A lamb named Taco

Well I haven’t written in my blog in a long time and trying out a new computer is as good a time as any. I like getting new things like this but it is such a hassle setting everything up. I have two computer s running at my desk now as I try to change files over and it is very crowded. I do like my new wireless keyboard- at least so far. I am wondering how long the batteries work.

We are having a major snow storm outside today. On Friday it was sunny and relatively mild and we had a set of twin lambs born. We have one older lamb that was born the week before Thanksgiving. There were no babies at noon but when I went out to feed about 4 pm there was a baby by a tree and one in the run in barn with it’s mom. The one outside was in the sun and dry and alert so I carried him to the barn. Mom and sibling huddled to the back and I didn’t want to spook mom into running so I set the little boy down at the entrance. He was reluctant to proceed any further, it was darker in there but finally he went over to the other two, the other lamb came up to him and he followed it back. It looked like everything would be ok so I left.

Next am I carried some hay and grain to the barn because mom didn’t want to bring the little ones out and I noticed the little male I found was up by the front of the barn and the other lamb was with mom in the back. That didn’t look right, and sure enough as I stood and watched the ewe wouldn’t let the male lamb any where near her. So reluctantly I carried him inside. We put him in the big dog carrier in the kitchen to protect him from the dogs. That’s the problem, we have every room allocated to something now. Old Sarah, [ a Jack Russell dog], had to be brought inside after she had her teeth cleaned and her gums were infected, then she was so old and weak acting we let her stay in the spare room after that. Ginger surprised us with 4 puppies last Thursday and she is set up in our bedroom. Of course here in the office I have my two dogs who don’t play well with others. So we are animal crazy right now.

Anyway little Taco as I named him, is as cute as can be, wooly chocolate brown with a big white spot on top his head and a broad blaze. I was a bit worried at first because he didn’t want to suck the $25.00 a bag milk from the $3.00 nipple I had to go and buy, but he decided this morning to suck finally and chugged a bottle down. He is good sized, bigger than the one left with mom, who I do not know the sex of yet. It is more red brown, with the same spot and blaze and some spots on the legs. They stayed in the barn today and I carried hay to them through the snow.

Taco thinks I’m mom now and will follow me around the kitchen. I have actually never bottle fed a lamb before, although I have fed plenty of baby goats. Our sheep usually don’t need any help with things. Goat kids usually take to a bottle real fast, but Taco took several feedings of me dribbling milk down his throat before he decided to suck.

He is so cute but a big headache. I can’t trust most of the dogs around him and I have to lock them out of the kitchen to give him some time to walk around. When he gets more active in a day or two he won’t be happy in that carrier. And a ram lamb that’s bottle fed turns into a dangerous ram when he’s older. They have no respect for humans and will try to knock you down, we had one that really hurt both of us at various times until we got rid of him. So he will have to be neutered and become a pet or become meat. And it’s hard to turn something into meat you bottle raise.

I do need a white elephant gift for work- what’s better than a baby lamb?

