Snow.... wonderful snow!

We woke this morning to over 8 inches of snow and it was still snowing! This is North Carolina we don't get storms like this. The kids and I loved it... Neil... not so much. This is the most snow we have seen since we left Maine in 2003.

Out in the barn I found all the animals crammed in the barn. I am sure they were confused since we had over 60 degree weather all this past week and now more snow then most of them had ever seen. Chores took a bit extra time since I had to lug water and shovel snow off of the hay bales.

Back in the house we warmed up by the fire and spent the afternoon cleaning up the house.


Tonight I finished knitting up a pair of Mary Jane shoes for Mckayla's Cabbage Patch doll. She is so thrilled will the doll clothes I am making. I have a que of knitting projects I want to get done and a doll's dress is up there on the list.

Dusting of snow last night

Dog Days Begin

The dog days (a period of 40 days starting July 3 and ending August 11) are named for the Dog Star, Sirius, which is visible with the rising Sun at this time. Ancients associated this sky picture with the hot days that coincided with it. (Taken from the Old Farmer's Almanac.)

It's pool time again!

The kids have been looking forward to today all Spring! Today Daddy set up the pool again!

The past two years here at the farm we have had an 18' pool (the kind with the inflatable rim). It was great to have for the kids to cool off with in the hot summer months. Unfortunately, last summer we had to chase and patch leaks constantly and by the end of the season it was determined it just wasn't going to make it through another year. So, this week Neil picked up a new 15' pool and this morning he set it up and started filling it before we had to head into town to do some errands.

When we returned home around 1:30pm the skies turned grey, the thunder boomed and the rain came down. About an hour later the storm moved off and the kids begged to go into the pool.

The post rain sky as seen from the deck.

Now the pool was being filled by the garden hose with water from our deep well... read that as ice cold water. I said "sure" thinking that they would put their toes in and quickly change their minds.

The new pool still filling up with water.

McKayla was the first to "go all in".

Evan took a bit longer to get in but then was all about swimming.

Never underestimate the power of the pool! Brrrr......

Out in the chicken coop I found a turkey poult under one of my broody chickens. The turkey hen that had been setting down in the unused pig house left 8 eggs in the nest when the other nine hatched out last week. When I discovered the eggs they were cold but I gathered them up and put them in a nest box in the coop next to one of the broody hens. I didn't expect anything to come of it but I figured it couldn't hurt. After a week had gone by and no more poults had hatched out I reached in a gave the eggs a gentle shake. Three of them sloshed when shaken so I removed them... for a moment I thought of just removing them all thinking they must all be spoiled by now but I left them in the end. And today there was a poult under the hen! There are still four more eggs so I will wait and see.

Oh, and I also discovered a tiny chicken chick under one of the ducks in the coop as well. Funny, it was marked just like the turkey poults... it must be an Americana chicken cross. Both the chick and the poult got moved into the box under the heat lamp in the brooder.

Quick update...

Two more ducklings hatched out in the barn today... a smokey grey one and one marked like a mallard duckling (those markings don't stay when the adult feathers come in). They have joined the turkeys and yesterday's duckling in the brooder. I will have to set up the third brooder soon as with the onslaught of ducklings to come the second brooder is going to get crowded soon.

I have looked around the farm, unsuccessfully, the past two days to see if I could locate the turkey hen that I left the 2-3 biddies with. I don't know where she is hiding... I guess she didn't like that I took her babies away from her. But, what I did discover was my fourth turkey hen is setting on a nest of about 20 eggs down in the woods inside one of the old corrugated steel pig shelters from the previous owners. It seems like a nice dry safe nest so I let her be. I will keep checking on her every few days though.

I got my Homestead tomatoes planted in the garden today. Which means that the kids and I had to first remove all the crab grass from that raised bed, fluff up the soil, give it a good heavy drink of water and then plant the tomato starts, install the supports, cover the rest of the bed with wet newspapers and top it all off with old straw/chicken manure raked up from the barn floor. It wouldn't have been that bad of a task, as it was a comfortable 83F outside today, but little 4 month old Taylor, who was sitting in the stroller the whole time ran out patience after I only planting the 3rd tomato plant. Still she was happy watching all the action up to that point so I really can't complain. The kids pushed her around the garden in the stroller while I finished up as quick as I could.

Taylor's debut photo on the blog.

I have three alpacas that I am expecting crias from anytime between May 1st and June 1st: GeeGee, Celtie and Joy. They were all living with our stud Novio out in the second pasture last spring/summer so I am not exactly sure of the breed dates. Celtie and Joy both have noticeably swollen bellies and I can see the cria moving in Celtie's abdomen quite often now. It will be the first crias for both of these females so I am a bit nervous about it... and Celtie happens to be my favorite as well. I will report in when the time comes!

Why does is seem that....

...animals always pick the coldest, wettest times to give birth?

It has been raining here for two days and the rain is supposed to be here for 2 more days still. I was in the kitchen getting ready to go out to the barn to do chores when I looked out the window to see our alpaca, Noodle, laying down out in the wet pasture. She was just laying there. I watch for a moment and then went to find Neil to let him know I thought that Noodle was in labor.

