New animals at the farm! Here are our two new piglets - Alice and her brother - her brother actually belongs to our friends Lynn and Betsy and they will need to name him :)


And here are the 'cow-boys' as we call them ... "Here cow-boys!, Here cow-boys!" and they come running for their pails of milk (most of which now seems to go on the ground or all over my pant legs in their haste to get it drunk down and FAST....) I was telling my son Seth that it used to annoy me when people would comment about how dumb sheep were - after all, sheep know what is important for sheep to know - but now if someone were to comment about how dumb calves are, well, I'd have a hard time making an argument.

Trouble's pups are doing well, growing and eating and sleeping a lot! She's taking excellent care of them although I think she pines for the day when she can come help work stock! They were a week old on Monday and it looks to me like they will be nice-sized pups.

The weather's been, well, dreadful - cold rain, snow flurries - clouds.... O New Mexico, how we miss you!

It was a busy weekend here on Rustic Road 4; my sister Suzanne came down from northern Minnesota for a visit which began with a trip to IKEA (new bathmat, some little glasses for dessert wine and new chairpads for Jim's cafe) and then the giant Mall of America for lunch at Nordstrom's with my niece Rachel. Rachel works at Nordstrom's in their handbag department where she has been a top seller of handbags that cost as much as my car. A very different life; when I showed up with a dozen of our gorgeous blue eggs she hardly knew what to think...it was one of those moments when I realized I am truly a hick!

At any rate, we put up the little greenhouse and I moved the lettuces out of the house and will transplant the head varieties out of the flats and into pots later this week; we fixed the fences that hang over the little Beaver Creek - this is a yearly chore that really only takes a little time but looms large as a project, I hauled one load of manure out of the barn and put it on the asparagus bed, Jim helped me castrate the calves (better now than later...) then we burned a pile of boxes and branches, and I began the process of cutting buckthorn. Indeed, I also found time to paint a "Open Saturday at 7:30" sign for Jim, did some maintenance cleaning on the kennel, took the dogs for a walk and swim and handled Trouble's pups - along with a little tiny video for their video diary. Last night I watched a great movie about an artist named Vik Muniz called "Wasteland" about a collaboration with Brazilian catadores.

This will be a busy week as spring starts to gear up - and we prepare for Birdie to join us on Sunday!

Deb Birnie's Aggie says "Happy Easter!"

We're waking to snow again this morning; it is coming down steadily although according to the news on MPR it should stop by noon. I've been outdoors already and it just doesn't seem all that cold...or maybe I'm acclimating.

The pups are doing well, even the little gals, and Trouble is being a great mom for a first-timer. She's a lovely Bouvier. For those of you who were waiting, yes BIRDIE is PREGNANT! She'll come here in a couple weeks to have and raise her pups. Seth (my son whose family companion Birdie claims) has conveniently planned a roadtrip to the east coast during that time. He tells me he had enough puppy raising chores as a kid!

I did move the chicks out of the house yesterday; it was all a bit much for even me ~ my friends know that our old farm kitchen has been home to orphan lambs, ducklings, chicks, piglets ~ as well as a place to make chevre and bottles of milk for calves ~ but even I needed to draw the line this time around!

Trouble's pups are born today! She flooded the kitchen floor around 1:30 a.m. and went into labor at around 4:45 with the first pup born at 5....I've set up a blog for her pups at www.troublepups.blogspot.com

An early morning here, up at 4 a.m. to do chores before heading out to a trial with Solo. He did well, getting a first place with a score of 197/200 and the best news is that we were back home by noon. We took the calves outdoors for some sunshine and introduced them to the bucket which will make feeding them easier (if messier for a while!) The little chicks are doing okay although the idea of having them, Trouble and her pups, plants, etc. all in the house is making me have second thoughts....looks like a cold wet week ahead!

I was busy in the kitchen yesterday when I realized that a peeping noise was coming from our family room...meaning, you guessed it! The chicks were beginning to hatch! We have 12 right now, all from brown eggs - none of the blue eggs have hatched, wierd!

The new calves are doing fine, glugging their gallon of milk replacer and cavorting about the barn during the day. At night they are put in pens so that the sheep can bring their lambs inside during this nasty weather.

Yesterday I snuck away to the big city to the American Crafts Council show - wonderful things, most too nice or too expensive for our life - but I was certainly appreciating the gifts and talents of the artists who have stuck with it. Today we went BACK to the city for some car-shopping since my van is now almost a luxury item....we looked mostly at volkswagon jetta sportwagons...they seem great with the exception of the unfortunately uncomfortable seats. We're going to keep looking however.

Mr. Beautiful is still very young so his tail will get thicker and more colorful as he matures ~ having said that, here he is, displaying. He will raise his tail and make it shimmy as he walks sideways - it's sort of funny when I think about it - but I suppose it's part of his display behavior as he courts the peahens or the ancient goose or the birdbath...whatever...he's not particularly choosy!

