What’s in Your Trash?

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On TV when the detectives or private eyes are trying to snoop into people’s lives they squirrel around in their trash.  Now, I don’t normally inspect what is being thrown away in our mudroom bathroom trashcan but this caught my eye.

Wonder what this says about us?

 

Late Spring

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I didn’t mean to stay away for so long.

Life on the farm has been a whirlwind this spring. Lambing season was intense this year.  Even though we only had 15 lambs the ewes spaced out the births enough to keep us hopping for quite a few weeks. GC pulled 3 lambs and I assisted with 2. Assisted; meaning I kept the ewe still and jabbered baby talk to her to keep her calm. Gary took care of the business end.

One ewe had triplets with one being about half dead so we brought it into the house to doctor. Needless to say, we ended up with a house lamb.

Yoda the house lamb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Border Collie, Kebbie, actually got us into sheep.  He was my third Border Collie and purposely bought for his strong herding instinct.  GC’s thought was that he would use him for working the cattle so off to a stockdog trainer we go. It was suggested that learning on sheep was much easier than starting a young inexperience dog and owner on stubborn cattle so we purchased 3 ewes and never looked back.

Neither Keb nor GC is anymore trained but we fell in love with the sheep and have added to the original 3.   Keb’s work consists mostly at finding lost calves and bringing back escaped cattle more than it is working sheep.  The sheep seem to know what they need to do and we’re learning!

This year’s lamb crop headed to the market

Oldest son came in from Chicago for a 3 week visit that we thoroughly enjoyed. He also offered to farm sit while he was here so we could take a break and I think we were pulling out of the driveway before he was finished speaking!

Something ripped 2 boards off the barn that housed the chickens at night and killed the entire flock.  Normally, GC can tell what happened by examining the crime scene but he is stumped this time.  Out of the 22 chickens most were entirely eaten so whatever it was it was HUNGRY.

It’s been on our project list for some time to build a mobile chicken house so this has ramped it up the list. The plan is to put them in to rotate behind the sheep. GC is just getting started on the house.

The floor

We noticed the potato plants had died back so it’s potato digging time! It turned out to be quite a nice crop. GC had already shared a couple of bags with friends so here’s what’s left.

Potato vines died back

Yay Potatoes!

Potato crop

Multi-tasking In The Country

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Busy, busy, busy.
That’s been the past week. We are small farmers (15 sheep, 8 cattle, 25 chickens and 2 turkeys) but it’s still a lot to keep up with. Lambing season is in full swing as you can see by my earlier posts plus I commute 20 or so miles to the city for work.

 

Over the years I have learned the art of multi-tasking because otherwise I would never have any down time.

 

Lunchtime is usually when I grocery shop; I have a refrigerator at work so I can just plop all the bags of perishables in there until quitting time. More than once though I have gotten home and wondered where in the heck my groceries were. Oops! Well, if I don’t goof it up lunch time shopping works wonders for saving time.

 

GC gets a lot of the errand running chores. We are constantly in contact during the day, well maybe not constantly, but frequently.

 

So, it’s a lot of, “hey sugar, I noticed Keb is out of heartworm pills, can you run to the vet (10 miles away)?” GC=sugar.

 

Then, later when I remember it, “hey honey, did you pick up your eye drops over in wherever (usually 5 miles in other direction)?”

 

Then on my way home, I usually get a call from GC, “hey babe, I’m running out to get the paper (5 miles away) do you need anything while I’m out?”

 

“Yes, I do! Can you run on over to the grocery while you’re out (another 5 miles or so) because I forgot to get milk.”

 

In the evening when we chat about all the things that made up our day, GC often mentions all the errand running he does. I kindly let him know if he would just practice better multi-tasking methods like me he would save himself lots of time. Ha!