Come C R Farm, meaning Cheryl and Ray's Farm. For starters visit our 2 web pages to learn abit about us here in the mountains of West Virginia.

http://www.neumedia.net/~rkane/ - maintained by hubby. and http://www.neumedia.net/~rkane/mamakane/ - maintained by yours truely.

These pages aren't really critters in the garden, but farm animals. I do lots of cottage style flower gardens too, and try to keep all the critters OUT of the gardens. Carolyn, I used to have 2 goats that we inherited with the farm, until they started standing on the fence to eat all of my flowers! Then those smelly old bucks were history. But I have been tempted to get some sweet nanny's.

I'm in the process of redoing my pages, but have some farm animal pictures up from when the grandkids visited the farm for the 1st time. They were so excited! Wanted to feed the sheep at 4 am. It wasn't even light yet!

Mamakane, didn't the goats help with the nutgrass! I hear if you tie one up where there's weed problems, he'll munch it all, including the poison ivy. I don't know why I didn't think of that in our nutgrass discussion before! And, you know, 4 a.m. is a great time to do things in the garden that no one else should know about!

Gail, we didn't have nutgrass at the old farm, so don't know if goats eat it or not. Goats are browsers. They eat here and there, but they really like eating stuff that high up, like green briar growing in a tree.

mamakane, can't wait to see your websites.

Great to see your grandkids with the animals MamaKane, all children should have that experience early in life. Those memories will stay with them all their lives, and they will learn to care for this beat up old planet of ours.

Loved both the websites. Enjoyed the soothing music. What a gorgeous place! FYI I have no trouble viewing the lambs on this forum.

Gail, I probably have some nut grass out there somewhere, but I'm not sure what it is. A weed is a weed to me. The goats liked my flowers and the trees on the edge of the woods best. They were in the process of girdling and killing the trees when they left. We had lots of briars and other scrubby stuff along with good grass for them to eat. Our neighbors in Maryland used to make a traveling pen for their goats to graze in during the day - much like a very large chicken tractor. But on our rocky, hilly, uneven mountain it wouldn't work too well.

We just had the sheep sheered. They are so white and slick looking now. I'll have to get out there with the camera ASAP. I'll try to post a before and after pic.

Does anyone else have web pages?

Mamakane, as David and Maggie will tell you....I don't take pixes, don't have a website (except for my page on Maggie's site -- thank you, Maggie) because then I couldn't lie and say how beautiful everything looks. I don't want everyone knowing the WHOLE story! Heck, let's see, how long has it been that I've managed to fool Maggie...3 years? 4 years? She thinks I have a garden 'cause she's never been over here. Hee-hee. Neat trick, uh? I can just tell everyone I have a beautiful garden. They'll never know!

Glad you asked MamaKane, this is a good time to recap our current visitors' cyber garden works.

I met Terry from a post on our Guest Book, through the link to his site in Yorkshire England:
Gardening and Wildlife, UK

Angie and David are officers of the Arlington Organic Garden Club in a neighboring town. Angie created and manages the club's site and David writes of shade plants therein.
http://www.aogc.org/index.htm, Arlington Organic Gardening Club

Susan gardens on the rainy side in Washington state:
http://www.wolfenet.com/~jorgy/

You may have already found Gail's page within our site:
http://www.maggiesgarden.com/Organic_Guide/organic_guide.html

Nicola, in London area, joined us earlier and will really enjoy all the new posters since then. I shall invite her to join us again.
The Private Life of a Garden

Since I'm doing this on the run,,, if I have missed someone, please jump in and post the url for us.

I can't wait to look at all the pages! Thanks Maggie for the update.

Your beautiful sheep family portrait of 3, posted on Carolyn's thread earlier, has become an entire herd on my screen - my wallpaper background for the week!
One of my favorite shots from your earlier pages was of Kristie the Wonder Shepherd in the snow. Could you post that for us again mamakane?

I used that same picture for our wallpaper the week the grandkids were here using my computer. Becky named the lambs, the black faced one is the new Becky Boo, and the other is Gray/white. She's only 5.

