Want more cute? We got it in spades!

 The lambs have been spending their days out in the sunny backyard in hopes they will figure out how to graze like real sheep and stop going through so much milk! I cannot believe how fast they are growing.

 Apparently growing into a sheep is seriously hard work. Is that a giant pile of cute or what?! (I suggest clicking on the pic for the larger version so you can drown in all the d'aww)

I've been found out! The minute they see me all the lambs hop up, start calling, and run in my direction. I'd better have some milk or be prepared to be mugged by all the cuteness.

Goat heaven

 Look who I found out in the back pasture all by themselves for the first time! All 6 goats have finally decided to take advantage of the massive amounts of brush out in the third pasture. Up until now, the girls would follow us out there but would not stay out there unless we were there working on something. The minute we headed back up front they would hightail it across the bridge back to the barnyard area.

 Josie and Jenni in goat heaven.

Jenni, who has an advanced case of the arthritic form of CAE, got a big dose of Banamine today. It was nice to see her walking almost like a normal goat and out grazing with the rest of the group.

 I suspect we will have a much smaller blackberry harvest this year thanks to these girls.

Unfortunately, goats love blackberry bushes. The girls were very happily chomping away at any hope of a future berry harvest. Oh well!

More lamb related cuteness

 This is the sight that greeted me this morning. Not a bad way to start off the day ...

A Baker's Dozen of Baby Sheeps

  A few nights ago we got a call from the lady who sold us our original flock of Katahdin sheep. She had had a serious bout of bad luck. Her sheep decided to lamb during all that rain we had in the last few weeks, and she had been finding cold, abandoned lambs all over her fields. She was going out of town soon and asked if we would like to take the 13 surviving lambs. All she wanted in return was the money she had put into milk and supplies so far.

  Big Onion and I talked about it. This would mean bottle feeding an entire flock of babies at least three times a day. Not to mention dealing with any health problems these babies were sure to have. It would also mean kicking the new goats out of the backyard pen way earlier than we were planning and trying to improvise some kind of shelter for them in less than a day. 

  In the end, we decided to go for it. Taking the lambs would effectively double our flock. It would also mean we would have lambs ready for market a lot sooner, and we are rather anxious to see some kind of return for our investment in sheep. My Element was still set up for livestock transport (with a tarp, bedding, and an x-pen in the back), so I made the hour and half drive to go pick up the babies on Thursday. 

One car full of cute! 

I particularly like the little tyke sticking her tongue out in the back there.

 The lambs were little angels on the drive home. In no time they all snuggled down into the hay and napped peacefully while we drove.

 Belly up to the bar!

Behold, the lamb bar! The single greatest invention in raising bottle babies ever! Seriously, you fill this thing with milk and hang it a wall. That's it. 

 It is essentially a big plastic bucket with six nipples all around the bottom. The lambs are able to drink small amount whenever they want to just like they would with momma.

 Unfortunately, not all the babies are used to or strong enough to use the bar quite yet, so there were still a couple that need bottle feeding.

 This poor little gal has almost no hair. She was standing around hunched up and shivering so she got to wear one of the dogs' sweaters. We are calling her Argyle for the time being.

  When I picked up this little girl, she was still being tube fed. I got a crash course on how to pass a flexible plastic tube down the throat and into the stomach to feed a baby who isn't strong enough to suck on a bottle. Thankfully, by the time we got home she was able to latch onto a bottle with a very soft teat and drink small amounts.

 Most everyone else is doing well and fighting over the lamb bar every time we refill it. We still have a couple with dirty butts (a sign of loose poops) and a couple who are not as strong as we'd like, but every day we see improvements.

Doesn't this little gal have the cutest face!

There will be plenty more pictures soon, but for now here are a few videos that the Big Onion has taken in the last few days:  http://www.youtube.com/HighTailFarms

Josie Jr.

 Gwen is growing up fast. She is already following her mother's tradition of being so very helpful around the farm. 

Here she and Hunter help me cart hay out to line the poultry pens and nest boxes. (Yes, she and the cat are still best buds)

Trying to push down the neighbor's new fence to get at his tasty garden.  

Helping feed the poultry. 

Thanks Gwen!

From Fruit, Wine: Muscadine follow-up, and some new projects!

Don't let the goofy label fool you; this is definitely not for sale!

All good things take time and one thing I've learned over the years is patience. Whether it's waiting for cured meat to dry, eggs to hatch, pregnant sheep to give birth ... the end product is always completely worth it.

Wine, however, really takes time. A lot of time. After about 6 months of fermenting, racking, and letting it settle, I finally bottled the muscadine wine. While totally drinkable at this point, many sources make it clear that muscadine wine is best after aging in the bottle for about a year.

With so much pulp from the fruit, it was hard to take SG measurements!

Not to let things go idle, I thought I'd make some small batches of some other fruit wines. Since we had a ridiculous amount of citrus and still had a bunch of ripe persimmons leftover, I put together a couple gallons of the persimmon wine and a gallon of orange wine. The left-most batch of persimmon wine was made mostly with peels and stems and was impossible to get a specific gravity measurement. As you can see, it was extremely active in fermenting and kept blowing through the top. I ended up combining both batches of persimmon wine and moved them to a bucket for primary fermentation.

I've since racked them over for secondary (longer-term) fermentation. You can see the sediment build-up at the bottom of each of the little carboys. Racking off the wine will remove some of the sediment and help to clarify the wine. After about six months, these should be ready for bottling.

Fruit wines are easy enough. Fruit, sugar, water, yeast, and some minor additives (to ensure a healthy ferment) are all you really need. I've been spending a lot of time reading through Jack Keller's recipes. Can you believe there's a turnip wine? I think I may have to try it just for the heck of it!

The bottles of muscadine are tucked away in the closet for long-term storage. I may crack one open in about 6 months to see how the flavor has changed, but the bulk of what remains after some Christmas gifts will be left undisturbed.

Do any of our wonderful readers make wine? I'd love to know what you might have going on right now!

Monsoon season

The rain just keeps falling around here and more and more of the pasture is surrendered to water and mud.

The chickens are learning to adapt to their new partially aquatic life. I swear one of them is trying to grow gills!

The poor goats HATE getting wet. Josie and Jennie have stayed inside their room for 3 days straight. Here Thea takes advantage of a brief break in the weather to try and devour an entire pine tree.

Here's a picture of the creek from a couple days ago. It had topped its banks once and was threatening to do it again. 

For reference, this is what it normally looks like (though most of the trash and scrap metal have been cleared from the banks since this picture).

Big Onion's new fence has been under water more than once but is still standing, straight and strong. 

 As I've said before, the ducks (and geese) are the only ones really enjoying this crazy weather. The rest of us just feel like we are stuck in a Ray Bradbury story. 

 At some point I got fed up with all the water everywhere and decided to dig myself a drainage pond....with a shovel. I think all the water is going to my head.