tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30998777995765846092024-03-18T12:57:58.835-07:00 From Cedar Pond to Laughing Dove Farm In June 2016 we sold Cedar Pond and moved over the mountains and far away. We now live in Deer Park , WA where the weather is a bit more extreme than Cedar Pond's and in spite of the challenges we're rejoicing in life in our new home with field and forest just outside our back door. God is so good to us !KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.comBlogger982125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-22849139553953639272019-08-28T23:00:00.000-07:002019-08-28T23:00:02.815-07:00Freya Gives Birth to Twin Lambs ~ Part 2<br />
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Freya has successfully given birth to her second ram (male) lamb and now she finishes cleaning them of afterbirth and tending them. Freya is a very good mama. I still have her grown twin ewes and they too are good and fierce mamas. Freya is an Icelandic sheep and exhibits the qualities appreciated in 'leader sheep'. I have been told her line possesses leader sheep and if you do any research into the character qualities of leader sheep it is easy to see Freya does indeed qualify. (Sometimes her abilities and determination make her a very hard sheep to contain !)<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fS4Sn8RzH8g" width="480"></iframe>KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-15511148336160661392019-08-27T23:00:00.000-07:002019-08-27T23:00:16.114-07:00My Icelandic SheepFreya Giving Birth <br />
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This is my Icelandic ewe giving birth this past spring to her second ram lamb. Freya is a good and fiercely protective mama. You can see the first born lamb standing next to her as she gives birth to his twin brother.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lslcNm0fGkY" width="480"></iframe>TKathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-70139050582238564222019-08-26T13:15:00.002-07:002019-08-26T14:38:25.348-07:00Sebastopol Geese Enjoying Their Swimming PoolMy Sebastopol geese love love love their time in the small kiddie pools I have set up for them and our ducks. My husband and I have not yet had time to build a pond for them , but they are pretty happy splashing in their little pools and any water trough or dish they can fit themselves into.<br />
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My geese are a family consisting of William and Trillium the parents, and 3 goslings they hatched out and raised. My geese bring me great joy and I love to sit in the poultry yard and watch them. They love to sit by the poultry yard gate and watch me !<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8P0EEB-k9UA" width="480"></iframe>KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-52745841561456572722019-08-25T20:10:00.000-07:002019-08-26T13:26:45.199-07:00Canning Season ~ Beans, Beans and More Beans !<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It is canning season and we are beyond abundance ( is there such a thing as beyond abundance ?) in beans !</div>
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My husband is an amazing gardener and tends his vegetable garden well.</div>
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He planted, grew, and tended beans quite successfully this year. He grew some yellow beans along with green beans. The yellow beans taste the same as the green beans so I was excited to can the yellow beans along with the green beans because I think the jars of canned beans are pretty with the yellow.<br />
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These are quart jars of primarily yellow beans with a few green beans ~ however, most of my quart jars of canned beans are green with a few yellow beans in the mix. <br />
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I have canned about 60 quarts of green / yellow beans thus far. It is a good thing my husband & I love green beans, and no doubt we'll eat them all. Now onto carrots ....<br />
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Canning season is the time of year I love and dread. The abundance of produce is a blessing but it all comes at once leaving me no time to do anything but can and preserve the harvest my husband has worked hard to provide during the hottest time of the year. That is where we are at here at Laughing Dove Farm ~ preserving our hard earned produce. I am thankful ( but tired) for all God has provided ~ praise Him !KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-32497222207104560612019-08-14T19:20:00.000-07:002019-08-14T19:20:56.284-07:00Impromptu Tea Party <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Flower arrangements were a gift from our daughter-in-law and perfect for this tea party her son ( son of our youngest son and his wife) asked me to give him and two of his cousins. For many years I have had tea parties for my grandchildren , family, and friends and my youngest grandson, our miracle grandson, was unaware of these many parties. About a year and a half ago he asked for a tea party ~ joy oh joy !<br />
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We were able to have our youngest granddaughter stay with us last weekend and her sister stayed with our youngest grandson and his family. Our little grandson asked if I would have a tea party for them and this required me to have a tea party the NEXT day after his request ! I jumped at the chance and with the help of our youngest granddaughter who was staying with us, we prepared an impromptu tea party.<br />
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I needed to use what was in my fridge and pantry and of course I had a plethora of teacups and teapots on hand. I think with the help of our youngest granddaughter we pulled it off quite well !<br />
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Youngest granddaughter and I made peanut butter and jam sandwiches, tuna fish sandwiches, and youngest grandson's request of tomato, pickle, and cheese sandwiches. We also had a veggie platter, olives, peanut butter stuffed celery and don't forget the tea. We filled one teapot with hot cocoa, the other teapots held peach tea and mint tea.<br />
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Youngest grandson with youngest granddaughter.( Does this little boy, our youngest grandchild , look happy to you ? I know he was over-the-moon happy !)</div>
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Celery stuffed with peanut butter ~ staple snack of kids.( Prepared & plated by our youngest granddaughter.)</div>
