April 2011 – Page 2 – Sheeps and Peeps Farm

Ramp Feed

April 16, 2011July 6, 2017 Sheeps & Peeps5 Comments

Ramp season is in full swing here in the Mountain State, and that means that families up every hill and holler are fixin up a mess of ramps, the somewhat official spring tonic of West Virginia. Everyone has their favorite ramp recipes but sometimes simple is best. My husband’s favorite way to eat ramps was raw on a peanut butter sandwich. For dinner this evening I had raw ramps with hummus, goat cheese and pita chips. Many people pickle ramps, dry ramps; we add them to potato salad, baked beans, just about any way you would use onions, leeks or garlic. Some people say they are an acquired taste, but we sure enjoy them.

Ramp feeds are being held at just about every church, fire hall and community building. One of the largest, the Feast of the Ransom in Richwood is being held today, but our favorite is the annual ramp dinner being held tomorrow beginning at noon at the Aurora Fire Hall. Ham, beans, fried potatoes with and without ramps, raw ramps, ramp salad, stewed ramps, corn bread, ramp muffins, desserts and beverages are on the menu. So if you are in the area, come on out Sunday and support the Volunteer Fire Department. If you are not, check out G and N Ramp Farm where you can order ramps, ramp seeds, ramp bulbs and Glen’s great book “Having Your Ramps and Eating Them Too”.

{this moment}

April 15, 2011July 6, 2017 Sheeps & Peeps6 Comments

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo – no words – capturing a single moment from the week.
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.

It’s Here!

April 14, 2011July 6, 2017 Sheeps & Peeps7 Comments

Well, according to that ticker up there at the top of the blog – IT’S HERE! Lambing season officially begins, and after watching that ticker move ever so slowly over the past month, it honestly feels as if there should be some kind of bells and whistles or maybe even fireworks! Barn and field checks are now more frequent, and the first things that are noticed are the bulging bellies and swelling udders. Yes, lambing time is here. Don’t be too disappointed if the lambs do not begin hitting the ground immediately. Sometimes it takes our girls a few days to get into the swing of things.

Following our post mentioning the addition of raw apple cider vinegar to the watering trough, Dori had some questions which we will attempt to answer here. We usually add a 32 oz bottle to the 50 gallon watering trough which we fill to about the 3/4 mark or about an ounce or so to a 5 gallon bucket. We try to use unpasturized, unfiltered vinegar such as this, but sometimes have a hard time finding it. We use it to promote general health, to combat heat stress, and we also use it as a drench to combat diarreah. We rarely use it during the winter unless someone looks like they need a little ‘pick-me-up’.
There are many different resources that promote the use of vinegar:
Laurie Ball-Gisch wrote an excellent article on heat stress for ‘sheep!’ magazine. She also shares her ‘vinegar miracle’ on her wonderful website, Lavender Fleece, and has a lot of information about her experiences with vinegar including a study done in New Zealand. Pectin and enzymes are among the things mentioned as the reason that raw ACV seems to help many different conditions.
More information can be found in “Natural Sheep Care” by Pat Coleby. I think it is also mentioned in “The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable” by Juliete de Bairacli Levi but I cannot put my hands on either of the two copies we have, at the moment.
(Please remember, that this something that works for us, but may not work in your particular situation.)

Out and About

April 12, 2011July 6, 2017 Sheeps & Peeps3 Comments

can’t see how the driver of this cheerfully painted truck could help but smile

goose crossing – absolutely in no hurry to go anywhere

bright… sunny… cheery… perhaps even merry… color inspiration

beauty beyond the trees at Crimson Shamrock Ranch

When you get out and about on a pretty spring morning, you never know what kind of inspiration you might find… beyond the lovely spring flowers, there is charm and grace in the simplest things… things that make you smile.

Spring Sun

April 11, 2011July 6, 2017 Sheeps & Peeps6 Comments

What a difference a day makes, especially in the spring. Saturday was a little overcast, chilly and a little soggy from all the rain last week. But, Sunday was a glorious spring day… warm, sunny and breezy. The daffodils perked up and so did the farm family.

It was perhaps a little too warm for the soon-to-be mama ewes. We added some raw apple cider vinegar to their water trough to help with the heat stress. It was kind of tough for them to get comfortable. They sought shade and many retreated to the coolness of the barn. Despite the ewes’ predicament, we were all very grateful for the warm sun drying out the mud and muck.

Spring Colours Week – White

April 8, 2011July 6, 2017 Sheeps & Peeps4 Comments

helleborus – lenten rose

muscari – hyacinth

the youngest ovis aries

Poppy – a favorite lamb picture from last spring

Day 5 of Spring Colours Week over at Poppytalk, and the colour is white. It should come as no surprise that it was very difficult not to fill this space with pictures of lambs. Just a few days until our lambing season begins in earnest, and then the blog will indeed be filled with lambing… lambs, lambs and more lambs. The excitement is building on the farm! In the meantime, please take a look at all the lovely pictures in the Flickr pool. Many thanks to Poppytalk, Spring Colours Week has been challenging but fun!