You know its hot when.....

I thought of several headings for this blog. My favorite wast he one I posted. The other was "You know its dry when". Those ducks followed that sprinkler ALL DAY in the 90 degree heat and humidity. And I thought ducks were dumb!

Its too hot/sticky to write much more but thought this photo was humorous enough to share! Stay cool!

Bendi Ebonwald Smthing 2 Prove

Please meet the newest Ebonwald addition!! "Zoe" as we call her is a gorgeous little spit fire girl with loads of FLASH and ATTITUDE! Many thanks to Wanda Bendinelli of Bendi Cardigans in Olivia, Minnesota! I anxiously await her debut in Hutchinson, MN in October! As her registered name implies, I have something to prove with this little girl! Big hopes for her! Her ears are so big (which is a good thing!) that she is currently being 'taped' so when they are finally hardened up we will debut a new photo!

A 'Shocker' of a morning!

If any of you have been following me moaning and groaning with these miniature horses you'll be glad to know that lo and behold Annie was indeed pregnant! I hadn't been out yet this morning when my dad called my house and told me to look out the window into the pasture. There in the tall grass was a teeny head sticking out standing next to his mom! I literally tripped over my own feet running out to check.

Boy.

Ah nuts. Now I have to wait until next year and hope for a girl. I was hoping for a girl so she'd keep her momma company in a seperate paddock. Now I'll have to keep him seperate from his mom and him from his dad. His daddy wasn't too happy to see him this morning LOL.

In April I built a 12'x12' box stall for Annie. It was -10 here that day, i put rubber padding on the floor, bedded it knee deep with straw and got all her feed, minerals and water in the pen. Wala! Now I waited. And waited. And waited. She had wax on her teats and her belly dropped. Her mammary VEINS going to her udder were swollen and her vulva was starting to swell. All signs. I knew it. So I lost sleep for numerous days getting up at mindight, 3:30am and 5:30am to check. Nothing. Just standing there.

UGH!

After a week, a vet visit and a ferrier visit, I put her back in the larger pen for exercise. First week of May. Same story. Same scenerio. I was beginning to think that I had done this all before. It sure seemed familiar!

As of last week I declared a 'no foal' year and put her back with Carlyn in hopes he might get the mark this year. She didn't have any swelling in her mammary veins anymore, her belly didn't look as full and her vulva could have passed for a yearlings. So I put them, the ram, and the three registered pygmy bucks out into the pastures in the evening hours. The last few nights I left them out all night long, but they were able to come back into the barn if alarmed.

And then when I had given up and moved on. BAM! Here comes this guy. My dad thought it was a filly and named her Summer. My Grandpa said 'Surprise' and I said, yea he sure was a shocker to me. And there ya have it. His name!

Tentatively he will be called White Pine's Morning Shocker, but we'll call him Shocker. If he was anymore like his dad (sassy, stubborn, bratty) I'd have thought I was looking at his Daddy as a foal.

Will keep you posted on this little guy as he grows up. As most foals do, they shed their foal hair and get their mature hair in later in the year. We'll see what color he sheds into.

And this is what my llama Ty thought about the newborn! (the baby was to the left of the photo if you couldn't tell ha ha!)

Cattle to Pasture!

As luck would have it my dad decided TODAY of all days was the day to move cattle to their pastures. Great I haven't even decided who is going into what breeding group yet, whose related to who, who is getting A.I.'ed and who still has to calve. Also of mention was that I didn't have wormer to give them and I wasn't going BACK into town 12 miles one way just to get it. They'll have to wait until we get them back in the fall. So be it. I was fortunate enough however to have gotten more ear tags for the cows who had lost theirs over the winter months. A whopping 15 cows out of 36 (almost half!) had no ear tag. GRRRR. What on earth do they stick their heads into to get those nice huge tears in their ears anyway? They only have two ears and after they tear the second one I'm going to have to be creative in how I tag them. I digress.

