Schoonover Farm blog

New Blog

2010-01-04T07:39:00.000-08:00

Since my blog has been having problems on blogger, my new blog is at http://schoonoverfarm.wordpress.com/

Please check it out there.

Government

2009-12-17T03:15:00.000-08:00

So yesterday we had the visit of a Department of Ecology official. We are in the Samish watershed, and there is a push to decrease contamination of this watershed because of periodic closures of Samish Bay shellfish harvest and increased coliform levels in its rivers and streams. It is all spelled out in the http://www.ecy.wa.gov/pubs/0910019.pdf

Samish Bay Watershed

Fecal Coliform Bacteria

Total Maximum Daily Load

Volume 2 – TMDL and Water Quality Implementation Plan

August 2009

Publication No. 09-10-019

So I read this 150 page document, and we are seemingly in compliance with all that is in there. We have our animals fenced away from any streams, and we have gutters on our barn to collect rain water. We do not have stored manure piles. We are (what I thought) was the kind of people Skagit County would like to support. We came into to this very dilapidated property and put in a lot of hard work and money to fix it up. We are involved in agriculture which is what Skagit County is supposedly trying to support. We pay our taxes and do not get in trouble. So I was hoping this visit would go well.

Naturally it did not. He waltzed in here and tells us about all these government officials that can help us with developing our farm plan, help with pasture management, and improved weight gain in our animals. He told us about grant money available to comply with regulations for fencing, pipes, engineered designs. Then he said we had to fence off our animals 35 feet from the front ditch line on the road. He said we could use electric fence, and it could be down during the grazing season but would need to be up by August 15. August 15th!!! That is the driest day of the year. And electric net fencing is not safe in my opinion for horned animals. I lost my first Shetland ram Loki to an electric net fence. He then pointed out that we had dug a trench in one of our 7 fields which drained into the ditch from a pasture where animals are (three small sheep). But we said we could fill in this trench and keep the animals out of this pasture once breeding season is over next week.

At this point I pointed out what I think is our real water pollution issue- the drainage from the development behind our property that floods our fields when there is heavy downpours. We believe this drainage through a culvert onto our property to be illegal because we have the original survey showing no culvert, the ditches designed for the drainage, and that all drainage from the development must be contained. There is not drainage easement for our property, and this is not a natural waterway but a man made one. We have tried to talk to the homeowners association of this development, but the president does not return our calls. We even talked to a lawyer about this. Well, this Department of Ecology official said he cannot regulate clean water drainage, but he does have authority over erosion. This culvert goes out from the road above our place at least 10 feet into the air and then free-falls down onto our land causing a lot of erosion. The bottom is also rotted out so some of the water runs under the culvert undermining it and the road. So this government official started talking about putting a wall in on our property to control the erosion! Not the solution I was looking for.

part of the culvert on our property

"clean" water draining from the culvert on our property

So I do not want a farm plan, I do not want government officials on our land, and I do not want their money. I also do not want to pollute Samish Bay nor do I want to break the law. So we will put up the electric fencing (although I may not turn it on), fill in our trench and in the meantime move the rams to the far back field (where it is a lot harder to care for and protect them). And I really hope this is adequate. Because if this official states we have to put in 50 foot buffers all around our property we are done for. And that will be the end of Schoonover Farm. (and why I am awake at 3 AM)

Christmas trees

2009-12-12T12:33:00.000-08:00

So we have two Christmas trees. This first one we saved out of a barn that was about to be demolished. The property belonged to a woman for many decades, and she was being forced out by expansion of the road. We were taking the siding off the barn before it became landfill, and she said we could have whatever we wanted inside. So we took some farm tools, water crocks, etc., but we found a green plastic sack with this tree in it. It is quite funky. Tom was strongly stating that this should be our only tree this year, but I guess I am a traditionalist and want a real tree.

So we did in fact bring the top of the spruce tree that fell on our house inside our house as our Christmas tree this year. It is funky in its own right, but personally I think it makes a good tree. Plus maybe it gets rid of a little of the bad juju this tree gave us last month. What do you think?

Beef and cold weather progress

2009-12-11T19:19:00.001-08:00

So yesterday after a meeting down south, I picked up the beef from the butcher. I do not know if you can see it in the photo, but my little commuter car is really loaded down and completely stuffed with meat.
We stuffed what we could into our two freezers in the garage and then made an emergency run to Tom's parents to put the rest in their freezer.
Today it continued to be cold. It is taking its toll on some of the critters. Clara is an older goat, and she was shivering today. I briefly brought her in the feed shed and fed her extra grain. Then I put an old sweater on her, and it seems to have helped.
Then Tom and I worked on making a barn door. He says it takes twice as long to do work in the cold, and I think he's right. We only got one door done where I thought we might get both finished.

Baby, It's Still Cold Outside

2009-12-10T10:21:00.001-08:00

But I am trying not to complain. There are others out there who have dealt with high winds, much colder temperatures and frozen water pipes so we are doing just great!

Here's the sheep beds from last night. You can see the oval spots without frost and the poop on one end. It always amazes me that the sheep never use their barn at night. The goats, donkeys and chickens definitely do.

Here's our eldest ram Jocko on ice.
Here's our tough frosty ram lambs.
And here's the sunrise at 9 AM, merely 17 hours after sunset. Maybe it will warm above freezing today (unlikely).
INJURY UPDATE: My skin is almost back to normal. The color is good, but it is thickened and has somewhat diminished sensation still. And I wore my snowshoe pants out to do critters this morning.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

2009-12-09T16:57:00.001-08:00

The lowest temperature I saw today was 16 degrees, but it sure felt colder. I waited until the afternoon to do critters to give the sun more time to thaw things. My plan did not work. Here's the ice we have been braking out of one of the tubs all week, and the chickens patiently waiting for the liquid kind of water.

Here's the goat's tub of "water".
Here's out hose frozen in what used to be mud/
Here's a bucket of "water" from inside the barn.
Here's a phoenix rooster that Tom may have saved last night. He said he couldn't walk and was found laying outside last evening. Tom put him in this kennel with a heating pad, food and water, and he is walking around now. I was fully expecting to find him dead this morning. He'll stay on the heating pad again tonight.
Here's the goose/duck "swimming" pool.
Here's a gate frozen into what was mud last week.
So all of the above has made our lives more difficult. Where it usually takes 1/2 to 1 hour to do animal chores, now it takes 3 hours. And it is exhausting. I did manage to have almost enough hoses unfrozen to give water to everyone- I did have to bucket for the far two fields. Afterward I used gravity to drain the hoses, put them on fence posts and then blew them out. This usually gets the water out so they can stay open for use.
And here's the sun going down at 3:45 PM. It is going to be a long, cold, dark night.
So I came in after these chores and took a hot shower. The hot water became ice cold by the time it hit my feet. I have never had that happen before. And I think I have early frost bite on my thighs. The skin there is red, swollen and has decreased sensation. I was wearing a thick sweaters, wool socks, thick boots, gloves and a hooded Carhartt coat but only jeans on my thighs. So let this be a lesson to you all- cotton kills- wear your long-johns! I sure will now!

Cool chicken nest boxes

2009-12-09T10:35:00.000-08:00

Check out these cool chicken nest boxes at http://georgiafarmwoman.blogspot.com/2009/12/chicken-nest-box-giveaway.html. I would like to win one!

Candy Kiss

2009-11-29T15:30:00.000-08:00

This is a tribute to Candy Kiss, our oldest goat who died today. I traded for her in 2004 when she was almost 8 years old because I loved her deep red color.

Only eight days later our buck Cody escaped when she was cycling and so 5 months after she arrived she produced triplets for us: Pixy Stix, Tootsie Roll, and Zotz.

She did not kid again until 2008 when she produced twins: Mars and Snickers.

She was then retired. Here she is teasing Cody in her retirement.

Her retirement was shorter than I had hoped, but her decline was brief and appeared painless.

I believe her life here was a good one, and I am glad I knew her.

Butcher Day

2009-11-27T09:30:00.001-08:00

Today is Butcher Day. We are butchering our Highland-Dexter cross 1.5 year old bull Jesse and our 2 year old steer Leroy. I moved them into the alley to minimize the distance they have to travel when the slaughter truck gets here.

And we have to butcher Barney too. He is our yearling ram who has ingrowing (and lethal) horns that are right to his skin. He has a beautiful fleece and a nice personality so it is a shame. But he would suffer if we let him live any longer.

So I brought Barney into the barn. And now I am taking off. I am still a wuss at heart.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

Our turkey is 8 1/2 years old, but he can still strut his stuff!

Bottlin'

2009-11-25T05:36:00.000-08:00

Last evening we bottled our cider. Here's the filtering/racking station.

