Unseasonable

by Caroline on February 3, 2012

Charlie & Churchill, enjoying the sun.

I want to talk for a bit about this warm winter we’ve been having, and what that means for a sheep farmer (leave it to me to write about the weather). Because I run lots of rural small-town errands, I spend lots of time talking about the weather to my fellow rural Virginians– in line at the post office, gas station, and feed store– and most of us are a little worried.

Having grown up in the South, I’m used to a winter that doesn’t exactly line up with the cultural (which I guess is English? or New Englander?) ideal of what winter should be. There have been more Christmases without snow than with it, plenty of Januaries that have seen 70 degree days, and the daffodils are up and cheery by February. But, somehow, this year, things seem different (and it isn’t just that I feel cheated out of that heartbreaking, blanketing look of the snow on the fields and fences).

And I’m sure that part of it is that I’m more out in the weather than I ever have been before– I don’t just walk between my house and a handful of academic buildings anymore– and that the weather now has a more direct impact on both my physical and emotional comfort. By “emotional,” I mean that the health of the flock weighs constantly on Susan’s, Zac’s, and my minds. Which brings me to my point.

The parasite that gave us such a rough time last summer lies dormant over winter. If the ground freezes hard, deep down, then the eggs that infest the pastures are destroyed, and the pasture is “clean”. If not (or, perversely, if the ground is so insulated by its snow-blanket that the ground itself never freezes), the eggs are already all over the pasture, ready to hatch, and ready to bedevil the flock in increased numbers. What’s worse, a good portion of our flock in the springtime is either 1) newborn lambs or 2) lactating mothers, both of which groups have reduced resistance to parasite infestation.

We’ve had all winter to cook up new ways to get ahead of our friend Haemonchus contortus (whose name, by the way, means “twisted-up blood-hook.” Nice.). In addition to our good management practices, and one-two punch of antihelmintics plus the copper boluses we started using at the end of last season, we’ll be grazing the pastures with non-small ruminants first (before the sheep graze that pasture). This will be key, since Haemonchus only affects small ruminants. Daisy & Coconut, Madison, Monroe, and Jefferson, and even the trio of geese can ingest all the parasite larvae they want and be unaffected.

We’re crossing our fingers that a real winter– or at least a few more days of hard freeze– comes soon, because, until then, we’ll be a little uneasy.

P.S. A preemptive request: I bet we have the same views on Global Warming (or, if you prefer, Climate Change). Given my age, and my upbringing in a town known pejoratively as Commie Hill, you can guess mine. But, because this isn’t my blog, and the topic can be so inflammatory, and there’s so much to discuss, I’m really leery of starting a minor conflagration in the comments of someone else’s living room, so to speak. I just want to talk about the effect that this warm winter is having on us, please.

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Packing for the longest day ever…

by Susan on February 2, 2012

A cheery good morning to you from Richmond International Airport! It’s 5:30 a.m. and I’ve been up for two hours already! Wooohooooo!

I’m fixing to board a flight to Dallas/Ft Worth, where I will catch a plane to JFK, followed by a long flight to Zurich. Weirdest itinerary ever? Perhaps, but I’m not complaining, for three reasons. 1. My ticket free, thanks to my sister’s air miles. 2. I’m going on vacation.  and 3. I believe this is what they refer to as a “first-world problem”.

I did pack a startling amount of gear for the flight(s) though. I don’t deal well with boredom and I’m not wild about confined spaces, so the more I can distract myself the better off everyone will be.

In my two carry-ons I have books, magazines, an iPod full of audiobooks, a bunch of stationary for catching up on my personal correspondence, two kind of tea bags, bottled water, hand lotion, face lotion, foot lotion, extra socks, a tooth brush and tooth paste, two kinds of prescription eye drops, my laptop and, believe it or not, a whole lot more. (Which totally reminds me of this classic Bert and Ernie episode. Have I ever told you that I was crazy in love with Ernie when I was little? May have been the best relationship of my life, now that I think about it.)

Caroline and Zac have a bunch of fun blog posts planned for you this week and I’ll be popping in from time to time.

Got to go- they are calling my flight. Next time you hear from me, I’ll be in Switzerland!