So as we are serparating cows (blacks from the reds, spotted from the solids,etc) my dad is in a 'hurry' to get them out and come to find out that nearly everything that is needed to move them isn't actually set up yet. UGH. Now I'm not the most handy with a hammer or a screwdriver (mechanically and carpentry challenged here!) I cannot do a lot of the set up. Of course being my dad he is late, rushing, and everything is a temporary job. His favorite quote he uses is "that's fine FOR NOW" or "that'll do FOR NOW". I'm going to have that engraved on his tombstone when he dies. Again getting off topic!

Rather than rant or rave on here, I'lll just say that several cows got 'away' from us while loading. Even in the spot I said I KNOW that some are going to get out there....they did last year. And also in the area of the plank fence that was 'for now' fixed and therefore easily breakable. Also the 4-wheeler came in handy and I even had to wade out into one of our stock ponds to get a stubborn 3 yr old cow out of the muck. Oh did I mention that I'm completely SOAKED to the bone from sweat and rain and that its a near white out in the pasture because its raining so hard?

Its times like these that I wish I didn't have cattle. Cattle can be plain stupid, they are hard on equipment (feeders, fences, buildings etc) and also on the land (pastures, ponds, winter pens etc). They eat a lot, are noisy, crap a lot and take up more space. BUT on the plus side, they do pay for all my other 'hobbies' and I do know that if I persist, that they will indeed pay for themselves at some point as well and I won't have to keep depleting my cow numbers to pay for pigeon feed, sheep and their supplies, the goats and the dogs and also MY needs (I do recall buying groceries in March I think.....)

It is indeed a great feeling to know that they are now in their pastures and I don't have to feed them ever again until October sometime when we bring those nearly feral suckers back home. I might enlighten you all to know that we had a herd bull that refused to take the traditional 2 mile walk back to the home farm. He refused to even follow his girls home and so he sat there until the day before opening deer hunting (rifle). Guess which bull is staying at home this year with his girls :) the funniest thing was the day after he got home he was coming up and trying to knock the grain or water pails out of your hand as he wanted what was in there! SIGH.

Animals can be so odd sometimes. I wish they could talk so I knew what they were thinking.............

Stress Reliever

Sitting out with the sheep in the evenings before they get the lights turned out is quite relaxing. This is a time for new friends to introduce themselves to me or for me to look at the girls in a more confined, stress free environment.

Tonight Maya, who is quite inquisitive, yet never has allowed me to scratch her came up and stood for me. Ever so gently and slowly I reached out to scratch her neck. Her eyes immediately closed and she allowed to scratch her neck and head and back and chest with both my hands, standing very patiently for me.

There were three very IMPATIENT other sheep waiting for my hands to come back to them. Buttons, Cleo and Cleo's son PayDay. Buttons even got mad enough she tried climbing on me and tried pawing my chest. We all know that doesn't go well with me, so I gently set her back down on the ground, where she immediately came back up and was like "no, i'm not going anywhere its MY turn!". Needless to say my fingers were quite black from the oils and dirt on their fleeces. Such silly critters!

Fleeces!!

Well here are my eight fleeces from this spring. Needless to say I have quite a variety! And of course, several surprises too, which is always good!
My warm black and my jet black ewes. Notice the one appears to be a shaela under that sun bleaching. Yea for me!
All eight fleece colors all in a row...................
My brown phases. Not sure to call all or none anything at this point :)

Modifieds

Well the whole thread of talk about modified and what is and what isn't and what we think is, but really isn't has gotten me all excited because of my love of genetics. Each lamb born this spring looked moorit but was told that the modifieds usually 'turn' into their adult color as they age the first few months to a year. I'm now just seeing that happen in several of my 'moorit' lambs...they are atleast going to be fawn. One of my yearling ewes who was moorit before the shearing looks very fawn now after she has been sheared. She isn't completely there but she sure is on her way. photos do no justice either thanks to my old 2.2 megapixel digital camera!!

I've thought that I just may indeed have an entire flock of modified ewes (which is great!) that most people work a long time at to get. Why am I so lucky?

This blogging thing is kind of getting the best of me. I've blogged just about every free moment I have had the past few days.......now I know why you guys think its so addicting!