It was a busy weekend; we got the sheep sheared and were amazed that the price of our clip went up to a whopping 54 cents per pound, almost paying for the shearer this year who charges a trip charge of $30, a $2.50 fee per sheep to shear plus $1.00 to trim their hooves. They came through the winter in better shape than I'd feared what with the extreme cold.

I see that the bees actually did make it through the winter as well - and have ordered some bee cake (pollen, sugar, vitamins, medication) from B and B Honeyfarm which should come this week and give them a boost.

I moved the chicks out of the kennel into the henhouse in their own section along with feeders, waters and a heatlamp. They adjusted well and I'm sure the dogs are glad to have them gone! Then I transplanted tomato seedlings into peatpots and planted head lettuces into flats; all of which are still in the family room. This weekend we will put the cover on the greenhouse and get that set up for lettuce. I see that the raspberries had a really tough time over the winter; either mice or some other rodent seems to have stripped most if not all the canes. I know they will recover for next year but wonder if we'll get any crop at all this year. Time will tell - the rabbits stripped the dwarf apples I'd planted near the kennel and I highly doubt they'll recover. They didn't get the bottom so much as up the trunk; Jim thinks that the snowpack was so high that they just ate higher up as the snow piled up.

Most of the snow is now gone; there's still some in the ditches and in the woods but the pastures are mostly clear and we have not had the flooding that was predicted which means they should dry out and kick in to growth fairly soon. We still are feeding hay of course.

The little calves should be coming this afternoon; I'll post when they actually get here. Trouble is heavy with pups now so I don't know that she'll be much help with any of the stock for a few weeks. She's due on the 19th. Her sister Sam had a great weekend at an AKC herding trial, coming in with a 93/100 on Saturday for a Reserve High in Trial! Sunday she didn't do quite as well but still qualified...one more qualifying run and she'll have her title. The fellow who has her has done a wonderful job training and trialing and I really appreciate the effort he'd made so that we can see what our dogs are made of.

Here are a few pictures of lambs from the new Dorper ram. All these 'circus lambs' are ewe lambs! Jim wants to keep them all.

Gail was a beauty as a youngster - she's now 12 years old and still a wonderful girl.

Ch. Briarlea Blackstone Cadette

The chicks arrived on Thursday, 51 of them, all lively and chirping away at the post office when I picked them up at 7:30 a.m. They are in the kennel building with a heat lamp, feeders and water and I honestly believe they have grown since then! I'll be surprised if they still fit in the little kiddie pool by this time next weekend.

Also on Thursday, I drove over to Phyllis' house to visit with Susan and Noche' and to let Trouble work sheep a little bit. One of the old ewes at Phyllis' house had milk fever and was doing poorly - I brought her two lambs home with me yesterday and they're on milk replacer and creep feed now. I rounded out the day by taking Solo to Warren's for training (french ringsport) - it was his first session since last December and he was hot to go! It was great! Then yesterday we went to Eau Claire where we trained obedience at a new site ~ we're entered in trials this month and he needs de-sensitizing to all the commotion that comes with indoor spaces and lots of dogs and kids.

Today we worked around the place, Jim hauled hay out to the pasture where there are some dry-er spots for the ewes and lambs. The barnyard is a mess of course between all the melt-off and rain and the less time they need to spend there, the better. We are up to 28 lambs now; it has been a relatively uneventful lambing season (thank goodness!)

We sat down with pad and paper this morning to figure out our costs for the chickens - it used to be that they were cheap, cheap, cheap...but last year between buying the chicks, buying feed and paying for processing they cost us about $12 each. That's expensive. On the flip side, a chicken will last the two of us almost a week since they tend to be BIG and, of course, tasty.

Lots happening here this week ~ the chicks were shipped today which means they will arrive either tomorrow or Friday. I've set up an area in the kennel building with a heat light and a kiddie pool for their first couple of weeks. The kennel is heated to around 55F right now so it will be a great place for the chicks. I also put 3 dozen eggs in the incubator which sits on a low bookcase in the family room - I need to monitor the temperature pretty closely and also turn them a couple times a day. They will be fine for the next 21 days! I only put brown and blue/green eggs in - our rooster is an Americana so I'm hoping for mostly pullets to hatch! The tomato seeds went into a flat over the weekend; we're checking them daily for those first signs of green now.

I think we are done lambing now - there is one ewe that either is going to lamb later or isn't at all - the lambs are extremely variable this year, lots of color and size differences which is to be expected with this cross of wool and hair sheep although I don't think I'm going to continue to breed into the hair sheep breeds. They haven't really done well under our management program and I like to see more consistency in our flock...so we'll be searching for a replacement ram; either a Dorset (good mothering) or a Texel (great wide lambs but issues with copper toxicity)...so probably a Dorset.

It's in the 40F range today and we're getting some melting out in the pastures; they are predicting snow for tomorrow but not much.

