Animals and More Snow

I just got in from morning chores. We got six or eight inches of snow in the night—it’s blowing around a lot, so it’s hard to say for sure. It’s lovely to finally see some significant (for us) snow this winter!

Our barn, while being picturesque, is in something of a state of disrepair: the siding needs to be replaced, and has large gaps that have allowed the NW wind to create snowdrifts in the sheep and goat stalls, making it hard for me to feel completely relaxed during any weather events that involve wind. This morning, however, I was reminded yet again of how hardy animals really are. The lambs were warm and bouncy, completely unfazed by the little piles of snow on the floor, and even the goats—who are definitely winter lightweights—were completely cozy and comfortable.

I wish I could stop worrying so much; since the pneumonia episode, I seem to feel like it’s only my constant, unremitting vigilance that keeps all the animals alive. Like if I relax for one minute, bam!—they’ll all be dead. I suppose I’ll get over this, but it’s kind of exhausting in the meantime.

So we’re supposed to go to Asheville today. My sister and her family, including my new niece, whom I have not met yet are up from Atlanta, and we’re meeting at my dad’s for chili. However, there hasn’t been a snowplow by this morning, and it’s supposed to snow all day, and tonight, and I must admit, I’m feeling a little iffy about the trip—not so much the trip there, but the the ride home tonight. We’ll see.

Snow

We woke to a gorgeous snowy day—the hemlocks draped in white, everything so quiet except for the susurrus of falling snow.

The lambs are adorable and irresistable, though their dam would really rather we try to resist petting them. She’s a good mom, stamping her foot when anybody gets too close, and always trying to put herself between her babies and the intruder.

S* and T* came up for a visit, and S* took some pictures of the lambs; she’s going to try to email them to me later. (She also took some other pictures of another animal on the farm; you’ll love those—they’ll be the bonus photos.) We docked tails after the photo shoot; my sister laughed hysterically when I told her sheep were born with long tails, and never did believe me, so I needed proof.

At Last!

When ED and I went out to do our evening barn check at 10:00 last night we found Callie licking off two lambs—one rather husky ram lamb, and a very bouncy and vigorous little ewe. They’re both white—our ewes’ sire is a black Cotswold, so there was some small chance of a black lamb—and are both covered in the cutest ringlets you can imagine. Oh—and their names are Marvin and Molly.

My sister had a little premonition that yesterday was going to be the day: as she was walking through the grocery store a container of sheep’s milk feta fell off the shelf at her feet, and if that’s not a sign, I don’t know what is.

In other farm news, I got the electric fence up! It’s been a bit of a process. First of all, we had bought—several years ago—a cheap 110 electric charger, back before we knew anything about electric fences. Well, it turned out that it was a continuous current charger, instead of a pulse charger, and those can be dangerous to an animal that might get caught up in it, and with our small pasture and rowdy critters, that sounded a little scary. So Monday I went to Tractor Supply and bought a solar charger. Then I started talking to DH about when he would be able to hook it up for me, and we realized it wasn’t going to be until maybe this weekend. That’s when I decided to overcome my fear of electricity, and my weird gender-role thing that said hooking up electric fence chargers is a job that belongs to the man of the house, and I just went out there and did it myself. It was (ahem) very easy. Then I had the immense satisfaction of standing around waiting for the horses—the horses who, you may remember, have been systematically destroying my fences—to touch it. And boy, was there a lot of drama when they did. I’m sure they appreciated my victory song and dance over on the other side of the fence. The’re very subdued this morning, which is a lovely change—not that I don’t enjoy the pinned-eared bully thing they’ve been doing.

Here’s a fun little survey, part of a thesis being done by an architecture student of my BIL’s aquaintance; it contains pictures of cob houses, and asks your opinion of them. DH and I have been talking about building a cob chicken house—doesn’t that sound like a really fun little project?

February 8, 2006 | Tags: , | Comments Closed

Candlemas/Imbolc/Oimelc

The weatherman is saying that our mild weather is coming to a close; it will be cold for the forseeable future, says he. Not the forecast I was looking for on this, the first day of spring. Sadly predictable, though.

Some things that I love to make note of on Candlemas: The birds are singing their spring songs, and loudly. Jonquils are out of the ground four inches, and with slender yellow buds. Quince bushes are flowering in town, though here, they are only covered with fat little pink buds. Some other little shrub here is blooming with tiny white flowers, and forsythia is getting close. Winter or Carolina jasmine (or “jessamine”) is blooming in Hot Springs, and here on my windowsill. The silver maples are looking awfully red against the sky. And of course, there’s the light; I was outside working yesterday at 6:15, and it was plenty light!

The pre-Christian names for today’s festival are Imbolc (“big-belly”) and oimelc (“ewe’s milk”), so wouldn’t it be wildly appropriate to have lambs today?