I like toys so much .......................

I bought myself another one.  It's a Newer Spreader, manure spreader, along with the manure I added pasture seed and spread it several places on the pastures.  If it improves the grass I will seriously seed some pastures next year.  I used a rye, orchard grass, clover mix, if we continue to have rain in the forecast I may get one more bag of seed.



Dollar likes to go out and play with my toys too ...................



Wonder why I never get anything done ..................................

 After I finished my 2 cups of coffee this morning and check several blogs,  I went out and moved 10 yearling dorpers up to the top pasture and noticed the mail man was making his deliveries early again today.  Decided to go get the mail, before finishing chores.  As I walked out the driveway I noticed this ewe with triplets and another ewe with twins and ............. a stupid older lamb with his head stuck in the fence all out in the front pasture by the road.  So, went and helped the stupid one get his head out of the fence, brought the ewe with triplets across the driveway to the pasture with the rest of the lambs.  Then went back for the other ewe and her twins.  By then the rest of the 30 sheep were hanging out at the gate thinking they would join us.  After taking the lambs out, got the ewe to the  gate only to have the lambs crawl back thru bottom of the gate to her.  Finally got one lamb, put it in the stock trailer, good way to get them to call holler for mama, chased the rest away from the gate and got her moved across the driveway.

Triplet ram lambs



Twin ewe lambs



One set of Wednesday's twins, ,,,,,,,,,,
notice their matching outfits?



They are everywhere ...............
 hmmm don't see all my graffiti some has faded from the rains



Forgot about the 2 white Angora Billy Goats born last week, both singles.

So my to do list just continues to get longer and longer.  And in about 6 weeks the Shetland ewes should be lambing ............... can't wait.  You know what, I bet the dust, cobwebs and laundry will be waiting for me and the weeds too.
  

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Funny how some plants are viewed, wildflowers vs. weeds, vs. noxious weeds.  Right now the wildflowers are in full bloom.  My favorite is right up the road ... lots of bushes of Lupine in full bloom.   Love Lupine in a vase with lots of Daffodils.



The Good ... Lupine



Then there is this weed, a type of Mallow, everyone I know calls it Cheese Weed because the seed pods look like small wheels of cheese.  The leaves look almost like a Geranium, but the seed pods are similar to a Hollyhock.  Cheese Weed has a very long tap root and I have had it grow to over 6 feet tall if left alone.  Sheep and Goats love Cheese Weed, but unless I move the fences all the way to the house I'll never get rid of it, Sheep and Goats like all the rest of my plants too, especially roses.

The Bad ... Cheese Weed

And then there is Stinging Nettle, you need leather gloves to pull this weed, there are small hair like parts to this weed that you do not want to touch.  However it is supposed to make excellent herbal tea.  Nettle has square stems like mint and it spreads like mint.


And The Ugly .... Stinging Nettle


I think in spite of the snow last week Spring is officially here, the sun was out today and it was nice and in the 70's, however more rain on the way.  I should not complain about the rain at least it is making and keeping the pastures green which means less hay to buy.

Happy Spring.

Barns



Old wood barn, to the left in back is a cattle loading chute.  There used to be a 2 story house

here made of round river rocks I drove by one day and it was completely demolished, not a trace of it wish I had taken pictures of it before it was gone.  Doesn't look like the barn is used for anything and no one living there anymore.



 Old hay barn by side of the road a little way up from the other barn

Lambs / Kids

Sun is out today, but there is still snow on all the mountains around me, love to look at it and not have to shovel it.

 one of the Boer Billies

So far there are 3 Boer babies, 2 billies, 1 doe, one more doe to kid.  I did take a picture of the twins

but for some reason all that shows in the picture is part of the fence and an ear.

Just a few of the Dorpers

This morning one more of the Dorpers lambed with just a single.  I am beginning to think I need to change

 my system of leaving ram with the ewes for year round breeding, especially since this winter has been so strange.  The advantage is there are lambs at various ages at all times.  I still need to seriously need to downsize the dorpers again since now their headcount is back up around 60 or more.

 

Yeah it's posting pictures ........................................

Dang it is cold outside, there is snow on the mountain across the road ..................

and looking east .............................

and looking north ..........................................

And right now it is time to go out and do chores and it is really, really dark outside right now (3:45 pm) last 2 days we have had heavy hail while I have been outside feeding.  Dollar and Bella do not like hail at all.  Sheep are not real fond of it either.

Change my name to Sara .............

I have tried several more times to post pictures of lambs/kids.  I had started this post some time ago with the intentions of adding some newer pictures.  I think we are getting our total rainfall for the season last night and today and it is windy and cold.  Since I can't post new pictures here are some older ones ................. here is an old picture of my patio, this year there are lots more daffodils in bloom right now. Table below is now just behind where the chair is.

Part of the patio with planter box



Then I built a table using dry stacked cinder blocks for support, with shelf underneath.


If anyone knows the story of Sarah Winchester and the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA, then you know she was little crazy slightly the left side of normal and kept building and building her house. Well then I guess I come by some of my projects honestly since I had 3 great grandmothers named Sara or Sarah, and one named Martha Ann, but I sure don't take after Martha Stewart. I started a small patio behind my house 2 years ago using concrete pavers and concrete blocks and caps. Some 700 pavers and untold blocks and caps and I am not done yet. Just went and bought a few more.  I have paved across the back of the house, and built a walkway around the west side of the house with another small patio.  I am now adding another planter to the left of the table and will add some more pavers to the right of the table to enlarge that area.

One of my planters is 3 blocks high for strawberrys, I planted lettuce and chinese cabbage down the center and then strawberries in all the holes around the outside.  Another planter has lettuce, brocolli, and brussel sprouts with caps around the tops of the blocks.  Having the planters this height keeps the dogs out of my veggies.  I do plant tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and corn in the ground in a separate area.  I planted peas Thursday in the new planter that is also 3 blocks high.  One of these days I will count all the pavers, blocks and caps that I have bought.

8 and counting ..................................

Well I have been trying to load pictures for several days, even left puter on overnight thinking maybe the picture would finally load.  Even though the bar shows that the picture has loaded, I still get the circle of dots.  So no pictures but here is the latest there are now 8 Dorper lambs and the "Ewe's Fat" ladies that I did get pictures to post are still FAT, and there are 4 or 5 more out there that are as fat.  The ewe that lambed last night was going to get a green dot on her shoulders as her mark.  I was leaning over the feeder to mark her and soon as she heard the PFFFFT from the spray can she bolted, so she has a long green racing stripe down her back, so naturally had to mark babies to match. 

Boer babies count is 3, 2 billies and 1 doe.  One of my Boer does has always had twin billies, this year she had her first doe.

New Addition to the Herd .....................................................

Stopped by the Nearly New Store after dropping off some things at the Salvation Army (yes I found some things there too) but could not pass up Lamb Chop, she has FAO on her sweater as in FAO Schwarz maybe????  I have had the little Lamb Chop puppet for several years.  Maybe I can introduce Lamb Chop to 20 over at Punkin's Patch.

Ewe's not Fluffy ......................

ewe is fat FAT .............

And ewe are not the only one