These are the two little doelings born last week. They are very playful and for the life of me I just couldn't get a good picture of them from the front or side. They were repeatedly jumping up on these particle boards and bouncing off into the air. Very cute...
These little girls are for sale. They can go anytime if you want to bottle feed or after they are 12 weeks old if you want to skip the bottle feeding experience.It was a nice warm day today and Taylor took a long morning nap so I actually managed to get four of our roosters butchered out. I still have 8-10 more that need to get done soon. I will try to get them done before the girls get too pestered by all the excess males during the spring breeding season.
Emmie, one of our Anatolian Shepard livestock guardian dogs, has been regularly getting out of the pasture at night for a few weeks now. She has always been the one to find the weak point in our fencing and has gotten out on occasion here and there but for the past 5-6 weeks she has been getting out 3-5 nights a week. Every time I think I have it figured out where she is through the fence and fix it she is out again within a day or two.
So, it was no surprise tonight at 10:30pm as I was doing the dishes that I looked out the window to see Emmie slowly walking up the driveway. Evan, our 6yo son, was still awake so the two of us went out to round her up and lock her in the barn for the night. Because we first had to go to the barn to get a lead rope Emmie had time to wander into the woods and disappear. Evan and I walked the road for a bit and then came back close to the house when we heard the chickens getting all in a tizzy. Another trip to the barn and the chicken coop showed everything in order. Not wanting to go in without securing Emmie, Evan and I took the trash bin up to the road for the morning pickup and stopped and got the mail with still no sign of Emmie. Finally, as we were hanging out in the driveway just watching the tree line Emmie emerged by our neighbors house. I was very relieved to see her. I don't really worry about her running away per se but I do worry about her wandering onto our busy road at night as more then one dog has met its end on the road by our home. We walked over to her and slipped the lead around her neck and walked her back to the barn to lock her in the stall for the rest of the night.
As we walked through the door of the barn I was surprised to see one of our Nigerian Dwarf goats, Gabby, just giving birth to her second wet little kid! I wasn't expecting them for another two weeks or so and I would have missed it tonight if it hadn't been for Emmie getting out. Funny, two trips down to the barn and I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary and not 10 minutes later we have two more goats!
What a beautiful day today! The cold spell from last week is over finally. Our outdoor thermometer read 80F in the sun this afternoon!
Neil and his dad continued to work on the yard spring cleaning. Moving a lot of the items that got stacked in a hurry over the winter (like the wooden pallets) back under the old pig shelters. The farm yard is looking really great... can't wait for it to start turning green again.
I did snag Neil for a few minutes while I was down at the barn doing chores so that he could help me castrate our two little goats. It is not a difficult task just a two person one since it involves a wiggly goat. I have taken a deposit on these two boys and they should be headed off to their new home next month. Meanwhile, two of our Nigerian Dwarf does, Gabby and Pepper, are getting quite plump and I expect them to kid out the beginning of March as well.
Now that the weather has gotten cooler it is time for our Fall alpaca breedings to begin. Alpacas are pregnant for 11-12 months with most landing on the 11 1/2 month period. We plan our breedings so the last three months of the pregnancy are not during our hottest summer months here in NC. When alpacas are exposed to high temperatures during that critical time the rate of stillborn or premature cria drastically rises.
So, today one of our alpaca farming neighbors, David and Pat St. Laurent of Rolling Meadow Farm, brought over one of their breeding males, Prince Charming, to breed with one of our open females, Eloise. Prince Charming is a son of PPPeruvian Accoyo Mr. President. Mr. President was one of Magical Farms top males before selling him at auction in 2002. Eloise has been bred to light colored males for both of her previous cria and has produced color both times so we are hopeful that this pair will produce a colorful cria as well.
I have a whole year to dream about it...
I have been knitting most evenings while watching a movie with the kids. It is so relaxing to sit in my overstuffed leather chair across from the fire knitting away the time.
So far I have completed one Christmas present (not pictured) and McKayla's mittens and hat as well. McKayla's mittens and hat were knitted and then fulled (often called felted but when a knitted/woven/crochet fabric is felted it is correctly called fulling not felting). I love the processes of knitting an item and then watching the magic happen as it is transformed into something so textually different.
Here you can see the before. They are large and floppy and you can clearly see all the stitches.
As compared to the after fulling version. They are 2/3 to 1/2 the size they started out as. The fabric is now stiffer and will hold it's shape when molded. The stitches are no longer distinguishable from each other as they have meshed to make a solid fabric. This makes them very warm and somewhat waterproof.
If you missed the post with the link to this pattern you can find it here...
As warm as yesterday was... today was cold. Even with the chilly temps Neil got a few odds and ends done around the farm today.
One of the many things I wanted to make easier for this coming winter was watering the livestock. In the heat of the summer I don't mind walking around with the garden hose filling watering troughs but when the temps are below freezing it is no fun any more. So, on Friday when I was at Southern States picking up the weeks livestock feed I also purchased a 70 gallon stock tank for the cows water. This morning Neil put it behind the barn where I wanted it to go. We got the automatic watering device hooked up to it and instantly the curious cows came over to see what it was all about. I was a little nervous that the tank might be too tall for them to comfortably drink out of... being miniature cows and all... but they demonstrated right away that it was no problem at all. One step closer to water independence!
The other odd thing Neil got done today was to install the cat door in the house. I have been leaving the door from our bedroom to the deck open most days the past few weeks so the cats could come and go. With temps often below 50 degrees during the day it is now too cold to be doing that. Neil got the kitty door in and I showed Jet how it worked. I figure he will be the first to figure it all out and Fringe will have to learn from him. Meanwhile, no more cold breezes in the bedroom!
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