Signs of Spring? Maybe.....

Spring is still attempting to make it's appearance here in Iowa. It has been very slow in coming this year. Overnight temps are continually going down into the 30's, and there was scattered frost just North of us last night. I know spring is coming though!

My pear trees are blooming.

The Barn Swallows returned around May first, as they do every year.

There has been a turf war, of sorts, going on between the returning Swallows and some opportunistic Sparrows. The Sparrows took up residence in the nests that the Swallows built last year, they filled the empty nests with junk and feathers and made them their own. Now that the Swallows are back they want to reclaim their nesting spots. I am not going to lie, I am on "Team Barn Swallow", I'm not a huge fan of the messy Sparrows.

Speaking of nests, Gary noticed a pair of Starlings collecting nesting material out in the driveway the other day.....then he saw them flying up underneath my truck and coming back out without said nesting material....so, a check under the hood revealed....

Maybe I need to leave the farm more often.

The chicks are a month old now and have reached the...ummm....not so cute stage. This is one of the Splash Blue Laced Red Wyandottes. They will be really pretty some day....really, they will.

The Asparagus is growing like crazy...I'm not sure why I planted it, it's not a favorite of mine, but the sheep sure like it!

I have even gotten a couple of trees planted in spite of the cold weather. What do you mean, you can't see it? Yes, there is a tree there, don't laugh. Look closely!

You probably think I have lost my mind, but this is a Curly Willow and they grow 4-6 feet per year.....and it is planted in 5 years worth of well composted chicken manure, so, see, I'm not that crazy......well.

The chickens have kicked up egg production-just in time for the start of  the Summer Farmers' Market.

Well, that is, most of them have kicked up production...someone clearly is not pulling her weight!

The last of the lambs (Ashumet's ewe lamb) has joined the rest of the flock outside.

Ohhh, wait......that's not the last lamb...because Luna STILL hasn't had her lamb(s)!  You probably want to ask, "Are you sure she's pregnant?"

Yup, pretty sure!

COME ON LUNA!!!!!!

Weaning time for lambies

Since I have found it nearly impossible to obtain good current photos of each lamb to put together on one post, I have decided to direct my efforts to focus on just a few at a time........and it still isn't easy to get them to cooperate for photo ops. The following lambs are all destined for new homes soon, so they will be my first subjects. I am starting with their lamb pictures so that you can see how much they have changed in just 3 short months.

You probably remember Nantucket, "Tucker" with all those flashy spots.

Here he is all grown up and handsome. Tucker will be moving to Wisconsin in a couple of weeks to join Kelly Bartels lovely flock.

This was Orleans at just a few days old.

Orleans has grown into a very striking boy. His fleece is amazing. Orleans is heading for Colorado to join Debbie's Shet-Tu Sheep Farm flock.

Orleans and Tucker together.

Aaaaand, of course, Ande had to get in on the photo action.

Lastly, for this post, we have Katama. Katama was kind of over-shadowed by some of the flashy spots and patterns that some of the other lambs had this year, so she went a bit unnoticed as she quietly grew into a very stunning young ewe.

Katama will be headed to Colorado to live in the Denver area.....I am kind of having "seller's remorse" on this one. She has beautiful conformation and presence. I generally have a hard time getting really nice, soft, crimpy fleece on my black sheep, but this girl has that going for her too.

One other thing.......she is a BIG pig. Katama has developed a case of "fence neck" this nasty condition is caused by gluttonous sheep thinking the grass is greener on the other side of the fence...the neck goes through the fence, the fleece comes off the neck-then you have a naked necked sheep that you are sending to someone who has never actually seen the sheep in 'person'... not the greatest first impression.

Naked necker. 

What really chaps my cheeks is that THIS is the grass that she has available to eat in her pasture....

Aaaaand THIS is the....uh, "grass" that she wanted on the other side of the fence??????

Orleans and Katama will begin their Journey tomorrow morning at 4 AM when Marie and I load up the truck and head out with the two lambs-and a yearling ewe that I am delivering from Lori's  Sommarang Farm to Orlean's new owner, Deb. We will be meeting Deb in Omaha where she will pick up the three sheepies, take Katama to her new owners in Denver and then continue on to her own farm in Northern Colorado. By the way, If you are ever interested in buying sheep from a breeder that you think may live too far from you, never underestimate a Shetland breeder's desire to enable sheep addiction. Last year, Nichol , from Mississippi (who I had never met...except on Face Book), wanted a ram from Garrett In Minnesota, so I met with Garrett at the Jefferson, Wisconsin Sheep and Wool festival, picked up the ram and brought him home, Nichol drove up from Mississippi to our farm in Iowa, spent the night here, picked up her ram and left the next day (thanks for not being an ax-murder, Nichol ). So, you see, there are no lengths that we won't go to to drag you down the slippery sheep-hoarding slope with us. I digress.