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My bounty of teacups was quite handy for this impromptu tea party. I had chintz teacups for the ladies here ( my daughter-in-law, her mother , and myself), butterfly teacups for two granddaughters and a grandson, and a bright yellow and white teacup for my husband who was wrangled into this last minute tea party. <br />
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This was a very special day for me. Our youngest granddaughter was able to spend 2 nights with us and after our youngest grandchild's request for a tea party she pitched in and helped plan and implement the party. We had a very good time together with family and I know our youngest grandson who was born well after the rest of our grandchildren truly desires that connection with his many older cousins ~ connections we all want and desire. I love watching my older grandchildren interact with him and even more watching them be patient and kind with him. I pray for all my grandchildren that they come to know my Lord & Savior Jesus, and their family interactions inspire and encourage that.KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-47156727164035351722019-08-05T23:30:00.000-07:002019-08-05T23:30:00.280-07:00A Riot of Wildflowers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This bed of wildflowers riots in front of my husband's orderly vegetable garden.</div>
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Last year this was a pumpkin garden but the pumpkin vines boldly invaded his veggie garden and he had to deal with pumpkins taking over his patch of order and productivity. <br />
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This year we've planted our pumpkins in a portion of our front pasture, taking care to fence the pumpkin patch off from the sheep. (Now that the pumpkin vines and baby pumpkins are growing lush, my sheep are tending to lean against the protective fence and longingly gaze at what they want but cannot have, but the fence won't stop them from trying !)<br />
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We planted 2 packets of wildflower seeds in 2 previously pumpkin patches and what a difference in the result. One bed is chock full of these beautiful poppies with forget-me-nots, sweet alyssum, yarrow, and another as yet unidentified flower sprouting, blooming, and filling the bed. Look at this poppy !<br />
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You can see our Miss Winnie travel trailer in the background and I think the riot of poppies and other wildflowers compliment her very well. ~ (Miss Winnie is not only our travel trailer, she is our guest house too. I will post about her later~ I love our Miss Winnie !)<br />
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"<i>Oh , Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees that half a proper gardener's work is done upon his knees." ~ Rudyard Kipling</i><br />
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<i>" Flowers always make people better , happier, and more helpful. They are sunshine, food, and medicine for the soul." Luther Burbank </i></div>
KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-21349220254612642212019-08-04T17:07:00.002-07:002019-08-04T17:07:56.405-07:00The Gift of Family<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We had a family gathering last month. Our three children, their spouses, and their children camped with us for 2 glorious nights and 3 days on our family's back 80 acres. There were 11 grandchildren ( 2 are now adults and one is in the Marines) . We hiked, played games, sat together around the camp fire, and some of the family went fishing. I cannot adequately express my love and thankfulness to God for His abundant blessings, His gift to us of our family, and that we're still able to get together in spite of distance and life's busyness. Praise Him !<br />
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( The picture is of our youngest son and his son, our youngest grandchild, heading off to go fishing.)<br />
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Grandkids !</div>
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<i>"Grandchildren are the crown of old men, and the glory of sons is their fathers." Proverbs 17:6</i></div>
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<br />KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-69576633691371802442019-07-25T19:24:00.001-07:002019-08-04T17:56:13.287-07:00Our New Herb Garden<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is a sphere our daughter-in-law, wife of our youngest son, welded. She welded this sphere out of horse shoes our son removed from horses to replace their worn horse shoes. Every amazing item our beloved daughter-in-law welds is composed of used horse shoes she has to clean of rust and dirt before she can even begin to create her works of art. There is a whole lot of hard and very dirty work involved in simply making the horse shoes usable in her horse shoe compositions.</div>
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My husband built the pergola in the background last year. This year he made an herb garden. The main feature of our new herb garden is the two spheres welded by our daughter-in-law, and the herbs.<br />
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We are going to mount the spheres on tree stumps from our woods, soon. </div>
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The herb garden also borders the driveway and our front yard. The sidewalk divides the herb garden from the front yard and walkway from the driveway.<br />
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My old cat Miss Marple likes to sun herself in the new herb garden.</div>
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Even more is going on in the back yard and gardens. Our deck was rebuilt last year, we are in the process of making an outdoor kitchen/cooking/eating area now. Life in this part of Washington is coming to terms with the high and dry summer heat and learning to live with it and love it.We will have a covered eating area near the barbecue and smoker.This corner of our new (replaced) deck is where I've placed pots of herbs and flowers that will be moved later when our outdoor kitchen is done. My new chicken house is the building seen here in the background.<br />
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Life here has been glorious, we're so happy and blessed to live here. We're enjoying the many blessings of being near our sons and their families and also, now that we're retired , we're enjoying and appreciating the ability to set our schedule and time for ourselves. ( Hey, if we want to take a nap or just kick back and read a good book, we can !)<br />
