The Arrival

So after being squeezed into the car for 3 1/2 hours, our girls finally arrived. They were taken out of the Lexus and placed onto the Ranger and Cruiser to be brought out to the barn.

Once in the barn they were a bit sheepish. Ha, imagine that. I am sure that once they realize where the food and water keep coming from they will warm up to us. For now we are respectful in keeping a distance. They have adjusted really well. No issues so far. they seem to enjoy their new digs and are very curious about who we are, just from afar.

so here they are:

This shot was taken from outside the barn through a window(as we were leaving for a dinner break ) so not the best lighting but they were so cute I just had to do it. We are heading back out now. We have friends coming to see them. New life is always cool to see. Until later,

The sheep farmers

The Waiting Game

Okay. So I am at home while Lynn is driving back from Edmeston, NY with the three little girls. She left a msg to let me know she was heading back and I could hear them in the background. Too funny. And what's weird is they kinda sounded like Lynn. LOL. (I'm gonna pay for that one but it is worth it. ) Jim and I finished up the gates so we are completely ready for them. I also met with our electrician this morning to discuss running power out to the new barn. It'll be about 400 feet of wire for the project and there will be a backhoe involved.(which of course is very exciting for me) And since we are digging all the way out there for power, might as well consider water too. And our trusted electrician can do all the digging. In this zone that means 6 1/2 ft. down to get below the frost line. So Lynn and I will have to discuss our options. She is convinced that she will either walk or Ranger out to the barn in the snow in like 10 degrees with buckets of water. And although I know Lynn is really bright and capable, she tends to be a little slow with these things. So I am going to get a quote on the plumbing as well.

I did some planting earlier today. Got the edamame (soy beans) in as well as the summer squash. Now it's about 83 degrees out there and that is when I turn into a sloth so no more planting for me. I have to just wait for the arrival of the babies. It is hard. I am NOT a patient gal by any stretch of any one's imagination. And I am excited to meet them. Lynn says they already look like sheep(as opposed to babies) and they are pudges. But damn cute. She should be arriving around 3:00-3:30. I hope to post some pics tonight, definitely tomorrow if I don't get to it. So later for now.

Arrival countdown

(This is Nora under the pseudonym Lynn) Sorry it has been a while since the last post. My monitor is on the fritz, we had four days of rain, and as soon as the sun came out we went right back to work.

One of the remaining items on the sheep "to do" list is to spread top soil in and around the barn. The three little girls are arriving this Friday, the 31st. The plan was to have the 20 yards of soil delivered close to the barn and we would use the tractor to bring it closer and then just smooth it out. Oh the glory of plans. Remember the rain I referenced? Well that became an issue for the driver delivering the dirt. He started up the logging road and got himself completely stuck about 20 feet in. Seriously? I looked at his tires. Not only did he not have off-road tires, but the street version he had were as bald as Yul Brenner. Here is a pic of the rescue tractor he brought in.

Thankfully he was able to free himself. But, and it is a really big but, he could not dump the soil anywhere near where we wanted it. SO we had him dump it roughly where he is in the picture. Lynn and I spent many hours yesterday loading dirt into the amazing Ranger using the marvelous Kubota. Scoop, dump, drive, dump. Over and over again. When we had enough we stopped to cover the pen floor. The process was: Move dirt into run-in using tractor bucket. Shovel dirt into wheelbarrow and wheel into pen. Dump and spread using a rake. Repeat. Once we had the pen floor covered we decided to take a break from the dirt and spread the straw. Lynn's idea so we could see the finished pen in order to keep motivated. It worked.

After that we went back to the dirt relocation process until we were able to line the entire run-in and other pen.

Time was of the essence so it had to be done. There is more rain in the forecast this week, so it was key to get that part finished. After a full day of dirt, we moved into the garden to plant some beans and potatoes. No rest for the wicked. There is more to do with the dirt. Today, Jim and I will be spreading the remaining dirt around the new barn. Scoop,dump,drive,dump,spread. The fun never ends. :) 



Chateau Du Mouton complete

So the folks at Adirondack Storage Barns came back the next day to finish up the job. The lean-to I spoke of in the last post was apparently a little more than I thought. Take a look. It is an enclosed run-in. Who knew? Well Lynn did, me, not so much but it was a pleasant surprise.

Oh take note of the wire fence to the right. Jim and I spent Thursday, Friday, and part of Saturday installing it. We first dug the post holes manually, (too rocky to use an auger) set the posts, then ran the fence. Approximately 300 feet of it. Thanks goodness the rest of the pasture already has fencing. That task, although rewarding, is exhausting. I fully understand why my ancestors left the aggro business as soon as they could, lol.
Next on the list is to have about 20 yards of top soil delivered. We will spread it out inside to create the dirt floor as well as smooth out the surrounding area and fill any holes around the pasture. Once that is complete we will lay down some straw for their bedding and it will be finished. I certainly hope those three little girls appreciate it.

