Schoonover Farm blog

Saying goodbye to dogs

2009-11-07T15:03:00.000-08:00

So I had to say goodbye to Josie today. She was our Lab-Ridgeback dog that we had since she was a puppy three years ago. She is a really good dog- very active and friendly. But she dug a lot and dug a hole under our pasture gate, allowing two goats to escape, one of which was killed. So we could not keep her here. We found a nice home on acreage with three children to play with. They do not care about digging and do not have livestock. So it is a really good fit, but I am still crying. I am not used to giving away animals that I am so attached to, even if it is for the best.

We had already found a home for our Rottweiler Queenie who was also involved in the attack. We found a Navy home for her with older children and no other animals. So we found a good home for her too.

New pack llamas

2009-11-01T17:24:00.000-08:00

So we purchased three pack llamas today. We have had guard llamas but have been looking for packing animals to help us with hiking and hunting. We found these wonderful animals that had been used for packing for years. They are quite well behaved and beautiful. Here's Chance:

Here's Oreo:
And here's Walker:
We also got pack gear in the deal. Here are some of the panniers and pads:
And here's a couple of the 5 packs:
So we are set. All we need now is a trailer and a trail!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T06:20:00.000-07:00

< 1 second of fame

2009-10-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

So I made it in the New York Times today. No, it is not for a scientific breakthrough, a humanitarian effort, nor environmental preservation. No, my contribution to the world is playing a computer game. Here's the link:

To Harvest Squash, Click Here

Here's my paragraph in the article:

“I was having all these deaths on the farm and hurting myself on a daily basis doing real farming,” said Donna Schoonover, of Schoonover Farm in Skagit County, Wash., who raises sheep, goats and Satin Angora rabbits (real ones!). “This was a way to remind myself of the mythology of farming, and why I started farming in the first place.”

So "all these deaths" refers to when I mowed the pheasant nest and Fern was killed by the dogs, both in September. "Hurting myself" referred to the injury updates while we were building the hay loft. I did mention that "We raise livestock: Shetland sheep, Nigerian Dwarf goats, Dexter-Highland cows and Satin Angora rabbits. We also have donkeys, llamas, and poultry (turkey, chicken, geese, ducks, pheasants, peafowl). And we have an orchard and make hard apple cider. And we have a large vegetable garden. " So that was edited- not sure why only Satin Angora rabbits were specified though.

Anyway, I will now bask in the glory of my fame and then go out to the barn in the rain/mud and trim goat hooves.

Pumpkin food

2009-10-26T20:15:00.001-07:00

This is food I cooked today from a pumpkin that I won as a door prize at our Northwest Shetland meeting on Saturday. This is an Amish pumpkin that John grows with the help of sheep pellets. His pumpkins are awesome so I was so please to get one as a prize. So today I made pumpkin soup. pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bars and pumpkin bread, all from this one pumpkin. Most of this will be frozen as we cannot eat this much pumpkin food all at once!

6 carboys of cider- a new Schoonover Farm record!

2009-10-25T18:39:00.000-07:00

So we finished pressing apples and crabapples today and set up 3 more 5-gallon carboys. We almost had a "fermentation emergency" because we ran out of yeast nutrient Friday, were busy Saturday, and our local brewing supplies are all closed Sunday and Monday. But my stepfather and mom came through and purchased yeast nutrient for us yesterday and we are set! So now we just get to watch and watch for the yeasties to do their job.

Back in the Saddle Again!

2009-10-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

So this Aerosmith song has been playing in my head all day. That is because I am finally feeling like myself again. After almost 2 weeks of misery and inactivity from the "swine flu" I can actually start functioning again!

So we pressed apples for cider. This is my apple washing station:

Now I know you are wondering why a kitchen apple washing station when we usually hose the apples down in buckets in the backyard. The next photo explains why:
It was a torrent of rain today. And with all of our projects and illnesses we have not cleaned out the gutters yet. We will soon! Here's Tom pressing the cider on the back porch:
And here's three 5-gallon carboys of cider fermenting. Sunday we will press the rest of our apples and crabapples. We are hoping for another 3 carboys full. There's also 2 1-gallon carboys of plum wine fermenting. It looks kind of like strawberry Koolaid but hopefully will taste better!