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We have made many changes to our new home and farm for the better. We've improved our pastures, made vegetable and herb and flower gardens. My husband has invested much time and money in making our bee yard better for the bees and for increasing our honey production. Our poultry yard provides more eggs than we can use, but we're able to share the bounty with family and neighbors. My sheep have increased beyond my wildest dreams simply because sheep really do thrive on pasture ... amazing ! My husband and I love our new home more than we could have ever anticipated and I am thankful beyond what I can express. God is so good ! KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-1075344863052751072019-07-22T16:36:00.000-07:002019-08-04T17:56:51.354-07:00I Have An Incubator & I Know How to Use It !<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ducklings, chicks, quail, and hopefully soon pheasant, all incubated and hatched in my new incubator. Here is one of many ducklings I hatched out this spring.<br />
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My new incubator ! It monitors the temperature and humidity and alarms go off if either deviates from the settings that provide the most success for incubating and successfully hatching poultry , quail, and pheasant.<br />
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Ducklings emerging from their eggs after 28 days of incubation.</div>
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These are the parents of my ducklings ~ they are purebred Pekin ducks.</div>
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Here are 3 of the many ducklings I hatched out of my incubator. All have now been sold to families desiring ducklings as pets or egg layers.</div>
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I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to incubate and hatch out their own poultry.KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-60596970920177147512019-05-01T23:00:00.000-07:002019-08-04T17:54:14.963-07:00 Spring Has Arrived, Mostly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The tulip bulbs I planted in pots last year are ready to bloom, but all the plants I have to put in flower beds and decorative pots are still not planted. We've had below freezing temps overnight the last few days. The water in our fountain was ice, and some tender plants left outside froze. ( It was 22 degrees Monday night.) As you can see, these plants are still waiting to be put into pots.<br />
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I bought these herbs 3 weeks ago on the first warm sunny day. I was so excited to begin planting my herbs. They've been growing quite well in an over-the-sink colander for now.My excitement over warmer spring days was short-lived. Oh well, it has been convenient to snip them off for cooking right here in the kitchen.<br />
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This is my husband's honeybee shelter. The winters here are extremely cold and were not kind to the bees we brought here with us from our previous home. With the deep freeze and the hordes of yellow jackets and bald-faced hornets that reside here, our first hives were devastated. My husband works hard to get our honeybees to thrive here, and that includes not only shelter from scorching sun and freezing weather, but some insulation in the hives and feeding them over the winter. ( You can see this honeybee shelter from our front porch.)<br />
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This planter is made of old hive boxes my husband would have burned if I had not begged him for them to use as planters. He is working to eradicate any disease that compromises our bees and these are old and well-used hive boxes.<br />
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The hive box planter is in front of our aviary which can also be seen from our front porch.</div>
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Here is a picture of the honeybee shelter and the aviary, both in the front yard, in full view of our front porch. Beyond the aviary and honeybee shelter is our front pastures, then the gravel road that runs in front of our home, and beyond the road are hills, mountains, and woods.<br />
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Our front porch. My husband is currently working on the flowerbeds in front of our home. When we bought our home the beds were planted with very hardy roses . The roses grew large and wieldly, and the thorns proved dangerous while pruning the roses and weeding the flower beds. We transplanted the roses to a place they could grow and big and wild as they're able and I am so happy with how my husband has chosen to plant our front flowerbeds. I will post updates soon.<br />
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A box of annuals I am waiting to plant. According the the weather forecast I should be able to plant them all next week. ~ " <i>Then God said , "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed , and fruit trees bearing fruit after their kind , with seed in them, on the earth"; and it was so." Genesis 1:7</i>KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-26784220194338508282019-04-22T16:58:00.000-07:002019-04-22T16:58:00.412-07:00Quail~ <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last summer I bought about 20 Coturnix Quail. They live in our aviary with the doves and pigeons. The quail occupy and lay their eggs under pine & fir boughs on the floor of the aviary .</div>
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Quail eggs are extremely nutritious. "<i>Quail eggs are incredibly nutritious , and even more nutritious than a full-size chicken egg ! Quail eggs are higher in iron,folate, and B12." ( Quoted from article written about quail in the Spring 2019 'Backyard Poultry' by Amy Fewell .)</i><br />
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My husband has been making tasty treats with my quail eggs. In a week or so I will try to incubate the eggs to produce a new generation of quail for our home because quail have a very short lifespan of about 2 years and my quail are almost a year old.<br />
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This is a picture of our aviary taken in February. We had snow until this month. We still have snow in our woods and some of the lower hills. Our aviary is in our front yard and we can view it from our windows and the front porch.<br />
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The quail share their side of the aviary with my white ring-neck doves and 1 Frillback pigeon. The other side of the aviary houses 2 pairs of Frillback pigeons and 1 pair of King pigeons.<br />
