GROWING

After a few days of rain all is lush and green. I have to savor this , since I know the days of juicy grass leafs are counted. By early summer they will eather have turned into milk or gone dormant until the heat makes way to some late summer rainfalls.
In the garden the radishes and lettuce try to outgrow each other, just to be passed by some laughing peas in a few days. Tomatoes have found an outside home as well and the peppers will join them today. The strawberries are flowering, the currants (red, white and black) are showing little risps of berries and the raspberry hedge I planted last year, is ~much to my delight ~ taking off. Then there is the other side, the pear tree which surprised me earlier this month with first blossoms, lost all of them. The plum tree is riddled with aphids and the dog trampled some tender plants, all the time wagging his tail, happy to have found me.




If you peak in the hen house you will find seven little puffballs starting to feather out and already scratching happily for whatever treasures they can find. The old girls are laying much better and I actually have eggs to barter with. A neighbour down the road has a great blackberry patch, maybe she will trade some blackberry starts for fresh eggs.
The ewes I milk are back into their routine and now it actually is enjoyable to go out at 6 o'clock to greet the day and milk the girls. Ebony worried me a bit this morning since she is one of my greediest eaters and she did not want to have anything to do with her grain. So I checked her udder for signs of mastitis , which were not evident and then decided to let her out and have her lamb relish the milk. I worried ~ until Ebony went out the gate and right to the flake of alfalfa which I treat the sheep to in the morning. Her message was clear: I do not care for he whole oats you tried to serve me this morning (usually I feed rolled oats and corn)!
So out the gate went a quart of milk and an opinionated, but healthy sheep!
The variety of cheeses are growing as well, besides feta and garlic/chive soft cheese we have yogurt in the fridge and today I will try my hands on some mozzarella, which is a first for me.
It is nice to start reaping the fruits of your labor again. Winter and especially spring always seem like a lot of work, with no eminent rewards ~ except of course all the frolicking babies !

Weekend

This weekend had us eat the first rhubarb pie of the year. For some reason I never developed a taste for American pie recipes, so I always bake German pies. This one has a nice buttery crust, a moist rhubarb filling and is topped with a sweet lemon meringue. It is quite good.

On Friday I made the first sheep's milk cheese of the season. To be correct, I started it. Today it will be ready to enjoy. I made a quick and easy soft cheese with fresh chives. So far I only milk a couple of ewes, so not too much milk jet. And what little I have the kids usually drink up before I get to it! By the end of this week I will hopefully be milking four or five ewes and have some extra milk to make more cheese and yogurt. I milk only once a day (the other milking the lambs do for me) and usually get between 3/4 to 1 quart per ewe.

This weekend also saw the first baby chicks crack their shells, only to be greeted by a mean momma chicken. Yes this girl sits on the eggs just fine, but when the chicks hatch she is downright nasty to them. So now we have a baby chick nursery in the coop. All it is, is a wire cage with a heat lamp , cardboard for wains coating and carpet remnants for flooring. This provides the little ones with warmth around 90*F, no drafts and non slippery footing. One a day has been hatching since Friday and each is different from the other. We have around six more eggs to go.
These little puffballs do not need any food for the first 48 hours since they still have the yolk in their tummies. We offer them rolled oats and fresh water for the first few days. After that, chopped dandelion leaves and stinging nettle ~ even a bird has to have it's greens!

Who rules the roost?

So much for planning a vaccination day! I should know better! It seems in my world the more I plan the less goes according to it. The wee ones both came down with a high fever this weekend. When the girls are sick and miserable, it usually means mom and dad are as well. Needless to say after a sleepless saturday night and an equally restless sunday the sheep got put on hold!

Besides, by sunday a white blanket had been layed over my corner of the world. Yes, more snow, which you can be sure to get once you start thinking spring, which of course I have been doing.

I will try again to vaccinate this week, without a plan, just whenever I can squeeze it in! This should do the trick!

No lambs jet, even this morning I was almost certain to find one or two out there. Unfriendly weather is usually the top choice for the ewes to bed down and go into labor!

What I did discover was our rooster Tony getting a bit out of control.

It is nice to have a male that rules the roost and protects his chicks. Tony though, extents his dutys to attacking the wee ones, my older ones and me whenever he catches side of us.

Until a month ago we had a big old rooster who kept him in line, but how it goes with good old birds, he fell of the roost. Deader than dead!

No one to to make sure Tony knows his place anymore, besides the stick I am carrying around, which seems to be more of an annoyence to Tony than anything else.

For little ones a mean rooster can be a scary critter, since he will jump on top of them, scratch and peck, ultimatly trying to hurt their eyes.

Even for an adult it is not a pleasent experience to bent down to pick up some eggs, only to find yourself with a rageing rooster on your back.

So we might part with Tony soon and try our new barbeque.

The only backdraw is, I like having baby chicks around and that will be a tough one without Tony.

Does a chicken need a rooster to lay eggs?