"Swine Flu"

2009-10-15T11:27:00.001-07:00

I am sick with novel H1N1 influenza virus. I will resume posting when farm projects can resume again.

Finished hay loft and other chores

2009-10-12T17:39:00.001-07:00

Without any fanfare, we finally finished the hay loft! Tom put up the last of the metal on Saturday while I was at work. We need to replace half of the barn's original walls next, but we are going to wait and recuperate a bit first. We do not think these walls are in eminent danger of collapsing.

So now back to our regular scheduled programming.

I finally got a chance to can pears this morning. A stump when we bought the place thanks to a beaver is now producing lots of gorgeous large pears. Most of them have ripened so I canned them today before they became overripe.
And then this afternoon I finally cleaned out one of the barn pens. This is usually a summer chore but was delayed because of barn construction. I managed to clean out this deep pen all by myself and overfill the manure spreader. Two more pens to go (one of which can be done with a tractor).
Meanwhile Tom went and got farm supplies and then worked on very overdue fence repairs. Next on the agenda is cider pressing!

And no more injury updates needed as construction season is over!!!!

Barn progress

2009-10-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

Tom and I (actually mostly Tom) are making great progress on the hay loft. Here's the south wall that Tom and his kid finished with a largish door for hay.

Here's the west wall that I framed and put windows in.
Here it is after Tom put the metal on.
And here's the north wall that Tom framed in a placed a window and a door. We just need to put the metal up yet.
So we are almost done with the hay loft!!! It just needs some trim and flashing. The downstairs needs quite a bit of wall replacement and some pole replacement done. But we are probably going to take a little break before we tackle that.

This is just a cute photo of our barn cat Missy hanging out on the manure spreader.
INJURY UPDATE: Both of us have unexplained bruises. My biggest issue now is that my right elbow is quite inflamed; I am guessing this is from all the hammering. It is now to the point that I cannot hold up a full cup of coffee. So we are going to take a week off from the barn and heal.

Gwynneth

2009-10-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday our oldest sheep died. She was Primolana Gwynneth, and she was 13.5 years old. She was looking pretty skinny but was eating well. The day prior she could not walk well, and she died in the night. I am hoping she did not suffer and knew she would not make it through the winter.

She was a great ewe. I did not get her until she was 7 years old but bought her from Kim Kerley because she was thought to carry spots. And she most certainly did. As she was older, her fleece was never great, and she certainly was not friendly, but she and Lewis made the most beautiful lambs for us. I hope she enjoyed her life here and her retirement.

Farmville addiction

2009-09-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

So I have to confess that I have become addicted to Farmville. Tom really does not get it (and I am not sure I do either). But I think it's because to me Farmville represents the idyllic, mythical aspects of farming without the dirt, work, tragedy and odors. So it is a nice break for me from the hard work and emotions I have been dealing with lately. The side benefit I have found is that I get to play with people from all over the world. There's 1,000,000 players so I guess I am not the only one who likes this kind of escape. Check it out at Farmville

Winterizing the herds

2009-09-26T07:32:00.000-07:00

So we stopped working on the barn for a long day to winterizing- the critters that is. The first step is shearing the animals that need it before the cold temperatures hit. There's 5 sheep that need shearing twice per year: our double-coated mioget sheep (before and after)and our Finn-Gotland sheep.

Then there are our fiber goats that need twice per year shearing: our Angora goats

and our Cashmere (before and after).

Then all of the sheep need crutched,

all the sheep, goats and cows need Nasalgen vaccine,
all the sheep and goats need their hooves trimmed,
and the breeding rams and bucks need their junk checked.

Now with sorer backs we can work on the barn some more- yeah!!!

