off to a slow start

Well we had our first set of lambs born Super Bowl Sunday. All went well and when I went out to feed that evening mom had them all cleaned up . I put them in the jug and all seemed well. The temperatures plummeted in the next days and I worried with temperatures in the singles and below zero over night that these lambs may not make it. But they did. I usually keep twins in the jug for two or three days. Sad to say that somehow one of the lambs squeezed out of the jug and must have gotten trampled . I was to let them out later that day but came out to find her dead in the main barn. She must has slipped through where I have the gate to get in the jug. We secured a strip of plywood up. So sad, and a nice little ewe lamb too.

Then the next ewe who has always twined popped a single out several days later, a ram lamb darn it.

A lull for a week and when we had that nice few days in the 50's a ewe lambed late evening. I knew she was going to go and with the moon close to full I was able to keep and eye out with binoculars. Around 10:30  I noticed she had a lamb following her. So went out grabbed her two lambs and jugged them. I am irritated that I neglected to check her bag. I was tired and just did not bother. I had never bred her before, I should have checked her.   The next morning after the temperatures dropped over 30 degrees overnight, I found the lambs looking weak and chilled and feeble baas's . I knew this was not right. Checked the ewes bag and found she must have been a "cull" that I purchased and did not know she should not have been bred. Her bag was hard and no milk could be drawn off her. Lambs in the house and Colostrum frozen from last years lambing thawed and I attempted to save these two. They rallied and dropped over the next days. The Ram lamb lost first and the ewe lamb the following night. Heartbreaking.
Then another lull and another set of twins. Two days ago another set of twins. Other than the first set of ewe twins we have been having a ewe and ram lamb sets. So, I feel not off to a great start with six surviving and three dead lambs. Next year I will not lamb anything this early.
Nine more hair ewes to go.
Wool sheep due starting late May.

south west corner of farm

okay giving this video thing another go. It seems to be the full video but quality is less. I'll have to give my friend a call and have her daughter walk me through this!

south west side of farm

another go with the camcorder. Filmed this last week. It is/was a longer video. I don't know what happened to the rest of it! This happened with another video .Somehow they get cut off just after the minute mark.
I find that my old tired eyes have some issue with the tiny screen. I just am not really sure of what I am looking at or filming when I look though it. I'll get the hang of it.

It has been a mixed bag of weather..sub zero cold,with blowing wind no wind at all and I think I may have even seen the sun a few times to relativity mild (I'm talking high 20's to a bit above the freezing mark ) but accompanied with 20-30 mph winds. OR SNOW!
Yeah , yeah I know it was just a few short blogs ago I was going on about embracing the winter. Well I did, I have and now I just want to kick it's ass to the curb.

Pileated Woodpecker

Do you remember the cartoon "Woody Woodpecker" ?
I loved that cartoon. I still have my favorite cereal bowl and mug  as a child that were ( plastic) a wooden bowl and mug with Woody's face on them.
I found Woody alive and well in the woods on our farm.

I have been trying to photograph one of these birds since moving here. Yesterday I was out for a walk with the dogs. I had my camcorder, but oh how I wish I had my trusty Canon with the zoom lens. I was able at least to record this guy  (or girl )
These woodpeckers are about a foot and a half long from head to tail. In flight they look prehistoric. They are very aloof birds. Living in mature woods .

young dog training blues part two

early spring?

Well Phil, the famous PA Groundhog did not see his shadow. Early spring?  I sure hope so.
We were spared many of the early winter snow storms but have made up for it the past few weeks.
I am running out of places to dump this stuff.

Not too much to report here other than I have spent a lot of time digging out from snow after snow storm.

Got the tractor stuck a few times and the truck once in some deep drifts.

We had snow,about knee deep then some freezing rain. Then really cold weather freezing the top layer almost thick enough for me to walk on top ...almost. That has got to be the worse going of all. A few steps up on top, then a foot crashes through the ice and you sink deep to your knee in snow. You have to pull your leg straight up and out or you'll hit that ice layer and propel forward, most likely falling into the snow altogether. The dogs are able to walk on top so it is not too bad for them. We have had a inch or two of snow each night so that is giving a little bit of traction for walking.

The dogs are thoroughly disgusted with the lack of activity for them . Pouting and sulking have become a favorite pass time.

The Katahdin ewes should be starting to lamb soon. I hope the deep cold we have been enduring the past month or more stays north from here on out.

The sheep have been blasting through the hay supply.

I am glad I have no worry about throwing out as much as I want to feed them , no worries about deliveries or running out.

The chickens have been off in egg production.I am sure mostly because we have been hovering in single digit at night and barely making out of the teens during the day for many weeks on end. They are using their calories keeping warm over producing eggs.

The other day I was collecting the eggs and found this weird little egg. I have friends who had mentioned getting these little ping pong sized eggs but this was the first one for me. Hardly worth the effort of wrapping a shell around!

Not much else going on really. I have been sort of blue lately. Partly because I had made some great training progress with the two young dogs. I had climbed to the next level of training...where it starts to get really fun and the dogs start coming on fast because they have a good understanding of what you are expecting. With the amount of snow down I think it will be quite some time before we can get back to it.

I am also dealing with a surgical situation that will put me down and out for a good six weeks. I am very conflicted about it. My G.P is advising me to not do it unless I absolutely need to and the specialist is indicating I need to have the surgery. If I do, it needs to be done soon. I don't want it messing up this trial season as I seem to have something keeping me away from getting out to many every year and I also have the hay season to think about. I can't not be able to pull my weight and help out.

If I can put it off I will.

I am going for a surgical consult and another ultrasound in the next few weeks and will figure out what I need to do , I hope.

ass backwards

well the videos are are backwards...Cam-a-lot should be first, then back pasture , ending with west pasture.
I am not sure how to move them and a show I enjoy "The Middle" is on so it is as it is.

swift star farm/ west pasture

swift star farm/ back pasture

welcome to Cam -A - Lot

I have finally taken the plunge, bit the bullet and purchased a camcorder.

I made three videos of the farm today. I'll tell you the truth it was not easy going. We had a wicked storm that was winding down as I attempted my filming debut.
I know pretty bad, but I'm learning with the help of my friend and her teenage daughter. I uploaded to You Tube and then to here...only did I figure out on the last video how to get the high Definition quality to come thorough.
So hopefully I'll be able to show some real footage of the dogs working instead of still shots from a camera.
That is if the snow ever goes away!