News and blog

I seem to be having trouble getting notification emails to go out automatically - most of you apparentl did not get the last blog post.  Please let me know if you receive this.

Thanks.  Sharon

  The Long Hot Summer

         Summer on the East Coast - we forget during the fall and winter just how miserable the summers are! Even my perspiration sweats. And the flies this year - some days it seemed as if every fly in Virginia congregated at my barn for a reunion.  I continue to try a variety of remedies to kill them or keep them away - I don't think anything short of tear gas will be effective.  There are so many flies they fight with each other over who's going to get the honor to bite you in a particular location.  The favored spots are places you can't reach.  Maybe a taser? I'm doing better this year with the chiggers - they've run out of places to get me....

Our Farm Sign

     Well - I'm finally official - I have a farm sign thanks to my special friend Dee's husband - Paul - who made it.  Isn't it great!  I feel so - so - well like I have a real farm!  Now wouldn't it be great if I could turn a profit - no - making money might take the fun out of it. 

         How Much Is That Lamb In The Window?

     This year's sales have been slow due to the economy but I'm not complaining.  I get to watch the babies grow up.  Now I understand how some people have ended up with huge flocks they never intended to have.  I have resisted the urge to start naming them - I get many calls for yearlings - but maybe just one or two? 

          I've added a new gallery tag 'FOR SALE' - so when you click on that you will see pictures of all the sheep still for sale.  I'm also attempting to update my For Sale page but having some difficulty due to a software glitch. 

Cow Talk

          Annabelle and Patti Labelle continue to hold court as the reigning princesses of the farm.  Each day, at the hottest point, they saunter down to the barn - kick the sheep out of whichever stall they've chosen - pick out their preferred spot under the fan and then allow the rest of the flock to join them albeit in the cheap seats.  The amount of manure those two eject is hard to describe.  And its really heavy stuff!  I wonder what the market is for dried cow patties? 

Cats, Cats Everywhere

          We still have 12 barn cats - which is amazing since a few of them regularly hunt in the woods.  One of them- Smokie - a very skinny grey kitty that is part siamese I think - has learned a new trick - he waits for a bird to land on the hanging bird feeder then he jumps up and snatches the bird literally while he is in mid air - landing back on his feet with bird in mouth.  We've seen him do this twice.  Once he ending up hanging by his nails on the edge of the bird feeder - bird in mouth - and I had to help him down!  What's that old saying "a bird in the mouth is worth...." (I know its really "hand" so don't bother emailing me with a correction!)   The other day I found what I have been told is a squirrel tail in the driveway.  Very cool - I'm not asking questions as to how it got there or where the rest of the animal is.

         It Smells Around Here

       Big excitement around here last week - found a dead skunk in the upper pasture.  Not sure how it died - don't know that I care.  Boy did it stink though - for days.  I am guessing that a big stinky turkey buzzard was taking his prize home when something caused him to drop it and it landed in my pasture.  I wouldn't have wanted to be in his talons when he had to face the missus and tell her they were having mice for dinner instead of that very fragrant skunk.  The only other explanation is that somehow he got through the fencing (almost impossible) and when he saw where he was - surrounded by two cows, umpteen sheep and two ginormous dogs - he died of heart failure. 

       No Need for Round-Up Here

    Benji came up with a really good idea the other day (Benji is one of my Nigerian Dwarf goats).  The electric fence was off and he managed to slip into Babe and Opal's pasture.  At first I was upset and getting ready to drag him back over but then I noticed him eating weeds.  Of course goats eat weeds.....why hadn't I thought of that.  There are way too many weeds in Babe's pasture because Equine's are very picky about their greens.  They must be a certain shape with nothing extra attached - like bristles or flower heads or bushy leaves.  Nope - its got to be the plain meat and potatoes type grass.  So instead of kicking Benji out I brought his gal pal Johanna over to him.   With any luck by the year 2015 they will have chewed down all of the weeds....

          Cucumbers Anyone?

About my cucumbers ---I've made two different types of cucumber soup, marinated cucumber salad and 3 different types of pickles.  And the cucumbers still come.  Would love any ideas on what to do next.  This too shall pass - just in time for the tomatoes!

         That's about it for now.  Stay cool everyone.  And remember - "Life without animals is no life at all" (From the Sharon Kinsey book of philosophy.

      Jim and I spent 10 days touring around Ireland.  He was interested in beautiful shoreline and vistas - I was interested in sheep, cows, donkeys and ponies.  Fortunately we both got what we wanted.

