WELCOME

Thanks for visiting my blog. It's rather flattering to have someone read your minds meanderings. I hope it's entertaining and sometimes educational.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Done Lambing--the last pics

 Pinkie's brown and white ewe lamb.. 2 days old
 Maizie's single ram lamb:-(   ( born today 2 hrs ago)
 Crazy Legs's ewe lamb =she only weights 6 lbs and her brother weights 9lbs

Monday, January 23, 2012

Two new lambs

   I was out in the nice weather changing water and filling it and cleaning out the barn when I stopped to watch the sheep and saw the black lamb nuzzling up to Olive and I thought stupid lamb doesn't even know it's own mother and then I realized the black lamb that was born last week was up close to the barn and this was a new lamb. Stupid shepherd.   Looked again and saw the 2nd lamb .  So Olive had lambed and cleaned them both up and hopefully fed them and was off looking for something to eat herself.  If you know Olive you know that is all she thinks of anyway.



I went out and gathered a lamb up in each hand and Olive very nicely followed me into the barn where I deposited them in a lambing jug.   And here they are:   Two boys.

No new lambs--just bread

It's  been over a week now since the first ewes lambed.  I need to figure out how to get them all to go at the same time.  I don't like this waiting around stuff.

Sounds like it's going to get warm and rain today.  Unless it stays really warm or a few days, that will mean ice ice and more ice for me, the dogs and the sheep.  None off us like it.

So yesterday , I made another recipe of bread(I can't eat all this bread).  Again , I got it to rise but I think I warmed the oven too much and the 2nd rise wasn't as good as the first and the first took a long time.  So maybe I am killing the yeast a little.  Anyway I have 2 nice looking loaves. They taste ok.  Maybe I will try a sweet load next time and get away from traditional white.


Then I went on and made chicken pot pie which is quite tasty.  I made crust for the probably first time in my life.  It didnt'come out quite like it was supposed to.  I used the recipe which called for only 2 tbsp of cold water and I could not get the stuff to stick together to roll it out. I kept adding water and I rolled it out , but I'm pretty sure it's not going to be flaky. I divided the pie so I would have 3 separate smaller ones and froze two of them. They look good and the iside will taste good but the not sure about the crust.  May have to play with that too.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

:Nippy Zippy at zero deg this am

    Geez it's cold in here And then I looked at the thermomter and realized why.  I always turn the pellet stove down when I go to bed except when I know it's going to be this cold.  It was 60 in the kitchen which isn't bad considering how far away from the stove it is, but it will take all day on high to warm it up to where I will be comfortable if it stays this cold today. I thought it was supposed to warm up.  Maybe tomorrow.

Now I have to venture out and see if there are any new lambs. Hope not in this cold.  I have all the ewes in the barn and the new lambs but I may not let the lambs and Moms out this am.  I think I will feed them inside and let them out later.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Bread Baking again

    It's winter and it's snowing and every year I get the urge to bake bread.  At least I try .  I dragged out 2 recipes that I tried with some success last year and sorta combined them.  Well I proofed the yeast in one and then used that yeast in the 2nd recipe which didn't call for proofing. At least I think that is what you call it when you make sure the yeast is alive and it bubbles in warm water and sugar.

This recipe makes 1 loaf and it requires no kneading, although I was all set to try kneading again.  Let's see if this one comes out.  I am letting it rise in a warmed oven  and in the past rising was an issue.  one hour to go.

Okay it rose beautifully and then I punched it down and it rose beautifully again and now it's in the oven cooking and smelling GREAT!!!!!!

Ok success I guess. It came out ok but it just tastes ok.  I want that really yeasty bread taste.  This tastes more like warmed up store bread.  

Must keep  trying.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Monday, January 16, 2012

Doing Fine

   Yesterday's lambs look really good inspite of the cold. But Pony's lamb still worries me. It isnt' as strong as it should be .  It's smaller than the new lambs.   Maybe it's not getting " enough" food from the mom. Maybe I should weigh it? Should have weighed it when it was born. The scale is right there.  Bad Shepherd again.

  Today I am going to help a friend try to pick up the rest of the cattle panels.  I think it will be impossible. I think everything is frozen solid into the ground, but I will go with her and see what we can get.  Temp is up today to 6 deg.,  and darned if it doesn't feel kinda warm well at least not that cold. Maybe  because there was no wind.  Supposed to rise to 30 today. We'll see if it gets that far.  Hope so.