 Soooo, Marie and I are leaving at 4 AM on a road trip that will take us from the very Eastern border of Iowa, all the way across Iowa and into Nebraska with a load of sheep in tow.......how could that possibly end badly????? I think there may be a blog post pending on that one.

Oh, guess who else is all grown up? The little Barn Swallows. Isn't it amazing? They just hatched on June 16th.

"Maybe if we all squish down and hide she will quit sticking that stupid camera in our faces!"

Have a great weekend everyone!

There is a fungus among us.

I am still here! I haven't floated away! It has been raining, and raining, oh yeah, and raining here for an eternity. My garden is water-logged and looking a little bedraggled. The weeds, on the other hand, are looking magnificent.  Another big winner in this moisture bonanza are the mushrooms. I have an odd conglomeration of interesting fungi that are growing very nicely in my lawn-too bad I can't eat them.

I like to call this one "Sombrero."

Ewwwwwwww!

Since it has been too wet to work in the garden, I spent some time trying to get the sheep barn organised and noticed lots of disgusting bits and pieces of bird parts littering the floor as I swept....my barn cats are ruthless. I wasn't able to identify some of the remains and I hoped that my little Barn Swallow friends were not amongst the casualties. Usually the Barn Swallows are safe because when they leave the nest they are capable of full flight, whereas sparrows...not so much. I decided to check anyway. The two nests that are accessible each had five tiny speckled eggs nestled safe and sound in cozy beds lined with wool, chicken feathers and horse hair.

I went back a few hours later to try to get a better picture of the eggs (it's kind of hard to hold a camera, balance on a ladder and take a GOOD picture of a nest that is crammed against the rafters). In my quest for better egg photos, I got a much more interesting surprise. I caught the babies in mid-hatch!

Welcome to the farm!

Also, on a totally unrelated subject, I can't say for sure, but last weekend there may have been an accidental acquisition of some chicks. If this alleged incident did in fact happen, it clearly wasn't my fault.  Who could pass up Black Copper Marans? They lay the darkest eggs of all the dark egg layers, and it is the only kind of egg that James Bond character will eat ( I don't care about that, but my husband is a huge Bond fan so it makes it easier to justify to him.)

If that were to happen, this is what the hypothetical chicks would have looked like. I better go, I have chicken math to study....I think I skipped a chapter.."subtraction?"

The Swallows have returned.

Our Barn Swallows have returned from their winter homes in the southern hemisphere and they have been feverishly repairing and remodeling old nests, or constructing new ones. Many of the older pairs reuse the same nest each year-after a few modifications, of course. It always amazes me to see the engineering marvel of these little nests, constructed with pellets of mud, carried by both parents-one beak-full at a time, and then affixed to a vertical surface where it stays-sometimes for many years.
Each layer of mud is allowed to dry for the appropriate amount of time-as determined by the nesting pair. Occasionally a young pair needs a bit of practice in order to get the proper timing down. One year we had a young pair that constructed nest after nest, only to have the fruits of their labor slide off of the beam, down to the floor. They finally were able to build a working nest, but I can't remember if they actually were able to raise a brood or not.
Most of these birds have been coming back for several years...I am not sure why they would want to fly several thousand miles to spend each summer with me, but they do, and have become quite accustomed to my activity in the sheep barn so they allow me to get very close to them.
Now that nest construction is complete, each pair of my feathery friends will lay 4-5 eggs which will hatch out in about 14-17 days, the babies will leave the nest about 20 days after hatching.
I am completely biased when it comes to Barn Swallows, I generally don't tolerate birds nesting in the barns, most are so messy and contaminate the animal feed with their droppings, but I make a big exception for the Swallows-any bird that has a diet comprised of 99% insects is okey dokey with me! Also, I am wildly impressed by the fact that they can find their way to the same little barn on the Eastern edge of Iowa every year, probably traveling from somewhere in Central or South America, and most of us can't find our way around the next town even with a GPS.....OK, maybe that's just me.
Of course I will try to post some pictures once the babies hatch...as long as I can find some in one of the lower nests... me + high places on ladders=bad.