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Whew!

Last night Dave couldn’t sleep because of his cold so he went in the living room and watched some tv.  Well, at 12:45am he woke me up because one of the ewes went into labor and he could hear her pushing over the baby monitor we keep in the barn.

We got out to the barn pretty quick with my lambing box and discovered it was Abigail who was in labor.  We moved her into a smaller lambing stall (or jug) and persuaded Rosy and Annie to return to their “ladies in waiting” stall.  We got some things together and sat by the straw bales to wait.  Midnight and Tiger were very happy that we finally decided to come join them in sleeping in the barn.  🙂  Not much happened so we decided to go back to sleep for 30-45 minutes and do another check.

At 2:15am, I mean 3:15 daylight savings time, we went out again because we still heard pushing.  I checked and only saw 1 hoof….not good.  I felt around and found the other foot quickly.  It was bent at the “ankle” and corrected easily, but the emerging legs didn’t look like front legs.  I felt around again and found a tail….not good.

The next time Abigail laid down to push, Dave knelt down and held her for me.  I attached my lambing cord to the lamb’s legs and, with each contraction, pulled.  Poor Abigail was a trooper through the delivery.  Dave said she chewed on his jacket when she was pushing.  We had to get that baby out quickly so that it didn’t start to breathe while still in the birth canal.  Pneumonia can develop when fluid gets in the lungs.

We got the lamb out – a ram – and cleared its nose…after a little chest rub he started breathing and shaking his head.  What a big boy!  After mama cleaned him off and he stood up I weighed him… 12lbs!  No wonder he didn’t have a twin!

I finally got back to bed at 4:15 daylight saving time.  What a night to be out in the lambing barn!  And I had to teach Sunday school this morning, too!  Whew!

Noah & Hannah with Abigail and ram lamb

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It’s Almost Spring!

This past week has been so nice! We’ve been outside so much because the weather has been sunny and warm. The only snow still on the ground is in the heavily shaded areas.

Last week I made farmer’s cheese with cow milk since we were hosting a small family get-together. I made 2 different kinds: herb cheese – with garlic, tarragon and salt; and sweet cheese – with sugar, chopped raisins and dried cranberries, and drizzled with honey. I liked the sweet one better, but everyone said they were both good. I just think the herb cheese needed more herbs. We really enjoyed having our family visit on Saturday. My sister and her family came over from New Jersey and my aunts, uncle and cousin from Long Island drove down with my aunt from Nevada. Another of my uncles drove up from the Baltimore area. It was such a nice and relaxing day. Noah and Hannah, especially, enjoyed the company.

Aunt Laureen with Noah & Hannah

 We strolled around the farm in muck boots (mostly borrowed and not the right size) and enjoyed the sun on our skin. We checked out the animals and watched birds soar overhead. My Uncle Frank loves nature and does a lot of birding. He gave Noah a picture of 4 young raccoons that he took while hiking in NY. Noah was so happy and has displayed his picture proudly on his dresser. We’ll get a frame for it and hang it up this weekend.   Hannah loved playing with her cousins, Summer and Cole.  They’re only 5 months younger than her so they have lots of fun together.  Noah loves his cousins, too.  He likes being the big boy and taking care of his  younger cousins. 

On Sunday Noah decided to go sledding in the little bit of snow left on our front hill.  Hannah even hopped on the sled with Dave for her 1st time sledding.  All the other snow was just too much for her and she didn’t have too much fun.  After about 5 minutes outside after we got that blizzard she turned to me and said, “Mommy, inside!”   

Sledding with Daddy

After our sledding fun we wandered around, then spent some time with the baby ducks.  They’re getting big, but they still don’t have any adult feathers.  It’s funny because by 2 or 3 days baby chicks are already getting some adult feathers.  

Holding the Ducklings

 

This week Hannah, Noah and I have had colds but it’s been so warm that we’ve gone outside for walks.  Aurie came over with Sophie and Isabelle on Tuesday and it was just a house full of runny noses!  But everyone had a fun day… that’s all that counts! 

We’re still waiting for our lambs to come.  We have 3 girls due any day and they’re huge.  I’ll post pictures of the lambs when they’re born…hopefully soon! 

Our VERY Pregnant Sheep

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Hannah’s Early Birthday Present

Noah and Hannah with the ducklings

Hannah got her birthday present today.  She absolutely loves ducks so we got her 2 ducklings.  Noah got 2 ducklings, too, because we couldn’t get pets for Hannah and not for him.  Everyone loves the little ducks and they are staying in the living room for a few days before moving out to the brooder in the barn. 

Our 4 little ducklings

 I tried sexing them the way I found in a book and, as far as I can tell, they’re all girls but how could we get that lucky?  We’ll have wait till they’re older to be sure.  If they are all girls we’ll have ducks eggs available in a few months because they are Gold Hybrid Ducks  – a layer breed.

