The sheep have been fattening themselves upon the summer grass with great glee, as everyone can clearly spot. The wool is gradually shedding, so that by now some of our sheep are practically nude. A fair amount though by no means all of the shed wool has been collected; at some point, likely when we go to deworm them, we'll see about rooing the ones who haven't shed.



One of the garden trees died completely and we've planted a replacement; however, dead though it might be, it looks very picturesque among the daisies and tall clovers and with bits of grass and moss about.









And surprise! We have a brand new ewe lamb as of this morning, born to one of last year's ewe hoggets, fawn in colour. A first lamb for her, obviously - and coal-black all over. We're fairly sure from when Hercules came back from Oregon (June 22nd) combine with today's birthdate that she's one of his. There's an outside chance it could be Hercules' oldest (and largest) son, ram lamb #1, but considering we saw him sniffing for fertile ewes when he returned and his determination for dominance...

The grass has indeed gotten high. Can anyone count the sheep?








Maybe this makes it easier.








Or this...








Or how about this?








Nibs is confident that we have enough sheep. He's also confident that that length of baling twine isn't going anywhere without him having something to say about it. Don't you agree?






The barn cats continue to receive their refresher training in more polite people manners. The training comes with some perks, such as hotel accommodations. Shh, they're going over their notes!

It is midsummer on Silver Cat Farm, and the lambs are getting fat.

There will be some few (not many) apples on the trees come autumn, if the birds and insects and sheep don't get them all.

The barn cats have been inside for refresher training in civility and affection.

Summer may be halfway over, but it's only begun to heat up.

The work doesn't end, but neither do the joys. May all of you have a joyful midsummer, and the rest of the summer as well!

June has thus far been a remarkably attractive month, filled with delightful moments amid all the hard work. Tink and Slightly have been working just as hard, as you can see - in fact, they've been catching thrushes and sparrows for hearty consumption, and in one case had to be told rather sternly that while they could keep their catch, to eat it outside, please! Some people just don't understand the kitty heart.






The sheep have also been enjoying the warmer weather - it's been cool enough that they don't need to constantly take shelter, but sometimes they do just for the heck of it. It gives things at times almost a fairy element. Sheep among trees - sound the retreat! They've been a bit of a handful lately; getting to graze on an almost daily basis means they've been getting rather spoiled, and prone to ignoring shepherds whenever they can. They remain most manageable when there's two or more shepherds on duty.

And with June's weather there have been glorious signs of plant life and pretty little flowers. Some of the grasses are already going to seed, as seen here, with the red seeds among the little yellow flowers.





And here, with small purple flowers and white daisies - one of the sheep delights in eating these daisies, so seeing a ewe wander by with a daisy dangling from her mouth is not at all an uncommon sight.





A closeup of the daisy, because of the rather striking pattern its folded-back protective leaves have.







Even smaller purple flowers among the clover.








And spring irises, which begin opening in April or sometimes sooner and last until summer gets too hot for them, backed by more of those tiny yellow flowers.

It has been a very eye-catching June, and we'll be sorry to see it go!

Today was a day for visiting friends, which moreover involved cheesecake - two cheesecakes, to be precise, an espresso cheesecake and an apricot cheesecake, each with appropriate homemade toppings. Cheesecakes and toppings came out delicious, and sinfully rich. Good thing there's plenty of farmwork for burning off the calories, eh?



The goslings have discovered the joys of clean water in the kiddie pool we use for the geese. They love it so much that they've been seen chasing full-grown ganders out, bullying mercilessly to get their way. The way the geese and ganders spoil the goslings does much to explain why they all grow up to have such entitled, bullying attitudes - but as with most creatures, they're awfully cute while they're young.


We had a nocturnal visitor who actually killed off one of the incipient nests full of goslings by scaring off the goose sitting on it, and which kept returning for more eggs. A fortuitous spotting led to a clean kill - a sizable beast, though not the biggest ever. Either way, our animals are safe from one more raccoon. The rifle is a .22 magnum - not the largest in the world, but not the smallest, either, for those interested in scale.