Late October

It’s a beautiful but chilly fall day here in Michigan. I have lost Henny Penny, my pet hen. She was here Wednesday evening, I put her on the shelf in the barn because she couldn’t get to it because we had moved a table she normally used. Steve said she was there in the morning following him around. But Thursday evening she was no where to be seen. No feathers no carcass in the road, I looked everywhere. I wonder if someone stole her, if so, I hope it was to keep her for eggs. I miss her. I guess eventually I will get some more hens, I had Steve re-building the little pen in the barn a few days ago, I thought I would get her a few friends.
I also lost the male black and white half grown kitten that I called Skunk. He followed me into a dog kennel one night when I was feeding and I didn’t notice. Next thing I knew I heard him crying. I ran back in and rescued him but it was too late, he died the next day. That’s why I say cats are just stupid. He knew these dogs don’t like cats. He was well aware there was a dog in there. They don’t go in the kennels any other time. I guess they think if they are with me they are protected. I feel bad that I didn’t notice him. He could have climbed the gate to get out of Bubbas way, he probably tried to stand Bubba down. Just stupid.
My car is missing too. It’s been at the shop all week. They promise it will be fixed tomorrow. Last Saturday after my big Education Seminar I had it all loaded up with left over food and supplies and it wouldn’t start. Luckily, just a few days before a guy down the road fixed Steve’s car. He was very nice and fixed it for $25.00. Steve was able to come and pick me up and we went back the next day to try and start it with no luck. It had some sort of electrical problem and it took the mechanics a long time to find it, then they had to order a part - for a 22 year old car. Hopefully we will soon be able to afford a slightly younger clunker. Steve’s van is all caved in the front from a deer collision, the lights don’t focus in the right direction , there is only one wiper blade, seatbelt doesn’t work and if you press too hard on the accelerator it sticks wide open- very scary. So its just for emergencies in the daylight. A deer owes us a car.
Last night we had quite a heavy frost, there was ice on water outside the barn. Maybe the tomatoes will finally die. I never dreamed I would be tired of picking tomatoes, here it is the end of October and just a few days ago I picked some from 5 different vines. The petunias and marigolds are still blooming too. At work we have had daylilies start blooming again. The Farmers Almanac predicts a mild dry winter. We will see if their predictions are better than last year. I don’t mind mild but I wish we could get more moisture. Our pond has never been this low, it is only a fraction of its normal size. We had about an inch of rain yesterday but it barely dents the soil deficit and none seems to make it to the pond. I want to find some way to channel water from the roof or even the washing machine down to the pond. I am sure glad we never got around to re-stocking it with fish this year.
We had to pen the sheep up in the west pasture. They had started getting out of the north pasture by the woods and then coming up to graze in the yard. There are lots of hunters around already and its safer if they aren’t in the woods. The grass is green but it isn’t growing much and we will have to feed hay now. The two ewes I think are pregnant are huge, if they aren’t pg then they are extremely fat and won’t need much hay. I have had Barbados lambs in October before but October is almost over. We peeled a whole bunch of apples last night to make pies and I took the peels out to them this morning thinking I was bringing them a big treat. They acted like I was trying to poison them. Yet they will break a fence down to reach some Bittersweet berries.
I sent Steve out to sit in the sun. He needs to go out each day and not sit around watching football or talk shows. The sun helps heal depression and keeps your body clock working right. It is very hard for me to be inside on nice sunny days. I know I get depressed when the days are dark and rainy but I have a book deadline to meet and it’s much easier to be inside writing if the weather is nasty. So let it rain- or snow- as long as it isn’t too deep.

July in October

It’s hot here in Michigan- too hot. I like my seasons the way they are supposed to be, not summer in October. 90 plus degrees and humid is just awful. My poor sheep were getting their winter coats and are miserable. It is supposed to storm tonight and get cooler- I hope so. I don’t want winter yet but gee, fall would be nice. And we really need rain. All of my houseplants are still outside, I put them on the porch for 2 days in mid September but they have been outside since. That is a new record. I am picking ripe tomatoes and peppers, that’s got to be a record too.

I had to go into town this morning and I took the back road. There is a little color in the trees and all the fields are being harvested- dry weather is good for that. In town I came behind an Amish buggy going to the stock yards, it’s market day. I felt sorry for the poor sweaty horse and I wondered if the Amish family inside the buggy were regretting not having a faster ride, one that would at least give you a little wind as it went down the road. Their life seems hard, but sometimes I wish my life was more like theirs. An Amish boy from nearby was injured by a piece of horse drawn harvesting equipment last week. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital and then air lifted to Children’s Hospital in Detroit. How quickly his life changed, not only the severe injury but an onslaught of technology. I wonder how his poor parents get to visit him. Maybe one flew down with him.

