I hope this works.

 I asked my friend Sarah a few days ago if she had a dry cow that I could borrow awhile. I had read that cows and horses don't carry the same worms as sheep and goats and were good together. Sarah has 3 Jersey cows she's been milking. But Louise must have had a miscarriage a month or so ago. So she needs to dry up. So her husband just brought her out here to stay awhile. I forgot how BIG cows are! And how stinkin' messy they are too. Yuck!

The sheep and alpacas are NOT too happy about these plans. Not at all. No siree. Not happy.

                                     They all had a little private meeting way over in the little yard.

But Louise didn't care at all. She was munching away on their mineral block. They also had a few things to say about that!

Still trying to decide on a plan of action. Haven't come up with anything good yet. I did put a board across the smaller gate, so the cow can't get in this yard, but the sheep can go in and out, to the field. When they think she's not looking. They'll get used to her, I suppose. Some day.

Meanwhile, Louise is going to eat. She sure has plenty to keep her busy. She didn't have anything like this where she was.  I hope she doesn't get sick.

So life on the farm is constantly changing. Still thinking about some pigs too. I have that electric netting fence I think I'll use to move the pigs around, following the sheep and cows. When they are over in the other pasture. This one isn't mine. Just borrowing it. So don't want to put pigs out there. But I also heard pigs will take care of the worm load as well. So between Miss Louise and a few pigs, these sheep should be ok. And Mel is coming tomorrow to get Charlotte and Claire, the 2 lambs I wanted to sell. This will leave me with 12 Finn sheep and 2 alpacas. But I have a big ole cow now.

Worms and bees...

I went to the farmer's market this morning. I had a soap sale this week at both markets, trying to make room for all my new soaps. I am going to take a short break from both markets, so I can make more soaps and salves and also lip balms. And wash wool for more dryer balls and needle felted animals. I need to build up my fall and Christmas inventory. Now to just get motivated. I am such a procrastinator though. I'll wait til the very last few days and then get busy. If I have so much time, I think I have SO MUCH TIME and will get to it later. Then later comes, and I have to work, work, work! But I think I do better like this. I just need to change my way of thinking.

And I am very discouraged and upset about my lambs. Poor little Cara barely made it up with the rest of the flock this morning when I went out to check on them. Poor baby. So I gave her another B complex shot and went ahead and wormed all 3 of the bottle lambs with more Dectomax. And gave them all sheep nutri drench.

Today, after market, I went to Tractor Supple to get some Safegaurd, which I read kills tape worms. That's what I saw in Cassidy's fecal the other day. There were 4 wormers that specifically worked on tape worms and that's all they had. I also got a 40# bag of Diotemacious Earth to sprinkle around where they take their siestas. I'll do that every day. Also put some in their feed trough. I so hate this.

I talked to my friend Sarah, who has 3 milk cows. I asked her if she had any that were dry now. I had read that cows and horses don't get the same parasites as sheep and goats and work well together. I think cows like the taller grass , where sheep like the lower grass. So she has 1 dry cow that is really not feasible for her to be feeding like for a whole year, so she's going to see if they can get her out here. That will be a good thing to help with all the horrible worms we are plagued with. I hope, anyway. Has anyone else had luck doing this? I'd love to hear about it. I just feel like I'm such a horrible shepherd right now. I wish I had a dry lot and a load of hay. I will be getting some hay and will try to keep them in for awhile. See if that helps.

I am so happy that I still have 2 hives of happy busy honey bees in the middle of August!!! My 1st hive last year lasted about 2 months, and was invaded by wax moths. Bees all left. So I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing right now for them. I have a friend coming Monday to get the last 2 lambs I wanted to sell. He has bees and said he'd check them while he's here. See if I can harvest a few frames of honey maybe? We shall see. I hope I can take at least 2 from each hive. But they are the busiest girls. They are coming and going all day. They are drinking water from the sheep's trough. I have bits of wood in there so they don't drown. But there is always some that do. I hate that. I also have a small kiddie pool in the side yard that is a tadpole nursery. The bees drink from there as well. I have a big piece of wood in that pool so they can drink from that. I love these bees.