Here's the capping station.
Here's the labeling table.
And here's a few bottles of the cider. It will be ready in a few months.
We sampled a little, and carboy #2 is by far the best.

How I feel about all of this wind

2009-11-23T15:09:00.001-08:00

Courtesy of The Giddy Limit by Alex Leonard and Northern Lace by Elizabeth Lovick

Tree on house update

2009-11-21T15:37:00.000-08:00

Here's an update on our fallen tree situation. Here are better photos that Tom took the next day while I was at a meeting. This is the tree on the house from the front

and from the back.
Here's where the tree trunk split.
And here's the tree service guys removing the tree from the roof.
So today we spent chipping up the branches from this mess. Here's the before photo of the area of our front yard (from the side of the house) that the second tree fell into.
Here's the view from the front yard of the corner of the house.
Here's the view of the same areas as above after we were done.
My father (and probably a lot of others) feel that when an Evergreen tree is dying, it puts out a lot of cones to propagate itself first. This Norway spruce tree had a lot of cones that really weighed it down. Here's one small branch in the chipper that is just full of cones.

Then we were done! This is Tom and the dogs taking a breather. I am sitting on the ground by this point.
So yesterday in my comments I mentioned that this event provided us with lots of wood chips and firewood for only $1300! Here's the wood chips (with a lot of needles):

But today I realized that I forgot to consider that we also received natural landscaping with removal of weaker plants, mulch, pruning and sweeping. We also have the fresh scent of spruce both outside and inside! We got plenty of exercise in the fresh air today. And we may have acquired a Christmas tree for the top of this spruce.
I am trying REALLY hard to focus on the positives here!

(We are not sure we want our Christmas tree to remind us of that "fateful night".)

Tree on house

2009-11-18T16:52:00.001-08:00

So we are in the middle of an intense windstorm with wicked gusts. With one gust a tree came down on our house with me in it. It was pretty scary. It looks like no major damage was done, but it is against the chimney, the edge of the roof, and two windows. I worry with ongoing gusts that more damage will be done. Unfortunately my camera was malfunctioning when I took these photos around 4:15 and now it is dark.

These above and below photos are of where the large branch took off the main trunk.

So Tom came home and was checking out the damage when another tree came down and almost hit him. It turned out if was the other main trunk from the same spruce tree.

So now we have a tree service on the way over (they are just down the road). I am not sure what they can do in this intense wind, but we'll see.

Escape from Farmcatraz and sunny goats

2009-11-17T13:49:00.000-08:00

On Saturday I decided to take on a project I have been thinking about for a while. That is putting up electric net fencing in the front-near pasture and moving the ducks out of the pheasant pen for the fall/winter. This should improve the pasture as I noticed that where I had the ducks before, the grass grew in very nicely and weed free. It will also help minimize the mud in the pheasant pen. So to begin this project I first had to harvest the fencing from our hillside as it had been used to contain goats there last summer. Here's the view from up on the hill overlooking our new hay loft containing barn.

I created the duck pen and in the process herded the geese into it. I could not find the string to create a bald eagle deterrent so simply hooked up the charger and left the geese in there. This way I can also feed grain to the geese without the goats eating most of it. It is a good thing I did this because Sunday we had "Escape from Farmcatraz" (Tom's phrasing). That is one of the geese escaped, and we had to round him up. Here's the goose recaptured and heading back to the "pen".
So I want to make sure this fencing can hold the geese in before I move ducks out there. Plus it is stormy today, and I am tired- all excuses to put off the duck round up until tomorrow. But today there was a break in the storms moving through and a sun beam briefly came in through the south door of the barn. So I decided to take photos of our goat kids growing up a little. Here are Athena,
Mearth,
Sherlock,
Peewee,
Shorty,
and Mr. D.
Brown Sugar was looking awfully cute,
and Bambi was striking a pose.

P.S. Athena, Mearth and Sherlock are for sale.

New Trailer!

2009-11-13T10:33:00.000-08:00

So to transport our new pack llamas, we have been on the lookout for a new trailer. We have a homemade thin one horse trailer that just is not going to work. So we have been perusing Craigslist and found a 2006 Mirage 6x14 foot livestock/cargo trailer on Bainbridge Island for a good price. So after Tom got off of work, we drove/ferried to Bainbridge and looked at it in the dark and rain. We were supposed to bring a cashier's check, but since our bank was closed on Veterans Day we withdrew all the cash our ATM would let us and brought that. We are mailing the difference in a cashiers check. So we brought the trailer home. Here's a cell phone photo of the truck and trailer on the ferry that night:

And here's Rocky and Tom in the truck, waiting to get to the other side.
We had not eaten anything since lunch so stopped to eat on the way home. We got home quite late, and both of us had to work early yesterday so are tired.

After work and in daylight we found some minor issues with the trailer, not seen in the dark. But none the less it is a nice trailer that will serve our needs quite well.

Breeding!

2009-11-11T13:42:00.000-08:00

So today I put my breeding groups together. First I separated the rams. This is Jocko in his new field. His face has become quite battered over time.

This are the lucky ewes very reluctantly being led to their mates.
Here's the infamous "Shetland flop" in which a Shetland sheep being asked to something they do not wish to do will flop over and play dead. It is a very effective technique. I was unable to get a photo, but she actually did the flop in 6 inches of water we were wading through thanks to the buckets of rain we received yesterday. I hope it is not cold tonight for her.
Here's Jocko's group. He (Bitterroot Ansel) is in with Bing Bank Wink (a primitive mioget) and TPP Heidi (a moorit with gorgeous intermediate fleece).
This is Lewis' group. ShelteringPines Lewis is in with Donna'sSheep Mona (black ewe who carries spots) and Donna'sSheep Miss Lizzie (moorit who carries spots). Miss Lizzie is trying to get out through the gate.
These are the rams not being bred and looking on wistfully. One has soon-to-be-lethal horns so will be butchered very soon, and the other needs to develop and grow up first.
This is Everranch Jackson who is being bred to our Everranch Moll and Tanya- all of which are grey Gotland-Finn cross sheep. They will produce our first ever percentage Gotland lambs.Then the goats were put in their groups. This is Donna's Yahoo in with our Angora doe Angie. I am hoping for spotted Nigoras from this breeding.
This is a bad photo (thanks to the flash not working) of Ravencrest Luck of the Draw (Cody) in with Ravencrest Saphire Duchess. This combination has produced lovely blue-eyed buckskin kids in the past.
And finally our most recent addition Deliteful Ijaba Dean in with Donna's Meadowlark, Magpie and Patches. They are all related to our other two bucks so get the new blood. There should be some amazing spotting for these combinations.

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):

More but slow barn progress

2009-08-10T16:51:00.001-07:00

Another issue with construction around animals that I did not consider is the possibility of getting wet paint on your sheep's wool:

This is the seventh out of twelve poles going up, replacing our rotted poles.
I was not sure if these rabbits are cuddling or are terrified of the construction commotion.
The second section of plywood is up in the hay loft!
Another view of the hay loft progress above. And the ninth pole is now up (on the far right) and hopefully the cement is drying in the rain.

Barn and rabbit hutch progress

2009-08-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

So yesterday while I was at work Tom was able to get the joists for the hay loft started and pulled down the old rotten center poles.

So this morning when I got home from work I started add more joist hangers in preparation for more joists. After I had screwed in 4 more I noticed that the screw box fine print said "not for structural use". Now when we were shopping we were going to buy the correct nails but the Home Depot sales guy convinced us that screws were better. Then Tom's dad called saying he was back at our house wanting to borrow the buffer and where were we? So we grabbed some screw of the correct dimensions, checked out and headed home. So longer story a little shorter, we bought deck screws. So now I had to remove about 64 of the screws and replace them with the nails we had wanted to buy in the first place. Of course we ran short of these nails (since there was a reason we wanted to buy more) so Tom had to go back to Home Depot to get the nails we originally wanted to buy. Now I can blame the sales guy, our carelessness, or my father-in-law for this extra work.

There are problems with trying to do construction amongst animals. They knock over ladders and tool boxes, they grab and nibble on things, and you really have to be careful with power tools. You also have to be careful to pick up every fallen nail or screw since they can eat it and die from it. Lastly, you have to be careful with wet cement. They like to leave their hoof prints there.
Finally, the first section of the hay loft is done! Tom got up the ladder first to be the first ever in the new loft.
Here's the view of some of our property from the loft.
Here's another view. Tom is talking about making an office for me on this area of the loft with a couch, fridge, microwave, couch (for lambing season). I am not sure it'll ever happen, but it's nice to dream. Of course, the hay loft will be enclosed, but we plan on putting in windows for light, ventilation and maybe even views.
This hen acts like she wants to help out.
While Tom was at the hardware store, after I did the animal chores I decided to finally fix up one of the 4 rabbit hutches I have been trying to find time for all summer. So I tore off the rotten wood, repaired the rusted out screen, paint it and added fiberglass roof panels. It looks 1000 times better and hopefully will last longer now.
INJURY REPORT: Tom's left knee is hurting from going up and down the ladder so much. He also has major blisters on his hands from wearing out all of his gloves. I managed to hit my fingernail with a hammer (I guess I am a menace with hammers). The nail is bruising up but not to the point where I have to perform a hematoma evacuation on myself (I have in the past). Finally, not sure if this counts as an injury, but I got white paint in my hair painting the hutch. I am desperately trying to get it out of my hair before work tomorrow morning.

