Reader and lambcam watcher Sandra asks, “Why is there a sheep in the kidding area?”

Daisy is my only Babydoll Southdown ewe and she is what they call an “easy keeper.” She can get fat even when she’s only eating hay. Even though she’s bred, I pastured her with the boys and lambs this winter because they were on an all hay diet and I didn’t want Daisy getting even fatter by feasting on grain all winter. Now that she’s getting close to lambing, I want to move Daisy in with the ewes and start her on some grain to give her the extra nutrition she needs for her last month of pregnancy, but putting her in with the ewes and their ample portions of grain would be too big a transition and would make her sick.

Daisy is in the kidding area so that I can control the amount of grain she gets for a week or so, and slowly ramp her up to get as much as the other girls. Hannah is furious that Daisy has invaded her space by Nanny McPhee and Mrs. Doubtfire don’t seem to care.

In other farm news, we had to giant round bales of hay delivered this morning by our friends the Hopkins.

We put one round bale in with the non-breeders and one in with the ewes.

Then, while everyone was busy eating, we fenced them into small paddocks with moveable fencing.

Keeping the flocks confined to small areas now will allow the new pasture to come in and establish roots before the greedy sheep and goats are turned out on it. We practiced rotational grazing in New York and on Martha’s Vineyard but we never gotten started so early before. Green grass in March is like a dream.

The main advantage round bales is that they are about 1/2 the price of square bales. (Each round bale equals 20 to 25 squares.) There is also a small time savings in that we won’t have to haul hay out to the flock twice a day. The disadvantages are that they are difficult to move and subject to the weather. We put the ewe’s bale in the large run-in attached the barn so it would stay dry, but that wasn’t an option for the non-breeders. They will still eat the hay after it’s been rained on, but it isn’t as appealing and loses nutritional value.

Hopefully we will be able to turn the flocks out on to pasture in two or three weeks. It’s going to be 70 degrees today and the green grass is coming on fast. Rain tomorrow and through Saturday, but we need it, and at least it’s going to stay warm.

Still no babies in the kidding pen. Stay tuned.

I don’t care what the calendar says. Today is the first day of Spring on Juniper Moon Farm! It’s going to be 66 degrees today and stay in the 60s for the next five days. I couldn’t be happier if it was raining money.

The nanny goats are settled into their stall in the barn awaiting the arrival of kids. If you’ve been watching the lambcam and wondering who the goat with so much to say is, it’s Hannah. I adore Hannah, but I might be the only one who does. She and her twin Martin were my first goats and my first bottle babies. Hannah is a spoiled brat and very entitled. She can’t believe she is being forced to share a stall with Mrs. Doubtfire and Nanny McPhee and she lets me know it every time I come in the barn.

[Thankfully, FoF Nancy figured out what was causing the echo on the lambcam; refresh your browser and the echo should disappear!]

The lambcam is in the white box mounted on the wall pointed down at the goats.

Miss Linda, Dimples and Jasmine were evicted from the kidding stall to make room for the nannies. It was time for them to get outside, but I do worry about Linda. She isn’t very competitive at the trough and the ewes tend to push her around a bit. I’m keeping a close eye on her to make sure she’s getting enough to eat and I’ll move her back in if she starts to lose weight. I’m also giving her a very strong pain reliever every morning to help with her arthritis.

The three of them seem happy to be outside with the rest of the flock, although they are still very much a family unit. When one of them wanders away from the others, they call to one another the way a mama calls her babies. Remember, Jasmine and Dimples aren’t Linda’s babies; she just adopted them when they were all thrown in together.

Do you see what I see in this picture? Yup. That’s green grass coming up in my pasture! The flock has been grazing for a few days, but I assumed they were just picking at the brown, dead stuff from last year. That grass is as good as money to me, cause it means I will be able to cut way back on hay very soon. This is much earlier than we ever saw green grass in the Northeast; my love for Virginia increases every day. I might be able to get away with only buying one more big load of hay this season.

It was a lovely morning with the ewes. I’ll spend some time with the non-breeders [whethers, buck, and lambs] this afternoon and take some more pics. In the meantime, I have to get back to dyeing our Fall 09 Yarn CSA Shares.

Lambcam is back up and broadcasting live from the Juniper Moon Farm barn. Currently it is set up in Linda, Dimples and Jasmine’s stall but we will be moving the nannies and ewes into the picture when they are ready to kid and lamb. In the meantime, I will be readjusting the camera from time-to-time to figure out the best location and shot.

