Tadiel

Here is a recent photo of Tadiel.......Miniel's surviving twin. She is the sheep in the foreground  with horns,  facing right. The other sheep is one of Tim's visiting ewes.
I wish Tadiel's sister, Miniel, was still here, but she is not........I still miss her..........
Tadiel is a nice sheep, although she has a different personality than Miniel.  Tadiel is a Shetland/ Dor Galen cross. She has a nice fleece which has characteristics of both breeds. I say she is a "keeper" !

Bonnie Girl Up Close and Personal

My hubby took this great photo of Bonnie.......

Dor Galen Flock in the Back Paddock

The Setting of the Summer Sun

Some Light Summer Reading

I'm on page 66 of 1299 total pages. The novel? ............ War and Peace by Tolstoy.  The NookColor is a great device, well suited for undertaking such a daunting task. If any of my readers have some extra time on their hands this summer, try some pages. You might be surprised!

A Glad Summer Solstice Image........

Mild Thing , Our Scottish Blackface Ewe

My hubby blade sheared her a couple of weeks ago. She is a registered Scottish Blackface  born in 2003 at Littledale Farm in Wisconsin. Her sister, Wild Thing, was acquired at the same time. We are talking about breeding "the girls" one more time. The plan is to stand them to a registered Horned Dorset ram to introduce  more diversity into the Dor Galen breed.

Mild Thing 2011

Here is a  link to Littledale Farm for more info on the Scottish Blackface breed.

Mild Thing Fall 2010

Here is my husband's post on Mild Thing......

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Here is a photo of Scarface (mother) and Bonnie (daughter)............
Scarface came to us in 2009 from Tim's flock. She had her face injured by a dog  while we were away from the farm. We nursed the wound on her face for six weeks. The wound was to the skull and I did normal saline wet to dry dressing changes to her face daily plus I gave her antibiotics. We asked Tim if we could buy her from him and he agreed to the sale. She became quite tame and very friendly.
She surprised us with Bonnie in February 2010. We didn't realize she was pregnant but Bonnie was a healthy ewe lamb.
Scarface is a Border Leister/ North Country Cheviot cross. Bonnie was sired by a Blue Face Leister ram.
We enjoy them immensely.......

Mary Jane's Farm This is Not!

For those of you who haven't heard of Mary Jane's Farm check it out......

As I was putting my first load of laundry in at 8 AM this morning,  I saw five or six ewes from Tim's flock stroll by the window. They were on the other side of the fence in our neighbor's cornfield, heading towards the highway and on their way back to Ladoga, Indiana as far as I could tell. I yelled at them and they saw me and started trotting back from whence they came. I went out to the hayloft west window where I have a good view of the back and west fence line. The sheep were already back by that time so I couldn't get an exact place where they had re-entered the pasture, but I had a general direction. The rest of Tim's flock was milling about the east paddock bleating to be fed grain.  " Sorry, Girls,,,,I said. "You have to eat pasture while you're here!" I got in touch with my husband at work and relayed to him the incident. He instructed me to go to the hayloft and get the garden fence remaints to repair the fence. He also told me where the fencing pliers were located in the barn.
Blitzen, our Boer goat was not cooperative this morning so I struggled with his 250+ pound self and I was not winning. I got his goat attention by food that I put in his stall then locked him in.
Armed with my shepherd's crook and the garden fence, I proceeded to the west fence line and walked down it looking for breaks.  I was under the scrutiny of Tim's flock who followed me at a distance all the time as they continued to graze.
About midway down the fence , I discovered a very low place where the sheep could hop across. By the look of the freshly trampled grass, that is where they had accomplished their get away. I placed the garden fence across the top of the last row of barbed wire and discovered that the fencing pliers had escaped my denim jacket pocket. I had to secure it the best I could without the fencing pliers.
I then returned to the barn where I found the fencing pliers in the goat's stall.........

This is  decidedly  not Mary Jane's Farm!!!!!!!!!!!

Butterfly and Lavender

This image was captured by me in our yard a few days ago......

Sheep Come Visiting!

Tim's flock of forty one ewes arrived a couple of days ago.  They are Border Leister, North Country Cheviots, Blue Face Leister crosses, with a Dorper and I'm not sure what, included in the mix.

We had fun with this following photo of a sheep with huge ears. Tim likes to breed for big ears!

The sepia tones give this photo an "Old West" ambiance.

Here is Bonnie, our Blue Face Leister/ Border Leister cross..............She is the sheep in the middle with Little Mac on her left, cleaning the grain from her luscious fleece.

The flock is here for a couple of weeks to recuperate from lambing and weaning this past spring.
We will certainly enjoy them while they visit!

Our Contemplative LLama

Bill,  as he contemplates the setting sun........

What thoughts ruminate through a ruminant's mind at this time of day? Is he thinking thoughts of how brief his life here is on earth or is he remembering a beautiful day filled with good grazing and perfect weather? Does he wonder about approaching storms as he scans the horizon or is he satisfied with the good job performance he has accomplished today?
I wonder..............

" It's Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature"

What are we doing to our food supply? To answer that question, go to this link..... Our health and the health of animals and plants are our responsibility. The basis of health, human and otherwise, is directly
related to what we eat and produce. We need to be smart consumers and make wise choices, not only for our health, but the future health of our planet.

Oh, For a Tractor!

We still need a tractor and haying equipment. I hate to see all that hay go to waste.  It is waist high and full of seed heads. I can barely see the sheep as they graze. Our farmer friend, Tim is going to bring his flock of forty sheep over for a couple of weeks to help graze the pasture. Bill, the llama should get a kick out of that!

My Wonderful Hubby in Dreads!

Actually, these are Bonnie's locks stuck under his hat.  Too much shearing  affects the brain!

Another of Brittany's Girls........

Here she is...................