More blueberry and barn progress

2009-08-02T20:29:00.000-07:00

So yesterday before it got too hot I picked more blueberries. Two days prior I had picked a third of the bush but some of this area already had ripened blueberries only two day later. So I spent time in the heat again picking blueberries. It's the everlasting blueberry bush. I filled our large sieve up this time.

Then yesterday and today Tom and I worked on the barn remodel. I finished taking down the tin and wood supports on the center section we are replacing while Tom dug holes with the auger and tractor, placed the poles, and cemented them in.
Here he is explaining how easily the last of the 4 poles went in, and you can also see all the tin finally gone. After this we headed to the hardware store for beams, hangers and more cement. Tomorrow hopefully we will get more poles planted and be able to remove the worthless center poles that have almost all rotted out at ground level.
INJURY REPORT: Much more minor- I tapped a finger with the hammer- it hurt briefly. And I was nettled again on the ankle. They say bee stings help with arthritis. So if nettle stings help with anything I am golden. I have definitely relearned to use eye protection, but I guess not ankle protection.

Barn remodel update

2009-07-30T16:51:00.000-07:00

So today I cut the remaining tin on the roof. This is quite challenging in 90 degree heat. That tin gets mighty hot. I also removed half of the tin I cut and the underyling support joists. Again you can really appreciated how badly the barn needs fixing when you uncover the structure. We also got our first pole up last night and can start envisioning what it is going to look like.

INJURY REPORT;
Today I got a dark sharp object in my eye while removing a 2x4 from the roof. Rinsing my eye and using my finger did not get it out so I had to pull it out with tweezers. I also dropped a 2x4 on my finger. This barn fixing business is painful.

Summer Heat

2009-07-29T15:41:00.000-07:00

We are in the middle of a heat wave here- unusual for this area. My thermometer currently says 103 degrees and it is in the shade. The sheep are seeking shade:

And the goats are hiding in the barn:
Ebony (in the background) is only in the sun because she thinks she's going to be fed some grain (and she's right).

Barn and Blueberries

2009-07-25T17:40:00.001-07:00

Today we concentrated on the barn and blueberries. First thing (before it got too hot) we proceeded to remove more tin sheets and wood from the barn roof. We did not finish because there are two swallow nests with chicks almost ready to fly. So we'll give them a few days more before we proceed. We did notice even more poor construction of the barn as we take it apart. It makes me glad we are finally doing this, and it is motivation to do it right. Myself, Tom and Jerry's daughter Anna spent the previous two days scooping out the barn floor so it will be ready for placing poles.

After the roof demo was completed Tom took a look at the auger that our friend Jerry gave to us. It had a slight bent auger and a frozen drive shaft. Tom worked on fixing both issues and got the auger to work. It dug a 3 foot deep, 10 inch wide hole in no time flat! It also removes most of the dirt from the hole in the process. This is going to help tremendously with placing poles for our barn as well as future fencing projects.

While Tom was working on the auger I picked our blueberries. We have one bush that came with the place that produces a huge number of blueberries. I am not sure the photo does it justice. We have also planted 6 other bushes that are starting to produce as well. It was above 90 degrees today, and this picking took about 2.5 hours so I was quite hot and sticky with it.

INJURY REPORT: With the roof demo I managed to lose my grip on the hammer, and it spun around and hit me in the forehead. While milking the goat she kicked me pretty hard (as well as knocking the milk pail over and the baby wipe container). And twice I encountered nettles while picking blackberries. This farming stuff is high risk.

Summertime

2009-07-22T14:24:00.000-07:00

It is definitely summertime here. We had our first 8 tons of hay delivered Monday evening so Tom and his brother got to stack it in the hay barn while I was at work. So I come home to the sight of animal food security for the winter and the sweet small of fresh hay!

We are starting to dismantle the roof of our old animal barn. Of course it is quite hot out, and the metal roof is particularly searing. Tom removed about half of what needs to come off so good progress despite the heat.

And I had to admire the summer sheep. Their wool is coming in nicely, and they are plump with green grass pasture. A pretty view for me!
Now it is time to shuck peas!

Bucks and barn

2009-07-13T16:19:00.001-07:00

I have come to the somewhat painful conclusion that I need to try to trade one of my bucks for an unrelated buck. Two of my bucks are related to my original buck as are three of my breeding does. And it makes no sense to keep four bucks. Unfortunately these are the best looking bucks I have seen. There is Yahoo:

And there is J. P.:

We have also begun the long projects of refurbishing the rabbit hutches and the barn. All will get new roofs, supports, walls and paint. So these are the "before" photos.

Projects

2009-07-07T18:29:00.001-07:00

So after animal chores, the first project of the day was to get the llama maintenance done. She needed her toes trimmed, her wool sheared, CDT shot and worming. So Tom attached a new stronger piece of plywood to the stanchion, and I caught and haltered Fancy. I managed to get her in the stanchion and proceeded to trim and shear her, as best I could.

She tried to jump out, lay down and whined the whole time. She had a large green ball of cud ready to spit at me if I was stupid enough to walk in front of her- which I wasn't. We both survived the experience without any injuries for which I am thankful. Then she was freed and ran back to her sheep and goat buddies.
Then I took new updated photos of the goat kids still for sale: Athena,
Mearth,
Sophia,
and Sugar Magnolia.
I am still trying to find good homes for them. The economy appears to have affected goat kid sales but not lambs nor wool- interesting.

On the way back from the barn I watered the plants in the green house, admiring a lot of large green tomatoes- I hope they ripen soon. I noticed that the garden is growing well, is fairly well weeded and pretty. The majority of the corn was definitely knee high by the Fourth of July.

Then I cleaned up, had lunch and made cottage cheese for the first time. I have been making chevre (soft goat cheese) and yogurt for a while, but this is my first attempt at cottage cheese. This is the cheese in a cloth, dripping whey.
And here's the final product.
It taste good- although different from store bought.

My grandmother worked in a cottage cheese factory when she was a young woman and never ate cottage cheese again. Hopefully I will not have the same experience with my little home-factory.

Happy Fourth of July!

2009-07-04T17:50:00.001-07:00

Babies and cleaning pens

2009-07-03T07:01:00.000-07:00

When I as doing animal chores I noticed a baby swallow had come out of its nest and was laying in the entrance to the barn. I thought it was at risk of being stepped on so I fussed with it to try to keep it out of harms well. It is unlikely my efforts will help this chick as it cannot fly yet. I replace it in its nest where its parent fed it but it kept coming out again. While I has fussing around with this I realized how much of my life and its efforts are focused on trying to help vulnerable, cute, innocent creatures of the worlds- whether it be human infants, domestic animal babies, or wildlife's youngin's.

I also managed to clean on of the pens from its winter's bedding. The rabbits received new bedding despite the heat. They are initially a little nervous but soon are burrowing, chasing and munching on their new straw. 7 more pens to go!

Early summer projects

2009-06-30T19:20:00.001-07:00

Now that the trips are over and the lambs and kids are being picked up for their new homes, the real work begins. The garden needs some serious weeding.

There is a lot of mowing to be done- the pastures, the front and back yard, the orchard, the back of the property and the trail behind the pastures. This is Tom mowing this trail with the sheep who were following behind.
I am trying to organize my fiber studio and reminded my self of three fleeces I kept for myself at shearing and now need to figure out what I am going to do with them. There is Jethro's fleece. He's our California Red wether. I have always sold his fleece so decided to keep it and play with it myself. Here's a photo of a lock.
There's Mutiny's fleece- she's our brown variegated CVM ewe with a really fine crimpy and large fleece. I have always sold her fleeces to so decided to keep it for myself this year. Here's her lock photo.
And there's Barney's lamb fleece- a primitive mioget very soft fleece. He'll never make another lamb fleece so decided to save it. Here's a lock photo.
Then there's all the wool I skirted off the fleeces this year. I need to go through it again and take out the felted and completely unusable wool and have the rest made into comforter batting.
So there's a lot of work to be done, on top of the usual animal chores. There are no lazy days of summer here!