     But first a bit about the roads in Ireland.  You start with a road large enough for a large cart and horse - which is flanked on either side by stone walls (which is the preferred method of property lines in Ireland).  Then you pave it.  Add a healthy dose of pot holes, tar patches, the equivalent of ice heaves and loose gravel.  Paint a white line down the middle and allow two-way traffic - including any and all mechanized or people powered vehicles, i.e. 18 wheelers, large tractors, construction equipment, motorcyles and bicycles (in packs of course).  Now add in people walking on either side of the road and sheep grazing on the side of the road.   Finally, add in a multitude of hair-pin turns (we're talking 90 and 180 degree curves) along with an average speed limit of 60 mph (yup that's right).  You now have the picture of the road conditions in Ireland.  In all fairness - not ALL roads are like this - just the ones we drove on.....  There are two types of drivers in Ireland - the natives and the tourists.  Not sure who outnumbers who.  Anyway - the natives are extremely friendly - they waive and smile at you as they run you off the road.  Natives drive 60-70 mph - tourists drive 30-50 mph.  You can see the conflict.   In addition to the sheep, we also encountered a cow who was apparently disastified with her herd or her grazing situation and managed to jump the fence - when we came face to face with her she was jaunting down the road having a fine old time. 

       Back to the sheep.   Sheep outnumber people in Ireland about 3-1 so you can't go very far without seeing sheep.  The primary breed is a Scottish Blackface - with beautiful curled horns and agility not unlike a mountain goat.  These sheep have to graze in a variety of environments  - including steep rocky slopes.  These sheep are amazing as well as beautiful.  It was lambing season of course and there were plenty of lambs to gawk at.  It was common to find sheep grazing by the side of a road.

SCOTTISH BLACKFACE

STREET WALKERS

      This appears to be a cross between a Jacob and a Scottish Blackface.  The folks at Kisane are not real sure but sure makes for fun conversation.

     We visited one particular farm - Kissane Sheep Farm in Kenmare, County Kerry where I had the chance to actually hold one of the lambs.  They are big!  Tried to convince Jim I needed to bring one home - you know how far I got with that....  Here's a picture of me with the little guy I'd have gladly put under my seat on the airplane:

       At this same farm we watched a demonstration of working sheep dogs.  It was unbelievable - had never seen this before - except when I saw Babe - they use these dogs to move thousands of sheep from one pasture to another or to collect them up for a variety of reasons.  Here's one of these brilliant dogs:

       Ireland has a lot of donkeys - they were heavily used at one time for farming.  They also have a special breed of horse - called the Connemara Pony - which comes from Connemara (duh) as well as a Kerry Cow.  I have video of the cows but here is a photo of a donkey and a Pony I found along our travels

       Also came across some pretty cute pigs:

      A herford cow with an Irish brogue

And a red deer (these are native to Ireland)

        I won't bore you with the many pictures we took of the coastline and the church ruins - you really had to be there for those.  I will attempt to put together a video which I will post here. 

        One more thing before I sign off.  I've never considered myself much of a domestic goddess nor a determined homesteader.  I'm perfectly content buying my meat wrapped in celephane and chickens cut up in pieces with the skin removed.  However we do live in Southern Virginia and it is a BIG DEAL here to plant a garden so I broke down and planted pickling cucumbers, dill and tomatoes.  Foir those who couldn't possibly imagine my pulling off such a feat - here's a real - not touched up - photo of my cucumbers and tomatoes (the dill is hidden by the cukes).  How cool is this......

     Wishing you all the best and many blessings. 

Sharon Kinsey

      Lambing season ended very peacefully.  The babies are growing fast - too fast.   It's fun to watch them learning "sheep" behavior like butting heads.  They tend to travel in a herd and rarely answer to mamma's call.  Here are a few photos of big babies:

      Sheep shearing this year was reasonably uneventful except for lots and lots of noise.  Wouldn't you know it that the very next day after shearing was rainy and chilly.  Good thing they can't talk - I'd have gotten an earfull.    Now bring on the heat!

     Well it was inevitable.  Once we added Annabelle to the family, we surely needed to provide her with a friend of her own.  She was starting to believe she was a sheep and it wouldn't be much fun to have an 1100 pound sheep.  So - enter Patti Labelle - all the way from Georgia.  She's a belted galloway and she and Annablle have hit if off fine.  Annabelle is completely weaned (thank goodness) although she still looks at me hopefully for maybe just a wee nip of milk.  I will say this about cows - they are trouble makers.  I kept finding the float valve from the automatic water bowl in the upper pasture flipped completely out of the water which created a water fountain of sorts.  A good way to drain the well.  After the third time, I replaced it with a system with a hidden float valve.    Also, it appears that both Annabelle and Patti LaBelle are jumping the temporary fence dividing the large upper pasture.  One minute they are on one side and a little later they are on the other.  No visible breach of the fence line can be found.  I knew that a cow jumped over the moon - but fences? 