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Duck of the Week: Bananafish

by Caroline on February 1, 2012

I promised you all a story about our poultry, and so am proud to introduce you to our most illustrious duck, Bananafish.

Bananafish is a call duck. Her breed was developed as a decoy duck– they were bred to be small (the better to wear under the jacket) and noisy (the better to lure other wild ducks to their deaths), and Bananafish is definitely both. The use of live decoys has been illegal in the US since 1935, but the breed has survived as a show breed (trans: saved by their own cuteness).

She & the other call ducks are named, of course, after characters from Salinger (Franny & Zooey are the other two female ducks, and Seymour is the drake). She got the weird name because she was by far the weirdest of the four ducks– wiggling her head down & leftwards every time she quacked, stretching her wings out, one at a time, over her feet, and generally acting a little daft.

Turns out, she was just the furthest along the path to adult duck-hood– those weirdo behaviors, turns out, were her putting the duck moves on Seymour. It worked (I guess).

Around the start of December, she laid a nest of eggs in the secrecy of the juniper bushes in front of the farm. We ate them.

So she laid another, in another, more secret place. By this time, Zooey had also reached egg-laying maturity, and (this is the cool part) started working on the nest together with Bananfish. So, in this dug-out, duck-down-lined little nest, there are two different colors of eggs from two different mothers.

I cannot wait until they hatch! We aren’t eating them, because we’re drowning in chicken eggs already.

Bananafish’s real breakout role, however, has been as a model. Here are she and Oona, modeling Pam’s Charlie (which pattern makes everyone wish that it came in adult sizes).

When the shoot was over, Oona wanted to keep her!

Bananafish is MINE!

I absolutely do not blame Oona for wanting to take her home. Bananafish looks exactly like a toy, plus she’s incredibly soft and endearingly nutso. Worth their weight in comic gold, these ducks.

 

NEXT WEEK on SotW: Keep your suggestions coming! Let me know who you’d like to hear more about, and I’ll be happy to indulge you.

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This Morning in Pictures

by Caroline on February 1, 2012

Wren

Brooks

Lyra

Finch

Carina

Milkshakes and Mrs. Doubtfire, with Braeburn, Adelaide, & Sophie. They’re probably plotting a followup adventure to their escape into the woods yesterday.

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Some times quitters DO win…

January 31, 2012

A little over a month ago, I drank my very last Diet Pepsi. Those of you who have spent any time with me know that my addiction to Diet Pepsi was serious and  complete. On bad days, I was drinking  5 or 6 20 ounces bottles of Diet Pepsi a day. That is a lot [...]

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Re-arranging the Furniture

January 31, 2012

Michelle, my dear friend and brilliant web shepherd, has a full-time job and a new baby, but she always finds time to help us out here at Juniper Moon Farm. Today she put together a page for us to post free patterns on. You can find it here but it’s also permanently displayed in the menu [...]

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Homemade gravlax

January 31, 2012

Caroline and I both love all forms of cured, smoked, pickled, or any way preserved fish. Caroline’s favorite might be gravlax (it might be her Swedish  ancestry). The problem is is hard to find good gravlax out here in the county. Also gravlax tend to be very expensive (usually about $20.00/lb). This is what inspired [...]

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Home from Phoenix,Texas and Florida!

January 30, 2012

The last ten days have been a total whirlwind. I spent 5 days in Phoenix for the TNNA Winter Show. TNNA hosts two national trade shows a year for the yarn industry and, as always, it was a wonderful time. I love the shows because it allows me to meet lots of shop owners, see [...]

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Meet Coconut!

January 29, 2012

We’ve got another set of handsome hooves in the pasture– I’m delighted to introduce Coconut to you all! This morning, Mike and Carole of Tulip Hill Farm (who have already been extraordinarily good to us– donating Miss Cleo as a prize for the Pete’s Greens fundraiser, and giving Daisy to Susan for her birthday last [...]

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And the winner is…

January 28, 2012

I am tickled to death that Country Outfitter asked me to giveaway a pair of Justin Boots. BUT- and this will come as no surprise to those of you who read the blog regularly- it kills me that I don’t have a pair to give to each one of your who entered! I hate that there [...]

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