The Emasculator

Poor poor Martin and Tuesday....operation Rubber Band = mission accomplished. Tetanus shot = check. It's now been 1 week and the "boys" seem fine, healthy and active.

Tail Docking

It is a balmy 40 degrees out on this sunny Saturday morn....we are ready to open all the windows and let this dusty old home air out a bit. Our lovely pink abode is an island in a sea of mud, gray ice and post-construction piles; but that warm air hinting at Spring wont let the mess(es) get me down.

One of our "to-do's" for today is tail docking on Marti our lamb. Note I am sitting here rather than getting right to it. Farm and Fleet sells the supplies, (little rubber bands & tool,) as well as a tetanus shot to give the poor beast to prevent infection. I guess you (are supposed) to do this when they are very young so that if they have the scours, it doesnt fester up under their rear and cause maggots! Gah! Marti didnt seem to have the wicked scours, and I just havent been able bring myself to be the cause of fear and pain for her. We are trying to make friends, not enemies. I think I'll have Shermen do it.

New Baby Lamb

While feeding the sheep and chickens today after work, I noticed Daisy our Lab creating a commotion in the sheep pen…closer inspection revealed a little lamb! The most adorable thing I've ever seen….brand spanking new and TOTALLY unexpected. We thought these "things" happened in the spring, not mid-January Wisconsin. Thank goodness Matilda (the ewe) chose today- this most auspicious of days, Martin Luther King Jr. day, rather than a couple days ago when the temperatures we dangerously below zero.

Now I am in a bit of a panic, researching the web, trying to figure out what exactly we need to do to give our new baby Martin the best chances of survival. Hypothermia is an obvious issue, however, tempting as it is to bring the baby into our nice warm home to snuggle and keep toasty, the research says warming beds should only be last resort. Best situation is to keep the lamb with the ewe. Check that the mouth is warm and the lamb is feeding, not lethargic or apathetic about feeding. There seems to be a yellow tint to the amniotic residue, (these are totally non-vet terms,) but the research indicates this yellow tint is result of birth stress, and one of the causes of birth stress is "inexperienced shepherding." I was all prepared back in summer/fall for something like this, bought the extra vitamins, or "drench" and syringe and kept checking the ewes to look for evidence they were carrying twins. But nothing happened, so I just figured we would have to wait for next year. We don't even have iodine to spray on the cord.

I've been up to the barn checking on them a few times now, and plan to go up once more before calling it a night. Martin seems healthy, he/she is walking around and not shivering or anything like that. He's feeding vigorously and baahing in a way that sounds healthy not scary. He has a little diarrhea on his backside, but not much, and it's dark. Scary sounding "scours" which lead to dehydration and death are yellow or pale. I will check again in the morning, if they are worse I guess I'll have to call in to work in the morning to get hydration and electrolytes etc for him. Hopefully fate will smile on us with this first one. Pictures coming soon!

Salmonella

Poor poor Shermen......evil wife undercooks chicken, husband suffers.

Corn = Heat

Today we wrote a check for 360$ for about 2 tons of corn. The goal is to make this last thru the winter. Sherm built a large bin in the cellar to hold all the corn, which was delivered today. Up until now, we were buying our corn by the 100 pound bag at the Co-op. The price literally doubled last season from Sept/Oct to May. Also, the 100 lb bag factor meant at the very most I could stop and pick up corn, but was dependent upon Sherm to lug it down the icy steps into the cellar.

Had our first major snow storm last nite, around 8-10 inches, snow day for both of us today, which was awesome. We both got a lot done. The chickens are now happily housed up with the sheep, and we have been collecting about 3 eggs per day. The cats are happy in their new home down in the cellar, guarding our corn from the mice.

Anticipation & Fighting Blight

The first seed catalogue for the 2009 growing season has arrived! Now it's time to start a file, compare prices and options, and create the wish list.

