More photos below. . .
Showing posts with label sheep 2012. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sheep 2012. Show all posts
Monday, December 24
Thursday, December 13
Thursday Dose of Cute: Slowly Defrosting
Looking out the bedroom window across the hayfield, 9:30 Tuesday morning.
Much of our 240-acre Missouri farm is tucked several hundred feet down in a narrow little valley, which means that on a clear night this time of year it often gets at least ten degrees colder than the forecast. It also means that at 9:30 in the morning, we're still deep in frozen shade.
The sun slowly works its way across the hayfield toward us, finally reaching the kitchen garden about 11am. By four o'clock, it's already dropped down behind the ridge, sending us back into the shade.
It's the season of very short days.
Two mornings ago it was nine degrees (that would be Fahrenheit) at 8:30, which is when I'd worked up enough nerve to check the thermometer. Yesterday morning at 6:30 it was twelve. What always amazes me is how after just a short time in the sun, everything goes back to looking as if there had never even been a frost.
11 more photos below. . .
Monday, December 3
Sunday, November 25
Sunday Farm Photo: A Peaceful Sunday Afternoon
Sunshine, blue skies, and some fresh green grass for these pregnant ewes.
When I was a kid I used to love the board game Payday. I remember one time when I was probably about ten, a friend who lived around the corner and I were both home sick with the flu for several days, so our moms let us hang out together on the big sofa bed in their family room. We played a continuous game of Payday that lasted so long we had to make our own extra money.
The game board is a calendar month, and you drew various cards, etc. depending on which day you landed. Nothing ever happened on the Sunday squares, they were simply all labeled Sweet Sunday, which always seemed so boring. Now it sounds just perfect.
More sheep? Here.
More farm landscapes? Here.
More totally peaceful farm moments? Um. . .
© FarmgirlFare.com, the seven day a week, Sheep Working Sunday foodie farm blog where life is not a board game, but it's still a lot of fun to play.
Thursday, November 22
Thursday Dose of Cute: Happy Thanksgiving from All of Us to All of You
What are we so very thankful for? You.
Farmgirl Fare Thanksgivings past:
(click here to see all these posts on one long page)
11/24/05: Happy Thanksgiving to You
11/24/05: Year Round Thankfulness
11/23/06: Thankful to Call this Place Home
11/22/07: Enjoying a Feast
11/27/08: Gobble Gobble
11/27/09: Thanksgiving, the Morning After
11/25/10: Post Feast Nap
11/24/11: George, Our Mechanic's Pet Turkey
© FarmgirlFare.com, where it can be so hard to get a decent holiday family picture.
Tuesday, November 20
Tuesday Farm Photos: This Morning
There were pictures everywhere this morning. Care to join me as I check on things around the farm?
19 more photos below. Descriptions at the end, or hover over each image. . .
Monday, November 5
Wednesday, October 24
Thursday, October 11
Sunday, October 7
Wednesday, September 26
Wednesday Dose of Cute: Check It Out
Sheep breeding season started on September this year and will last for 37 days. This is a month earlier than we started last year, which was earlier than we started the year before. It means, of course, that lambing season will also begin a lot earlier than usual, in (yikes) late January. It's an experiment.
We currently have two rams, Da Big Guy (born in the 'D' name year) and The Kid (aka Hey Kid; yep, that's his 'H' name). For 328 days a year these two guys live together, separate from the rest of the flock, and get along just fine. When it's cold they even snuggle. Add in some girls to fight over, though, and things would get really ugly. So when we're breeding, the rams are each locked up with their own ewes, and the two mini flocks are kept apart from each other, never even sharing a fence.
This set up keeps the peace and makes everybody happy. But it can't hurt to have a little look every once in a while, can it? After all, you know what they say—the sheep are always cuter on the other side of the fence.
More photos below. . .
Sunday, August 19
Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday/Sunday Farm Fix #23
Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (mostly on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here and here.
This past week we had some blissfully cool nights and not nearly as hot days. It feels like we've finally turned a corner. And after nearly two weeks without any rain (and hardly any before that), a big storm blew through Thursday night and gave us two whole inches. We haven't had that much rain at one time in at least a year.
We also finally got the biopsy results back, and everything looks fine (yay!). It's not cancer, and there is nothing else left to test for. Unfortunately the doctors still have no idea what is causing all this debilitating female pain. Thank goodness for homeopathy and Chinese medicine and beautiful healing meditations.
