A WEEK IN REVEWE: JAN 14-JAN 20

What a roller coaster for temperatures-starting off with no snow, meeting in the middle with 4 inches of snow and ending with a balmy 58 degrees.  The snow accumulation made for some mud and standing water in spots.  After all, it is a swamp here.  

On the weekends, I try to refresh the straw in Cluckingham Palace.  Not all of the straw just the soiled parts.  With 23 chickens and 2 ducks bunking in there, it can get smelly. Strict supervision and a rigid inspection, the Ladies are in charge of OPERATION STRAW.

Crackers the duck was not feeling well.  Maybe she spent too much time in her near freezing pond? After a cuddle session with Tommy and a heating pad, she was back to normal.  Ducks do not like to be separated so as soon as Sebastian McQuackles realized Crackers was no where in sight-the loud quacking ensued.  Sebastian worked her way up to the guest bathroom with her quacking.  After a warm bath and several bowls of vitamin water, we tucked them into bed in a dry bathtub.  We had a duck sleepover to keep an eye on Crackers.  Not a quack came out of those girls all night and I am happy to report-Crackers is back at it in the pond with her Partner in Crime.  

The snow this past week was soft. No ice. If I had to live with snow everyday, I would only agree if it was soft.  The sheep don't let the snow hamper their hay time.  Their wool is getting thick and is at least 3 inches deep.  So the layer of snow on their backs seems to be a sheet of insulation.  

We ended our week with a romp in the woods and working in the garden with the Ladies of Cluckingham.  The woods danced in the peaking sunlight and had several areas of standing water.  Last year, I neglected the 5 year plan on the potager garden and had grass growing in some plots that was as tall as me.  I chose to let the grass die before conducting a war on weeds.  Armed with my best weapon-The Ladies of Cluckingham.  Wreck the seeds and the crickets, Ladies.

Inspectors of Straw

Real men cuddle ducks

Inseparable

Don't care about snow

Puddin Pop & Freddy D

Decimate, Ladies

Did EWE know?

A sheep's gestation period is 147 days give or take.  That is almost a 5 month gestation period.  

Here at WoollyShire, we have East Friesian Dairy Sheep.  And Lady Puddin Pop & Duchess Tootsie are pregnant.  We haven't performed any pregnancy tests.  No, pee stick tests available for sheep.  Don't think we didn't look it up!  But unless they carry all of their muffin top at the belly button, they are pregnant!  

A rough estimate is Puddin Pop will lamb around March 9th.  Tootsie is a  month younger and we feel, she will lamb in April.  

Finding tidbits in the pasture

Resting under the weeping willow

Guilty!  Tootsie was snacking on the fig tree.

I see you, Tomato Hornworm.

The dreaded Tomato Hornworm...the tomato predator no one wants to see on their tomato plants.  But this is no ordinary hornworm.  This hornworm is hosting a tea party for braconid wasp larvae. I am sure no mutual shaking of hands occurred. 

When a tomato hornworm is not hosting a tea party and left to its own devices, it will devour a precious tomato plant in a matter of days.  And tomato plants are not their only victims, it also dines on eggplants and potato plants.  Since I am in the sharing mood this summer, I share hornworms with my chickens-who then take off with the worm in a game of football.  

But this particular tea party host, well, it is a keeper.  Why, you say?  When those cocoons are finished feasting on the hornworm, the wasp emerges from the cocoon and the newly hatched braconid wasps seek out other hornworms to feed upon and kill.  These wasps are beneficial to the garden.  And they are not into stinging unless cornered.  And since none of the braconid wasps owe me any money, I won't be cornering any of them.  

P.S. I see the little bugs on the leaves.  I am coming for you aphids!

Visiting Brown Chicken Brown Cow Farm

In the early days of Shepherdess at WoollyShire, which was technically 92 days ago, I called upon a local Shepherdess for her real hands on experience with sheep.  The first couple of weeks of Project Keep the New Sheep Alive had a lot of roller coaster hills.  With Shepherdess, Nichole Stewart's, encouragement and advice, I slept better at night.  The best part of it all, she had never met me in person and offered me her hand in friendship through the great world of Facebook.