Doing the Puyallup

2009-09-24T08:38:00.001-07:00

Sunrise on the pasture

2009-09-23T08:29:00.001-07:00

What a gorgeous sunrise this morning while I was doing the animals chores! Now we are off to "Do the Puyallup": eat scones, caramel apples and fried stuff, look at animals and crafts, go on rides, and see a concert- all in the sunshine!!!

If it's not one thing....

2009-09-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

Things keep getting in the way of our working on the barn. First was that when I went to catch our new buck in his quarantine pen to trim his hooves and deworm him, I found out he can jump over our pen's door. So he was loose among the goats for quite a while, and I was chasing him around, devising tricks to catch him. After banging my knee pretty good and getting plenty of exercise, I finally caught him after about an hour. Then I drug him back to the pan, put him in the stanchion, and nailed more wood above the door.

The next day, I noticed Lou's broken horn was oozing quite a bit of blood. I did not want him to bleed out slowly so I caught him, trimmed the tissue, used blood stop and pressure for quite a while. No luck there. and I managed to get soaked with his blood. Finally I went to the house, scavenged our first aid kits and devised a pressure bandage which seems to be working. Good thing too because the next plan was cauterizing it, no fun for either of us.

Next day this storm came a brewing. Slowed progress on the barn even more.
This is one wall of the hay loft we managed to get up despite all the delays.
Here's a view from the outside:
No much progress, huh?

I forgot to include the INJURY REPORT: On top of the bruised knee mentioned above, I have managed to cut myself three times (nothing major) on the edges of the tin sheets. I thought without a hammer I couldn't hurt myself, but I was wrong. The klutz strikes again.

UPDATE:

The east wall of the hay loft is done! Doesn't look like much, but it'll keep the rain and wind out,

Toward a more positive farm blog...

2009-09-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

I am trying to focus on the positive things here. First is that our woefully neglected garden is producing an abundance of food. This is an example of one days harvest- there's ears of corn on the bottom of the bag, green and purple beans in the next layer and tomatoes on top.

Here's 5 tons of hay going into our new hay loft.
And here's my new breeding buck Dean.

More trauma on the farm

2009-09-10T18:20:00.000-07:00

Physical and emotional that is.....

So yesterday I was canning peaches that were overdue,, and I heard the dogs barking. Nothing unusual so I finished my task in 5 minutes and went out to check on the commotion. I found what I thought was a dead goat hidden in the grape vines. When I kicked the two dogs away I found our pygmy goat Fern there, breathing hard but alive and under and behind her was our baby goat PeeWee. I kicked the dogs away some more and hauled Fern and PeeWee through the nearby gate. PeeWee was just fine, acted like nothing happened just a spot of blood on one ear. Fern was breathing very hard, looked bloated, and did not want to stand. She eventually walked wobbling twice to get farther away from the dogs near the fence. I could not find any wounds on her, just a 1 cm hard knot, under her skin near her left shoulder. She was soaked with saliva though. I called the vet. I did not see a way I could take her by myself through the dogs and load her into my commuting car, and the vet could not come out until 7PM. So I watched her and investigated. I found the front gate had a hole dug under it from the outside, I presume by our digging dog Josie. The goats must have gotten out this hole into the front yard to get to the hazelnuts, blueberries and comfrey on the other side and been scared by the dogs and ran toward the other gate where I found them. Her breathing improved, but her bloating looked worse, and she still would not stand or walk. I was scared to give her any oral medications while she was breathing so fast. She cried out twice like she was in pain. As time went on her eye lids and ears looked droopy. She did nibble some grain I offered to her so I thought that was a good sign. Tom came home at 4:30 so we loaded her into the truck and brought her into the vet. He examined her and felt that she had a broken shoulder blade, a swollen knee and swollen rumen. Her lungs sounded good and he did not think she had any internal injuries. So she received banamine, activated charcoal (in case she ate something she should not have) and magnalax. She was brought back home and placed in a pen on straw. She was not interested in eating hay at that point. Overnight she seemed to do OK, she had moved in the pen, but was not active. Then Tom came home from work today and found her dead.