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<i> </i>KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-8222990655021586422019-04-19T15:38:00.000-07:002019-04-19T15:38:46.953-07:00Easter Blessings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We celebrated Easter on Palm Sunday this year. Our sons and their families are celebrating with their other grandparents on Easter but thankfully they were able to be with us last Sunday. Easter is our Christian celebration of the resurrection of our Lord & Savior, and truly is celebrated by us with thanksgiving and praise all year long.</div>
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Our home is very small , but the size does not limit us to sharing meals with those we love and care about. We just bring out the portable buffet table and set it up in the living room.<br />
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I set the table with the china my Aunt Ruby and cousin Christine gave me. It was Aunt Ruby's china for many years. She celebrated her 100th birthday in 2017.Ruby's daughter Christine threw an amazing party for her mother, and Aunt Ruby had all her "faculties" and was able to visit with her many loved ones and friends. ( Aunt Ruby has since passed on into eternity and I remember her as a very special blessing in my life.)<br />
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The china pattern is Spode's "Rosebud Chintz" from Copeland, England . I have the teapot and gravy boat too ! <br />
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There were only 5 grandkids here for this year's Easter egg hunt.My husband hid the eggs all over our front pasture. I suspect the older children in this picture won't be hunting for Easter eggs much longer, but the youngest little guy in the picture, our youngest grandchild, has a blast hunting for Easter eggs. ( When did our grandchildren grow up so fast ?)<br />
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Easter Eggs !</div>
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"<i>I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies,and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die." Jesus ~ John 11 :25, 26 </i></div>
KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-15367073748447351482019-04-05T16:29:00.002-07:002019-04-05T17:07:25.701-07:00It's That time of Year Again ... Lambing Time !<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Our oldest grandson was here visiting us over his spring vacation. I can't believe our very first grandchild is old enough to drive himself here over the mountains and far away from his home to visit us and help us out, but he is, and he did. He has helped us install the fencing around our pastures amongst other labor intensive work projects at our new home. Here he is holding newborn twin lambs.<br />
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A new lamb learning to nurse. ~This is Miriel, one of my Jacob Sheep ewes. She also gave birth to twins , both ram lambs ( boys). Thus far I have been very busy with lambing time, and also incubating and raising my new laying flock and also raising 100 fryer / broiler chicks for our freezer. Until mid-June I am going to be one busy lady tending new lambs, chicks, and hopefully my geese and ducks are successful at hatching out their own eggs. We'll see. Spring has definitely sprung and the snow has almost melted around <i>Laughing Dove Farm.</i><br />
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<i>Thus far I have 11 new sets of twins and a set of triplets. I have 5 more ewes left to have their lambs and I am very thankful God has allowed all of my lambs to be born healthy and they're thriving. God is so good to me , beyond anything I deserve. Praise Him ! </i><br />
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KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-69731398756932408042019-03-18T17:52:00.000-07:002019-03-18T17:56:16.380-07:00I Have to JUST Do It ! ( Blog)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of the last times I posted on my blog I wrote about my dog Whimsy and a walk in our woods with her. Whimsy is still a big part of our lives and here she is as she followed me around just a few days ago. You can see in the background we still have snow here at Laughing Dove Farm. </div>
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The view from my wool shop porch shows a lot of snow in our driveway, across the pastures, and the snow covered hills just across the gravel road that runs in front of our home. ( And there is still snow on the porch , it just drifts in.)<br />
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This is our front pasture. It is in front of our home, the gravel road, the road to our home, runs parallel to it . There are hills and mountains just across this gravel road and bountiful wild life, including moose, bear, deer, elk, coyotes, wolves, cougars, lynx, bobcats, and numerous wild fowl. ( We have captured more than a few of these on our own woods' game cams.)<br />
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Last year I acquired two Finn sheep ewes. I have needed much more white wool than my Jacob sheep provide and bought Mona & Martha. They are due to have lambs any time now, and this will be their first time having lambs. I am pretty excited about this. Here Mona & Martha are enjoying sunshine , WARM sunshine after our very cold and frozen weather.<br />
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Britta is one of my Jacob sheep ewes ( female) and she and her sister Jacob sheep are all due too. I have a total of 17 ewes due to have their lambs within the next 2 or 3 weeks. I will not be getting much sleep in the next few weeks.<br />
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It has been awhile since I blogged. Every day I think about blogging and what I might write, but then I have been away from my blog for so long I don't know where to begin. ( This is the view from our driveway on a very cold and frozen February day last month.) Today I decided to JUST DO IT !<br />
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This is our driveway only a month ago. The driveway is still snow and ice covered and my blue truck is firmly entrenched in ice just waiting for our spring thaw . This past weekend I saw my first robin of spring, and yesterday the swallows had returned. The ice and snow are melting, we'll be maneuvering around big puddles soon and the snow melt from the hills and mountain across our road flows down our driveway, through our pastures, into our creek, then into our pond and over and through our neighbors' farms.<br />