I read somewhere that an older man, who'd had a few hives for a few years now in Missouri I think, was attacked by his bees while he was mowing. He died. They said he had a heart attack, that's what killed him. But he was covered in bees. So sad. It makes me think I better be careful and more aware of my bees when I mow around their hives. Anything could happen, I guess. You never know about wild creatures.

I don't know if you can zoom in on this pic or not, but these bees coming in are just loaded with bright orange, almost red, pollen. All on their little tiny legs. So cool!

But I am so happy both my hives are doing so well. Now to just get them through winter.

So I have THE WHOLE WEEKEND to myself!!!! Husband went to Indiana to get grand kids. What shall I do? It just feels good to have TOTAL quiet right now. No TV! Seems like he's constantly got that darn TV on.  There is so much to do. But there's always tomorrow, right?

My poor babies.

This has not been a very good week. I'm so glad I made 3 batches of soap on Sunday, or I would not have made any at all.

 I noticed Carabella's puffy jaws Sunday evening. I wormed her right away. All the others looked fine, so didn't do anything else.

That night, about 8, Mary, the weekend caretaker at Mrs. T's, called. Mrs. T had fallen and she didn't know if she should go to the ER or what. I really wasn't feeling too awful good, so I called my daughter to go see how bad it was before I drove all the way there. I ended up going. She had torn the skin off her right shin, about 4". Really didn't see any sense in taking her in that late and having to sit and wait when I could just take care of it myself. Thanks to my hubby! So washed it real good. Put Neosporin  all over it and wrapped it up real good.

Monday, my sister and niece came back from Colorado and were at Mom's for awhile, before they headed back down to S. Ga. So before going to Mom's, I stopped at Mrs. T's to change the bandages on her leg. Mary had said she was up and down all night and took the wrapping off a couple times. I wrapped it all back up and wrote on it with black marker "DO NOT TOUCH THIS!". I told her I was going to come back before going home and if she had messed with it, I was going to take her to the hospital and they were keeping her til it was better!

 I was starting to get all stuffed up, runny nose, a little congestion. Went to the dollar store and got some allergy meds. Took 2, like the directions said. Man, a few hours later, I could hardly hold my eyes open. But got to mom's and we went to lunch at the Japanese place where they fix the food in front of us. So fun!

So on the way home, I stopped to check on Mrs. T. She was sitting there in her chair all nice and sweet. Hadn't even tried to bother her leg. So went on home. Took care of the animals. Checked the sheep. Cara still puffy. I gave her Ivermec, LA200 and B Complex.

Tuesday, I was in bed ALL DAY! My head hurt. I was coughing every time I moved.. Low grade temp. Geeze Louise! The whole time though, as I lay in bed awake, I'm thinking of all the things I needed to be doing. SO many things! Then off I'd go again. And Emily, the mid-week caretaker, came in early and changed the bandages for me. I was so glad because I could not have gone and done it.

Wed. SO much better. Got up, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom, mowed the whole front of the farm. Mowed down a bunch in the garden. Cleaned the burr comb out of the Garden hive and added another frame, because it only had 9 frames. Checked the Outback hive. Lots of activity there too. Then got ready for farmer's market. Had to go check Mrs. T's leg. All good so far!

Had a bad market afternoon. And I had a lady ask me last week to save her 3 dozen eggs for her this week. I have worried myself sick about those eggs. I might get 1 egg one day, 4 the next day. Then we'd have to eat some. I finally, after even deciding to go to market, had 2 dozen. Then the silly woman never even showed up! I will not do that again. But I did sell them. No problem selling eggs there anymore. People stand in line wanting eggs. I need to get more chickens!

So today. I wanted to take some fecals in to the vet to see what I was dealing with. HA! You know that saying "a watched pot never boils:? Well, when ya want as sheep to shit, THEY WILL NOT! I literally waited 2 flippin' hours for Cara to poop and do you think she ever did? NO! Never. Any other time, they are pooping like crazy. I just have to look at them and they poop. Stupid sheep. So I got samples from Cassidy, who had worm activity going on. Then Campbelle. Then FINALLY, Cameron! And she had some worms too. But NEVER did get anything from Cara. Even tried going in to get some, I was that desperate.

