Stories from the Farm

This is a baby duck…

This is a baby duck high on morning glory…

You can imagine my shock when I went back to the pen after just feeding and watering them to find 6 of the 8 ducklings on their backs flailing around!  After doing a little bit of detective work and a lot of freaking out - I found that morning glories have a halucinogenic effect :)  My baby ducks weren’t dying they were just high on morning glories.  I had to sit out there for an hour flipping them over.  Poor little things! 

Here are some pictures from our play fest this morning…

Poor Darby really doesn’t have a chance to get the ball

So every once in a while Paisley had to be held back.

“Yay - I got it!”

“Throw it please, throw it please, throw it NOW!”

Kate decided to sit this one out, a little too immature for her this morning

Have a good day!

Having had some really nasty rams in the past, I have a very healthy respect for all rams.  We have zero tolerance for any behavior that may be construed as disrespectful towards people.  Our three adult rams - Junior, Wrangler, and Pilot are all nice to be around but we are still very careful and have warned our son to be careful around them.  They are definitely not friendly, so I was shocked to see Pilot walk up to the fence for our son to pet.  I was so surprised that it took me a second to run over and make sure Pilot didn’t ram the fence.  Once I got to the fence Pilot ran away.  He started doing this last Fall and it became their daily ritual.  He won’t come close to the fence if I’m there.  It is the darndest thing I’ve seen!  We moved our rams a few weeks ago and we went up today to check on them and take pictures.  Pilot still likes to get some loving from our son…

We have baby ducks!  We have 3 at the moment with more due to hatch tomorrow afternoon and a couple more batches over the next couple of weeks.  We are using broody banties, incubators, and the mama ducks when they agree to sit on the nest :)  I could sit and watch these little guys all day - they are so funny!

I had a day all to myself!  Did I go get a pedicure, manicure, facial, or something girlie?  No way :)  Paisley, my whippet, and I went to lure coursing practice!  It was a gorgeous day and we had a lot of fun.  The Whippet National is close to home next weekend and I am excited about my girl running with the big dogs!  She was super sonic fast today :)  Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pictures of her, but here are some of the other dogs that were there…

It is funny to see how crazy these dogs go over a white plastic bag…

and it really makes their day when they catch it and can rip it apart, poor plastic bag!

There was an adorable 12 week old puppy and her older sister that had fun chasing the plastic bunny too.

There are around 100 whippets entered next weekend, it should be a lot of fun!

I was shocked when I went out to take pictures of the lambs today to discover that they have all grown up!!!  Oh sure, I see them at least twice a day, but it just kind of hit me today.  They used to be cute and cuddly, but now they are beasts that are eating us out of house and home.

Reno

Torrent

Symphony

Silverado

Soon it will be time for them to say “Good Bye” to their mothers and move on to their new homes.  For those of you that are interested, I updated pictures of all the lambs on the website - http://www.kenleigh-acres.com/2008%20Lambs.htm  We have some lovely wethers still available - hint hint :) 

 

I first met Tammy when she brought her little Aussie out for herding lessons.  She has become a friend and is a great lady.  Today my son and I visited her farm to see her lambs and all the rest of the critters she has. 

She bought 3 ewe lambs from us 2 years ago and borrowed a ram lamb from us to breed them.  Unfortunately she lost her Dorper ram before he could breed her Katahdin ewes, so the Jacob ram bred them as well.  The results are very interesting…

for instance, this is a Jacob x Katahdin cross and the real shocker is that her brother has horns!!! 

They all have really cool markings…

and are very cute!

This is one of her Jacob lambs.  She is a 4-horn and has a lovely fleece. 

This is her other Jacob ewe lamb.  She is a very pretty 2-horn lilac.  She liked posing for the camera

These little guys were my son’s favorite!  He thinks it’s funny when they suck on his fingers…

and they were very willing to do just that

She also has Magpie and Harlequin ducks…

Some beautiful chickens that provided farm fresh eggs for us - thank you!

and a very handsome rooster!

This little lamb was sleeping when the chicken must have passed a little too close because she jumped up and butted the chicken out of the way.

 

We had a great visit.

All seems right when I can go for a daily walk.  Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been very accommodating recently :)  This week has been glorious and my son and I have enjoyed walking at our local state park. 

Actually, he rides his bike and I walk with a dog or two.  It was great when he could start riding his bike so that he could keep up with me, but now this is usually what I see…

It is a beautiful place and allows one to appreciate nature…

I got a kick out of this though…

With trees everywhere you look, the birds can’t find a suitable home?  We have to provide bird houses for them???

 

This was Kate’s day to go.

It is so nice to feel like Spring is just around the corner!

According to the calendar, the first day of Spring was March 21st.  This is what it looked like outside…

It didn’t exactly feel like Spring.  We don’t get a lot of snow where we live and definitely not at the end of March!!!  Luckily the sun came out the next day.

This is such a welcome sight!  I love it when the Spring grass starts growing 

Within the last week and a half we have added some new critters to the farm. 

We added 3 more jacob ewes…

They are all lovely, poised girls that were bred by Windy Acres.

We added 2 alpacas…

This is Tommy.  I love his color - Rose Grey.  My son can walk him around by himself and has renamed him Silver Car???

This is Berto and he really likes to do his own thing!  They are gelded and we got them for the fiber, it is sooooo soft!  You could just curl up and take a nap next to them.

and we added 4 snowy call ducks…

This is Lachlan, one of our drakes.  Did you know that you can mail ducks?  They arrived at the post office all the way from Texas!  They are more domesticated than the call ducks that we already had and love talking to us.  I love watching their flirtatious antics with each other.