Rain by the buckets. No water in the house!

Not animal related, except that I was extremely glad that all of the water troughs were topped off by rain last night.  

We knew that our old well pump was a ticking time bomb....for 5 years we've been waiting for "the day" when no water could be gotten from the well. There has been no back-up plan, only ideas that I haven't acted on (for clean water for our own use)

Today was that day. No water in the house, no water reserved in the hot water tank, no water left in the toilet tanks.... Only a half-gallon filter-pitcher on the kitchen counter and whatever I could catch in bowls for the dogs in the rainstorm last night.  No shower for me, no gallon milk jugs stored in the basement full of stale water, only the 55 gallon drums that I fill with water in the barn for easy animal use, and the water troughs....

A fear of not having enough becomes, well....real.

The truck in the photo is pulling 72 feet of corroded pipe out of the well, along with the old pump. It's a 3" pump (?) from overseas, that is needed for older wells. They have one in stock. Sooooo grateful!

The well housing/shaft/pipe was so corroded (from age, and previous owners pouring chlorine shock treatment down) that they were concerned they might need a backhoe to dig down 8 feet, cut through the old metal pipe below the silt/corrosion/makeshift seal that had been created, and then re-build the top portion of the well. But with some sort of re-threader (you can sort of see it in the photo), they were able to work the corroded pipe free to remove it. Again, so grateful.

Thunderstorms held off while they were working, no-one needed to use the driveway while they were blocking it, no power outages so far while the well is being pumped clean....

The silty water and corroded bits of old pipe are being flushed out and hundreds of gallons of water are being wasted, but tomorrow they will come back and put in a new well pump and new pipes, along with new wires. Again, very grateful.

I knew we needed an emergency plan for water, but now it really hits home. We've talked of installing gutters, catching rain water, storing water in old milk jugs, installing an old fashioned hand pump out by the barn, lots of things. 'Guess I'll be talking to the foreman on the job tomorrow to see what options are available.  

After we hear how much the current job will cost. It was going to happen one day. I'm grateful (again!) that it didn't happen, for example, during a holiday dinner, or a family reunion!!!

 

Laura

Just Mom and Me...

Just one little guy hatched.  And we didn't expect any.  

The mother goose sat on a small nest of eggs for 28 days, fended off the over-eager wanna-be mother who wanted to rearrange and steal eggs, fended off all the barn cats and ducks who peeked in at her, hissed at me every single time I walked into the barn for a whole month....

And she has one adorable, bold gosling to show for her awesome attentiveness.

I'd say it was worth it!

 

Laura

The Waldster

Well, here is the breaking news story, which capped off our very nice Easter celebration....

Waldo is back in the picture.  You've seen those big billboards in Chicago, advertising to have a DNA test to establish that you're NOT the baby's daddy?  We will be doing DNA testing to determine which pups ARE Waldo's offspring.

Taffy has been visiting Smoke daily, in hopes of a successful breeding.  No success so far.  At least as of Easter afternoon.

Waldo was neutered 10 days ago, and came along with Carrie and Jake for Easter dinner.  He and Taffy were not supposed to be allowed to have any time together.  But, coming out of the barn, what should we see but Taffy out in the yard with Waldo, being....successful.

Dashing to the internet via phones, laptops, whatever....numerous sites were consulted in record time.  Yes, as suspected, he can still be "viable" up to 4 weeks after neutering.

Yikes.  Now we are looking at a dual-sired litter, which means we will be doing DNA testing to determine paternity of individual pups.  

Because, despite the lack of observable success so far with Smoke, this morning Taffy's visit to him was entirely....successful.

The breeders that have been advising us have been notified and it's not as big a disaster as we had imagined.  DNA testing for dual-sired litters will be reliable, and we can register the pups and still sell them as purebred quality offpsring.  There could just be babies from two different daddies.

For the rest of this week while Carrie is on vacation with Jeff and Jeremy, the Waldster will be in close proximity to our little blonde temptress here at the farm.  

So...."Who's YOUR daddy?" will be in the forefront of our minds as any pups make their appearance in late May.

And there might be at least one pup with that adorable natural bob tail, which will only come from Waldo's pedigree.  :)

 

Laura

Just in time for Easter

One more cute baby animal.  New life again in the Dykstra barn.