When Becky our first grandchild was born, we recieved a tiny Dorset lamb from our neighbors to bottle feed. This was also our first pet lamb. So we said we would keep her for Becky, and called her Becky's lamb - which eventually got shortened to Becky Boo. Our Grandaughter Becky hadn't been able to visit the farm but shared pictures and stories about her lamb Becky Boo over the phone and by mail.

Unfortunately, Becky Boo died this winter. When Becky asked about her lamb/sheep it was a difficult dissision to tell her the truth, or just rename another white sheep for her. But we told her the truth. (on the phone) After a few seconds of silence, I thought oh no! but then she came back on the line and in a very serious little girl voice asked if when one of the big sheep had another lamb could we name it Becky Boo for her it really made me cry.

So we now have the new Becky Boo you saw on Carolyn's forum. The grandsons also have pet lambs/sheep born near their births. Snuggles belongs to 3 year old Raymond, and Star belongs to 1 year old Ryan.

I'll have to hunt my files for those pictures from my past web pages for you Carolyn.

That Texas rain finally caught up with us. We were going to take the lambs to market this morning, but not sure now with the rain. It's hard to handle 100 pounds of wet wool in the rain and mud. Especially when they don't want to go up the shute to the truck.

Maggie, I haven't found the picture of Kristy in the snow yet. But how about this one of Kristy keeping Krinkle company. Krinkle, our old Ram, is not getting around well anymore, and I'm afraid we will have to put him down. It's such a hard task. He has been constant companions with Kristy for the past couple of years, I hope she will not fret over him being gone.

Your pics always look like calendar art MK! They are so beautiful and their companionship so touching. Kristy is such a maternal dear. Did she ever have babies of her own? and why is Krinkle a brown color? Does that come with age, or are there brown sheep and this city gal doesn't know about them? I am sad to hear about her nearing the end and am having to face the inevitable claiming our oldest hedgehog soon, too.

Krinkle is a He and he is the one that had to be put down. Didn't want anyone to become confused and think it was Kristy the horse. She is still doing fine. She spent last night out in the field with the rest of the flock.

Sheep are only fluffy white in storybook pictures. They are white after they are sheared, but then they are not fluffy. Since this is the season to have them sheared here, he has quite a bit of weather to his wool. In other words he is dirty, but it's not neglect.

His wool is about 5 inches long, and under that top 1/4 inch it is a creamy white - it's not pure white because of the heavy lanolin in the coats.

Also, sheep that you see at shows are white and fluffy because they have been fitted out. To fit a sheep out you shear them about a month before the show. Then by show time they will have a short fleece again. The sheep can be washed if necessary, then you use a wool rake (like a wool card) to comb and fluff the wool up into that soft fluffy look. Then you trim it to look nice and level if necessary and to show off the best points of confirmation.

I had a young lamb that I washed and combed up nice and fluffy. She looked like the storybook pictures since I didn't shear her before or trim her up after. We took her in a lead line class at the local "Wool Fair". But the main reason to have her at the fair was so the kids could pet her and get their pictures taken. She was a big hit!

We had 2 little boys come with their dad when he sheared our sheep last week. They got to sit on Kristy, but the little one's favorite was the baby chicks.

Now we're talking WOOL! Growing up in UK, we always knitted our own jumpers/sweaters. Bought the yarn (not synthetics) at the 'wool shop' in the high street, so often disappearing due to 'grocery stores' replacing the individual shops in larger towns. Right Terry? There was almost always a sweet shop/paper shop, butcher shop, green grocers, bakery, etc. Finding a village with a row of proper shops is always a delight when treking rural areas now adays. Stop me quick before I wander off again!
I own a beautiful shawl that was woven by a woman who makes garments from her home-raised sheep. I use it for an evening-out as much as a lap rug at my desk. Nothing keeps me warmer.

Mamakane, I'm so sorry about Krinkle. That is such a tough thing to have to do. Do you have a replacement for him picked out?

Do you use the wool yourself or do you sell it all? I wanted to learn to weave some years ago, but discovered I was allergic to lanolin, so that took care of that.