So took them to the vet. Went to Tractor Supply to get some sheep minerals. Ended up getting 2 mineral blocks for sheep. They LOVE them, by the way. Ate lunch with my mom. Went to Mrs. T's to change her bandages. Got a call from the vet. Yep, they do have worms, he said. Ok, I know that. What kind of worm. Well, he didn't know. They just had a lot of worms. I have to pay $15 per fecal for him to tell me my sheep have worms! What? THAT'S why I do not go to vets.

I also wanted to talk to the AG. extension guy to see what he could come up with to help me out. We decided I was not leaving them long enough on each pasture. They need to be leaving one pasture alone for at least 60 days. And the grass needs to be at least over 4" tall. I've been rotating them about every 15 days, then mowing where they just were a few days later, about 3". They don't really like tall grass. Anyway, I need to be doing things differently now if I want these worms to die.

Also wanted to get some kale and collard seeds. No where can I find seeds. So maybe no fall garden for me?

Went to the bee store. Talked to a 20 year old girl that works there. Very smart girl. Learned a lot from her today.

Then home to cook dinner for the man. And move the sheep back to the big pasture til October. I also had gotten a bottle of  Dectomax. Wormed Cassidy, Cameron, Campbelle and Carabella. I will worm the others if they need it. And I'll get some hay for mornings. I'll keep them in til the grass is dried. That's another thing I kind og knew already, but never thought about.

So tomorrow is my all day with Mrs. T/ I think I will run her over to the walk-in to make sure her leg is doing ok. Just to be safe. I was going to go to Indiana to pick up my 2 oldest grand daughters who have been in Wis. with cousins, but right now, I think I need to stay close by Mrs. T. Plus I might get a whole weekend to myself?! Plus Sat. morning is farmer's market too. I need to make some money! I'm having a soap sale to make room for all the new soap!




So while I'm waiting for sheep to S***, I took lots of pictures of them. This is poor little Carabella. She's so stinkin' fluffy, it's really hard to tell she's so puffy. But she really is, poor baby. One of my bottle babes.

                         And Cameron, another bottle baby. She started yesterday with the puffiness.

                                         Sheep rear ends. I was keeping an eye on them!

I love this shot. I got a lot like this. The blue sky, the green trees, the very tall hay, then the sheep. I felt like I was down in a hole, which I guess I was.

                                                                  My little fluffy Cara.

                                                       This is Amarillo, the quads mother.

                                                   Just a bunch of sheep and alpaca pics.

               Another puffy Cara pic. I really hate this. I have got to get this under control soon.

All the sheep and alpacas, except Cara, who was over to the right, drinking water. I moved them all back over to the bigger pasture later.

Sorry this is so long. I feel like I have neglected this blog and no one is going to even come here anymore. Sometimes, I am either just too busy, or I just don't have anything to say. Then, when I do, I keep on and on... Hope y'all have a great weekend!

(Looks like I already wrote about some of this. Sorry. I can blame this on the foggy head? And the guy that was coming didn't. But IS coming this next Monday.)

And thank you to my very favorite blog reader and friend Betty Ann, for checking in on me! Makes me feel so much better!

Yucky. Again.

It feels and looks like fall outside this morning. I see leaves falling to the ground in the back yard. Pretty. But, there is a wild cherry tree that's next door, but part of it hangs over our fence. Those leaves are falling in my yard. Wondering about the sheep eating them.  I know they'll kill certain animals at certain times of the year.

I've been working on building up my soap supply. Make 3 more yesterday. So 10 so far.

And I feel horrible. Again. But this time, I think it's allergies. I ran out of my day time pills and haven't gotten more. Benedryl knocks me out, so only take it at night. Although I have a low grade fever. I can hardly breath. And my sister and niece will be at my mom's sometime today. So will have to go see them.

And Mrs. T fell last night. Knocked the hide off her right shin. I had to go see if we should take to the ER or not. Really nothing they could do that I couldn't. Plus her skin is so thin right there, they couldn't sew it up.  And it being so late too. My daughter Abby came over to help. There was blood. But I can now thank my hubby that I was able to do what I did. We gathered all the things we'd need to clean it up and get it all bandaged up. I pulled the skin back on and wrapped her up. But she was up and down all night. Pulled the wrapping off. That woman! Called doctor and the nurse called. Told her what I did. She's going to talk to the doctor to see if I need to bring her in or not.

