Busy day, as usual
Today was a busy day on the Farm, but then that’s not all that unusual. I washed a sheep fleece and two mohair fleeces. I let the sun do some of the work for me with the mohair and pressed the Back Porch Washer into service for the wool.
I also dyed some silk, solar dyed two gallons of mohair curls, wet finished a scarf and two skeins of yarn, etc. etc. The normal stuff. (Tomorrow will be more of the same.)
My day brightened when Ge’mar and Jennee came to visit! Ken teases about me putting all my visitors to work but, for the record, Ge’mar volunteered! He scalped the patch of Egyptian onions (our wild onions), and then sprayed it with a mixture of orange oil and 20″ vinegar. I’m hoping that will go a long way toward killing them, and that some plastic will finish off the job.
He helped me blow the bunnies coats with the shop vac, gathered up the eggs (which he forgot to take with him), and played with Boysenberry. He even brought me a glass of Sweet Tea (my treat for the day) from Sonic. It was a pleasure to visit with Ge’mar and Jennee both.
The alpacas, ewes, and nannies are pretty happy this evening. We’ve let them out on the lush northeast pasture.
We even tried to get Boysenberry to eat some grass. He was generally unimpressed.
Princess seemed to enjoy it though, until she got the option of having Ken love on her!
Mary Kate wouldn’t come until she could convince Olivine to come with her!
Poor Cherry got stuck with babysitting duty as the babies played on the upside-down truck bed that The Welder (“Uncle Bennett”) graciously parked in my pasture for them.
Please do come visit us and see all the animals for yourself, won’t you?
We’ll be waiting on you!
Nature vs. Nurture
Having a bottle lamb has been an interesting opportunity to consider the age old question of nature vs. nuture. Which is responsible, or to what degree is each responsible, for our development? What do we do that is instinct, hard-wired into our very being? What do we learn to do in response to our environment?
At this stage of the game, in observing Boysenberry’s behavior, Nature is winning. In fact, Nurture is holding him back, but I’m positive that will change as he gets older.
He does lots of things that can only be explained by them being his natural instincts, things he didn’t learn from us, behaviors he exhibited before he observed other lambs (IF he has observed them at all). He:
- pulls back on the nipple of his bottle, as he would have to do to squeeze the milk out of a teat on an udder
- he paws at the ground (in our case, at the carpet) to make himself a place to lay down
- he prefers to stand up and take his bottle as lambs do under their mothers. No holding him and coddling him like a human baby!
- he has started head butting various things in the house
- he curls up to sleep next to Ken’s work pants which lay in a heap on the floor
As for Nurture, he definitely thinks he’s one of us, and thinks of us as his “parents.” He :
- follows us around the barnyard any time we are out there
- follows us into the house, often coming into the backyard (through the space in the gate) to curl up and sleep
- is not interested in running and playing with the other lambs (but delights in chasing the chickens)
I noticed just yesterday that one of his front legs isn’t quite right. It turns the wrong way — out instead of forward — at the knee joint. It doesn’t slow him down any.
He loves to be held. I took him to the post office and the feed store with me yesterday, and he got lots of snuggles.
Still, he needs to start acting like a lamb. He needs to start nibbling on hay and grass and ultimately on grain. So to the extent possible, I make him stay in the barnyard during the day. I hope that some day soon, he’ll jump in with the other lambs and go off to play.
No rest on this Sunday!
There was no rest for anybody at the Fancy Fibers Farm on this Sunday. Cyndi and Deanna arrived for their Beginning Wheel Spinning class an hour early. I love eagerness! Ken was preparing to mow the front yard, but graciously agreed to give them a tour while I tidied up the shop classroom.
And it was off and running from there! I barely had them started when Ken announced that a new baby had joined us, so it was off to the barn we went! Baby Jonquille (Thanks to Shareholder Barb for the name!) was waiting on us. She was all legs, such a skinny little thing, and having a devil of a time standing up, especially when her mama kept trying to clean her up and knocked her down in the process.
