Current Lamb Count: 19. Ewe lambs: 15. Ram lambs: 4. Total number of ewes who have given birth so far: 14. Sets of twins: 5. Number of first time mothers (who all did a fabulous job): 4. Number of previously 'proven' ewes who were bred but, much to our surprise, didn't seem to get pregnant this time around: 2 (though there's still a slim chance they might be). Number of pregnant ewes left: Except for the two just mentioned, we're done! (We cut way back this year, but don't worry, the lambing photos and reports aren't over yet.)
Lamb #19 Is Safely on the Ground! (and less than an hour old here)
Current Lamb Count: 19. Number of ewe lambs: An unbelievable 15. Number of hours before I need to go back down to the barn: Not many. Number of hours ago I probably should have been asleep: At least 2.
Current lamb count: 18, including one born about 2:00 this morning and one born about 3:00 yesterday morning. Baby chick count: Holding steady at 8, but with one broody hen remaining there's still a chance for more. Number of lamb and chick and flower and farm and dog and cat and donkey and whatever else photos (not to mention recipes) piling up: Lots!
Part of My Old Glass Collection, Mostly Found Around the Farm
We do a lot of reusing and recyling here on the farm, both by force and by choice. Not having the urban convenience of toss-it-and-forget-about-it curbside garbage pick-up (which I wrote about here) really makes you look at the world—and your garbage—in a whole different light. We also do our best to reduce our consumption of everything from plastic bags to power, often saving not only precious natural resources in the process but precious pennies as well.
Going green isn't always easy, and sometimes it can feel like it isn't worth the extra effort—especially when everybody else around you seems to be taking the wasteful way out. But every little bit really can add up in a big way. Country Living magazine's Eco-Challenge has come up with 30 small and easy ways you can reduce your environmental impact in one month, without giving up modern conveniences. Here are a few of their inspiring examples, along with my two cents' worth and some staggering facts:
1. Return wire hangers to the dry cleaner. Because: More than 3.5 billion hangers (!) reach landfills each year, amounting to 200 million tons of steel that could be put to new use. My two cents: Also consider buying an Eco-Delightful Reusable Dry Cleaning and Laundry Bag—or better yet, try and skip the dry cleaner altogether!
2. Put cloth napkins on the table. Because: Eliminating disposable napkins would keep 500,000 tons of paper-based trash out of landfills each year. My two cents: I love cloth napkins and have been using them every day for years. Not only are they money-saving, resource-saving, and fun, but they also work ten times better than paper.
3. Leave a bar of soap by the sink. Because: Most liquid soap comes in nonrenewable plastic packaging. Substituting one bottle with a bar in each U.S. home would keep 2.5 million pounds of plastic out of landfills. My two cents: If you just can't give up liquid soap, buy it in a big recyclable plastic jug and then refill your smaller bottle.
4. Stow a reusable bag in your car for errands. Because: If every American stuck with cloth totes, we'd waste 380 billion fewer plastic bags this year. My two cents: Once I started keeping a bag of bags in the truck, 'bringing my own' quickly became a habit. Some stores even reward you with money back, chances to win prizes, or donations to charities when you bring your own bags.
Want more green inspiration? How Do You Make Your Kitchen Garden Even Greener?: Readers and I share our eco-friendly ideas and tips over on my kitchen garden blog. Back 40 Books: Hundreds of helpful books on self-sufficiency and sustainable living from a small Missouri company. Environmental Working Group: Works to protect children and kids from toxic chemicals in our food, water, air, and everyday products. FoodShed Planet: Blogger Pattie Baker nurtures sustainability, close to home and around the world. Ideal Bite: Sassy, bite-sized ideas for light green living delivered via e-mail. Kitchen Gardeners International: Globally promoting the 'localest' food of all (and largely responsible for making the dream of a White House organic vegetable garden a reality). Local Harvest: Find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area. Organic Consumers Association: Campaigns for health, justice, sustainability, peace, and democracy Organic To Be: Neat group blog shares organic recipes from popular authors, garden and farm skills, plus news and opinions. The Daily Green: The consumer's guide to the green revolution. Union of Concerned Scientists: Nonprofit science advocacy group that works to ensure that all people have clean air and energy, as well as safe and sufficient food.
Do you know a great green website or have an easy eco-tip (chic or not)? Please tell us about them in the comments section.
It may have been opening day of spring turkey season, but earlier this evening I went out stalking an entirely different sort of prey—and I didn't even have to dress head to toe in camo to do it.
Edible wild mushrooms in our part of Missouri are a gift, not a given. In order for them to pop up, we need that perfect and often elusive combination of wet ground, warm air, sunshine, and luck, along with a sprinkling of what can only be magic. A stormy weekend (that gave us two much appreciated inches of rain) followed by a beautiful and blustery day in the upper 60s had my morel mushroom senses on full alert.
