Nanny McPhee and the flock

Camila might be the prettiest kid we’ve ever had.

Grover

Feenat the Peanut

Look at all that green. In a few months, it will seem impossible that anything could ever be so green.

Aberdeen the Wonder Mule

Beautiful Leo. Beautiful, pesky Leo.

I had to leave the house this morning. Had too. Why? We separated the ewes and their lambs yesterday. I haven’t had to do this for the last few years because the mamas have weaned their lambs on their own when they had had enough. But this year our lambs are huge. Like, 60 pounds huge. And they are still nursing from their mamas.

I wouldn’t mind so much except that the ewes are getting painfully thin. Not having any meat on their bones makes them more susceptible to parasites, which is my number one concern. Also, we need to start getting these girls in shape to breed again in November. In addition to stopping the lambs from nursing and taking valuable calories from the ewes, they are also competing with the ewes for grain at the trough. That had to stop.

Yesterday evening, Maggie helped me move all the lambs and the adult males into the west pasture. I was expecting it to be a big production but we got everyone moved with no problem at all. The lambs immediately started grazing on the fresh pasture and everything was right with the world until one of them realized she couldn’t get back to her mama and lost her mind.

It’s perfectly normal for lambs and ewes to pine for each other for a couple of days when they are separated. I was expecting it. But I guess my nerves are particularly raw right now because I just couldn’t take it.  The lambs plaintive cries all night long broke my heart and they continued this morning, even though the poor little things were losing there voices.

The lambs

The ewe plus Feenat.

I was tempted to let the lambs back in with Mamas this morning, because my heart was just breaking, but I knew I was doing the right thing by separating them. So I left. Grabbed my computer and my keys and went to Charlottesville for a couple of hours. By the time I got back, the lambs had settled in and were grazing quietly, the ewes were snoozing in the shade, and everything was right with the world again.

It’s been a harrowing 24 hours.

This summer has been a rough one for farmers all over the country and I am certainly no exception. The unrelenting heat and lack of rain has been so brutal. It’s also been expensive. I’ve had to spend a small fortune on fans, additional wormer, electrolytes and vet visits; money I was expecting to have to spend and hadn’t budgeted for.

But the worst part has been losing animals. In addition to losing Nan, a couple of weeks ago Daisy, my Babydoll Southdown ewe, one of the very first sheep I ever bought passed away. Daisy was suffering so much in the heat. She was big girl and I lost her during a week when the heat index reach 116 degrees day after day.

I was with Daisy when she died and I think I went in to shock for a few days. I was just numb. You have to understand that Daisy had been with me for 7 years and she had such a big personality. She had a big everything, actually. One of our friends dubbed her the Sheepapotomous. Daisy was always the first to scold me if- God forbid- I was ten minutes late feeding.

She was a good ewe and I will miss her mightily. I am so grateful to have Alabama and Willoughby and Bennett. Although Alabama was wethered (castrated) Willoughby and Bennett will be bred next year, and in that way, a piece of Daisy will always exist at Juniper Moon Farm.

I wanted to share some of my favorite Daisy photographs with you.

This is the classic Daisy pose. I wish this were video so you could hear how loud she was.

Daisy and Alabama. He was her first lamb and she was crazy about him.

Daisy and Bama.

Daisy and Alabama.

Daisy and newborn Willoughby

Willoughby and Bennett nursing.

A few days after Daisy died the heat broke for a few days and I was looking forward to a few easy days of peace. Unfortunately, it was not to be. After returning from taking a friend to the airport in Richmond one afternoon, I found that Miss Linda, our beloved, ancient nanny goat, had passed away.  In all honesty, Linda’s death was not a surprise. She was so very old and every morning when I went out to feed a braced myself for the fact that she could be dead.

I really want to honor both of these animals that meant so much to me, so I will do a longer post tomorrow about Linda, but I want you to now that Linda died peacefully of old age in one of her favorite sunny spots on the farm. Even though I expected to lose Linda, her death hit me kind of hard. I miss her every single day.

In happier news, Ethel has gone brooding again and is sitting on eight eggs. Michelle re-started the countdown to the hatch up in the left-hand column.

It is stupidly, insanely, brutally hot in Central Virginia. Yesterday the high was 102. Today is expected to get up to 103 and tomorrow will also top 100.

The sheep are suffering mightily.

The goats on marginally less so.

The flock spends most of the day seeking shade and drinking water. We’re going through 150 gallons or so a day and we have to top off the tanks every hour or so with fresh, cool water to keep them drinking it. We’re adding electrolytes and apple cider vinegar as well.

Everyone has a very spot that they return to each day. Colorado and Buster share one of the run-in sheds.