I had to drive about 150 miles through mid Michigan Friday for a meeting. It was a pretty day and the county car I was using was air conditioned so the ride wasn’t bad. They are harvesting sugar beets all through this area and I saw numerous semi-loads of the big, ugly, lumpy beets on the road. I passed by several towns where they were cooking sugar- it’s amazing how something so sweet and tasty can smell so bad in the making. I passed through the Isabella Indian reservation, where the Soaring Eagle casino is located. The casino is very modern and nice looking as are several big hotels nearby- but the area surrounding them- where I was passing through- looked very poor. I have no interest in casino gambling and can’t imagine sitting inside on a nice day feeding my money to a machine.

Granny’s advice today is make something sweet out of something ugly. This hot humid weather means I don’t have to run the furnace or feed hay.

Bugs View of Life

I was sitting outside in the late evening the other night watching the sheep. The sun was at a low angle and I was looking toward the west. In the stream of light I could see literally hundreds of insects, big and small, flying back and forth, different levels, different directions. As far as I could see the air was filled with creatures. It reminded me of one of those cartoons depicting the future, when we would all be flying everywhere on different levels in the sky. You know, one of the 1965 cartoons predicting what the year 2007 would bring. I walked out into the pasture and put my hands out. trying to catch some of the insects to see if they were all the same species and what they were. The sheep clearly though I was nuts, any neighbors who drove by probably thought so too. I came to the conclusion that they were all different sorts of bugs, big burly flies, fast flying mosquitoes, tiny gnats of some sort. I don’t know if this was an exceptional night for bug journeys or if I could see them this night because the angle of light was just right. Sometimes you are just in the right spot at the right time and a whole new world opens up to you.

Lazy Fall days

We had our first frost on the 15th - a light one but it meant I had to bring in the tender stuff and cover the tomatoes. I put everything on the porch for 2 days then today I put it all back outside because we are supposed to have a spell of warm 80 degree plus weather coming up. I like it when everything comes inside all lush and shiny after a summer outside. It’s always a little crowded at first because I can’t stand to leave anything outside that might be saved. But some things die or get so bad looking that I toss them and that frees up space. My houseplants that I left inside this year have a bad case of scale, tiny shell like insects. They suck on plant tissue and secrete honeydew, which is tiny sticky droplets that are all over the window, etc. I am trying to clear that up before I expose any new plants to them.

I cut the pumpkin off the vine that grew by the back door and tossed the vine into the compost pile. The pumpkin is quite large and well shaped. If you turn the side that Henny Penny sampled from time to time, [ she left a few peck marks], away from you , it really looks good. Maybe I will get ambitious and decorate for fall soon. It looks better just to get that ugly vine out of the roses by the back door.

I find it hard to concentrate on anything in the early fall. I have a bit of allergy symptoms, probably ragweed, and I think the high air pressure in fall makes me feel drowsy and lazy. I just want to bask in the sun before these sunny days are gone. Later in the fall I will get my buzz on to prepare for winter and start loading the pantry, wanting to bake all the time and make craft projects. I guess this time of year I really start to appreciate what I’ll be missing before long and just want to soak it up. I went down to the pond and to the woods, just walking, collecting some seed pods and such. You have to be a little careful this time of year walking out in the woods - lots of people are very eager to hunt and some don’t wait for the official start of hunting season. There are sure a lot of deer around this year.

Usually our oak tree alternates producing acorns with the walnut tree producing lots of walnuts. This should be the year for acorns but it doesn’t look like there will be many. If this is happening all over there will be some hungry squirrels this winter. Maybe some of the little buggers will finally die- hopefully the ones that keep getting in my attic.

I am kind of ready to have the frost kill it all. I will have to water the potted stuff today and we are getting a little tired of tomatoes anyway. A heavy frost will kill all the flies and mosquitoes, which is always nice and I can then get rid of the hornets nest on the porch, in the sheep shed and under the fill lid on the propane tank. As of yesterday I was still seeing lots of hummingbirds. I guess they know there is still warm weather ahead.