A woman in one of my garden clubs raises alpacas and sells the wool to weavers...or something like that. I'm trying to think of the source for that tidbit of information, and can't, so it may be a total aberration. Good grief!

A critter in my gardens!

That's Missy one of our 4 dogs. This flower bed is in their path to chase the chipmunks. I tried to reclaim it for my flowers but no such luck. So I gave up and it is now their flower bed.

I can't even tell it's a dog! Great columbine pix! What breeds to you have?

see, I have to-do's on my brain...ugh. What breeds DO you have?

What a delight to see those yellow day lilies just now MK! I am, this very min, working on a June Come Stroll and had just mentioned my gift of those from you! Mine are in a pot and have not bloomed this year. I can't put them where I had planned to because something else ended up there.(You know how it is) But there is another 'contained' spot I will plant them into when it is rearranged.

Hope the dogs appreciate such a pretty flower bed, all to themselves. They deserve it for keeping those pesky chipmunks at bay. And I am sure the yellow hems can out-survive the traffic!

BTW The feverfew has bloomed to 4 feet tall! My other 2 varieties stay around 1 foot.

This is the 2nd time this week I was writing when you posted Gail. Getting as bad as Terry an me at that. It looks like I ignored your post - it just wasn't there when I saw M's pic!. Day lilies or VERY big columbine? And do you mean breeds of or to, dogs or flowers, which ever they are... just kidding ;-). Yep, like you said,,, construction chaos really is mentally damaging!

Heeeellllllooooo! See I told you the construction work has taken my brains! I relooked at the pix and yes, daylilies, not columbines. P.S. Glad it's raining this a.m. Gives me a really good excuse to surf this morning instead of garden. Since I've been off the computer for a few days, I could use some good surfin'. I just wish someone would deliver breakfast to me so I don't have to get dressed and out for food!

It's O.K. Gail I feel your pain!!!!!It's O.K. to confuse the flowers....You just have never seen any in your yard actually growing in the GROUND!!! You are use to pots????

I want to go live at Mamakane's place! Even the dog's flower bed looks better than mine now that the grasshoppers have invaded. Can you believe they are even eating the bay tree??? Do you have a spare room MK?

Ouch D. But when it comes time to plant all Gail's stuff back into the re-vamped beds, you're going over to help her,, AREN'T you DAVID?

And C, if the hoppers are eatting aromatic, bug-repelling bay, you HAD better move out - FAST.
But I've already bagged the barn at MK's :-)

Don't feel bad about the flowers Gail, I still can't make out the dog, is it one of those 3D things where you screw up your eyes and it all comes clear. I can see what I think may be the dog, will somebody tell me which end is the head? Nothing wrong with the photo MamaKane, it's a clear shot, it's just me...Had another look and very small horse maybe, dog nope....HELP!!

Something about the head (if I'm reading it right - on the left side, Terry) makes me think it might be a blood hound type. Have you ever been able to catch the chipmunks with camera Mama Kane? And do they do any damage to the garden? Our squirrels rob almost every pecan from the tree and then plant most of them (and acorns) in my beds and potted plants. argh.

Hey, Sure I can help Gail put her Flower bed back in!!! I can lean on a shovel or wheelbarrow with the best of them! Hey.....where was everyone when I put my beds in??????

I don't need TWO men doing the leaning trick but Thanks for the offer, David! At this point, I'm hoping all my pots don't swim downstream....lovin' the rain but it sure is mucky out there!

I've been out of touch lately. There has been so much news on all the forums!

The dogs head is on the left, but it's burried in the flowers looking for that chipmunk. I haven't caught any pictures of the chipmunks yet. The digital camera is a new item, and I'm just getting started taking pictures. Some I have been showing are scanned pictures.

We had a rough week here. First poor Krinkle, then our dog Chelsea died Monday night in my arms. She was the mama dog to the one in the garden.

You probably won't want to move into the barns here. The sheep have them filled. A hot wet wooly sheep doesn't smell too friendly on these humid days - unless you raise sheep, then you would never notice. (How do you survive the heat and humidity in TX!!??)

