Lambs & soap & signs of spring!

We have survived the winter here...finally, the temperatures are starting to feel like spring! We're down to one fire a day just to warm up the house in the morning.  Everyone is ready for it... the horses are bored & tired of hay and ready for some pasture grass!

 

 

March came in with one big snowfall!

 

 

We had another lamb born just before the snow hit. This little guy is a California Red - Tunis mix. Our son named him Sir Lambs- A lot. Tunis is a breed that Thomas Jefferson had at Monticello. I would love to find a nice Tunis ram...these are such gentle sheep!

Poppy & the ducks...



 

This is a new experiment, making felted soap with Icelandic wool. This is the sheep milk soap I made 2 weeks ago. Look at that lather!! It still has 2-3 weeks to cure.

 

Our new chickies... I have no idea what breed they are since the teenage boys bought them.

 

This was just funny... My youngest son decided this morning that his pajamas were immodest because they didn't have a top button, so he taped it closed. I guess after  being bundled in the house up all winter, a little bit of air on skin is shocking, ha!

I absolutely love how this turned out! It is felted soap made with black Icelandic wool. Isn't that beautiful!?

 

 

The other is made with the Red's wool... I love the slight variation of color!  The wool acts as a washcloth and shrinks in size as your soap shrinks. When the bar runs out you can cut open the felted wool and insert a new bar. These are available to purchase. :)

 

 

Another sign of spring...the egg production is stepping up. I'm getting about 4-5 eggs a day from 6 hens. Aren't those the cutest little salt and pepper shakers? I found them at a local thrift shop and couldn't resist, even if they don't dispense the salt fast enough. ;)

 

My teenage son loves digging around in the yard and finding old buried vintage bottles. I'd rather he found some lost civil war gold, but that's beside the point. ;-) I've turned them into spice jars, and for the ones I can't find cork sizes to fit, I made felted wool balls to help keep the moisture out.

 

I found this hideous -but -really- cute- in-a -weird- way poncho at a local thrift shop and bought it for my 15 yr old daughter. She loved it and has been wearing it around the house all winter. This is her favorite place to sit, warm by the fire in her poncho with old teddy, keeping me company in the kitchen while I cook. :)

This is the 3rd lamb of the year to be born on a Sunday!  Protected by our watchful Pyrenees & sons with swords...

 

Lambs curious about their new playmate

 

This is Molly, another Tunis ewe, and half Red- half Tunis lamb that we named Ember. He's a big boy!

 

Defenders of the barn

Good mom...this is her pawing the ground like a bull, making sure the puppy knows to stay away from her lamb. 

Sunbathing... I can't blame them, the sunshine feels amazing! Finally! 

Is there anything better than a belly scratching?

 

These gourds have been sitting out all winter and I think they're finally dried out enough to clean and paint. :) Now that I wont be tending fires all day, I might actually have time to do it...at least until gardening & shearing season kicks in... uuuhhh...and that is very soon.

 

Last but not least, a vintage lamb pan. A friend told us about an important tradition in his family where the lamb cake is decorated in coconut, and the head is chopped off and saved for whatever relative isn't in attendance...it was just bizarre enough that I knew we had to adopt the tradition! Haha!

 

Last but in no way least, my oldest son has just enlisted in the Marines. I am so proud of him! I know the hours he's spent working for me chopping wood, moving hay,  and doing garden work had made him tougher than you're average 19 yr old, and he is a God fearing, good man. Fighting to preserve our liberties...what parent could ask for more?

 

 

For more information on our farm, please visit :

 http://samsbillthepony.wix.com/getting-liberty# 

Sheep milk soap & new lambs

We sadly lost our first ram lamb born. We didn't recognize that his mom wasn't feeding him until it was too late. :( So, to keep mom from getting mastitis, we've been milking her and I made my first batch of sheep milk cold processed soap. Messy & time consuming, but it was rewarding!  Here are my boys with some fresh sheep milk... which tastes AMAZING, btw. I wish I had the time for a larger scale sheep milk venture because it's creamier and better for you than cows milk, and just as mild in flavor.
 

 

The first thing to do was to add lye to cold water. It gets VERY hot, so you let it cool to around 90 degrees which took over an hour.

 

 

While that was going on, I combined coconut & olive oil, sheep tallow and lard, melting it to approx. 90 degrees as well.

 

 

After the lye-water cooled off to 90, I added the sheep milk. 

 

 

It has a chemical reaction and gets hot yet again...so you wait for it to cool back down to 90 degrees

 

 

The lard and coconut oil take a little longer to melt and there was a layer of 'lard foam' on the top.

 

 

& once it's all melted to around 90, I let it sit by the woodstove to maintain it's temperature until the milk & lye cooled down.

 

 

When both mixtures are at 90, you combine the fat to the milk-water-lye pot and stir, stir, and keep stirring! I stirred for over an hour before it reached a nice heavy pudding consistency.

 

 

I have no molds yet, so I used some old loaf pans with a layer of Vaseline, a little plantain oil & black walnut for looks.

 

 

Ta-Da! And wow, that is ALOT of soap! I was so happy that it turned out. It smells so wonderful! At the stirring stage I added tea tree and cedar oil. Now I wait 4-6 weeks for the lye to mellow out and the finished result should be creamy, soft, sheep milk soap to sell.

 

 

 Here is my son with our Calfornia Red ewe lamb, Poppy. She's doing great! My son loves his sheep.

She's so curious, I can't get her to stop long enough to look at the camera, but look at those adorable red curls!

Protective mom, Holly

Ginger the barn kitty hanging out in the hay.

 

Play till you drop!

Baby hen chicks brought home for my husbands birthday from our teenage son and best friend. They think they are sooo funny. ;-) I'm always happy to get new hens!

 

I honestly have no idea what breed they are... 6 chickies.

Thorin, the Icelandic ram, looking for a treat. 

 

 

Icelandic ewes, hopefully with lambs coming soon!

It's so funny when all the animals hang out together in the barn. 

 The ducks & chickens are checking out the new ram, that my teenage son insisted we name
Sir Lambs-a-lot

 

He's sleepy, but seems to be healthy & nursing.

Ducks hanging with mama sheep, haha.

 

One of my hens is a real slacker!!



It's March 3rd and we're having our second snow day out of school this week with record cold temps. Here's my lovely daughter to remind me that Spring will get here, someday!! <3

 Celebrating my husbands birthday this week... he makes this farm - thing all possible.
I love him so much! <3



We've been sharing stories of our lambs and our pioneer winter with our daughter who'se serving an LDS mission in Tempe, AZ. She shared this picture with us that is on one of her pamphlets that she hands out to potential investigators into our church... Jesus, the good shepherd. <3 Having sheep has given me some simple but priceless insight into the life of my Savior. I am grateful to care for and love my little lambs because it reminds me how gently he loves and cares for us.

 

 

 

 

For more information on our farm, please visit :

 http://samsbillthepony.wix.com/getting-liberty#