R.I.P. Rufus

Rufus was my grade buck with horns who ended up losing his life, saving the three registered bucks who didn't have horns. Rufus was attacked by my sister's dogs one night while we were all gone, and I came home to her dogs breaking through two fences and over a six foot high electrified fence to get in with the goats. The other three bucks had only minor scratches, but Rufus looked liked hamburger. He died 7 days after the awful night due to secondary infections and/or the trama and stress brought on by the attack. He was the sire of many fine babies the last two years and it was truly a shame to lose him this way. He would have made a fine herdsire elsewhere. RIP you goofy guy!

What are they thinking?

Most of these girls are now in Missouri enjoying the warmer weather and lots of new pasture to eat and explore! I miss them something terrible but know they have a GREAT new home with GREAT new people to love them, and they went in a fairly large group so they know each other well. In this photo they look like they don't know what to do, run away or run up to me. They chose the former, deciding they weren't done eating grass in the pasture :)

Patience

This little cutie is Abby's girl. She was the first baby born of the year, in the 3 feet of snow blizzard we had the 1st of March. She is what I've been striving for in my unregistered Pygmies for the last four years and you can see it. She's typey, structurally sound, proper markings, color, temperament and eveything. She is the only girl I kept back this year from my unregistered stuff so you know she's good! Her name is Patience as she has the patience (and time) of every other animal combined here on the farm. She will patiently stand and wait for me to pet her, scratch her or pick her up. She is a doll. When you come to visit, she'll be one of the first to greet you!

My babies!

Here are my babies! They are Cardigan Welsh Corgis. Mac (black and white with tan points), Oliver (the red brindle with tongue out all the time) and Sadie (red brindle with the 'pity me' look) are my heart and soul and my life would be empty without them. Sure the sheep are great to have too, but these guys have my heart. Just ask Sadie. I sold my Ford Focus last summer to pay for her surgery and rehab after my Granpa ran her over. She is completely back to normal and we are doing agilty and showing again. I can't believe she ever had the accident she is my little princess!

Jasmine's girls all grown up

Here is Jasmine and her twin girls. Man are they growing fast! I had the musket girl and was looking at the skin and base of the fleece and its nearly a cream color, with the moorit coloring on the last 1/2 of the fleece. The fawn katmoget girl is a lot like her mother, more aloof, while the musket girl is much more inquisitive of me. Both are NCWGA registered and will be retained.

Cleo's lambs

Sure I started to write about her lambs and can't find good photos of her black ram lamb. Both her babies are NASSA registered and I am for sure keeping her daughter. She has a moonspot that you can see on her back right flank, and she is a doll. Her brother is quite the spotlight stealer and loves to be scratched and sits in your lap. Both are extremely soft and very adorable. Also a photo of Cleo, showing her very minimal iset that has just appeared over the winter months. She is my softest ewe with a mircon of 24.2

Temi's ram

Say hello to a very adorable boy named Reese's Pieces. He has a small 'piece' of moonspotting on his neck it appears. He is NCWGA registerable and will be available for sale.

Rooibos' ram lamb Rolo

Well these aren't day old, but they aren't recent either :) Rooibos had the smallest lamb this year and he is still smaller than the lambs even born after him but he is VERY striking. He will be fawn for sure as he is already lightening up. Rolo is NASSA registered and will be available for sale.

Meleng's black ewe

This girl is going to be an amazing girl, I can already tell you that. Just look at that consistency in her fleece from front to rear!! She is also jet black, but being her dad is a modified fawn she could possibly go shaela, time will tell. She is NASSA registered and is being retained.

Maya's Ram

Since I haven't posted in awhile I figured I'd give you day old photos and more recent photos of each lamb. This dark moorit ram lamb is out of Winter Sky Tennyson and Winter Sky Maya. Both his parents are very low microned animals, I believe both to be 22 or 23 mircons. He is a very typey, structurally correct little boy with a nice set of horns starting to grow. He will be NCWGA registered and available for sale.