I've been watching Sunny, our black ewe, for 2 weeks now.  We thought she was bred to give birth 13 days ago.  Must not have quite been on time....on the October side of things...  

Good thing, too, since both of the rams were unintentionally out (and active!) that day, and her baby would have been of questionable parentage.   Not good for registration or breeding purposes!  Just an hour after that certain activity was observed, all males were back with the females they were supposed to be courting....  So Sunny's baby today is definitely the offspring of Atlas, not of Brock.  

Anyway...back to the cuteness.

I've been keeping a close eye on Sunny, as this is her first lamb and she is barely a year old herself.  3 AM barn checks, peeking under her tail while she munches hay, all of the obsessive stuff I am known to do when a baby is due...

So what does she do?  She grazes all day.  She is very vocal like usual.  She lies around and chews her cud as if nothing is going to happen.

I go to the store, and she finds the dark corner in the sheep stall.  Jeff is working on the new walls for that stall, and sees her stomach "heaving".  I don't get the message until later.

Jeff calls, to say that a lamb has been born!!!  Amid a lot of exclamations on my part, questions, etc, we get disconnected.  I am driving home, and don't know....is the lamb breathing?  Did Jeff check to see if it needs to have stuff swiped out of it's mouth?  Is Sunny attending to it....?

And all was well.  

I got home, left everything in the car, and headed straight into the barn.  Easter candy was forgotten in my haste to see that the baby was going to be OK.

Sunny was doing everything perfectly.  The tiny lamb was crying and Sunny was nickering back.  The little lamb sought out the milk supply, and Sunny has an ample amount.  Just as "Nature" intended.

I told Jeff that he could name her if he wanted to, since he'd seen the birth.  His comment?  "If I name it, she will have a name that has something to do with U of M."  :)

A little while later, he came back out and announced her name.  "Annie".  'Took me a moment, but sure enough, a U of M reference.

This beautiful little lamb already has a buyer.  Someone was waiting to see if we'd have a black ewe lamb (we do) and a white ewe lamb that wasn't already sold (now we do).  A 13 year old girl in Wisconsin is going to be very happy when I tell her mother the news.  

And so ends the lambing saga for this spring.  Merry was the first, born to May.  April had her first set of twins, a black one and a white one.  And now Sunny has her little white lamb.  Perfect.  And they are all ewes!  What are the odds for THAT?

Happy Easter, everyone.  Remember not to be distracted from the REAL reason to celebrate, even by adorable baby lambs.  

He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

 

Laura

New life...such adorable distractions.

Just a few photos.  Happy Easter everyone!   

Despite the cute new life here, I think the baby care has taken my mind off of the true meaning of Easter.  Time to stop being distracted and tune in to the REAL new life!!!

 

Laura

The latest matchmaking

We went back and forth on this one...

Taffy was supposed to be bred to Waldo this spring.  The breeders suggested that we wait.  Carrie decided that it was time for Waldo to be neutered.

Then the breeders offered Smoke to us (the seal and white English Shepherd).  But the condition was that he wouldn't be placed here unless Rocky was placed elsewhere.  That didn't sit right with us and we regretfullypassed up the opportunity to own a stand-out English Shepherd male...as we renewed our resolve to make things work with Rocky here, non-farm dog that he is...

Not too long after, our new/old neighbors met Taffy and fell in love  (they moved away soon after we moved in, but rented their house while they were gone, and are now back in it almost 5 years later)

Loving Taffy, they started looking at on-line English Shepherd options.  Katie (the neighbor) was in my kitchen one day soon after I had talked to the breeder of Smoke and declined their offer to get him here in time to breed to Taffy.  And Katie asked about a certain breeder that she had been chatting with.  Turns out it was one and the same.  

Katie whipped out her phone, I pulled up the Facebook conversation, and we were soon in an exciting conference call with Elaine who I'd only talked to by typing before then.

Fast forward a couple of months.  Taffy's heat cycle had been late and started almost a month later than expected.  Smoke came to live with the Kelley family.  Waldo was neutered.  All of this happened within a few days' time.

The breeders of Taffy and Smoke thought it would be a great idea to put the two of them together.  Katie, Jeremy and I couldn't think of a better idea.  

Smoke's breeder requested "pick of the litter".  

