things would improve if she had an inflamed nerve (and wouldn't if it wasn't).   he said it could be a spinal, nerve or muscular issue.  i didn't know that chickens could have spinal problems.

speaking of ivan, i caught him mating for the first time in more than a year.  natasha was his willing victim.  seems she's quite smitten with him.  ivan  has to be carried in and out of the coop and into the pen each morning and evening.  natasha won't leave the coop in the morning until he's carried out to the pen, and follows him as he's carried back inside at night.

the lambs are thriving.  maggie is petite, just alittle bigger than tango at 4 weeks.  she follows him around, trying to get him to chase her.  i love to watch her jump and hop and do the happy lamb dance.  we're thinking about keeping her, even though i've already gotten 3 calls from people looking for babydoll ewes.  danny, who bought 3 of our lambs 2 years ago, emailed to let me know that rachel (sarah's baby) finally had a black ram lamb.  it seem that, like her mom, she had a black dominant gene.