Last year, the volume of traffic during lambing overwhelmed our website server, forcing us to purchase a second, lambcam-dedicated server. We’re gearing up the live feed early this year so that we can ramp up the traffic slowly and make adjustments before lambing and kidding begin.

If you are using a Mac you will need to download the Windows Media Player here. Firefox users may need to download this Windows Media Player plug in. For reasons so technical they nearly make my head explode, Lambcam is best viewed in Internet Explorer.

We have migrated the lambcam to a brand-new , lambcam-dedicated server. This should mean that the feed won’t degrade as much during high traffic times and we won’t get anymore bills for $500 for exceeding our bandwith. Win/win, right?

You will need to re-set your bookmarks for the lambcam page. The url is the same but some other thing-a-ma-jig changed. [That's a technical term. You needn't worry your pretty little head over it, Sugar.] So re-bookmark and enjoy!

Several of you asked if the omission of Linda yesterday meant something bad had happened to her. I am please to report that Linda is alive and well, but very tired of carrying those babies around with her!  You can clearly sense this in this picture I took this afternoon. (I tried to get Erin to hold up a copy of today’s paper so ya’ll would know Linda’s really alive, but she just laughed at me.)

Beatrice is another nanny that is easy to identify by her horns because one of them is much smaller than the other. Beatrice is a lovely goat and a great mama. Last year she gave us twins Chipotle and Ancho (born on Cinco de Mayo) and she still mothers them whenever she sees them.

This is one of my favorite pics from last year’s kidding season: Beatrice licking her brand-new boys.

This is Mrs. Doubtfire, a.k.a #25. (For those of you who are new to the blog, last year’s shareholders names the 10 new nannies we we bought after famous nannies from television, movies and literature.) She is a sweetheart of a goat but her most distinguishing characteristic is that she loves peanut butter! Last year when Cini had Lyme disease, we gave him his twice daily medicine disguised in peanut butter. Mrs. Doubtfire would chase Cini around and LICK HIS MOUTH after he ate it. (Cini is a 110 pound dog!) Last year, she gave us one buck kid, but she certainly looks like she has twins in there this time around.

Mary Poppins (14) was last year’s first nanny to kid. She gave us a big healthy girl named Thyme. Mary Poppins is a little on the small-framed  side so I don’t expect more than a single out of her, although you never know.

This Maria Von Trapp (15). She is another small-framed nanny and she had a big boy last year. I feel like Maria is the goat I know the least- she kind of keeps to herself, is never a problem and has never been sick. In the business, nannies like this are referred to as your “moneymakers.” 

Fran, named after t.v.’s The Nanny, is super recognizable nanny because her horns both curl to one side of her head. Here’s a better picture.

We actually have to keep a close eye on her horns because the lower one grows directly into her head. Jeff, our sheared, trims the end of the horn off every year. Unchecked, the horn would keep growing right into her skull. Last year Fran had one doe kid, Chive, and she was very good mama.

Alice (#11, named after the Brady Bunch’s house keeper) is another smallish goat, at least when she’s not pregnant. Last year she had a single, a buck kid named Tarragon, but twins wouldn’t surprise me this year.

Nana (9) gave us twin doelings last year, whoch is pretty much like winning the lottery. She was a great mama to Sassafrass and Saffron, the only two kids we’ve ever had who insisted on nursing from the same side of their mama.

Nanny Jo (#6) was so huge last year that I was dead sure that there were twins- if not triplets- in there, but Jo surprised us all with on nice sized doe kid named Juniper. She’s huge again this year but she’s not fooling me this time!

Last year Anna gave birth to my favorite kid- the irrepressible Basil. Basil was the funniest little bucking, whether he was chasing the  chickens around to head butt them or giving the other kids group hugs (picture below.)

Anna was the nanny that was attacked by our late rooster, Dan Rather. (No, we didn’t kill him; he and another rooster killed each other.)

And, just for reference- and because I love this picture- here’s what Dan Rather looked like:

He was a beautiful rooster but mean as a snake. 

And last but not least, Sicily is one of our Cormo ewes. The other ewes are bred to start lambing in about a month, but Sicily could go any day now. She has given us two ram lambs in the previous two years, so I’d really love to get a little girl out of her. I know she looks kind of beleaguered in this picture and that’s because she is. The nanny goats run her crazy!

