What a week! Sheep have been sheared, new lambs were born, spring harvest is underway along with all the other daily farm chores!
Shearing
| If you ever watch a professional sheep shearer shear its pretty amazing they can shear a sheep in minutes and make it look easy and painless. The truth is for a novice shearer its a slow, painful process and I chose to leave the shearing to the professionals and hired a shearer. With the 90 degree weather leading up to shearing day the Ewes were hot and ready to lose the wool. Getting ready for shearing was an easy process we simply had to catch the sheep in the morning and let them fast for 12 hours. Empty bellies makes it more comfortable for the ewes while they are sheared.  |   |
Shearing went fast, easy and stress free for the Ewes! Post shear the girls were very happy to get back in the field and graze. The lambs were happy to be reunited after being separated from the ewes for 30 minutes.
 Hog Island wool varies from medium to medium-course. The fleeces are easy to card and can be spun or felted. Wool from Hog Island Sheep is very nice for hand spinners. Raw fleeces are available for a limited time. |  |
The first four lambs born are now two months old! While the Ewes were being sheared the lambs all got vaccinated. Washington is always begging for attention, he lined up first to receive his shot and kept rejoining the cue after. We vaccinate for Clostridium perfringens (a bacteria disease) and tetanus. Lambs can die suddenly from Clostridium and treatment of sick lambs is generally not successful so we believe vaccinating is important to the health and well being of our flock.
Spring Harvest
 We are very spoiled with being able to grow produce year round and always having our own fresh veggies and fruit to eat. Spring harvest is underway and the young greens, peas and strawberries have been such a treat this past week. We are making room for summer plantings of zucchini, cucumbers, string beans and winter squash. With this weeks rain the potatoes are growing fast and are ready for hilling. The first artichoke of the season is ready to be picked, I always have such a tough time deciding should I eat it or let it bloom. Spring flowers are in full bloom and new seedlings are popping up that will be our summer cut flowers. |  |
 |  |
We grow Imperial Star Artichokes each plant typically produce 6 to 9 small artichokes. They are perennial to zone 7 and will produce artichokes the first year during late summer/fall and then during the spring each year after. I find artichokes to be fussy to get started but very hardy once they are established. If you start them from seed, start at least double the number you want. I seem to have half of them die when I transplant from plug trays to pots. We live in zone 7 so we mulch the plants heavily in the fall and do occasionally lose a plant over the winter.
Mila's Lambs
 At last Mila had her lambs. She has been impatiently waiting for her lambs to be born, so impatient we thought she might steal a lamb from Topanga. Topanga has been a very laid back mother letting her lambs run wild and often wondering off and leaving her lambs behind. Aunt Mila came to the rescue several times and reunited lost lambs to an unconcerned Topanga. Mila went into labor late in the evening. Our sheep are normally very quite so a baa during the night means something is wrong. We headed out with flashlights in hand to check on her and just our luck it was a difficult lambing. Mila's first born Abigail was very small only 6.3lbs and wasn't moving, our smallest lamb to date was 10 lbs at birth. As Mila continued to try to get Abigail up and nursing she was also struggling to give birth to another lamb. You don't realize how much you miss electricity until you have to pull a lamb in a pitch black barn while trying to hold a flashlight. Mila's second lamb was an even smaller 5 lb male lamb that we named Adams. Adams may have been small but he was very strong and started trying to stand shortly after Mila cleaned him off while his older sister was still laying limp on the ground. In the end I had to hand feed colostrum to Abigail and after several feedings she was able to stand on her own.  |   Mila, Abigail and Adams could only go out on supervised visits to the pasture the first two days. A hawk took notice of the small size of the lamb and he quickly got the idea they would make an easy to catch for lunch. After two days of chasing off the hawk he finally gave up and moved on. Mila was still nervous to leave the lambing jug and would not leave the barn at all. She would go straight back to the lambing jug after only a few minutes of freedom. Finally this weekend Mila must have decided she was tired of hiding in the barn and came out into the pasture with the rest of the flock. The other lambs were excited to meet Abigail and Adams and they received a few good headbutts from Mila when they got to rough with her lambs. |
RSS Feed