I haven't forgotten the lemon rosemary zucchini bread recipe I promised you last week (it is so good toasted), and I have a few more new summer recipes I'm hoping to share soon too. I may still be spending a lot of time lying down, but we also still have to eat! I guess I'd better get snapping; fall will be here before we know it.
Thank you so much for all your kind words and prayers and support. I'm slowly catching up with e-mail.
Things are moving in the right direction.
14 more farm photos below. Hover over each image for a description. . .
Wednesday, August 15
Saturday, August 4
Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #21
Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (mostly on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.
A little rain and a big rainbow in the hayfield late Sunday afternoon.
Same old song, different week. Still too hot, too dry, too much mystery female pain keeping me mostly in bed. I'm starting to sound like a broken record, and not the kind that's messed up because it's your favorite and you played it over and over again.
Part of me thinks I should stop mentioning this terrible heat and drought that has been holding us (and so many others) hostage for months and instead act like nothing is wrong, because everybody has problems and nobody wants to read a depressing blog. But life on the farm isn't always about cute animals and delicious homegrown food, and right now we can think of nothing else. And there isn't much to photograph.
I also know many of you follow Farmgirl Fare because you want to know what it's really like living out here in the country—the good, the bad, and the ugly. This would be the bad and the ugly (though we still have plenty of good food and cute).
I think six of the last seven days have been over 100 degrees, though I stopped checking the thermometer (and the weather forecast) weeks ago. When we drove to yet another doctor's office on Wednesday (we got the CT results and are now waiting two weeks for biopsy results), I couldn't believe how few cattle and how many dried up ponds we passed. Joe counted over 30 big dead trees just along our driveway and a little ways down the road as we headed out.
Most farmers around here water their grazing livestock using ponds, which are kept filled by rain. If your ponds are dry, your animals have nothing to drink. If you have relentless heat and no rain, your pastures burn up and your animals have nothing to eat.
More farm talk and 7 farm photos below. Hover over each photo for a description. . .
Saturday, July 21
Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #19
Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (mostly on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.
Tim-ber!
We had a slight change in the weather this week. It was still way too hot and way too dry, but for a (thankfully) brief period on Thursday afternoon it was also way too windy. A noisy thunderstorm whipped through the farm, sending chickens flapping, our big gas grill tumbling across the yard, and this beautiful old oak tree crashing to the ground.
Fortunately Da Big Guy and The Kid, our two rams who are currently living in that pen, weren't hurt. One of the bunk feeders suffered severe injuries, but at least the little sheep hut was mostly spared. We got about 1/4" of rain out of the whole ordeal, and although it was better than nothing, I definitely would have preferred a little less excitement and a lot more water.
On to a more appetizing subject. I don't keep track of what we eat for dinner every night, but maybe I should start. Sometimes it can be easy to forget just how much wonderful food graces our table.
This week we enjoyed the first BLTs of the season, made with locally raised bacon (from one of the two butcher hogs in our freezers), juicy tomatoes from a friend, and homemade pesto mayonnaise (first pesto of the year! my favorite pesto recipe is here) on freshly baked Farmhouse White (with a few cups of whole wheat flour tossed in). And then the next night we had them again.
More food talk and another 15 farm photos below. Hover over each picture for a description. . .
Tuesday, July 17
Saturday, July 14
Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #18
Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (mostly on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.
Six of Lokey's chicks practice their perching
You know I'm not a fan of summer weather, but even I can't believe how fast these weeks are zipping by. It's the middle of July already? Things around the farm are pretty much the same as they were last week. While I was sorting through photos for this post I found several that look remarkably like some of the ones in last week's Friday Farm Fix, right down to Joe wearing the same favorite yellow shirt.
We've mostly been hiding from the heat and hoping we'll get more rain so the grass in the grazing pastures and hayfield will grow. When we drove to town the other day it looked like the cattle in the fields along the highway were grazing on brown putting greens. Everybody is wondering what we're going to do.
The highlight of the week was definitely when a quick check in the garden yesterday confirmed that the liberal dousing of diatomaceous earth did scare away the hundreds of ravenous blister beetles that attacked on my birthday. Yes! The trick is to put it on and around your plants as soon as you see the first beetles. To learn about the many ways we use this safe, 100% natural, inexpensive stuff around the farm and garden (we even take a daily dose ourselves), check out this post.
