Busy Summer

I don't remember ever being this busy.  Soccer, soccer, soccer... Business trips for Clancy.  A new part-time job for me.  The boys working for their grandpa at the sawmill several days a week.  Extra-hot weather that seems to make daily activities feel like twice the effort....

But there is MUCH to be thankful for.  We have had just enough rain to keep the pastures from drying up.  They aren't growing a lot...but it is not brown here yet.  Just the lawn is brown in places.  I am so grateful for the rain!

Lleulu came to us mid-June.  Isn't she just precious in this photo taken with Asa on her first day here?

The "precious" has worn off and it has been replaced with "exasperating."

In spite of her "puppy-ness" and tendency to pull my drying towels off the clothes-line....gggrrrrrrrr....Lleulu is developing into a guardian.  She makes the rounds with Shachah.  She has barked at some suspicious things.  And she seems to have a lot of common sense for a pup.  :)

Shachah is doing well.  And he is actually bonding with Lleu.  He definitely thinks of her as HIS responsibility.  I'm sure he wishes that she wouldn't pester him so much.  But all in all, he's being a wonderful mentor.

And he also blew his coat...so now he feels a lot cooler in this heat.

Evidence that there is a little peace and quiet around here once in a while.  The above photo is a good example of how Lleulu tries very hard to imitate everything Shachah does.

Our sad news is that dear Betty Bird died yesterday.  She was about 19 years old, but we had only had her for the last 6 years...ever since Leif brought her home from school in 4th grade.  We will definitely miss her.  She was like a bright little bit of sunshine in our lives.

Less Than Idyllic

The snow came along and blanketed us in white perfection.

Appearances can be deceiving.  So far this morning:

I put down my oldest ewe, Rachel.

I had been planning on this so it wasn't a surprise.  But it is still bullets and death.

I discovered my naughty outdoor cat, Chloe, has been sneaking inside the house to use the potted rosemary as a litter box. GROSS!!!

Betty Bird decided to land on my unsuspecting nose, and now I have scratches on my face!

Ordinary life is far from idyllic here at Boston Lake. In fact, it is hard to imagine any life with animals as being truly idyllic. One can love the life, but it isn't always pretty.

Now...off to turn this day around!

Late Summer Rams

"I like my clover patch!"

I snapped a few photos Saturday evening as the sun was going down.  We had just moved the adult rams into a new paddock.  With all the rain we have received this summer, the pasture growth is amazing.  Usually I have to supplement with a bit of hay in late August.  But the sheep are up to their bellies in grass and clover this season.  It would be wonderful to count on these conditions every year.  If so, we could easily sustain a cow-calf pair in the yard as well.  But nature is rarely that reliable.  So I stock my pastures according to worst case scenario.

Clancy did get the old 10 acre hay field plowed up this summer.  He will be disking it a few times this fall and we may put some rye out there to prevent erosion.  Next spring we will seed alfalfa.  Hopefully that will put us back on the road to producing our own hay again.  I bought hay last year, and I still have to buy hay for this winter.  Those costs prohibit increasing the flock size.  Putting up our own hay should allow more ability to add livestock.  Maybe we will do that cow-calf pair then...or add a milk goat!  Regardless, I will feel much more secure once we are harvesting our own hay.

In other farm news, the gardens have been supplying us with lovely veggies.  We have red potatoes, peppers, and tomatoes whenever we wish.  Clancy's watermelons and cantaloupe are coming on strong, but he will probably have to protect them from frost to get them to maturity.  It got down to high 30's the other night.  Brrrrrrr.

Speaking of shivers...Clancy does not yet have the wood stove going.  He is in the process of moving the outdoor boiler to a new location...50 feet from the house AND the new garage.  He has poured the cement pad already, but now we need to trench the new pipe line in.  Meanwhile, the house is getting awfully chilly at night.  Since I had the time today, I gave Betty Cockatiel a bath under some trickling water.  (Actually, she decided to take a bath while I was washing my hands.)  Then I got out the hair dryer and aimed it at both of us while she sat on my shoulder.  She loved it...and I didn't mind being warmed up either. 

Time to get back to work...

Birds, Birds, Birds

I had to change the little sidebar photo this morning because Mr. Rooster no longer exists. Our beautiful barred rock fellow started getting a little aggressive this spring. He had just turned two and that seems to be the age when a rooster tries to take on more of the farm management than just the running of his own flock of hens.

He had attacked me three times already. The first two times were completely unprovoked and I didn't even see him coming. I'm a little freaked out by chickens anyway, and his surprise attacks did little to secure his place here on the farm. Yesterday, I had the sheep out on the lawn and I had to move the chicken feeder so they wouldn't eat out of it. Mr. Rooster didn't like my interference with his food dish, even though he has the run of the whole blessed farm. He got me pretty good twice until I managed a defensive kick to his chest. Then he backed me all the way up onto the porch, where he finally let me go. I can honestly say I hated him during that little ordeal.