Black Sheep Gathering 2009

2009-06-22T15:22:00.000-07:00

I posted iPhone photos during the gathering for the folks that could not attend. They are at:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=revelzd.2rkxifvt&x=0&y=sthg9c&localeid=en_US

Then I took some other photos with Tom's digital camera. The first set of photos is of the Fiber Arts competition.

This is a felted silk/wool scarf I just love:

This is a felted sheep wreath:
A felted watermelon:
Next are the photos from the Wool Judging.

This is a Navajo Churro fleece I desperately wanted to buy, but someone else got to it first:

This is a gorgeous fine white fleece with an amazing long staple length:
This is another fine white fleece with an incredible luster to its locks:
This is a knitted sheep bag. I was wondering if I could knit pencil roving to make a similar bag:
This is a roving and rag bag I would love to be able to make:
This is a river otter we saw outside our hotel room:
These are some of the spinners:
Next are my purchases- embarrassing given the size of my fiber stash already.

This is a dyed mohair and wool yarn skein I could not pass up (50% off!):
This is a dyed silk and wool roving I could not live without:
This is a baby camel and merino wool roving that is SO soft I had to try it out on my wheel:
This is a yak and merino wool roving that is just lovely:
This is a Navajo Churro roving I bought since I could not buy the fleece I wanted above- it's my consolation wool:
This is a red kid mohair fleece that was my consolation fleece purchase since I couldn't buy the fleece I originally wanted above:
This is 1 ounce of buffalo down I bought to try out:
And the grand finale....the red Angora goat kid I have always wanted!

Every year at the BSG I fall in love with a red Angora kid, and my heart is broken because it is always sold first or not for sale. So this year I finally bought this wonderful red buckling (soon to be a fiber wether). His given name is Wa-Zoo since he is red and grey and from Pullman. We are going to call him "Coug". He was not too happy with the long ride home but seems to be settling in with our Nigora wether Mr. D.

Britain trip 50 animal and fiber related photos

2009-06-07T12:41:00.001-07:00

We are back from our epic (to us) journey to the UK. Here's the many farm animal and fiber related photos we took:

Shaun the sheep stuff in a shop window in York:

Ancient fiber related items including a reproduction Roman loom in York,
Roman whorls and spindles in Inverness,
Roman spinning and weaving tools in Bath,
and a 14th century tapestry in Coventry:

Northern Britain sheep photos:

Llamas in Britain:
Jacob sheep:
Sheep, pig and cows in Scotland:

Shetland animals:

Shetland lace shawl and ponies at crofthouse museum:

More Shetland sheep:

Machinery at Jamieson mill in Sandness, Shetland:

Sorry- more Shetland sheep photos:

Shaun the sheep at Aardman Features:
Jamieson yarn I could not resist buying:
Fair Isle sweater I bought for myself at Spider's Web shop in Lerwick, Shetland Islands:
We will try to get the rest of the photos posted on Kodak Easyshare later today.

So the downside to the epic journey is the toll it took on our animals in our absence. On top of them missing us and our dog Josie escaping by fence jumping multiple times, we lost one of our bucks. Mr. Mahogany died of a parasites while we were gone. The liver copper level is still pending to see if that is the underlying cause since we had just wormed him with adequate does of oral ivermectin just before we left. We also lost quite a few pheasant chicks to coccidiosis and our steer Leroy went lame with laminitis from the grass. Here's a photo of our wonderful polled buck who died:

Springtime animal husbandry and gardening chores

2009-05-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, my stepfather and I made a pretty (and tasty) breakfast for my mother of homemade waffles (from scratch) with fresh blueberries, strawberries and whipping cream, scrambled eggs (from our chickens) and pork sausage (from Krista's pig). I very nice meal- if I do say so myself.

Next I drove home to attack the gardening chores first. It was a warm, sunny day so I decided to plant the last of the garden beds. I planted green and purple beans, corn, cucumbers, broccoli and umpteen varieties of squash. In the greenhouse I transplanted my started sunflowers, tomatoes and red bell peppers. Tom built shelves in the greenhouse with recycles cedar hot tub wood.

Here's the garden:

Here's the greenhouse shelves:

While I was doing the gardening I took a break and noticed our 10 year old hot-tub. It had over the years sunk into the ground and started to rot on the bottoms of the walls. We had already put it up on blocks to get it off the ground. We then tried a trick I read about on the internet of adding cedar sawdust to the hot tub with a small amount of water in it. The theory is that as the water leaks out the sawdust gets trapped in the leaks and seals them. Initially we did not think it works but gradually I noticed that the leaks seemed less. Yesterday I noted that the hot-tub was still 2/3 full after many weeks. I thought I should top it off to keep it moist. Then I thought I should probably change the water. Then I thought if I am going to change the water I might as well clean it and then we can go tubbing. So I got started- when I did it was sunny and warms after a gorgeous clear night with a full moon (that's what Tom said- I had to work). By the time I got the hot-tub cleaned and refilled it had become cloudy and cooled. Tom got a fire stoked up in the hot tub's stove and by evening we had a hot tub. We took a dipand stayed in until the rain got heavy. It helped both of our muscles quite a bit.

The resurrected hot tub:
So today Tom went to the feed store to pick up feed and supplies while I did the usual animal chores. When he came home we had spent $700 on one month's feed and supplies. We had finally ran out of the 16 tons of local hay we bought last July. The feed store had run out of local grass hay so Tom had to buy orchard grass hay for $20 per bale!

Here's the hay:

Here's the feed shed:

Here's the chicken feed:
I had to take this photos of Saphy and her kids:
Then we started giving the lambs their shots and worming medication. After doing half the lambs I was running out of the vaccine and syringes.

Here's some of the lambs who received their shots:
Then we tattooed the bunnies ears and clipped their nails.

Here's the bunnies I am going to sell:

Here's the bunnies I am going to keep:

We ran out of tattoo ink and will not have the letter needed to tattoo the goat kids this year. So it is back to the feed store to spend more money.

Then we gave the donkeys their annual West Nile virus vaccine. This is afterwards where they are not coming near me again:
These are lamb butts walking back toward the barn:
Then I cleaned out the larger goat kid pen and put down new straw. The kids enjoy playing with this straw:
Here's Shorty and PeeWee playing around a dog house:
Then I went into the house and took a long, hot, candle-lit, bubble bath in my renovated bathroom.

The back of the property

2009-05-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

This last weekend Tom used an excavator and dug a pond in the back of our property. It rapidly filled with water. The soil there is mostly clay so hopefully it will retain the water well through the dryer months. He built steps on one side in case it doesn't. I am hoping to build a fence around it- either woven wire or electric netting- and put the ducks and/or geese back there. They would really like a bigger pond, I think.We also have the majority of the sheep, a few goats and a llama grazing the woods out back. They really enjoy browsing a variety of plants, and all are looking very well fed. It is nice that they keep the brush down and clear the trails for us too.

Random spring animal photos

2009-05-01T08:16:00.001-07:00

Pheasant chicks (Chinese Ringneck and Melanistic Mutant):

Zeus on Cally:
Shaun and Shirley:
Lambs:
Goats in front of stove:

Lambing is finally over with new life and death yet again

2009-04-28T16:28:00.000-07:00

(Warning dead animal photo below)

So lambing is finally done, and tonight we will get to sleep 8 hours for the first time in over one month. Sheila, our shaela older ewe, delivered her final set of lambs at 1 AM. She delivered twin black lambs with some white markings. I am assuming that they will be modified like she and the sire (Jocko, our mioget ram). But the ram lamb has a few white hairs in his ear and a spotted tongue. His scrotum is dark though. I am wanting to keep one of them, and I would prefer it be the ram if he is in fact modified. And I need to decide quick for potential buyers too. Anyways they are being called Shaun and Shirley- Shaun the Sheep cartoon characters.

We apparently also had bunnies born last night. Ma Bell was supposed to deliver today, and I forgot to tell Tom to check the nest box yesterday while I was a t work. So this morning I found 6 cold bunnies in the nest box. Their tummies appear full so I am not sure what happened. I warmed them, and one of them came to life but no such luck with the others. So naturally once again I feel horribly guilty about screwing up and having a newborn die because of it. It is hard to get used to this feeling and really is a downside to this farming thing.

Even though I got almost no sleep last night at work I had to bring the goat kids to the vet to be disbudded. I have him do it with sedation and local anesthesia because I feel he does a much better job than I and it is more humane. So to me it's worth the expense. So right now I have 10 sedated goat kids laying around my living room, and I am making sure they keep breathing and wake up OK. It is very much like a recovery room in here.

