Playing veterinarian all month!

August... this month I hoped to get a chance to relax while my sheep got fat on the pasture, but sadly things haven't worked out so well, and instead I've been dealing with animal health issues all month! First, several of my sheep started limping and I discovered they appeared to have foot rot...a very contagious and nasty bacteria. They must have come from the farm we purchased the sheep from, as our land has been vacant of livestock for 5 yrs and the bacteria only lives in the ground for a few weeks. So, I've been going the rounds with penicillin injections, a foot rot vaccine, trimming and soaking their foot with a zinc oxide treatment. As each sheep would get better, another would pick up the condition. Finally a week and a half ago I decided I needed to check all feet at once, and pull  any sheep that showed the slightest hint of infection completely out of the pasture. I've tethered them out in the yard and twice a day I have to flip them on their side, treat all infected feet, water and grain them, and after 2 days move them to a new patch of grass. I am REALLY hoping this will eradicate it, and with them off the pasture, any remaining bacteria should die within 2 weeks. We'll keep them out on grass for 3-4, and hope and pray for the best. It's labor intensive, but it's been kind of fun to get to know each sheep personally, lol. I want to get them well. They are all a rarer breed sheep and weren't cheap. I don't want to have to cull any of them over this. :-(

Mr. Bojangles, outside my kitchen window

 

 

"Maggot Molly" Her foot was infected so much it actually had maggots in it. (Eww, ewww, EWWW!!) It only took days from when she first started limping to when I discovered the disgusting foot. We treated with insecticide, killed and cleaned and trimmed dead foot tissue aggressively. She's slowly getting better but still seems to have a tender foot. I love this sheep...she's one of my more friendly Ewes. As you can she, she seems to be massively pregnant. Last time she had triplets! She is due Sept. 19. Poor girl. :-(

 

 

This is Rebecca, named in honor of my mom and the milk cow she had named Rebecca. My grandma wanted my name to be Rebecca but my mom hated the name, so she gave it to the heifer. I have to keep up the tradition. ;-) After 5 days of treatment she looks like she is cured and gets to enjoy grazing on our lush front lawn for 2 more weeks. We have 3 other sheep tied out as well. 6 sheep have had their feet trimmed and show no signs of infection. Crossing our fingers, they don't get it, but we will fight this aggressively one sheep at a time!

 

 

Not to be left out, my two Icelandic ewe lambs -escape artists- keep finding little holes to sneak out of so they can hang out with the quarantined sheep. Little sneaks, outside my kitchen window.

 

 

On top of that, Chessie scratched her eye and got a corneal ulcer. It will cost us $200-$300 for the vet and medication and it took two weeks of ointment in the eye twice a day to get her better, but now she's back to work giving rides to the kids. :-)

 

 

Meanwhile...my husband and sons build Lego's. ;-)

 

 

  Tower of Orthanc! Too cool!

 

Hot Air balloons drifting past the house!

 

 

 

 

The boys wishing they were in one! & Ysabel, in quarantine.

 

 

The Shenandoah Valley has 43 miles of yard sale in august called the yard crawl. We found all kinds of great things, but the prize was a knight in shining armour!

 

 

Who doubles as a practical jokester. ;-) Caught reading the Bible in Whitney's bed....

 

 

But the best find was a $45 spinning wheel! It's missing a flyer and bobbin which I'm trying to make myself, but I may end up splurging $60 and just buying them...still a bargain, and it's soooo quaint and  charming sitting there by the fireplace!

 

 

 

One happy, wonderful event this month, My husband and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary! We have not had it easy...he married me as a single Latter Day Saint mom with 6 children, and we had two more sons after we were married.. We came from two very different backgrounds, policitally, religiously, and we struggled to make our family work amidst two very different parenting styles, medical crises, unemployment, Navy life, and now farm life!  It's been an adventure to say the least, but we have a rich, loving, beautiful marriage. <3

 

 

10 years later. Still in love!

