29 Baa

9:54 PM Sunday, 31 January 2010
Temperature: 41 F, lightly overcast, no rain

We've received 29 more sheep from J.B. in Oregon; 21 young but mature ewes and 8 ewe lambs, all horned. Very cute. The lambs are in with the original flock while the others are in with the geese and ducks.

We've also received more fencing material. The new adult ewes show every keen interest in chomping away happily on pine branches and needles. Looks like we'll be able to eke out our hay for a long while if that's so, what with the trees felled for light purposes.

We did not take possession of the dogs, one of whom was visibly extremely unhappy with the prospect of remaining here and was highly disobedient even to her trainers. May be receiving two younger, friendlier, less wander-prone dogs from J.B.; she will let us know. If not, other arrangements will be made.

Rabbits are still doing well. Need more individual attention than we've entirely had time for today, but all did get at least a little handling. Will be doing last check before bed of water dishes etc when putting barn cats to bed.

Ducks were prone to wandering. Went through three loaves of bread tempting them back into their enclosure. As such they received no nighttime feeding as they also have fresh pasture now due to the enclosure having been moved. They also now have a small sandbox filled with fresh water as they are away from the pond now. The trick will be keeping them away from the pond.

The birds' shelter needs to be reconstructed and we will be putting up a third shelter once the sheep are separated out further. This will likely be done sometime during this coming week or at the weekend, along with finishing the rabbits' grazing arks.

Finished researching height/timing requirements for garden plants and have decided to grow all melons and pumpkins via the trellis method to save space and preserve fruits. The next several weeks will see building the greenhouse and getting seedlings started, along with building the earth beds for the garden itself. Will be using a combination of plywood and stones for the latter.

We now will begin also digging holes for placement of trees in March. No more livestock planned although we have 2 more female geese on order which are due to arrive in April, and tentative plans to add chickens to the mix in later spring or early summer, depending on when we find time to build a proper coop and chicken tractors.