She's a SHEEP HOUSE!

She's mighty, mighty...
So, the first part of the barn was delivered on Thursday. And what a delivery it was. We'll try to take you through the process. Here she is approaching our pasture on State Highway 56.

While coming up our logging road and preparing to turn into the pasture, we realized that we needed to remove a fence post for clearance. Jim and Lynn to the rescue. I was a little nervous given the pitch of the barn. Lynn just ran over to the corner of it. Apparently she does not have a strong survival instinct or fear response.

The rush over was unnecessary as the trailer is outfitted with a pivoting system that allows them to change the position of the trailer so the driver(also named Jim) was able to right the barn. All with a remote control. How freaking cool is that?

They lined it up with the gravel pad and lifted her into the air like they just don't care. (Sorry about that, I am in a musical mood this a.m.) 

Here's another perspective for ya. They place a lot of trust in those hydraulics. It's quite an impressive trailer to be honest. I was flipping back and forth between being wowed and nervous. We purchased this from Adirondack Storage Barns. Brother owned company. True craftsmen and professionals.

And finally she lands in place with Lynn inspecting the drop.

This is phase one of two on the building. Part two is the lean-to. Stay tuned...



Oh, How I Hate Spring Frosts

Our weather has been a bit bipolar this spring.  We had 10+ days of really warm weather – as in gardening in shorts, tank top and sandals type weather – to temps plummeting to 28 degrees last night with another light frost in the forecast for this evening.  The warm sunny days interspersed with light rain provided the much awaited cue to the winter-weary perennials; almost all of them have inches of gorgeous green growth – ripe for frost devastation.  I was so confident that warm weather was here to stay that I stupidly transplanted two of my dahlias outside last weekend.  Thankfully, I exercised some caution and only planted two; I still have another 8 in the mud room.

I was still in denial Monday evening when I got home from work, but Nora patiently reminded me again that she would be willing to help cover any delicate outside plants in preparation for the coming frost that evening.  So we pulled all sizeable buckets and pots, old sheets, burlap, and landscaping fabric we could find out of the barn and went to work.  We covered all of the roses, including some newly obtained David Austin varieties, hydrangeas, a surviving rhodie and the dahlias. 

All pulled through smashingly, except for the dahlias. They were slightly wilted looking Tuesday morning when I removed the coverings, but Nora emailed around 10:30am to report that they had blackened and crumpled.  I cut them back that evening, covered them, and will fertilize them on the next non-rain day (today), and hope for the best.  If we’re lucky, we’ll see recovery by mid-summer.  So sad, but lesson learned. 

On a bright note, the pea and lettuce seedlings are thoroughly enjoying this break in warm weather.

On a completely unrelated topic, we received our first straw load!  We'll use it for bedding for the sheep, as well as some extensive mulching out in the vegetable garden and berry areas.  Our storage barn is almost looking like a real barn...

  

Happy Mother's Day! With love, from the Garden.

Ma-Ma-Ma My Kubota

Today Lynn learned not only how to operate my glorious machine, but kinda fell in love. You see, last fall I tilled the new vegetable areas with my darling Kubota L3400. Given the weather and dampness of the soil at the time I was only able to till once. Lynn and Jim were convinced that any additional tilling to those areas had to be done with the motorized hand tiller. Mind you it's a good machine. Does a good job. But would you clean a car using a toothbrush? I didn't think so. So I recently started a campaign in the household promoting the use of the Kubota to till. Jim already went over the beds with the lesser machine. And yet, the beds just weren't deep enough. I knew my girl and she wouldn't hose up the soil. She would leave a beautiful and smooth bed without compacting. And of course, I was right. Lynn not only consented to using her majesty to till but took on the task. She is a natural. And she was quite impressed with how she performed. Look below at the beautiful creature I speak of, oh and yeh, Lynn too. ;)

She is outfitted with AG tires(agricultural), a front loader and 5 ft. bucket, as well as the tiller attachment that is secured via a 3 pt. hitch system. Gotta love it. She tilled this area twice today in 1/5 of the time the other, useful yet not impressive machine, would have done in one round. A great day for all!

Gotta wonder what's outside the window

Progress update

Nora found this wonderful video today from the Olde Homestead – the birth place of our Baby Doll lambs.  We’re not sure which ones are ours, but we know we’re getting 2 (possibly 3) of the white lambs in this video.  Funny, and too adorable.

