Preparations For Spring....

This is Swallow Lane Barnaby. He is 11 months old and he has been having a lot of fun with a small flock of ewes ( female sheep ). Barnaby needed to be sheared and then moved to a pen away from the ewes who are due to lamb ( have babies) anytime now. So this afternoon my shearer, actually Lanny's* shearer & husband, came over to shear Barnaby and a 3 other sheep.Barnaby is now a very naked ram lamb and I decided to spare him the embarrassment of displaying his nakedness online, but I am happy with his condition and he appears to be a ram that will out-ram Goth, given the chance. We'll see.....

Here is my Grandson, also my first grandchild. Hallelujah and thank-you Lord, he is a hard worker and he is now old enough and big enough to do hard work for ME ! Here he stops to pose for me by the goat's house and pen.

As you can see Thorin & Bombadil can really make a mess of their place. CT has been working hard to keep their place fairly clean, they do not cooperate though. So this provides CT with a job. And this is a job that needs doing every few weeks, so one could say Thorin and Bombadil are providing CT a valuable employment opportunity, very definitely steady income.

See? And Thorin and Bombadil also provide manure and rotted hay for compost and garden fertilizer. Once in a while I spread all this around our fruit trees and blueberry bushes. You could even say Thorin and Bombadil are regular producers of a valuable commodity in one way or another.

CT is quick about the job, wasting no time to dilly dally.

Younger sister MN is feeding the goats their favorite treat, soda crackers.Here Bombadil eats out of her hand.

Thora , Goth's sister peers over Naomi's back as I snap a picture of my two newly sheared girls. Naomi and Thora have both uddered up and Naomi looks ready to have lambs any day. Spring is in the air....

Goat House

~This is the goat house my Hubby built for my goats because I requested it as a Christmas present. My Hubby would probably prefer not to have so many animals around, but he loves me and when I brought 2 little , tiny baby Nigerian / Pygmy goats home he allowed me to keep them. He also designed and built this deluxe goat condo for me and them! Above is a picture of Thorin, gazing out of the 2nd story apartment . ~Here is a picture of the first floor , it is a hay feeder with standing / reclining space on either side. This is a perfect feeder for goats in the rainy Pacific Northwest. The goats can keep their feet out of the wet and mud while eating and napping. There is also a mineral / salt block in a special holder attached to the inside of the first floor post. ( Bombadil looking toward the camera) ~Thorin climbing the ramp to his apartment, Bombadil looking out. Both Thorin and Bombadil sleep in the 2nd story. It is cute to see them peek out at night when I am outside. They like to sleep in too. During the day they nap by the feeder or on the stumps placed in their pen for jumping and standing on. ~This is the back side of the goat condo. This gets the afternoon sunshine and often both goats will nap here so as to soak up as many rays as possible. You can see they get a good view of the sheep, and what you cannot see is that the busy- body goats also get a full view of our front porch, the drive way and Goth's pen next door to them! ~Blessings: watching goats play, a husband who will build me a goat house to keep goats he did not want in the first place!

Spot on Black Gold for the Garden

~We had a very nice weekend. My Hubby and I are mostly recovered from our bad colds and we took it easy with the heavy lifting as we were out and about on Cedar Pond in the unusually sun shiny and warm weather for February. While Hubby worked on our new and hopefully predator proof duck pen, I cleaned up more storm damage ...the fallen branches all over the property and in the woods and piled them up to be burned. I also cleaned up some of our out- buildings . ~Then there is the goat pen. Thorin and Bombadil are my pygmy / Nigerian dwarf goat brothers. They have their own small pen with a 2 story dwelling my Hubby built for them. They don't like to get their feet wet and have pretty much worn out their sunning bench. So I tossed the pieces of the bench into the burn pile along with the storm wind fall and there was all this wonderful goat poop! Black , and dry because it was under the sunning bench. That is black gold for the garden....so before we put stumps in the goat pen for the goats to stand and jump on I had to collect this very desirable fertilizer. (picture above)

