sheepish

I have had so much going on here I don't know where to start! I've only had a few minutes here and there to blog or rather to read a post or two. My camera is still working, so far. I'm hopeful that it will work for the parade tomorrow. I need pics of my boy! Not the first time he's in the parade, but his first year with the Boy Scouts. Anywho. So what to share first?
 I know, how bout some nudity! Get your mind outta the gutter, it's sheep sheering time!

 Here's Daisy. Where she's black my man decided to get her done first. Ya those are hand held sheers. All man power. She's our Romney Finn. He ended up sheering her in the horse barn. It was really hot.

 Oh look at that wool!!!!! So nice, and right chalk full of lanolin!

Now it's Minty's turn. She's out Finn sheep. Daisy, her buddy, bleated the whole time. Big mouth that one is. She was done outside. Just pointing out the obvious!

NO he's not putting his weight on her in this picture. He's sliding his hand down to start the nest area of sheering. I love the color of her wool! See her nose sticking out?!
Now today they were both happy and much cooler, and now I have some wool.
Have a great evening everyone. I'll have more to come on what I've been up to lately, but not tonight!!

farm photos

Today it's cold and windy. Feels much like a January day, rather then the end of February! So what did I decide to do? Go outside and take some pictures! Why not? Froze my hands and all!

Dandie wanted to say Hello! How cute is that face!?

She's getting so big.

She would like to be a mommy hen. She's always sitting on eggs.

The other hens are busy laying eggs. The have done so well. We have turned the morning light off and will be turning off the evening light soon. They need a 2 month rest, and have been slowing down a bit. So... I hope we don't have to buy eggs soon.

I went into the horse barn and was surprised to see Minty peeking around the corner of T.O's stall. Daisy was in there too, behind the wall. Guess it's not as windy in the barn as it is outside. They do have a barn of their own, but they must like the horse one better.

 Abby and T.O. Abby looked up and then buried her face back in the hay.

Have a great Tuesday!

monday confessions...

Welcome Monday! I can't believe I said that, but it was a good Monday! I think the weather had something to do with it! What an absolutely beautiful day it was too! The sun was out in full force with very few clouds and a light breeze! I decided not do the house work today, but to sit outside and enjoy the sun! It will still be there tomorrow (the house work) and it's supposed to rain. But I did get some laundry done and hung out on the line. I had to, I just couldn't let all that free, wonderful, solar power go to waste! I worked on a project while the kiddos played! Now that said, I did get some cooking done, and home school too . Let's see I made bread, cherry pie (Matthew was wanting one), peanut butter cookies, butter and supper! I have lots of pictures to show you!
After supper tonight we went out and Matthew got to work shearing Minty. She's our Finn sheep. (We have the hand clippers, not the electric ones, for now). A few years ago Matthew took a class on shearing sheep, with a friend from church. He was glad he took the course and has proved to make his job of shearing the sheep easier. The kiddos and I all stand around and watch him work, and take pictures of course! I have yet to try my hand at shearing... maybe someday I will... I will get a before and after picture up of both the sheep when they are done! And a picture of the wool! Looks real good this year too!
  Let the picture show begin!

my pie right out of the oven, I dropped a bowl on it, that is why it's gooshing out and broken. But it tasted good!

I've had a hankering for these, peanut butter  cookies!

I needed to make lunch, and needed some bread, so I made some!

This is the beautiful sky that I got to enjoy this afternoon! That's the hay field that we hay. It's really greening up too!

Matthew and the kiddos out shearing the sheep

Time Out decided she wanted to see what was going on, and nibble on some grass.

Minty being shorn. Her fleece is beautiful! I've spun some of it before and oh man it works up so nice! Smells good too, the sheep that is and the wool!

Our kiddos and the sheep. It wasn't that dark out, but it looks real dark when he was done. Daisy will be next, but ran out of time, and she was happy to have her buddy back, even if she looked different! 

My man's hands after shearing, all covered in lanolin. Not sure if you can see the shine on his hands, but it's there. Makes a great moisturizer! Nice hands honey! 