The gravel pad is being laid down today for the new barn.  Its purpose is two-fold: to level the area on which the barn will sit, and to form a pad that will resist settling/sinking.  Our pasture has a slight downward slope, and the barn will sit at the top of the rise toward the wood line (away from the road).  The gravel will be covered with dirt, forming a nice, porous floor for the stalls.  We'll cover the dirt with thick layers of straw for bedding.  Hopefully this combination will make for semi-easy cleaning, and will allow much of the moisture to seep through the dirt and into the rock bed beneath.

My barn guy contacted me this morning to see whether we were ready for delivery.  I told him the pad should be in place by tomorrow at the latest, so looks like we may have our barn sooner than the end of May.  We still need to put up the additional fencing and pasture gates, and pick up all the other items: feeders, water troughs, minerals, dewormer medication, hoof clippers, etc., but we’ll be ready by the end of the month. 

Nora’s already thinking about names for the newest additions to the family, but I told her she needs to wait until she meets them.  The names have to fit the personalities.  It’s nice to see her excited about their arrival though, given her natural inclination to distrust “hoofed creatures.”  

What a difference a day makes!

Same spot in the tulip area taken today as this from the other day. Tulips

Here are some that clustered about 15 feet away on the other side of the fence. Perhaps we have some chipmunks who share Lynn's penchant for gardening. One other theory I am working on is they committed some crime against the tulip society and have been excommunicated. But what could that be? I wonder if Lynn has ever defended a flower in the court room?

Um Mags, you might want to rethink that position

She left the chair for her bed shortly after I took this. I think she was a little embarrassed.

One really cold day in November equals

THIS

I have to be honest. I moaned a bit that day. My little hands were cold. There were so many bulbs to plant. Who cares about dumb flowers anyway? Well Lynn cares and kept on pushing. I hate to say it but she was right to push. How wonderful to see such color coming off a long harsh winter. Only about 1/2 are in bloom today. Many more to go but I wanted to get pics anyway. I'm kinda impatient like that.

Gardening time has arrived!

May has arrived and it's time to get serious about the gardens. It seems like we went from snow-covered, frozen tundra to the exuberant green of newly-formed leaves and the sunny yellows of daffs in the blink of an eye (okay, maybe there was a week or two of mud in between).  We’ve been in the 70s here for the past few days and new life is on display everywhere.  I think we skipped spring altogether, but hey, I’m out gardening and that’s all that matters.

Brother Jim should have the vegetable beds re-tilled by today (although the big patch may need to be re-tilled for a 3rd time next week).  Nora tilled the new plots in the fall with her beloved tractor, but she could only get one tilling in before the wet snow arrived.  The area had been pasture for who knows how long before the fall till, so there’s a whole lot of sod in there not quite willing to give up that last hold on life.  But alas, I have better uses for the space, so we must bid adieu.  The great news is there are very few stones to pick out of the new plots!  The same could not be said for the other side of the pasture that used to house the veggies garden.

Newly tilled areas: Lower left (30'x10') is for pumpkins; lower right (30'x15') is for melons and some flowers; larger plot on top (roughly 40' x 40') is for the remainder of the veggies and flowers. Scattered in between are the raspberry and a portion of the blueberry beds.

Provided that this second tilling does the trick, Nora and I will be out planting this weekend.  Onion and shallot sets, beets, carrots, green onions, and a host of flowers (cosmos, calendula, zinnia, sunflowers and marigolds) are on the “to-be planted” list.  I’ll probably plant some of the herb seeds as well.  I’m going to try my hand at some of the tea herbs – lemon balm, chamomile, various mints; I’d love to be able to dry and package my own blends.

With this unseasonably warm start to the growing season, I couldn’t wait any longer to get the “cold” crops in the ground.  On Tuesday evening, I weeded a small raised bed usually reserved for herbs, and planted a few rows of butter crunch lettuce, Amish deer tongue lettuce (a romaine-like lettuce), and some peas.  Thankfully our nights are still in the 40s, but who knows whether they’ll survive the warm days.  I do hope so.  I’d love to be eating some fresh peas and lettuce by mid-June.

Ain't nothin like a dust bath

Here are Daisy2 and MadeIt taking one of their many dust baths. Chickens do this to keep clean and remove parasites. I know it seems a bit counter intuitive but it sure works. And it is super important as part of maintaining good health. Maybe I'll give it a try, or maybe not.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck

if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Beats me, ask him.

  

Do you know the other common name for a woodchuck? It's groundhog. Another monicker is whistle-pig. This is interesting cause they don't whistle and aren't a pig. They are a rodent in the squirrel family. But they do kinda look like a guinea pig on steroids. They are considered by many farmers and gardeners to be a pest. We consider this little guy to be darn cute.