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We've been loving winter here, and are now excited about spring. We've ordered way too many seeds , and know we'll not be able to plant until at least mid April because our veggie garden still has over 3 feet of snow in it, but we've started seeds indoors in optimistic anticipation of a glorious and bountiful garden.<br />
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I am hoping to be consistent with my blogging, especially because my husband said he very much missed my blog posts. For no other reason alone I would blog, but I really miss my blogging friends. One of the main reasons I quit blogging was because I love reading and replying to other bloggers but for some reason my computer treated my responses and comments to other blogs as a virus and would not allow me to comment. ( I tried everything I could to figure out how to take care of that problem, even consulted an"expert" who could not help me at all.) I am going to blog away again and work on being able to comment on the blogs I especially miss.<br />
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That being said, we are very much loving our new home and even though we're retired, we're busier than ever, but now we're busy doing what we've deemed important to us and our family, and if we want to take a day off and go fishing or camping, we do !<br />
<br />KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-64416886064039526122017-10-23T20:08:00.000-07:002017-10-23T20:08:09.020-07:00A Walk In The Woods With Whimsy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I took a walk in our woods with my dog Whimsy .</div>
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I have a pack for her to wear and she carries our water bottles. For this hike I also tucked 2 bags of cut up pumpkins and squashes from our garden into the pack. I scatter the cut up fall produce for the wild turkeys and deer that live in our woods, they LOVE squash and pumpkin.<br />
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Isn't it beautiful in the woods in the fall ?</div>
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This is the view of the back of our home from our woods. Just look at the fall splendor in front of our home. 2 weeks ago there was snow covering those hills .<br />
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Whimsy with her now empty pack. She always enjoys our walks and I love having her along.</div>
KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-92053292294305762572017-10-22T14:00:00.000-07:002017-10-22T14:00:05.143-07:00The Grand Show<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">"<i>The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere ; the dew is never dried all at once ; a shower is forever falling ; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise , eternal dawn and gloaming , on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls." ~ John Muir</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is a picture I took of sunrise at our place from the living room window on the first day of autumn , my favorite season.</span><i> </i></span></div>
KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-18703218970176177692017-10-18T13:02:00.001-07:002017-10-18T13:30:57.268-07:00Pumpkin Time !<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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" October is the jewel set in the hand of time." Gladys Taber</div>
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October finally brought in real autumn weather here in north-eastern Washington , here at our new home, in our fields, our forest, our gardens. I remember anew why autumn is my favorite season.</div>
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Look at all the pumpkins and squashes we've harvested ! The pumpkins and squashes in the pictures are just a few of the pumpkins we harvested from our own vegetable garden.<br />
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Here is the garden this month. The cornstalks are dry and ready for us to cut and use to decorate porch posts but before they dried up they produced a great amount of very sweet corn . The corn was truly the very best sweet corn I've ever eaten. Maybe it is true sweet corn fresh-picked from the garden and cooked right away IS the best .<br />
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You can see our fields and woods in the background. What you cannot see are the wild turkeys, pheasants, and deer we see in the fields every day from our windows. We have a hard time tearing ourselves away from the windows in the mornings as we sip our coffee while watching the wild life. We can also watch our sheep and chickens from the windows. And we watch the seasons change ...<br />
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...now turning green fields gold and brown, coloring the leaves bright orange , red, yellow, and brown before they're blown away making way for November's dark wet freezing ways. The pumpkins are frosted every morning and just a few days ago we had snow on the hills across our gravel road.<br />
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I picked all our pumpkins and squashes last week to save them for our own use. We grew all our pumpkins and squashes from seed of the pumpkins and squashes we bought last year. I am particularly fond of the blue 'Meat Eater' squashes. They last for many months if stored in a cooler dry place and are quite tasty. ( I store them in the loft in my wool-working shed.)<br />
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I decorated our front porch with a few pumpkins and squashes. During the afternoon hours our front porch is the warmest place around our home and our Viszla Hawk chooses to nap here. In the summer this porch is the perfect place for my husband and I to sip our morning coffee while watching my sheep and gazing at the hills and low mountains across the gravel road. ( The hills that had snow a few days ago.)<br />