the pond

It is a cool cloudy day here, a quiet Monday morning. I decided to be brave and go look at the pond. I hate to see it when it is so low. This spring it was very high and beautiful. Some people’s ponds in the area are completely dried up. Our pond is out behind the barn and not too visible when the trees around it are leafed out. I have to sneak out there because if the dogs see me they climb over the fence if they are able to join me or if they are not climbers they bark and howl. They haven’t been to the pond this year because the fence around it has several spots they can get through. Then I can’t enjoy the pond; I have to go after them. When and if we ever get any money we are going to replace the fence. The big dogs stay with me but the little ones are all over the place, finding a way out so they can kill something on the other side.
Anyway I quietly slipped down to see the pond this am. I figure it has lost 10 foot in depth at the deep end and the shallowest part is completely dried up, middle part only about 6 foot across now. Grass and weeds are growing where water was this spring. My yellow flag iris is 6 foot from water now.
I hate to see the pond like this, but I guess it is kind of natural for it to recede in summer.
When we first moved here the pond was only a year old and the person who dug it probably didn’t know much about pond building. The previous owners wanted it for swimming and fishing. They dyed the water blue to keep the algae out and they had stocked the pond with bluegills and some bass. The place where they chose to dig the pond was odd, on higher ground behind the barn instead of out by the woods where it is low and naturally wet part of the year. I guess they wanted it close to the house. But they had to dig a huge hole down to the water table, probably 30-foot and then they piled the clay they took out over the surrounding area. The neighbors told us they had a hard time keeping water in the pond as the water that did seep in from the groundwater wanted to run towards the woods. So the pond sits down in a hole basically. It is a rough oval, longer than it is wide, about 150 foot by 75 foot I’d say. At the deep end the water is easily 15 foot deep in the spring and the shallow area about 3 foot. When we first moved in the banks were still bare and eroding into the pond. There was a cut down area on the south side so that you could walk down to the water near the shallow end but in heavy rain a lot of soil washed down that slope. We set to work planting grass and other plants along the banks. In some places we had to pile brush and logs along the bank slope to stabilize it. We planted a few trees a little way back from the edge, including a weeping willow. That first summer we swam in the pond, and I could feel the seeps where cold water bubbled up from underground under my feet. We put the blue dye in and fed the fish just like the previous owners. It was an unnatural blue color but pretty in its own way. The fish thrived and for a few years anyone who threw a line in could get a runty bluegill or an occasional whopper bass that ate the rapidly reproducing bluegills. Then one winter all the fish died because the water was low going into winter and I think there wasn’t enough oxygen left after the top froze. We haven’t replaced them, although we talk about it each year. The first few years after the pond was dug it only shrank a little each summer as the ground water was still seeping in. But over time a number of things happened. I think the water table dropped after several drought years and a lot of new wells and ponds in the area. The seeps may have been filled in by silt too. We don’t swim in the pond anymore because the muck on the bottom is so deep. The trees that grew up around the pond and make it more natural looking also suck water out of it. I think the major source of water now is run off and some years that is a considerable amount of water. This spring was very wet and we started the year with a very full pond, very deep water and the whole width of the basin was covered. And now after a dry summer we are down to about 6 foot of water in the deepest spot and half the basin is dry.
Well I guess it is a natural wetland, pond now. We haven’t put dye in it for years and cattails have grown up in the shallow end. We do have more native birds and animals around it too. There were never many frogs in the pond when there were fish, now there are hundreds.
The ducks were doing fine- we have two domestic males that must be 6 years old now, their females were picked off years ago by coyotes as they set on eggs. They keep the wild geese off their pond. They come up to the back of the barn where I feed the wildest cats and eat cat food. In the winter they spend a lot of time around the back of the barn keeping out of the deep snow. They had plenty of water left to swim in but as I sat on the bank watching them they swam over to my side, where the water was shallow and began taking baths. I thought that was odd, they were splashing and throwing water over their backs as birds do when bathing, but they had just been floating around in the same place. The little birds do appreciate the open shallow water though; there was a whole line of goldfinches bathing at the waters edge and I saw chickadees and other birds pop in and out. A killdeer was walking around in the shallow water. I saw no frogs this time, but I didn’t get down close to the water. There are tons of frogs up in the yard now, including a huge bullfrog I saw up in the dog’s yard.
So there are good things about the natural habitat the pond is now. We discussed trying to dredge down to the water table again, but I think this pond is poorly placed and may never be any better than this. If I had a lot of money I might fill this hole in and start again, down in the low area by the woods, but that is not likely to happen. Or we could cut the banks down on this pond and push the soil toward the low area to raise that- but we spent so much time getting vegetation to grow again on that subsoil they had thrown up around the pond that I hate to ruin it and start over. Or if we were really rich we could dig a well and install a pump just to keep it full, as one wealthy neighbor has done. His pond is much smaller though. We may put some Koi in the pond next spring- something to get tame and play with, and maybe they will reproduce and we can sell some of the offspring or maybe just some minnows or bluegills. Maybe.

