{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.
{this moment}
It’s Here!
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
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| can’t see how the driver of this cheerfully painted truck could help but smile |
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| goose crossing – absolutely in no hurry to go anywhere |
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| bright… sunny… cheery… perhaps even merry… color inspiration |
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| 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
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
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| helleborus – lenten rose |
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| muscari – hyacinth |
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| the youngest ovis aries |
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| 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!
{this moment}
{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.
Spring Colours Week – Lavender
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| heather lavender spinning batts – wool and mohair |
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| a treasure – passed down from mother-in-law |
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| vinca minor – pinwheels |
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| wooly catkins – logwood purple, naturally-dyed |
Thursday – Poppytalk’s Spring Colours Week showcasing lavender; the pool is over 320 members and there are now more than 1,800 lovely contributions.
Spring Colour Week – Pink
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| crab apple buds and blossoms |
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| crab apple blooming |
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| remembrance… a special time… special memories |
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| peach tree buds |
Check out Poppytalk and Spring Colours Week – well over 1,000 photos in the pool.
Spring Colour Week – Yellow
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| forsythia |
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| ‘home – making’ – mom’s and mom’s-in-law |
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| “… and then my heart with pleasure fills, and dances with the daffodils.” — William Wordsworth |
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| The Buttercup Family from a favorite book “The Flowers’ Festival” by Elsa Beskow |
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| spring means shearing.. shearing means wool tumeric-dyed wool provided by the lovely Prudence |
Day 2 of Poppytalk’s Spring Colour Week – lots more wonderful ‘yellow’ here.
Spring Colours Week – Green
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| The true sign of spring in West Virginia – Allium tricoccum – Ramps |
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| “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” — C. S. Lewis |
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| moss and rock = love |
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| fragile and beautiful – the first spring leaves |
We are joining the folks at Poppytalk for the Flickr Group – Spring Colours Week. You can check out all the beautiful contributions here.