      Finally, Jim and I are off to Ireland for a couple of weeks.  Not sure how I'll do leaving the farm for that long.  The good news is maybe I can bring back a couple of sheep!!!  Hope you are all doing well and enjoying every day to its fullest.  God continues to bless us with good health, a beautiful place to live, and thriving animals. 

      I will post when we return.

     It started on March 20th and ended on April 11th - only 3 weeks of worry.   The last one was a doozy - had to go in and pull the baby out - it took me almost 10 minutes and when the head came out the little tongue was hanging out - I was sure it was dead.  My husband said he saw the tail move so I did my normal routine to clear lungs, nose etc just in case and lo and behold it started breathing.  I couldn't believe it.  An exciting way to end the season.  Fortunately I didn't lose any lambs this year.  So here are the statistics:

9 ewes / 8 rams
10 all black / 4 white / 2 spotted / 1 grey

Southdown Babydolls;  1 black ewe / 1 white ram / 1 grey ram / 3 black rams (very disappointing that two of my girls only gave me singles  and that I only got ONE EWE!!!!!!

Cheviot Dolls:  1 white ewe / 1 white ram / 1 black ewe / 1 spotted ewe
Barbado Dolls:  3 black ewes / 2 black rams / 1 white ewe/ 1 spotted ewe

Lessons learned in 2010:

          1.  Just because a ewe was a good mother once does not mean she will be good every time but once a bad mother - always a bad mother (my experience)

          2.  Not all ewes break the birth sack once the baby is born which means if you (or the dog) are not around to do it - the lamb dies. 

          3.  When first born, lambs are not particular about which ewe they suckle. 

          4.   Some ewes never seem to memorize the smell of their lamb so that even if the lamb is standing right beside her she is crying out for it.  It appears she needs to make a visual identification followed by smell. 

          5.    If grain is offered - ewes will abandon their lambs in a heartbeat (once I saw this happen I started putting some grain on the ground in the pasture after I get them all where I want them and the lambs are close to their moms. 

          6.    After a few days - lambs would rather play with their buddies rather than answer their mothers' frantic calls - its fun to watch them play as a "gang"

  You can see pictures and check out sale prices on my website. 

Good morning sports fans!  Here's the score so far:

Eve (Cheviot) - black ewe and white ewe born 3/20

Hannah (Babydoll)  - black ewe and  white ram born 3/22

Gracie (Babydoll) - two black rams born 3/23

Dinah (barbado) - black ewe with one spot on head born 3/26

Suzannah (mini cheviot) - white ram born 3/26

Leah (barbado) - white ewe w/dark smudges and white ewe w/black legs & mask born 3/30

Elizabeth (babydoll) - Grey ram with dark legs born 3/31

Shana (babydoll) - black ram born 4/3

Gideon (black babydoll) is father of all.  So we have 50/50 ewes and rams.  We all pray for ewes but we get what we get!

        There are 4 more ewes still to lamb.  Simone (barbado) who gave me tripletts last year, Miriam (cheviot) and Rachel and Esther (barbados).  Rachel and Esther are first time moms so I expect problems.  

        Until this year I never fully appreciated the process of lambing.  Here is a typical scenario: A mucous string will appear from the vulva indicated birth is imminent.  The ewe will start calling out and looking for "her lamb" which of course is not yet born.  Don't ask me why they do this - certainly if she knew what was to come - she'd be yelling "go back - stay away!...She then start to paw the ground (nesting) and will get up and lay down a dozen times or more.  The only way you know that real labor has started is that they will stretch out their top hind leg for contractions.  They make no noise so as not to attract predators. For anyone who has ever watched or assisted with goat births - it is quite different - sounds like a regular maternity ward - lots of yelling and screaming!  In a normal birth you will see the front legs appear first- the lamb will be in a "dive" position.  The lamb is encased in a sack.  Usually it only takes a couple of contractions for the lamb to be pushed out at which time the ewe is "supposed to" break the sack and clean off the lamb.  I say supposed to because two of my ewes (babydolls) didn't attempt to break the sack and the baby sat in the sack only half way out of the birth canal.  Thankfully, this year, they are lambing during the day so I've been around to help.  If I had not - well, there would have been several dead lambs.    The ewe begins licking the lamb clean and does this for a good 30 minutes.  She also "talks" to the lamb.  This does two things - establishes a bond - and allows her to embed her lamb's smell in her memory and the same for the lamb memorizing his mom's smell.  If they don't do this they won't be able to find each other when out in the crowd.

