Well the seasonal rush of tasks is on. We started out a little slowly on Sunday since we were recovering from G's staff party that we hosted here on the farm.
We're expecting a very cold winter so I felt that we needed to expand the sheep enclosure inside the barn so that the entire flock would use it in the really cold weather. When it was a little tight in there the older ewes didn't seem to feel comfortable being in close quarters with the bossy wethers. And honestly I didn't want Miss Oats getting hurt since she's already arthritic and frail.
The only way we can give the sheep extra room though is to sacrifice hay storage space. So rather than go through the physical effort of cramming as much hay as we can into the loft right up to the rafters, we're going to have to invest in a small shed. More $...sigh.
I was so excited to have our yarn and roving back from the mill this week, but their carder broke down for four days so I won't have it all back for a few weeks. Then, more $ as we pay the processing bill.
I've started going to back rehab again, so hopefully I will stick with it this time and get strong enough to have a great winter and start skiing again. But for now it's still tough to take the time away the farm and all of the things I need to do before the snow flies. Already the nighttime temperatures are dropping to freezing and I've noticed a few of our birds not looking too well. I might pull one of my bantam roosters inside for a few days to make sure he's ok. Yesterday his comb was looking bluish, and he's not crowing very much.
My ataxic hen Dot Dorking wasn't getting worse or better, so I put her back with the flock. She's doing fine so far. I wish I knew what was causing it, but she's still got spunk and can perch in the highest spots of the palace.
Dot:
My main concern is for Camas the silver laced Wyandotte. I've been treating her for some foot wounds, and she'd been improving. But I guess I let my guard down. I let her outside to range without bandages on one of the nice sunny days that chickens love, and now her good foot is very swollen and obviously infected. The other foot had a wound that was between the toes and was hard enough to deal with,but the huge swollen pad is much more scary. This infection could travel into the bones of her foot, and that could potentially be life threatening. I'm not making this up. This is what happens with bumblefoot. Wish us luck.
The palace run, 25 x 40 feet or so. I still have a bunch of elderberry trees to plant in here, so hopefully next year they'll have a lot more cover in the hot months. For now they're having a blast on these cool days with warm sun. We wait all year for these days!
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| Fern! |
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| Guinea driveby |
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| Beautiful Sculpin drake |
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| Winston |
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| Myrtle looking great now that she's finished her molt |
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| Bad boys |
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| Aqua duck |
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| One of our hard-working bees |
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| Veg tucked in every night now with a frost blanket |
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