Baby Jonquille
While we were in the barn, we noticed a goat in the big chicken coop who looked suspiciously like she was getting ready. I made a mental note to check back on her, and our spinners went back to their wheels.
Meanwhile, Kathy from Waxahachie and her husband had arrived to take Wilber, Moose, and Calgary back to Waxahachie with them where they will be brush clearing machines. Ken helped me haul Calgary up on the shearing stand so that I could give them a quick lesson in trimming goat hooves, and we said our goodbyes.
My next stop was to play gatekeeper so that Ken could get the tractor and mower back out to the back 7 acres and mow, mow, mow. Bless his heart; the unevenness of the pasture practically beat him to death. I will be THRILLED when we get it all mowed (there’s one good day of mowing left), so that Farmer Willard can bring his big beautiful John Deere out here and start plowing it for us.
On my way back to my spinners, I stopped in the barn, and was just in time to oversee the birth of Baby K, another ewe kid. Things have been so busy, I haven’t come up with a name for her yet. A color that begins with K, anyone?
Baby K
With Ken bringing in the tractor and mower, and the spinners spinning, then plying, then wet finishing their yarn, we found ourselves at 4:00 when it was time to feed and put out hay, and take one last look around. Bodacious looks like she could lamb any minute. She’s been panting since Thursday, but just won’t give those babies up. I feel bad for her. She ate a hearty dinner tonight, so maybe in the morning!
We stood out and watched the critters for a while, then gave up and came in. As Ken is fond of saying, he’ll have to go back to work tomorrow to get any rest. Around here, there’s no rest for the weary!
More pictures:
Boysenberry in his diaper and belly belt
Bear seems to have drawn babysitting duty over Carmine
Breakin’ in a new Farm Hand
Brandon putting out hay
This is Brandon, my new Farm Hand. He’s been over here several times, working for a few hours here, and a few hours there, but yesterday he got his first taste of an 8-hour day on the Farm. He survived.
There was much to do and I was glad to have him around to do it. Feed had to be unloaded from the back of my Suburban, and the bags emptied into the feed barrels.
The animals had to be fed their grain, and hay put out twice.
The barn had to be cleaned out. Old straw, etc., had to be swept and shoveled off the false floor, and piled in a garden bed that I’m building up. The alpaca’s poop pile in the barn (why in the barn? grrr) had to be dug out. As friend of the farm Sue observed, Brandon’s choice of shape for the hole is a little suspicious.
The dug out alpaca poop pile in the barn
My husband will know where to start looking if I turn up missing!
All that poop and dirt had to go somewhere to break down. Brandon moved some of it to the garden bed, and then constructed a compost container for me out of pallets.
No doubt he would have liked to have had better tools than my small rusty saw, but he stuck with it. I found out that he’s a whiz with a drill driver.
The finished compost corner
All in all it was a great day of work and visitors. We said goodbye to Ameretti and Jellybean as they went to their new home with a loving new mom in Oklahoma. Sue and her granddaughter had a good time holding the babies (we have 9 on the ground now, with more to come!), and I warned Brandon of bigger jobs to come. It’s good to have good help!
All of the animals continued with their meanderings. Here are a few shots of what else was happening.
Who and what are you?
Ebony (left) and Falu (right), little ewe lamb sisters
One of the hens sharing Princess's supper
Lily curled up in a hay trough
The goats are sheared!
Our morning was filled with the hustle and bustle of everything involved in getting our 30 goats sheared by professional shearer Danny Smith who drives into Texas from his home in Missouri to make the rounds of Texas sheep and goat farmers. This is truly an activity that “takes a village” to complete. Goats have a way of making you think 30 of them are at least 60! But thanks to an army of enthusiastic volunteers, the job is done! All were rewarded with a hearty lunch buffet and fresh eggs from our chickens. Organic fertilizer (a/k/a alpaca poo) was also available upon request! We try to think of everything here at the Fancy Fibers Farm!
Words can’t do justice to the hard work and fun of this morning, so enjoy the pictures!