She said, "We Shepherdess' need to stick together."  And well, I agreed to this new friendship and finally after conversing online for months, I visited her farm, Brown Chicken Brown Cow Farm.  

Sweet Accolade

First on my tour was a visit to Accolade.  Accolade is a seven year old Lamancha goat.  Lamancha goats are easily recognizable by their short ears.  These goats are high milk producers and as you can see Accolade is a friendly old gal.  

Once Accolade was content with her pets and treats, we visited where the bunnies and chicken littles lived.  I wouldn't say the bunnies and chicken littles wanted me to get too close to them but I did manage to snap a few photos of them.  Then I had a few bunny and chicken wranglers to help with the photos!

We walked the property and I learned about the future plans of turning land that was used for crops into lush pastures.  All the chemicals used from growing crops damages the earth but the damage is not irreversible.  Next came the dairy cows...

The dairy cows were only mildly interested in me.  Their coats appeared to be velvet.  

And for the grand finale, the Icelandic Sheep.  Fresh from the cover of National Geographic, Icelandics appear exotic to me only gracing the covers of magazines.  I did not have to travel to a far and distant land to meet these horned beauties.  I actually barely traveled five miles.  And one of them actually wanted to meet me.  Never mind the shaking of the treat can.  

Timmy is the brown fella who was most interested in us and our treat can.  Icelandic Sheep are the trifecta in sheep products.  Not only can you get milk from them but they are treasured for their meat and fiber.  They are hardy sheep and noted for being one of the world's oldest and purest breeds of sheep.  

Thank you my new Shepherdess friend, Nichole, for extending your sheep knowledge and allowing me to ask questions endlessly.  

For my readers, you can follow Brown Chicken Brown Cow Farm's journey by following their page at Brown Chicken Brown Cow Farm VA.

The House of Wool

Two weeks down...Whew! I would be lying if I said these last two weeks have been easy on me.  But going into the third week of Shepherdess Mania, I am more confident about the Sheep Adventure.  

As my standing joke goes, I have kept them alive for two weeks and I am hoping to be laughing and saying my joke next week.  But seriously, I am not kidding.  The rain, the new diet, the new pasture and well, just new everything confused the sheep's internal infrastructure.  And if Freddie D was feeling blue this day, it was Tootsie feeling down the next.  I was on a learning curve and I was uncomfortable.  Growth requires anyone to step outside their comfort zone and well, I was in a foreign country away from my comfort zone.  I couldn't even speak the language.

Once the sheep arrived, we did not have a house ready for them.  We did have a pop up canopy for them to lounge under.  The deluge of water that many of you experienced the week before Memorial Day put us in the hurt locker for dry land.  I started second guessing the acquisition of sheep and thought maybe I should have gotten pigs for my new pigpen of a pasture.  

Here in Suffolk, Virginia the land is flat and the water likes to stay right where it lands so the pop up canopy really was only a top cover.  The ground underneath turned into a pigpen.  We soon realized that moving it every day was useless.  So Tommy, our resident DIYer, pulled out all the wood he had been stockpiling and started to build The House of Wool.

The only thing that confused me was I wasn't sure who was in charge anymore.  By the looks of the scene, it appears that maybe Hamburger is in charge of the construction.  

Maybe it is a dog's life

So constructing The House of Wool in the driveway is great & all but how are we getting it to the pasture?  The House of Wool is going to need a nice set of wheels.  We carted a not good for much lawnmower from Sims Palace 1.0 to Sims Palace 2.0.  It was technically out to pasture.  It had a nice set of wheels on the back so a lot of Liquid Wrench later, we managed to pry them off.

With the help of the tractor, we pulled The House of Wool to The Baaaalands.  Before we could build the walls, the sheep gave their blessing and plopped on down.

The Wheel of Wonder

The House of Wool is a work of rustic art by our resident DIYer and his best friend.  With the Royal Guard, Donuts, standing watch The House of Wool is complete.

