Category: Farm Life
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First Hay in the Barn
Our first load of hay was delivered late in the day today. Unfortunately, the face was uneven, and the stack fell down. Ken re-stacked it so the next ones would be okay. Continue reading
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Independence Day Thoughts
As we celebrate our Independence Day (two days late from history, but this is traditional :-)), our town is having its annual Cherry Days event. This year, there are actually cherries! Some years, we have frozen; some years, they come later; and some years, like this one, they’re perfect. Sweet Black Bings (never shipped, and… Continue reading
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Stone Brew Visitors and Haying!
Greg Koch from Stone Brewing, plus Susan Duniphin and Keiffer Koch, arrived for a short visit today. We started with some picture-taking opportunities at the edge of the mesa. We had a lovely lunch at Flying Fork in Paonia, then got a great tour of both Revolution Brewing’s new facility and their tasting room. Of… Continue reading
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Sheep Butchering and a Garden Update
The second batch of rams went to slaughter today. We try to sell and use as much of the sheep as we can. One thing we save from the rams are the horns. They get made into shepherd’s crooks and knife handles. Here, Ken is using a sawzall to cut the horns off the skull.… Continue reading
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Lambing Is Officially Over for 2009
We have officially finished lambing for 2009. We’re now at 152 days from when we took the rams out. While we technically could have lambs up until 155 days, none of the remaining ewes look pregnant, nor do they have any udders. I’ve declared us finished. This year, we bred 56 ewes. 48 of them… Continue reading
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Solstice!
It’s time for the solstice. Summer has now officially begun. I still haven’t killed the garden, so I’m pretty thrilled about that. Here is the corn. It won’t be knee-high by the fourth of July, but at least it’s still growing. The peas are doing well. I see a few flowers starting to show now,… Continue reading
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Lambing Is Nearly Done – We Hope!
Well, we’re near the end of lambing now. We’re at 144 days from rams out, and we have about 15 ewes looking ready to pop at any time. Here I am checking Cerridwyn for the proper positioning of her first lamb. She had an ewe. Much later, she had a breech stillborn. She never showed… Continue reading
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Sheep Trick
Some lambs start learning how to jump on their moms early. A few continue this into adulthood and stand on top of others to get the best hay. Continue reading
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Jump Starting a Lamb
Lambing is in full swing, and I thought I’d share a trick we now use on all lambs. I milk a bit of colostrum into a syringe case. Ken uses his finger to entice the lamb to nurse, then he squirts the milk into the size of the lamb’s mouth. This does several things: it… Continue reading
