Somehow, a couple years ago when we put up the purple martin house, I got to talking to the lady at the water company and the subject of birds came up. She's had martins at her farm for years and she was happy to share information and tips and we've compared notes since.
This spring when I stopped in, we talked martins for a couple minutes and then she excitedly told me they had a nesting pair of eagles on the river bordering their farm. What?!? She had some pictures to show and told me where we could find the nest.
Of course during lambing and baby Biscuit time I couldn't get away to go look. When I stopped in the other day, I'd assumed the babies would have already fledged. No, but they were close. Tim and I headed to the river that afternoon.
The nest was easy to spot. It's huge! Probably three feet deep? Maybe five feet across?
And yep, there's a young eagle.
Two eagles!
You should be able to click to biggify these pictures.
We've not had bald eagles around here until the last couple of year. Very exciting!
Poor Saint Tim is not out fishing today, rather working his butt off getting stuff caught up around the farm. We've both had a busy spring. Maybe the predicted storms will hold off this afternoon and he can make a Father's Day dash to the river.
Long wooled sheep (Cotswolds, Lincolns, Border Leicesters...) can get pretty uncomfortable around here with our "lovely" summer heat and humidity. A couple here, namely Hershey and Spud, have had a great deal of trouble with the heat in the past.
While I've been told the wool acts as an insulator against the heat, I feel comfortable calling shenanigans on that. A few years ago Spud started acting off, so I took his temp thinking he was sick. 108! Remembering how much shearing helped Hershey his first summer, we did a quick emergency shear while we waited for the vet. Within an hour his temp was back down to an acceptable 103.
Since then, in preparation for hot weather, we've re-sheared Hershey, Spud and Murphy in late May, early June. While Spud has still had an occasional heat stress issue, we've learned how to watch for and deal with it. Heat stress is nothing to fool around with, people or animals! We were all glad to see Bill the other day.
Well, except maybe B. Willard ;-). That's him trying to open the gate and get out. Willard is a clever gate opener. He knows how to push or pull each gate with his foot. I added him and Rebecca Boone to the re-shearing list because both fleeces were a bit felted this spring. Not sure if this will help for next spring or not, but worth a try.
Remembering heat stressed Hershey, who was at the time a dark colored (now gray) long wooled lamb, we sheared little Muffin as well. I hated throwing away her sweet little lamb fleece (the fleece I held on my lap while she napped as a tiny lamb) and cutting off her cute little muffin top and chubby cheeks, but I knew the summer heat would be way too hard on her.
"My mom is right over there, so I guess I'm okay."
"I thought I didn't have to do this until I got older."
This is a bit long because Bill took so much extra care with her tiny non-B. Willard sized body. I love her mom keeping a close watch on them both. You can hear Biscuit in the background (higher pitched baby voice) and Jester weighs in a couple times too (deep quiet baaa).
We picked up everyone's 'too short to do anything with other than make some wool balls' trimmings. Muffin got her own "bag" and look, it's a baby sheet! I guess someone must have known we'd eventually shear a baby here. There is a good amount of wool in there for a two month old lamb.
"Jennifer told me I had to go tell Muffin her hair looks good even if I don't think it does."
It does look good though and momma looks even better. She had a fiber break that was causing her to look a little Velveteen Rabbit-ish. She'll be ready to become a sweater by next spring.
They both will! (Insert positive thinking, rinse, repeat...)
And she really is that black underneath. And she feels like velvet :-).
But you can tell by her droopy ears and tired eyes how much that took out of her :-/. (Insert positive thinking, rinse, repeat!)
A new Biscuit and Muffin puzzle :-). Click here or on the picture of the puzzle to play.
One of my favorite Twitter follows is Bodacious, the Cat Shepherd. He shepherds Zwartbles sheep in Ireland. Betsy's shepherding her sheep in Kentucky :-).
After our grueling camp out night, I figured she'd be done with sheep for awhile. I guess a good shepherdess isn't scared off that easily. The next night, while I stood down the hill waiting to make sure Biscuit was going to settle in okay, she stayed up at the barn near his gate.
Biscuit's showing his new friends all the best spots to yard graze. Muffin wants to go anywhere Biscuit goes, so she slipped out the gate with him yesterday afternoon. Of course, momma then had to come, too.
Betsy headed down to make sure everyone was doing their job.
I knew I had these pictures somewhere. Baby Muffin was a cute baby, but unlike most kids she's actually getting even cuter as she gets older. I keep trying to get a straight on head shot showing her adorable chubby cheeks and fuzzy muffin "top", but every time she sees me, she comes running over and all I'm getting is nose pictures :-).
I'm guessing she's 2-3 weeks old here. I have a feeling mom is going to end up being called "Granny", but I'm holding out hope for something more creative to stick.
"Are you taking pictures of me again?"
"You can keep taking them just so long as you don't disturb my baby."
You know all those cute pictures of Biscuit sleeping on his various beds from porch to barn? They've been among my favorites for sure...that is until I tried to sleep on a cot in the barn with Biscuit on his first night out. Let me reword that. Until I tried to sleep on a cot with Biscuit in the barn on his first night out.
To make matters even more, um, crowded, Betsy slept with us as well. On the cot. It's a small cot. The only thing that kept Muffin (that seems to be sticking, but we are still working on her mom's name) from joining us is her wonky legs. She thought the camp out was the Most Fun Ever.
"We have our own lantern?" "And blankets?" "These blankets taste great!" "How'd you get up there, Biscuit?" "That cat sure has a floofy tail!" "You're really going to sleep out here with us?" "All night?" "Did you bring us treats?" "This is so fun!"
Biscuit did not think this was the Most Fun Ever. He missed his safe, comfy dog crate, private hay and grain stash, very own water bowl...and peace and quiet. He was up and down all night and was actually pretty miserable until he finally settled in around 4 a.m., chewed some cud and fell sound asleep.
Betsy stayed out with us all night. I'm not sure if she was there for Biscuit or me. Regardless is was pretty sweet...until she jumped up on the divider and knocked down the (noisy) metal bowl full of sheep treats. Poor Biscuit...
"How about for the next barn yard camp out we do it without the sheep."
This would have been a welcomed sunrise even if it hadn't been really pretty.
Do you see the cloud lamb jumping into the sky? The two tiny white ears and fuzzy topknot look like Biscuit. Hopefully he'll have sweeter dreams tonight. I'm going to make him a night time pen within the pen so he won't have to worry about his food and water and hopefully there will be enough room for a small bag of wool scraps to sleep on as well...because he ain't sleeping on my cot ;-).
