Stepping Up!

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Here are the before and after pictures of how
the kitchen looks as you come in the door of our house. The stairs are
gone. There was both a downstairs and upstairs set. They went down on
Sunday. It really enlarges the kitchen and makes the cook very happy.
That is an understatement. The new stairs are under construction. They
will just be going upstairs since there is another stairway to the
basement in the shop.....soon to be the living room. The stringers were
cut tonight, and one is standing in what was the office. It will be up
against a wall and take up so much less space. I can hardly wait since
when they go up, my quilting machine will follow them into the
upstairs. That will free up the shop to be a living room and give us so
much more space on the first floor. There will be a lot of work to do
in the upstairs, but so what? I am not allergic to work. I just wish
that I could do more of the construction work.

Florida and bulldogs (2)

Don't ask me why these pictures were not published with the text.

Florida and bulldogs

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This is Todd's townhouse in Fort Lauderdale and his truck sitting out in front of it. It is new construction and surprisingly quiet. It amazes me how they can plant vegetation and have it look like it has been there for years. In the north that could not happen. He said after the hurricane, a year and a half ago, many of the trees were down. Things are different there in many ways.

Now, the bulldogs are another story. Bruno, pictured with Todd, is a hoot. He is
the proverbial bulldog......stubborn as the day is long. Likes to be
sweet-talked. I don't know if that is a bulldog trait, but he doesn't
like being told to do things. He would rather be sweet-talked. The
other picture is Maggie. She and I got on famously. I really liked her.
I guess it was a woman thing. She followed me everywhere. Maybe that
was because she was still sort of a puppy. She is only about 9 months
old. The truth is.........I liked her best. I think Bruno was just a
little toooooooooo independent for me. I guess that is because he is Todd's dog. They are quite a pair.

Todd would like to move back up to Chicago. If he does and can't find a
place to live right away.............I get to keep the dogs while he
stays with friends. That would be fun. I wonder if Suni could handle
that. If she couldn't, they would have to live in the other house by
themselves. I would rather have them here. It would be a real "Super
Circus". (Remember that???? All you people from the Chicago area would
surely remember "Super Circus". But I guess that dates me. So
what???????? Being old is surely better than the alternative!!!!!)

Real winter

I have been in Florida. I left on Thursday, February 22. The STORM came on Friday, February 23. You would have thought that I had planned it. I didn't. I left Jake with a _____load of work moving snow. He couldn't get to work on Saturday, but he did go in on Sunday afternoon and work until Monday morning. What a mess. We had upwards of 24 inches of snow. So far, there haven't been any tragedies. I came home on Monday evening and haven't left this place since then. The second storm came on Thursday and has lasted until now, Saturday morning. Another mess!! Sure glad that someone invented the "skid loader". It does more than double duty.

The sheep are confined by the snow and can barely get out of their sheds. The boys can stand on top of the snow in one place. That gets a bit worrisome. Even the cows don't go out of the lean-to. Next week is supposed to have days above freezing. That will be a welcome mess. High Ridge is ready for spring.

Dicken

May 9, 1994 --- February 14, 2007

Dicken is gone. He will not be forgotten. He was always cheerful never dull. He remained a puppy always. It was hard to believe, but he always thought that if you came to our house, you must have come to see him. He could be a real pest if you didn't want to pet a German Shepherd. It was just his nature to be friendly. I only wish that he could have been out and running in the fields with us. He would have loved that. He tolerated the indoor cats and kept them in line if they got too wild. The new kitten didn't have to endure so much supervision because by this summer, Dicken has slowed down. But.......every now and then, Junior learned how to behave because the big dog let him know what he should be doing.

Dicken will be missed by all of us.

Lilies in February

I splurged and sent for these pips from a catalog. I thought it might cheer me up in the dead of winter. Little did I know that we would have such a cold snap just when the lilies were really getting going. Right now they are in their prime. The smell is awesome. I have them on my little table that I wedged into a space between my fridge and a window. Now I can sit down and have breakfast or lunch and look out the window. I sure do crave natural light. On the side of the fridge I have family pictures and other memorabalia to light up the space. The flowers are just the crowning touch for me. It makes a nice cozy little, very little, corner for me to eat and read and sniff the flowers and look outside to see the cold February weather.