And have a guy coming sometime today to get Charlotte and Claire, the 2 cross ewe lambs I want to sell. And don't know when he'll be here.

All I wanna do is go to bed!

Dogwood Bridge. Family reunion fun, 2014

This is at Dogwood Bridge, in Ozone, Tn. We always come here the weekend of the family reunion. It's so fun.  And so beautiful here.

                                                         Alivia, jumping off the rocks.

 

                             And Abby jumping off the rocks too. Lots of rock jumping going on.

When we first got there, a huge long snake was spotted. It went down stream, but just in case it came back, one of the cousins got his gun.

                                                            Some bridge graffiti.

                                                Abby, after jumping in the water again.

                                                                 More bridge graffiti.

                                               I really liked this shot, with the towels hanging on the bridge.

This random dude came walking down the road, looked over the bridge to see how deep it was, walked across to the other side, ran and jumped off the bridge. Really cool. I think he lived right up the road and did this every day. A real show-off!

                                                     The stream. So pretty.

                         And this is what a bunch of teen- agers do when they all get to the house.

We had a great time at the Sherrill Family Reunion, 2014. Saw lots of family we only get to see once a year.

I am feeling so much better. And am waiting for my friend to call so we can head out to Huntsville to see Joel Salatin today. I think we may be a little later.

Busy, busy, then sick.

 Busy few weeks here. Lots of Indiana and Wisconsin family in for the Sherrill family reunion up in Crossville, Tn this past weekend. Some stayed here with us. It was so fun to have company. We really need to get the shower fixed upstairs though.

We were sitting outside at the picnic table and I saw something fly over to this pole with a long piece of straw. So we walked over to see what it was. Whatever these small black wasps are, one was just stuffing this hole up. I am just amazed at the intelligence of insects.

                                 And the beauty of a small seedless watermelon. So cool, isn't it?

So Monday evening, we had to go up on the mountain to get Coryn's clothes. My hubby's nephew and family had been making plans all summer for Chloe to go back to Wisconsin with them for a few weeks. They have a daughter her age. So when Coryn came, they asked her to come along too.  They went to King's Island in Ohio yesterday. Al just called and said they were home. So all kinds of fun stuff to do in Wisconsin for 2 Ga. kids.

Here's a hang glider, just jumping off the edge. I love going up there and watching them.

So here are all 3 girls, taking off Tuesday. Their son, who is 13, is in the very back seat.

Yesterday was Main St. market. It was SO hot there. Just wore me out. When it's hot like that, it's just not fun at all. I had gotten some Swiss Chard from my friend next door to me and some of the best cheese from Sequatchie Cove Creamery. It's called Nick-A-Jack. Washed in apple cider.  So I chopped some scallions and red pepper from my garden and scrambled eggs in with all this. I love it.

 
Here it is, ready to eat. I wish the bacon was mine. I am thinking about getting some pigs in a few months.

I got up this morning and was slightly dizzy. Kind of wobbly. And very tired. So did a few things. Then went to bed. woke up freezing cold. Turned down the AC. Put on a flannel shirt. I just now took my temp. 100.3. I feel hot. So I am having  pains below my stomach and some pressure. Feel like my insides might fall out any minute. I made some fresh grated ginger tea with honey and am drinking that.

The horrible part of this is, tomorrow morning, I am supposed to go to Huntsville, Al. with my friend Sarah, to hear Joel Salitin. I am so upset. I may have to call her and cancel. And I don't want to. I have always wanted to hear that man. And I feel like he will give me some sort of direction to go with this farm in the future. So I might wait to see what happens. I'll call Sarah just in case, to let her know. Bummer.

Plantain Salve

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=807599782595732

This is my little great niece Aubree, putting plantain salve on her nasty mosquito bites. She loves this stuff!

If you go to my FB page, Outback Farm, in Chickamauga, Ga, you can see the video. It's so cute.

I am a senior...

  at the Goodwill in Statesboro. I wasn't sure at first, when she asked. I asked what the age is. She said over 55. I just turned 56 in June. But I got 10% off. I am ok with this. 10% is good. I might just start asking at other places. I like saving money.