 That was my day! A good one at that! Hope ya'll had a good day too!

maggie

I'm thankful that it is raining and NOT snowing!! That is what I'm thankful for!

Well Maggie should be in heat today, and so far she has not been "flirting" with us. Ever been flirted with by a cow? Well it's funny. With those big brown doe like eyes, and a tail that while you milk her, just wraps around your neck, and she just looks at you and blinks those eyes. She hasn't been mooing like crazy at the other cattle across the road either. We no longer have the broilers for her to charge at and sleep with, so, hopefully she settled.  We are keeping a close eye on her.  If she did settle then her estimated due date is July 27, 2011!! But if she goes like last time she will be 9 days late. We would really like a heifer calf this time too. You know not to be picky or anything! Haha.

2:30... am

I woke to the sound of rain. Heavy rain.  My eyes wouldn't focus on the bleary red numbers on the clock. I sat up and thought  "Oh no, the cow is out!" Never did I think I would wake up and think about my cow in the middle of the night, getting rained on. I poked Matthew and asked if she was out, and his sleepy response was yes. He also informed me she would not come in. I glanced at the clock. 2:30ish,  the numbers were still not clear.  I didn't listen. I proceeded to get dressed and put on my knee high rubber boots, stumbled outside with no flashlight because "Mr. Nobody" didn't put it away, anybody else have one of those? stumbled around in the dark, got some grain, after more fumbling around with the cover of the bin, to bribe Maggie, sloshed around in ankle high water and called for Maggie. I couldn't see anything, it was dark and cloudy, I was not fully awake and the rain was pelting my face. I couldn't find her. Good thing she has a bell on or if she had come up to me she would have scared my half to death. When she walks, she walks slowly, and without that bell I never would have seen her coming or heard her. That would make for a good post!! Haha! Never know what would have happened. I think we both would have jumped! I called and called and shook the grain can. She didn't come. I gave up, after wondering around in the dark, wet pasture, feeling guilty about not getting her in. I went back to bed, it was almost 3am, but didn't sleep. It wasn't cold last night, a balmy 40 degrees. I still felt bad. Come to find out she was at the very top of the pasture in the corner, just as happy as could be in the morning. It took some convincing for her to come in the barn and get milked too. Stubborn cow!! Oh well. Maybe next time I won't be in such a pucker to get her in. Probably not.
"Mr. Nobody" is a wonderful poem the kids memorize for language arts, along with many others, it's a great poem. Maybe sometime I'll write it up. I know I have at least one in my house!!

Welcome

First of all I'd like to say welcome to Sweetland Farm!
Please forgive the look, it's new and a work in progress.
These posts are random thoughts from a farmers wife. Don't get me wrong I'm just as much a farmer as he is. It's something that we do together, as a family. We farm not because we have to, but rather because we want to. We involve our four children in the chores, and they love it, most of the time. We get a huge since of satisfaction in growing and raising our own food, well a lot of it anyways. But enough about that...
I have a funny story about story about our daughters sheep. One is a Finn Sheep and the other is a Romney Finn. They currently are like dogs and run around the field we live in. Well I had harvested our onions from our garden to make spaghetti sauce and put them on the table outside to dry on overnight. I later went outside to check on them and noticed that a lot were on the ground. I thought that the laying hens had gotten into them first, but then remembered that chickens don't like onions. Then Minty, the Finn Sheep comes up to me. So I loved on her and , well you know how a sheep has multiple stomach's and will regurgitate their food? Well she made that sound , and it sounds like a burp, right in my face! I was almost knocked over by the smell of onions on her breath! Surprised I looked at her, then looked more closely at my onions and saw there were bite makes out of them! I smiled and rubbed her soft head, and told her to leave them alone, and shooed her off. (Yes I talk to my animals). I didn't think that sheep liked onions, but apparently mine do, or just a few bites here and there out of the biggest ones! I ended up having to pick them up again the next morning. They didn't stay out of them and ate all the tops off them.  Oh well. I still had enough to make lots of spaghetti sauce, and our daughter got a kick out of the story when I told her about it.