It has been and will be a small place of peace for me while I deal with my new medical problem called long lasting headache........like two weeks and three days with 2 days off. I am very tired of it. I have so much work to do.

Snowy sheep

Here are the sheep finally today. First the girls coming over to the fence for cookies and then at the fence wanting to know when the cookies are coming. The two white ones are not related although they are a mature ewe and a ewe lamb from last year.

Second is the cows at their feeder which was newly filled with their hay for the week. You can't see them very well, but you can also see our road in the background which gives you an idea of how much snow we have.

The boys are third. They just got back outside together this morning. They have been running and leaping ever since. I guess they are quite happy to be outside again, but it was good for them to be together in a small place after breeding pens.

The two boys head to head are Tommy and Linus, dad and son. The other picture is the three of them playing "ring around the log". It is a new game that they have made up. It is so good to go out with the dogs and hear all the bells ringing. There is only one that does not yet have a bell. I sure do like the bells.

Now, if the cows just had bells I would be really happy.

Bullen Birthday Club

For want of a better term, this is most of the members of the Bullen Birthday Club. Two people were missing when we got together on Saturday night at Tammy's house in Franklin. I have not been with them since last January due to the distance and the gas prices. The group was formed in adversity when we all taught at Bullen Middle School together. None of them teach there now. Three of us are retired, and several of them are envious of our position.......not without good reason. We are a diverse group and span the age barrier. One, who we are vastly proud of, is pursuing her Phd degree. We range from single to engaged to divorced to married. The married members are in all stages of married life. Some are grandparents many times over. One works in an administrative type position; two teach in a college part time. We span the width of teaching including math, 3 languages, reading, English, social studies and science. It is an unusual link that brought us together and forced us to start gathering when we were all employed in the same school. Adversity has its good points since it brought us all together. What a blessing. I am so happy that I am part of this group although I have lost touch since I am the only one who has moved hours from Kenosha. It is worth every minute for me to travel to the east to meet with this group of dedicated teachers and wonderful human beings. There I have said my piece, and everyone can know how I feel about the members of the Bullen Birthday Club.

More cats

The gingham dog and the calico cat just popped into my mind when I saw these two sitting on the trunk at the foot of my bed. At first they were just staring at each other, but they turned to look at me when I got the camera. I had the "calico cat" part right.

The other picture is Junior Minty Fresh up on top of the secretary at his leisure. He loves to pose for the camera when he is not in his "terrorist mode".

On Friday I tore the kitchen wall side of the stariway apart. Now we can remove the boards from the upstairs part. The lathe and plaster are all removed. It wasn't as messy as I expected. The next part for me is to take the upstairs bedroom wall apart when the new stairs will come up. The furniture is all removed from that side of the room, and it is ready for demolition. That is an invitation just waiting to happen. I must finish the quilt on the machine before I start that. I should be able to accomplish that by the end of Sunday. Monday morning should see some clouds of white powder coming from the upstairs.

Mommy and Me

This is a totally awesome picture taken by Sue Smith, my sister-in-law, in December.
The mother is Tsunami out of Zodiak and Skittles from Nancy Krohn. The daughter is Lucy out of Tsunami and Tommy (my name) from Nancy Krohn. All the credit goes to Nancy. I will only take credit for being moral support at the birth of Tsunami's lovely babies. Lucy has a twin brother named Linus.

Tsunami did not take on her first exposure when she was a year. The next year she gave me twins. What a lovely surprise for a first time ever seeing a live birth shepherd. No words can express the extreme feeling of awe it inspired in me. The only live births I have ever been present at were my own children, and I was much too wrapped up in that to be an observer. There is no comparison. We go through so much, and that ewe just laid down and screamed and pushed and produced two lovely little lambs. How have we deviated so much from the natural state? I know everything went correctly, but that is the usual. I am eagerly awaiting this event again this year then I will have to stop since I cannot just continue to have lambs and keep them.

