In order to get my new ewe, I needed to get my ram to the breeder in Michigan, and the ewe needed a ride home from Michigan. I wasn't sure when I would be able to go and make the switch since Michigan is a bit of a drive from here. Luckily for me, the Michigan Fiber Festival was going on a couple of weekends ago, and being that I have some pretty awesome friends, it didn't take me long to find transportation. My friend, Juliann, was going to be attending the festival and was willing to transport sheep for me. So, Wednesday before the Festival, I hauled my ram to Juliann's Little Country Acres farm in Illinois. Juliann is one of a handful of breeders that are breeding for polled (hornless) Shetlands, and she has had amazing success achieving the goals that she had set for her flock. She is producing some really well conformed polled Shetlands with wonderful fleece. Unfortunately, they were not very cooperative for their photo-op.
After a nice visit with Juliann and getting to spend some time admiring her beautiful flock, I left the ram with her. Juliann then dropped the ram off in Michigan and then brought my ewe lamb back to her place after the festival.Last Wednesday I made plans to head back to Juliann's to retrieve little miss sheepie. I decided to take Bailie, my 10-year-old Golden Retriever along for the ride. Gary always feels better if I take one of the dogs along on my excursions...I am not sure why..as I mentioned, Bailie is a 10-year-old Golden retriever, not exactly like traveling with, say, a Rottweiler. The worst thing that Bailie could do would be to "happy" someone to death.
I must say though, Bailie makes a wonderful traveling companion. She never asks how much further the ride will be, she doesn't care what radio station I listen to-or how loud it is, and she doesn't even mind my terrible singing........
....OK, maybe she minds a little bit.
"Make it stop!"
It is only about 2 1/2 hours to Juliann's place from here, and since I live a couple of miles North of I 80 and Juli lives a couple of miles South of I80 it is pretty much a straight shot. However, there seems to be a lot of 'phantom' construction happening on the route that slowed us down a bit. The entire trip there were signs, barricades, arrows and flashing lights telling us to reduce speed because there were construction workers.....I guess they were invisible (you should never take pictures while you are driving).
Other than the mystery construction, the trip to Juliann's was pretty uneventful and Bailie was eventually able to tune out my 'singing' and snooze most of the way there.
When we arrived at Juli's farm we could hear the faint rumblings of thunder in the distance. I knew that we were expecting some bad weather back at home so we quickly gathered up my new ewe, got her loaded in the truck, said our good-byes and headed back to Iowa. We got about 20 minutes away from her farm and suddenly the winds kicked up, and the rain was coming down in buckets. I heard on the radio that there were tornado watches and warnings, but I had no idea what county I was in, so I had no clue as to where the really severe weather was....being that I was in the middle of torrential rain and getting blown around by the strong winds....hmmmmm, not good. I could no longer see the road, or the pair of taillights that I had been following. I desperately wanted to just pull over and wait it out...but I had no idea where 'over' was and given all of the construction barricades that I had seen earlier, I was afraid that if I did pull over I would fall off the face of the earth into some construction pit. At this point Bailie was sitting up, staring at me, like "are you going to do something about this, Dorothy?" and the ewe was looking at me with the same expression through the back window. After a few harrowing minutes the storm let up as quickly as it had begun and ( once I was able to release my death grip on the steering wheel) we continued on our way and arrived in one piece safe and sound back at home.
Sooooooo...here is my pretty little gulmoget ewe in her new home.
"Make it stop!"It is only about 2 1/2 hours to Juliann's place from here, and since I live a couple of miles North of I 80 and Juli lives a couple of miles South of I80 it is pretty much a straight shot. However, there seems to be a lot of 'phantom' construction happening on the route that slowed us down a bit. The entire trip there were signs, barricades, arrows and flashing lights telling us to reduce speed because there were construction workers.....I guess they were invisible (you should never take pictures while you are driving).
Other than the mystery construction, the trip to Juliann's was pretty uneventful and Bailie was eventually able to tune out my 'singing' and snooze most of the way there. When we arrived at Juli's farm we could hear the faint rumblings of thunder in the distance. I knew that we were expecting some bad weather back at home so we quickly gathered up my new ewe, got her loaded in the truck, said our good-byes and headed back to Iowa. We got about 20 minutes away from her farm and suddenly the winds kicked up, and the rain was coming down in buckets. I heard on the radio that there were tornado watches and warnings, but I had no idea what county I was in, so I had no clue as to where the really severe weather was....being that I was in the middle of torrential rain and getting blown around by the strong winds....hmmmmm, not good. I could no longer see the road, or the pair of taillights that I had been following. I desperately wanted to just pull over and wait it out...but I had no idea where 'over' was and given all of the construction barricades that I had seen earlier, I was afraid that if I did pull over I would fall off the face of the earth into some construction pit. At this point Bailie was sitting up, staring at me, like "are you going to do something about this, Dorothy?" and the ewe was looking at me with the same expression through the back window. After a few harrowing minutes the storm let up as quickly as it had begun and ( once I was able to release my death grip on the steering wheel) we continued on our way and arrived in one piece safe and sound back at home.Sooooooo...here is my pretty little gulmoget ewe in her new home.