Lady Puddin Pop approved

With a grin on my face, I bid you Adieu, WoollyShire.  

The end of the storm

Three Sheep & a Dog

Meet Donuts the Livestock Guardian Dog, Sir Frederick Douglass the Ram (back row), Lady Puddin Pop (center) and  Duchess Tootsie (right).  Our journey home yesterday was delayed but we did make it home at 1:00 A.M. today.  The new WoollyShire Royals were good sports and slept in the luxury horse trailer that our really, really, really nice friends let us borrow.  

We tried not to interfere with our new members settling in.  And boy was it hard not to hide in the grass and not snap photos all day long.  But an important step of the process is to let Donuts the Royal Knight bond with his new charges and not imprint on me.  

Sir Frederick is six months old.  Lady Puddin Pop is four months old.  Duchess Tootsie is three months old.  Tootsie comes from a large family.  She is 1 of 6 lambs born to one mother (sextuplets).  

After yesterday's anticipation and today's set up, I am beat.  I have charged my battery and hope to hide in the grass to snap some photos tomorrow.  

Thank you to Tommy for going on this adventure.  Thank you to my brother, Joshua, for listening to me on end.  Thank you to my family and friends who cheered me on and also, listen to me talk incessantly about sheep.  Thank you to Karras Farm for my sheep.  

Well, sheep fans-I am signing off tonight so I can dream of sheep.  

Twas the night before...

Twas the night before sheep pick up.  Earlier in the day, three little piggies (Tommy, my mom and me) piled into the Explorer with a borrowed horse trailer (from really, really, really nice friends) in tow and headed to Concord, North Carolina.  

We are nestling into our comfortable beds soon to be dreaming about sheep.  Project Sheep Pick Up is about the time Hugh the Huguenot crows in the morning.  

I am nervous to meet our three sheep and Livestock Guardian Dog (LGD).  I packed three different outfits trying to decide what I should wear to meet them.  The anxiety level was worse than deciding what to wear for any job interview or what to wear when Tommy came home from any deployment.  I finally closed my eyes and put all three outfits in my bag.  

On the drive down, I perused all of my books and notes to convince myself that I was prepared.  Am I prepared?  I went over the toxic plant list and realized I hadn't walked the pasture lately and checked for any toxic plants to pull.  I have even forgotten to purchase the LGD puppy food.  Guess we will be making a stop on the way back to WoollyShire tomorrow.  

With tears in my eyes and a heart full of excitement, the sheep pick up is really happening.  I have waited two years for tomorrow.  Who knew dressing up Sophie as a sheep was just practice!

Visiting Friends of WoollyShire's Farm

I had a fun farm visit when I picked up our chicks in the post, Chick Fever.  My friends, John & Katie, offered to hatch some chicks for WoollyShire since I was unsure of the sheep pick up date.  Upon arrival, I was greeted by my awesome friends.  I was fed pizza and then given the exclusive tour.  

First stop was the CHUNNEL.  

Those chickens can travel in style from one run to another.  The chunnel keeps them safe from predators.  I had chunnel envy.  

After the chunnel, we moved onto the social chicken marketplace.  It is where all the chickens do their shopping, drink to their heart's content at the bar, and eat at the Scratch & Peck.

The chickens were inquisitive and did not shy away from the camera.  It felt like at any moment, they would let me hold them but I didn't tempt fate.

Over the holidays, my friends added four pigs to their farm.  Much like my dog, Peanut, they were only concerned if I my pockets were lined with treats. My camera bored them but Katie enticed them to some food so they could become Camera Hams.

The real animals in charge at the farm were the ducks!  The ducks and I chatted.  And I thought it was the cutest when they rested by the bushes.

Hello, Ducks.

Thank you John & Katie for the ten that turned into twelve chicks and exclusive tour.  I had a blast and hope to visit again soon.

Tis the Season for a Swarm of Honeybees

WoollyShire's resident beekeeper, Tommy, has to be the luckiest beekeeper around.  Within a year, Tommy has caught two swarms of honeybees.  My guess is the bees are gossiping around the water cooler about how Tommy's sugar water is the sweetest in Suffolk, Virginia.  

