Visitors to the farm always think it’s funny when they catch our livestock guardian dogs sleeping. What they don’t understand is that Fettucini, Sabine and Lucy stay up all night protecting the flock from predators. During the daylight, they can let their guard down and nap.

I suspect it’s sort of like working the night shift though. Daytime brings deliveries and visitors to the farm, along with our comings and goings. Sabine also has to deal with Lucy’s never-ending desire to play all the time. Lucy Goosey has no end of energy and she hasn’t quite figured out that daytime is for sleeping yet.

Sabine had the small paddock to herself the other day and spent the whole day blissfully snoozing. Good Lord, I love that dog.

This is Crush. Crush recently took a bad fall and broke her leg very badly. Surgery was required to set the bones- expensive surgery. Crush’s owner Pam is fantastic pattern designer  (remember Leda?) and she went straight home from the vet hospital and designed a pattern to try to raise the money to cover Crush’s mounting vet bills.

How sweet is this little sweater? It’s called ‘Willie’.

I mean seriously.

The tiny ear just about does me in.

I was so lucky to have so much help with my Sweet Lucy’s staggering vet bills back in January that I want to do something to pay it forward. I am going to giveaway one Half Share in Juniper Moon Farm’s 2011 Yarn (or Fiber) CSA. All you have to do is purchase a copy of Flintknit’s Willie. AFTER you’ve purchased the pattern, come back here and leave a comment wishing Crush a speedy recovery. On Monday, one winner will be chosen at random from all the entries.

Cool, right? You get a great pattern, a child you know gets a great sweater, Crush gets her vet bills paid and you are entered to win a half share in our 2011 Yarn CSA (a $100+ value). It’s a win-win-win-might win situation and you can get in on it for 6 lousy bucks. Don’t knit or think the pattern is too advanced for you? Buy the pattern anyway and consider it a $6 raffle ticket. Or- better yet-  give the pattern away to a friend.

On entry per person, please. Entries will close on Monday, May 3rd. Extra karma points for tweeting, posting on facebook and rav. The winner will be announced here on the blog and will have 24 hours to claim his/her prize. In the event that the prize is unclaimed, another winner will be chosen at random.

Good luck!

I am pleased to present to you Daisy’s twins- Willoughby and Bennett.

And Amelia’s twins- Darcy and Dashwood.

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.

Can I be honest? I was kind of dreading getting back to the farm today. I missed my flock and my dogs and even my bed, but the lack of electricity and company were daunting. (Paige is in California visiting her father this week.) I not in the mood for roughing it in my own home.

But once I pulled into the driveway I felt my equilibrium was restored. The farm looked absolutely beautiful and it was so quiet and peaceful.

We have a few trees down.

Our driveway still hasn’t been plowed, so I had to park by the road.

Of course, my first stop was the barn to check on the lambs and kids. Dimples was modeling some serious hay-head.

The dogs were super-happy to see me.

We brought the little lambs into the barn during the storm. They don’t have as much body fat as the big sheep and they were looking a little miserable.

They were happy to see me too,

but only because I had a pocket full of animal crackers.

I love the chicken footprints in the snow.

The snow hasn’t stopped the hens from laying.

Alabama (right) is now officially bigger than his mama, Daisy (left).

It was so great to be home that not having electricity or running water didn’t seem like such a big deal. Which is good, because it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting power back tonight. And tomorrow? More snow!

So, we are getting between 26-40 inches of snow if the next two days. Yes, you read that right. Up to four flippin’ feet of snow. Enough already with the snow.

Yesterday, Paige and I took Lucy for her last post-accident check-up with Dr. Johnson.

Paige trying to get Lucy into the car.

Lucy loves everyone at Fork Union Animal Clinic; she just hates riding in the car to get there! Maremmas get very, very car sick. In spite of skipping breakfast, Lucy managed to throw up in the way back of my station wagon.