The weather has been sunny and warm, leading to barn cats taking over the moon chairs for better sunning purposes. This leads to the occasional kitty battle. Poor Tink! All she wanted was to continue her nap. Brother Nibs arrived though and had other views on the topic.




The other cheesecake was also delicious. On which note, we sign off for our food coma...

Spring has sprung right into summer, and despite a brief time away from the farm, the farm continues apace. The volunteer apple trees on the property are all in full and glorious bloom, promising blowsily their potential charms. Wimsey and Shelley's trees have had blossoms on them as well, and the result of those blossoms on Shelley's tree, at least, suggests that it is a self-fertile kind of cherry.

A new lamb was born while we were away, but it was sickly and though our farm-sitters called in our veterinarians, the lamb was unable to be saved; no suckle reflex, and it died under their care despite their best efforts. Hard-won experience suggests that even if it had been saved, it would be much more prone later in life to any number of health issues. Our neighbours were saddened and told us this is proof they could never be farmers - we thanked them muchly for their services.

The cats were delighted to see us again, and the house cats in particular purred all over us so hard that they kept choking and coughing over it. Things have begun to settle down a little bit since then, but the barn kitties show every sign of having missed us almost as much as the house cats - despite not having been allowed out for the duration of our absence, they have since our return preferred to hang out in the house with us rather than outside. While the rain today may have contributed to that, yesterday was a gloriously sunny day and they still wanted to stay inside if they could, playing and being with us.

The goslings are putting on weight fast, and have already gained their first set of pinfeathers. They chirp to one another and to the adults constantly. The nest on the porch has been abandoned, alas; evidence shows something or other, probably possum, had been coming for eggs in our absence. We intend to put a rather final stop to that. She has, however, apparently begun a new nest.

Yesterday was a tree day, and began with the purchase of 51 new trees: 7 Fameuse apple trees on M7 rootstock and 41 Michelin apple trees on the same, and 3 new trees for the garden area. The 3 trees are what the nursery calls seconds: good enough to be sold but not good enough to withstand shipping through the mail. We purchased thusly one Turkish quince, one Mirabelle plum, and one tree which is completely and entirely unknown to them or us as to what it is! We suspect it might be some variety of apple; in a couple of years, we may even find out. Even so, it was still a bargain, at $2.00 for the unknown tree.

Today's rains have proven a boon to the trees and a bane to farmers. The trees, new and old, have gotten a good, solid watering, while it's been sufficiently hard rain to keep farmers indoors and from pursuing outdoor projects. The philosophy of the farm remains consistent, however; no matter the weather, there's always work to be done, and there's always tomorrow.

We have reached about the end of the lambing season, with what we believe to be our final lamb born today to Jojo by Bolivar. A single, sizable grey ewe lamb in good health and as cute as a button, bringing our total to ... somewhere around 32 or more.

The ones born already are getting gradually bigger, and we've seen no signs of ill health, which makes this a particularly successful lambing season so far.

Over the weekend we had a very pleasantly sunny day - so much so that this very small snake was sunning itself in the sheep pasture. It didn't like being photographed much, but it suffered a few shots, although it's a trifle 'Where's Waldo'ish! The sheep seemed utterly unbothered by its presence - if they even noticed.




Here you can witness the sheep being unbothered. There was alfalfa in the offing - what care they for tiny snakes? The lambs, as you can see, are large, healthy and viable. We're very pleased, and we'll be culling in the fall to bring our flock back under the current numbers, emphasis given to those who have some small defects (one lamb, for instance, has shown signs of something wrong with his gait, which would make him not a good choice for breeding and potentially a symptom of something more wrong with him). We'll

likely also offer the sheep for sale live, but whatever's left at the end of the season will need to be sold in a hurry or turned into meat.

The geese having been taking the goslings everywhere, including to the pond although not yet upon the pond that we've seen. Anyone who gets too close is given the stinkeye and hissed at in a way which clearly says 'approach closer at your peril'. Even farmers

with feed scoops in hand are far from immune to this threat.

And with May came a birthday, for which occasion a cake was baked. A sachertorte made with almond flour instead of all-purpose, chocolate ganache frosting, and glazed dried apricots soaked in liqueur decorating it. Truly, the joys of spring are worth mentioning and reveling in!