Deworming

Farm Girl and I have spent the last couple days deworming half the sheep and her goats.

We don't have any fancy set up or sorting equipment so they are all wrestled down and given their oral injection individually.  The small ones and lambs are easily held down when administering the dewormer.

However the bigger ewes proved more of a challenge so we used our milk stand to contain them.  We finished the last of all our original sheep and now only have the new sheep to do.  

We decided to just deworm everyone at the same time since the new ewes needed to be done anyway.  In other sheep news, I may have another bottle lamb.

This is Dark Carmella's little boy.  The girl died two days after birth after falling into the feeder and not being able to get out and drink from mom.  Unfortunately it occurred over the weekend of Family Day and everything was closed so I was unable to get out and get her anything as she was far too gone.  Lesson learned, always make sure to be prepared during lambing season.  Anyway, we suspect that Dark Carmella is not producing enough milk for him as he looks the same size at 11 days old that he did at birth.  He's also got creamy coloured diarrhea.  Not sure if it's contagious or not, but it's best he stay in the house and get a bottle where I can monitor his intake. I've dewormed him, gave him a penicillin shot and a selenium shot and pedialyte to help the diarrhea.  Fingers crossed for this little guy.

Schoolmates

When you are homeschooled and living on a sheep farm, sometimes your only schoolmates are orphaned, sick or bottle lambs.

Hauling Livestock

This morning me and my husband hit the road early to haul livestock home from the longest drive I've gone to buy livestock.

We hired a livestock trailer and driver for the eight hour drive both ways.  We were purchasing and picking up sheep unseen.  I hardly could sleep, knowing that isn't one of my smartest decisions but we were committed so went ahead with the cross province drive. I was pleased to discover I made the right decision.  I had a great trip, enjoyed our driver's very knowledgeable company and most of all loved the sheep.

Thunder on the Move

I knew that the outdoor goat pen was a temporary stop for Thunder until I set up something more permanent indoors.  A huge storm struckand I had no choice but to bring him in with the other goats.  However, even with a steel pen keeping Caesar separated from the rest of the goats, it wasn't enough to deter he and Thunder trying to battle it out.  This transferred to frustration for Thunder who started picking on everyone else in the stall so he had to go.  I looked around the barn trying to find some space for Thunder and Holly and decided the miniatures didn't need all the space in their stall and the pygmy's didn't need a whole lot of space being so small and just the two of them.

i like it, it works for me.

And Thunder gets along with his new neighbours better.

Working With Sierra

We are still unsure what to do with Sierra.  She is an almost 3 year old registered quarter horse and still green.  She has a gentle heart and one of the kindest personalities ever found in a horse.  I'd love to keep her for myself accept I really like my horses stone cold broke.  I don't think I have what it takes to see her to her full potential.

She is too small for Farm Girl who would like a nice solid animal beneath her.  And one that does not fear speed.  Sierra is so quiet we suspect she will have more whoa than go.  Which, again, is more what I'm looking for.

Until we decide Farm Girl will continue to work with her and we'll see how it goes.

New Lambs

This morning I entered the barn to the usual morning cries of the sheep, however blended in with their bleats I heard two distinct newborn cries.  One was coming from the nursery/maternity pen and the other was coming from the open ewes pen.

Yesterday, in attempt to make more room in the maternity pen I moved Dark Carmella back into the open ewe pen as her udder was very small and barely developed.  I figured we had many weeks before we would expect lambs from her.  Meanwhile Queenie's fully developed udder had gone hard and we expect lambs from her very soon so in attempt to prevent crowding I moved Dark Carmella out.

So naturally I assumed the lamb in the maternity pen belonged to Queenie and the one in the open ewe pen belonged to Dark Carmella who surprised me by delivering early.  However I became confused very quickly when it was obvious that Queenie had not delivered and nowhere in the pen could I find the afterbirth.  Besides I was expecting twins from Queenie not a single and Queenie is an excellent mother she would not have allowed her lamb to wander around aimlessly crying out for her, so I looked at Ugly Betty, the only other ewe expecting and determined it was hers though she too still looked pregnant and showed no indication of just giving birth.  But there was no other potential mother.  The others all already had lambs at their side.  So only having the two to choose from, we determined it must have been Ugly Betty's.as she acted indifferent to the lamb but didn't reject it's smell when given a whiff,  It's not uncommon for first time mothers to reject their lambs.

We locked her up along with the unclaimed lamb and then went over to the open ewe pen and picked up that lamb and hauled it's mother, Dark Carmella back over to the maternity pen.  We did find her afterbirth and it was very evident she just gave birth even though she was showing first lambing syndrome and not accepting her lamb.  Though technically this wasn't her first lamb,  Last year when she was far too small, she gave birth to a single deformed lamb. Because of that birth we kind of were hoping/expecting twins this time around,

While we were locking her and her lamb up in the jug, my very tiny lamb, Annabelle, who I've been mothering and trying to help her catch up to her pen mates was wandering around outside the maternity pen while I went about figuring out mothers and newborns while finishing up morning chores.  I do this often so she gets more attention and get her full share of hay without getting plowed over by everyone else in the pen.  This morning she did something different.  She walked over to the open ewe pen and shockingly, slipped right threw the rails and into the pen.  She is that small.