~Thorin immediately trying out the new furnishings for his pen.~

~"For gardening , goat manure can be a real asset. In their naturally dry, pelleted state, goat feces are easily handled, stored, or directly applied on vegetables, trees, and flower gardens, as mulch, organic matter,fertilizer, or just to increase the water holding capacity of the soil; and goat feces do not normally attract flies or breed maggots."The Dirt Doctor, Howard Garrett... This is true in my experience. The goat manure was full of earthworms though. Goat, rabbit, and sheep manure can be applied directly onto your plantings... ~I don't understand why keeping a couple of goat or sheep wethers ( castrated males) is not a more common practice in this country. They are not smelly animals ( CASTRATED MALES) and do far less damage than the average dog. They are not near as noisy as dogs either, plus , they will eat those pesky blackberries and weeds and can be easily kept in a pen with just shelter from the elements and fresh water and grass hay, again...cheaper then dog food!They can be trained to walk on leash and be very friendly. They don't bite and are quite comical. Their manure is ready for the garden right away and the garden benefits as well; as long as you keep them OUT of the garden.But hey, they don't dig in the garden. It is common for many European countries to have herds of sheep and goats keep the grass of the parks and road sides in control by walking the sheep and goats through them. So if you're really serious about the "greening " of your place here on earth you might want to consider a wether or two. Blessings: days spent at home, working with love, goats

Storm Watch !

~Cedar Pond was peaceful and Christmas card pretty today.~

~BUT....the weather stations are sending out dire warnings and predictions of a monster storm.The sheep seem unconcerned.But the forecast is for sustained winds of 40 to 50 miles per hour with gusts of up to 80 miles per hour for our little region of the Pacific Northwest. ~Goth the Destroyer, with his cool mask, is only concerned he get his share of soda crackers. But I am very concerned. I am even a little fearful. Talk about Deja-vu, storm 2006, which I was NOT going to talk about anymore. These are the conditions that led up to our tarp covered and tree toppled demise 2 years ago, except that now there are ice laden trees to topple..... ~The ducks are so happy to run free from their pen in the morning. Snow and ice...well, they do fine even if they do skid on the ice covered pond.They do spend a lot of time sitting on their delicate feet to keep them warm and prevent frost bite. They are not worried, I keep them well fed and protected from predators. ~The call ducks are so pretty as they fly into the pond, or onto the ice. They often circle the house in flight and I feel so special when they fly beside me as I carry the bucket of food to their pen for the nightly feed and lock up. ~Thorin and Bombadil too, are not worried. They are competing with each other here for the soda cracker treats. They know they will get their alfalfa and they also have ........

~A fine shelter for goats.You can see Thorin peeking out from the upper story of the goat house and Bombadil is below, at the hay feeder.~

~The Labs are not concerned at all. They are the perfectly equipped for cold , wet weather. They are really concerned with who will get the tennis ball I am about to throw to them. The weather is of no concern. They know the dog food will be dished out in the morning as usual, and they will sleep by the wood stove in the evening. No worries or cares, except...who will get the tennis ball first ?

~Black Bart is not concerned about the weather. He has a fine wool coat to keep him warm. He too knows the alfalfa will be served up every day. He plays with the other young sheep in the crisp weather. ~

~This is my view to a dark day, but a pretty day outside. The wood stove is keeping us warm. The pantry and fridge are filled with good things to eat and drink. But we did cancel our family Christmas party and Hubby's special event because of the very, very bad road conditions and the family party tomorrow night would be in the midst of a raging wind storm that would have precious people going home through forests that will most likely be dropping trees on the roads and highways. Dodging trees on icy roads with power outages..no, a party can be re- scheduled , and so it will be. ~Poor Hubby is stuck trying to help me not be afraid of the remaining trees hanging over and around us. I have a book on tape, and batteries to listen to it when the power goes out. I am sure the power will go out. We always lose power in the storms. So, I might not be blogging for awhile because we will shut down our computer before the storm hits. ~"Praise the Lord from the earth, Sea monsters and all deeps; Fire and hail, snow and clouds; Stormy wind , fulfilling His word; Mountains and all hills; Fruit trees and all cedars; Beasts and all cattle; Creeping things and winged fowl; Kings of the earth and all peoples;" Psalm 148:7-11