New Shop, New Sheep and Lots of Rain

The better half finally has his new workshop. We purposely placed it in front of the farm, close to the drive, off to the side of the culdesac so he will have easy access to work on all equipment.
Another plus being away from the barn and back yards is that all of our 4 legged helpers will not have access to the shop. He really dislikes when the goats pick up tools and walk off with them. Yep, ours do it. Buffy once pulled a staple gun off the workbelt of the telephone repair man.

Little by little we are working on replacing the old fencing around the house with the same type of privacy fencing he put up on the sides of the shop. This will also run down the property line between our neighbors and our front yard. He plans on adding a concrete slab in front of the shop to work off the ground.

What's behind the fence?The ewes and lambs.

I absolutely love having the girls and lambs up by the house. I can see them out the front door and bedroom window.

Jasper, Selena, Lark

Eartha and Eco soaking up the sun.

The better half has been on vacation the last two weeks. Wasn't much of a relaxing vacation for him as much as a break from being on the road to working on the farm. We crammed as much as we could into those 2 weeks. There were 3 appts. with the vet (taking different dogs), shearing the Angora herd and 2 sheep. Seemed to rain or storm practically every day at one time or another so we were not able to finish shearing all the sheep. We have 5 more to go. Hopefully this coming weekend.


We took Dad to the big city (Springfield) for his follow up appt. with the cardiologist after surgery (Dr. was happy with his progress and said all looked good). While there decided to do a bit of shopping and enjoy a good cajun meal at the Big Easy Grill.

We attended the HFA Fiber Fair in Marshfield MO.

Visited Fairlight Farm one Saturday afternoon and brought home 2 beautiful Shetlands. Lark and her son Jasper. Those two put the finishing touches on my spinners flock. Now have 5 wethers (#5 is Jasper), 2 ewes and 1 ram.
I fell in love with Jasper as soon as Tammy posted his newborn photo. His black and white fleece will blend beautifully with the black and white Angora fleeces. Like I told Jim...I'm not saying I won't ever add more to the flock, just saying for now I am content. Plus who knows maybe next spring we will have our own little Shetland lambs born to the farm. :-)

Such a sweet little fella.

The last week in March we lost my best friend of 17 years. Benjamin Elijah Newlove (Shih Tzu) passed away in my arms. I haven't been able to talk much about it. Still get very emotional and teary eyed mentioning it. There is not a day that goes by I don't look for him in his favorite chair, at feeding time or when I relax on the couch where he cuddled with me. Rest in peace dear beloved Bennie. You are missed.
We also lost Dinky the Papillion dog we rescued. He passed a week before Bennie to congestive heart failure. RIP Dinky we love and miss you.
Losing the two so close together and quickly really took the wind out of my sails. Happy to say I am not drowning in my emotions any longer and back on the up side of things. Funny how things work out...we received a call on May 3rd that a little 3 month old Llasa Apso needed a home. She maybe weighed 2.5 lbs., had a problem with her skin and hair, had a half chewed off ear and was malnourished. Yep, call me crazy we adopted her. We named her Fiona, call her Fi for short. She weighed 2 lbs. when she arrived and is a tiny bit bigger than my foot (I wear a size 6 shoe). Last week she weighed in at the vet a whole whopping 2.9 lbs. She has gained almost a lb. She does have a skin disorder/allergy, is bathed with a broad spectrum antimicrobial shampoo every other day, is on an antibiotic and is fed 3 times a day. (The vet did a skin scraping to ensure there were no parasites though she had developed a secondary infection from itching.) There is no fixing the half chewed off ear, that ear has healed, it stands straight up while the other ear hangs down as normal in Llasa Apso. She has had her puppy shots and series of de-worming. I do believe that Fiona and I are the best medicine for each other.
I'll post photos of Fi soon.
Til next time, have a good one!

In Honor of Earth Day

We named the newborn lambs Eartha and Eco

Eco the not so little solid white ram lamb
Eartha the tiny tri colored ewe lamb

All baby watch, lambing and kidding are now over. Woo Hoo!

Scarlet lambed yesterday afternoon. Did and doing very well for a first time mom. Scarlet and babies are seemingly happy and healthy. And oh so precious!

I had her first possible due date as the 21st. Not far off the mark, lambing on the 22nd. :-) I knew Jackdaw had gotten right down to business on the first day we brought him home and put him in with the girls.

Delivery went well, the ram lamb came first. She must have had quite a bit of discomfort with him being so large. At times she laid flat out on her side in the shelter, with all 4 feet braced up against the wall during contractions. Poor girl. About 20 minutes after Eco was out, in the process of being cleaned by both Scarlet and I, she had a couple more contractions then out popped Eartha. I really mean popped out. I think both Scarlet and I were surprised and caught off guard at how quickly and easily she arrived. Scarlet was still cleaning Eco so I helped a tiny bit by cleaning Eartha's nose, mouth and head. Once she cried Scarlet was there.

While Scarlet cleaned every inch of the two I scurried around and got her molasses water, dipped the navels, cleaned up the afterbirth, lay out new hay in the shelter, took a couple of photos, checked the udder end, then settled in to hold the precious new lamkins.

The better half was actually able to be somewhat present during their delivery, I took him to the lambing jug on the cordless phone during the crucial moments. :-) Long distance the next best thing to being there ya know.