Jungle gym

We are so glad that our human made us a new jungle gym to play on. It is especially good for me, Junior, because I still have my claws, and I NEED to climb and fool around. Pansy likes to be high up, and I love to devil her whenever possible.

Signed,

Junior Minty Fresh a.k.a. Junior Terrorist Kitty

Today's demo project

The pictures show the "during" and "after" of today's demo project. I removed the lathe and plaster from the north wall. The stairways, up and down, back up to this wall. Tomorrow I may remove a few of the boards separating the room and the upstairs stairway. It was a messy job with lots of plaster dust. There were no interesting or scary finds. By the time I cleaned up, Sue, I had spent most of the day on the project. I really should quilt tomorrow.

Where are the pictures?

Here are the pictures that did not show up on the previous post.

Snow

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Well, it snowed. About 6 inches from about 4:00a.m. to 1:00 p.m. It was beautiful until we humans started pushing it around. Now it looks awful, but I took the pictures before we went out to work. In the tree picture you can see Mellow and Linus in their pasture wanting to know what I am doing outside. They always know when I come outside, and then Mellow starts her "signature bleating". Jake says she sounds like one of those old WWI machine guns. She is funny. The other picture is the same two when they ran away from me because my camera scared them. I went out with the camera and some cookies knowing that I could lure them over to me. They are too fast for me. They came running, and the pictures were not that good. But after the two sheep got scared away, I got a decent shot of them.

Today Jake did his first work on the demolition. He took the boards off of the ceiling. It was quite a disappointment. We were hoping there would be round rafters
up there, but they are just plain rafters. Now we have to decide how we will treat that in our "new" log home. I am thinking just leave them the way they are, but that is after just half a day of seeing how it looks. This evening he removed another part of a wall. What a difference!!!! Tomorrow I will remove the lath and plaster from the
north wall, and all the walls will be bared in that room. Everything we do makes it
look better. I do not think there was anything that could have been done to this house to make it look worse than it did before we started making changes. I am not saying that we are the "master remodelers", but it was just soooooooo poor. I cannot believe that we bought it. Both Jake and I have rose colored eyeballs. We can both see how something could change for the better. Thank heaven. Now, all we have to do is "Get it Done."

Mommy & Me & A Jar

I just needed to put in a picture I call "Mommy and Me 1". This is Ami and Lucy. They are such a handsome pair. Maybe if I had more sheep, I wouldn't become so attached to them. But with just a few to baby, I can really enjoy them.

The other picture is a puzzle. I found two jars like the one in the picture in the "fruit cellar" here. They are in perfect shape except that they do not have covers. I think that they originally had covers. I have been told that they are cream separaters. Does anyone know different?

Another project completed and winter

Well, Happy Friday to everyone. It is just another day around here. The sun is shining; the wind is blowing; and I am sewing. The pictures are of the finished quilt, the whole thing this time, I hope, and the quilt on my bed with the pillowcases to match. The girl at the quilt shop is a good salesperson. She convinced me to make the pillowcases, and they are very complementary to the quilt.

It looks like we will get more snow this weekend. I waas hoping for just a little winter. I really don't want tooooooo much.

My next project is a quilt for a customer. It should be fun. Then I need to card some more wool so that I can go and spin with Nancy next Sunday. I guess that spinning should be one of my projects for the new year, too. I don't spin enough. I really need to take some of my fleeces to the mill and have them carded into roving. Maybe that would get me going. I really want to knit a purse out of the Shetland wool and then felt it. My cousin Sue had one that she had made it and was very attractive. That is on my project list.