 

I'll talk about my garden next blog...a sad, sad thing! End of August and not a single ripe tomato ...and with all the animals, I just haven't been weeding or tending it much. Now that I've spun up nearly all my wool, I'll hopefully reclaim some of it for harvest ...not including the pumpkins which were growing on the corral fence, and the sheep finished off. ;-)

 

For more information on our farm, please visit http://samsbillthepony.wix.com/getting-liberty#

Sister missionary, yarn, swimming and more...July on our farm.

Friday night in the country...not much to do, so it's time to update the blog! We've had a relaxing month, and the most exciting thing to happen in our home in July is our oldest daughter deciding to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This is when a college aged youth, age 18-26 (approx) gives up 18 months to 24 months of their life at their own expense, to proselytize for the church. They commit to no tv, internet fun, cable, movies, music, parties, and even dating, to spend 24/7 a week in study, preaching and doing service. It's quite a remarkable commitment and we are so proud of her! Our sheep made fun props for her mission photos, as she prepares to feed "His" sheep!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Mr Bingley, one of our California Red rams.

 

 

 

Ysildir, my friendly Icelandic ram. He loves being scratched behind those horns, no wonder!

 

 

 

 

                           

 

                                                                  
We spent a little time renovating this month. We put in a pine tongue in groove wood floor into the kitchen to better match the house. It's a little squeaky, but we love the warm natural color of the pine.

 

 

Virginia in July is like living in a sauna. It is so humid, but the beauty of the place makes it worth it. Amazingly with our 18 inch thick walls, we manage to stay cool even in near record temps. Our youngest boys keep cool by playing in the creek!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One very important thing we do away from the farm during July, is attend Christians United For Israel's Night to Honor Israel, in Washington DC. As Latter Day Saints, we feel drawn to Zion and her people living in Israel, and hope to show our support for them as we look towards and warn against the days when all nations will turn against Israel. Here is my daughter and hubby.

 

 

We were honored to hear one of our personal  heroes, Glenn Beck, speak on behalf of Israel.

 

 

 



He spoke a lot about the days we are living in, and how we as a nation have turned from God and broken our covenants with Him, and warned of the consequences of it. I include him in our farm blog here because he is one of the main reasons we decided we needed to move to the country and start a farm, to be around God fearing people, and to have the land and space to live providently in difficult times.

 

                                          

 

My daughters bedroom window...It warms my heart to see her displaying the Israeli flag there with the American flag. :-)

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch." Isaiah 62:1 

 

 

 



With the hot weather, I have been hard at work inside processing wool. Here is the last of my icelandic wool ready to be washed and spun. Amazingly, this is only half of the fleece off of my ram!

 

 

 

 

Movie marathons with my girls this month, including all the Jane Austin movies we could find...gave me time to spin almost 10 skiens of yarn. I'm hoping to get all my wool spun before summer is over so that I can sell it for holiday craft projects.

 

 

 

 I just love my front porch. How many women in 205 years have sat out here and felt gratitude for their beautiful home, I wonder? A skien of my yarn out drying in the warm air.

 

 

 

 

I couldn't resist testing out the Icelandic yarn by making these scarves. Kindof funny when it's almost 100 degrees outside, but if Whitney gets called on her mission to someplace cold, we'll be prepared!

 

 

I don't bake much in the summer, but chocolate chip cookies are a must. This is THE best recipe ever. They turn out perfect every time!

 

2 sticks of butter

1TBSP vanilla

1/2 tsp bkg soda

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

Add all above ingredients and cream together

1 1/2 c white flour

1 1/2 c wheat flour

1 1/2 bags chocolate chips

Combine with sugar+ butter+egg mixture

 

Drop by the TBSP onto lightly greased cookie sheet and cook 12-15 minutes @ 325

makes 3-4 dozen

 

 



 

 



The first real produce coming out of the garden is cucumbers this year. With these heirloom Boston Cucumbers I made bread and butter pickles. Oh, sooo delicious!  So much sugar though, so I did a healthier version with artificial sugar and used zucchini slices. I don't think too many zucchini will be a problem for me this year, now!