We practically lived in the barn 2 weeks when we got our very first pet (bottle) lamb. She was really tiny. And she was so pitiful when we left her alone, broke our hearts to hear her call. But the weather was near the 0 mark most of that time. My husband and I even took turns spending the night in a sleeping bag with her curled up next to us. That's the sheep story for today.

My cow story -- One day we came home to find cows on our place. We chased them back to their field next door and didn't think anymore about it until we got a phone call that evening. Someone going down the road noticed our cows out, and said they had stopped and put them back in our field for us. I guess they wanted thanks. Trouble is we don't have cows, they put them back in the wrong field!

A picture of Chelsea, our mama dog, taken last week.

The dogs are German Shorthaired Pointers. Bird dogs, natural pointers and will retrieve too. They really pointed the quail when we were in Georgia. Now they really go after the song birds here in WV.

We have the solid liver color dog like mama Chelsea, and Missy in the day lilies. Then we have the ticked variety like this picture of Ticker. Ticker has a look a like brother called Patches. Patches is my special buddy. Loves to garden with me.

We bought Chelsea 11 years ago for our son. When he grew up and moved away we kept Chelsea for him while he was getting started on his own. Then I couldn't give her up so he let her stay with us.

Chelsea's second year we decided to let her have puppies. They were so cute - but never again will I do that! She had 7 surviving puppies and I thought I could keep them in the laundry room. Our rec room soon had the carpet rolled up and became the puppy room. They were so cute, my husband says "keep one". Well we ended up keeping 2 matching males. They really made a cute pair.

What a mistake. We love them, but they are a handful. Over the years, they became aggressive to each other to the point that we now keep them separate. Thank goodness we have a big house. They are house dogs and part of the family!

Then when all the extra puppies were sold but one, we just couldn't part with the last one. She had been with us for 6 months when someone wanted to buy our last dog for sale. So that's how we came to have Missy of the daylilies.

I guess we're just too softhearted to sell pups.

Welcome back MamaKane.
Good to have the photos to look back on, we have them of our first three cats, all long gone now, but never forgotten.
Ticker looks a powerful dog, I can see what you mean about the need for space.

Sorry to hear about Chelsea, Mamakane. Its always so hard to lose a pet. My brother's family have the German shorthaired pointers in the ticked variety. Something must have gone wrong with their dogs though. They are crazy. Maybe a "tech" too much inbreeding? They are awfully pretty, though. Glad to have you back online.

Hello Mama Kane, I had been worried about you being gone so long and I too am so sorry for your love losses. Thank you for sharing that beautiful pic of Chelsea - she looked so wise and lovable. Your last week reminds me of the best part of having pets and the worst. Then about having a litter born (for me its been just cats, dogs and hedgehogs), how wonderful it is to have those babies and so unbearable to have to eventually part with them. And I always keep too many for our own good too!
I can't help thinking it would have better to put a diaper on that baby lamb and keep it in the house at night - is that cause I'm a city gal!?
Loved that cow story! LOL!
I see a lot of Labrador features in your German Shorthaired Pointers (as well as that blood-hound shape to the head that I could spot even through the day lilies). They must be somehow related, way down the breeding line. We had a Lab when I was a kiddo - the sweetest-natured big ol thing ever. Come to think of it, I used to dress him up in little girl clothes too! I just had a flash memory of his fur face framed by a pink ruffled bonnet. And he liked all that fussing about him too, Gail!

German S. Pointers are VERY ACTIVE dogs. I used to say mine bounced off the walls. They have started to settle down a bit the last couple of years. Ticker, Missy, and Patches are about 10 years old and I still call them pups.

We had our daughter's lab when she went to Germany - That was a very calm quiet dog.

We're all sad about Krinkles too, mamakane. She was a beauty! Is there a ram that will step up and take his position in your animal family?

Oops! He was a handsome devil! Guess, I just get gender specific...

Gail, we have a younger ram that is off spring of Krinkle. But we will probably get a new Ram with new bloodlines this year since we are keeping 4 of the ewe lambs to build the flock up a little larger.

Looking at the pictures of our dogs, I came across this one. You have to hunt for the dogs, they just snuck into the picture of my rock bed. I always like unposed shots, and this is one of my favorites. That's Patches my gardening buddy! And Missy hiding in the red twig dogwood.