Finished

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This is the finished product of something that I
promised to do over a year ago. It is a good feeling to have it
finished. It is my third t-shirt quilt. I have made one for each of my
boys. Dave said he wanted to put his on the wall in his house in Three
Lakes, Wisconsin. His was really cool since his aunt helped personalize
it. He now has three quilts that I have made entirely or at least
quilted. This new quilt is by far the biggest one that I have made. I
hope it is not too big.

Today I tore into some more of the back rooms. I tried to take off the paneling
on the north wall of the office, but I was unsuccessful. I was only
able to get one sheet out of three off of the wall. I need a power saw.
If that I had that, I would really be an awesome demo mama. Maybe I
will hint around for Valentine's Day.

The new "Aprilaire" on the NEW furnace was not working. A guy came yesterday to fix it. I still got a shock from the sink in the kitchen tonight. This has to end. I am extremely unhappy with static electricity. I had three small humidifiers running before the humidifier was put in on the furnace. Now I have one in the kitchen and the big one on the furnace, and it is still not enough. This is not an acceptable condition for me. Jake turned the new one up, and it better be working correctly tomorrow.

Goodby from Dryland.

Snow and quilting

Now, who wouldn't love snow when your ewe looks as adorable as Ami does in this photo. She and Tommy were just hanging around in the snow on Monday and looking adorable. I love how these Shetlands are so hardy. The snow doesn't bother them. They are seldom in their shed. Hardy is not just a word to them. I am sure happy with my choice of sheep. Thanks to Nancy K. for the sheep and all the advice she has given me over the years. Without her, this would not have been such a successful experience for me. It gives me great joy.

Now, Lucy, Ami's daughter, is in the barn. I did not breed her. She leaps about in the morning when I go into the barn to feed her. It is a joy to see. She is just leaping around in her pen waiting for me to get down the aisle to feed her and her pen mate, Millie. It just makes me laugh to see her leaping about. She just started doing that, and I haven't seen her do it outside. I hope she continues it when I put her back outside.

The other photo is the office in its stripped down state. I have removed part of the wall going into the room also. The two walls are bared down to the logs. The outside wall is stripped, and all the chinking is intact. I will have to take it out, but it sure looks good the way it is. The logs are beautiful and have not been whitewashed like the ones in the living room. That means less work for me. My next task is learning to chink.

Bridget's quilt is finished and ready to be bound tomorrow. Then on Friday I can make the pillow cases to go with it, and it will be a finished project. I have another quilt to quilt for a customer. I will start work on that next week. It shouldn't take me longer than a week. It is called hidden hearts, and the main color is blue. After that I will start work on all the other projects that I have ready to quilt here. Maybe it will be placemats to put at the restaurant gift shop. I have the material ready. I also have to bind a small baby quilt. Maybe I could do that on Friday also and have it ready for the shop on Sunday. Time will tell.

The sheep are late to be in their breeding groups. (Small groups, for sure) I hope it wasn't too late. However, maybe Mellow and Millie are pregnant from their former home. We will see in March. It could be a big surprise for me. If they aren't, I will hope for lambs from Mellow and Ami in early May if they settled.

We have about four inches of snow as of Sunday/Monday. I guess it is good to have winter and snow. Tonight it is very cold, about 0 degrees F. It is our first really cold snap this season. That does not break my heart since the winter is well on its way.

quilting and demolition

This is a picture of a quilt in progress. It is a t-shirt quilt for Jake's daughter who was in the U. of Minnesota marching band from 1999 to 2002. I said I would make this for her quite a while ago. I have already made one for each of my boys. I am finally going to get it done. I don't know what inspired me to get going on it, but it seems to be turning out OK. It is ready to go onto the quilting machine now. I have the backing already on and the batting cut. Now I just need to correct an error I made in the embroidery on the quilt top, and I can put it on the machine and begin quilting.
When I finish, I will make pillow cases to go with it since Carolyn at the quilt shop said that is "hot" right now. I have made some for my brother and sister-in-law for Christmas, but Carolyn gave me a pattern to put a different colored material on for the trim. They should be a good addition to the quilt.

