My lavender Silkies are growing up... slowly

Aren't they precious? I really hope one of the three is a boy! And a girl. I need at least one of each! Now to fast foward about 7 months and then I can start hatching eggs from these beauties!

Our last Spring Baby

Bashful finally had her baby last night. So that makes 3 kids and 3 lambs for the spring season. The lambs are growing so much! Hard to believe they are almost a month old!

The new kid

Playing with her new friends

One of the lambs

Now that all the birthing is done (no thanks to me!) and the weather is starting to warm up, I'm thinking about the garden, flowers, and grass growing. I have almost 100 eggs in the incubator for my new breeding projects. We're getting 4 dozen eggs a day from the laying flock! I tool 16 dozen eggs yesterday to the Food Pantry. I can't sell them all and I love being able to give fresh eggs to a needy family. Plus I waltzed out of there with tons of bread that they can't use. The chickens were super happy about that!

Looking forward to a lovely, warm, sunny weekend. It was actually 76 degrees one day this week! Only 50 something today but it was nice while it lasted!

Something to brighten my flu-ridden life

What a couple of weeks! My son had the flu all of last week. Then my husband got it. And now I have it. And my daughter. And now my husband has escaped to California on a week-long business trip leaving me with a stuffed nose, cough and a fever-ridden 6-yr old. sniff sniff
On the plus side, all three lambs are growing and thriving. And we woke up this morning to a beautiful sight.... two new baby goats! Dopey, bless her big pregnant self, finally had her twins. The poor thing hadn't been able to walk comfortably for weeks. I gave her as many pep talks as I could (which was difficult when I didn't have a voice for two days), but she just wasn't ready. This morning, I went out to the pasture to check on her and there they were! A fat little white kid and a little tan one trying desperately to figure out how to use its legs.

Can't be a bad day after all!

Our new lambs!

Finally, finally got out to the farm. My husband has been doing farm duties while I've been taking care of my son... who still has a fever on day 6. Anyway.... one day I'll live out here full-time and won't miss a thing! We hope to start building in the next few months. I can't wait.

Introducing.... the new lambs!

I just love them! I even got to hold one today. They are just adorable and precious. So glad the coyotes have stayed away. Both of my goats spent the afternoon waddling around the pasture. Surely they will give birth anytime.

And just for laughs.... a picture of Toupee. Bless his little ram heart.

Sheepherding!

At the end of our snowstorm in January came the time for our foster sheep to move onto greener pastures. I was kind of glad since feeding them was expensive and time-consuming! It took a lot of people and two extraordinary herding dogs to get the sheep into the trailer and it was fun to watch! We did it though!
We kept eight sheep: four rams and four ewes. And now have three babies. Yay!!

We had to catch Snowflake and put him on his trailer for the ride back to his house before letting the dogs loose. It took awhile but eventually we had him!

Dopey didn't really enjoy being penned up during all the action... as you can plainly see.

The dogs were doing a great job until.....

this happened. Uh oh.  Escape!

Finally they are headed into the trailer with my handsome farmer now doing most of the herding.

And people call you a city boy. You're a farmer now, sweetie! Look at you go!

It was a really interesting and fun day. All the sheep made it safely to their new destination and we settled in nicely with our much reduced flock. Plus a new donkey with a new name.

Eggs come in all sizes!

Two of the three dozen eggs I collected today. I'm not sure who laid this teeny, tiny egg (which is about the size of a grape), but I do appreciate the effort!

I just love my eggs! Thanks, Hens!

Three new babies... and the flu

Oh, dear. It's been a very long four days. My little boy (well, he's 10 and not really so little... but you know how it is! He's my little boy!) came home from school Friday not feeling well. I don't know how it is where you live, but here in South Carolina, the flu is running wild. And it's not a little, bothersome flu. It's an out for 10 days, in the bed, horrible flu. And so he has it. Thankfully the rest of us are still well but I'm tired! If he can't sleep, I can't sleep so we spend much of the night awake and sad. Hopefully he'll be better tomorrow.

While I've been playing nursemaid, my husband has been counting sheep! After losing three baby lambs to the cursed coyotes, we've had three more born this week and all are doing well! A friend of ours put out a few coyote traps. No coyotes have been trapped but something he did is obviously keeping them away. If my son feels up to it tomorrow, we'll spend the day at the farm and I can finally take some pictures!

I have several new ideas in the works for the farm. Can't wait to share them! But first I have to talk my husband into them. And that's taking some work!