September is here

Well it is September now, lets have that nice fall weather please. My Mom and dad were up to our place for the first time this year. Not much was in bloom in the garden, although I do have some impressive hardy hibiscus in the front of the house. They have these huge, dinner plate sized flowers of crimson red or bright pink. Very showy. They love moisture and are doing very well where they are because that us where we diverted the water from the kitchen sink. I chose to write about them this week in my garden site at www.gardenandhearth.com/plant-guides.htm

Mom and Dad and Steve and I had a pleasant talk while we watched the birds in the front yard and the friendly kitten tried to talk mom and dad into taking her home. We didn’t barb-b-que, just had some nice sandwiches and potato salad. I like to get mom to talk about relatives and the old days. There’s lot to learn about family ties. I feel bad for Steve sometimes as his mom and dad are both dead and his family doesn’t seem to keep in touch very well. And that reminds me that his brothers new address is now lost, as the big puppy carried the address book I keep out into the yard and Steve mowed it into a thousand pieces.

The new puppies are all doing well, although I did have one more dog incident this week. All my fault too, I was having a senior moment or something. I give Hazel, our old Border collie mix a pheno-barb tablet each night because she has seizures. She will only eat it in a piece of hotdog and we have an evening ritual at the house of giving everyone a piece of hotdog or two, right before bed. So I prepared Hazels piece with the pill in it and then I handed it to Bessie, who eagerly gulped it down of course. Bessie is the mother of the 6 pups and right away I was concerned that the pill would hurt her or the pups. So I called poison control- which by the way seems to have gone to a foreign country for its service-and they told me to feed her a large meal then give her 2 tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide to make her vomit. She had just finished her bed time nursing mom meal of chicken and rice, so I measured out the hydrogen peroxide and surprisingly enough she took it without fighting me, although I had to give it to her in 3 syringes. Then she just sat there for a few minutes, just when I thought it wasn’t going to work the fun began. Poor Bessie, she heaved for quite a while. But the next day everyone was fine and I sure learned a lesson.

I am waiting for a fall crop of lambs I believe I am going to get. Our Barbados sheep are not seasonal breeders and will breed back after giving birth if the ram is with them. I have had double lambings in other years especially if the first set is born early or is lost. Two of my girls had their lambs die when we had that really cold below zero spell last February. I think they are pg but I also think the white ewe that had one lamb is too. They are all as fat as butterballs, even the rams, so it is hard to say, but my hunch is the 3 girls are going to lamb again. Which is good because it will keep them from having spring lambs too early next year too. I think they should lamb fairly soon, but it’s just a guess.

We need to sell off or butcher the two young rams as they are beginning to fight and fight with their dad too. They are quite handsome both of them and have a good set of horns already. I haven’t been able to afford an ad to sell them, but I probably can’t afford the butcher fee either. They sure would make good lambburger for the dogs. Barbados lambs can go longer without castration before butchering and still have the meat taste good, but they need to go soon. I can’t afford to feed that many of them this winter as the cost of hay is going to be out of sight. Thank God the rain came and got the pasture greened up again so we didn’t need to keep buying hay this summer. There is quite a bit of good eating out there for them right now.

I won ten dollars on the lottery last week. Let’s hope that is a sign that the money will soon start rolling in here and we can get caught up on everything. At least August is over and we survived one more month.