He's back!

                                                               Let the party begin!

Can you see Sandy behind the fence? She's like "I do not want anything to do with that! Nope. Not me." And she won't either. She's just like that. She is always the last doe to kid. Because I usually have to pen her and the buck up in the stall til I know the deed's been done. She's not getting off that easy. Not this time. I'm on to her. Yes I am.

But John Henry, he hasn't even had a vacation yet. Straight from one pasture of does, right back here for more. He's young. He can do it. He hasn't let me down yet.

Bucks are gross.

Meet Bilbo Baggins. New herd sire.

 This is my new ram, Bilbo Baggins. Isn't he too cute? He's the same age as all my lambs born this year. He's Katahdin. I am hoping he'll add some color to my drab flock. Maybe not this breeding season, but next for sure. I think most of the ewes are already bred.

And if these 3 ewes don't lamb in the next month, they need to go on a serious diet! They are SO big.I got the 3 ewes standing around him from the same place. Not Annabelle, the wooly one, but the other 3.

Now I need to decide what to do with Abraham, the Finn ram. I am leaning more toward butchering him in a month or so. Then start looking for a good wool breed ram for all my wool ewes. I don't think I'll get a Finn ram though. Wonder what other breed would be good to breed Finn ewes to? Any ideas, all you shepherds out there? I think I'm going to Fiber in the 'Boro bext weekend up in Murfreesboro, Tn. I'm sure there will be lots of sheep people there to talk to.

I wish I had gotten Bilbo earlier, but maybe the younger ewes aren't bred yet. And they are all hair sheep. Except for little Buttercup. And she's too young to breed.

I am happy I got this ram. He looks like he'll make a fine herd sire.

Drying up

I just realized, that when Penelope dries up, it'll be 5 months without goat milk! 5 MONTHS! Ugh! It's never been that long before. I am already hyperventilating here just thinking about it. I really screwed up last year when I bred the goats in September. What an idiot! Penelope kidded Feb. 3rd. So she's been in milk nearly 10 months already, which is what I usually milk a goat for. I am going to keep milking her as long as she has milk in those udders!

I'll go get John Henry next week for breeding. I'll have to use him on Sandy too. I don't want to get a Boer buck this late in the season. So we will just have a bunch of little elf eared cuties next spring. That's ok if they are all boys. Which we are due for a boy year.

But no goat milk for that long???

Like bees on honey

I had a 5 gallon bucket of honey in my car since Monday afternoon. I was going to take it to my friend's this morning for them to help me pour it into gallon jugs.

But as I was walking past the Trooper, I noticed dark stuff on the driveway at the back of the car. So I opened the back door and saw that the bucket had fallen over. Honey all over the back of the car. I di have a hard rubber mat that covers the carpet, but it had still gotten under onto the carpet too.

I grabbed some buckets so it would drip in them and not on the driveway and make a sticky mess. I had left it out last night. When I went to get those buckets, I noticed some bumblebees and honey bees were in the honey. Dead. I was so sad to see that. But there were honey bees here!

I don't know if you can see this little one, but it's sucking up the honey. There were some more bees stuck in another bucket that just had a few spoonfuls in the bottom. I took it over to the water hose and washed them off. I think they'll make it.

In the 2nd photo, there are several honey bees. And a yellow jacket, I think. I am SO happy to see the honey bees! I had thought some might come and help clean up the honey for me. The people I took a bee keeping class from this spring, said when they rob their hives, they leave all the equipment outside and within hours, the bees have gotten all the excess honey cleaned up. I love bees. They are so  smart.

Here's another little honey bee. All that dark is honey on the driveway. They should be busy!

I am also leaving the back doors open for the bees to get all the honey they want. I am so glad they are still around. I missed my bees.

Tiger dog

I love this!

At Ketner's Mill.

I thought I better state that this is NOT my dog! They were at Ketner's Mill last weekend. Very popular dog for sure. She uses vegetable dye and does this for every holiday and football game.

Sad times

Yes, sad times at Outback Farm. We're down to about a pint a day of goat milk. I know. I am already panicking, wondering what I'm going to do for milk soon. I'm going to milk Penelope as long as I can. She's been going since Feb. 3rd. She's a good milk goat.

I just hate the dry times. But there's always spring!

Inside All Books

Monday, I took my great grand mother's spinning wheel to this wonderful crazy cool store in downtown Chattanooga. An 81 year old lady named Polly owns this place. It says All Books, but that's not all.

You open the front door and walk in to this. As far as you can see, bags and bags of roving in every color, skeins and skeins of yarns, spinning wheels in every size and color, hand knit scarves and vests and leg warmers. It just goes on and on and on. Also carders of different sizes. A knitters paradise! And Polly. She is something else. She sits in these chairs all day, spinning, knitting, talking to all who enter.

This is just part of the bags of roving she has here. There is a lot more, around the corner, down the rows of bookshelves, on top of shelves.

And spinning wheels all over. In the aisles, on top of shelves, in the windows. She let me try 3 different wheels. I stayed there about 5 hours.

Here's Polly, in the pink shirt. The wheel by the door is one I tried. I liked it. It's tall. The one she's on, I tried. Then she opened a box with a Ladybug wheel in it. I really liked that wheel. And might get one.

This is my great grandmother's wheel she used to make clothes for her family. It's mine now. Polly checked it out and even redid the string for the wheel and bobbin. It works pretty good. She said I should sell this one and get a new better wheel. Well, I can't sell this. I was the only one in my whole family, I mean cousins, aunts, uncles, that was meant to have this wheel. It will be here as long as I am. I'll use it til I can afford to buy another one.

I did put some money down on a new hand crank carder. Really want one bad.

Anyway, Polly said I can come back anytime and sit and take more spinning lessons. She's really a nice lady. I'm so glad I walked past this store one day a few years ago.

(I'm so sorry. I already posted about my GG mother's wheel. Now I can't figure out how to delete the photo. So I'll just apologize for double photos!)