Beware Foxes at Play

Some workmen spotted animals moving in the alpaca pasture. I took this with my 60X zoom lens. He identified them as fox kits playing.

I walked out into the pasture and spotted the mother. She was too quick, so no photos of her. She ran away from where her kits were playing. I moved out slowly and managed to capture one of them on camera.

 It just stood there and looked at me. Caught lots of photos but these are the best. The hole to the left of the it is the entrance to the den.

 This was the exit to the den.

 This is the entrance that the kit was standing next to and which it entered.

 I am pretty sure that this is the third goose that came this spring which we have not spotted in a while.

Anyone know what this skin is? Looks like a fox skin, but I am not sure. It was next to their exit hole and dried up, so it has been there a while.

I moved the sheep out of that area a month ago when I saw a fox hiding in the shrubs. It would not have been able to take down one of them, since they are adults, but moms sometimes pop lambs when you are not expecting them. We just let the kid goats onto the large pasture and I will be running them into the barn every night. The kids are not great about hanging with moms. My Great Pyrenees are pretty good about keeping predators out, but there is no reason to tempt the foxes. I believe in letting wildlife be as long as they are not bothering my animals. My birds are also in aviaries, so no worries there.

No Time to be Bored!

 There is always something that needs doing on the farm. The bunnies are four weeks old now. Their eyes are open and they are hopping around. I think they are all males. I will know soon enough.

 Charming has lost his old feathers and is now growing his new ones. I have been spinning his really short feathers into yarn. This one features 5 peacock feathers that have eyes. I clustered them close together, so they will make a nice bouquet. The smaller feather are gray with green iridescent tips. I placed them the usual distance apart on a black kid mohair single. I spun the coordinating yarn, so a longer version of the feathered collar can be made.

 I have lots of bags with Black Sussex rooster feathers. It is interesting how different each batch is. I spun these feathers onto a moorit Merino and spun a matching single.

 Fall is the time for kid goat shearing. This guy had gorgeous locks which are now drying in the barn. He is for sale until Monday, when I will send him to auction. He is very parasite resistant. We only had to treat him one all summer. Would love to keep him, but he is related to 2/3 of the does.

 Close up of his fleece before shearing.

 The angora goats have been divided up for breeding. I put the colored goats in the woods and they are getting plenty to eat since they are not interested in the hay when we bring them in for the night. They know it is time to come in, because they are all waiting at the gate.

This is the buck I bought this summer. He is not as fine as my last one, so I will only use him this year. I am looking for a dark red, so if anyone has one that will be a yearling next year, I am interested. I am also downsizing so, if you are looking for a proven doe with lovely fiber (all colors available,) please let me know soon.

I am off to the Art Harvest at Waterford, Virginia this weekend. I will be inside Red Barn #1. It will be cold, so I am hoping that people will be looking for yarns to keep them busy this winter and wearable art. Hope to see a few friends there.

Shop, Rug Hooking, New Landscape and Peacocks

 My shop will stay set up all year round now since I have enough yarn to fill the racks even with yarns pulled for shows. I am starting to have some of my Merino and Kid mohair blended to create lace and fingering weight yarns, so I can design patterns and have yarns to go with them. Some of my patterns require specific yarns which will become limited editions. Seems like everyone wants the exact same yarn and color that I make my models out of. Unfortunately, it has become tedious and they are no longer unique, if I am always spinning the same yarns. So make yourselves notes to buy it, if you want it.

 We are currently waiting  on a bid for our red bank barn to be remodeled and climate controlled. I would like to move all of my fiber stuff to one place and be able to work in the barn.We have ideas for the interior being redone, but the holes in the walls have to go first!

 I went to the MAFA show in July and came home determined to try something new. I have been fascinated for a while by rug hooking and my friend, Loris Blanchard of the Wool Farm, got me started on a sample piece last year. I am now experimenting using my art yarn on monk's cloth.

 This is one of the skeins that I spun in attempts to recreate the colors for my first rug hooking project. This actually represents what our grass looks like now. I love it, but have posted it for sale on my Etsy shop, since the landscape that I have chosen is from early spring.

 I am going to use this photo for my landscape design. I will be editing out the tree shadow and simplifying the smaller details.

Last, but not least, Marc and I added peafowl to our menagerie. My uncle passed away a few weeks ago and I have decided to live my life to the fullest. Peacocks were on my bucket list. Marc always denied my request saying that they are "dirty and loud." Well, the dogs and Skyler are much louder. It is fascinating to watch their stately strut. They are currently in the aviary till we are sure that they will stick around. The male spreads his feathers when he sees me coming out with treats. He has been losing a few feathers - some big and some small. Soon I will have enough to spin a feathered yarn with the small ones. I am amazed at how many types of feathers they have beside the impressive tail feathers with the eyes.

