Summer Wrap Up



It's hard to believe that summer is over, and up here the landscape is already changing from green to gold.  It seems like the last few months sort of blew by, and I've been scolded lately for not updating.  And rightfully so, because I thought "Didn't I just do that?" and then looked at the blog and in the last post Dawa was just a baby and now she's three months old.  Yikes.

 

 

Dawa spent the summer frolicking, tormenting Adam by escaping the fence (we found her in the driveway once, playing head-butting games with the very confused chickens) and growing, growing, growing.  She's very proud of her teeny tiny horns coming in and loves to try them out on anyone and anything.  She's definitely a pip.

 

But she's no longer the smallest yak in our herd.



 

 

Two days ago Niobe, who we spent the summer despairing would never give birth, finally had her calf.  Seriously, we were starting to think that maybe she had just *ahem* put on some weight.  (A LOT of weight).   But she was really and truly pregnant and just took her sweet time about it.

 

 

The new calf is solid black and beautiful and everybody is healthy and doing well.  Adam hasn't been able to get close enough to find out whether it's a boy or girl, but we're hoping in the next day or so.

 

 

 

The rest of the herd is doing really well and enjoying the cooler weather starting to come through.

Gaia

 

Octavia

 

Vorenus

 

 

We also acquired a new rooster this summer.  A rebellous spirit found himself in trouble with the Powers That Be at the farm Adam works at, and was headed for some severe punishment for his crimes.  A bit of a rebellous spirit himself, Adam took pity on the little rooster who bucked authority and gave him a stay of execution.  He moved to our farm, where he's settled nicely into our flock.  Meet Codburn. 

 





 

 

 

In mill related news, the last update from Belfast has the machines scheduled to be delivered late November/ early December.  We've been busy cleaning out the garage and making some necessary repairs.  After moving everything out of the front room, we discovered that the floor by the window was a little "mushy."  The ancient linoleum was ripped up and we discovered that not only was the plywood rotted, but the support beams were as well.  So now we have a big hole awaiting new supports and flooring.

 



 

The water tank is in, and the back room is being prepared for the washing system and picker.

 

It looks really rough right now, but it's still miles better than it was when we started.  A lot of work will be done in the next few weeks to get us ready for the machines to arrive.  We can't wait to see it all come together, and I promise to be a lot better about posting the updates as the changes happen. 

It's a Girl!

Her name is Dawa- which is the Tibetan name meaning moon or Monday's child.  As she was born on Monday, which happened to be a full moon, we thought it was pretty fitting for our first baby.

 

Rene came off the hill yesterday to get a drink and rejoin the rest of the herd, so Dawa got to rub a lot of noses.  She hid under Mom a lot, but she's pretty spunky so nothing scared her for too long, not even Pullo.  We're hoping Niobe gives birth quickly and safely so that she has a playmate her own size soon. 

Pictures

Yesterday Rene let people close enough to see the little one and it was drinking and running amok.  Adam even got some closer pictures.

Where sheep may (loudly) graze

Eirene and the baby are doing well- the little one is up  and eating and bopping around, but Rene is being a very protective mom and has refused to indulge the paparazzi.  So far they've been sticking to the high grass up on the farthest pasture, always with a bull body-guarding to make sure that no adventurous farmer gets too close.  So we have to wait until she relents and moves to a pasture that has been eaten down.

In the meantime, pictures of sheep.

Last weekend we weaned Ziggy and put him over with the rams.  We also moved two CVM halfbreeds from Adam's parents' farm to ours. 

Azi is a CVM/Jacob cross

Crowley is a CVM/Shetland cross

Fans of Neil Gaiman will recognize the names from Good Omens.  Aziraphale and Crowley, an angel and a demon- which suits our opposite little lambs.  They were not very happy about leaving their farm and their mothers, so we had a Greek chorus of lamb wailing all weekend long. 

Which was disruptive to just about everyone else on the farm, especially the ewes they are penned up with.

Maiden

Dutchess

Even our super sweet Princess was desperate for them to shut up.

But they seem to have calmed down a bit, each day gets a little bit quieter, so we're hoping that the keening will stop altogether very soon.

Besides, Azi is way cuter when she's happy.

New Arrival

Adam has been doing a yak head count every morning and night for weeks.  This afternoon, the count was one higher.

Eirene has given birth to one very wee yak.

(and by wee, I mean that it is currently about the same size as our border collie)

Mom and baby are doing just fine, moving from one patch of tall grass to another.  We don't know yet whether it's a boy or girl, but hope to find out soon.  And Niobe should be next!

News

We finally got our internet back, so an update of some of the new things on the farm.

We got the squeeze chute to groom the yaks, so hopefully we will be able to get some yak fiber this year.

The yaks, meanwhile, are out on the grass.  We're pretty sure that Niobe is pregnant.

We installed some temporary solar electric fences for the sheep, so that they can eat down areas we can't mow easily.

Ziggy has gotten big!

We also had the holding tank for the water put in and the space for the business cleaned out.  Adam is leaving for Prince Edward Island next week to get trained on the machines and put in our order.  We still have a little bit of cleaning and painting to do and the plumber needs to make some changes to make everthing ready for the mill, but things are definitely moving along.

Checking In

Wow.  So I popped onto the blog this morning because I hadn't checked in for awhile and my first thought was... the last post was March 24.  Really?  Our little Ziggy Stardust is over a month old now?  And then- what on earth happened to April?  It was just... whoosh.  Gone.  How can it be May already?

Our internet is down on the farm at the moment- Verizon seems to have a great deal of difficulty grasping that spring storms = DSL issues, but hopefully we can get some pictures up really soon.  A lot of great things have been happening in the last month!


We had one sad note though- we lost Milady.  She had also gotten pregnant, like Dutchess, but had lost the lamb in utero and didn't pass it.  As she never got any bigger and her milk never dropped, we didn't realize that she had been bred, and because she had the issues with prolaspe last year, she had a lot of difficulty when she did go into labor. 



On a much happier note- Ziggy and Dutchess are doing great.  Zig loves to torment his bigger half sister- Maiden- who only barely tolerates him.  I didn't think it was possible for a sheep to flounce, but she definitely has a bit of a pissy flounce to her whenever he comes near her.  She reminds me of a teenage girl with a pesky younger brother.  I think if she could talk there would be a lot of "Moooooom, make him stop bothering me!" 

I'm hoping we can get a tech person out in the next day or two; I can't wait to post some pictures.  And for everyone waiting for a mill update- we have some progress to show off!