More animal troubles here at Schoonover farm

2009-04-23T16:09:00.000-07:00

So we made it through the night and the surviving ewe lambs are doing well- nursing off their mother. Tom had checked on Shortcake, the smallest of Saphie's quads, with the early morning barn check, and he said she was up and around, doing well. I had been worrying about her since she was the smallest of the quads, and I did not think when they were born that Saphie would have enough milk for all four of them. I fed her a bottle yesterday just because her stomach was not quite as full as the others, and she was a little hunched looking. When we went to feed animals this morning I found her curled up like usual, but she did not get up to come for grain. In fact she could not stand at all, and her stomach was quite thin. So I scooped her up and took her into the house. We had brought Pee Wee out for her daily goat visit (although she does not seem to like it- does not cuddle or play with the other goats). Right when I found Shortcake, Pee Wee decided to jump in the water container and soak herself. So I ran off with Shortcake while Tom tried to dry and warm Pee Wee. Shortcake was cold. I was able to feed her some milk, then warm her in the dryer (not running!) and then finish feeding her. She was still cool, and Tom then came in with still shivering Pee Wee. He could not get her warm again inside his coat. So they both went into the pre-warm dryer for a little sauna session. Now they are both in the house with diapers on. Pee Wee is fine, running laps and performing acrobatic jumps, but Shortcake is still having troubles staying warm- she's in the 80 degree bathroom now and still looks a little hunched. She's crying for her mother too:

So it is looking like we will have two bottle babies to feed. So Tom went out to run errands and I asked for goat milk. I meanwhile tried to milk all the does who have only 1- 2 kids. My Udderly EZ milker gave up the ghost because it got caked in colostrum earlier, and I had forgot you are not supposed to put it in water to clean it. So I got to try to hand milk three very uncooperative does- one 10 year old Nigerian doe, one Angora doe and a Pygmy doe- none of which are great milk producers. After all of this I got maybe 1/2 cup of goat milk:

So I called Tom back and asked for A LOT of goat milk. In addition Patches escaped from her hog panel enclosure leaving her four kids behind. So I let all the lambs out of their pens except Jenny's and moved Patches and her kids into one of the pens. She should stay put in there. The lambs enjoyed their first taste of freedom,

their first try at the hay feeder,
to look to their mothers in a scary world,

to check out tires,
to eat grass,

and get totally wore out in the process.
I did find some time to check out my newest lamb in the sunlight. Introducing Jemima. She is one of Jenny's triplets, but she has appears to be a mioget katmoget ewe lamb. I am so excited to have this color and pattern combinations! I am also thrilled to finally be able to name a lamb Jemima- I have been wanting to since I met a wonderful ewe named Jemima at Amy Hauser's place when I bought my first Shetland sheep. I was wanting Shetland sheep, and Jemima was a large cross bred ewe, but she had lovely wool and a wonderful deep voice. Plus I always thought it was a great sheep name. So now I have my very own Jemima!

Lambing sucks! (sometimes)

2009-04-23T09:37:00.001-07:00

So yesterday I noticed that Jenny, our katmoget ewe who tried to die 1.5 months ago, was acting oddly. She as hanging out on the far fence line and not coming in for grain. Her uterus seemed to have dropped, and her udder seemed fuller. So I assumed she would lamb soon. I hung out in the barn yard all day checking on her constantly. She kept acting oddly but no other changes. I chose not to go to the Mariners game, and my husband went with his father. Then she started hanging out in other odd places, baaing to the other lambs (I had never heard her baa before), and standing still when I walked up to her (normal she would flee wildly). I kept watching her every hour without other changes. I last checked her at 11:00 and Tom checked her at midnight. He asked what time I wanted the alarm set for, and I said 2 to 2.5 hours. He set it for 2:30. I got up then, and it was the hardest getting out of bed I have ever done in my life. We have been up every 2-3 hours since March 24th and are exhausted. But I drug myself out of bed and went to the barn. Jenny was here with two black katmoget lambs one standing and licked and the other lifeless, covered with meconium and head covered in the sack but still quite warm. I tried to revive it without any luck. It was a beautiful ewe lamb. I dried, clean and dipped the other lamb and moved them into a pen. It is also a ewe lamb. I stripped the mother's teats and left them. I assumed that the lamb would nurse well as vigorous as it was. I thought I saw the placenta next to the dead lamb, and there was nothing hanging out of Jenny so I thought we were done. Then I collected the dead lamb for burial for the next day and went back to bed. I, of course, couldn't sleep thinking about how if I had kept doing the hourly checks like I should have the lamb may have lived. It may not have though- it was covered in meconium indicating stress, and I couldn't get air into it's lungs. Lambs that don't move after birth aren't cleaned by their mothers so it may not have lived anyway. But I at least could have tried, and I would not be experiencing this guilt. Anyway, here's a photo of the lamb that lived:

Tom did the 5:30 lamb check and bottle goat feed and then I got up at 7:30 and checked on everyone. When I looked in Jenny's pen, this is what I found:

There was a third lamb born at least 4 hours after the first two! This is a first for me- I really thought she was done. This lamb was up and walking but was still somewhat wet, chilled, and covered in meconium. It was obvious is had not nursed and the first lamb's stomach was not very full either. I dried, cleaned and dipped the third lamb and noted that it is a mioget katmoget ewe lamb! I tried to get them both to nurse but no luck- Jenny was completely uncooperative and kicking them away. So I went back to the house to get Tom's help. When we returned Jenny was trying to get them both to nurse, but neither was finding the teat. So Tom held Jenny while I tried to get them on. I could get them on the teat, but they would not suck despite all of my tricks. So I got out the Udderly EZ milker and got about 2 cups of colostrum. After a long struggle we got both lambs to finish this by bottle. Both appeared a lot more lively and warm after this. Now we have to hope they will find the source, and we will not have to repeat this performance. The other barn animals were hollering that they were hungry through this whole process although it wasn't feeding time yet- adding to the commotion. So now we are cleaned and changed drinking our well-deserved coffee. Tom says he has "animal burn-out", and I was getting there too. But now I have a gorgeous mioget katmoget lamb I have always wanted so things are looking better this morning for me.

Kidding goes out with a bang!

2009-04-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

So kidding has ended here for the year with Patches producing quads! I had bought a barn cam with a birthday gift card. I had been to the barn about one hour prior but then noticed on the computer screen that Patches was licking something on the ground. So I went out to the barn and found she had quads. Initially one looked a little droopy so I dried them all, dipped their cords and got them all to nurse. Looks like they will all do well. I will get better photos of them tomorrow and post them on the goat web page at http://www.schoonoverfarm.com/Kids.html

There's Alla, a black and mahogany buckskin doeling with white on her face, forehead, foot and side. She appears to be polled. We are planning on keeping her to preserve Patches and her mother Paloma's genetics.
Then there's J. P., a white, spotted buckling. It appears that he is not polled. He will be sold as an intact AGS registered buckling.Then there's Tikey, a mahogany buckling with a white belt over his back and a large stripe on his face. He will be available as a wether.
Finally there's little Paddy. She is mahogany with a white star. She appears to be polled. She will be available as a doeling.
That brings the grand total to 17 kids with two sets of quads (the first time we have ever had quads). To refresh we also have Zeus and Athena,
Fannie Mae,

Lady Jane and Mr. D. (who like to hang out in the hay feeder),

Mindy (who likes to sleep behind this post),
Mork and Mearth (spazing out on the pallet),
Sherlock, Sophia, Shortcake and Sugar Mag,
and finally Pee Wee.

Even more lambs, a greenhouse and Pee Wee

2009-04-20T09:59:00.000-07:00

At 1:15 this morning I heard yelling from the barn on the baby monitor. So I headed out there and found Monette pushing hard and part of feet and head out. So I pulled and delivered this gorgeous grey ram lamb I am calling Rhett.

It took her almost 45 minutes to delivery the second lamb- this grey ewe lamb I am calling Scarlett.
Both were cleaned, dried, dipped, stood and nursed without difficulty. I am thinking the baby monitor may have saved another lamb. Below are better photos of Daphnie's lambs born yesterday- Dinah
and Dixie.
During this time Tom has been building me a greenhouse out of old windows that were left here by the previous owners. Some are probably from the 1940's and others the 1970's. All are wood. Some have broken seals, and some have some wood rot, but they all would work for a greenhouse. Yesterday he is almost finished with the walls and roof- just a few holes to patch over- and he is working on bricking in the floor. We have old bricks from a demolished building in Whatcom county which should work great as well as sand left over from our sand bags from flooding. So anyway, here's a photo of my new greenhouse!Finally I have some cute Pee Wee photos. She no longer needs a heated towel to stay warm but still can only be out in the barn in the day time a few hours. She is on a bottle with goat milk and wears a diaper in the house. She is getting quite adept at using our furniture and shoes to pull the diaper off though.

More lambs!

