Sometimes It's the Little Things That Make Us Happy

Ever since Alan jacked up the floors to make them level in preparation for work in the house none of the doors latch.  This is especially annoying in the bathroom and our bedroom. It appears that the doors were hung with the floors uneven; therefore, when the floor was made level none of the doors fit right.
This is an idea of how far out everything was.

The top of the door on the left above was nearly one inch too low now.  The picture of the bathroom door, below, shows how far out of alignment the strike plate and the latch were.

A little bit of work with a chisel and drill and we can finally latch, and lock, our bathroom and bedroom doors!

I still can't wait to get rid of these horrible doors, but having them function properly will help make them a little more bearable until we start the real renovations inside.

2015...in with a BANG, Literally

As I was sitting at the computer planning a great post on goals for 2015 Alan came in to tell me that the game lands gave us another tree last night.

We were fortunate in two ways. First, the tree was dead and had lost all of its upper limbs already. Second, the tree barely grazed the roof eave edge of the new barn causing minimal damage.

The tree is an ash and seems to be seasoned so we will be able to burn it this year.

Unfortunately, the ash tree took the top 15 feet or so off an oak tree. It now stands about 20 feet tall. We'll let it go and see if it is able to recover.

Sunny Sheep

The new sheep have been enjoying these past few days of warm temps and sunny skies.

They love to sleep in the sun. The lambs snuggle up close to their mom and use her as a windbreak.

In the photo above you can see Chloe (front left) in her hugely pregnant self. Directly behind Chloe is Moose who is also pregnant, but not as large. Their udder development seems to be going at about the same rate so I think they will lamb around the same time. The sheep on the right is Leda. She is the leader of the pack and is always the first to check us out when we get anywhere near their pen. She should be bred too, but I have no idea when she might lamb. Probably on the coldest snowiest night in February.

The whole flock!

Greens in the Greenhouse

On this the 29th day of December the lettuce, spinach, red mustard and kale are slowly growing in the greenhouse....

amidst some weeds. They will provide a few meals this winter and then will take off sometime in the end of March and will be far ahead of anything I can plant next spring.
We were able to have a mixed greens salad on Christmas day along with our own leg of lamb, blue mashed potatoes, and roasted carrots and parsnips. That meal was in the works since at least February when I started the seeds for the onions in the salad; although I could count from the conception of the lambs in October 2013. Isn't meal planning fun when you have to start the year before!

Merry Christmas

Barn Water

I am loving my new water tank in the barn.  Eventually we will dig a trench and get a water line up to the barn, but for now we will be using this 275 gallons tank that was made for transporting a corn syrup product. Alan has figured out the secret to filling the tank and not running the well dry. And if we top it off every time the weather is nice we shouldn't have to haul too many buckets of water this winter.

It has been great not having to haul water up to the barn. The chickens are right outside the barn so their water is easy to carry and the goats are all down hill so that's not too bad either. The sheep have the biggest water need so having the water tank in the barn is a godsend.

Our First Vet Visit

Today was a big day for the new sheep, their first vet visit. The last three weeks with the new sheep have been a very steep learning curve for me. First we had the leg problems with the littlest lamb (learned all about joint ill) then we had the ewe with runny stools (maybe scours, changes in diet from the move, stress, etc) and then three of the sheep didn't want to eat. All the sheep seem to have gotten their appetites back, are eating lots of hay, devouring their grain, and nibbling on their minerals. But now we have two sheep with very itchy backs/shoulders. I was able to examine one of the sheep and found a crusty, scabby area which is intensely itchy for the sheep.

That brings us to our vet visit. Finding a vet was a chore in itself, but today Abby from Dr Hoshall's practice in Oley came for a visit. She was excellent; so calm with the animals and very willing to discuss and explain.  She diagnosed probable mites and gave all the sheep Ivermectin and the one sheep with the worst case a shot of antibiotic.  Even the little lambs got some Ivermectin just in case. She also recommended an Ivermectin pour on treatment. Hopefully, we will see improvement and then we can finally let the sheep and goats meet each other 3-4 weeks after the sheep are better.

The other reason I had the vet come out was to trim the sheeps' hooves. The new mama ewe had very overgrown hooves and took the most trimming. The sheep with the worst dermatitis also got her hooves trimmed, although she wasn't quite as bad.  The other two sheep we left alone, except for their shots.  The vet thinks they are too close to lambing to stress out with hoof trimming and I was thankful for that. I don't need us inducing early labor.  She recommended trimming their hooves about 2-3 weeks after they deliver.  And she thinks they will lamb in about a week. Maybe we'll have Christmas lambs!

All in all I was very happy with this vet visit. I have never had a large animal vet come out to the house and was nervous about how it would go, but Abby was great!