We have a few somewhat "theme" oriented garden beds scattered around the property. The original garden was a rectangular shaped combination of a flower and herb garden laid out in a fleur-de-lys design in front; and parallel rows or raised vegetable beds in back. This year, the original- or Fleur- garden is to be devoted almost entirely to flowers, herbs, garlic and strawberries. It will be expanded to wrap around our old, unused silo, which will be a great place for storing the tools I use every day in the garden. The silo will also make a great trellis for climbing beans and flowers.

At the end of fall, I rebuilt the raised beds, and broke down one row in the center, leaving it an open space. On summer mornings we like to host little breakfast parties outside. For a couple years, we would set up a table next to the garden; last year Shermen built the wonderful paved, patio area where we can sit and enjoy a great view of the gardens, waterfall, fields of blowing grasses and the hills in the distance. However, we always think it would be nice to be able to sit and relax right in the garden, that's what I will be creating in the empty space next year. On a more practical note, last year's attack of insects, blight, rust, and powdery mildew made me think maybe my rows were a little too cramped. Some www research informed me that the too-close-rows probably didn't allow the plants to shed moisture quickly enough after rains, which can lead to disease. I have visions of a little bistro table and chairs, maybe a small couple of shelves, an area to sit and enjoy a break while working in the beds. The herbs and flowers seemed the least susceptible to disease; they will be taking over those beds, creating a lovely, hopefully healthy and fragrant environment to relax in.

Last year was an extremely wet season. We "lost" the front flower beds full of seedlings twice to dammed up water that submerged and drowned the seedlings. This fall I built a mulch dam at the rear of the garden to stop the water from pouring in, we also tore down the earth a bit at the front to allow any excess water to be released more quickly. We are also thinking of lining the paths with stones this year, rather than bark mulch, which floats.

Veggies such as tomatoes, eggplant and cucumbers will be moving to areas where they can have more room, and easier access to water. The other thing I learned from the web is that those wonderful "freebie" tomato plants sometimes called "volunteer" tomatoes….the ones that just pop up from last year's fallen seeds….they are bad, vulnerable to disease such as blight, which then spreads like crazy. We have a couple of those big old metal livestock watering troughs with holes rusted in the bottom- lousy for holding water- but great for drainage. I'm thinking those will be our tomato planters, kind of cool looking, easier to maintain and control. The tomatoes were my biggest problem last year due to blight. Next were the cucumbers. Two years in a row now of failed cukes. Year one, they were awesome, tasty and sweet, we'd slice them and salt them and people would just rave. The next year, some sort of chemical disease inside so they looked just lovely, but were too bitter to eat. This year, bugs, nasty endless bugs and weird bulb shaped fruits. Not enough regular water was part of the problem….so they cukes will be closer to the water supply this year. We already have a nice little wooden structure next to one of the water pumps; we will probably just expand upon that. My eggplant did okay, we did have some aphids or something that were pretty aggressive, but all the plants still produced fruit. Only problem was not enough. I also discovered that those Thai eggplants, the long tubular ones, are really great for sautéing because you don't have to dice just slice. Found a great tip on cooking eggplant in one of my favorite cooking magazines "Cooks Illustrated," which suggested you dice, salt and sweat the cubes for about 10-15 minutes in the microwave prior to cooking with them to avoid excessive oil absorption. Worked great!

Obama!

Is it crazy that I feel this sense of Hope??? It's 24 degrees outside; we had actual snow this weekend. Some of my new garlic is growing, which is bad, not supposed to do that till spring. I'm sick as hell with a chest cold and today we simply MUST get into the cellar and install all the ductwork, really starting to need heat. The chickens need relocating to their winter abode, we've 2 pregnant sheep and for some reason Eric (the male sheep) has taken to attacking me when I try to refill their water. Yesterday he had me trapped against the silo screaming for Shermen to come chase him away. We are praying the ewes are able to lamb without any problems…we don't know nothin' bout birthin no babies!