2009-04-19T14:47:00.001-07:00

So early this afternoon Daphnie finally lambed. She did not like us watching but ultimately pushed out a black ewe lamb with agouti markings- white on her neck, forehead and in her ears. This means she will grey with time. We are calling her Dinah.

Then after 10-15 minutes she produced a second ewe lamb- this one covered in meconium (poop). This was has more agouti markings so will be a light grey color. We are calling her Dixie.
They were moved into a lambing pen and are up and nursing. Three ewes and one doe to go!

Finally.... more lambs (and more kids)!

2009-04-19T09:31:00.000-07:00

First things first- we had triplet Nigerian Dwarf goats born. They are all good sized and doing well. There's a black belted buckling we're calling Mork,

a tan/black buckskin doeling with white legs we are calling Mindy,
and a black doeling with a white belt, white star and frosted ears we are calling Mearth.
Then when I was at work (of course!), Mona decided to give birth between Tom's barn checks and to apparently ignore one of her lambs completely. So Tom came out to find a lifeless appearing lamb. He did mouth to mouth breathing and chest compression, and the lamb started breathing a little. Then he swung the lamb, dried and stimulated, and he finally seemed more lively although would not stand or eat. He was cold so was brought into the house and warmed. When brought back out to the barn still would not nurse or stand and was breathing hard. He chilled again quickly so Tom milked colostrum out of Mona and brought this and the lamb back into the house. He warmed the lamb again and this time he sucked the bottle and colostrum down well. He was still having difficulty standing but was brought back out to the barn and laid next to his brother at midnight. Then Mona finally licked him and laid down next to him and he nursed. By morning he was standing and acting vigorous. When I came home from work this morning he is looking and acting like nothing had happened, but Tom looks very tired. Tom definitely earned the right to name him so he's "Buster":
His brother is McFly.
I will need to go back out and get better photos to put on the website, but all are doing quite well at this point. I think we are getting better at this lambing and kidding stuff as we have had two saves this spring- PeeWee and now Buster. Four ewes and one doe to go!

Spring Day!

2009-04-16T17:36:00.000-07:00

Today was a nice, warm, sunny spring day. Hazel's Satin Angora bunnies are 3 week sold so they got to move to a cage in the feed shed (rather than a kennel on top of the dryer) and are offered food and water- although they show no interest. I also trimmed the hooves on all of the goats as well as wormed them and injected them with Multi-Min.

After this was accomplished I heard a crying out from the barn. I went in and noticed Fern, our pygmy doe, in labor. I called Tom in from building the greenhouse, and we watched her. She was crying and pushing hard, but it had not been long enough to intervene. She then pushed a head out but no legs. Uh oh..So now is time to intervene. I managed to pull one leg out but couldn't get the other. So I pulled the head and the leg. It was scary because the neck stretched a bit, but we were able to deliver the kid. She is a tan and black buckskin doeling with a white belt and star and frosted ears. Her father is our Nigerian Dwarf buck Yahoo so she's a Pygmy-Nigerian cross. We are considering calling her Fannie Mae.
Pee Wee, our runt Nigerian kid, is doing well with frequent bottle feeds and warming. She is still quite tiny but is walking and sucking better. We are trying to get some meat on her bones so she can maintain her temperature better. She's currently on my lap sleeping wrapped in a dryer-warmed towel.

By the way, congratulations are in order for Rabbit Meadow's two new lambs born yesterday. I got to watch the whole process on their lamb cam (above) and even called their cell phone to offer advice during the process. Isn't technology interesting! Madison (the ewe) is the proud mother of a ewe and a ram lamb.

Happy Easter 2!

2009-04-13T05:15:00.000-07:00

So Cally decided to go into labor when I was supposed to go to sleep. She first produced a tiny thin kid and then two normal sized ones. I was sure the small one was not going to be able to breathe then eat then stand but she proved me wrong. It took 2 hours though. Now it really looks like we will have a bottle baby. She is cute though a golden buckskin. The second one is a flashy black and gold buckskin buckling the third one is chocolate brown with a gold belly and a white star. She has a curly coat though. Not sure what to make of that. I will get better photos when I find time.

e

Happy Easter!

2009-04-11T11:45:00.001-07:00

Day 163....

2009-04-11T11:38:00.001-07:00

for the ewes,

and day 57 for the does.

Lambs!!!!!!!

2009-04-07T11:27:00.000-07:00

Finally, when I went back to work, Wilma lambed yesterday morning. Tom checked on the ewes in the morning and then one hour later checked again, and there were these cleaned off lambies. This is the photo he took then:

There's two brown lambs- a ram lamb and a ewe lamb. They will likely both become mioget like their mother and father- a gorgeous golden color. Since Tom took care of them he got to name them. Meet Wile E.
and Wildthing:
We are trying to retain a replacement for Jocko since he will be nine this next spring. So Wile E. is a possibility, but we'll see what Jenny and Sheila produce first before deciding who to keep intact. Hopefully this will be soon!

No situation at Schoonover Farm after all

2009-04-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

So it is looking like we do not have a situation at Schoonover Farm after all. Today while waiting for Angie's kids to be born I was looking at the supposedly pregnant ewes. The only one of the ewes that I thought might have been impregnated by our "one-nut-wonder" Barney that is developing an udder is Wilma. And Wink (her mother) who I thought I bred to Jocko is not showing any signs of pregnancy at all. So this afternoon I perused the photos of Jocko's breeding group and blew up the photo a little. Notice the lack of any visible ear tags in the ewe in the center facing the camera.

I blew the photo up more- nothing in her left ear but possible a dark ear tag on the right.
Then I found this photo I took of the ewes before I put them in their breeding pastures. Again the small brown ewe on the left of the photo has no visible ear tag in her left ear.
Now this is a photo of Wink's face with a large visible yellow ear tag on her left ear. I confirmed today that she still has it.

And this is Wilma's face photo with a steel ear tag on the right ear.

So it looks like I accidentally grabbed Wilma instead of Wink to breed with Jocko. Which means Barney, our "one-nut-wonder" is infertile like I thought, and we do not have 6 extra unintended pregnancies! This news will be good for my marriage. And it also means we've been feeding 6 ewes grain daily for nothing. So now they will be kicked out of the spoiled sheep group and into the regular sheep group ASAP. The old digital barn camera came in handy.

Busy morning

2009-04-05T12:29:00.001-07:00

So I have had a long morning. I was concerned about Angie, our boringly named Angora doe, all night. She was standing all night, squatting frequently, and showing a lot of movement over her uterus but never showed signs of contractions or a water bag. So finally this morning I examined her and thought I felt a head but no water bag. Then I got really concerned and watched her for 30 minutes. No progress so then I examined her again- this time I felt two sets of front feet and they both felt like they were in a bag with water. So then Ifelt a little better, left her for another 30 minutes during which time she finally starting contracting. Here's a photo of her just before she delivered- I have never seen a goat so huge.

Then she delivered her fist kid- it looks to be a dark brown doeling but there's a patch of missing skin on her side. I do not think my exams should have caused this. I know that with people you can have cutis aplasia, but it looks more like an injury to me. I am just not sure how she could have been injured like this.
Then Angie delivered her second kid, and it's what I have always wanted- a red fiber goat! I have been coveting red Angora goats for a long time but never found one for sale. I have tried now three times to breed Angie to produce a red kid and have gotten black and brown instead. So I am absolutely thrilled. It's a little buckling so that leads to the decision of whether to keep him intact or not. I do not see a need at his time to breed him in my herd but at least I have some weeks to decide what to do.
Angie took good care of both of them, but they could not figure out how to nurse so finally I milked one side out and bottle fed Mr. D. (the red buckling). While I was doing this Lady Jane (the brown doeling) figured out how to latch on with a little help. So both should be just fine.

I was surprised Angie only had two kids but since each one is about 3 times the size of Saphie's kids that probably explains Angie's large abdomen. I took more photos when they were dried off and cuter, but I guess they did not come out. I will eat some breakfast and try again. Sleep deprivation is not a wonderful thing. I will post their new photos on the goat web page at

http://www.schoonoverfarm.com/Goats

Colostrum and blue eyes

2009-04-04T12:56:00.001-07:00

As expected, Saphie did not have enough milk for all four kids. I dug around in the freezer and found goat colostum from 2002 and sheep colostrum from last year. I thawed both- the goat colostrum was like cheese but the sheep's looked normal. So I fed the sheep colostrum to the kids that weren't getting enough- hopefully that will suffice in addition to what they are able to nurse from their mother. Note to self- need to collect goat and sheep colostrum this year and put in freezer.

