Monday Farm Photos: Happy Monday.

Wishing you a week filled with little pockets of peace. (And for the rest of the time, there's always this.)

More (15-year-old!) Lucky Buddy Bear? Here and here.

More farm landscape photos? Here and here.

More of the wet weather creek here and here (which we're thrilled is already running for the second time this month, and even more thrilled that it isn't as high as it was on this day six years ago).

Thursday Dose of Cute: Welcome to Babyland

FLB's four-day-old twins on January 30th.

It's lambing season! Still. We bred just 15 ewes this year, and the first set of twins arrived January 26th. But after 22 days of round the clock visits to the barn (I started my nightly checks a few days earlier than the first lambs showed up), we're only halfway through. In other years we've had as many as eight lambs born in 24 hours, so I was really hoping we'd be all done by now.

More photos and the rest of the story below. . .

Thursday Dose of Cute: Down at the Sheep Barn

Great Pyrenees livestock guardian Daisy and nine-year-old pet wether Teddy.

Bye, bye, breeding season! These weeks are flying by so fast it's frightening. On August 27th we moved our six-year-old ram, Da Big Guy (born during the 'D' year) in with 15 ewes, and last Thursday we moved him back out. If all went (and goes) well, adorable bouncing baby lambs should start arriving the end of January.

A ewe cycles every 17 days, so we kept the ram in a pen with them for 37 days: two cycles plus a few extra days just in case. Hopefully, though, lambing season won't last nearly that long. Last year nine ewes had 19 live lambs (plus one newborn that died), which was fantastic, but they spread those lambs out over a month.

The idea is to have all the lambs arrive in as short a time as possible, although that doesn't always seem like a great plan when you're short on sleep and babies are being born every time you turn around. But the alternative—endless days of round the clock barn checks with nothing going on—is even more exhausting.

During the past few years we've significantly reduced our flock in an all around effort to simplify our lives and reduce expenses, so besides Da Big Guy and his 15 babes, we had a separate splinter flock this year of just eight sheep: three 2013 lambs that we'll have butchered next spring, three big old pet wethers (they also make great ram companions), my baby Cary (who I decided not to breed again after her first horrible experience), and nine-year-old Silly, a sweet old retired girl who is Da Big Guy's mother.

When we pulled Da Big Guy out last week, we put Teddy (aka Uncle Teddy) in with him and merged the rest of the flock back together.

We combined this merger with a sheep working session, trimming some hooves, running everyone through a zinc sulfate foot bath to treat foot scald (raw spots between the toes from moisture), and giving everybody a dose of organic garlic juice and apple cider vinegar as a natural wormer and all-around health tonic.

More photos and story below. . .

Monday Dose of Cute: Sheep Working Sunday Afternoon

More photos below. . .

Tail End of the Week: Get Your Friday Farm Fix #24

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.

The sheep barn surrounded by a blast of autumn color.

What's this? A new Friday Farm Fix after a ten week hiatus? Yes! (Although I didn't want to give you too much of a shock by actually posting it on Friday.) I've missed this series. Missed being able to look back and see what we've been doing each week, missed keeping on top of all my photos. I don't know if these posts be weekly again yet, but I'm hoping to get back in the groove. (Did I just date myself with that phrase?)

It's been a busy, beautiful autumn. Lots of work, lots of up and down crazy weather (80s and muggy one day, 50s and blustery the next), lots of gorgeous fall color. October is my favorite month on the farm. Enjoy.

12 more farm photos below. Hover over each image for a description. . .

Monday Dose of Cute: Welcome to Babyland

Lambing season is in full swing!

More photos below. . .

Thursday Dose of Cute: Down at the Barn

More photos below. . .

Sunday Dose of Cute and Farm Life: It Was Sheep Working Weekend!

One sneaky little lamb tried to escape, but my hunky farmguy hopped the fence and saved the day.

Now that lambing season—which lasted less than a month!—seems to be over (it doesn't look like that last ewe is pregnant), it's time to focus on other things, like keeping the sheep in tiptop condition. This means working them, which is always so much fun! Not.

More below. . .

Saturday Dose of Cute: What's Your Diagnosis?

Exhausted after a night of livestock guard duty. . .

Saturday Farm Photos: Bye Bye Sheep Barn!

Wednesday, 8:30 am







9:30 am



10:15 am



11:05 am







11:45 am







11:57 am
















Auntie Rose isn't the only one around here who's surprised by the sudden change of scenery. One minute my hunky farmguy was saying we really need to rebuild the sheep barn before it falls apart even more, I said, "It's not that bad yet, is it?" then idly wondered aloud if maybe our Amish carpenter neighbors (whose front yard produce stand has been supplementing our kitchen garden bounty) would be interested in taking on the job, and the next thing I knew measuring was under way, dates had been set, a guy from the electric company arrived to disconnect the power down there and put a new breaker box on the pole, we ordered a whole bunch of rough cut siding from the nearby Amish sawmill, large piles of money were handed over to the lumberyard and metal roofing manufacturer, a horse and buggy pulled up, and our beloved little sheep barn had been flattened (except for the rock walled feed room which we're saving).

Now all they have to do is build it back up! More photos to come.

In the meantime, want to take a peek at past barn pictures?
10/2/05: Where Sheep Sleep
10/17/05: Fall Color by the Barn
10/27/05: Where Sheep Sleep, Take Two
11/10/05: Where Sheep Sleep, Take Three (the Frosted Edition)
12/3/05: Same Scene, New View Barn Shots
5/29/06: Sun Hits Morning Mist
11/12/06: Beyond This Door There Be Treats
12/2/06: Snowstorms & Snowfall (and Heart Rocks)
11/17/07: Random Barn Shot
3/19/08: Flood Watch
9/21/08: Last Day of Summer
12/3/08: The Notorious Scratching Post Gang

© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the demolished foodie farm blog where employers in cities may be encouraged to provide on site daycare, but out here you need to have buckets of fresh water and a spot for your workers' horses to hang out—preferably with some nice tasty grass growing in it (see the fourth photo above).