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!

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 am in love with this awesome snowman that my neighbors up the road built. Isn’t he great?

I am also in love with my flock. From left to right: Dakota, Delaware, Colorado and Cosmo.

Sweet, enormous Alabama.

I am feeling a little bit achey and feverish today. It’s weird, cause last year I was sick ALL THE TIME. I got every single cold and bug that went around. But since moving to Virginia I haven’t been sick once. Not so much as a sniffle.

But, seeing as how this is the time of year that I always get pneumonia, I’m going to try to fight off whatever I have. Nip it right in the bud. Going to bed with a large glass of OJ and am going to try to sleep this thing off.

Unfortunately, it means I won’t be able to post the Fall 09 colors until next week. Don’t worry; they will be worth waiting for.

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.

Yesterday was sunny and nearly 50 degrees in Central Virginia- perfect weather for working sheep.

We needed to worm the non-breeders in the west pasture. That group includes last year’s lambs, all the whethers (castrated males) and Jack, our in-tact Angora goat buck. It’s a small group and we knew it wouldn’t take long, so we waited until the day had really warmed up before getting started.

Once we had all the animals in the catch pen the fun began. We always start with the goats because they are a lot more work than the sheep and there are fewer of them. Martin, a whether, went first.

First we use a weight tape to double check his weight. Wormer dosing is based on weight.

Fun fact: Most wormer is labeled for sheep, not goats. Since goats have much faster metabolism you always double the sheep dosage.

Next, we move on to hooves. Goats hooves are much softer than sheep and they need trimming every six weeks of so.

Trimming isn’t hard but it takes practice.

Lucy totally wanted to help.

Cini was happy to watch from the sidelines.

Next we pour on the delouser. Angora goats get a species-specific parasite that can only be killed with a chemical delouser. The delouser is poisonous and comes in a big, heavy bottle, so Erin thoughtfully (?!?) decanted some into a water bottle. But don’t worry- she drew a skull and cross bones on it.

All angoras carry a lice load but the idea is to keep it to the bare minimum. We are really good about delousing every six weeks or so, so it’s not a big problem.

One stripe of delouser down the back will usually do. Really lousy goats are sometimes painted with the stuff over every inch of their bodies.

Once the delousing is done we release the goat and start again on the next one.

The lambs are all very curious about what’s going on.

This is also the time to check everyone’s teeth.

Once the goats are done the sheep go really fast.

The sheep get wormer and a hoof check, but rarely need too much trimming.

Alabama, our first Southdown/Cormo cross, has so much fleece you can’t see his eyes.

It’s super-soft with lots of crimp. It will be interesting to see what we get out of his mama this year.

The lambs are the easiest to work so we save them for last. We work with the lambs so much that they are pretty calm throughout the process.

Colorado actually fell asleep while we were trimming his hooves.

It was a great afternoon. We worked hard but we laughed a lot too. Paige is learning so much so quickly, it amazes me. Working hard with people you like and respect doesn’t really feel like work at all, you know?

But it was also a bittersweet afternoon for me because it will probably be the last time Erin and I work sheep together. After spending 18 months living and working on my farm, Erin has decided it’s time for her to move on, move out and start building a life for herself. We both knew it was coming and neither of us have doubted for one minute that it is the right thing and the right time.

As regular readers know, I hate change like poison, but this doesn’t feel so much like change as the natural progression of things. I remember seeing Katie Couric  interview Jerry Seinfeld the day the last episode of Seinfeld was going to air. Katie kept pressing him about how sad it was that show was over and Seinfeld said, “Why does it have to be sad? It was great and now it’s over.”  And that’s kind of how I feel about Erin leaving.

I will say this though. I couldn’t have gotten through 2009 without Erin. She was supportive and loyal and always there for me. She helped me make decisions that I was flat-out incapable of making myself. And she kept me from taking myself too seriously. Erin is the best friend anyone could ever hope to have.

Also, she’s not going very far. She’s found a house about half an hour from here with an acre and half of land. She’ll be taking Sweet William and Feenat with her.

I’m not entirely sure what we are going to do about her job. Paige had taken over the bulk of  her  work and I’m not sure that we need another full-timer right now. I’m mulling over the possibilities: a local hire to help with farm chores, taking on an apprentice or two or  hiring a live-in part timer. Our farm stays are so popular that leaning towards converting Erin’s room into another guest accommodation.

We’ll see.

I couldn’t decide which of these I liked better…

so you get them both.

I left the house today for the first time since Thursday.

It was highly over-rated.

I’m beginning to think I would be the perfect candidate for house arrest.

Tomorrow I’m staying home.

Bring on the snow.

At least not in Central Virginia.

Aldo and one of the ewes

Sweet Buster

Amelia

(Don’t worry- all the sheep have really big, dry shelters to go into. They just think they’re going to get grain every time I come outside, so they stand in the rain/snow complaining about how hungry they are.)

Not such a great day to be a shepherd either. I was in and out of the wet, slushy much four times this afternoon, checking on the flock and the puppy.

In New York, I spent snow days making lasagnas. Lots and lots of lasagnas. One for our dinner, another to go in the freezer and a couple for some of the neighbors. I was desperate to make a few lasagnas today but Erin had my car in Charlottesville for the Holiday Market, so I had to make do with putting together a HUGE batch of my granola,

a crockpot full of applesauce,

and several gallons of chicken stock and ham stock.

Which reminds me that I never blogged about my Thanksgiving mini pies. Basically, Erin, Paige and I couldn’t agree on what kind of pie I should make to take to my friend Kris’s house, so we compromised (?) by my making mini versions of all three. I used an old Southern Living Recipe for the Pecan Pie (but it’s really similar to this one), Paula Dean’s Pumpkin Pie recipe (which is the best I’ve ever tasted) and a Buttermilk Pie recipe I’ve made a hundred times but can’t remember where I got it.

I used a cookie cutter to cut a store-bought pie crust (I know. I suck.) into small circles and lined the cups of a big muffin pan with them. Then I blind baked (baked empty) the crusts in a 450 oven, poured in the fillings and cooked them for about 30 minutes. If you are going to make more than one filing, be sure that they bake at the same temperature for about the same amount of time or else you’ll have problems.

After I made our minis we discovered that they are great on day one and less-so every day thereafter. I’m not sure why, but they don’t hold up as well as regular sized pies. I also discovered that this was apparently the year of the mini pie!

This morning, Erin, Paige and I got up early to drive to Manassas VA to meet a stud.

His name is Aldo. Isn’t he cute?

We had planned to purchase a new ram for the farm this year, but a couple of unexpected expenses recently came up, so we decided to make due with renting one for now.  Aldo is  a great looking Cormo ram with good track record. He is also going to bring a new genetic line to our flock, which is very exciting. We were really lucky to find him.

Well be putting Aldo in with the ewes and yearlings tomorrw and we’ll keep him until January 10th or so, to give all the ewes time to cycle three times. That way we are pretty sure that all of the ladies will be bred and we’ll have plenty of lamberoos on the ground in the spring. Our window for lambing will be April 15, 2009 through June 9th, but will most likely focus around May.

We will be doing special Shepherding Camp long weekends during lambing season- more on this tomorrow, including a really cool giveaway.