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Hi Everyone,

                I am sitting here at the computer working on my Larder email, uploading pictures, and now starting to write my journal—all with lots of interruptions, because I have a wee little lamb curled up in my lap that needs to be fed a bottle every twenty minutes or so. This has been a very interesting week, and if ever there was a week where everyone would have enjoyed us having an Instagram account—this was the week. There were so many things to take pictures of that I had a hard time choosing one for the journal—so if you go to the website to read the journal, you will find three!

Are Ewe my Mommy!

Vanilla and Chocolate

                Last Sunday morning two little lambs were born—and although we thought we had found there mama, by Sunday night the little white one had become our first bottle baby. Monday morning when we looked out the window, Yasha had a little lamb. She was not trying to hurt it, just trying to take care of it in her puppy way. I headed down field to rescue the little brown lamb, and found it to be the twin to the white one that we had adopted the night before. I have never seen twin lambs that were so attached to each other. Where one went the other went, and if they got separated for a feeding, washing or diaper change they screamed until they were reunited. Once Mom mixed two white lambs up, and put the wrong white lamb with the brown lamb and she couldn’t understand why they were screaming so—I had to point out to her that she had the wrong lamb. Since it was so cold outside (20’s by night and 40’s by day)—we kept the lambs in the house and put diapers on them and let them run around. During the night we put them in a box to sleep. Tuesday morning Yasha had found another abandoned lamb, and this time she was doing her best to clean up the little lamb, and push it under her (Yasha’s) belly to nurse. Yasha is a dog, who is still a puppy, and has no way to nurse anything—but she was spreading her back legs, and squatting down so that little lamb could nurse—or at least try to. We picked up that little lamb and added it to the nursery—of which we brought Yasha up and put her in the pen so that we could work with her on how to properly take care of little lambs. It is okay to clean them up and try to nurse them—but it is not good to pounce on them or try to carry them around by their leg or head. By the next day we figured that it was best for Yasha to guard sheep from the other side of the fence, and that is just what she was doing Friday morning when I heard her barking away. I looked down field and saw that two ewe’s had their hips stuck in the hay rack. I headed down field and as I drew close one managed to free herself, but the other was good and stuck. I pushed this way, and that way—but she was stuck. I knew I couldn’t push her backward, because of the rib cage. So I twisted her hips just enough to off balance them so that she could squeeze out. Once both ewes were gone, a little black lamb was left behind. I thought it belonged to one of the ewes that were stuck, but since they ran off without it I had to go find its mama. I finally found her—nursing another black lamb. She had twins, but has left one behind. She didn’t keep up with it the rest of the day either—for it didn’t make it. We had to rescue the other one the next day, for even though she was trying to nurse it, for some reason it wasn’t getting the nourishment that it needed. By Saturday afternoon we had four little orphan lambs—and we had a buyer for all four of them. He was more than excited to bottle feed them all raising him up a little flock of sheep. We managed to survive a little over 24 hours without any bottle lambs—then tonight as we headed down pasture to bring the sheep in out of the green field, we found two more. One was completely abandoned, but the other was being “taken care of” by its mama. The mama was doing a good job screaming at it to make sure it stayed beside her—but the mama had not cleaned it up, and had not let it nurse. The poor little lamb was weak and skinny. The mama ewe reminded me of many a mom today. Many a modern mother would rather sit on the sofa screaming at their children to “do this” or “don’t do” that, but when it comes to feeding them, cleaning them up, and teaching them—well, that is too much work. I believe that is why the Bible says that older women are supposed to teach the younger women to love their husbands, love their children, and to be keepers at home. Many people today see that teaching as old fashioned, but old fashioned marriages didn’t usually end in divorce, and children were fed more nutritious meals because Mom had time to cook and knew how to cook. Yes, we can learn a lot from sheep.