 

 

 

 

Beautiful lilies blooming out my kitchen window

 

 



 

 

 I have several of these flowering trees around the yard. They are so lovely and prolific in their blooming, but I have no idea what they are. Something native to Virginia I think, because I've seen them growing all around the countryside.

 

 

 

We've had some cool rainy days that cruely add to the humidity, but they do keep everything so nice and green...and the ducks love the chance for a mud bath!



  

 

 

Home sweet home. <3

 



 

For more information on our farm, please visit http://samsbillthepony.wix.com/getting-liberty#



Shearing, Independence Day, and my slow but persevering garden.

Our LDS sister missionaries came over this week and we gave Ysildur a haircut.  We got stuck in a torrential downpour mid-shearing, but still had a great time. :-) The wool was so matted after what I suspect was 3 missed shearings, that we had to do it all with scissors!
















Relieved to have him cooled off for summer!
Under that thick brown mattress was beautiful grey wool mixed with the brown moorit coloring around his head. I could hardly wait to get it off him, washed and spun. Check out that before and after!

I'm keeping the first skein for myself! I also spun up some of Ysabels cream wool which is much softer. See her head peeking in the photo back there?


We have 2 breeding pairs of Black American ducks which my hubby and boys decided to take down for a swim in the creek. They paddled around happily for a few minutes, then climbed up the steep bank and went back to the barn to hang out with the chickens...I hope that means they wont migrate and disappear forever in autumn. ;-) I don't know if they sneak off to the creek to swim or not...I hope they do, but they seem to prefer being with the sheep and the coop.

Happy, happy, happy!
















Tried to get our farm sign up for the 4th of July, but the rock hard dirt by the highway means it will hang out a little longer by the front porch. :-(
My oldest daughter painted this for us for fathers day! :-)















1808...Wow, this old place has seen 205 July 4th celebrations! Thomas Jefferson would have still been president when it was built...that tremendous man who authored the Declaration of Independence...it takes my breath away at times, to imagine our home, less than 2 hrs drive from Monticello, is a small part of that history. 




















Love...we have more than enough of that to share here! :-) Lighting sparklers with the family after watching Woodstock's fairground fireworks show from our church next door.

A few of our hens waiting for July 4th leftovers...

Meanwhile, in the (finally) summer garden, butternut squash & baby Mary Washington Asparagus

Tomatoes...this is my 3rd planting! It's been so wet that most of my starts have been drowned out. Now that its finally hot and drying out, they are making a comeback. I have about a dozen different varieties of heirloom tomatoes!





















First vegetables of the season...yellow zucchini. Go figure!
















Seeds we'll have plenty of this year... Connecticut field pumpkins.They are doing great!




















Now that I've cooped up the hens, my corn is getting a break and it is taking off with the beans. Those pesky girls just really loved nibbling off the tender leaves! 




















Sadly this years garden is a little disappointing. Since it's our first season at our farmhouse, our soil is still heavy clay. We're composting everything we can, adding straw and horse-rabbit-sheep-chicken manure...but all things considered, it's not a bad start! Fortunately I have a freezer half full of heirloom seeds stored from the last 2 year growing seasons...we'll get there!

Many of our ewes are getting fat, and I don't think it's just from our lovely Virginia grass...I hope it's because of twins or triplets! We are expecting our first bunch the first week of September.


Celebrating the 4th of July here on our historic farm filled my heart with gratitude to God for the freedoms we still enjoy in this country (despite so many slipping away) the sacrifices made by those 56 men who risked everything for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We also celebrated the one year anniversary of my husbands baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on the 4th of July...(and incidentally, the 32nd anniversary of my baptism on the same day.) :-)














With that in mind, I have to say that I am grateful for the chance to be learning to be a shepherd, and to gain just a little tiny bit of insight into the life of the greatest man who ever walked the earth. <3




















For more information on our farm, please visit http://samsbillthepony.wix.com/getting-liberty#