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" Pumpkins were a staple food for early Americans , who inherited the vegetable from the Indians, and learned many ways to cook it from the Indians , too. In those days pumpkin was cut in small pieces, strung on a cords and hung in front of the fireplace to dry, then stored for year-round use. Everything was made of pumpkin, from beverages to soup , from pie to bread, from custard to cake, and even a kind of flour. The pioneers tired of their diet of pumpkin, but they were saved from starvation in many a lean, cold winter." <span style="font-size: x-small;">from 'The New England Butt'ry Shelf Almanac by Mary Mason Campbell</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">My husband and I are especially thankful for our abundant pumpkin and squash harvest because not only do we love good baked squash smothered in butter and brown sugar, our chickens and sheep love the pumpkins and squashes cut up and raw. This helps us immensely with the feed bill and also provides them good nutrition to carry them through the cold winter months.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">We are loving our new home and the very distinct seasons here and right now it is PUMPKIN TIME! </span> </span><br />
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" <i>He causes the grass to grow for the cattle , and vegetation for the labor of man, so that He may bring forth from the earth , and wine which makes man's heart glad..." Psalm 104: 14,15</i><br />
<br />KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-88249779476158151582017-09-22T20:06:00.000-07:002017-09-22T20:06:05.448-07:00Porch Weather<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Summer weather left us this past weekend. Our area has had a record 80 days without rain ! As much as I miss the rain ( it is back now ) I do love being able to sit on the porch with the dogs and spin wool while I watch the deer and wild turkeys in our pastures and along the edge of our woods. ( Here is an old enamel ware pot filled with plantings I had on a table top on the porch.)<br />
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Lazy days in the heat were spent enjoying the rockers on the porch while the dogs napped.</div>
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Beatrix will be 13 years old next month. She is my constant companion and if I am spinning wool outdoors she will be laying nearby. The summer was very hot, fires from Canada, Montana, Oregon , and some areas nearby in our state gave us many weeks of hazy air so thick with smoke we had to limit our time outdoors. This past weekend the rain and cold weather moved in. Our pastures need it, but even more so do our forests. The weather here now drops to the low 40's and high 30's at night and we are expecting frost soon. I still sit on the porch and spin wool , but now I am wearing a warm jacket and wool socks. Beatrix has begun to grow her winter coat and her fur serves her well. She is just happy to lay nearby.</div>
<br />KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-48835662412908887242017-09-19T19:51:00.000-07:002017-09-19T19:51:52.245-07:00Bird Houses <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We brought a lot of our bird houses from Cedar Pond to our new home here at Laughing Dove Farm. This bird house is now on our front porch wall. This spring there were some swallows checking it out , even going inside the middle hole but I suspect my cat Miss Marple scared them off by staring at the bird house and twitching her tail at them as she watched them indoors from the window very near the bird house. She didn't fool them at all, she was easy to spot from outside. Poor Miss Marple , smart birds.<br />
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We bought this bird house at a Spokane garden and craft fair and hung it up over the front porch. Almost immediately the swallows moved in, built a nest, and raised a family or two. Only a few feet away from the previous bird house shown but immediately bird approved. Maybe because there was no twitching cat staring at it ?</div>
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I bought this bird house at a Yelm Christmas craft show. The lady who built it set up her table with about 20 different versions of this birdhouse and was sold out immediately. Birds love it .We had both sparrows and swallows raising families in this bird house all summer.<br />
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This bird house was originally hung in an old stump at my husband's youngest sister and her family's home. When they moved we adopted it and brought it with us to our new home. The birds here seemed to think it was a nice place to raise a family, and again, sparrows moved in. This bird house overlooks the sheep pens and paddocks , apparently a popular place with many birds.<br />
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One of our granddaughters helped build and paint this birdhouse beloved by Western Bluebirds. Yay, we finally have bluebirds on our place, and in abundance. Bluebirds lived in 3 of our birdhouses and we love watching them.<br />
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Unfortunately this bird house was taken over by cow birds, but that is O.K. They ate a lot of bugs and since this bird house is perched on a corner post of our ram pen, that was a good thing. The cow birds also ate the seeds that fell out of the hay I tossed to the rams. The cow birds never became a big problem so I let them be and they raised at least 2 families here and moved on.<br />
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I bought this bird house at the local supermarket because I could not resist it. I bought it too late for it to be taken into consideration by the swallows and sparrows that kept checking it out after they'd already settled in other places. Maybe next year. The cool thing about this bird house is it has a nice back door that is easily opened for cleaning and just as easily secured.<br />
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I love bird houses, I love birds. I have a collection of bird nests, bird books, and love bird watching. The creativity of birds and how and where they choose to build their nests or make their homes often goes against what is written about them by the experts in the bird books. All I have to do is watch and observe the birds outside my window and back door to discover there is way more to the average wild bird than what you'll find in your bird books. Birds are truly amazing and I am thankful God has filled His creation with them and sometimes birds will find a few of my birdhouses worthy of raising their families in.KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-4246008141383767412017-08-17T23:00:00.000-07:002017-09-19T19:06:39.108-07:00My Man is a Super-Gardener !<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Just look at this garden with fruit trees on the side. My husband planted all this since this past March. We had snow and deep freeze until early March, our new veggie garden is now situated and planted on ground that was previously used as parking space and hard as pavement. My husband also prepared the ground and soil for our fruit trees shown here ( right of garden). They were also planted on ground previously hard as pavement.<br />