Hannah helping put the duck in it's box

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Philly Cooks! Chef Competition

Philadelphia Magazine’s 10th annual Philly Cooks! Chef Competition is today at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel and we’re rooting for local chef Michael Falcone of Funky Lil’ Kitchen in Pottstown.  He’s using some of our ground lamb to make Lamb Sloppy Joes.  Proceeds from the competition and party benefit the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House.  For more info visit:  www.phillyfunguide.com/event/detail/80957.

Check out Funky Lil’ Kitchen online here:  www.funkylilkitchen.com.

I’ll let you know how he did later!

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Such a Big Boy

Yesterday morning Noah greeted me with what he’d been writing on his dry-erase board.  He loves to write and copy words.  Anyway, he’d taken all his Thomas trains and copied the names off the bottoms.

In case you need help, it says:

“Henry  Molly

Chicken Car

Spotlight Car

Holiday Percy

Clarabel”

My little boy is growing up!  He is constantly asking what things say and just soaking up all the information.  I still can’t believe he’ll be going to kindergarten in the fall!

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O Romeo, Romeo!

We have 2 stray/wild cats that come around for food.  There’s Pumpkin, the large orange tabby and Scaredy-Cat the little grey and white kitty.  Our pet cats, Midnight and Tiger tolerate them…sometimes more than others.  They’ve both been around for 2 winters and this year both have gotten quite trusting.  They now will stay on the deck when we feed them.  Pumpkin would always hang out at a distance from us, but Scaredy-Cat would take off as soon as he saw us, hence the name.  We actually thought Scaredy-Cat was a girl because of his size and the yelling matches he and Pumpkin would have.

Last month we finally realized Scaredy-Cat was a boy when he started woo-ing Midnight (who is fixed and doesn’t have a clue about what’s going on).  Anyway, because of this and his new-found trust in us he’s earned the new name Romeo.  Here’s a nice photo I took yesterday.

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More Snow Pictures

Here are more pictures of our snowy farm!
Why buy an expensive weeping cedar tree when all you need is a good blizzard?!

Hannah and Noah in the snow.  Noah has been having lots of fun.  Hannah, on the other hand, asks to go in the house 5 minutes after we get outside.  She can be bribed to stay outside longer if we go see the animals.

The sheep and goats going up to their pasture.  Dave shoveled paths from the barns to the pasture and to the house.  He also shoveled out a big area for the sheep in their field.

Giant icicles on the front of the house before I knocked them down.

Me holding some of the biggest icicles.

We’re supposed to get more snow today and tonight!  I hope the forecasts that say only 1″-2″ are right.  🙂

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I Got My Drop Spindle Yesterday…

…And I started spinning last night!  I love that hand-spun yarn is so unique – not 100% uniform like commercial yarns.

I ordered my “Learn to Spin Kit” from Golding Fiber Tools in Vermont (http://www.goldingfibertools.com/).  The drop spindle is hand-carved in a Celtic Ring design and the kit came with 2 oz of Coopworth roving.  I chose this design because I used some money that my pop-pop gave my for Christmas to buy the spindle and he’s from Scotland.  I will always think of him whenever I use this spindle.

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Winter Wonderland

 
Chicken Coops in the Snow

Just in case the snow we got last weekend wasn’t enough we got hit yesterday with a blizzard!  The forecasts predicted we would get 6″-8″ of snow last Friday and Saturday….we got 15″.  Yesterday we got an additional 2 feet of snow dumped on us!  The snow started Tuesday around 7pm and ended around 10pm Wednesday night. 

We tried to keep up with it by plowing every 3 hours or so, but by dinnertime only the lawn tractor could fit down the driveway.  It just wasn’t powerful enough to push the heavy snow back.  This morning after breakfast Dave went out to try to push the snow back.  He ended up just shoveling a large area. 

Dave Shoveling the Patio

Our new neighbor hires someone to plow her drive and they showed up with a Bobcat and a tractor with a front-end loader.  We ended up calling her to ask if they could do our drive, too.  It was just too much!  They did ours and our other neighbor’s drive, too.  The mounds of snow are just amazing.  I’ll post some of those pictures tomorrow.

Noah in the Path to the Front Door

Noah went out with Dave in the afternoon and was upset that there wasn’t a lot to shovel!  That’s all he wants to do right now.  In the summer he’ll want to pretend to mow or weedwack.  🙂  They did sled down the hill in the front yard, or at least they tried to sled.  The snow is so deep that they could only get about 3/4’s of the way down the hill.

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My 1st Try at Needle Felting

Yesterday I decided to try needle felting some of the Tunis wool I’ve been washing.  I’ve heard that it is very easy….you just have to stab the wool repeatedly with a sharp “felting” needle.  I put my wool in a cookie cutter and felted it into the shape I wanted that way.  Then I tea-dyed my little felted sheep.   You can find very simple tea-staining instructions here:  http://sheepyhollow.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/tea-dyeing/.   I dyed this one dark so it would look like a gingerbread cookie.

Needle Felted Sheep

I also tried making a 3-D felted object, too.  So far I just made 1 little egg, but I want to make a bunch and dye them pretty colors for Easter.  I’ll post pictures of them later.