Sunday, June 4, 2017

More babies!

The 3 Mockingbird eggs hatched last week! This is them not too long after hatching. All mouth!




                               This is them a week later. Getting some feathers, but not many yet.





Every time I say something to them, their mouths go wide open! SO cute. The parents are doing a good job. But, this nest is about 3 feet off the ground, in this maple tree in the garden. I have been hacking away at it over the years. It's got a wild rose in it too. So not many branches with leaves on them. And it's supposed to rain today. I want to go put my canopy over them. But my husband says to let nature do what it will do. Maybe the mother will cover them with her wings if it gets too bad.




I went in the milk room yesterday evening and looked up and there were all the barn swallows, hanging out at thei Then they all flew out and were flying all over with Sam and Rosie. I love them.

Friday, June 2, 2017

Beautiful day


I decided to take my fleeces to a mill. I called yesterday and talked to the man who owns Golden View Alpaca and Mini Mill in Kodak, Tn. Not too far from me, maybe a 2 hour drive. So I am outside today, skirting all these MANY bags of wool from my sheep. Listening to Celtic music and birds chirping and sheep chewing their cud. What an amazing way to spend a beautiful Friday!

P.S. Annabelle only has a little bit of puffiness under her jaws now! I've been giving her Red Cell, hoping to get her blood built back up to fight this. I believe she will pull through.

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Annabelle



This is Annabelle last night. So puffy. But this morning, she's just a little and mostly like loose skin. But probably by tonight, it'll look like this again. She's up and eating and seems ok. I am giving her and all the others Red Cell every day til they are better. All the others look great. Just Annabelle is still hanging on to these horrible nasty worms.

Her mother, Lucinda, died from Barber Pole worms when Annabelle was about 4 months old. It was so horrible. I didn't know much about it then. But did all I could for her. She was my favorite ewe. Black and had the prettiest wool. So maybe Annabelle is just more susceptible to these worms.

And she had quads too. But is only raising one of them. The other 3 are with my friend's 3 kids, who love them to pieces! They are named Arwen, Galadriel and Gandalf. They all look just like the other lamb, Goldberry. And all very healthy and happy. And spoiled.

I hope I can pull Annabelle through this. I'll worm them all again about the 7th.

I think one thing that made this worse is the lambs would jump up in the trough when I fed them. And of course they had poop on their feet. So I don't feed them in the trough any more, only in pans and those feeders that hang. So the lambs have theirs and the ewes have theirs now.

And it is NOT fun having to drench 8 sheep every day! I can't even imagine having more than 8.

So please say a little prayer for my sheep, that they get over this. Thanks!