She's lying. I'm sure this is an old masters that I've seen in museums before. Let's see,,, think its a Constable?
You really ought to go commercial Mama Kane! Your work is so beautiful, it should be shared with the world!! I can't thank you enough for sharing it with us here.

See the rain is still affecting Gail, although she made a good recovery, and I must be improving, I can see ONE! of the dogs in this picture. Maggie could you get Alex to dress them in blue, so that I can find em, and Gail can sex em?
Gail I went to your Hubby's site well one of em, he sure can play, you must be very proud.

I can't find any dogs in that picture! And MK, I wrote you a very nice note about how lovely the photo is, and somehow it got blipped off the forum. Just to warn you though, as I recall, the note ended with "I'm on the way."

What's the address for Mr. Gail's site? Does he "play" a sport or an instrument or a game? Whatever, apparently Terry thinks he does it very well?!?! Address please.

I see one at the top of the path, on the left side of pic, but heck, with that much beauty, who cares?

Mamakane, that's an amazing pix! It really reminds me of Wizard of Oz (Another favorite subject of mine) when Dorothy steps out from the toronado-ravaged house and says we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. This just can't be a real sunset in a real garden. Carolyn, swing by and get me!

Sonny is my musician man. Don't know which of these or if all of these get him. I'm assuming they do since he has them all on his return addie on email. Enjoy! Dallas (the band) has signed a record deal that puts their CD out in Europe...one of these days...they've got to finish up two more original tunes.
http://www.startext.net/homes/sonbone1
http://www.geocities.com/sonbone1
http://www.geocities.com/dallas.texas.style

Gail, will you get to tour Europe with the band when they make it big there! Sonny has a great site and great music.

Sorry guys, the picture got a bit softened when I had to resize it to fit the forum. That soft looking stuff behind the rooster weather vein is more green field. The dogs are right above the gloriosa daisies - Missy is a dark dog and almost covered by the shrubs. They really weren't supposed to be in the picture, but I guess they're camera hams - they keep showing up in the pictures of the flowers.

We really love it here, and after 7 years we are still thrilled with all the scenery WV has to offer. Wait until you Texans see the winter snow pictures!

REAL snow blizzards out your way. I'll never forget one special one! We were snowed into our house for two days. The drifts at both our doors were above the roof! It was great fun! I'm sure my parents wanted to crawl out the second story window no matter how unsafe but with four brothers, the kids had a great time playing games and driving my parents crazy. It was sooo amazing when we finally did get out. There was a huge hill behind our house and we sledded and trashcanned it until we were sooo cold we HAD to go inside.

As far as touring with the band. I volunteered to be a roadie. But then decided that would be too much work. So I'd like to go on the second trip. The first one will be toooooo much work P R-ing with the radio stations. Early interviews and what-not. Of course, this is all assuming the CD gets done, gets played, and receives interest.

Gail, when you do go on tour with them (think positive), I'll be YOUR roadie, ok?

I've known only one blizzard like that myself, in Pennsylvania and we were sledding age too! Great play stuff when you're a kid and now, great pic stuff. Do we have to wait until winter to see some snow pics MamaKane?

Yes Maggie, you better wait until the white stuff is here for real. Those pictures are buried in the closet upstairs and would need scanning. It will be much easier with the new digital camera. Am I lazy or what!

Maggie I've just about got those garden pictures on my web page that you wanted to see. Anyone interested can check later this evening. Hope I have the bugs worked out by then. (Don't worry, not contagious bugs) http://www.neumedia.net/~rkane/mamakane/

Found this little fellow under the decaying leaves while cleaning out the primroses. Sure was a better surprise than those gooey slugs. I imagine one of you gardeners will be able to identify him without getting the book out. Told you I was lazy today!

What a beauty! True color and/or great photographer! Newt or salamander? One in the same? Cast your vote!

Great camera my hubby picked out. I just point and aim, since he even sets all the settings on the camera for me.