Katie and I had already resumed our friendship that seemed to have been cut short all those years ago, but for both of us to have English Shepherds and for both of us to be so excited about breeding the two of them....if the friendship wasn't cemented before, it was now.

And here we are, with Taffy and Smoke getting to know each other.  Jeremy walks his beautiful Taffy down to the neighbor's house almost every day since last week.  Katie and I keep watch from her kitchen window almost every afternoon for an hour or so as the two beautiful and well-matched English Shepherds get closer to the date when Taffy should be the most receptive.

Taffy and Smoke were both pick of the litter, in their own respective litters.  Their pedigrees combined bring together many valuable bloodlines in the effort to both breed quality dogs and preserve certain rare aspects of this breed.  

Supposedly there will be a hot market for pups from the two of them...  We'll see how it plays out.  

At the very least, Jeremy will have the litter of pups he's been waiting for since he used his own money to purchase little Taffy as our farm dog.  

Maybe more than I dare to hope for in addition to that, Taffy and Smoke's babies may pave the way towards more conservation-type breedings of a breed of dog that we have fallen in love with.

The next few days should determine whether there will be Taffy x Smoke puppies towards the end of May.  Just in time for a big family reunion and hog roast here at our farm.  If it doesn't happen, we'll put it off until next spring.

My only regret....is that Taffy's first litter was not with Waldo, who was hand-picked two years ago for just such a momentous occasion.  Waldo was also pick of his litter.  Great pedigree.  Stellar bloodlines and genetic package.  He is a gorgeous bouncy boy with the cutest natural bob tail.  But not going to be the father of Taffy's pups, after all...  

Well, the best-laid plans can sometimes go awry....  And the unexpected opportunity can sometimes rise up with hardly a moment's notice and take center stage.  

Pup-dates as things happen.   Puppy kisses and puppy breath could be added to the very essence of the farm in just a few short months.  The excitement is building!  

 

Laura

Very pregnant barn kitty

Here she is, folks.  The mama cat from last year who had a litter of four orange and white cuties sired by her brother.  That would be the same brother who conveniently disappeared a week or two before his offspring were born and has not been seen again.

This year, mama was not bred by any relative that we know of.  Her son was brought to the vet too long ago for it to be him.  Not sure who the daddy was, so the colors of the babies will be a complete surprise.

The one thing for (almost) sure....  Cats were a hanging around and making a racket about 8 weeks ago, every night for about a week.  The dogs were going crazy and we were all cranky from loss of sleep.  So this little cutie with the very round belly should be just about ready for babies.  

Last year we found the day old kittens in the safety of the silo.  This year she seems to be favoring the hay loft.  We're on the lookout for the mama with a much smaller belly making a furtive dash to get back to her babies...

Soon!

 

Laura

Roasted beef, anyone?

Silly boy Prince Johan, standing in the firepit with the blaze crackling just a foot or two away from his hooves.  

Taffy, always on standby to get permission to fly at the cows, eagerly herds Bessie and Johan back to their smaller and more muddy area.  

And then there's Johan again, trying to look stunning as he surveys his domain from....the pile of manure.  :)

Johan (better known as Jonny-boy) leaves next week for the second year of his life, to graze at a local organic beef farm with a larger herd.

 

Laura

Lambs sampling pebbles, and an introduction

So, here we have the lambs out on the patchy pasture for the first time.  Cuteness overload.  

Mama April and Mama May were finding the tiny blades of grass that are still struggling to grow, and babies were sampling dirt clods and pebbles as they looked around, wide-eyed and curious.

And also, born just yesterday at Hillbunker Farm, our planned for and long-awaited new ram-lamb. He will join the flock in a few months.  Michele introduced him to me as "Here's your boy in blue", so immediately his name (at least in my tiny mind) became "Boy Blue."

The story behind Boy Blue....  When we first bought April from Hillbunker Farm in 2013, we needed a companion for her.  Michele had a ewe who had failed to get pregnant or produce any lambs for 2 seasons.  She was essentially a "cull" (a sheep who would be worthless in any operation that needed to show a profit).  Iris and April made a tidy little two-some of a starter flock, and we borrowed a ram that winter who produced spring 2014 lambs, one from Iris, one from April.  