By the way, we only have one beekeeper suit and that isn't me in the suit.  So I either fell and bumped my head or I am drinking the kool-aid again. I practiced my army low crawl and tried to melt into the earth to get these photos.  I am impressed not even one honeybee wanted to take my soul.  

So why do honeybees swarm? And why do the bees come to WoollyShire Farm?

First off, swarming of bees is a natural process.  You are welcome to run as if King Kong has moved to town but the bee swarm is more interested in finding a new home instead of becoming kamikaze pilots.  

So as the number of bees in a hive grows, space in that uptown beehive is lacking.  The old queen wants to spread her wings and move on to a slower pace of life.  With her royal jelly in tow, she brings 4,999 of her closest friends and heads to the farm she saw on the retirement brochure.  As a parting gift to the new queen she is leaving behind, the old queen and her loyal subjects gorge on honey.  Because a full bee is a happy bee.  

So what is Tommy the beekeeper doing?

Besides putting my life at risk (remember, I don't have a suit), he is using his keen eye on trying to find the queen.  Because once you have the queen, the 4,999 closest friends will follow.  He brushes them off into his Brushy Mountain Bee Farm box in hopes of winning the queen's heart.  

Love happens every day at WoollyShire.  Pheromones are in the air and the queen took the bait.

If you happen to see a swarm of bees, do not break out the can of death.  Call your friendly, neighborhood beekeeper and they will be happy to remove the bees for you.  Heck, they might even bring you a jar of honey.  

'Tis the Season for a Swarm of Honeybees' is dedicated to our special buzzing insect fearing friend, Paul.  I am sure this article seals the deal that he will never visit our farm again.  

Playboy & Beekeeper! Double Score!

Chick Fever

Spring has sprung and Chick Fever hit me with a blast of fluffy balls.  Special friends of mine hatched chicks for me since I was unsure of the sheep arrival timeline.  I drove out to their farm in Pungo and went bobbing for chicks.  I planned on getting 10 chicks but soon 10 turned in to 12!

Enjoy the fluffy bottom photos.

Settling in.

Secretly, my favorite

It is not easy to get them all in one photo.

Family Portrait

Creating the Boundary

Man, this sheep thing is getting real.  A few weeks ago, I contacted Andy at Karras Farm to firm up dates for the GRAND SHEEP PICK UP.  As of right now, the sheep will be coming towards the end of April.  

My original fencing plan was to begin last fall.  Cluckingham Palace was a true adventure and the construction timeline was longer than I had anticipated.  So here it is 2017 and we are creating the boundary.

WoollyShire Farm had two 'kind of' fenced in pastures when the property was acquired.  By 'kind of' I mean, there was fence standing but I am unsure of what it was going to keep in.  Giggles.  

So to prepare the approximate one acre pasture, the old fence below had to be taken down.  

We were able to salvage quite a bit of the woven wire fence for later use.  However, the fence that had an ample amount of greenbrier braided in an unfashionable hairdo had to go.  Couple of slices on my arm decided that for me.  

The tree line is on the far side of the property.  It hosted an array of greenbrier, honeysuckle, and inadequately spaced trees.  In order to spruce it up, I had to figure out the species of each tree and was the tree poisonous or not to sheep.  We had to take down an ornamental cherry tree, a majority dead cherry tree and a cedar that had no room to flourish.  I read the ornamental cherries are poisonous to the sheep so unfortunately Tommy chopped the cherry tree.  We did discover what a Winged Elm is.  I should have taken a photo of the elm's bark but I will save that for another day.  

Timber

We managed to remove all of the fencing and the old posts while cleaning up the tree line.  Now we move on to planning the new fence boundary, encouraging a healthier tree line and chopping firewood.  