Solo went to a fun match over the weekend and then to a huge obedience class of about 30 dogs on Tuesday morning. His eyes were spinning out of his head trying to look at everything! It's good he went since I"ve entered him in obedience trials in April! We go to work French Ring tomorrow - this will be our first session since returning ~ and then on Saturday we will go to another training place for more obedience. We may as well do this as long as it is almost impossible to do much outdoors what with the ice and snow!

It looks like we have Quads this year! The Dorper ram has given us these neat colors ~ we won't be keeping any ewe lambs back though, the wool will be worthless.

This is 9 month old Noche' from Solo and Ruby working with my friend Phyllis. Noche's in season right now so this lesson was a bit distracted but I figured as long as I had my camera with me it wouldn't hurt to document her progress! Noche' lives in the city with our friend Susan who takes her to agility and obedience classes. On another topic, we are glad to report that Solo had his eyes checked today and is eligible for CERF certification.

I believe we now are up to 19 lambs - fun this year because we used a black-headed Dorper ram to sire them which means we have not only white lambs but also black ones and spotted ones. I will post pictures later on. It has been cold here, forecast temps in the single digits at night for the forseeable future and only in the 20's or low 30's in the daytimes. We got around 5" of snow last night and this morning; it's heavy and wet and I have to admit that I am not enjoying it so much. Trouble is looking pregnant now and the phone, emails and mailbox are showing us that our dogs are still in demand despite the economy. We're anxious to see what she will give us since we have some wonderful homes awaiting.

I ordered chicks yesterday; they will arrive at the end of next week - all Cornish x - so they won't be a lot of fun but it will mean new life in the midst of all this snow!

Yesterday I went out to check on the lambs a little late - around 8 a.m. since my back was hurting and I was waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in - and sure enough, #29 had decided to drop her single lamb into the one puddle of icy water in the entire yard rather than go in the nice dry, straw-bedded barn. The lamb was, for all outward signs, dead - I could hardly pry his mouth open and thought dark thoughts about the ewe but decided to take him inside and see what I could do. I filled the kitchen sink (okay, Seth, skip this part...) with very very warm water and immersed him in up to his head and began to massage him until, after about 20 minutes he was moving around enough that I decided it wasn't reflexes, it was actual life. I kept working on him for a while longer and then dried him off with towels and took him into the bathroom where I cranked the heat up as far as it would go and shut the door. Within another hour or so he was warmed up enough that he was up on his feet and crying for his mama. I couldn't decide whether to keep him inside longer or not but finally figured I'd better take him out to his mother before she completely forgot she'd given birth. I put him in a lambing pen (called, in lamb-speak, a 'jug') and she nickered to him, began licking him and (thankfully) did remember that he was her lamb. I was delighted to see this little family together, the young babe nursing this morning. As I told my mom, it was like suddenly life had been breathed back into his cold body, reaching back and bringing him to life. She said that it must have felt really good - to be honest, it was mostly exhausting.

Great news this morning that hip results came back for Briarlea Cayuse and they are OFA excellent! Other good news is that Birdie will soon be heading 'home' to Seth's house in Royalton until she's due to whelp.

Here is a pix of Birdie we had taken down in NM.

It's Saturday and we're home! We had a great (read: uneventful!) drive home, staying last night in northern-most Missouri and arriving home to snowy Wisconsin around 2 pm. We were delighted to see a few vigorous new lambs and plenty of hay left until spring. Ah, the small pleasures, right?


I was able to download a few more photos - one of Jim's favorite place to stop in Liberty, Kansas being "Super Pollo!!" We had stopped by on the way south and had some great (super!) pollo...







I also had taken some pix of the dogs.... This is Birdie and Trouble on my sister Suzanne's porch in La Luz canyon. My friends Cory and Lee will appreciate 'the look' Trouble is giving me...and Seth and Anthony will know that this is Birdie being herself!

We are now in Dalhart, Texas for the night (where it was still 85F at 6 pm) after a (very long) drive through New Mexico to Clovis and Portales - we wanted to look at the incredible collection of windmills we'd seen in the NM visitor guides - and did!

We also made Jim very happy by coming across a retail arm of one of the huge peanut farms where he was able to buy sacks and sacks of peanuts (you're warned, gift-receivers!) as well as a few jars of chipotle/ginger peanutbutter...I am wondering how that will be in peanut butter cookies??? The fields around Portales/Clovis are green with wheat and irrigated from the looks of it - the farmers are out tilling and there were lots of halfgrown beef calves (Angus) that were already weaned.

It looked like there had been grass fires here in northern Texas and man - o -man are the feedlots full!!! I took some pictures which I'll try to remember to post - it's hard to get the scale of those feedlots on film; they're enormous - acres and acres of feedlot cows.

Tomorrow should find us north of Kansas City somewhere and it looks like smooth sailing all the way north. Thanks to everyone who has kept in touch while we've been in our home away from home this winter -

Down the mountain from us, some creative welding!