Caspian the Lamb ~

The Lambs are growing up and doing very well with their halter training. Caspian has the most soft coat, I have ever felt.

Just had to show his really neat looking striped hooves. Art in nature!

Chicks arrived and it wasn't good ~

The Blue lace Red Wyndottes and RIR's we have been waiting months for arrived on the 6th. All the Wyndottes and all but 4 of the RIR's were dead. Dead as in, dead for at least a day from the look and smell of them. Of the 4 RIR's two weren't looking very healthy,  lost one a few hours later and this morning, we lost another of that lot.
Of all the years I have been ordering chicks I have never had this happen.  Needless to say we were a bit upset.


So I went to Tractor Supply and bought some of the production chicks they have, Golden Comets and Easter Eggers. They are not the breeds I want but we really need something to eat ticks around the house.
They are doing well and feathering out nicely.


I have re ordered the chickens I wanted, and they will arrive the last week of Aug. 
If this the Postal Service messes up this badly again, I will know there is someone in their employ, about a day away from here, that doesn't like chickens or is just plain cruel.  There is no excuse they can give me... for why this happened.

On a happier note, Nari enjoying the morning...

Sheep on a Spring day

 He's been fleeced! Here is the photo I promised to show you. Yesterday I sheared Apollo, or tried too. Just used my Lister Lasers with the medium blades, as I did not want to take a 
chance of cutting him. Needless to say with his size at 250lb's and how much he wiggled, 
didn't
quite get all of him sheared. LOL At least he is cooler. Good for some comic relief!

 Caspian is doing very well. They are now in the horse pasture, until they grow large enough to put in with Apollo.
Their halter training is coming right along and they really enjoy going for walks and being itched.

This is Charming....  he is a little more stand-offish than Caspian but he is coming around.

Charming and Caspian ~

                         
  Meet the two new wether's being tamed down, halter trained and will be future buddies to Apollo.
Only place I had to keep them, is in the Hen House, but they should be tamed out before the chicks arrive.


   Will not be putting them in with Apollo until they are close to Apollo's size. 


 They are a little younger than I wanted but being in an area with very few sheep..... 
 Both two months old, the black and white one, Caspian, is 50lbs already! He is half Dorper and the other half is St Croix/Katahdin. 
The white one I call Charming, is Katahdin. He is soo cute, when he doesn't want people near, he stomps his little hoof at me. LOL  If I don't go away, he hides in the corner.


Halter training is well on the way and they are doing great.

Fencing the front of the Farm~

DH Can get DS to use the tractor.... LOL

New fencing going up on the front side of the property. Is the normal Woven field fence we normally put up, is just a little less spendy than the cattle panels. However it does take a lot more work. 
I hope to have this area fenced in by Fall and have a few sheep running in it. 
Then next spring we will get it set up as a hay field. Another, "I hope", anyway.

Having to Body Clip the Icelandic's... in March,,

Seriously, in March, that is crazy but the poor Viking horse's were sweating just standing in the pasture doing nothing.
So now I have naked but Happy Icelandic's.

 Got fur?
Will have to keep them clipped all summer to help them acclimate to this climate.
Dyfra was very happy to loose all  her thick but soft downy fur.

Nike Swish anyone? This is what Stjarna has hiding under her bushy forelock.

Apollo and Maggie ~

 Apollo has been roaming around the house for the last month or so. He was getting too frogy with the goats and learned out to get out of the round pen. 
And people say sheep are stupid. 
Now I have a 250lb+ yard sheep and he seems to be pretty content, though I know he wants other sheep to play with.
Sad thing is... I have been looking and what sheep breeders there is, are 2 1/2 hours away and their prices for wethers.... weee.... is incredible. 
Just hope I can get a couple of buddies for him, soon, before he looses his sheepy mind.
Was hoping to sell him to someone with a flock but same problem applies, no one in this area, has sheep.
If I knew this was going to be this much of a problem, I would of left Apollo in Oregon.

 I was worried he won't shed out, being a Katahdin and all but he is just starting on the top of his neck.

Maggie and Apollo out, eating the good stuff.... ok.. well mowing.

New Hen House Roof and Fruit Trees

 The Akane apple tree is already flowering, so I guess it is spring here in VA.
And if Spring temps are 70 to 80*plus..... I will be spending most of my time indoors this summer.

 Finally, the inside of the Hen House.  Floor painted for easy cleaning and white walls to brighten the place up a bit. Roost ready to go. 
The back shelf is where we will have the nest boxes once they are old enough.

And last but not least, the new Hen House roof and Vents. The old black roof started leaking and that is not something we needed to happen, so we had Bucky the Contractor put a new roof on for us.
I picked the lightest shingles I could find and something with a little more character to it. 
The lighter shingles and vents, means the Hen House stays a lot cooler and in this clime, that is very important. Last thing we need is baked chicken, at least with this method.
So now the chickens will keep nice in dry and cool, in their Home.


Two weeks and counting... for the chicks to arrive!

The snow of March 4th ~

 I have been a bit remiss on keeping up with the Blog, for a couple of reasons. First is... getting this place up and running from scratch, all the repairs that are needed and how slow my higher end HughesNet is. 

This is the snow we had March 4th, very pretty and makes it easy to see the 2"by4" heavy wire, figured that was much better than chicken wire.

Help Thumper raise money to help fight Cancer

Help Thumper .... ROCK THE PINK!   ` click here for her online shop.