And that, my friends, is a complete guide to the ladies of the lambcam. A couple of you have asked for a glossary of sheep and goat terms- great idea!. I’ll put one together tonight.

No, I am not giving away my first born. Especially since my first born hasn’t even been born yet and Patrick’s first born, Harry, is way too helpful to giveaway. 

I am giving away the winner’s choice of one pound of yarn or spinning fiber to the person you guesses the hour and date our first goat kid or lamb is born this year.

Here’s the rules: since we could have babies any minute, the time to enter this giveaway is short. Get your entry in by 8 pm EST tonight (3/31). In the event that more than one person chooses the correct hour and date we will flip a coin to choose the winner. “Hour” will be defined as within the hour- i.e. 2:05 would be in the 2 o’clock hour. So would 2:50 p.m.. You must indicate a.m. or p.m. on your entry because military time confuses me even when I’m not sleep deprived. 

Just so everybody is on the same page- our nannies and one of our ewes are bred to give birth sometime between today (3/31) and  April 20th. Get your guesses in now!

Props to Margaret (mugginsquilts) for the idea!

We had a crazy weekend! First getting ready for the Weather Channel crew to come on Saturday- our house hasn’t been this clean in ages- then having them here on Saturday along with some good friends who came by to take a tour. I think the Weather Channel shoot went well; I’m not super-comfortable on camera but the producer and cameraman were very nice and it was relatively painless. Shareholders Dom and Jean were interviewed for the piece as well.

After everyone left I pretty nearly collapsed into a coma. I haven’t taken a three hour nap in a million years but it was heavenly. I did feel a little guilty about napping indoors when it was so lovely outside. My Lord, the sun coming back has changed my entire outlook! 

Harry’s birthday party was Sunday and to get ready for it I had to make not one, but TWO trips to the heart of darkness. First, we went to the Verizon store to get his birthday present- a new phone was the only thing he asked for.  Picking out a phone, politely ignoring the upselling suggestions of the on-commission salesman, then less politely ignoring them, and getting all the contacts, pictures and texts transferred from his old phone took about as long as it took me to go to college. 

If that wasn’t bad enough, we followed up with a trip to the worst possible place to be on earth to be on a Sunday morning. Yes, I am talking about Walmart, people. Walmart on a Sunday morning is the seventh circle of hell.  I find Walmart hellish every morning, truth be told, but Sunday morning feels like a I’m being punished for every bad thing I’ve ever done and will ever do, in this incarnation and every reincarnation my soul will go through, forever. 

Weirdly though, the Walmart was not jam-packed with people pushing huge grocery carts full to the top with frozen processed foods containing negative nutrition values. I only saw one woman dragging a crying child by the arm the whole time I was there. There were even empty parking spaces within half-marathon distance of the doors. If this isn’t a sign that the economy is in trouble, I don’t know what is.

This week I will be heading back to the library to work on the book and getting ready for kidding and lambing. We shouldn’t see any babies for about seven days, but sometimes they do come early. I’ve already gone through the lambing kit to make sure we have everything we could need (and some things I hope not to need) and ordered supplies. Now we play the waiting game. “The waiting game sucks! Let’s play Hungry, Hungry Hippos.” Can you name the TV show that line is from?

Speaking of games, I invented a new giveaway on Friday while Erin and I were working in the lambcam pen (hereafter known as the nursery.) Erin and I were arguing over whether or not anyone was watching so I looked at the camera and said “Today’s secret word is MULCH HAY. The first person to  email me with the secret word wins a skein of yarn.” By the time I got back inside, I had two emails from people who had heard the secret word. Way to go, Jane and Bonnie!  So if you’re watching the lambcam, be sure to turn up the volume.

Back to lambing and kidding. If you live in the Hudson Valley area and would like to spend a day or a couple of hours on “baby watch” let me know. Basically it just involves sitting with the ladies and letting me know if anybody goes into labor. You can even bring your knitting! If you’re interested, shoot me an email at susie AT fiberfarm.com

The good news first- as some of you have already discovered, the Lambcam is up and running! Can you believe it’s been six months since we started talking about this? Thanks to all of you for being so patient and for encouraging me not to give up. Thanks also to Bill, our tech guy, for making it finally happen.

We have moved the expecting nanny goats in to the area where the lambcam is, and in a couple of weeks there will be lots of baby goats for your viewing pleasure. In the meantime we will be fine-tuning the focus and figuring our the best spot for the camera.

