Animals, animals, animals

We have a few animals around here.  The number fluctuates depending on what is sold, what is born and what dies.  The kids love the animals that fit in their laps (or used to).

This is Stripes.  She is a 2nd generation cat in our family.  

This is one of her kittens, Potato Chips.  He is such a sweet cat and has a little raspy purr.  We really should find him a new home, but we aren't that motivated.  His sister is a tiny copy of their mother.  They are both very calm and friendly kitties.  Unless you are a mouse. 

We sold all of our sheep this summer.  It was too much responsibility for me, even though at this point they were taking care of themselves.  I was thinking ahead to winter and didn't want to worry about all of that.

This is Molly, on her last day as a member of our family.  She was terrorizing the farm a little and needed a home where she could get more human attention.  An older (than me) couple took her about a month and a half ago.  Leah sobbed.  She'd become much more attached to Molly than I'd realized.  She's OK now.

As part of the deal that we could find Molly a new home, we got a new puppy for Leah to attach herself to.  (No one else around here is as much an animals person as Leah!)

This little puppy is Lucky.  She is technically Daniel's dog.  We had her first and knew that she had a sister still available.  She was anxious to meet Molly.

But I think she was happy to be reunited with her sister.  They were only separated for two days, so it wasn't a huge reunion.  They had already grown a bit in these pictures.

Meet Georgia.

 Here they are two months later.  When will they stop growing?  They are growing SO fast!  They are about 15 weeks old now.  We had to buy choke collars so that Leah could handle Georgia.  That is one strong pup!

We set up this kennel for them yesterday, got them off the grass and are using the house as a weather shield. We had to steal it from the chickens though and will have to put up something to contain the birds soon.

I've heard some specific meowing/crying late at night for the past week.  I'm sure we'll be dealing with more kittens in about 4 months.  I'd fix Stripes, but that is a sure way to never see her again.  You might not believe it.  We have too much experience to think otherwise!

We still have one cow.  And too many spiders.

Shearing Sheep

Part of owning sheep is getting them sheared each spring.  It's easiest if you can do it yourself.  We do not do anything easy.  Fortunately, our bishop had some experience shearing sheep as a teenager and offered to help us out this year.  It was very nice of him.  Especially since he's the Bishop and very busy. 

He loaded up our 6 sheep into his trailer and drove them 3 houses up the road to his shed he'd already set up for our activity.  The day was hot and he'd be dripping in sweat by the time he was through.

In the end, we had 6 MUCH skinnier sheep and two bags of wool (Baa, Baa, black sheep).

After the work was done, Bishop got out a horse for Leah and Joseph to sit upon.  The other kids were invited, but too shy to accept.  Leah gets excited when she only smells a horse.  Being on it's back was major points in the Bishop's favor!

As fun as the shearing was (which it really wasn't, though we tried to ignore how hard the Bishop was working while we stood and watched), we may not have the opportunity again.  We are trying to sell our little flock.  With Chad's frequent absences, it's not something I relish doing in the winter.

 But at least we tried it and have the memories!  meh-eh-eh, meh-eh-eh

Round 'em up, Move 'em out, YEHAW!

We had some glorious weather in these parts yesterday. Was your weather as nice? Our day started with cleaning the church, then a trip to the library, followed by a stop at the local Preparedness Fair. From there we went on a much anticipated picnic and played a bit at a park. A stop at the bread store on the way home turned into a decision to defrost one of the freezers (because the bread needed to be frozen).

I am still scratching my head over the fact that we were defrosting a freezer on March 24th! It took a couple/few hours to get four years' worth of frost out of that monster, but when we replaced the food, we organized meat into one freezer and everything else into another. Wow. We have a lot of food (and chocolate) in our garage.

Meanwhile, Chad decided that it was a good time to catch and weigh a lamb that we wanted to post on Craigslist. She was a little tricky to catch, but we got the task accomplished and decided that the ewe weighs 90 lbs. A little on the small side for butchering, but her birthday is coming up in two months, so we need to get her sold.

Then we decided to put her into the corral so that she would be easier to catch next time. The thing is...her father is in the corral with her mother and "aunts" and half-siblings. So we got the ram out of there and into the pasture.

If you ever have the good fortune to visit us during a time that Chad needs to round up an animal around here, you will leave with some darn funny memories! We finally got that ram out, with Chad pulling and Daniel and Nathan pushing. Then Nathan climbed up on his back and that ram just stood there. I guess he's not a rodeo ram. He ran off easily enough when the rope was off his neck and Nathan was off his back.

Well, the ram is less likely to try to break back into the corral if he has a few of his girls with him. We have two ewes that are no longer mommas, so we pulled them out, too.

The pictures below are from Chad and Nathan pulling out the last ewe. Notice the only two lambs/sheep hanging around Chad? They are the bottle babies and are the only ones that don't run away from us. They become a bit of a health hazard (tripping hazard) when someone is trying to rope a sheep that doesn't want to be roped!



They were lucky and got the rope on her without too much effort. This is the best time to climb on her back!



It's a good thing Nathan's so light. This ewe is going to be glad to be free, as soon as she can get rid of that boy on her back!


When Chad and Nathan got her out to the pasture, they had a short brain lapse and let go of the rope. She started running away and they had to chase the end of the rope before it completely passed them by. Nathan was quicker and got a hold on it first.


Now it's time for the real fun. We just need to get that rope of her neck first...


...and then it's time to hold on tight! This sheep gave Nathan quite a ride. She tried to out-smart him by scraping him along the outside of the corral and then running them both through some discarded barbed wire. He held on for a long time. I don't think the story can be told any better than the one Nathan's face is telling in this picture.


I love this life and the experiences the kids are having. How could we ever go back to living in a city/neighborhood?