Hello, this is Grace.  Well, here are the updates on some of the animals here on the farm: 

1. Holly (as you might know...) has been bred.  It was about 14 days ago, and I still cannot tell if she is pregnant.  There is something called "palpating"  which you can do between 10 - 14 days.  Supposedly, you put your hand under and can feel lumps.  I feel nothing.  I wonder if I was doing it wrong.... but in about a week and a half I will be putting a nesting box in with her, so I really hope she is pregnant.

2. Ohhh Nigel.  We got him when he was a baby, and raised him since.  He was supposed to be pure East Friesian, but ended up with horns.  We figured he would be okay, but as with almost any male thing we have gotten to breed, he wasn't.  In fact, the other day, he rammed our pregnant ewe right in the stomach.  I'm really hoping she does not miscarry, because I have been looking forward to her lambing ever since she was bred.  We have to find a way to get rid of him somehow, but first we will have to find a purebred EF to replace him.  Ugh.  I personally have always liked him, but I like my ewes more, so I would be fine with getting rid of him knowing that the rest of my sheep will be happier.  I know he will probably be butchered, which I don't know if I can even imagine, but we will *hopefully* not be the ones doing it.

3.  This really is not an "update", but we went walking with the goats 2 days ago.  They were all not used to it but Alice was the calmest, she didn't even need to have anything on her, she just follows us.  Betty isn't that bad, but is hard to catch to put a collar on.  Hazel is probably the worst with that, although all she really does is nothing.  That is the problem, actually, she doesn't even walk.  I had to carry her over to the grass just so she could stand and eat some brown leaves.  Really...?  There is green grass right... there!  Oh well, she is still just as adorable, so I cannot be mad.

And remember... comments are always welcome!

Hi! This is Caroline and this post is about my bunnies. Well, my bunny is named
Tom, and my big sister Grace has Holly.  We got the bunnies two months ago and Tom
and Holly mated eleven days ago.  Then the first day that Tom mated with Holly he did it on her face!  Man, she did not look happy. But I still love Tom and now Holly will have kits soon and Tom will be a dad.  I just hope that when we sell the kits they will get great homes with loving and caring people.  I want you to know that when they grow up they might get to be a foot long so don't get a small cage, please!  And just because they are big doesn't mean that they are not cute; I mean look at the photos of these rabbits!

Hi, this is Grace.  Remember the post I wrote about the horse cam? Well, she foaled last night at about 9:30, and I got to watch it!  It was really exciting.  They were all talking about how they thought that she could foal in the next 20 MINUTES, and I thought it was impossible, but she did!  I have been watching that for two weeks, so I am really happy that I didn't miss it.  Everyone was crowded around watching it, but I got some screenshots, so here they are:

Hi this is Caroline!  And I want to talk about which animal is my favorite.  We have so many animals and they're all so sweet and cute and funny.  The animals that might be my favorite are Black Betty, my La Mancha goat , Isabella, my barred rock chicken, Hazel, my Nigerian dwarf, Oscar, my cat, and Tom, my sweet little rabbit (or big rabbit).  They're all so sweet and I love them.  I had Oscar since I was four and I love him sooo much. And I got Black betty four months ago. And I got Tom 2 months ago. And then sweet little Isabella, my chicken, I love her very much too, and yes I am a chicken person but I don`t know if she is my favorite. And then sweet cute little hazel she is sweet and we got her 2 months ago.  We got Hazel when we got Tom and Holly. This is hard but I think Oscar is my favorite.  He is my favorite cat, and he is sooo sweet:)  Plus I've had him for 5 years so he is my favorite.

A photo of Oscar playing farm:)

I took the photos of our animals, so here they are:

So, if you had to pick, which one is your favorite?  Mine is the one of Alice where she has a giant head.

