Duane on a Mission

A sheep farmer from Middleton came to pick up Duane today. He'll be visiting the herd for about a month then he is scheduled to take care of Edith's flock. The lady from Middleton heard about Duane from Edith.

 I mowed some today. Lisa worked on the yard while I was out playing in the field.

 Duane in his mission ready room.

 Paige with Piper and Satin.

 Paige with Satin, Paris and Luna.

 The first red strawberry. There are a lot of green ones. If they all ripen we'll be measuring our strawberries by the gallon.

 Roses in bloom.

 The blueberries are getting color to them too.

 The first McIntosh apple.

 Lettuce and onions, collards in the upper left. Weeds, all over.

 Tomatoes in the left row, tomatoes, cucumbers and squash on the right.

 Samantha's lambs. Molly is in the stall tonight. She looks really close.

 The babies are having fun in the barnyard.  The weird crowing sound is one of the young seabright roosters. He's trying so hard to sound like a rooster. He pops out from the left at 2:35 and runs through the middle of the red hens. You can see him crow at 2:40. He's cute, but Darryl has the rooster position filled. There are three bantam roosters whose resumes have two qualifications, only one of which is applicable because of Darryl. We'll let you know how they taste.

Morty's New Home

Cathryn and Bryan came up to get Morty this weekend.

 He's been in our freezer since we picked him up from Flemingsburg about a week ago.

 Organic grass fed beef steaks.

 They brought the big cooler.

 Samantha babysitting the lambs.

 Lisa was trying to convince the sheep to go into the stall.

 We did hooves and hair today.

 We told them they were getting a spa treatment.

 Libby wasn't buying the spa treatment thing.

 She looked much better. She didn't hold a grudge either.


I mowed some pastures. I still have three to go.

 Paige.

Zapper

The Japanese beetles are back again this year. We've tried different things to control them. Traps and poison work but they have to be cleaned out or re-applied. This year we got an electronic bug killer. The Flowtron BK-80D 80-Watt Electronic Insect Killer arrived yesterday. We probably won't be able to leave it where it's hanging now. The bugs are so numerous it zaps pretty much constantly. It does attract them away from the windows, which is nice.

 It's hanging from the center post on the front porch. It's open at the bottom so we don't want the flaming carcasses falling on the deck.

 It's the big one, 80 watts. 1 1/2 acre coverage. We need nine more.

 Flowtron in action. The big bugs are the Japanese beetles.

 The lambs are out with the flock.

 I started mowing pastures today. The lambs get lost in the high grass.

 Paige.

Duane's Brother

The bagger for the riding mower came by FedEx yesterday so I put it on this morning. Bess had a baby ram lamb this morning. This afternoon we clipped Duane's feet and gave him his shots and wormer. We also sheared his wool. We aren't Australian sheep shearers so we all came away bruised and bloody. He hadn't been shedding and had some big mats around his neck. It has been hot so we were worried about him. Next time we'll use the grooming table. No pictures, we had our hands full. I'll try to get some "after" pictures tomorrow.

 It has three collapsible bags that hang from the frame. The one on the left fills the fastest.

 I mowed the back yard even though it had been done two days before. I got two and a half loads of grass clippings.

 Bess and Duane's brother.

 He doesn't have a name yet. We won't be keeping him for breeding purposes so he'll get banded in a few days. Duane is his father and his brother and I think he's a cousin and an uncle too.

Warner Pond
 Paige.

Lawn Work

The weather has been nice so we've been working out in the yard. The grass had grown a lot since the mowers broke. The parts came in this week so I got them fixed. The riding mower turned out to have a bad wire which I had to troubleshoot when the new solenoid didn't fix it.

I noticed that the hour meter and headlights weren't working when the key was in the on position. The ignition was connected because we could start by jumping the solenoid. I traced the wires and there were three broken ones in the engine cover near the headlights. I thought they were just the headlight wires and didn't think that would keep the tractor from starting. In the bundle was a third black wire that connected with the headlight black wire. Looking at the wiring schematic, the third black wire is the common ground for the key start switch, hour meter and headlights among other things. It seemed important. I replaced the wires and it started right up.

 I need to mow the pastures. Speedy liked Andy's picture so much he was trying to duplicate it. The original.

 The young chicks like using the stall. I think they feel safe in there.

 They don't mind that sheep have moved in.

 Wild birds kill themselves in the water tanks sometimes.

  It requires cleaning when something dies in your water.

 We got all the lawn mowed. I put weed cloth around the forsythia bushes.

 Paige.

Minutes Old

Samantha had two lambs this morning at dawn. Lisa was out there just as the second one was born. The first one was the black with white spots, it's a ram lamb. The second one is a ewe lamb. Both are solid looking and healthy.


Warning: These pictures were taken immediately after the lambs were born. There is a little blood and other unpleasant things associated with birth. I tried to leave out as much of the gory bits as possible.


Cannot be unseen.


Not everything on the farm is kittens and ducklings.


Last chance to turn away without seeing.



 He was about an hour old here.

 Samantha is a good mom.

 She was about 15 minutes old here.

 She'll be licked clean eventually. Mom was a little tired but still cleaning up.

See, not too bad.

 The locust trees are in full bloom so I made some panorama composites.

 I used the free tool from Microsoft to edit these. It's called Image Composite Editor (ICE). I like the way they came out. Much easier than using Photoshop.

 Paige.

First Lamb

46 had the first lamb of the season. She is a first time mom and had three lambs but two of them died. Long time blog followers will remember 46 from this post. She is 44's daughter.

 The lamb has black on the front of both back feet.

 It's a ewe lamb and she is up and bouncing around in the stall with mom.

 Paige acting like a dog.

 Paige.