Shade Tree

After playing hard Sonjia decided to lay in the shade of the tree.  She it the spot on the ground with the most shade. 

I usually do this outside work the weekend after Easter but Easter was early and the cold weather wouldn't let go.

The dogs enjoyed being outside with me as I cleared the gardens.

And as often as possible,  they laid in the shade of the tree.

I forgot to take after pictures Sunday evening.   We are getting a light rain off and on throughout the day.  It was good timing for a weekend cleanup.

In just a few weeks, this little garden will be full of blooms and blossoms!

It is really here! Springtime

There is more green each day popping up in the yard.  The dogs are fully enjoying the he warmer tempurature.

It doesn't show up well in the photo but there is a bit of color coming up in the distant tree line.

See the branches are budding out!  It was so windy Friday when the dogs and I went for a walk that I had to hold the branch to capture the picture.

Sonjia just can't seem to stop smiling.  I need to share when the rest of us went inside, Sonjia sat at the end of the driveway.  She wanted to stay outside.

I am not sure but I think this was a pocket gopher chase.

Look at this handsome dude!  (And look at all the green grass coming up behind him.)

Finn, the chicken herder is doing well with the kittens.  Her two are on the right and the adopted kitten is on the left just over her tail. Her babies almost have their eyes open.  The other kitten will be 5 to 7 days yet with its eyes closed. This is going to get interesting.

A week of warm weather has a lot of impact.  Look at the tulips popping up! Woo Hoo!

The Honeysuckle is coming along fabulously!  

And each day, the buds pop out more.  Here are the buds of a red sugar maple.  I guess it is true, this buds for YOU!  Enjoy spring now that it has arrived!

All that wool!

My shearing team showed up tonight.

Justin got the pleasure of shearing Gizem.  Oh my goodness! He thought the wool would never end!

Wait a minute!  There is something inside of all this wool!

Oh my goodness! There really is a sheep in here!

It went really fast with 2 men working at one time.

The huge pile of fleece (the right half) is ALL from Gizem.  This one tarp full of  wool is from three sheep.  That is only half of my sheep.  I ran after a second tarp.

Look below at how happy the sheep are after that heavy wool was taken off from them.

All DONE!  Hey, I guess my sheep aren't that enormous after all. But you know what that means... ?

I have a huge amount of wool to process.  I will be adding  Llama and Alpaca to this.  We are processing it straight into yarn this year.

Oh, be still my heart <3 isn't Gizem absolutely adorable?!? (Below) His name means mysterious because the coloring on his face is grey and black and it looks like he is wearing a mask.

You can only see four of the sheep in the picture below and that is because the other girl is scratching her back against the piece of farm equipment in the right corner.  I scratched her back for her and a few minutes later two other sheep were standing in line.  

The tale of three cats

I went to check on Callie's 3 kittens and I was surprised to see the mama cat which abandoned her 4 kittens snuggled up to the kittens.

Mama Callie came in and casually groomed herself. At that point she wasn't concerned that another cat was mothering her kittens.  Monday one of her kittens was stepped on by a steer. We took it to Vet ER but she didn't make it.

Tuesday morning I found 4 kittens in the main barn. 3 were dead and Isabella was barely alive.  Their mama was the black cat here.

Back in the chicken coop Finn is doing well with Isabella and her two kittens. Tiny Isabella is on the top of the pile

They curl around each other so much that it is difficult to tell them apart.

It has been an emotional week at the farm.

Spring cleanup

Because of the weather we are a week or two behind cleaning up the outside gardens.  The lawn is too moist to begin the raking.

Many years the tulips are poking through already. No tulips are showing here yet this year!

Sonjia, Duchess, Skyler and Misty Blue all supervised my work.

The only green today were weeds and wildflowers. 

The weeds are now gone. The wildflower looks like a honeysuckle.

I should have trimmed back these shrubs 2 months ago.  Let's hope that my procrastination doesn't harm them.

That is going to look a lot better.  Last year we cut them back to the base of the window.  They grew to the top of the window. I chose to shorten them more this year.

Okay, so this isn't clean up. These are Callie's 4 kittens.

This is their first visit to the feeding pen.

I lifted them in there and made sure they got something to eat. Then I helped them get down.  I need to find something to create steps for them until they can reach.  I had blocks of wood in there last year.  Hmmm.  They disappeared!

This is why I love flying

You never know what cloud formations you will see. This photo was taken on a business trip about a month ago.

Shearing time

I am so excited! The sheep are scheduled to be sheared next Thursday. This year Jeannie and I have decided to go to a relatively new mill that will process all the way to yarn.

Cinnamon didn't like me coming in to take his picture and walked away from me. 

Gizem on the other hand got up and came towards me. 

The four girls just continued to rest.  They enjoy shade from the silo. Their wool is very thick and heavy right now 

Gizem likes to get really close. Sometimes I get a little scared because he sees me and comes running full speed. 

This past week he has been smiling at me.  He comes up to me and when I pet his chin his lips roll back to a Cheshire cat smile.  I tried to get a photo but it didn't work. Isn't he so beautiful!