You’ll be happy to hear that Miss Lu is, according to our vet, 100% gorgeous and amazing. The tenderness on her abdomen is gone, so we can finally take her off the NSAIDs that replaced the steroids she had been taking. Her lungs and heart sound perfect. In short, Lucy is healed.

Lucy celebrated her clean bill of health by playing with Sabine in the snow, her favorite past time.

Sabine is such a good girl. She’s just good-natured and so very patient with Lucy. She also appears to need her nails trimmed.

And Cini? Cini is the hardest working dog in show biz. He always protects his flock, even the jerks like Roquefort.

This picture totally reminds me of the beginning of America’s Next Top Model.

I woke up to three inches of snow this morning. We could get as many as 12 inches, but I’m skeptical.

Paige is off this weekend so it was just me and flock.

Amazingly, our flock is still grazing on pasture, but not today. I couldn’t get the hay to them fast enough this morning.

Ernie looks like the Abominable Snowman.

We’ve been putting Sabine in the small paddock with Lucy during the day to stave off the depression Lucy was starting to suffer. The two of them play for hours and you would never know that Lucy nearly died a little over a week ago. It is so good for my spirit to see them together.

First, the Lucy report. Paige and I took Lucy to see Dr. Johnson this morning for a post-accident check-up. Dr. J was thrilled with Lucy’s progress! She said that Lucy’s heart and lung “sound gorgeous” and she seems to be healing really well. She’s keeping Lulu on NSAIDs and pain killers for another week and wants us to keep her in the small barnyard paddock for at least another week. Lucy, of course, wants to get back to work in the big pastures, but better safe than sorry. We’ll have another follow-up visit next week.

As far as damage to her reproductive system, it’s just too soon to tell. They would like to do an ultrasound in a few months once the swelling goes down and she grows a bit. Fingers crossed.

Lucy and Dr. Dawn Johnson

Everyone at the Fork Union Animal Clinic loved Lucy even before the accident- we had been in a week before for puppy shots and her four feet never touched the ground- so when Paige brought her in after she was hit, the whole staff dropped what they were doing and came running. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to these amazing people.

BTW,when I told Dr. Johnson about all the contributions we received from readers and shareholders, she totally teared up.

In other news, I have just listed some new colorways in the shop, as well as some spinning fibers. As always, supplies are limited.

Finally, I am thrilled to announce that the Juniper Moon Farm Spring 2010 Shearing Day Celebration will take place on April 24th, 11 a.m. to Dark, at the farm in Palmyra, Virginia.

Like last year, the event will be potluck. We’ll provide the dinnerware, silverware, etc., drinks and the marshmallows (and peeps!) for roasting. Like last year we hope to have plenty of demos going on. Several shareholders and readers will be bringing their musical instruments to play around the fire and you are encouraged to do the same.

More details here as the day comes together.

-Lucy continues to improve and her breathing is getting stronger, less labored each day. She’s still on heavy meds and will be seeing the vet again on Tuesday. I’ll be home by then to take her myself and I have lots of questions for the Doc.

- Paige and I are are working on personal thank you notes for everyone who contributed to Lucy’s vet bills. I would have them done by now but for my guests! Please know that the delay in getting them out doesn’t accurately reflect our gratitude.

-The Fort Worth Meet-Up yesterday was a lot fun- lots of pics coming in the next post. Thanks to everyone who came! We’ll definitely be doing this again next year- I’ll post the dates way in advance so more of you can make it.

- She’s wanting to be hand-fed, but if you put some food on the floor – she’ll eat out of her bowl by herself.

- She’s wanting to jump up on the side of the pen when she’s feeling energetic — which we’re trying to get her not to do, but it also shows that she’s feeling pretty strong.

-She’s getting bored and crying even when Paige and Erin are within her sights.

- After she takes the pain meds she mellows out about 45 mins later — but at the same time she can’t take any until 7:50 – and right now she’s napping. I think she just keeps gettting bored into napping.