Winter at Last

                I would have been perfectly happy if winter never arrived—but then I would never be able to grow brassicas or squashes because the little green worms would eat them all up. We had a lot to do to prepare for the first onslaught of winter. All the lemons had to come out of the lemon trees, and the beets and the onions needed to be covered. On Monday we were able to harvest the rest of the lemons out of the trees, and since I also hate having yellow parsley leaves from a hard frost we used cut off milk jugs to make little plastic cloches to cover the parsley plants. Then since the weather was so nice Monday afternoon we spent time weeding the garden beds for the flowers that we get to plant out this week. On Tuesday Leo and Sue came over and we spent a few hours covering almost all 700 onion plants. The weather forecast said that it was supposed to get down to 24 degrees, with a wind chill of 15. Onions only survive to 20 degrees, so I was a little worried about them. The strange thing was I was not sure that they needed covered, nor was I sure what the best way to cover them would be. In the end we put little hoops over the rows, and then we draped frost cloth over them. The temperature was pretty cold as we worked in the garden, and the wind was blowing up to 24 mph. We were all bundled up trying to stay warm, and we were blown off of our feet a few times. When we woke up Wednesday morning the temp was only 29 with a wind chill of 26—at least we had prepared, although we didn’t need too. After milking the cows Tuesday morning so bundled up that I could hardly move, and my neck and shoulders were hurting so bad, and my toes and fingers were so cold—I could understood for the first time why northerners come to Florida beaches for spring break—they are tired of wearing all their winter gear. I think that I shall feel real sorry for them if Florida has a cold snap during their spring break.

Lemonade Anyone?

A loaded Ponderosa Lemon tree

                With all the lemons removed from the trees, we now had our laundry room full of baskets and buckets of lemons. Our juice press broke last year, and all that we had to juice the lemons with were two old fashioned glass hand juicers. So, Thursday afternoon Mom and I headed to the kitchen to juice lemons. A few hours later we had two gallons of lemon juice—plus sore necks, arms, shoulders, and hands. By Friday I was dreaming of an electric juicer! We had to run some errands, and I told Mom that we should do our shopping before we did our juicing—for I wanted to buy a juicer. We stopped by Walmart and found a $20 electric juicer—and it works real nice. We have even considered going back and buying a second one so that we can both juice lemons—for we have so many of them. We also want to put up some orange juice, so the juicers should come in handy. At the moment we had two lemon trees—a huge Meyer’s lemon in our courtyard and a nice size Ponderosa lemon tree in our garden. Both trees were loaded this year.

Late or Early!

                Our cow Amy was due to have a calf on January 1st—we are still waiting. Gracy was due to calve on January 22nd, but she went early, and delivered a nice healthy little boy on January 19th. We had two cows that were due in February—but Saturday afternoon Lucy decided to go into labor (three weeks early). We checked on her off and on, but she never seemed to progress. Once before we had a cow who was in labor, but never progressed and we lost the mama, but was able to save the calf. With Lucy things would be different. Around 5:00 Mom checked to see how Lucy was progressing—things were advancing to the birth canal, but it was not the normal two front feet and a nose. Mom was not sure what she was feeling, but she knew that it was not right. We called the vet—he couldn’t come for two hours. We watched Lucy, we finished the chores, we watched Lucy, we cooked dinner, and we watched Lucy—who looked at us with eyes that said, “Help”. As soon as we finished eating the vet arrived and we headed back out to Lucy. By then Lucy had finally given birth to a tiny, beautiful brown little heifer calf. There was one problem though—the calf was dead. The vet said that the calf was a preemie, and for some reason it had died in utero. Lucy went into labor—even though her body was not ready for delivery. The calf was breach, with its back knees coming out first—which is why Mom couldn’t quite tell what she was feeling. It was sad—Lucy has given us many bulls, but this was her second heifer. Since she delivered early, Lucy has no milk. We are going to try milking her for a few days to see if her milk will come in. If not—I guess that is one less A1 cow we will have to milk. Then to add to the cow saga, my favorite cow Jamima is the other cow that is due to deliver in February. She is the sweetest cow that we have, and when she got mastitis a few years ago, I prayed for a replacement heifer—of which I got our calf I named “America”. The next year Jamima had another heifer that I named “Jam”. We kept meaning to retire Jamima, but we never managed to get her away from the bull. Jamima is 13 years old, and took a turn for the worst about the time her last calf was weaned. There was one problem though—she was pregnant. As time draws closer to her due date, it gets harder and harder for her to get around. The vet wasn’t too concerned about her—which was a relief, but I do not expect her to live much longer after the calf is born. We shall see though. I expect to have a bottle calf—but then, maybe Amy and Jamima will have their calves around the same time and Amy can be the nurse cow. Amy is strong and healthy and has a nice bag—so just maybe . . .

A Florida Winter Garden Bouquet

                Yes, life here on the farm has been a good dose of reality last week. It is not all peaches and cream, but it is a life that I wouldn’t trade for any other—especially if snow is involved. I was born in the south, and I hope to die in the south. Those northerners can keep their cold and snow. I have always said that I must live where spring starts February 1st—and where there are flowers that bloom all year round! Right before the freeze I went through the garden harvesting flowers for a winter bouquet.  

Serving you with Gladness,

Tiare