We have had a happy week upon the farm. In addition to our late-born new lambie of tiny proportions, one of our ducks has finally hatched out a clutch of eggs! Five tiny little ducklings have been seen waddling after mama everywhere, and paddling about on the pond nibbling the duckweed while she watches protectively from the shore.



The geese still do bully the ducks - and now ducklings - away from the food, so it requires a careful eye and a bit of oversight. However, the geese haven't been having it all their own way - an owl was seen last night being bullied by ravens and crows and jays until it moved further away, from tree to tree. Whether it left entirely or not we're not yet sure. Hopefully so, for the sake of our flocks.


An eagle was seen flying over the main road today, being similarly bullied away by a raven, and a cottontail rabbit and a wren were having a bit of a pow-wow on the side road. The pow-wow was broken up by the arrival of cars, and mister or missus cottontail headed into the deep brush while the lady wren fluttered away.




Little lambie kept having trouble keeping up with the flock, requiring a helping hand from time to time from a farmer - especially during the heavy rains. Lambie is doing quite well by now, however, and we've figured out how the older lambs were escaping - a temporary fix has stopped that for now, although too late for one lamb foolish enough to stick its nose quite literally into the fence of the neighbors' dog paddock. One eye was destroyed and it had to be culled. Sad though it was, at least the meat has proven delicious when properly cooked.

We may be able to finish the newest paddock this weekend. If so that will give them a couple of weeks of fodder, and hay delivery begins on the first of August, which should save us time and wear and tear on vehicles. Hurray for hay!

Summer rolls merrily along, being one of our nicer summers - not too dry although we wouldn't mind yet more rain than we've been getting. On one of our dryer days, a curious-looking moth landed on the windshield on our way out.

Summer has been oddly lamb-filled as well; today we came home to find yet another newborn lamb born to one of our smaller ewes - although not one of our hogget ewes.

We're going to have to figure out why so many ewes went into season so late this time around that Hercules was able to impregnate them!

The barn cats have been settling in well, although we're beginning to consider making our own cat food from scratch. Omaha and Tootles even get along fairly well - bright eyes and all.

Our farm now includes a chicken coop, and a total of nine chickens - 2 Delaware hens, 2 Maran hens, 4 Olive Eggers, and a Blue Maran rooster. They're all between 2 and 3 months old, so the soonest we can expect eggs will be in another 3 months. We have a little more work to do reinforcing the area they're in - both so far they're healthy and alert, and, well, about as intelligent as chickens ever get. Our goal of self-sufficiency for meat purposes (and a good supply of organically produced eggs) grows ever closer!

Happy 4th of July to all who are reading this, be they domestic or abroad. As the pictures show, there has been some domesticity around here - and a couple of kittycats just want to help. All of the cats have been getting kept inside a lot, less due to weather and more due to the visit the other day by a massive bald eagle which landed on our lawn, not twenty feet from our front door. The geese were made nervous by this - and so the barn cats are indoors, continuing their socialization training with occasional outdoor privileges only no matter how wistful they sound.

We lost one lamb who'd escaped and instead of allowing us to round him up, forced his way into the neighbours' dog kennel. Two labradors + one lamb = one very dead lamb. The neighbour came over to apologize after finding what was left - the dogs were playing with the head. Poor neighbour. But that lamb effectively culled itself from the flock as 'too stupid to live'. Better finding out now than later, we suppose.


We've lately put in duckweed and water hyacinth, along with some friendly bacteria to help settle our pond ecology down. Imagine our surprise when a couple of days after, not only is the water much clearer, it's become apparent that we have at least one fully mature carp of some sort swimming around in there! Impressive hibernation skills; that pond freezes clear to the bottom in winter! We're considering adding some lily pads and a couple more carp to present a balanced ecology.

The sheep have been getting moved from one pasture to another, particularly today - some of our other neighbours like fireworks at the 4th. They like fireworks enough to begin two whole nights in advance, resulting in very panicky, nervous sheep. Thus today once they're done grazing, we'll be moving them to the furthest corner of the property and hope that it helps them be a little more settled. There's just a limit to what we can do for them, and if last year was any indication, the fireworks are likely to last three or four hours. The weather is unfortunately altogether too perfect for fireworks - no hope of a last minute cancellation. Poor sheep!


We have been installing fencing along our northern border, intended to keep the sheep out of the other other neighbours' vegetable gardens. Once that is installed and we have done the southern border as well, all we'll need is a gate - or something to block the driveway, in any case - and we'll be able to let them graze with only modest supervision. It is a day we look forward to with much joy. It will also enable us to observe them to begin preparing the cull list; this winter we plan on separating them along strictly sexist lines, to give our ewes a break and help them regain condition. Our many sheepy minions shall have a pause in their increase...