That's when it struck me.  The lamb in the maternity pen wasn't born in the maternity pen but rather in the open ewe pen.  While waiting for his twin to be born he must have slipped out and wandered over to the maternity pen and slipped inside there and then got lost.  Discovering the afterbirth next to the rail in the open ewe pen only validated this conclusion.  So it appears Dark Carmella did give birth to twins afterall.  I immediately removed the lamb from Ugly Betty and placed it in the jug with his mother and sister and he began to nurse right away.

I am concerned with the lack of udder on Dark Carmella and will have to keep a close eye on their development.  Fingers crossed it comes in within the next couple of hours.  

Holly's New Beau

Holly has loved Caesar ever since he arrived at the farm, but alas it wasn't meant to be.  We are hoping this new fellow has what it takes to woo her.

Thunder (the name he came with) is a pygmy goat like Holly so more her size.  Hopefully this means a successful mating.  He certainly was immediately interested.

Holly on the other hand was not letting him get away with his forceful approach.  Poor Thunder spent most of his visit with her in the dog house.  Pardon the pun.

Valentine Love

Fire

Yesterday we had a chimney fire in the kitchen stove.

It actually started at the back behind the wall.

The fire department was called in to put the fire out.  Our courtyard was full of trucks and flashing lights.  I almost felt guilty that the house itself was not on fire.  But I caught the fire before it could accelerate  We had spent the afternoon in the barn so had stuffed the stove with wood to keep the fire burning and the house warm.  When we came back in several hours later we discovered the fire.  I knew it was bad when I could actually see .the fire at the base of the pipe.  As it turns out when the firefighters went in they tested the fire at 600 degees.  It wouldn't have been long for that fire to burst through the pipe and onto the floor.So it was very good we came back to the house when we did.  And very blessed that it did not occur overnight while we were sleeping. 

Barn Work...Cont'd

In an effort to make my barn more, well, animal friendly, we have been making changes to the barn.  Again.  First we added a wall next to the minis pen.

The only spot left available in the barn is that space left to the wall and that's where we store the hay.  So when this guy arrived yesterday with his monthly delivery,

the minis wouldn't have a free buffet.

On the opposite side we extended the lamb pen and moved the lambs out and made it the new maternity/nursery pen.

Don't know why it seems bigger than the old one as it is the same size but they seem to have more room.

The new lamb pen has also gained a bit more leg space.

Visibly missing is the other black lamb.  I decided she was plenty big enough to join the adult ewes.  This is her next to her mother.

Lastly, we moved the goats into the end horse stall and installed a separate pen for Caesar, the billy goat.

Being the only male and dominate goat, some of the females weren't getting their share.  On top of that he seemed to enjoy ramming them into the walls of the stall.  Thinking we may have some pregnant goats among them, I figured this couldn't be good.  So he has been separated and the girls can now co-exist peacefully

In order for all this shifting around to come about, we had to move all the winter straw which we had stored in the barn to the loft.  Now the thing about my barn is it may be pretty but it ain't to practical.  The loft is a good example of that impracticality.  It's huge with plenty of storage space but lacks any decent way of getting something up there.  Except this 90 degree flight of stairs on the outside of the barn..

What's visibly missing from the outside of this barn is a pulley so I rigged up a quicky makeshift one and when that didn't work we used old-fashioned horse power.  Or in our case, mom power.  We hooked a bale to the end of a rope and the other end tied around my waist.  Then my boy went back and forth to the barn getting the next bale and hooking it up while up above on the loft porch Farm Girl pulled them up with her bare hands while I pulled the majority of the weight by walking back into the loft and hauling the bale up.  It took all day but we finally got the majority of them up into the loft with this method with the exception of about 5 bales which we left for topping up in the barn. It was a lot of back breaking work but this setup works better for me and the animals.  Now everyone has a permanent winter pen where they can stay nice and warm over this long and cold winter.

 This really should be the last of redo's in the barn as there really is nowhere else to expand.

It's Snowing....

Again.

Barn Work

We were back in the barn today making more changes to help the set up work better,  First we put up a wall to keep the miniature horses from eating the hay when our next order comes in and since that is the only spot available in the barn I had to do something with the free buffet the horses were getting.  The only thing separating them before was the cattle gate you can see directly behind the new wall we put up.

The other item high on my to-do-list was a grain feeder for the open ewes pen.

We are in the process of breeding and are adding grain to their diet with the hopes of increasing the chances of multiple births.  This gave me the opportunity to use my new drill I got for Christmas except I'm still in a cast and am down the use of one hand.  Now my new drill is so fantastic that I'm certain I could easily drill one-handed but this gives my kids the excuse to play,er work, with mom's new toy.

Feeling Springish

My little purchase of spring leaves me feeling excited.  I can't wait for green life to start sprouting.

Canadian Morning

This is what my driveway/yard looks like first thing in the morning.  And what most people think Canada looks like year round, however I hardly see my property look this much like a winter wonderland.

This year has been the exception.

We've had more snow and more sub-zero temps which I haven't seen since my childhood.  I miss warm weather and green grass.

If you Plant it, They Will Come

Or that line from Field of Dreams comes from goes. I didn't plant anything necessarily, but did "plant" or hung my birdhouse outside my dining room window in hopes of catching some Bluejay photos.  And guess what?  They came.