Down at the barn Noodle came in as I was graining all the girls. A quick lift of her tail confirmed a birth was impending. As she was eating I slipped a halter on her so I could lead her into one of the stalls where it was at least dry. On the way to the stall Noodle cushed and then laid on her side during a contraction. That is when I saw the cria's nose wiggling and breathing! This might sound like a good thing but it is not. The proper presentation for most large animals, alpacas included, is the have the two front feet/legs present first followed by the head.

With the nose out as far as 2 inches and no toes I was a bit concerned. I had Neil, who was out in the garage by now, come and stay with Noodle with instructions to move her into the stall if she stands up. Meanwhile, I came back up to the house to read through a few alpaca books to see if this was an easy malposition to correct. Returning to the barn with refreshed knowledge, an arm full of towels, a bucket of warm soapy water and some K-Y I hoped for the best outcome.

A quick pelvic exam revealed one little foot just inside the cervix but only one. Noodle's cervix had yet to fully dilate so there was no room for me to reach in to try to locate the missing foot. I had to wait for labor to progress more. In the meantime the cria's little nose kept twitching and breathing... which was a good thing. I stayed with Noodle for another 20 minutes with no progress in the birth. I ran back up to the house to get the cordless phone so I could call the vet. Back at the barn, I called the vet's after hour emergency number and left a message.

As I walked back in to the stall with Noodle I was thrilled to see TWO FRONT LEGS out about 8 inches! I was doing the happy dance and ran down to the garage to let Neil know I thought all was well. I few minutes later the vet returned my call and I was happy to tell him everything was fine.

Noodle was pretty tired and she didn't make any progress after the cria's head was delivered even after another 30 minutes had passed. I don't like to assist with deliveries if at all possible as I think it often adds more stress to the dam and baby to be handling them a lot. But, I felt that Noodle needed a little help to complete this delivery. I took a dry towel and grabbed hold of the two front legs. During Noodle's next contraction I put some gentle traction toward her feet and the shoulders slipped out. The next contraction I assisted again and the cria was delivered. Since it was so cold and wet out and the cria was stressed from being in the birth canal for so long I quickly toweled it off and put on a polar fleece jacket on it to keep its core temperature up.

The little cria is a male that looks just like his sire, our stud Novio.

Snow... and lots of it!

It snowed last night! Yeah! This is our third snow coverage of this winter but only the first that I have been able to enjoy since I was still on bed rest from the c-section during the last two. Here are some pictures of the farm... just beautiful...

It feels like Spring!

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.

After our cold weather spell last week the temps are back in the mid 70's again. I have a hard time staying inside when it is so nice out. So, I spent some time cleaning up the yard. We had a few over sized boxes that needed to get broken down and put in the Suburban to take to recycling on our trip into town tomorrow. There were some broken toys and the small wading pool had cracks in it so it had to go. Some of the pool items needed to be gathered up and put away for the season (we drained the pool the beginning of October). Other items needed to be moved off the deck and down to the work shed. Not a lot of effort made a big difference in the yard.

Took a break for a light lunch which the kids and I ate out on the deck it was so nice. The kids and I then took the tractor into our woods and brought out three tractor bucket fulls of cut fire wood. Neil had cut to length a bunch of down trees to burn but ended up leaving them where they fell do to lack of time. We gathered some up, brought it up to the house and got it all split and stacked under the deck. It will be enough for a few weeks at least. I will keep working on the fire wood project on the nice days and try to stay ahead of what I burn.

Oh, and since the weather was so nice I had the door off the deck open all day so the cats could come out and explore if they wanted too. Jet, the large and braver of the two, came out for quite a while and wandered about. He was quick to dart back inside if anything startled him though. Fringe I never saw outside but he might have come out when we were down in the woods.

Just a nice day to be outside working today.

Pumpkin Carving

Fall has truly set in here (as much as Fall is in NC). The weather has been getting cooler and cooler the past few weeks. I have been donning a fleece jacket when out doing chores even. Inside the house has been maintaining a comfortable temp up until a few days ago when it started getting cool enough that I had to start wearing my slippers around the house and wearing long sleeve shirts more often then not.

We don't use our central heat. The house is set up for propane but we don't even keep a tank here. Instead we have a wood stove that heats the house. With the front hall project still unfinished we had stacks of boxes in front of the wood stove. Today I decided I needed to fire it up for the season. I moved all the "stuff" from the front of the wood stove, cleaned out the old ashes and wiped all the dust off from it. It was so nice to get that first fire started. It didn't take long to chase away the cool damp air in the house. This evening we are nice and toasty.

After the house started to warm back up the kids and I set about carving our Halloween pumpkins. I cut the lids into them and the kids did all the seed scraping by themselves. Evan, at 6 years old, carved out his own scary monster design. McKayla, at only 4 years old, carved out the eyes and nose and drew on a mouth that I then cut out for her. She then drew on whiskers to create her dog pumpkin. I went pretty simple this year and carved out a kitty cat face. We all had a fun time!

Evan with his scary monster pumpkin.