Good close work MamaKane, I can only get to about 6 inches with the digital. I wish he was in my garden, salamander gets my vote Gail, wonder if he changes colour as he matures?

I spent some time trying to get a picture of a butterfly on the sundrops the other day. It should not have been such a hard task. This butterfly was just fluttering lazily along the row. But after a couple floppies I still had nothing to show. Then all of a sudden this little fellow darts in quickly and out again. One click of the camera and there he is!

Here's another nature picture that just happened along while I was chasing that butterfly down the row.

How beautiful MK. You should publish a book of your nature photographs.

Lovely photographs, are those Oenthoera, evening primrose, flowers. Doing this without my gardening books, so please excuse the spelling mistakes.

I think so. That's the closest I've come to them in my gardening book. Oenthoera, Sundrops. I try to learn names if they're handy, but what's important to me is that they are pretty and they grow well here. These are extremely easy! Multiply rapidly!

Love those sundrops and their nectar getting guests! Thanks Mama Kane :-)
Terry, did you see the birds - Lakenvelder and Turken - on this, from MK's farm page?

Livestock

I forget the names, but if one is the chicken/vulture, then yes I did, it really should wear a scarf, poor thing.

Mama Kane has posted her spring garden blooms since she was last here. I thought I'd point you guys there for a gander. And I was proud to be mentioned! Thank you MK, I hope the pink ones came along okay too.

Oops, forgot the thingie...

Mama Kane's Country Garden

Maggie, I stop in and browse through from time to time to see what you all have been up to. I especially look for the pics! Not much new here, just keeping busy and trying to stay out of trouble.

The baby chicks are almost full grown now. Eggs in a couple more months. The 3 roosters are having crowing contests. It's really fun to listen to them trying to perfect their crowing.

No new lambs now. Hopefully none until springtime. But we always have at least one surprise in the cold months.

We have been enjoying the deer this past month. We have a doe and her 2 yearling babies from last year that think they should be fed everytime we feed the livestock. They're out their each evening following me around the barnyard. They are quite brave now and come to within 6 or 8 feet of me and the feed bucket. Of course I feed them!

The mama deer are bringing their new babies to the orchard now. For the story of this little fellows first visit to the orchard try this link:
Fawn Story



I haven't added any new blooms to the pages lately, but hope to have the summer blooms up after the grandkids visit this next week.

Everyone take care!

Another beautiful pic! Full faced and wearing daisys to match the background - you scanned that in from a magazine, come on, fess up ;-)
And thank you for sharing that terrific photo story of his family. So fun. I've never known wild deer to become so tame. I guess they know who they are dealing with and how you got your name.
What a wonderful way to live !

Real life Bambi, what a beautiful animal, and you couldn't wish for a better pose.

Then I visit your web site and find more fantastic photos and.....Bambi's mother is ALIVE and he has a sister. Makes a wonderful change from birds and wasps eating the apples.

Beautiful little fawn, Mamakane. I visited your website about a week ago, and enjoyed your new pics. Thanx for sharing.

The frost is on the pumpkin - and the sheep too!




If you want to see more frosty pictures check out my web pages. I have also added fall colors pages.

Cheryl's pages

Carolyn, Sure would like to see more farm animal pictures. And maybe a picture of a barn. I love barn pictures. Okay, I confess - I come visit Maggie's forums mostly to see everyones pictures. They're always great!

Brrr! MK, it looks a little chilly in yor neck o' the woods. Very pretty, though. However, I'm quite satisfied with the 72 deg. it is here at the moment. Would you like to see a picture of the feral hog my husband dispatched last night AFTER it mated with one of my sows?! That's about the only interesting thing to take a pic of today.

Do you have black-faced sheep as well? I'm thinking of adding those to my menegerie.

Did your sow get beat up with the attention from the feral hog? Hope not. Are you going to butcher him? We killed and butchered one when we lived in MD.

I'm sure you have plenty of things of interest to share on film - just not the show off that I am.

Yes we have black faced sheep too. Here's the twin lambs from this morning - from black faced parents. They are already turning lighter colors. It's amazing that they will have white wool when grown.

A 1 year old black faced sheep. Can you call that white wool?