Cosmo takes up a whole shed by himself.

Miss Linda and the rest of the goats stay in the back pasture where the shade of the trees and the slight breeze keep them cool.

Hannah

Jasmine

Waldorf and Statler

Ernie is the one I’m most concerned about. He’s just so big. He’s panting like crazy, but he’s hanging in there.

Even the chickens are suffering. They spend their afternoons in the landscaping, only coming out when I call them to come over for cool treats like watermelon and peaches.

The forecast is calling for cooler temps (92!) starting Monday. Till then we’ll just keep encouraging everyone to hydrate and keep the barn fans running.

It was a long, hot weekend at Juniper Moon Farm, with lots of ups and downs.

On the up side, Maggie and I were charmed and delighted by our farm stay guests, Gail and her six-year-old daughter Cici. They came down from New York on Thursday and were awfully good sports, not once complaining about weather, even when the heat index made it feel like it was 108 degrees.

We also had an overnight visit from my mama and her boyfriend Ted. (Somehow I managed not to get a picture of the two of them, which breaks my heart because they are adorable.) They drove up all the way from Texas to attend my mom’s high school reunion in Blacksburg, VA. I should say they came to Virginia for the reunion. The reason they drove was to deliver this:

This monstrosity is actually a beautiful, antique Mexican loom that my sister found about a year ago. Carrie bought it for me and it’s been sitting in my mama’s living room ever since.

Clearly, the loom is going to need a lot of work to before it’s functional, but I kind of love it.

The details are lovely.

I really love the fact that there is still fabric made by the last weaver who used the loom.

Believe it or not, there’s a loom-repair person in my neighborhood. Hopefully he or she will be willing to take on a big project.

While all of our house  guests were preparing to leave the farm Saturday morning, Maggie noticed that Nan, one of our Cormo ewes, seemed lethargic. She was running a temp of 104, which is still with in the “normal” range but on the high side, and show no interest in food. We gave her electrolytes and an energy concoction and got her and her lamb, Norris, into the barn to cool off. She seemed to improve at first with regular attention, but there’s been no change in the last 24 hours and she’s gone off feed, which is never a good sign.

We are treating Nan with antibiotics, pain reliever, electrolytes and energy booster, and doing our best to keep her cool. Maggie just reported that, after having her belly cooled off with water, Nan took a bite of grain. It’s encouraging and we’ll keep it up.

Nan is a lovely ewe and I am very concerned about her. It stinks, because we were feeling confident coming off the success of getting Sicily back up to health (we turned her and Fairfax back out with the flock a few days ago.)

I couldn’t really leave the farm for the rest of the weekend because I needed to monitor Nan, but sitting around worrying was making me a nervous wreck. I needed a project to occupy my mind between barn checks, so I got out my serger and spent the rest of the weekend sewing.

First I made about a dozen produce bags. We joined our local vegetable CSA this summer and Maggie did some research to find out the best way to store all the beautiful lettuces and such that we’ve been getting in our weekly allotment. Turns out that almost everything store best wrapped loosely in tea towels and stored in the crisper drawer of the fridge. I decided it would be simpler and neater to make bags out of inexpensive tea towels from Ikea.

On the first bag, I cut the folded edges off the tea towel before stitching it up, but it was unnecessary and actually made a flimsier bag when finished.

For the rest, I folded the towels in half and stitched up the sides, leaving the tops open.

To make smaller bags, I cut the tea towels in half and followed the same procedure.

I was really pleased with the results. They are terribly French looking, oui? I love this kind of sewing. It’s practical and completely un-fiddley. Plus, the results are instant.

I don’t know about you, but once I have my sewing machine out, I will keep it out for ages. My produce bags were so simple and lovely that I was inspired to dig into my fabric stash and make cloth napkins.

I might have gone a bit overboard- I made about 50- but we don’t use paper napkins or paper towels at all, so we go through a good many cloth napkins a week.

I love fabric and cloth napkins are a great way to use your favorite prints everyday.

I’m pretty sure these are my favorites.

I was so inspired by my successful sewing that it motivated me to re-organize my fabric stash. And seeing all the beautiful fabric I have at my disposal has inspired me to more sewing. I’m looking through my quilting books today for a new project to start.

I also made strawberry jam this weekend, but I’ll save that story for my next post.Hope you had a productive weekend.  I’ll keep you updated on Nan’s progress throughout the day.

The heat index at Juniper Moon Farm was 110 degrees today.

Lots of this going on today.

The sheep are so miserable. You’d think they’d spread out to stay cool but they don’t overmuch.