Demo derby began tonight. I removed those 12 X 12 inch acoustical tiles that were on the ceiling and some woodwork from the door to the laundry. Jake says that I can remove the inside wall and reveal the logs on the outside south wall. That will be the first outside wall that we have opened up. It shouldn't be a probelm since it is a southern exposure protected from the west winds, and I keep the heat vent in there covered. If it gets tooooooo cold, I will just open the vent. I need to visit a new acquaintance to see her log home. She did all the chinking all by herself on the whole house, inside and out. She said that she will come out here to see our house and to help me get started with my chinking job. I will chink the two walls in the office/soon to be laundry room before Jake moves the laundry in there. That should keep my busy for a while. I can hardly wait.

I am obsessing about when my two sheep would be due to lamb. I purchased them on October 14. At that time they were in with a ram. I have no idea when they went in with the young man so I have no idea when they might present me with lambs. I will have to keep a close watch on them. It is a lot harder to check for bagging up when they have so much wool. I think it will be a "hands on" thing. (That was always good in the classroom.) The older ewe is, like her name, Mellow. I don't think she will mind my "feeling her up" to check on progress. The ewe lamb is a different story although she is getting much better. They both have collars and bells, so I will be able to hold on to them while I check them out.

Note to Dream from Lucy: "Did you know that your mom is my grandma? Don't you think we look alike?"

Sorry about that

I a still getting the hang of this blog thing. I have to use a browser that I normally do not use since: I am an Apple person. I have no idea why it is all broken up. It was fine for a while. I will include the picture it didn't print here and hope for the best.

Lucky Me

It is finally going to happen. For those of you who don't know about my
living situation, I will recap. Jake and I bought this farm 4 1/2 years
ago. The house needed work (understatement), but the land was was we
wanted. After all was said and done we were living in a "shit hole".
The former owner was the original and the greatest cobbler. Nothing was
done correctly, but it was done. After selling our home inKenosha and
buying all the equipment we needed to be "farmers", there was not
enough money left to put on the addition that would make this place
livable. Neither of us had ever lived in conditions like this.

We
live in a two story log house with a one story addition to one side. Of
course, there is also a living room, a bedroom, and a small room added
to the log stuff which doesn't include the porch which has its own
porch. Speaking of cobblers!!!! We want to restore the log part and get
rid of the bedroom and small room and porches. THEN.....we would move
the one room school house on the property over to the log house and
connect the two with a dog trot. I know that sounds ambitious, but what
else have we got to do.

Now for the "lucky" part. We got a new
furnace in mid December. Because of the sheet metal work to provide
heat for my shop, the basement stairway which divides the original log
home in half is no longer usable. Jake said we may as well go ahead and
begin doing the work on the log house now. Praise God,Hallelujah !!!!
That means we will change the stairway, kitchen and bathroom----just
the basis of the whole house. I don't even care if it means that things
will improve. Hence the pictures that I have included. They show the
room that is the first to be cleared, where the piano went and how
crowded the back room is now. What difference does it make? It means
tha t progress is being made. I am a greatdemolition worker. I tear into things like no body's
business. All Jake has to do is say "I guess we could change that", and
when he comes home from work, things have begun to change. Movement is
improvement.

End of the year

The year is ending. Much has changed here at High Ridge Farm. This spring was our first involvement with birthing. We were extremely lucky. My only ewe had twin lambs, a black ram and a Hst ewe. Linus and Lucy are well and growing. The cows produced six calves. One died from something the vet couldn't understand. The calf just failed to thrive and lived about two months before we had to put him down. Two cows did not calve and we will see how that goes this spring.

In late summer, I bought two new sheep, a mature ewe and a lamb. They are wonderful. Mellow, the mature ewe, lives up to her name, and Millie has become my friend. I don't know for sure if the cookies are responsible, but I am pretty sure that they are. They are both white and were exposed to a F2 ram at their former home. Right now Mellow is in with Linus and Ami and Tommy are together again. Lucy and Millie are in the barn. I did not want to breed the lambs this year. Millie could have been put in with Linus or Tommy, but Lucy couldn't have been bred. We will see how this turns out in the lamb department.