The lambs are so sweet! I love the look of the 1 year old, too. I've just gotta get me some of those. Do you have 2 rams: one white face and one black? If so, do you keep your sheep separated by kind?

When we had goats, we had a Nubian buck and a Boer buck. The Nubians that were good milkers were bred to the Nubian buck, but if we had a really large Nubian we would breed her to the Boer and get some really fine-looking babies from the cross.

The sow is ok. We just have to get her flushed out. The feral hog was so intent on his mission, and the sow was being so obliging that he looked at Neal and then went right back to his business, so Neal was able to pop him pretty easily. No, we aren't going to eat him. Neal said the hog stunk too bad for him to even consider cleaning it. He hasn't hunted in over 25 years, and didn't think he remembered how to clean an animal anyway.

We hate killing anything, but when we have to protect our domestic animals, well.....

We just finished the chores. According to the clock, it seems early. According to the animals and the sky, its right on time. Guess the animals didn't set their watches back. J

Well, if you really want to see a picture. I took this one today of Neal mending a fence and the turkeys supervising.

MK, I just took the walk through the woods on your website. How fun. How beautiful. What a wonderful place you live in. Thanx for sharing.

Thank you Mamakane for another magical mystical tour of your world. These trips are fabulous! So much beautiful scenery and glorious creatures, caught with an artists eye.

And then there's the dead boar pic that Caro E'd me! What a hoot. The caption read,,, but he died happy :-0 Will their date produce 1/2 wild pigs Caro?

I always enjoy woodland walks, mamakane, and yours together with your words was one to savour.

Carolyn, We had a targee ram. A large white faced breed. When he got old we added a black faced ram from our crop of lambs. You can breed back one generation without any problems. We lost the old ram and sold the other last summer. We don't keep them apart, not even from the ewes, and the ewes needed a break. We have some ewes with white faces, some with black, and all kinds of colored markings in between. Our favorites are the ones with the markings. They can be especially cute when lambs.

We don't raise purebred sheep. We don't use them for show, only for market lambs. But mostly we have the sheep as lawnmowers and treat them like pets. We keep all the friendliest ones and name them. They love to get their ears or chest scratched.

Carolyn, I was trying to answer your question here at 5 am and forgot to tell you how much I like your turkeys. They look pretty much like pets too. Maybe they think there is safety in numbers since they are grouped together.

Looks like a neat tractor too. Ours is a big John Deer. Too big for me. I depend on my 4-wheeler and garden cart for lots of farm chores. I just wish it had a scoop like your tractor.

Since we raised all the turkeys from eggs, they think we're mom and dad. They follow us around. Its not usually too difficult to get them wherever you want them to go, since they just follow. However, if I'm in the yard, and they are in the field beside it, they are not satisfied until they have gotten over/through/around the fence and are hanging out with me. Since they are too large now to run through the flower beds without inflicting major damage on the plants, this is somewhat of a pain, because then I have to round em up, and have them follow me out to the field again. And the whole process repeats and repeats. Some days, though, they go roaming far and wide. I'll look out in time to see them running over the top of a hill and out of sight. I always wonder if I'll see them again, since there are coyotes in them thar woods. So far, they always return.

I like the tractor too. Its easy enough that I can operate it. I just am not strong enough to change out the implements by myself. So, if I want to mow, till, move round bales, I have to tell Neal when he gets home from work in the evening, so he can change the attachment for me to use the next day. A 4-wheeler is high on Robert's wish list.

Maybe that tractor could just pop those cedars out with a wink Caro? Loved seeing the turkey litter helping their dad. ;-)

I was working on web pages a couple of days ago. I've added one for the lambs.

lambs

Love the lambs. I want some.

So, Maggie, I thought from your email yesterday that you weren't putting the site back up until after the holidays. Don't even know why I checked today, but so glad I did, since it was such a treat to see MK's photos.

Is it usual for your lambs to be born in September, mamakane? Over here in England they usually arrive late winter/early spring.

Farmers here with good fencing and space to keep the rams separate breed in the late fall for those early spring babies. We just don't have the set up for keeping the rams separate so we get lambs spread out through the year.