Another issue I am having is trying to determine who has blue eyes versus brown eyes. It's been difficult with the low light conditions of the laundry room and then the barn. I took these flash photos to see and they all seem to have blue eyes. What do you all think? To those not familiar with goat eye color genetics, it is autosomal dominant, but Saphie's dam appears to have brown eyes so she should be able to produce both blue and brown eyes.

The last issue of the day is how many kids are we going to have. Check out the size of our pregnant does.
And check out how wide Saphie was yesterday morning before she had quads.
I am concerned there may be more bottle feeding in my future!

UPDATE- It is a sunny day, and I took each kid into the light, and they all have blue eyes. Now statistically each kid has a 50-50% chance of having blue eyes, but Saphie has produced now a total of 6 kids all with blue eyes.

I should not have complained

2009-04-03T23:42:00.001-07:00

because now I have my work cut out for me. Saphie, our blue-eyed black Nigerian Dwarf doe, gave birth to quads tonight. She normally nurses only 2 kids at a time and is not well endowed. So looks like I will have 1-2 bottle babies. Initially she was not taking care of them- not licking them or trying to get them to nurse. Plus it's 36 degrees and dropping. Initially I put them in enclosed pen but then decided to bring them into the house- the laundry room. I got the kids dried off and warmed up. They still would not nurse and Saphie was not cooperating so I milked her, place the colostrum into a bottle and fed all four of them. Now they are up and about better and trying harder to nurse. And Saphie seems to be settling down taking care of them. So in the morning I will need to get goat milk and diapers.

So here's the new additions:

Sugar Magnolia

Sophia

Shortcake

Sherlock

Welcome to the world (or at least the laundry room)!

April Fool....

2009-04-02T19:09:00.000-07:00

...is apparently me since I have taken one week off of work to slog through the mud in torrential downpours every 2-3 hours day and night to stare at fat sheep butts!

Today though I had this view of our ringneck pheasant on our feed shed roof while I was slogging through the mud:

Este Blog investe e acredita na... PROXIMIDADE!

2009-03-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

I received this award from Michelle:
"I received this award from two dear blogpals, first MiniKat and then Sharon. I wasn't going to post about it, since it's given to blogs that "invest and believe in the PROXIMITY- nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!” See that little line, "not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement"? How do you accept an award without appearing interested in self-aggrandizement? But when it came my way a second time, it seemed rude to ignore the kind gestures of these two ladies, and not pass the award on to eight others. When I looked through the list of blogs I follow, I realized I've had the fun of meeting nine of them (not counting my sister, neighbor, and the proprietors of two local yarn shops). So although this award is not necessarily for those with whom one has shared a physical proximity, these bloggers fit the other descriptions, too. Tina, Allena, Karla, Franna, Tammy, Donna, Lois, Shannon, and Tammy - consider yourselves awarded!"

So in considering this, I chose 6 bloggers that have relative proximity in relationships and in physical location who have charming blogs. (There are two repeats from the above.) They are:

March..............

2009-03-31T11:41:00.001-07:00

is not "out like a lamb".............

in weather........

or in sheep.......

or even if you consider goats........

Still waiting

2009-03-29T07:37:00.000-07:00

Every year this happens...Everyone else is having lambs, and I have been up for many nights staring at fat sheep. After a while I start wondering in a sleep-deprived haze whether they are really PG or just fat. What do you think- PG or fat?

This spring has been cold too. We sheared in the middle of March which should have been fine, but it has been much cooler than usual, and the sheep and goats are spending a lot of time in the barn. We still have tarps over the doors to try and keep some warmth in and the breeze out. Hannah, our Pygora goat, initially started shivering so I put an accidentally felted wool sweater on her which she wore for 3 days. I had moved the wethers and some goats into a field that had a good shelter and grass to eat, but one evening they were hollering and trying to bust through the fence. I took pity on them and moved them back to the barn. That night there was a torrential and cold downpour- I am glad they let me know beforehand! Then yesterday Gwennyth, our thin retired ewe, was shivering. I tried to put the sweater on her too- she would have none of it- she kicked it off three times before I gave up and this morning she's shivering again. What to do?

This year's lamb/kid watch is a little different than some- Tom's on a trip so I am on my own. I have not been alone during lambing since I met him in 2001. I did manage to take off of work but am getting less sleep now than when I do work. Plus I aggravated my back- not sure if it was hauling 50# bags of feed or carting bales of hay through the muck. Some mornings (like this one) I wonder if I am tough enough to be a shepherd.

On a brighter note, it is a beautiful morning after sleeting most of last night. The sun is up, the sky is blue, the air is crisp and the birds are signing. And it's my birthday!

Waiting for lambs- bunnies are born

2009-03-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

We have been checking on the ewes every 1-2 hours for 2 days now without any lambs produced. Then this afternoon Hazel, our Red Satin Angora rabbit, produced 4 bunnies. They look great- one is a runt but well fed. Without only three others to compete with, he/she may do just fine. Ma Bell is also supposed to be due today- she's spending a lot of time in the nest box but is not making a wool nest though. So the waiting continues....

Bags O' Wool

2009-03-20T17:57:00.001-07:00

I have been skirting like crazy. I have a hog panel set up on the back porch and between squalls I skirt the fleeces. I have sold and shipped eleven of them but still have 12 more available for sale. I only have 6 sellable fleeces left to skirt!

Situation at Schoonover Farm

2009-03-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

So we appear to have a problem here. On shearing day we noticed that our one CVM ewe (not so affectionately called Mutiny) had udder swelling. We bought her when she was 6 months old, and she has never been bred. We have had no ram escapes since last July so we were not sure what happened. Then today I noticed that Wilma is looking wider than the other sheep and has some udder development:

So we herded the possibly pregnant hussies into a pen so we could start feeding them small amounts of grain. Then I got to thinking- we have a cryptorchid ram lamb Barney that we had banded at 2 weeks of age. He is too small to put in with the rams or to butcher. I did some research on artificial cryptorchid sheep from Australia- that is they band the ram lambs after pushing the testicles into the abdominal cavity. These sheep act like rams and have better meat production, but they are infertile and are run with the flock. So I though it was safe to keep Barney in with the flock unless he started getting aggressive. Now I am not so sure.
So we may have 6 ewes we did not intend to breed bred. Some of them had birthing difficulties before and some I did not feel were as marketable. There are also the two Gotland ewes and two skinny sheep that were briefly in with the flock as well. So this could be a BIG disaster. And since Barney is not registerable (for good reason) none of these lambs would be worth much.

So I need some opinions- do udders ever develop without a pregnancy? Does anyone have any experience with banded cryptorchid rams?

On a different note, we bought back a Nigerian Dwarf doe. It's Meadowlark out of our doe Magpie and buck CTC Mr. Mahogany. She is a pretty (but a little chunky) doe but not friendly. The family that bought her never bonded with her, and the child is losing interest in the goats. So it was in everyone's best interest to have her move back.

37 fleeces!

2009-03-14T11:32:00.001-07:00

So now I have 37 fleeces to deal with! In previous years I have sheared 3-5 sheep per day once or twice per week starting in February and ending in March. This gave me plenty of time and room to dry, skirt, and then package fleeces before the next shearing. But this year I have 37 all at once. I know with other flocks this is a regular occurrence, but I really do not have the space for this, particularly with my step-son moving back home. So we have fleeces almost everywhere!

Stairway fleeces

Hallway fleeces

Upstairs fiber studio fleeces

Library fleeces

Fiber studio in trailer

Waste wool

And we have the electric heat going in each of these rooms with the windows cracked. I cannot wait to see the electric bill.

Sheep (and goat) shearing day!

2009-03-11T20:37:00.001-07:00

I am whooped right now so will not write very much about our exhausting day. I did manage to post photos of the nicest fleeces on the fiber web pages at:

http://www.schoonoverfarm.com/Fiber.html
http://www.schoonoverfarm.com/MoreFiber.html
http://www.schoonoverfarm.com/EvenMoreFiber.html
http://www.schoonoverfarm.com/YetMoreFiber.html

By the way, our shearers name is Zander Woofenden. His email address is zanderwoof@gmail.com and his phone number is (360) 420-9739.

Snow in March

2009-03-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

Shearing visitors and sick Jenny

2009-03-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

Today we have 4 sheep visiting. I found out that if I have 41 sheep + fiber goats here for shearing this next Wednesday that there is a 20% discount per sheep/goat. So since I have 33 sheep and 4 fiber goats I need 4 more animals to get this savings. So I asked our neighbors the Houles if they wanted to bring the 4 sheep they bought from us last year over. They agreed although had been thinking they would shear themselves. I feel bad about spoiling their shearing plans, but it certainly is easier for all of us to have the shearer do it. So they brought Aries, Darwin, Josefina and Katarina over today in anticipation of shearing. It's nice to see them again and see how they have grown and changed. Josefina and Katarina are just cute and friendly as can be. They did manage to get some hay in their wool like their mother. Darwin has grown a lot and his fleece is gorgeous and huge- looks to be double coated, light grey and soft. Aries has a nice colored moorit crimpier fleece. They are concerned it might be felting. I will check it out when I get a chance. In the meantime the sheep are reacquainting themselves and reestablishing rank.

