Baby Ducks' First Swim

Our chick order was missing the chicks, who will be ready some time this week. But we did get these cute Swedish ducklings.

Today was their first swim. It kept them out of the way while I cleaned out their pen. Hopefully we will have better luck this year with the ducks. I am hoping the perimeter fencing will help keep them safer.

Updates

Lots of little things going on here.
Alan has been working on the bridge. All that is left is the decking and a board along the top/railing.

The goats have been working on clearing brush.

They get quite acrobatic to get the tasty bits.

Mama Sadie is working on shedding, and looking quite shaggy.

The lilacs are working on perfuming the air with their amazing scent.

This long stand of lilacs is on the bank behind the house. With the patio doors open the smell of lilacs comes right into the house. It's heavenly.

And Stumpy is working on getting to used to her crate. She has been eating in it for a few days and has even gone all the way in. 

The hard part is figuring out the best time to catch her and her kittens. She moved them a few days ago and I know the general vicinity but I think I'll let her raise them up a little more. But we can't wait to see them!

A Sure Sign of Warmer Weather Ahead

I love those changes in the seasons that precipitate changing from flannel sheets to cotton or vice versa. Thursday was the day change to cotton sheets. All the flannel sheets were washed and hung outside then put away and the crisp cotton sheets were put on the beds. I love a really nice 100% cotton sheet that's been hung outside to dry. I dream of owning a set of linen sheets. Maybe someday!

Ready for the Chicks

I spent part of today getting everything ready for the new chicks. We should be able to pick them up on Saturday.  All the equipment was scrubbed and sanitized by the sun. The heat lamp was hung and just needs an extension cord from the house.

The heat lamp is from Premier 1 and is so much sturdier and safer than those cheap metal ones. The picture doesn't show it but the cord coming from the base has a metal coil for about three feet to keep critters from chewing on it. It worked great in the barn during lambing.

And yes that is a toilet seat. The best space to have the chick brooder, other than under a broody hen, is the outhouse. It usually just gets filled up with all kinds of gardening paraphernalia so brooding the chicks is a good reason to clean it out.

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

Over the years I have heard many good things about the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival but had never visited. Now that we have sheep it seemed like a good time to go. Maddy and I spent Sunday there and found it very enjoyable. First I would like to commend the festival organizers for an amazing job. Everything was very well organized, from the parking, to the brochures, to the number of bathrooms. And the amount of lamb you could eat! Yummy! We started with a lamb kabob when we arrived, then had a lamb burger and lamb sausage for lunch. We tasted sheeps' milk cheese and came home with two different types.

The first thing we noticed when we arrived on the festival grounds was all the beautiful colors of yarn. It was a feast for the eyes, and the fingertips. Definitely sensory overload after a while. And I don't even knit! Maybe I need to learn.
And the raw fleeces! So many beautiful fleeces! Don't want to process a fleece? You can drop your raw fleece off at the wool processor's booth and they will ship it to your home when it's all processed. Or you could buy some roving ready for spinning. Don't want natural colored roving? Well then here are tons of different colors of pre-dyed roving! One could literally go crazy trying to figure out what to buy. Luckily, I had a pretty specific shopping list. We needed a couple of boat shuttles for the loom and I found some pretty cheap ones that weren't made of beautiful cherry. Until I know more about weaving I really didn't want to spend too much money on these. I also bought a ball of Coopworth roving to try spinning. I have two spinning wheels that I can sort of make work (not their fault, entirely mine.) If I add a couple of wool sheep I am leaning heavily toward the Coopworth breed. So I thought it would be nice to see how I like to work with the wool.
The sheep barns were a treat too. I just wish there was more signage about the specific breeds and more people around to talk about their sheep. The festival is definitely geared toward the wool breeds though. There were no hair sheep to be seen anywhere!

Where else can you see a couple of gals taking their sheep for a walk! I would imagine that these sheep have been trained since they were lambs to walk on a lead.

Maybe my favorite part of the day was watching the auction of shepherding equipment. We need to bring the van next year. They sold off some nice used equipment at decent prices. There were no great steals but the prices were very fair for used equipment. Saturday there was another auction of spinning and weaving supplies that I would have liked to have seen too. And we missed the workshop on Friday on Basic Shepherding. Next year it looks like we'll try to spend the entire weekend at the festival.

A New Bridge!

Maddy and I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival today and when we got home we found this nice surprise!

According to Alan, who designed the whole thing, it is a Howe Truss bridge, a design seen in covered bridges. Hopefully in another weekend the bridge will be complete. Do you think we can bribe the sheep to cross it? The rams will be spending the summer in the pasture on the other side of the stream so they had better be able to navigate this bridge.

Stumpy Update

I haven't seen Stumpy since Friday evening but we have been able to hear faint meowing at the burrow where I thought she was sleeping. Alan saw her in the late afternoon today coming out to eat and looking deflated. So now we wait until they come out of the burrow!