And Then There Was One

Sheeps & Peeps7 Comments
Once upon a time… Sheeps and Peeps Farm was the home to 16 guineas.  They spent their days happily roaming the pastures, eating bugs and noisily chatting away.  Then, one day Mr. Foxey Loxey was seen in the vicinity and mysteriously, one by one, the guineas began to disappear.  Now there is only our dear Erma.

Erma spends her days wandering the pasture looking for bugs…

inspecting farm equipment…

gazing at herself in the ‘mirror’…

communing with the sheep…

and checking inside the barn several times a day to make sure everything is going well.

In a few weeks, Erma will have company because the Peeps are here!  She will be joined in the evenings in the coop in the Granddaddy Green pasture by
**  the colorful, hardy, docile and productive Silver Laced Wyandottes
** the New Hampshire Reds, a pretty, vigorous, cold hardy and very docile breed 
** and the ‘Golden Beauties’, the Buff Orpingtons who have a calm, quiet disposition and heavy, full plumage.
The beautiful and very productive Rhode Island Reds and the White Giants will spend their nights in an enlarged coop by the farmhouse.  So far, all the peeps are doing just great.  We’ll keep you posted.

Peeps!

Sheeps & Peeps6 Comments
Lambing was finished just in time to allow preparation for the arrival of The Peeps.
65 in all…. a mixture of Silver Laced Wyandottes,  New Hampshire Reds, Buff Orpingtons, White Giants, and Rhode Island Reds.
The farmhouse is now filled with the wonderful sounds of ….. Cheep Cheep Cheep!!

Release the Bio-mowers

Sheeps & Peeps3 Comments

So… you’ve been in the peak of lambing season and barely get out of your barn clothes except to go to bed… it’s been raining cats and dogs for weeks and the grass has been growing equally as strong,   What’s a shepherdess to do?  Why, it must be time for the annual Release of the Bio-mowers!

Hestia and her girls know something is going on over there

most of the mamas rush in to take advantage of the new grass

some of the lambs decide to participate

while most decide it’s just a good opportunity for a nap

Happy Mother’s Day!

Sheeps & Peeps4 Comments

Mother’s Garden

I walk in the garden alone
But much of the beauty I see
Was planted there by my mother
Who is in Paradise waiting for me.

She lived in her garden day after day,
It was her greatest delight,
To take a walk at the close of the day
To bid all her flowers good night.

As she slowly walked down the path
She seemed to touch every plant
And I think they really did know
For everything that she planted
Would always flourish and grow.

She loved to have company
She was friend to all, it is true
But before they would leave
She would want to take a walk
thru the garden with you.

Now I walk in the garden alone
View the flowers she planted with care
No, I don’t walk in the garden alone
I feel that she walks with me there.

 — by Lena Gertrude Dixon Wiles, our grandmother

Summing It Up

Sheeps & Peeps6 Comments

Finally… yesterday morning, the last ewe lambed – twins – a ewe and a ram.  There may be one more straggler; she shows little sign of being bred but we had the the ram lamb in with the ewes all winter so chances are she could very well be a very late lamber.  We still have a few ewes and lambs to move out in the field but the majority are out of the barn and enjoying the back paddock. 

We will probably keep the triplets in the barn for awhile longer in one of the bigger pens, just so we can keep an eye on them to make sure Hera is producing enough milk and all three are gaining weight. 

We have two patients in the barn at the moment – poor Ceres, a two-year-old ewe, had to be taken to Kingwood to Doc and have a cesarean.  She was in kind of semi-labor for about 24-hours and it turned out that she had torsion of her uterus.  It was twisted 360 degrees, and that was why she did not fully go into labor.  Her twin lambs were lost, and we are having some trouble getting her to eat.  We try to encourage her with herbs, dandelions, clover, etc.  She received quite the salad last night; it even included some violets. (Many thanks to Joe and Betsy for all their help!)

Our other patient is the yearling Poppy who somehow managed to get a 3-inch gash over and a small puncture wound under her right eye.  We haven’t quite figured out what happened, but she seems to be on the mend.

Of course, now we are looking forward to filling the blog with cute lamb pictures for the next few months.  They each really have a distinct personality, and they are so entertaining.  The back paddock is quite noisy in the mornings and evenings.   We will be watching closely to make sure they are all growing properly.  Sometime in the next couple weeks, we will bring them all back to the barn for CD+T shots, etc.  (If you are interested in statistics, please check the sidebar for some lambing season stats.)

Sunday Muse

Sheeps & Peeps2 Comments

“Here, root yourselves beside me.
I am that Tree planted by the River,
Which will not be moved.
I, the Rock, I, the River, I, the Tree
I am yours — your passages have been paid.
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.

Lift up your eyes
Upon this day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream.”

— excerpted from “The Pulse of the Morning” by Maya Angelou