Once again I demanded from Clancy that he get rid of the beast. This terror could really hurt my young nephew or the boys if he decided to attack them. Yet again I heard how the job would get done just as soon as my darling had some spare time.

Well, this morning, while doing chicken chores, Mr. Rooster attacked my poor husband inside the chicken coop. The chicken coop is about 3.5 x 6 feet, and only 5 feet tall at the peak. I can only imagine the rodeo of that event, and how many times Clancy banged his head on the rafters while trying to dodge the rooster. I'm not laughing. Really. I'm NOT laughing! ;)

Out of breath and indignant, Clancy marched in the house to tell me the rooster had been disposed of. I thought he had finally decided I really meant those last three ultimatums. No, the rooster had attacked HIM and so the menace met a swift and justified end. Apparently Clancy knocked him down with a chunk of wood, and chopped off his head before he came to.

I told Clancy I would be making light of this situation. It is, after all, perhaps a universal experience for wives? Nothing is wrong with the car until HE drives it...There is no snake under the porch until HE sees it... Shame on me. I am really ribbing him way too much. He knows I'm teasing though. :)

Since the rooster had to be removed, I thought I would replace him with a photo of the beautiful swans that visit us here at Boston Lake. Almost any day, we can see them near our shore, or far out on the lake like brilliant sailboats. Each time I see them, I am filled with reverence for this beautiful place God has allowed me to live in.

And finally, I can introduce our two new cockatiels properly: Meet Bette and Greybird. They love to be with us while we eat and sit. Leif is doing his homework here, with the birds on his shoulders. My son would prefer it known that he is wearing my old sweater because the birds like the texture for climbing...and it's already dirty. In "real life" he would not be caught dead wearing my sweater. He is too cool for that.

Pre-teen, parent-induced mortification aside, cockatiels really are exquisite little birds. :)

Bad, Good, & Unexpected News

First the bad news: Beautiful Vyvyan Bloem died very early yesterday morning. The night before I discovered her "hiccuping" constantly. I feel she was either having a diaphragm spasm or had an obstruction to her breathing. After a long observance, I decided to give her a lamb sized "Heimlich" maneuver. It did not help. She was keeping to her self and seemed miserable. Sometimes I get a bad case of hiccups so I could imagine how she felt if that were the case. I put her by her resting lambie cousins and left her for the night. I knew she would probably be just fine or dead by morning. Unfortunately, she was gone by 6am chore time.

My dear neighbor, Gail, took my 6:30am call. Bless her. After a thorough discussion on all the possibilities, we determined it was probably not disease but a physical problem. Vyvy could have inhaled something that blocked her airway. She could have been kicked or butted by a ewe and had a lung collapse or her windpipe damaged. Or she could have had a birth defect that was just not able to be seen. Since she had been playing wild just three hours before I found her hiccuping, I really do feel something "happened" to her. She was a beautiful soft ewe lamb. I am very sorry to loose her.

Good news: Each time I go out with the bottle for Anna's lambs, they are less and less interested in it. This morning they sipped about an ounce-because I made them. Then they ran off to play. I think Anna's milk is finally coming in. This is a great relief.

My mother-in-law, Nancy, suggested I take a picture of the lambs next to something measurable-so people could see just how tiny they are. I haven't had a real opportunity to stage a photo yet, but I did find this one of Nhu standing in front of the water buckets. They are average 2.5 gallon buckets.

Unexpected news: Last week my youngest son said his classroom birds needed a new home and he wanted them. Clancy and I agreed to allow the new pets if Leif did all the work. So Monday I went to the school to pick them up. I had this idea that we were getting parakeets that twitter in a cage all day. The birds turned out to be cockatiels that were 10 years old and tired of the wild classroom life. (They were becoming a bit grouchy.) So now we have cockatiels.

Fortunately, the birds are enjoying the quieter pace of "family life." For unknown reasons, they seem to really like me. The first thing I learned is that cockatiels are very smart and emotionally demanding. I picked that up all on my own. Then I got on-line and found some great sites that told me all the ways I could instantly kill our cockatiels by being ignorant of their specific needs. This was the same day I lost Vyvy. After an hour of research, I had to just go take a nap. The responsibility was overwhelming.

So far, the birds are still alive. They seem to be fine actually. We are learning more about them each day, and hopefully we will provide them with a good home. They are beautiful and fascinating. They have distinct personalities and behaviors. We are falling in love with them. Their names are Bette and Greybird. I'll post a photo when I can borrow the camera again.