This is a good time to visit the farm. Just a reminder - call first since I occasionally have to run off somewhere, and be sure to not wear your best shoes, since we occasionally rotate the sheep and goats on the front yard.

Just Another Day on the Farm

 Silkie, one of our dairy goats, had her kids on Friday. We decided to let her feed her own babies for a month, since we have two freezers full of mik. Saves us a lot of time, since there is so much else going on now.

 This mom is now looking like triplets. Any day now...

 We now have a playroom into which we are throwing the moms and kids so they can get used to each other and to be sure that they can recognize each other in a crowd. we let them out yesterday and today. The moms ran out. The kids took a little more coaxing. It was fun to watch them run and play. One of the white kid does is obviulsy going to be a ring leader.

 As I have been shearing, I have been putting the most recently sheared into the pen with the heater. Today, I finally moved the colored goats into one pen and left the white ones in the other. Amazing how much animosity there was in that pen. The walls were shaking!

 This is Holler with her mom being very protective. They  sharing a pen with two other does and their kids. The mom is afraid that they will try to steal her baby.

 These two does were posing beautifully for me today. They were the last two that I sheared today. All of the goats have now been shorn, so I will keep an eye on the sheep and start shearing them next. I won't tell you how many goats there were, but it was a lot.

 Life is not always fun on the farm. This afternoon, the above ewe gave birth to a lamb with no jaw. I suspect that it might be the result of worming medication or something that she ate out in the new pasture. Her second lamb is a perfectly healthy little ewe. They are both in a stall bonding.

This ewe was doing a walk about yesterday - in other words, she busted through a gate. This morning she had twins. One did not make it and her insides came out with it. I thank my friend Greta for her advice on fixing it. We managed to get everything back inside her and cleaned off while my sewing skills came in handy. Her stitches are holding and she is chewing her cud with her baby by her side. Good thing that I no longer hesitate to take action.

I always debate about sharing some of the horror stories that happen when you own animals. There are always people who criticise and see the animals as pets and not as livestock. You can't keep all of the animals and you should not breed, if you are not willing to do what has to be done. I can tell you that Marc and I were seeing this ewe as a goner when we saw her uterus laying by her side. You can't wait for a vet to show and most do not want to deal with livestock - horses, cats and dogs are much more lucrative. I am fortunate to have a network of breeders who are willing to help out - even long distance. I have pulled babies and treated all sorts of things. today was probably the worst that I have ever dealt with. I won't know whether what we did will have worked for a week, but I feel like she will be fine, since she is eating and caring for her lamb.

Every morning brings new surprises. Just pray that all of them tomorrow are happy!

Baby Season Going Strong

 Winter in Maryland is dreary and today was wickedly windy. I let the sheep and goats out about 10. The goats turned around and went right back in. The sheep hung out on the hill in front of the house. WhentThe wind became gusty around 4, even the sheep decided that it was a bit much. They decided they had had it and went back into the barn. All it took was the oldest ornery sheep to move in that direction and the rest followed.

 This lamb was born the other night. I thought he was dead when I picked him up, but he gave a gasp, so I spent the next two hours blow drying him and rubbing colostrum on the roof of his mouth till he was finally able to stand. I carried him into the house for the night after I was sure that he had bonded to his mother. He was raring to go the next morning, so he did not have to become a bottle baby. He was cold today, so I put a coat on him for a while. He got so tangled in it that I finally took it off. All of the onsies I have are too big for him, so I will have to visit a Goodwill store soon. I have named him Leggs for a type of Anchor.

 This mom was so busy messing with the other moms, that she got wrapped up in the sheets that I use to give the moms some privacy. She had her own baby an hour later, so she is now leaving the sheets alone.

 I thought I would share how I find some of the babies sleeping. There are two kid bucks sleeping with their heads in this bucket.

 The doe and buck kid, in the pen next to the ones in the bucket, are under a heat lamp and using each other to stay warm.

 This little buck is really cute. He was my first chocolate one born this year. His sister is taupe, but they are both called "red."

 This is Hollow. Her mother had her in the upper garage. We had just checked the mother for udders two days prior and she did not have any, so she stayed with the other does that were not imminent. Marc went to feed the garage crew, while I was feeding the barn crew that had already delivered. He found the mom having the baby and came to tell me. By the time we got there, the first time mom had already had the baby and walked away. Fortunately, Hollow is a howler because she let us know where she was and we brought her over to the barn. I was afraid that she would be a bottle baby, but we put the mother on the stand and I got her to nurse. This was after I sheared enough hair off so we could even find the teats. The mother is now super protective and they are both down in the lower part of the barn in the playroom.