The bull is in with the cows again. I hope we will have more calves from him this spring. Our total is up to 20 bovine creatures now. Eleven cows, one bull, and eight calves. Three of the calves are a year old, and the others come in at six months. Unfortunately, only three of the eight are heifers. The other five will go to the butcher. They all seem healthy and furry. My only regret is that they are not able to be handled. Since they were born out on pasture, I never got a chance to tame them. The cows that I can touch are the flower girls that we brought with us to High Ridge.

The sheep are all wearing bells, except for Ami. I will get her when I transfer her out of the back pasture when the girls get back together after breeding. My breeding groups got together real late because of logistical problesm, but when it did happen, I was able to do all of the moving all my myself which made me very proud. One of the main reasons that I chose the Shetland breed was because of their size. I am able to handle them and that is very important.
Right now Dickie, Lucy, and Millie are enjoying their time in the barn with their Christmas lights. They will go back out at the end of January. I will lamb late if my pairing settle, but that is OK with me. I will have to watch for Mellow and Millie to lamb early because of their exposure to that ram before I bought them. All in all I am happy with my shepherding experience for this year. I now have seven sheep, four ewes, two rams, and a wether.

The house pets have increased by one this year. In June a kitten showed up here. After Jake saw it for real and believed me that their was a kitten runnning around here, we captured him with a tiny live trap. After a small gender mistake by the vet, Junior became a new house cat. He is long haired, gray striped with white nose, cheeks, bib, and legs. He had a mega case of ringworm which I think caused him to become homeless. He did his isloation weeks in the upstairs bedroom where we treated and shared the ringworm. I had it in twelve places before all was said and done. When he came down to join the rest of the gang, he became the terror of the county. He has livened up many of our evenings. I sure hope he becomes more loving soon because he is a little pistol right now.

Dick is failing fast, and I don't think he will be with us much longer. His back legs are getting weaker and weaker, and this morning he wasn't eager to eat his food. I will not let him suffer.

The outside cats continue to thrive and we did not have any accidents this year. The only one that had to be in the "kitty hospital" was Baby Kitty because of her herpes virus that she seems to carry. I think she is doing OK now. She is certainly more weighty than she ever was before. She and Squirt Kitty seem to feel that the schoolhouse is their rightful home. I don't have a problem with that since this week they killed a mouse in there. That is just what I want them to do. I am so proud of them.

Animal-wise, I guess that is about it for this year. Next year will bring new work and new joy.
I hope for many new births like we had last year. The joy and wonder of that was beyond even my expected belief. I was able to be with Ami when the twins were born. What an experience!!
We did not get to see any of the calves born, maybe next year. It really doesn't matter, healthy and happy is what matters. In reality I have to find an outlet for my wool and for some of the sheep born here. I cannot continue to breed unless I find new homes or butcher some of the sheep. I will leave that for another day.

Larger family

Well, as of today, we are up to 75% in the calf department. The total would be four boys and 2 girls. That is not exactly what we were hoping for, but they are all well and the births were uneventful. The colors are interesting. The bull is black with a white belt. The heifers were either black with white faces or just black. They produces one with a white face, one with a white on his face, two with partial belts, one all black, and born last --- one brown calf with a full belt and white on his face.

They are all named after characters in the Charlie Brown comic strip. Charlie was born first - black with white on face. Schroeder was next - black with partial white belt. Sally was next - black with partial white belt. Then came Spike - black with a white face. Next came Peppermint Patti - all black. Last came Pig Pen - brown with white belt and white on face.

They are a cool group. It is fun to watch them race around the pasture with tails held high. It is also very interesting to watch how the mothers keep track of their own calf. Some of them are very consistent and others seem to care a lot less. Twice now I have seen a calf nursing on a mother that is not his real mother. I am a little worried about Schroeder. He does not seem as lively as he was at the beginning, and he has been nursing on another mother.