McKayla with her doggy pumpkin (before whiskers).

Monster, Mommy's Kitty Cat Pumpkin and Doggy.

Hanna has past

Well, we started getting the high winds and heavy rain from Hurricane Hanna yesterday afternoon. When the rain finally let up around 10am this morning we had received somewhere around 5 inches of rainfall.

I headed down to the barn as the rain was letting up to get morning chores done. I was curious how about the condition of the barn. It sets in a low spot on our property so a lot of the water gets funneled down to it when it rains. If it is a gentle rain it has time to flow around the barn but with the heavy rains of last night I expected the floor of the barn to be damp inside. I was not disappointed... about half of the floor was damp (no standing water, at least not by the time I got there).

All the animals looked like they made through unscathed. I did notice however that Eloise, our black alpaca, was out in the pasture while the rest of the girls were up in the barn. I could see that Eloise's cria was also out in the pasture and was running about. But something wasn't right. I walked out to the gate and realised that the little guy was on the OTHER SIDE of the pasture fence. He was actually in the adjoining alpaca pasture and desperate to get back to his mom. I immediately went out the other pasture and rounded him up. He was soaking wet to the skin and as I scooped him up to carry him all the way around the fence line I became soaking wet too. He didn't much like being carried but he was very happy to be reunited with his mom. He went right to nursing and I could see that Eloise's udder was fully engorged... they must have been separated for most of the night! I am still not sure how he managed to get himself over, under or through the fence and on the worst of nights too!

What a beautiful day we had today. Temps in the low 80's, sunny skies with big puffy clouds floating overhead while we worked outside.

I finished mowing the lawn, planted my seed potatoes, mulched the asparagus beds, mucked out the alpaca barn, put weed block down around more of the raised garden beds and just enjoyed being outside.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

After almost a week straight of rain today it cleared off and was warm again. By the afternoon the grass had dried out enough that I was able to mow the lawn for the first time of the season. It is amazing to me how different (and neat and tidy) the farm looks when the grass is mowed down. I like to mow with the tractor as for the most part I have a great view of the pastures and all the animals we have.

Today was particularly fun as the animals were also very thrilled that the rain was gone and the sun was out. The four cows and our mini donkey were just straight out running around the pasture, skipping and twisting all the way. The alpacas were out grazing as a herd what little grass has started to grow in their pasture too.

Just a pleasent day after such a cold wet gloomy week.

Gloomy day.

Not much going on here at the farm today. It rained most of the day so we stayed inside except to feed the animals.

The only sad thing to report is my last chick to hatch out yesterday didn't make it. It was actually alive this morning but still looking really weak. Then this afternoon when I checked on them I found it dead. The other five seem to be doing well eating and drinking so I hope they will all make it. Peaking under the hen did not reveal any more pipped eggs for now.

Evidence of Snow

This picture is overlooking the female alpaca pasture out to the new home of the male alpacas. It was taken from the deck of the house.

Another one from the deck looking down to the big barn. There you see the girls undercover.

Snow on the blackberry patch.

My dog Tate was so thrilled to have snow again!

It's Snowing... really it is!

The weatherman forecasted 2-4 inches for our area today but for most of the day it was too warm for snow and we just had a misty rain. Then about 3:30-4:00pm the rain turned to fluffy flakes and by 5:00pm it had started to accumulate on the ground. When I went out the do night chores there was snow on the backs of the alpacas, donkeys and cows.

I was disappointed it started snowing so late as by the time it accumulated enough to be pretty it was too dark out to take any photos. I can only hope that it sticks around over night and I can get a few photos in the morning before it warms up and melts.

Anyway, Neil's parents came for dinner tonight after they met with the realtor up in Clarksville, VA. I decided to make Chicken Enchiladas for dinner as it was a favorite of theirs that I cooked when we all lived together and it is not a dish they cook for themselves. I pulled one of the roosters I butchered this past fall out of freezer and put it in a stock pot with water, salt and pepper. I let it simmer for a few hours until the meat fell off the bones. I pulled everything out of the pot and removed the meat from the carcass. All the non-edible bits went back into the pot to continue to cook down for another hour or so.

Once the chicken stock in the pot had reduced by about a 1/3 I strained it through a fine mesh sieve and left it to cool on the counter so the fat could rise to the top. Once it cooled I skimmed some (but not all) of the fat off. The remaining stock was poured into freezer containers and put in the freezer for future use. The cooked chicken meat was shredded and completely used in the Chicken Enchilada recipe. I made the dish up early so it would be ready to throw in the oven when ever Neil's parents arrived.

Once that was set to go and the kitchen tidied up, I put about 3 dozen eggs on to hard boil. A little over a dozen I peeled and put into my pickling egg brine. Others will be saved for egg salad for lunch tomorrow and the remainder will be put in the fridge for the kids to snack on.

We had a nice visit with Neil's parents. Dinner got rave reviews. After dinner Neil and his Dad got involved in discussing the garage pad/foundation while Pam and I played Yahtzee and the kids played with the numbered pieces from the Rummikub game.

I had a repeat egg customer pick up two dozen eggs today. The hens gave 14 more.