So I found  these 2 wooden boxes there. They're both the same, one's just turned over. I thought they'd make great soap molds. Then display boxes to hold the soaps at market. The one on the right is turned over to the mold side. The one n the left is the display side. Pretty cool for $3.99 each.

And the plastic box I got at Big Lots. It's a storage box. I had gotten one like it at Target and it makes a great soap mold, with the lid. So I got this one. I love them. They're the perfect size for the recipes I make. I get about 18 bars from this mold.

I found some paintings from a girl named Marley. There were several of hers there, but I liked this one the best. It makes me sad when I see paintings and pottery from someone's kids at thrift stores. I have to rescue them. Little tiny pottery pieces that a child made. How can anyone get rid of things like that?

My sister has moved back to S. Ga. and across the street from her house was a pile of stuff that was thrown out of a rental house. Me and mom went over to see what we could find. Mostly crap, but I did find these 2 Coke crates. They make great drying racks for soap. Or to haul produce or other things to market. And they were free!

My mom and I had gone down to S. Ga. for a funeral. We left Sunday afternoon. The visitation was Monday evening and the funeral was Tuesday morning. It was hot down there. When we got back home though, it was nearly cold! I dropped mom off at her house and when I got home, I opened all the windows and turned the AC off again. I love this!

So my husband took care of the animals for me while we were gone. It's kind of nice not to have to worry about milk goats right now. I feel like I have so much more freedom to go off for a few days. And he did good. When I got home last night, he was on his way to put the chickens up and gather eggs.

Next Friday, I am going to Huntsville, Al. to see Joel Salatin at some kind of home school conference with a friend who's husband can't go. I am SO excited!!!!!!! I have always wanted to go hear him speak. And I had just told my mom on the way home how I was wanting to really think about which way I want this little farm to go. This is like an answer to prayer. I can hardly wait!

I hope it's cool where ever y'all are this week. It's going to be nice at market this afternoon, I do believe.

Run!

Tuesday. Stuck in the rain.

   Tuesdays are my day to run around with my mother. We have lunch somewhere, then go shopping. Sometimes we don't have a lot to do. Other times we don't have enough time to do it all. I do enjoy my time with her. She is going to start being very busy, with all her volunteer work. But we try to keep Tuesdays for us.

   So yesterday, when I got home, I picked up the cow carcass in the front yard, and got to mowing. I could see the black clouds heading this way from the N-E. So knew we could possibly get some rain soon.

   I got the front yard mowed. Then headed to the chicken yard. I hate for that grass to get too tall because I'm so afraid of snakes. So I have to keep it mowed down. It was sprinkling pretty good by then, so I put the mower in fast and got it finished. Just in time for the down pour!

    I made it to the garden shed, parked the mower, and here it came. I was stuck! But it was such a wonderful time to be stuck. I sat on the mower and put my bare feet out in the rain. It got cooler and cooler, the more it rained too. I could see the sheep over in the big pasture. They were under the trees. One by one, they headed to the barn. Some ran. Some just meandered and grabbed bites of grass along the way. Darla, the biggest ewe, loves the rain and will stay the longest in it. They all finally went inside the barn, because it was coming down, fast and hard!

    I have a bee garden under the big cedar tree in front of my garden shed. It's all blue and purple flowers. The cedar tree was just dripping nice cool rain on all of them. I could almost hear the flowers thanking the Lord for the drink of fresh cool water.

    I saw the garden getting a wonderful watering too. So very welcome in these July days of growth.

    I had gone by the Garden hive on the mower and noticed the whole front of the hive full of bees. It had been really hot and humid, so figured they were just hanging out, getting fresh air. I wonder what bees do when their hive is so full of bees. Do they get mad that they have to walk over each other? Do they holler at each other to get out of the way? Do they want to have their own space, away from the others, just to think and have time alone?

     Anyway, I got a bit too close to the back of the hive, and just barely hit the bottom. Those bees took off all over. And I had a hard time getting the mower backed out of the way! But no stings and all was well after a few minutes. By then, it was pouring rain and they all went back inside, except a few that wanted the coolness.

    It was really loud up under that metal roof, with the rain beating down on it. But it was a nice time, just sitting, watching the rain water my little world. I guess I stayed out there a good half hour, just waiting til it slowed down. But it didn't, so I just ran inside. Took a nice shower and we had pizza for dinner. I think that'll be our new Tuesday dinner. Pizza. And I made a strawberry and banana salad too.