She is an awesome addition to the flock. Gorgeous conformation, a perfect tail and beautiful intermediate fleece....not to mention that flashy gulmoget pattern! Thanks Stephen!The other girls aren't doing their happy dance because of the new ewe...they heard that I will be going to Wisconsin in a couple of weeks to pick up boyfriends.....for the ewes...I guess I should have specified....that did not sound good..
Each year when they make their appearance in late summer, it is a sad reminder that summer days are waning away. And if their appearance is not enough of a reminder there is always that deafening, earsplitting RREEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW to remind you.
Don't worry, I didn't get all crazy with empty nest syndrome and get a new puppy and a pig. These both belong to my friend Chanin, but they were so cute I had to share.
Today Carl Sagan (the ram lamb, not the man) and Titan left for their new home.
Sagan is going to be a flock sire...which, if you read my last post, you know will make him very happy. Titan (minus a couple of body parts) will be a companion sheepie.....I am not sure that Titan will be as happy with his lot in life as Sagan will be with his, but he couldn't ask for a better home or a nicer family to live with. Thanks Janna, Jim and Connor!
I wanted to do an update on some of the chicks that were raised by foster mothers earlier this summer, so I set out to take some pictures this afternoon after the rammy lambies were safely on their way. When I was in the chicken barn, I heard a little peep coming from up above my head and when I looked up, I was surprised to see that the barn swallows that I was so worried about during the infamous "
And, apparently, they thought that I was going to feed them. It looks like there are three in the nest, so hopefully they will all make it to adulthood.
As for the chicks, the Mille Fleur Leghorn chicks (the first chicks that pawned off on an unsuspecting hen so that she would raise them for me), have been off on their own and incredibly independent for quite some time......so independent, in fact, that I can barely catch the little boogers! They do come into the coop at night, but otherwise they roam the property and are pretty darn wild.....note to self- Don't get any more chicks with "Leghorn" in the name.
The later batch of chicks still rely quite heavily on their adoptive mother for protection and security. I must say that their mama, Black Chicken, does an awesome job at protecting them. She strikes fear into the hearts of any and all chickens that so much as give her babies a sideways glance. I am not sure how much longer she will tend to them, they are getting nearly as large as she is!
This one is going to be a little rooster, I don't normally keep roosters, but seriously, how cute is he???
And look...bunny bum??? No, it's the little rooster's tushie.
Now that these babies are all nearly grown and doing so well, I think I need to get a few more chicks so that they will be laying by next spring...really...I NEED some, I do. Don't judge me. 
Callisto- musket ewe lamb.
And yearling ewe, Fallon- I think I will miss her the most. She is an awesome ewe with super dense soft fleece and a dynamite personality. She is a carbon copy of her mother though and her mother is one ewe that will always stay. Apparently she is itchy in this photo.
Some of the boys, on the other hand.......I am not sure how much I will miss them! Hormones are starting to kick in and they are starting to act more like small rams than cute little lambs.
Titan, like most growing boys, eats...a lot....that's pretty much all he does.
"Why is your mouth open, are you going to blow me a kiss........uh oh, wait, I know what that means! I am outta here!"
I guess I will even miss the antics of the ram lambs when they leave this weekend.
My tomatoes have only attained the size of golf balls and remain hard little green orbs, never ripening or even showing any glimmer of a blush. Notice the withered fungified leaves.
I did spray an organic fungicide a couple of times and it seemed to help momentarily, but the effects were short lived. I try to keep things as organic as possible........which is somewhat a mute point considering that I live in the middle of corn fields that have crop dusters flying over.
Most of my green beans also succumb to the evil fungus...well, that and the proliferation of weeds that have taken over.
One thing that has not been a problem this year though, bugs. I think I have some friends to thank for that. Rooster Cogburn and Charles Bronson spend their days combing the gardens for insects and gobbling up every little creepy crawly that crosses their path...they have to do something for excitement, since I don't let them in with the hens.
We also have tons of toads this year. The wet summer has provided them with plenty of places in which to lay eggs and an abundance of food.
It is hard to tell from the picture, but this toad is so fat that her skin is absolutely stretched as far as it can go to the point where it is shiny.
A few things are doing remarkably well. My pear tree is loaded to capacity again this year. This poor tree gets so heavy every year that branches break with the weight of the fruit.
The apple trees are equally laden. Some of the apples are a little buggy, but will still be good enough to cut the bad parts out and do some canning and freezing.
I have just a couple of pumpkin plants, this one is a white variety....you should know by now that I don't like "normal" things so I had to find something kind of funky to plant.
My Butternut squash is fighting the fungus as well. It has set some awesome fruit and I am hoping that the vines can survive until the fruit has ripened.
The peppers are doing OK so far. I sell a lot of peppers at market and have around 60 pepper plants so I am hoping that they continue to do well.
OK, That was hard for my OCD self to show things that are not going well...it is even hard for me to look at those weedy pictures!