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This view shows the garden from my sheep pen. Look at what my amazing husband has done with this piece of land ! ( Our house is in the upper right of the picture.)<br />
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You can see my sheep grazing in their pasture on the other side of our new veggie garden, and further away you can see our woods & forest.</div>
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Radishes ready to pluck from the soil.</div>
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Squashes and pumpkins are flourishing and threatening to take over the veggie garden !</div>
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It is hard to believe that only last year this piece of our new land was barren except for weeds and hard-packed soil. My husband has already turned the barren wasteland into an abundant vegetable garden ! Fruit trees are already providing fruit, vegetables enough for us , our family, and to sell at the local market....<br />
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...pumpkins, squash and corn ready to take over the garden plot,</div>
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harvests covering our counter-tops , filling our fridge and begging to be eaten and preserved.<br />
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Guess what, my husband even decided to can his hard -worked -for produce. He started canning !<br />
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Took this picture this morning of my husband standing in his garden. Look at the sweet corn , it's taller than him and the corn will soon be ready to pick.You can see our pasture and woods in the distance. Yes indeed, my man is a super-gardener !KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-11527220117331361762017-08-09T23:00:00.000-07:002017-08-09T23:03:22.180-07:00 Selling at Our Local Farmer's Market !<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We've been selling our home produce and crafts at the local Farmer's Market every week since the end of May. Usually I put up my vendor's booth next to my daughter-in-law's. She sells items she's welded from the horseshoes her husband , a farrier ( and our youngest son) removes from the horses he shoes before putting new shoes on them. The blue pumpkin shown above is one of the items I bought from her to use in my display at the market.<br />
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Ordinarily I set up my booth and sell hand-spun and hand-dyed yarn, wool fiber, and other wool crafts I make. But my husband has created an amazing vegetable garden at our new home and his veggies are growing gang-busters ! We have too many fresh lettuces, summer and zucchini squashes, beets, and cucumbers to consume ourselves.<br />
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We've been giving them away to family and friends . The chickens, geese, and sheep are enjoying the bounty too.<br />
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I suggested he set up a booth at the Farmer's Market and he did. He sold out of lettuces ( at least 30 bunches ) both times he's been a vendor at the market, plus most of his beets and squashes have sold too.<br />
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I decided to sit with him in his booth instead of setting up a second booth. I just put a few 'Wee Little Sheep' on the table and kept him company. ( I sold some of my little sheep too.)<br />
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The crop of vegetables is still growing abundantly and the kitchen counters are crowded with fresh vegetables, freshly gathered eggs, and jars of home-made pickles too , but more about the pickles later.<br />
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My husband has always loved his gardens, especially the vegetable gardens. Our new home has a different growing season than our last home. The summer days are perfect for most crops and it looks like we'll actually get a big crop of tomatoes, pumpkins, and sweet corn too. I will be posting pictures of his vegetable garden in the next post, showing the progression of the plot of land he's turned into our vegetable garden here at <i>Laughing Dove Farm.</i><br />
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<i>" While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night shall not cease." Genesis 8:22 </i>KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-48493217524830350682017-07-18T00:11:00.000-07:002017-07-18T00:11:13.701-07:00A Few Residents of Laughing Dove Farm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A few of my Jacob Sheep grazing in the front pasture between the house and the gravel road.<br />
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A mama hen with chicks she hatched out and tends.</div>
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One of my ewe lambs. I had 19 healthy lambs born here this year , doubling my flock of sheep !</div>
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This little curly mama hen hatched out her brood of chicks under our new chicken house. They are tiny bantams and will be tiny when grown up. She and her rooster are very protective of their chicks. The rooster / father of the chicks is a self-blue d'uccle I got from my oldest grandson a few years ago<br />
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Whimsy, one of our 4 dogs. She is my constant companion and protector.</div>
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Life is so good here, especially because I am blessed to share it with people and animals I love.</div>
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"<i>Some people go through life trying to find out what the world holds for them only to find out too late that it's what they bring to the world that really counts." </i>L.M. Montgomery ~ ' Anne of Green Gables'</div>
KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-42258328044940676482017-07-15T00:30:00.000-07:002017-07-15T00:30:04.100-07:00Goth-Gawking<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I took this picture late this afternoon. It is my old ram Goth who spent a week of his life almost every year at the Western Washington State Fair in the <i>Animals of the World </i>barn . Our exhibit was directly across the aisle from the zebras, zee-donks, yaks, and reindeer. Many thousands of people saw him and stared at him over the years and I watched hundreds of people photograph him. <br />