Josefina & Katarina

Darwin

We also had a bad scare this last week. On Friday morning I noticed that Jenny, our 7 year old katmoget ewe from Windy Valley, was not interested in eating. This is not like her at all so I brought her into the feed shed to examine her. I noticed her abdomen was quite full, and she was breathing a little fast. She was also occasionally moaning. Her temperature was good, and she had plenty of strength. I drenched her with docusate and as about to drench her with electrolyte solution when I thought better of it and decided to bring her to the vet. We were scheduled to go to my uncle George's funeral at 3:00 in Seattle so I quickly called the vet and we carried, drag and hoisted Jenny into the truck and headed to the vet.

One of our wonderful vets at Chuckanut Vet Clinic felt that she was not too bloated, but that she appeared to have ileus (rumen shutdown) from grain overload. I had increased the flock to full grain amounts of 1# each on Monday which he did not think was too much, but we think she may have eaten more than her alloted amount as she is a pig. I had been feeding grain in a 10 foot trough for the first time rather than in individual pans. So we are thinking she bullied her way to get more feet of the trough and overdid it. So now I am feeling quite guilty about changing the feeding practices for my convenience and now facing losing Jenny as well as her lambs due in 2.5 weeks. The vet tubed a solution of Magnalax and activated charcoal into her stomach and gave us banamine (painkiller) once per day and propylene glycol/vitamin/electrolyte paste twice per day. Then we hoisted her back into the truck, got her home, medicated her, cleaned up and drove the the funeral.

We barely made the service but am glad I went But then we had dinner en route home and arrive at 9 PM. Jenny did not look good. She could not stand, she was breathing quite quickly and had not stooled yet. I figured we were going to lose her and even contemplated putting her out of her misery. But we medicated her again and hoped for the best.

Saturday early morning I had to go to work so it was up to Tom to manage her. I kept expecting a call from him that she had died and he was burying her. But instead I got a voice mail that she was perking up, trying to stand, had stooled a little and urinated. He called the vet and was instruction to drench her, that it's too early to consider a c-section and he was surprised she was improving this quickly. As the day wore on I kept getting voice mails that she was perking up more and more, standing, drinking, peeing, pooping. Then when I came home this morning she is a whole new sheep. She's ornery as ever, wants out of the pen now, drank all of her water, had 3 piles of diarrhea (which is what we want right now) and had hay all over her face. She even blasted through the pen door and briefly escaped! So it looks like she is on the road to recovery. But she was quite ill and I worry about the status of her lambs. We will see.

Jenny recovering

Supplies used to save Jenny

Farm chores

2009-03-05T15:26:00.000-08:00

We have just been accomplishing some random farm chores here when the weather is decent. We have had a donated old water tank that no longer holds water. We have tried several times to patch it to no avail. So when the clean plastic swimming pool we use for a duck pond finally gave up the ghost, Tom cut a piece off the old water tank, and it is now a duck pond. The ducks are thrilled!

Then I got around to clean out and refurbishing the rabbit pen. Initially I had chicken wire on the floor of the pen to keep varmints out and the rabbits in. That rotted away quickly in our moist soil so I replaced it with old fencing. Well the varmints figured out how to get through the fencing and ate a lot of rabbit food. So I placed old pieces of plywood on the floor of the pen on top of the fencing. The varmints chewed through that. Then I placed metal rabbit cage pans on top of that. The problem is that they were odd ball sizes and never covered the entire floor and the varmints found their way in. So I ripped it all out today and started over. This is the floor of the pen with everything ripped out:
These are the metal pans I was using, upside down and drying in the sun:
Then I placed metal recycle siding on the floor to completely cover it. I topped that with wood shavings and then hay. Now the rabbits are back in (with two pheasants), and they seem to be happy with their updated digs. Now we'll see if it's varmint-proof.
Tom is building me a greenhouse with all the windows that were left here when we bought the place. We purchased an old glassed-in screen door yesterday for it at a recycled building supplies store. There we also found a motor that went with an old joiner and bought that too. This motor we can attach to the hay elevator, and it will be more powerful than the wimpy one that crapped out on us last year in the middle of stacking hay.

Pregnant animals

2009-02-26T14:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we moved the pregnant goats and sheep together into one side of the barn so we could feed them more for the last of their gestations. I kept the skinny old sheep and goats in with them too so they could also get extra nutrition. While I had them penned up to move them and catch them, the goat all got their hooves trimmed, and the pregnant goats and sheep were wormed and had their CDT shots.

I left my camera in the house in another barn coat so was not able to take photos of the proceedings. This leads me briefly to the topic of barn coats. A barn coat is an old winter coat that has become tattered and torn so then is designated as a barn coat. It usually lasts one to two winters and then is tossed. A winter is quite hard on a barn coat. The last two barn coats have been old coats of Tom's so he's getting a little annoyed at me for destroying all of his warm coats. Next year's barn coat will be my current and much love Carhartt coat that is starting to get small holes in the sleeves. I will then need to find another Carhartt to replace it in the cycle of coats.

Anyway, back to the topic: today I found my camera and took photos of all the pregnant sheep and goats after the animals' chores were done. It is actually better that I did not have my camera yesterday since yesterday was cloudy and rainy and today it is sunny and there's still some snow on the ground that has not melted from last night. So here's the fatso's:

Above is Saphie (short of Ravencrest Saphire Dutchess- misspelled on the registration), our wide, black, blue-eyed Nigerian Dwarf doe bred to Donna's Yahoo, our reddish-brown buckskin buck. The kids she produces look much more like their father except they can have their mother's blue eyes.

Above is Dodge Daphnie, our spotted horned ewe bred to our black and white flecket (spotted) ram Sheltering Pines Lewis. She is hopefully carrying spotted lambies inside.

This is Fern, a donated unwanted pygmy doe. She was accidental bred by Cody (AKA Ravencrest Luck of the Draw) and she produced the most gorgeous kids, one buckskin and one brown and white. So I decided to try breeding her again, this time with Yahoo and on purpose.
This is Patches Pal. She is quite plump with kids from her breeding with Mr. (AKA CTC Mr. Mahogany), our mahogany polled buck. This combination produces gorgeous spotted kids with a good chance of being hornless naturally.
This is Windy Valley Jenny, our katmoget ewe with gorgeous fine crimpy fleece. She is pregnant from Jocko (AKA Bitterroot Ansel), our mioget ram with a gorgeous medium crimpy fleece. I am really hoping these lambs inside will be mioget and katmoget.
This is Mountain Niche Sheila, our now middle aged, shaela ewe who had a gorgeous medium crimpy fleece. This is the last time I will breed her with Jocko to produce one last set of gorgeous lambs with modified colors. I plan on keeping one of her lambs to preserve her outstanding genetics. She can then retire to a peaceful sheep life.
This is Bing Bang Wink, our wild mioget ewe with a primitive fleece. She is pregnant by Jocko in hope of producing more mioget (golden-brown) lambs.
This is Donnas-Sheep Monette, the last sheep out of my all time favorite ewe Babette. She does not have a new mutation red spot on her back- she likes to rub on the mineral feeder. She is pregnant by Lewis in hope of making spotted black or grey lambs.
This is Mona, daughter of Monette who likes to get hay all over herself. She produced gorgeous HST lambs last year in her breeding to Lewis so we are hoping she is carrying the same again.
This is Magpie, the prodigy of my first Nigerian Dwarf goat Dot. She is bred to Mr. and is hopefully carrying spotted polled kids again this year.
This is Cally (AAK Shadow Mountain Calypso) in her breeding finale. She is plump with kids from Cody. The last time we used this combination she produced a red and brown buckskin and a brown and white belted kids
This is Angie, our boringly named Angora doe. She was bred again to Cody to produce more Nigora fiber kids. This previous combination brought black and brown kids who grew up to produce the most lovely cashmere fiber so we are hoping for more.

So far, 3 kids and 8 lambs are spoken for. Since ewes usually have twins and does have twins or triplets, there are still plenty of lambs and kids that will be available for sale.

In addition to moving, trimming, and injecting sheep and goat yesterday, I bred two of our Satin Angora does. The red doe Hazel I bred to our copper buck named Peanut, and our copper doe Ma Bell I bred to our black buck Pepe. These bunnies should be born at the beginning of lambing and kidding time. Should be a busy couple of weeks next month. Fortunately I was able to take some time off work then.