I'm reading a new book called Hunger Games.  It grabbed me in the first couple of pages.  Kinda sci fi and futuristic, but it's good.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

lamb




So this morning at 6:30 , I go out to check on the lamb that I practically threw out with it'sMom last night at Odark thirty.   The lamb didn't look lively at all and was just sitting in the corner so I decided to go out later and pick up something to tube it with.  I let the other sheep out but around 11am they were trying to get back in so I opened up the door and let the ewes back in.
I bundled up and went to the co-op because that is the only place that carries the tube thingy.  I bought a couple of needles (just in case) and a new hat while I was there.
 I came in the house and put the syrninge full of milk in the microwave and went out to get the lamb,opened the door and a newborn was in front of me.  Brownie had lambed and had twins of course.  The other lamb was a bit behind her.  So I have  brownish ewe lamb and a white ram lamb.  In the meantime the lamb I was going to tube feed appears to be up and lively , even jumping around a bit.  Not going to feed it then. It did nurse while I was watching too and then laid down again in the corner where the heat lamp is and then back up again to go exploring so I guess it will make it after all.

I put Brownies's lambs into one of the new lambing pens and she was still cleaning them when I came in to make some lunch.  10deg outside-- it figures.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Building lambing pens Today.

  I have bought the wood and the hardware and we have the plan all set to go. I am going to build 3 pens that will be removable and reusable.  Each pen will be 4 by 6 and be built with plywood so that there is less of a draft although in that barn that is hard to get no matter what you build.   Each wall will be 3ft high and each pen will have a hinged door that I can actually get in and out of without crawling over.  At least that is the plan. We'll see how it comes together.   No more lambs last night.  Of course it will be below zero tonight so probably get a bunch born tonight.  Hmmm how to keep them warm.

Ok the pens are done. Really nice set up.  Yesterdays lamb is now in the house.  It wasn't nursing much and it was getting colder and colder.  I am determined to keep the bugger alive.  I am on my way to Tractor Supply for some milk replacer and to Kathy's for a catheter to tube it.  I had some colostrum from last year  and she ate about 2oz but didn't nurse vigorously and if I tube her , then maybe I wont 'have to have a bottle baby.

Friday, January 13, 2012

Lambing begins


    I went out to the barn for the first time today around noon and heard a baby crying but I couldn't tell if it was a lamb or a goat. I opened up the top half of the stall door and it was a little black lamb so Dare jumped in to check it out . The ewe was still down and there was a non breathing white  lamb on the ground. It was still warm so I swung it around a bit to see if it would breath but nothing happened.   So 1 good ewe lamb.  Sorry Mama, maybe I should have been there earlier but good healthy lambs should not need my help.


I was inside cleaning out my spice lazy susan for the first time in ahhhhh(since 97) and then I made banana bread which I had my doubts about but boyo is is good.

Now I have to run over to the vets and pick up some rimadyl for Mikey because I didn't send his script in to get it filled on line someplace. Still gotta do that thought cause I am only picking up 1mos worth of the stuff.

Friday, January 6, 2012

SCORE!!!

  Surfing Craigslist is a good idea.  I found 20 practically new cattle panels plus posts for sale for $15 each.  Not sure I really need them, but can't pass up a deal like that.  Now I just need to get some help going to get them. I need to take them out of the field and put them on a truck.  Not as easy as just loading them up from the store but at less than half the price ---SCORE

Monday, January 2, 2012

Back from the Trial

Betty and I made good time coming back from Pa. It took us just 6 hrs.  It took us 7.5 going down. Damn NY and NJ traffic.  But considering it's another Holiday weekend, it was all good.   Much easier drive when you have someone else in the car to talk to.  On the way down we took a couple of routes that maybe in retrospect weren't the smartest.  Now we know, but will we remember?

The dogs rode well.  Dare in a crate with his new thundershirt on. Not sure if it made a difference to him.  Mikey in his crate. Fios in a crate and crazy  Peak in a small crate. Peaches and Dually had a bigger area with no crate that they had to stay in . THey did for the most part. Only a little problem on the way home when Dually decided to come up front and he crawled by Mikey's crate up to my head , which  wouldn't have been too bad but he was stepping on the window control and opening the window as he came which panicked me because he could have just fallen out.  We pulled over and pulled him over the seat back and he sat in Betty's lap for the next 2 hrs.

So the trial was low key, laid back and lots of fun.  The HTD field was 7 acres and steep hills and the footing was not so good.  Dually  was entered on Sheep in this field and his outruns were just amazing.  We had some trouble driving on the crossdrive but that was to be expected.  He isn't quite there yet on his flanks.  But we passed both trials and now he has his HTDs2.  I didn't enter DAre on Sheep because at level 3 the drive was about 300 ft away and I wasnt' sure if they were going to require a shed and we aren't doing that yet.  But I did enter him on ducks and he got his HTDd3.  Not a bad job,but at least he kept working away from me and that has been an issue in the past.

I had them both in HTADs on Sunday.  Dually on in the am so he got one leg on HTADs2 and DAre got his HTADs3 title.  Dare was awesome in his 2nd run.  He ran the course almost without me. It was like I know where you want these to go and he took them. He brought them to the free standing pen and before I could position him ,  he had them put in the pen.  I was floored.  We got a 91 out of 100 on that run.

Betty and Peak were awesome all weekend. That little dog can really work and she was relaxed and happy too. Fios did  some really nice stuff but we have some stuff we have to work on.