I feel sick about this in so many ways that I will not belabor here. She saved PeeWee's life for which I am so thankful, but I hate that she suffered and died in the process. The two dogs involved are going to need to go to new homes without farm animals. We already graveled the gate better where the hole was dug. This is again the heart breaking side of having animals, but I am not sure how many times my heart can break anymore.

Crabapple trip

2009-09-03T21:01:00.001-07:00

For Christmas my mother and step-dad gave us a gift certificate to Sun Mountain Lodge. So we used it last night on our way to our annual crabapple picking. So we had an extravagant start to our journey. Here's the lodge:

Here's the view from our room:
So after an amazing dinner and great night's sleep, we headed to Orondo to pick crabapples. Our trip was complicated by a large thunderstorm in the morning and the fact that the Beebe bridge we normally take is closed after a tragic accident. But we made it there, and here's the orchard:
And here's a crabapple tree:
And here's my car full of 206# of crabapples (and 2 boxes of peaches for canning):
And here's Orondo's incredible salsa and apple slushee for the ride home:

Barn, rabbit hutch, pheasant, and lamb news

2009-09-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

The barn roof is basically done!!! We have to get on our long extension ladder to finish both ends is all. The next steps after that will be putting walls and windows in the loft walls and doors on the barn.

I also managed to finish the rabbit hutches finally. They look a little homemade (which they are) but they are colorful. They are also sturdier and should last longer. Hopefully the bunnies are happy with their updated digs.I had an awful day yesterday. It started out OK with gardening, selling Dinah to Eliz, and catching Dixie and Jemima. Then I got tin sheets ready to finish the barn and did the animal chores. I moved the sheep and goats out back where there is plenty of grass. So far, so good and I had time to mow the front pasture that is being taken over by thistles. So I am on the tractor mowing in the sunny warm weather which is one of my funnest things to do- believe it or not. I noticed our loose pheasant hen hanging out where I was mowing but did not think much of it- just assumed she was eating the bugs that were being disturbed with the mower. Then she ran into the thistles ahead of the mower but again did not think much of it- assumed she was hiding in the tall thistle when I made passes near her. Then I almost ran her over- had to stop the tractor to make sure I did not hit her. I did not notice anything so kept mowing. On the next circle I noticed a dead chick. Then I finally got off the tractor and took a closer look. I had mowed her nest and 5 very young pheasant chicks with it. I was so upset. I had to pick up the dead chicks. There was still one unhatched egg. I tried to make up the nest nice so maybe she would sit on it and get one chick still but she did not. I finally put the egg under one of our broody hens so hopefully there will be one saved. I felt just traumatized the rest of the day. I kept kicking myself for not stopping and looking around more why she was acting so oddly. The thought that she had a nest or chicks never crossed my mind but really should have. I hate being the cause of the deaths of those cute, innocent chicks. It would have been such a pretty sight seeing them walking around after their mother in the pasture. I just feel sick.

Anyway, Tom came home from work and we finished the barn roof then I went for a long drive. Came home, ate dinner and went to bed early with a book. I do not think Tom really appreciated how hard I took this. Today I checked out my two ewe lambs which helped a little to cheer me up. At least I do not kill every young cute animal here.

Dixie's fleece:
Dixie's face:
Jemima's fleece:
Jemima's face:

Barn roof progress

2009-08-30T08:09:00.001-07:00

Here's the progress of the barn roof. We are using recycled tin from Tom's uncle's neighbor. In this photo we are about half way done:

Here's we are almost done:
Today we are taking a break and should finish up tomorrow. We are patching the holes that do not line up polyurethane roof sealer. We are really hoping the roof does not leak since we do not want to get up on it in the future- it's pretty steep!

INJURY UPDATE: no new injuries to report. My legs look "beat to hell" per Tom, and I get muscle spasms in places I have never had them before- even doing such strenuous activity as laundry. I do not ever remember being this wore out before- not even when we remodeled the house and took literally tons of trash out of here. I guess my 44 years is catching up to me.