It’s sweet how the mamas still let their babies snuggle right up to them even though it must be like being plastered against a radiator.

Linda, on the other hand, loves this heat. Her arthritis doesn’t seem to effect her as much and she’s getting around much better.

All the goats are happy enough. Dimples has grown like a weed since the Spring Shearing.

The chickens spend most of the day trying to stay cool under the landscaping.

Ethel and her chicks, scratching for food. I have to say, having a mama hen to raise the new chicks is so much easier than ordering day-olds and doing it ourselves. Natural clearly knows what she’s doing.

We had a brief but lovely thunderstorm this afternoon that cooled things down a lot. Cini was thrilled.

I’m sure the gardens were happy too. It has been so dry out there! But still, we have at least a dozen varieties of lilies in bloom and my Magnolia tree has one great big beautiful bud. Can’t wait to watch it open.

I have to say that I think the weather in Central Virginia is out to get me. Twice this winter, Juniper Moon Farm was snowed in with crazy, record-breaking blizzards. Now we are facing a heat wave with temps 10 degrees above average. It was 97 degrees in Palymra today, with about a million percent humidity.

The Angora goats are completely fine in this crazy heat- most Angoras are raised in Southern Texas and South Africa, after all- but my poor, sweet sheep are suffering. They would have fared better if the heat had ramped up in an orderly fashion, but a 10 degree spike is brutal for them. Of course I provide them with plenty of shade and a continuous stream of cool water throughout the day, but I worry.

Sheep cool themselves through respiration, and continual panting all day long can lead to mechanical pneumonia. Mechanical pneumonia provides the perfect breeding grounds for opportunistic bacterial to get into the animal’s lungs. In these conditions, bacterial pneumonia can be fatal in a matter of hours.

I’ve spent the weekend adding blocks ice to the water tank, checking and re-checking the flock for signs of distress. This afternoon, Sicily, one of my original Cormo ewes, started showing signs of heat stress. Labored breathing, snotty nose, listlessness- she had them all. I quickly mixed up some electrolyte solution and got it into her, and dosed her with antibiotics. Then Maggie helped me move Sicily and her lamb, Fairfax, into a stall in the barn where we can have a fan blowing on her and keep an eye on her tonight.

Sicily is already looking better, but she’s not out of danger yet. Even if she seems 100% by morning I’ll be keeping her in the barn for a few days or until this stupid heat breaks. Sicily is one hell of a ewe. She’s given me big, single lambs every year, and I was over the moon to get a ewe lamb out of her this year. It would kill me to lose this sheep. Kill. Me.

Please keep Sicily and Fairfax in your thoughts tonight.

MONDAY MORNING UPDATE: Sicily made it through the night and seems much better, although her breathing hasn’t returned to normal and her nose is still runny. I dosed her again with antibiotics and electrolytes and am going to keep her indoors again today in the cool. She isn’t happy about it but I’ll feel better today knowing she’s got a breeze on her.

Mr. Hopkins, my hay farmer, is bringing a large round bale over today and positioning it in the shade of the woods in the west pasture. My hope is that the sheep will stay in the shade munching hay for most of the day,rather than grazing in the heat of the sun all day.

The lawnmower that came with my house wouldn’t start today. I was feeling kind of bad about it, because we had a farm stay starting this afternoon, and I always want the farm to look it’s best when we have company coming. It took a good ten minutes for me to figure out that I had a whole pasture full of lawnmowers at my disposal. So I closed the gate that leads to the road and let the boys and yearlings out to graze.

In other news, Statler continues to win the hearts of everyone who sees him. I think it’s the wonky ears.

Nothing makes me happier than turning my flock out onto fresh pasture.

Feenat was sheared for the first time last week.

She was much bigger under all that wool than we thought she would be.

She’s still  super sassy.

I love seeing my dogs happy.

Daisy was grazing today like she was getting paid for it.

Even Miss Linda seemed happy to get to the green stuff.

Meanwhile, in the small barnyard paddock, Statler and Waldorf went outdoors for the first time.

This is Statler. He is easily recognizable by his wonky ears.

Waldorf is pretty cute too.

Gonzo and Camilla seem so huge compared to the new kids but they’re only a couple of weeks old.

Statler and Waldorf investigate a piece of firewood in the barnyard.

Hannah and her babies.

Alabama

Feenat

Daisy

Delaware

Alabama again.

Feenat extreme close-up

Big Ernie

Delaware extreme close-up

Miss Hannah is as big as a house and she is bagging up! That means babies sooner than later.

Mrs. Doubtfire has a slightly smaller udder than Hannah.

And Nanny McPhee is just starting to show signs of milk.

Babies soon, y’all!