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Now that we've relocated to the other side of the mountains Goth is retired and enjoying life in a pasture situated in front of our new home. The gravel road that fronts our property is actually a well traveled road between our home and the hills and mountains across the road. Often I discover a vehicle parked in front of our place and see , yes, people gawking at Goth ! Goth still attracts attention even in his old age. ( Goth is 13 years old.) I hope he lives for many more years, I am quite fond of this old ram.KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-42887865129359259602017-04-12T22:04:00.001-07:002017-04-12T22:04:40.189-07:00Morning Sip ~ (and Blog Comment Problem)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I started my morning sipping coffee with Blizzard The Cat and Blue The Betta ( Siamese Fighting Fish) as company.</div>
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Blizzard my cat started his day sipping Blue's betta water. To each his / her own.</div>
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~ COMMENT PROBLEM ~ </div>
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I read and tried to respond to all your wonderful comments on my last post but each time I commented and hit "publish" Blogger told me it was publishing my comment and then NOTHING, nada, nyet... I tried several times , several ways with the same result. I am not sure what the problem is, but if you somehow get a few comments all at once from me it is because I kept trying. I am sorry to have not been able to leave comments and will try again. If anyone can give me a possible reason for this please let me know. I am reading your blogs and enjoying them, and TRYING to comment !</div>
KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3099877799576584609.post-87593807109034977892017-03-30T02:00:00.000-07:002017-03-30T02:00:11.823-07:00It's Spring ~So Much To Do !<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The most difficult thing about our new home is deciding how to spend our precious time when there are so many things to do, to see, and to enjoy right here on 'Laughing Dove Farm'. Should I take a walk in the woods with our dogs ? ( Picture above was taken on a path in our woods.) Should I work on my spinning, weaving, gardens, scrapbooking, writing, or maybe my husband and I should go camping. But hey, fishing season is almost here and the boat needs to be readied ... I have a few good books tucked away to read, some quilt squares cut out and ready to sew. I know, I'll sit on the back deck and watch the birds, the deer, my sheep and maybe catch a nap in the sun.<br />
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Why do we call our new home 'Laughing Dove Farm' ? We love doves ! We've kept white doves for over 2 decades now and left doves in our dovecote at Cedar Pond for the new family to enjoy , but also brought 3 pairs of doves with us here to our new home. Our doves are the offspring of the many generations of doves from Cedar Pond. Plus, there are wild doves all around us and anyone who listens to doves can hear the distinctive laughing- like sounds they make. ( Picture above is of wild doves perched in trees here at our new home.)<br />
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The chicks I ordered from a hatchery arrived in the mail last week. I bought some chicks that should grow up to lay blue eggs and am very excited about my future laying flock , but not as excited as our youngest grandson is about them. I spend a lot of time tending my new chicks, and also tending the mature laying flock of 8 we brought with us from Cedar Pond.<br />
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I had my sheep sheared the first weekend in March while there was still snow and ice everywhere. My new sheep shearer is a tiny woman who also is a mom of 2 little ones and has a flock of sheep of her own.<br />
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Here are my naked sheep, most of them ewes who were still expecting lambs when I took this picture. Within days after the 16 ewes ( female sheep) were sheared they began having their lambs. Every night during this time of the year, no matter how cold and miserable it is outside, I do regular check ups in the barn to see how the ladies are faring, if any new lambs have been born, and tend to what they need at this stage of their pregnancy. Mostly they need deep bedding, and a lot of drinking water, plus a safe place to have their lambs undisturbed by the other sheep or predators.<br />
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One of the joys of new lambs is sharing them with grandchildren. Here is a picture of two of our granddaughters ~sisters holding sister lambs. <br />
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We still have snow in our woods, in the fields, and in the surrounding hills, but it is spring and all you need to be reminded of the season is look out onto my fields and see little lambs running, jumping, and playing !<br />
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We have 19 new lambs. All lambs were born alive and healthy, and their mamas are healthy too. That is such a blessing to not be taken for granted when I consider how many sheep I have now (way too many !). My flock doubled with lambing season. <br />
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Have I mentioned we have a lot of wild turkeys here too ? We've counted at least 40. They roost in our woods at night. During the day they range from our woods to the neighbors' on either side of us. They're pretty predictable, we can almost set our clocks by their trek back into the woods at night. Until I moved here and began to observe wild turkeys from our living room windows every day, I did not realize how far and how high wild turkeys can fly, and also how smart they are. ( Picture is of wild turkeys in our field.)<br />
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Wild turkeys between our sheep pen and our bee yard. They wander into our hay barn and all around the sheep pens and pasture too.<br />
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The hills across the gravel road from our house are still wearing winter snow, but the sunshine and warm rains are melting the snow quickly and next week we're supposed to have warmer , drier weather. I kind of like the rain and the snow and am not concerned about it sticking around longer than it is supposed to. The hot weather will be here soon and by September I know I'll be wishing for the rain and snow again.<br />
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" There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven ~ " Ecclesiastes 3:1KathyB.http://www.blogger.com/profile/13076933273610590290noreply@blogger.com17