Triplets?
Since there is already magic involved (with the foraging process, not the mushrooms themselves), I've found that a little superstition can be a big help. I usually catch my biggest game if I head out to hunt in our treasured morel spot when 1) I'm in a hurry and really should be doing something else, 2) have no French bread in the freezer and not enough time before dinner to bake some (to sop up all that scrumptious, buttery juice), and 3) am not armed with a plastic bag or—god forbid—a specially designated mushroom carrying basket. A basket can jinx everything. Wearing a second shirt that can double as a knapsack, however, is okay.
Score!
Today everything obviously worked like a charm. And thanks to all the mouthwatering serving suggestions you so generously offered up last year when I wrote about morels, I have plenty of ideas about how I want to savor this bounty. The only question now is whether to cook it up tonight or save it until tomorrow when there will be time to make bread.
We Have a Five Lamb Pile Up in the Barnyard Hut, with One Mother on the Scene
Current Lamb Count: 15 (we're in a rest lull period). Number of lambs in the photo above who are twins: All 5 (one set is on the left, one set is in the back, and the black one's matching sister wasn't involved in the crash).
Current Lamb Count: 15. Ram lambs: Just 4. Number of new mothers so far: 10. Sets of twins: 5. Number of still expectant mothers: Should have been 2, but is probably more like 8 or 9 (that story will be forthcoming).
Apparently She Is, Because I Can't Seem to Come Up With a Caption
Current Lamb Count: 13. Baby Chick Count: 6. Number of massively purring black cats taking up my entire lap and then some while I'm sitting here trying to type: 1.
Current Lamb Count: Still 13. Newly hatched baby chicks so far: 7. Number of chicks alive and peeping: 5. Number of mother hens: 2. More photos and an update soon.
BB (aka Black Beauty) and Her Newborn Twin Girls Very Early this Morning
During the winter our sheep eat organic homegrown hay supplemented with natural grains—usually oats and alfalfa pellets tossed with some dried molasses (yes, that would be livestock candy), along with kelp, a calcium mineral mix, garlic and onion powder, and diatomaceous earth which is a natural wormer.
It's especially important for pregnant ewes to have grain during the last six weeks of their five month gestation period because as the growing babies inside them become bigger, the ewes' four stomachs become smaller, and it's physically impossible for them to ingest all the calories they need from hay alone.
We feed grain in the late afternoon or early evening because I once read that will promote daylight births. So far this year it isn't working. For the second night in a row, I went down to the barn at 2am to do a preg check and found a new set of twins, this time BB's. I didn't get back to sleep until around 5:30, but mother and those stylish black babies are doing just fine.
In keeping with the old saying, March on the farm came in like a lion and out like atwo three lambs. Tuesday evening while Joe and I were maneuvering poor old (and heavy!) Sweet Pea—my beloved pet wether who is unable to get up and walk anymore—into the barn for the night, Annette had two lambs lickety split.
When we went down to make sure the three of them were resting comfortably in their bonding suite before going to bed a few hours later, a quick check of the rest of the prego flock revealed that Chocolate Chip Biscotti had just given birth to a beautiful black girl out in the barnyard—with the cutest little pink nose.
She also has one inverted eyelid, which causes irritation and tearing, and I'm trying to fix it by simply pulling it into place several times a day, rather than resorting to a more complicated procedure. It's worked for me before, so I'm hopeful.
Wednesday morning Amy had twins, and last night sometime between the 10pm check and a 2am check, one of the two still unnamed Katahdin ewes we bought last year from our sheep shearer had twin girls way out in the barnyard.
At 3:30 this morning I finally crawled back into bed, reassured that the three of them were safe and sound in a bonding suite, and while only one of the lambs had nursed, both had drunk a little colostrum from a small syringe that I'd miraculously been able to milk out of not-real-friendly mama.
This morning both lambs were up and seemingly full of energy, but for some reason mama has decided that she only had one lamb, not two, and keeps knocking away the other one every time it gets near her and tries to nurse. Talk about a heartbreaking (and frustrating) sight.
If things don't improve soon, my plan is to see if I can trick the next new mother who has a single lamb into thinking she actually had twins by rubbing the birthing fluid from the newborn baby on the rejected lamb and hoping the mother will accept her—and the lamb (who has already imprinted on her birth mother) will also be amenable to the plan.
If that doesn't work, I'll bring the rejected baby up on a bottle—but unlike Cary (who is doing great by the way), I don't think she'll be let into the living room!
Of course the Nanny Bear is always ready to assist. Oh, baby baby. And so it begins!
Current lamb count:7. Ewe lambs: 5. Ram lambs: 2. Hours of sleep one of us has had in the last two nights: There are certain things it's just better not to count this time of year.