    Today is the Main St. farmer's market. I so enjoy this market. It's almost down town Chattanooga. The people there are amazing. I went out earlier this morning and picked some okra, peppers, tomatoes and oregano and orange mint to take to market. Plus my soap, needle felted critters and salves. I hope it doesn't rain during market though.

PS: Kristin, I tried to comment on your blog, but it disappeared. But your soaps look amazing and I love the colors. In the pictures, one looks almost red. But I wanted you to know I tried to comment.

Cucumber soaps

 These are all the soaps I made yesterday...

cucumber-basil. This soap smells so good! I used fresh basil from my garden with cut up cucumbers. I use a stick blender, so it chops it all up real good. Makes the soap green, which I like.

cucumber-mint. I just used barely over a T. of mint EO, plus fresh mint from the garden. It's not too strong, but just enough mint to make it refreshing.

Cucumber-melon. I got this EO in Manitou Springs, just outside Colorado Springs, last year while visiting my sister and brother. There is a little shop that has the freshest oils. I've been wanting to use this but wanted fresh cucumbers. It is a light melon scent with bits of cucumber throughout. Very pretty soap.

And this is the plantain-lavender castille I made a few weeks ago. It's a really hard bar and smells so good. I didn't put too much lavender EO, just enough for a slight scent. Then sprinkled lavender flowers on top.

I try so hard to get each bar this size. Most are.

So, just a start to some new soaps coming out of my new studio. It's so nice to have a whole house to put all my supplies and not have to worry about cleaning up too much when I'm done. And I love the shelf I got from Home Depot. On sale, already put together, for just $75.00! Perfect for all my soap making supplies right there in the kitchen. You can see my oils underneath the soaps. I got all 4 batches of soap on one shelf.

Monday ramblings...

I just realized I have not blogged in a week. I have just not felt like it really. It's been kind of boring and dreary here. And basically doing a lot of the same ole things.

Some things are more involved than others on a farm. Like with sheep. One day, I think all is well. The next, not so much. I was pretty sure the 2 boys I castrated were doing so much better and made it through the worst part. So I had left them alone a few days. I moved them all over to the big pasture a few days ago. Then yesterday, I noticed the boys were moving slow. Laying down off by their selves. Got closer and noticed lots of gnats around their back ends. Also saw Cameron, one of their sisters, was limping a bit.

So grabbed some feed, antibiotic shots, wormer, wound and fly sprays and hoof trimmers. Got them all in the little feed area. Got both boys and checked them. One felt a bit warm. Gave them both shots, wormed them, doused them in wound and fly spray. Then got my 3 little bottle lambs and trimmed hooves and wormed all 3 of them. Today, they all look good.

Then a little later, I had gone outside to check the mail and heard one of the young lambs. She was standing beside the electric net fence, which was not on, but I haven't taken it down yet. I walked down to the mail box and on the way back, she's still standing by the fence. On the other side from the rest of the flock. I then realized, she'd gotten her head stuck in the netting. Stupid lamb! So ran over and got her head out. Then took the fence down and rolled it up and took it away. That's 4 times a lamb had gotten stuck in that fence. While it wasn't on, thankfully.

I had a pair of wrens build a nest in the back porch laundry room. All the babies hatched and then all decided to leave. I was so glad they left when they did. Because that night, a snake got in there and was probably looking for the babies. I only saw it because it knocked down a jar off my canning shelf. So I turned the light on and looked out the window. Saw the tail going up and up on my shelves of canned goods. I screamed for my husband and scared him to death! It took an hour to get that darn snake. I'll spare you all the details.

I finally got motivated to make soap today. I made 3 soaps. All the same recipe. 1 is cucumber-melon. Another is cucumber-basil. Another is cucumber-mint. All with fresh cucumber, basil and mint. I love how different they all turned out. The basil is green from the fresh basil. I love that one. Can't wait to take them out of the molds. It says to leave in molds only 3 hours. But they are still a little soft and still setting up. So I just left the tops off. I'll take them out tomorrow and cut them to cure. Only 4-6 weeks for these. I'll make more maybe Thursday. I want to make a ginger soap.