Visiting Golden Eagle Alpaca and Produce Farm

After visiting Benson Alpaca Meadows, Judy Benson referred us to Golden Eagle Alpaca and Produce Farm to visit because they have Southdown Babydoll Sheep.  Every time I sit down to email a new farm, I get nervous and try not to ramble on.  After hitting send, I checked my email every hour in anticipation.  Whew! John & Iris Gasser responded promptly and a date to visit Golden Eagle Alpaca and Produce Farm was set.  

When we pulled up to the farm, the day was sunny with minimal breeze and just like any good farm dogs, we were greeted by two wagging tails.  Here is Cha-Cha punishing sticks.

John was our tour guide and he first took us to the peach orchard where the Southdown Babydoll Ewes were currently grazing.  I wouldn't say the sheep were high-fivin' me but they did sign my photo release to publish their photos.  

Shy Sheep

Southdown Babydoll Sheep are an ancient breed and their job on this farm is to mow the grass.  John said, "Every animal here has to have a job to live on the farm."  After several attempts of mowing carefully in the orchard and shredding the soaker hoses, they read about babydoll sheep and their ability groom the grounds and fertilize with raisinets wherever they go.  (I just ruined raisinets for you.)  

Keep your distance, peasant.  

Still not impressed with me.  I love you anyway.  

The sheep intensively graze in the orchard and farm.  They are moved daily in weed/grass season with the use of solar electric fencing.  Next to the peach orchard is the blackberry patch, you can pick your own blackberries in the height of the season while visiting the farm.  

Where's the chicken?

Of course, where are the Alpacas?  I am getting to that.  First, check out these chickens working in the Megalodon Greenhouse.  Once the harvest was over, John moved a set of chickens into the greenhouse to work the left over collard greens, cabbage, and broccoli to the stubs you see today.  While they are scratching and clucking, the greenhouse garden dirt is receiving fertilizer out of their fluffy rears.  

Get to work.

Then we met the alpacas and their guardian llamas.  John spoke about diversity on a farm.  Not only does he have alpacas as a source of income but he also has chicken eggs, fruit, vegetables and he even sells some of his own firewood from down trees.  

John Gasser with alpacas and llamas

Motley Crew

Just like the alpacas before, a lone strand of hay jutting from their mouth.  Chickens live with the alpacas and work on the parasites.  We even saw Tommy's arch-nemesis, guineas.  Guineas got a hold of Tommy when he was younger so he has sworn off guineas.  But John might have convinced him otherwise.  

After reading about guineas, their ability to surround an enemy like a snake and then attack it as a group is amazing to me.  

The best advice we took from John was that we are going to make mistakes that we won't be able to foresee on a project.  Don't beat yourself up too much, just try it another way.  That first genius idea you had can be easily replaced with another genius idea!  

Thank you John & Iris Gasser at Golden Eagle Alpaca and Produce Farm for extending your farming knowledge and letting us call upon you with questions.  

For my readers, you can purchase Alpaca Goods (I have the alpaca insoles), find out their schedule at local farmer's markets, plan a visit or support a local business by following their Facebook Page at Golden Eagle Alpaca or visiting their website at Golden Eagle Alpaca and Produce Farm.

A Girl and her Truck

There is something to be said about a girl and her truck.  My truck's name is Heartbeat and she has been with me for seventeen years.  Over the past week, she upgraded to the Farm Club and got herself some shiny, red Farm Use Tags.  

Heartbeat hasn't been vacuumed in at least five years and she is showing rust on the edge of the hood.  Boy, does she love a dog to be riding in her back seat and the bass of her pipes rumbling.  

Heartbeat and I packed up our belongings and headed to Virginia Beach in the year of 2000 to stay the summer with my aunt and uncle.  Needless to say, we ended up living with them for two years and we never left Virginia.  

When I drive Heartbeat, life moves a little bit slower with the windows down and pride swells in my chest.  

The install

What have you named your truck or car?

Visiting Benson Alpaca Meadows

I read an article recently in my local newspaper titled, 'I'm an Alpaca Farmer.'  While I had never even met this family of farmers, their hospitality along with desire to do their homework first spoke to me though the article.  I admire the entire family in their effort to learn before committing to another living being.  