That spring, we introduced Brock (a ram lamb, also carefully chosen from Hillbunker Farm) to the little flock of Iris, April, and April's daughter May.  Brock and Iris produced twins in spring 2015!  And we had another beautiful lamb from April, a black ewe-lamb this time, named Sunny.  

Because I wanted to keep Sunny, I asked Michele if she'd like to have Iris back, and of course she did.  Iris was the last of Hillbunker's original flock of breeding babydoll sheep, and she had proven to be productive again.  Back at Michele's place, Iris stunned everyone by giving birth to a lamb late in 2015, meaning that she delivered THREE lambs in two separate pregnancies that year.  She has become a quite remarkable ewe in the Babydoll Southdown world.

And in trade for Iris, we were getting a ram lamb to replace mean-boy Brock (who now resides in our freezer).  Despite an abundance of male lambs born at Hillbunker last spring, there was also an abundance of prior orders with deposits, so we agreed with Michele that we would wait for the perfect one and borrow Atlas for breeding.  

Lambs born here this spring are sired by Brock (April's twins) and Atlas (May's baby, and any that Sunny delivers in the next few weeks)

Boy Blue will join us in a few short months, when our for-sale lambs are leaving for their new homes.  

My big question for myself, at least for the flock of sheep this spring, is....Can I keep another ewe lamb.  Because it would definitely be Merry, the single ewe lamb shown grazing next to her mother in the sunbeam.  

 

Laura

Julie with bunny

Take two...

Julie with bunny :)

 

Bunnicula...um, Chris

Julie and Ivey

 

Chris and Misty

 

A Posse of Pigs

Here are the younger hogs, out for a scamper, a weedy snack, and some pasture renovation the other day.  The pasture is in bad shape.  I didn't keep up with rationing the grazing time last fall, and the sheep left it very short as winter set in.

Then the cows' electric fencing was down for most of the really cold weather, when the steer enjoyed bellowing and dashing full speed up and down the frozen tundra, tail kinked high in the air as he wore away what little grass was left.

The grass and weeds are crushed and trying to make a comeback.  Dirt is visible through all the pathetic little strands of clover.  Creeping Charlie weeds are criss-crossed where moss isn't trying to establish itself.  Pine needle loss at the north end by the white pines is choking out the few clumps of grass that might have been in decent shape.

The whole pasture is in bad shape, although the dirt is rich and black and crumbly.

What you see here....is the crew who took it upon themselves to till, root, dig, and aerate.  They had a marvelous time of it, on a beautiful afternoon, accompanied by the flock of ducks who nabbed every worm and grub that the pigs unearthed.

Now, time to set up the fencing to keep animals OFF of the poor compacted and now torn up ground, toss some quality seed down on the whole area and let the new grass and alfalfa seeds sprout, in time for grazing by the end of May.

It's something I do every spring, and every fall.  I've just never had help turning over the soil or digging up weeds before.  With the grass roots so shallow, it was high time to do something other than just sprinkle more seeds around.

Thanks, little pigs!!!  :)

 

Laura

April babies (born in March)... Confused? :)

On a dark and stormy night.... April chose last night during a rather awesome lightning storm to have her baby.... Until you look closely and see that it's not a shadow, there are...twins. I had wondered if she'd have twins this year.

April was our first babydoll lamb, back in 2013, from Hillbunker Farms. I've kept April's 2014 daughter May and 2015 daughter Sunny (my favorite!). Might need to continue the trend...but can I really keep just one out of twins?

At quick glance to check boy/girl status, the twins seem to be ewe lambs, from our bad-boy ram Brock. These will be his last babies.  Luckily his daughter from last year did not inherit his angry personality.

Unless/until better names come to mind, let me introduce Stormy and Misty (from some of my favorite childhood stories: Marguerite Henry's books about Chincoteague ponies) 

(After a few hours sleep and some caffeine, I'm sort of ready to slog out through the mud and damp, with the idea of crawling back under warm covers for a nap at some point...)  

Laura

Mama May's first baby

For all of my before-bedtime last-time checking for lambs, for all of the 2:30 or 3:30 early morning checks before trudging back to bed, this was a glorious way to start the morning chores and feeding.  

May, a 2014 baby born here at our farm, gave birth to a beautiful little ewe-lamb, in the hours between the obsessive 3:30 AM check-in and when I headed out to start feeding the horde at about 8:30.  