Help Rock the Pink! 


The profits for every item Thumper sells, will be used to fund walkers participating in 40 mile, 60 mile, 10K, 20K, and marathons to raise money for breast cancer research and treatment.

First Snow.... that stuck for a couple of days ~

Photos where taken the morning after the snow storm.
 Can see how it is melting off already. At this point, we had around 3" left. 

 Nice wet sticky snow, good for making snow balls and throwing them at your loved ones, but the new Magnolia tree wasn't overly happy.
Had to go help it out.

You can see the fruit tree's DS helped me plant, a little more clearly. 
 Tree sizes are Dwarf, Semi Dwarf and 80% Standard and are spaced any where from 12' to 25' away from each other.. 

Have 5 more on order and hope to have them by the end of March.


Is a lot of work and money to set up, yet another new place from scratch but the sooner we have the fruit and other tree's planted, the quicker the family can benefit from them.

Fruit Trees, Maggie's help and a happy Maine coon cat ~

Found four fruit trees to start our small Orchard with last weekend. Asian pear( a favorite of ours), a Ayer pear, Akane apple and a Bing Cherry.
Was hoping to buy larger sized local trees, but finding what we want in VA has proven to be a challenge.
So I have ordered the other's via, Rain Tree Nursery.

The more distance view is a little hard to see. We are planting the fruit trees on the other side of the gravel road, we put in to the hay shed. That way they are not to far from the house.

 Little behind on getting the Hen House yard finished but you can see DH has the posts up. Still have the wooden gate to build and the wire to put up. We need to finish painting the inside soon, too.
Have planted some Leyland's around the Hen house yard to kind'a shield them from the neighbors in the future.

Maggie has been a big help to me. With her Sawbuck and Panniers, she carries things like T Post insulators, which are quite heavy. And it is nice to have a buddy along when you are doing work.

Nari is a lot happier now we can let her out of the house when either DS or I are outside. 

To be able to have her out all day, we still have to get the hot wire up around the house fencing. This is to keep her in and the local dogs out, so she stays safe. Hoping that will be done by next week.

Nari helping DS do the morning chores.

And here I thought this was my Art Desk?

I guess I was under the mistaken impression....this was my Art desk. Not a sunny lounge area.....


As soon as we can get the hot wire strung up around the house, she needs to go outside to hunt, so I can create some Art.... on my desk....without help.......

New Hen House and other stuff~

 Back gate going out to the pond and part of the fencing around the house.

The new, half off, store display shed. Hate the odd red color but it can be painted.  DH is getting the inside caulked and the floor painted, that way it will be easy to clean. Should be ready for the chicks come April.


Will also be adding a Hen House yard, for those days I want them to stay close to the shed.


In the back area around the shed, if you look closely, I have planted some tiny Leyland Murray's. 
Unlike Oregon, plants are not cheap here and very hard to find. Had to order by mail.
 But these trees grow fast and will help screen out the neighbors.


Not used to being this close to people. But knock on wood, so far all is good!

Drive from the new hay shed, looking towards the hen house and the big gate at front drive. 
Still have to get the rest of the fencing done in front but we only had enough fencing for around the house for now.
Which is ok... gives us a safe area for Nari and the future chickens.

Another View of the front of the house.

Hay in the Hay shed..... finally!
Good hay is hard to find here. The two big green bales to the front left, are the ones I brought from Oregon.
Others are from two different hay places in VA. 
Needless to say the horse's like the hay from Oregon the best.
So it will be an on going quest to find good hay.

Things are slowly coming together

We are slowly having things come together. Sheds for the animals and hay are in. Started a path from the shed to the animal pasture and now we have the round pen in the same area.
Moved the round pen because where it used to be, is where the hen house will be.


Found a pre build shed that was on sale for a very, very good price down the road.  Will arrive tomorrow.  Have until April to get it fixed up and ready for the chickens.
Can't wait!!

Wether Goats

After searching far and wide for a wether sheep buddy for Apollo and finding none.
I started looking for goats. Came across these two 9 month old Nigerian wethers . 
We ended up getting them for free, which was wonderful.

Now we have buddies for Apollo and a couple of extra brush eaters.


Only problem is... what to name them? Normally I look at an animal and a name pops into my head. 
For some reason, I keep coming up with blanks. 
One kind'a reminds me of Sid in Ice Age. But the other? Hmmmm....

Smithsonian Natural History Museum

On Jan 1st, we decided to take a break from all the work we have been doing at the new place and have a day off.


 I have never been to DC and have always wanted to see one of the Smithsonian Museums. Figured this day, would have the least traffic. 
Pretty nice drive in, however, don't use GPS.... silly thing can't even find the White House, let alone a museum.

DH and DS at the S.M, standing in front of the only good diorama in the place. I guess after being to the Natural History Museum in SF a number of times, that the Smithsonian would be better some how. While not a bad place, it was no where near the quality of the SF one. 

Impressively sized bones...

Oh and if you are handicapped and need a scooter... bring your own. All they have are uncomfortable wheel chairs.

However, I did enjoy the day with the family. 


Have more photos to unload from the other camera's. To which I will post soon.

Blue Birds and DH working

 DH working on the box that will house the electric fence charger, on a nice sunny day. Weather has never been this nice in Oregon, at this time of year.

And we have Blue Birds, lots of them. Another thing we did not have in Oregon. Is fun waiting them flit about.
Have also seen Cardinals flying by, very pretty but very shy.