Out of all of those six calves, I have yet to see a calf born. Jake and I sat in the barn with Poppy for over an hour and waited while she labored. We went into to the house just to eat and when I went back out there, Spike was on the ground and getting a good licking my his new mom. I think that she planned it that way. Pig Pen was born on a wet morning, and even though that was a name that hadn't been used, by the next morning he had lived up to it. His nose was covered with mud and so was his side where his white belt was. I didn't even know until the other day that he has one white foot. His feet had been covered with mud. He is a cute big boy.

Calving

We now have four calves. Three boys and one girl. That is 50% since we have 8 cows who could have calved. The way it looks we should have at least one more. That could be the end of it. The calves are all black and white. The two that came out of our Hereford/Holstein crosses have white heads and black bodies. The other two have white on their sides with the rest black. It is really nice to look out at the pasture and see the cows and their calves.

Now as to motherhood (since Mother's Day is this weekend)-------It would seem that all cows have a somewhat different idea of what their role is in the whole process. Although all of them do the basic stuff, they don't all follow through the same. Violet is the best mother. She is always sure that Charlie is nearby. She keeps real good track of him. Pepper was a real protective mom in the barn, but is kind of ho-hum outside. Fuzzy, on the other hand, is down right neglectful of poor Sally. Here she had the only heifer, and she leaves her laying out in the field and just goes about her business. Today Sally was left in the lean-to with Schroeder after their mothers had finished their afternoon naps and gone outside. Now who would just leave two darling little calves like that? Poppy is still in the barn with yesterday's calf. We will see how she cares for Spike when they go outside at the end of the week. It is certainly an interesting thing to watch.

The sheep on the other hand is downright paranoid about her babies. She keeps a tight rein on them. She is watching over them very well. It is fun to watch how they interact. The lambs are venturing further from her as the days go by, but anyting strange sends them bleating and scampering back to their mom. Today they spent more of the day outside in the rain. When I fed Mom in the evening, the little ones were as dry as could be. I guess the rain did not hurt them. Their wool was still curly. I sure wish I knew their secret. My hair can't do that.

All in all, spring is really a miracle here. The birth of all these critters is a positive lift that can't be beat. Being a woman, I was never an observer at a birth or post-birth observance. I like it and marvel at it. It has been a inspiring experience for me.

More highlights

I know; I haven't posted in a very long time. That is not to say that nothing has been going on around here. In the last week we have had two lambs and two calves. It has been a hoot.

Last Tuesday about 4:30 in the afternoon, Ami gave us twin lambs. The boy is all black with just a few white hairs on his head. The girl has two while stockings on her back feet, a white head with black eye rings, black tips on her ears and two spots at the corners of her mouth. She also has a tiny white feather on her tail. They are both healthy, and their mother knew exactly what to do throughout the whole thing. I am totally impressed. They are getting friendly and let me scratch their necks when they come up to me with their mother.

Sunday morning there was a calf in the lean-to. It belonged to Violet; she is one of the four flower girls that we first planned to start a cow-calf operation with. Charlie is a funny little guy. He is all black except for his face which looks like someone took a brush and just slopped black paint all over it. It is so cool. He is calm and cool and able to be handled because his mother is also able to be handled.

Today was another story. As I drove up the hill away from the farm, I saw that one cow was all by herself at the far end of the pasture. I turned around and went back. When I checked on her, I could see that something was going on. She mowed like crazy when she saw me. I checked her two more times at about half hour intervals. Then the next time I went out there, I saw a flash of white in the alalfa field. Her newborn calf was out in the field. No wonder she was mowing. When the calf laid down, he was invisible. I went out there and got him back in with his mother, and later got both of them into the lean on the barn. That is where they are now.

We are still waiting for Poppy to calf. She is ready. Now we have another space crunch. The calf was out of the field up by the barn, and can't be left outside until he is sure to stay in the enclosure. Jake has to come up with a new plan tonight.