Besides the article informing me they loved visitors, Benson Alpaca Meadows is down the road from WoollyShire Farm.  So I got on Facebook and searched for their farm, I sent a message and only hoped they were serious about visitors.  

Lickety-split a farm visit was set!  Nerves and excitement was oozing from my soul.  

Judy & Burt were our tour guides and the tour began with admiring their goats and bragging about how the goats left no prisoners in the war against the once covered poison ivy pasture.  Winning!

Along the way, we were met by a sun bathing cat and an assortment of chickens working the leaves for bugs.  

Then came the alpacas with their guardian llamas.  I have never met an alpaca or a llama.  Normally, the larger the animal the more intimidating they become to me.  Maybe it was their top knot hairdo or the lone piece of hay hanging from their mouths, but I felt safe with a side of curiosity.  

Bunny Ears

Judy and Burt showed us the different fleeces between the alpacas and enlightened us on what crimp and diameter is.  Alpacas are sheared once a year and shearing day is coming up on April 6th.  If you want to come to the farm and help with shearing, you can contact them at Benson Alpaca Meadows.

The alpaca and llamas were not into being petted (I can relate), they were into sniffing us.  When we were in the all boy's pasture, the boy's came with a piece of hay jutting from the mouth and encircled us.  Prez the llama got his large nostrils next to my face and took a deep whiff. Glad I showered.  Paparazzi is taken seriously in these parts.  When I whipped out my camera, TSA was jealous of the alpaca's inspection skills.  For a moment, I was sure it was getting snatched from me.  

What amazed me most is not one of them moved in a fast fashion which would have spooked me.  Totally not an alpaca expert but there is a lot to be said about the caretakers when an animal is calm around strangers.  Trust is paramount.  

Thank you Judy and Burt at Benson Alpaca Meadows for extending your farming knowledge and letting us be groupies for the day.  

For my readers, you can purchase Alpaca goods, visit their farm, sign up to help on shearing day or support a local business by following their page at Benson Alpaca Meadows.   

Lone piece of hay

If you could have...

Hamburger wants to know, "If you could have any animal as a pet, what would it be?"

Hamburger on guard at Cluckingham Palace

Behold, Cluckingham Palace

Ladies & gentlemen, please stand for her Majesty, Queen Anaconda of Cluckingham Palace.  Her eyes are piercing and her striking feathers can be admired from afar.

Early development

The construction of Cluckingham Palace began in the late summer of 2016.  Trusty architects, Tommy, and cousin, Eric, toiled in the scorching hot summer sun.  Suffolk's Royalty could not reside in any coop, it had to be grand and stylish for their many visitors.  

My mother's chicken coop is an old shed that you can walk around in to gather the eggs and shovel the bedding in or out.  I do have a small dollhouse coop but the task of bending over to clean that beauty out is a real chore on anyone's back.  

We decided on shed plans to build our chicken coop.  Tommy and I decided that an 8x10 shed would allow us to grow our flock.  I hear that you can't just have one chicken, it becomes addiction and you must have many.  Thus, Cluckingham Palace was born.

No chicken coop is complete without a chicken run.  Now, I am about to FAN GIRL out.  I stumbled upon Fresh Eggs Daily about a year ago.  Whenever I need guidance or how I should build the run, I refer to her two books or the Fresh Eggs Daily blog.  We learned how to predator proof our run from Lisa Steele at Fresh Eggs Daily. 

The Royal Family is looking to a hire a decorator for the interior of their new palace.  You know, chicken art, family silhouettes, and egg pieces.  When spring comes, the gardener will arrive to landscape their formal gardens.    

The next Cluckingham projects include decorating the interior, installing window trim & guard, installing solar panels, landscaping the run and the highly anticipated electric coop door (a recent invention by Tommy).  

Cluckingham Palace is Her Royal Highness, Brown Tip, approved.  

Hats off to Tommy for a successful build.  

Brown Tip with Hugh the Huguenot

Here comes Her Royal Highness, Brown Tip.