Well, oddly enough, this post will not have any pictures.  I just know that I need to take some pictures, so I think that is my plan today.  I will take pictures of everyone and post them on here, because since I just got this laptop, there are hardly any pictures on it.  I try to post a few photos once in awhile, but I can only post so many that are actually ours.  So, that is my plan for the day, so stay tuned, and you will be able to see some new animal pics!  And maybe even a video, too. :)

  My last post was definitely correct.  There are NO signs of Spring here!  It is snowing.  I was sitting here writing about Spring when, of course, Winter has to slap me in the face.  Sorry Winter, I will respect you next time.  This was all a plan I bet.  Yesterday felt like a wonderful Spring day... and today is a bad Winter day.  Although, is is not that bad.  Snow is pretty.  Oh well, I usually just sit in the house anyway.....

  I just realized that we still have not knitted anything!  We (my mom and I) were talking about this a few months ago like "We have to wait until Winter, that is when we always knit and crochet..".  Well, Winter it is, and none of our needles or yarn have even peeked out of their bins.  There is still time to start though, so can't complain too much. 

  The animals don't seem to care that much about bad weather though, so maybe I shouldn't either.  And for the finale......... *drumroll*

I REALLY hope we have baby bunnies soon!!!!

So, those are all my mixed feelings. :D

I am SO  excited for Spring!  I'm really hoping we will have lambs by March, but I am expecting lambs by April.  The sooner, the better for me, but 3 months isn't very long to wait.  We will probably have 2 ewes lamb this year, but who knows if our other ewe is pregnant!  Not me.  Anyway, right now it is Winter, and the ewes are busy making lambs, and the baby goats are just being... well, noisy, but sweet, baby goats.  So, I will just be posting a few pictures to get everyone entertained.  First, it is a pic of me about 2 years ago, with one of our first chickens we ever raised sitting on my shoulder.  I remember exactly what happened.  I was sitting next to the horse trough (where the chickens were kept at that time), just watching the chickens be chickens, when one jumped up and started sitting on the edge of it.  I put my arm out, and that chicken just walked up my arm and onto my shoulder!  Finally, after it sitting there for a few minutes, my arm was getting tired, and my dad just happened to walk in the shop and see me.  I think I told him to get mom to take a picture of me, so he did.  We have a couple of them, but I liked this one.  This certainly proves that I tend to like animals.  Whether their eyes are on the side of their heads, or on the front of their faces. :)

Hi this is Caroline! And this is my second post. This post is about how to raise a lamb. If you have a newborn lamb that is abandoned by it's mom, or is not properly cared for by it's mother, don't worry! It is simple.  If you have a lamb that was born less than 48 hours ago, you need to get colostrum in them.  They sell sheep colostrum at stores, but if you can milk it from the ewe, that is always the best choice.  Once you have given the lamb the right amount of colostrum, you can start feeding it milk regularly.  If your lucky, you might be able to find someone that sells sheep milk. It is best to buy the sheep milk, but if you can't find sheep milk, you can buy lamb milk replacer for the lamb.  Calf milk replacer is NOT the same thing, so don't ever feed your lamb something that is not made specifically for them.  You want to make sure the lamb always has a warm place to stay, so it can be safe as it grows.  You can let it out, but make sure your watching it!  As it grows, make sure the lamb has food and water. When weaning, you can crush the sheep pellets up and feed it that small amounts at a time (about a forth of a cup at a time).  While doing this, you still want to continue bottle feeding, but try to decrease the amount of milk every day, slowly.  We put  Rosie (our shrop,oxford ewe) in a box, but if you have a place for it then don't put it in a box.  Make sure that the lamb is always warm.  If you stick your finger in it's mouth, it should never be cold.  A sheep can get pregnant when it is one year old.  Some people breed them when they are younger than a year but it is best to wait until the sheep is a year old and then it should have a healthy little lamb.



       

   


                            

I'm sure most of you know about this website, but for those of you who don't, it is a very helpful site. It has all sorts of homesteading topics (hence the name), but I usually visit the animal ones.  So, if you would like to learn something whenever you feel like it, go visit, I'm sure there is something for everyone! :D Here is the link.