Mindless babble...more mindless babble

I have been quite neglectful of my blog as of late and I apologise for that. The truth of the matter is that there has just not been anything of interest happening that would be worth you wasting your time reading. What's that you say? That has never stopped me before? True enough....so here are the latest non-noteworthy happenings at Crosswinds Farm.


I know that I have droned on about the weather all winter. I can't seem to help myself, this winter has been so llooong and we have had near record amounts of snow, frigid temps, and ice storms.....I know that most of you are probably dealing with the same thing, but for an O.C.D. person like me it is about to push me over the edge. Okay, more over the edge.

I like my barns to be clean, my animals to be clean and pretty and our property to look nice. It is just not possible lately. The animals have spent so much more time in their barns this winter because of the weather, that it is near impossible to keep everything clean. Every time that we do get a bit of warming, we have nothing but mud everywhere only for it to freeze up again the next day leaving deep frozen ridges in the ground wherever hooves have stepped.

Here is a picture of Crosswinds pond......oh wait, we don't have a frozen pond, this is part of my pasture. I wandered out there today to look for some sign of... spring? Life? Anything? I found nothing, and it is quite literally a sheet of ice. If you have read my blog for any amount of time then you already know that I am easily amused, so of course I had to salvage something of the situation and decided "ice skate", in my boots, running and sliding across the pasture. Yes, I know that I am almost 45... it's just that I don't care.

Unfortunately, having hooves is not conducive to moving about on slippery surfaces, so my animals do not share my enthusiasm for playing on the ice and have been couch potatoes all winter. Because of this, I am a bit worried that my ewes are not getting enough exercise during their pregnancies. Since my girls tend toward the "healthy" side anyway, I am trying to walk the line between making sure that they are getting enough nutrition, and not letting them get over-conditioned. Fat. Okay, any fatter than they already are.

I bred six of the girls this year, and I was checking bellies today to try to determine if they had settled. Some of the girls are pretty obvious, either by their expanding girth, or by temperament changes. Rent-a-ram was in with the girls from December 1st until January 4Th, but I only actually witnessed one or two of the girls being covered, so I don't have a really good estimation of due dates as of yet.

Lovey is bred, she definitely has the belly going on. She had twins last year and I expect she will do the same this year. I never saw the romance, but I did catch her with ruffled bloomers and a smile on her face a couple of times.
Trillium is bred. I know this because she is being friendly. Trillium is one of the few animals on this property that is not an attention hussy. The only time she is friendly is when she is prego.

Willow...where are your legs? Seriously, do we even have to hypothesize about this? I am going out on a limb here......I am going to say, yes, she is expecting. And yes, it's twins. I have felt the belly....it is magnificent.

Sage? See comment above.

Edrea, my little katmoget. I wasn't planning on breeding her because she is a ewe lamb, but she is a growthy girl, and she made the trip down from Wisconsin in the back of the truck with rent-a-ram......and what happens behind the tinted truck topper windows........
Daisy says, "PLLLLbbb, I'm not telling".
"I'm just waiting for that shearer to come, my hair is a wreck".