          Once I am sure that the lamb(s) is/are okay I move the family to a lambing crib which is 4 ft square pen with water and food.  The idea of such small quarters is that is forces the mom to bond with the lamb(s) and allows the lamb(s) to establish a nursing pattern.  It takes them a while to figure out and remember how to find the milk. If the lamb(s) is/are healthy and nursing well - and the weather is good - I move the family to the "play yard" which is an area I fenced off with temporary net fencing in order to keep the new family close for observation but allow them to get fresh air and sunshine.  Mom can also graze.  It further allows the guard dogs to investigate the new critters and assimilate the smells of their new charges.  You can almost hear Golda saying "oh great -- just what we needed - more stupid sheep to guard..."  After a day or so in the playpen I allow them out with the general population.

         It is so much fun to watch all the lambs interact with each other.  At first its a little chaotic as the lambs and ewes figure out who belongs to who.  Lambs who attempt to nurse the wrong ewe will get a firm heat butt from the ewe.  It takes some lambs longer than others to find their moms in a crowd and some just have a habit of wandering away to chase a fly or investigate a blade of grass.  When this happens there is a lot of wailing - from both mom and the lambs.  They really do sound like babies crying.  Sometimes I have to go rescue the lambs and place them back near their mom.  The ewe lambs are much smarter than the ram lambs in this respect - are we surprised? :) What's really funny is when a lamb attempts to nurse someone else's mom and her lambs butt the interloper out of the way just like they saw their mom do.   Mostly though the lambs enjoy playing with each other and will bounce around the pasture - literally.  

           During the lactation period I feed some grain and soymeal to the ewes for extra energy.  This becomes very interesting when lambs are everywhere.  You see most any sheep will abandon its young for grains.  One day, after I put out the grains I happened to look in one of the stalls and Hannah had parked her lambs in there and went off to eat.   The other thing is that the ewes will trample the lambs in order to get to the grain (think teenage boys at dinner time).  So it has to be carefully orchestrated.  While the ewes are trying to eat - the lambs amuse themselves by jumping in and out of the middle of the feed tub.  Fearless little devils...

          It has also been fun watching Annabelle (the calf) interract with the lambs.  Of course she thinks she is a sheep and I saw her running around with the lambs!  Could be a problem next year when she weighs 800 pounds.

          Moms usually wean the lambs at around 8 weeks or so.  I allow the process to take its natural course.  I will not sell a lamb before 8 weeks and sometimes a little longer depending on the lamb.

             So pictures of most of the new lambs are in the Gallery.  You can click on 2010 Lambs in the sidebar on the home page.  I am working on some videos as well - will hopefully post those soon.      

         Everyone have a great Easter.  Will post pictures and news of last 4 births when they happen.

 Many blessings to all of you.    Sharon (aka barn goddess)

Okay - here are two short videos - the first of Annabelle being checked out upon introduction and Bongo and Golda's entertainment for her:

Hannah - my original babydoll - gave birth to twins early this morning.  One black ewe 8# and one white ram 9#.  When I found Hannah and the ewe in the stall all seemed well - I did not see a second lamb.  Then I saw a lamb laying outside the stall.  That was the ram.  Don't know why he was out there but it was clear he had very recently been born - still had some of the sack on him.  Bongo was nearby eating what appeared to be the afterbirth.  It is possible - and likely- that Bongo was there when the little guy was born and licked the sack off of him instead of Hannah. When I tried to put the ram with Hannah she backed away.  

I gave the lamb some colostrum gel and a couple ounces of special milk replacer then put him in with Hannah.  She allowed me to put him on her teat to nurse although he seemed a bit uncoordinated.  I went back later and gave him a couple more ounces of milk replacer.  If I don't see him easily nursing by the end of the day - he will become a bottle baby - but I will leave him with Hannah and his sister.  

 No pictures yet - don't want to stress out the little guy too soon.  Will try later.   

At around 12:30 pm today, Eve gave birth to twins - both girls - one white and one black.  Mother and daughters doing well.  Video will soon follow.  One down 11 more to go!  Stay tuned.

 Here's a picture I snapped of Samson in all his dirty glory!  He has since gotten a hair cut - pictures to follow

We've had some really warm days and cold nights which creates a fog on our pond.  We recently have attracted some canadian geese to our pond and I thought the sight of them swimming in the fog was wonderful.