Barn roof rafter raising

2009-08-24T06:45:00.001-07:00

So this has been an eventful week in the barn repair department. Tom and I have been working hard this week building rafters for the barn. We had help from our goat kids- this is PeeWee giving a hand (or a hoof):

Here's all the rafter's done in the rafter staging area (previously called the hay loft):
Here's Tom holding up a test rafter:
Here's our Sunday "crew" (cheap labor) putting up some of the rafters:
Here's the purlins going on:
Here's the barn after a long week:
Now let the roofing begin!

INJURY UPDATE: I had not done any updates because all there was to report is every muscle and joint in our bodies aching and random hammer-smushed fingers. Tom got shingles where his tool belt was rubbing (not sure if that counts as an injury or not). Then Thursday after working all night and then making rafters all day, I fell in the shower hard (again not sure if this is a barn related event). My leg swelled like nothing I have every experienced and I could not walk (much less make rafters) on Friday. By Saturday I was hobbling around again and now I just have a huge ugly bruise to show for it. The "crew" only experienced one bad smushed finger from a sledge hammer. So all and all no major damage done.

New sheep pages

2009-08-20T16:34:00.000-07:00

So probably to avoid working on the barn I decided to take photos of my sheep flock. I realize that I am lacking current photos of some of my sheep- particularly the ones I do not breed. And usually when I think of they have been sheared or are otherwise non-photogenic. So anyway, after I took all the photos, I decided to post them on new web pages from oldest to youngest. So for your viewing and reading pleasure, these pages are at:

http://www.schoonoverfarm.com/sheep1.html

http://www.schoonoverfarm.com/sheep2.html

http://www.schoonoverfarm.com/sheep3.html

http://www.schoonoverfarm.com/sheep4.html

http://www.schoonoverfarm.com/sheep5.html

So I posted our ram lamb Shaun's photo above because I would like some input as to his color. He is out of a shaela ewe and a mioget ram. He was black when he was born with some white markings. Now he looks dark brown, and it appears to go down to his skin, but his face and legs still look black to me- compare them to the black lamb on the right in the photo. So what color is he- dark brown, black, modified black, sunbleached...? Any input would be appreciated.

Sheepy wedding

2009-08-18T11:09:00.000-07:00

So I am going to divert from repetitive slow barn progress posts for a moment. Do not worry repetitive barn progress blog fans, I will be returning to barn posts this weekend, I am sure.

For those few of you who did not see this, here's a very sheepy wedding dress:

The full story and more photos are at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1205007/Shepherdess-bride-marries-stunning-dress-wool-flock.html

Their wedding was way more sheepy than ours. We did not eat or wear sheep. We did recite "A passionate shepherd to his love" by Christopher Marlowe:

Come live with me and be my love,
And we will all the pleasures prove,
That valleys, groves, hills, and fields,
Woods, or steepy mountain yields.

And we will sit upon the rocks,
Seeing the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.

And I will make thee beds of roses,
And a thousand fragrant posies,
A cap of flowers and a kirtle
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle:

A gown made of the finest wool,
Which from our pretty lambs we pull;
Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold:

A belt of straw and ivy buds,
With coral clasps and amber studs;
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my love.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing
For thy delight each May morning;
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my love.

We also bottle fed Bobbitt and Monette at the wedding reception:

I guess our wedding was sheepy enough!

Even more barn progress

2009-08-15T18:40:00.001-07:00

So we continue to make progress on our barn repair project. Here's the tenth pole up:

Here's some more joists up:
Here's the hay loft floor 5/6th of the way done:
Here's the twelfth and last pole up.
Here's the last of the goat prints in wet cement (it is interesting that the chickens, turkey and geese never leave foot prints in the wet cement and the goats and sheep always do):
Here's some new fencing we had to put up since our barn door is going to be larger (between the two poles):