I had a fun half day off for my birthday, which included cake, champagne, grilled homegrown rib steaks, the first two ripe tomatoes from the garden, local cucumbers and zucchini, homemade onion rye bread slathered with butter, more cake, and a frenzy of music downloads.
Yep, I've finally discovered how easy it is to buy music online (we don't get enough monthly bandwith to stream music from YouTube, etc.). I mean, who can resist Bob Marley for 25 cents? All sorts of new and old favorites are now blasting out of my computer. I think I've played Lucky Now and Somebody That I Used To Know at least 45 times each.
After listening to Todd Boston's Touched By the Sun about 150 times, I finally bought the whole album, which was produced by Will Ackerman, whose music I fell in love with back in 1983 when he came to my high school and played The Bricklayer's Beautiful Daughter.
After listening to Todd Boston's Touched By the Sun about 150 times, I finally bought the whole album, which was produced by Will Ackerman, whose music I fell in love with back in 1983 when he came to my high school and played The Bricklayer's Beautiful Daughter.
I also bought a neat little julienne peeler (which hasn't arrived yet) and finally ordered a Furminator for the dogs. Too cool. Ten year old Lucky Buddy Bear, who never lets you brush him, loves it. I came downstairs one morning and found a smiling Joe and Bear sitting on the floor together with a giant pile of fur next to them.
Lots of birthday fun. And there's even a little cake left in the freezer.
14 more farm photos below. Hover over each picture for a description. . .
Sunday, July 8
Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #17
Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (usually on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.
Heading back from Donkeyland after Monday's surprise rain.
Blast furnace hot, dry as a bone. Nothing has changed since last week, except the thermometer keeps climbing and the fields keep getting browner. Nobody around here has any grass left in their pastures. The only thing that's still green in our front field is the blasted cactus (you can see a patch of it below). Nothing kills that stuff, although even it looks a little peaked. Some of the trees are starting to die.
Our hearts go out to everyone across the country in the same scary situation. I have no idea what we're going to do. And now it looks like feed prices will be sky high soon too.
Thanks so much for all the thoughts and prayers and rain dances you've sent our way. They worked! We were thrilled to get a surprise half inch of rain last Monday, and although it was just a drop in a big, dusty bucket it did make a difference. You could actually see the grass start greening up within hours and practically hear the plants sighing with relief as they sucked up the moisture.
Two more storms have blown through since then, but they must have watered somebody else's farm instead of ours. Joe sneaked a peek at the forecast this morning (I still can't bear to look) and said there's a chance of rain for the next several days—and the high today was below 100° for the first time in I don't know how long (which is why I stopped checking the weather). Please keep dancing!
There's nothing we can do about the heat and drought, but I can keep sharing the cute. So how about 19 more farm photos taken during the past week? Hover over each picture for a description.
More below. . .
Wednesday, June 27
Saturday, June 23
Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #15
Welcome to the Friday Farm Fix, a new series on Farmgirl Fare where I share a random sampling of what's been happening around the farm during the past week (usually on Fridays). Just joining us? You'll find all the Friday Farm Fix posts here.
Lokey and some of her newly hatched chicks
It was kind of a whirlwind week. Like it was Sunday, and then it was Friday. There was a trip to the vet with a very well behaved Bert (even when some guy walked in the door and said, "Hello, fat little dog!"), a couple of blissful afternoon hours spent swimming at the river (something we've decided we need to do a lot more often), and even a little pizza party. There was champagne and an indoor picnic dinner (one of our favorite meals) on the solstice.
Why are there so many chick pics in this week's Friday Farm Fix? Because there are baby chickens everywhere. I'm not going to say the actual number because Joe is going to read this, and I don't think he's done quite all of the peep math yet. He has noticed that we seem to be buying chicken feed a lot more often when we go to town. And he kindly set up the fancy waterer we bought last year in the newish open chicken pen, which you can see hanging from a tree below.
We were thrilled to get a little over an inch of rain at the beginning of the week, which was more than we've had at one time in months. The fields are parched and sparse. It's been blast furnace hot every day, with no more rain in sight. The sheep and their guard dogs spend the afternoons tucked under the cool of low hanging cedar trees at the edge of the front field. There are green tomatoes getting bigger. Sum sum summertime.
26 more farm photos below (hover your cursor over each image for a description) . . .
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