Winnie and Lambs

Winnie is very protective of the younger lambs.



This young lamb wanted to play hop on mom. The two lambs in front are being baby sat by this ewe while their mother is off grazing. The babysitter is their aunt.

Chickens & Sheep & Nice Lambs

The dinner chickens actually arrived 9 June but I didn't get any pictures until today. We lost more than usual in the first few days but they seem to be ok now.




We've got sheep on both sides of the center divider fence and a dog in each group. Winnie is closest to me and Kimball is across the fence line.


Some of the ewes, lambs and yearlings.


This is a particularly nice yearling ewe.


These 2 lambs were born 10 May and are twins sired by Wye Heights Latham and out of Desert Weyr Gwendolyn. I think they are growing exceptionally well.

Lambs and Dogs

Here are the triplets. They are doing well and mom appears to be able to feed them all so far.


Winnie is doing well protecting her new sheep.

Winnie & the Lambs

Winnie has decided she is now the official lambing pasture guard dog along with Kimball.



Winnie seems to take up a station near the youngest lambs and stays there until there are newer ones.

She is being very alert and watchful and doing a great job.

Independence Day

3rd of July. Town has the flags out on the bridge in to town. I love looking at them.


We're getting ready for farm tours so I have the signs out to talk to people about our livestock protection dogs.

The Lambs

I believe that we are now done lambing. There are still a bunch of ewes left to lamb but none have significant udders. The AI experiment seems to have really messed up their cycles. But then if we knew how to make it all work it wouldn't be an experiment, right?


Ken & Kimball


New Lambs

Harri Meets the Ewes

Harri is an Akbash protection dog. This is his first meeting of our pregnant ewes. They were doing well but he is a bit more active than Kimball so they are not yet used to him.

Protective Dogs

Winnie is in with the rams and doing a very good job. She is our most protective and aggressive dog but we really appreciate her attention to her sheep.

Winnie and the Rams

Winnie is in with the adult rams right now. She stays nice and warm in among the woolly sheep.

Winter Solstice

Farms mark the year by the solar calendar.

The solstice, the traditional mid winter festival when the sun starts to return. For us too the solstice is turn-around time. The days when the sun seems to stand still are our time to do a yearly reflection on the past year. We evaluate the goals accomplished and plans for next year.

Chores are delivering food and water to the critters. I spend my mornings watching fluffy sheep get fat and play in the snow. They make sheep nests in the bedding pack for warmth. I watch the breeding ram to be sure he is doing his job. The current one in with my control group of ewes may be a candidate for baatwurst. He seems to be butting the ewes more than he is breeding them. The ewes will get another ram in January so they should get pregnant. We'll know when they lamb who the daddy is and if Kai failed to breed ewes he's sausage.

Chickens are all hunkered down, snug in the coop but in jail and they are not happy so I take hay and chicken treats to them and talk to them when I gather the eggs. Chickens are actually quite social and like to be talked to so I cluck at them and pet a few friendly ones.

The dogs also make their own nests in the hay and the old dog snuggles in between warm sheep when it gets cold. The horses frisk in the snow in the warm sun but stand huddled neighing for breakfast when it's cold. I have a lot more time in winter so I am doing some hobby things that never get worked on in summer: knitting, spinning, doing a puzzle, reading. Winter is a time of reflection, more thinking and planning than doing on a farm. It's a good balance.

I hope you all have an enjoyable winter solstice.

Dogs and Chickens

Becky & Harri with the rams.

Today is chicken bath day. We are showing them on Tuesday at the Delta County Fair so they need to be bathed and cleaned now.


Stephanie with one of the Gold Campines.


Unhappy wet chickens.

Becky, Harri and the Sheep and Construction Continues

Becky and Harri the new Akbash puppy are working out well taking care of the rams.


Harri looking one way while Becky watches me.


Harri looks like he is asleep in the field.


But he's really awake and watching out for anything that might threaten his sheep.


Becky comes over to make sure it really is me and there is no threat.

Construction is moving along rapidly.


Finishing the bracing of the rafters.



Starting to put the plywood up.


All done with the plywood.

Sample Socks, Cloak and Concrete

We got samples of the socks we are having made from our Black Welsh Mountain wool. We will be offereing both a hiking crew and a terry sock in mens and womens sizes. These are the first 2 samples.


I also put a label on my fabric.


Bill used the tractor to do final filling of the holes before the concrete truck arrives.


Getting the size just right.


Concrete truck pouring the footers.




The extra concrete will be used to change the orientation of the pad for the propane tank. We need to rotate it 90 degrees so its easier to use the new walk-through elk fence gate.


The rams came up to be in the shade but Winnie was very concerned about the concrete truck so was right there with them.

Winnie & Construction

We moved Winnie in with the rams so we could let them out to graze the front pear orchard. She's really being good about staying with them.


Construction Work Started.


First task was to remove the old porch cover.

Dog House? Sheep House?

New puppy, still unnamed and his buddy.

So is this a sheep in a dog house? or a dog in a sheep house?

New Puppy

We picked up our new guard dog puppy this morning. He is an Akbash.


Here he is in his small pen inside the sheep pasture.


The sun was shining in the wrong place to get good pictures. All the sheep and Kimball came to investigate and the sheep were very concerned. They will settle down but it's been a while since they have seen a small dog.

He doesn't have a name yet. We're waiting to see if his behavior provides an obvious name.

Becky & the Rams

We put Becky in the pen near the rams but outside because we didn't want her to get crushed. She climbed through the hay feeder to be with her rams so we left her. She is very protective of her sheep.

Becky and the Rams

Becky is in with the adult rams now. She's doing very well and the sheep seem to get along well with her.