We sold our ram last June so all the older ewes that were breeding back quickly will have a longer rest this season. So we probably will only have the 5 lambs this season.

You can tell we are not in this for the money. But they make great lawn mowers!

Caro, that ref was about it being down for that short time :-)

Alex and I sure enjoyed your pages MK. Thank you so much for sharing your lives with us. Such a treat to us city-ers. Oh those chickens in the snow!!!xoxox All your pics are exquisite. And I always learn farm stuff I would have never known otherwise. Your house looks sooo cozy. Bet those attic rooms are lovely with ceiling angles from the two huge dormer windows.

Don't know if you would call the 2nd story attic. An attic is the place where we stored everything when I was a kid - the place where we would go play on rainy days. Back then our houses had a stairway to the attic - nowadays you need a ladder of some sort. Anyone else remember an attic like that?

Anyways, the upstairs rooms have just plain old regular cielings and the usual rectangle rooms. The walk in closests have the sloping roof. You have to duck your head when you walk into the closet though. Short people must have built the doorways into them.

Somedays the poor chickens have to stop and raise one foot after the other up into their feathers to warm their feet before walking on. The goose is funny, she'll be walking along with a destination in mind, and all of a sudden she'll sit right down and warm her feet.

Our last house had its attic converted to a lovely bedrm and bath - huge spaces and dormer windows. We still called it the 'attic room', even tho it was living space. Sorry MK, old habit terminology :-)
I'd be a useless farmer, always wanting to bring the animals in when they looked cold!

We have had ailing lambs in the bathroom several times. But mostly we try to leave them in the barn. We do use a heat lamb for the lambs. The adult sheep are really insulated with their 5 inches of wool. The chickens have to depend on their feathers. In the winter they group close together on the roost. In the summer they spread apart and hold their wings out from their bodies for some air. If it gets really bad the horse gets a horse blanket.

We had some more snow yesterday. This was a prettier snow than the ones we have had so far this winter - so of course I was out there snapping pics with the digi until my fingers froze!


This is were I get water for the livestock each morning. Can be a bit slippery!


The chickens found a nice sunny spot to scratch around. Didn't even disturb this little fellow from his nap.

How's the weather in TX and other parts now? I guess farm us folks have a natural interest in the weather.

MK, do you actually haul the water in buckets out of the stream?!? I had to do that one year for my garden. It certainly built upper body strength. The pic of the creek is super. And of course, I love the little lamb sunning with the chickens. My first and favorite goat, Gertie, used to lie down out of the wind in the sun next to a big hay bale in the winter. Often I would go sit beside her and soak up the sun while I scratched her ears.

Oh, and our weather. Ah-hem. Perfect gardening weather: clear and sunny, upper 50's.....800 mph wind.....

Oh, MK, how pretty! I've never been out of Central Texas in the winter, so haven't ever seen snow like that in person. Just beautiful. Thanks for sharing. And I thought it was tough for us when the pump in the 20' deep well went out ~ we'd have to dip a bucket using the old pulley Grandma always used to water everyone (including ourselves). That's nothing compared to dipping out of that creek! I hope you're surefooted!

Opening this forum is like receiving a personal glossy magazine every day. What a tremendous adventure it is to experience the seasons with you MK, thru your fabulous photos. Thank you oxoxox!

Yes Carolyn we haul water out of that creek. Right now there is one low place that is easier for the livestock to get to but with my horse being so old (38) I make sure she has a bucket of water up on the bank or in her barn. Of course the sheep drink it, and the goose will try to bathe in it. So I have to put buckets up for all. When we lock the sheep in the lower field (with no water source) or in the barn we always provide fresh water for them.

With this snow and ice I do get water from the part of the creek with the lower bank. It's a longer walk to the barn, but not quite so dangerous. But you get used to it, just like you Texans are used to gardening in the summer with an occassional dip in the pool.

I'm glad I can share with people who are not able to see the beauties of the snow. But remember I like to hear about and see pictues of the warm winters - that's unique to me! (BTW, We had more snow this morning)

Great stuff mamakane, we can all have a white Christmas with your photos.