Great Week

Oh man, what a great week!  We launched WoollyShire's website and we already have 131 followers.  I didn't even have to apply tactics of coercion for any of you to follow.  Giddy and high pitched voice is hard to contain at this moment.

On Monday, I noticed my first gray hair in my eyebrow.  Since the age of 12, I have had gray hair on my scalp but this one in my eyebrow was my doing.  The lone gray hair ranger feels like a rite of passage.  You know, a badge of honor.

The weather has been wishy washy with an influx of high 60 to low 70 degree temperatures.  I saw my first honeybee of the year.  She landed on my wrist and I let out a school girl scream before I realized it was a honeybee.  My scream only demonstrated that I might not be over our last FIVE sting tango.  So what if it was over a year ago...Love hurts.

We visited Benson Alpaca Meadows.  At a later date, I will write more about our visit.  We are visiting farms to learn how they are organized and to find out who & where their farm buys supplies.  The visit was enlightening, fun and we made new friends.

Tommy enlisted manual labor from a friend and the chicken run is near completion.  I plan to snap photos of Cluckingham Palace and finish the GRAND reveal of Suffolk Royalty's Homestead.

Life is an adventure and we are all in it together.  

No hugs or kisses,

Woolly

We Went To Sheep School

First to the barn has all the ewes in the yard.  SHEER disappointment when these ladies realized that I was not there to feed them in the morning.  I like to think of them as my latest FAN club!

Over a year ago, Tommy and I drove to Virginia Tech to Sheep School.  I have an interest in becoming a shepherdess but have zero, zilch, nada hands-on experience with sheep.  I figured an introductory to the land of sheep was a great start.  Oh man, I love Sheep and Sheep love me!

Number 4

I like to call this gal, Number 4.  She is part of a study at the university but also, my first up close and personal encounter with a sheep.  Number 4 and I got right down to business.  By the time I had completed her examination, Number 4 was more than violated because I exploited the patient/doctor relationship.  I checked her for worms, vaccinated the gal and trimmed her hooves.  Number 4 practices wrestling in her free time.  I found that out first hand when she pinned me on the ground baaing to three while the other ewes placed bets.  I hear, she is sitting on a hay bale sofa talking through the terrors of our fateful examination.  

The Tender Moments

While we were there, we witnessed the birth of lambs.  It was a magical moment that reassured me that others can continue the miracle of life, not me.  We learned techniques in how to manage a barn during lambing season and what to do when lambing season arrives.

Lambs make the Grinch's Heart expand three times.  The bond they were creating with their mother was a tingly moment felt in my chest.

The two day workshop sealed the deal for me and I found out my fascination wasn't just an obsession.  I did dress up our dog, Sophie, as Little Bo Peep's Sheep and entered her into Halloween Costume Contests but we won't classify that as an obsession.  And guess what, Tommy is on board with SHEEP!  

When Tommy agrees to sheep at WoollyShire, then you know it is OFFICIAL!

Fascination not Obsession

Greetings from WoollyShire!

Allow me to be your guide in the quest of preparing for Dairy Sheep.  A two-day sheep workshop, book worming, googling in desperation, and seeking out Shepherds for advice-has made me the expert on what Dairy Sheep desire.  Ignore the fact that I have never owned sheep nor have I ever milked any animal.  Good thing I am an expert because East Friesian Lambs will be coming to WoollyShire in the spring of 2017.

What is a couple of sheep without a whole other Noah's Ark of animals?  The sheep are going to need friends so we hatched some chicks and built Cluckingham Palace as a place only fit for WoollyShire chickens.  I have managed to keep them alive for over half a year so I am confident this raises the level of my Shepherdess skills.

Do you hear the screaming of the plants in the garden?  Oh, you can't.  One trip to Monticello to see the original American Gardener, Thomas Jefferson, qualifies me as an expert in plant survival. Much like Thomas Jefferson, I murdered over half of my garden efforts last year.  Let's add murdering of plants to my qualifications of being a farmer.  

Maybe sticking with dogs was a better idea...Oh, heck!  

Enjoy our follies of starting a farm.

Peanut prefers to be the only one receiving treats.