Daddy is Atlas, from Hillbunker Farms, the ram with the large and luminous eyes that rival Disney-Princess eyes.  :)  He is a gorgeous ram. 

Mama May is having a little trouble with the new sensation of nibbling down THERE....so I am working to hold her in place so that her little one gets the colostrum she needs.  And so that Mama gets used to it, too.  

Her mother April was the same way, constantly twirling in circles as the baby found and then lost the right place to suck.

This little one is beautiful.  Mama and baby are set up in a half-circle pen now, with a thick layer of fresh straw, a bucket of fresh water for May, fresh hay, and a little privacy from the other expectant mamas, who seemed to be checking (hoping?) to see if the new one could possibly be theirs.  :) 

 

Laura

Long-suffering mama

Some photos of Mocha and the triplet boys that are determined to run her ragged.  

Such joy and excitement in their little kids-on-a-playground actions!  They stop in mid-dash to zip in the opposite direction.  They tapdance on the turtle-sandbox lid.  They ping off of the cement barn walls...  Lots of entertainment value in just standing there watching.  But still, I can commiserate with their mother.  

One of my kids routinely sampled food off of my own plate...but I don't think any of them actually took food out of my mouth as I was chewing...  At least my own kids never launched themselves off of my back.  Or slept in my food bowl.  :)

 

Laura

Photos of me....with goats.

I don't usually add photos of myself, but thought I would just this once.  No makeup (yikes!), at least you can't smell the farm smell on my clothes....hands....boots...  You're welcome for that!  :)

 

Laura

Today on the farm

Really quick....  Zaney had a very hard labor, delivered a very large buckling and then in quick succession delivered a petite beautiful little doeling.  It was her first birth, and rather frustrating to watch and know I just needed to let it happen.

Babies are beautiful.  Little boy is the brown one, already looking like he could take on any of the triplets in the next stall over.

Little girl is the black and white one, very sweet-looking and demure.  

Total boy-and-girl sibling thing going on.  :)

Next week, the Southdown ewes have their due-dates.  Whirlwind of a spring, so far....

 

Laura

The first goats born on our little farm

Not sure where I left off, so I will jump ahead to the goat events of this week. Photos are in sequence leading up to today. 

Mocha and Zaney are/were hugely pregnant, due this coming Sunday (Mocha) and then the following Friday (Zaney, on the 11th).  Zaney is still pregnant....Mocha decided it was taking too long and went into labor early!

Mocha was large enough that she had been sitting like a dog to relieve the pressure on her belly, with her poor full udder getting squashed like a bean bag under her.  Friends and previous owners said it looked like triplets or even quads.

Mocha started labor yesterday morning, and had those babies by noon.  They are 5 days early, a little bit premature.  

Three little boys, with two of them nearly carbon copies of each other.  One was born so quickly that he tumbled out right on top of his firstborn (already cleaned off!) brother.

Only the last-born figured out how to nurse with no trouble.  So there was reason to be concerned about the little cuties as the day wore on.  It was cold, so they have two heat lamps going PLUS little dog sweaters.  They didn't know where to find the milk, so tails and ears were wet and soggy as the confused little ones tried to suck on anything and everything.

I was immensely thankful that I had chosen a doe who was used to being milked, as I found myself on the floor squirting rich creamy colostrum into a tiny bottle to feed the first two.

At 2 in the morning, waking up from a sound sleep, a little voice told me to go out and check on them.  Grabbing the bottle, I threw on my coat (it was 19 degrees out there!) and milked poor Miss Mocha again.  With a rush of relief, I watched as Baby Boy #1 started butting and nibbling on the teat.  With warm milk dribbling out of the bottle, he was convinced enough, and started waving his little tail furiously as his belly was finally filled.

This morning, Baby Boy #2 was still quite willing to take a bottle, but....I do NOT need a bottle baby to care for.  A little while later, he was also finding out the joys of nursing directly from his mother as extra milk convinced him that warm teat was so much better than that rubber bottle nipple.

Whew.  What a relief!  In the last photo, all three are looking curious and content.  I wasn't sure yesterday that we'd have three still alive by this point today.

Thankful, thankful, thankful!!!   You have no idea how thankful I am for that!

 

Laura