And the honey bees are doing so good. They seem to be growing and growing! I had added a box of frames on each hive a few weeks ago. When my mentor came a week ago last Thurs. They hadn't done anything in the new boxes yet. I've been feeding them sugar water the past few weeks now. I went up yesterday to check on them both and just took the top off. There were so many bees I could see through the hole in the top. It was late, so didn't take that top off.. I'll wait for a nicer day to check on progress. It's supposed to be gloomy and rainy all week here. But am happy they're all doing so well.

I've been making more needle felted things. And carding some wool. Going to markets. My cucumbers are taking off right now. And okra. And tomatoes. I'm getting a few ears of corn every few days just for us to eat. It's so good. I want to get the garden tilled and start on the fall crops soon. But not this week. Which is fine. At least by the 1st week in Aug. Can you believe it's almost August already???

I'll try to be more consistent here. I just feel so boring right now. Hope y'all are having a better week.

Just a few more...

                                                  Another ewe-lamb pair. In pink.

                                                 A lime green owl. This is some alpaca.

                                                            And 2 more little bunnies.

                                                Off to market with the rest of the critters.  

Tonight...

I went to check the boys. I have to give them all feed to get them in to the little area so I can catch certain ones I need to check. So they all come in. Except the alpacas. They are the slowest creatures around. I mean, they are in no hurry at all. So they got shut out the first round.

I put the feed in the big trough. They all gathered round. I grabbed one of the boys. I can usually tell them apart when they're out and about. But I grabbed one, slung him on his back and checked his back end. This one didn't need hosed off at all! No sign of maggots and the sack was drying up! So I just sprayed him down real good with the wound and fly sprays. Off he went to eat.

Then I grabbed the other one. Slung him down on his back and checked him. His just came right off! And no signs of maggots either! So he got doused real good too.

I am so thankful I caught this when I did. Or I do believe they would have died. There is still a chance. I'll go ahead and give them another shot of antibiotic, just in case, in the morning. Then they should be good.

It's been so dry here lately. This afternoon, I put the sprinkler on my flower garden. It was looking pretty sad. I watered the cucumber plants and the other little garden in front of the garden shed yesterday. Now I hear thunder to the South. I hope we get some rain here.

How is it looking in your part of the country?

My boys

July 4th, husband and I banded the 2 ram lambs. They were 4 months old exactly. Gave them CDT and Banamine shots too.

Then didn't think about it til a few days ago. I had been really busy all week, shopping for Mrs. T's birthday weekend. She has been saying for the past year she's going to be 100 on her birthday. She's really 97 now. But we all let it go and let her keep saying it. So this was going to be "the big one" for her and they all wanted it to be special. So I was going nearly every day, shopping and other things for this.

A few days ago, I noticed the boys lifting their legs a lot and laying down. But it didn't register in my brain why.

So yesterday morning, I got all the sheep in the little pen and grabbed some feed. I grabbed a lamb and turned him over and was met with maggots. All over the poor guys rear area. I freaked out. It was awful.

I had to go get stuff to clean them with and sprays. I got 2 LA200 shots and some Vetericyn spray get and home made fly spray. That's all I had on hand. So I grabbed one of them and got them on their back. Sprayed the area really good with the hose. Then poured the Vet gel in and sprayed them all over with fly spray.

Then later that afternoon, before going to Mrs. T's, we went to Tractor Supply. I got a can of wound spray and sheep fly spray. I had 2 shots of Banamine left. So got them again. Sprayed them off really good, doused them with the wound spray and fly spray and a shot of Banamine.

This morning, I only had to hose one of them off. Doused them both really good with wound and fly spray. Tomorrow, another shot of LA200 antibiotic.

They both are eating and have been. They look so much better today though. I felt horrible for them. Poor guys. I should have known, this time of year, with the heat and so many flies, that I should have been keeping them both sprayed down good. But lesson learned. I will NOT do this again! I think they'll both be ok now. I'll continue doing this til the testicle sacks fall off. They are just about ready to. I know, I should have taken them to the vet. But it was Sunday. He would have done the same things I did. But could have cut them off and maybe stitched them up good. I can do that myself as well. And might end up doing it. But I figure I can keep them sprayed really good with the wound and fly spray.

SO, another reason to not have more lambs.