Now for the bad news. Due to a somewhat sudden loss of funding, we are canceling MV Fiber Fest this year. We were expecting to receive some state tourism money for the event, which would have covered all the costs not covered by the vendors fees. Unfortunately, we were able to line up very few off-Island vendors. Many of those that originally applied found that there recent sales were too low to justify all the costs involved in participating in the event. Several people cited the high price of getting their wares to the Island as the deciding factor. 

As much as Patrick and I would love to go forward with the event on our own, it just isn’t practical. Instead, we are going to focus on making the Hudson Valley Shearing Day Celebration in to an event that all of our shareholders, both Martha’s Vineyard and Hudson Valley, can enjoy.

We’ll shear all the sheep and goats on May 9th at our farm in Hopewell Junction. It will be a big party and we hope you’ll come. There are lots of reasonable hotel room in the area (Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn, etc) and we will be catering the event (Bar-b-que, I think) and we’ll have a bonfire in the evening.  I’ll fill you in on the details as they shake out but it is going to be great!

So, even though I’m blue as hell about having to cancel the Vineyard event, I am really looking forward to May 9th right here in the Hudson Valley. 

And, to make up for the loss of MV Fiber Fest, we will be having an event on-Island in June. (Erin and I will be taking the animals back to the Island at the end of May.)

I am so sleepy but didn’t want to let the evening go by without telling you what a great, productive weekend we had around the farm. Great weather, good friends and we crossed a lot of important things off the farm to-do list.

On Friday, Dr. Hammond, our vet, made a farm call to take Salina’s cast off. (read about her accident here and see the picture of her in her cast here. When Dr. H. put the cast on her he told me very firmly to make sure we kept it dry, so we have kept Salina in one of the run-in sheds ever since.

In fact, we were so religious about keeping it dry that the vet had a really hard time getting it off! He joked with us that no one ever really keeps it dry.

Dr. Hammond was very happy with the way the leg had healed. That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that, after palpating Salina’s belly, Dr. H is pretty sure that she isn’t pregnant. To be honest, this isn’t a huge surprise. Salina didn’t breed the first year we had her (which on most farms equals a one-way ticket to the slaughterhouse.) She did breed last year and gave us Truman, the ram lamb that 100,000 people got to watch being born. (at around 3:24 if you haven’t seen it.)

Then she was attacked by a dog in the fall and nearly died. Erin and I nursed her back to health over the winter. So it doesn’t really surprise me that she wasn’t in the mood for love when we put Lincoln in with her in November. But you know what? I really don’t care if she’s bred this year or if she ever breeds again. I really like Salina. She is a sweet ewe and she will have a home on my farm for as long as she lives.

On Saturday we had three friends come to the farm to help us get the nanny goats ready for kidding. Jean and Dan and Linda were such troopers! Erin taught Jean how to pull shots and I showed everyone how to check to see if the nannies milk was coming in (the first sign that labor isn’t far off.) Dan helped Patrick ferry the expectant mamas from the fields at the top of the hill to the small paddock right outside our backdoor. It was a lot of work, but the weather was just so warm and bright and lovely, and the company made even the most tedious tasks seem sort of fun. It was also the first time I enjoyed being outside in ages.

Today was another beautiful day- it got up to 70 degrees in the Hudson Valley! After we finished all our farm chores, Patrick and I staked out our Victory Garden. The layout has changed a bit so I’ll have to start my plan all over again over at growveg.com but I left the potatoes out of the old plan anyway.

One of Patrick’s garden-related tasks this weekend was putting together our new compost tumbler. This is the second one of these we bought and they make compost from poopy hay super quick. Logan gave it a test run before we started filling it.

Patrick and I took in a movie in the afternoon while Erin got the lambcam working! I haven’t been able to embed it on the website yet- I need the tech to walk me through it on the phone tomorrow- but we are very nearly there. Here’s a picture of what the camera itself looks like.

In other news, I signed up for a beekeeping workshop on April 4th! I am so excited about it. I have been wanting bees for a while and there is so much to learn. Maybe next year, every share in our Yarn CSA will come with a jar of honey!

Hope you had a lovely weekend too.

Hey everyone, Harry here. It appears that the new LambCam will be up and running on Monday. So until then, here’s a little somethin’ to tide you over. Enjoy!