Farm Report, with special appearances by Lucy, Linda & Victoria!

Trying to get a photo of Miss Lucy is nearly impossible these days! She is so busy playing and eating that I ended up with a whole lot of blurry pics of her in motion. Here she is eating Cini’s breakfast while Cini obeys my command to sit.

I actually had to go outside the fence to get a decent portrait of her. Our vet calls her Lucy-Goosey, which I love!

With proper supervision, Lucy is learning to coexist with the sheep and goats. Her guarding instincts were always strong but she recently found her bark and is protecting her little mini flock every night.

We alternate the dogs from pasture to pasture and with one another so that they are equally bonded to all. This effort is mostly successful, although Sabine (above) much prefers guarding the ewes and nannies to the boys, whethers and yearlings.

Miss Linda is feeling much better since the weather has warmed up. Her arthritis really bothers her when the nights and mornings are cold, but now that it’s hot, she’s moving a million times better. It’s important to remember, though, that Linda is ancient for a goat, and that every day we have with her is a gift.

Victoria, our yearling who aborted her lamb week before last, seems to be 100% again.

All of the bred ewes are absolutely enormous and most of them are already well bagged up.

I check hoo-has and bags every morning and evening for signs of impending lambs.

Only Daisy, the pregosaurus, seems close enough to lambing to move into the barn.

As you can see, she is well endowed in the udder department.

It is so hot in the barn today that we had to install a box fan in the lambcam stall.

Gonzo & Camilla and Statler & Waldorf have all been evicted from the kidding pen and are with their mamas out in the pasture now. They are nibbling on grass already and trying to keep up with their grazing moms.

Last week, Erin completed the fencing at her new house and was able to pick up Sweet William and Feenat and take them home with her.

It was bittersweet to see them leave, but I am happy that Erin now has a piece of the farm with her at home.

In other news, our chicken flock expanded by six today! We brought 6 Golden Buffs home with us from Chicken World this morning.

These six lovely ladies are four weeks old and won’t start laying until the fall.

Aren’t they sweet? We put in an order for two turkeys while we were at Chicken World, a tom and a hen. They will be just for looking at, not for eating.

And, of course, the livestock population will be expanding by 20,000 on May 1st when the honey bees arrive…

Edited to add: It seems that some of you thought I was using “Chicken World” metaphorically. I was not.