 More sleeping babies. Siblings are still sleeping together in the playroom. The single kids are being guarded by their mothers in the playroom, except for dinner time. That is when the kids run all over the room hopping and skipping. I use that time to check for babies that are hanging back. There is usually an issue, when they are not playing.

These are a few of the Merino lambs. They have been moved to the lower garage now, so they can run out on pasture during the day. They have all had their onsies removed, tails docked, immunizations given and ears tagged. They are loving the freedom to run, but there is a lot of fussing when they get hungry and realize that their mothers are not standing there next to them waiting.

And now Marc is doing the final check for babies for the night. We have to go down every hour and a half to check. The goats are pretty good about vocalizing, so we know to watch for their babies. The sheep are another story entirely. They instantly freeze when we come in and pretend that nothing is happening. That is how I know who to watch, Those not in labor are looking for food, so they are moving around and instantly up on their feet. I have become wise to their tricks!

No call from Marc, so they must all be waiting till morning. Rarely are any babies born during the middle of the night. It usually means the mom is having problems.

This is a good time to wish you all good night. First morning check comes pretty early!

Merinos Finished, Shetlands Beginning

 This Shetland ewe is a first time mother. She delivered out in one of the sheds and did a great job of drying them off. I have several Shetlands that could deliver at any moment. Their lambs are so much smaller than the Merino lambs. These two are wearing a preemie and a newborn onsie. The Merino lambs were almost all in 3 month onsies. When the snow melts, I plan to hit Goodwill for a new batch. The lambs are hard on them!

 This is a Merino ewe lamb chasing down a Shetland due to deliver any day. The lambs are opportunists and are always sniffing out new sources of milk.

 I have 11 Merino lambs. The ones still in onsies have not had their tails docked or their ears tagged. Ican still tell who they belong to if I keep their coats on. The blue stripped one is Bronze. He would not have lived, if I had not blown him dry to warm him up. He had pneumonia. He is significantly smaller than the rest, but he is now thriving.

This is a collar that I just finished. The pattern is on my uniquedesignsbykathy.etsy shop. Very easy. The yarn is what makes it so unique!

I currently have two other patterns in progress. One is a hat and the other is a crocheted snood. This winter my mind is all over the place. I have been soaking in epsom salts nightly to reduce my aches and pains - that is where I am coming up with original designs. I need time with nothing in my hands to come up with ideas. Hard to knit or spin in the bath!

Christmas Eve and the First Lamb of the Season

 I have started spinning freeform yarns again as well as more feathered yarn. The yarn above is one of two that can be found on my www.uniquedesignsbykathy.etsy shop.

 this is the first lamb of the season. He was born Monday outside. His mother was really good and followed me into the barn when I scooped him up. My theme for names this year is Nuts and Bolts. I am naming him "Washer" since there is so much rain right now. He is only a few days old, but growing vigorously.

 You can see how foggy it is right now. Dreary weather, so I am sitting under bright lights to keep energetic. Hard to tell in this picture, but the Merinos, due to deliver soon, and the kids from this year are fighting to get at the grain. We are feeding them some outside the barn while we load up the barn feeders. This is where all of my earning go. This is about 1/4 of the animals - they are now separated according to sex, breed and delivery due dates.

Christmas Eve is a special day of the year for me since it is my birthday, wedding anniversary and the night before Christmas. My daughter sent the flowers and the cards are from Kyle, Marc and other relatives. Thanks to all who sent me notes, and that includes those who follow me on Facebook.

Merry Christmas!

Snow Again means Animals in Barn Again

 Shetlands, Merinos and the kid angora goats are sharing the barn. We are supposed to get over 7 inches of snow. They are all content. The ram at the very front left hides among the ewes till I show up and then thinks he can ram me. I am wise to him now.

 No matter what type of feeder we buy, the goats find a way to get in it. A little black doe is enjoying being above the ground. If you look click on this picture to look at it more closely, you can see that I have several goats with blue eyes.

 If you follow Pantone's color way, you will know that natural silver and "red" kid mohair are in. This silver doe is super soft. I am currently spinning her first fleece.

 The Merino ewes above and below are due any time now, so they are in their own pen. With all of the rest of the animals in the barn, it would be too easy for them to have lambs that do not bond to them.

 I am still listing on my www.uniquedesignsbykathy.etsy shop. The yarn above is super bulky and will be listed today. It is next to the skin, so it is appropriate for next to the skin wear like cowls.

Lovely kid mohair/alpaca supercoils are part of a series that I will be listing today.





I did not even step outside to take this picture! If you are snowbound, enjoy your freedom from the rat race!