Cutest Grandkids Ever

The Texas family has gone home. I need to get back to my regular work. But I also want to share some of these Cute Grandkid photos. After all, this blog is really mostly a scrapbook for myself as well as being partly about my business of weaving and raising sheep. When there are so many photos and I get behind then it’s harder to start. Too many photos. This one or that one? Delete? Edit? Share?

I made the hard decision and chose some of my favorites from one of the first days the kids were here. Kirby had gone on an overnight trip with the other grandma and I went with Katie and 17-month-old Kasen to San Francisco for an informal brunch following Katie’s friend’s wedding the previous day. We stayed about as long as Kasen could last and then took him to the beach.

 

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DSC_1358                  I love the expressions on this kid’s face.

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Later that day…

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IMG_7575             The hay feeders are a little high for Kirby to reach without the hay falling all over her.

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IMG_7584                 Kirby told me she was making a nest for the other chickens.

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Goat Frolic

Farm Club members came yesterday to help with lamb vaccination. We weighed and vaccinated and evaluated all 75 lambs but I didn’t take any photos while we were working.

The next chore was to work with the goat kids and Amaryllis. Amaryllis is off the pasture and in a smaller pen to keep her away from the green grass to prevent another bout of laminitis. She also needs to lose weight and she should get some exercise every day. The goats need to practice manners and leading when asked.

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FarmDay-04-28-4                  Goat paparazzi.FarmDay-04-28-6

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FarmDay-04-28-11                I’m not sure that I’d call this mannerly but everyone had fun.

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Thanks Farm Club!

Goats

Amaryllis is our donkey and has chronic laminitis (see this story). Because of that she can’t go out on the pasture or even in the back corral while the grass is green back there. She is in her own pen with a wether as a buddy. That is a poor substitute for another equine  and the sheep isn’t too thrilled with the plan either. I thought long and hard about getting Amaryllis a friend. It doesn’t make sense for us to have another donkey or a mini-horse or any other equine–from the standpoint of space and cost of upkeep. When Stephany was still alive she was Amaryllis’ best friend. Stephany was a goat.DSCN3466-1             The last time there were goats here they were Chris’ Toggenburgs that he raised for his FFA project. Stephany was the last goat from that era.

1997-11 K & Chenille                                                         Before that I had owned one goat. This is an Angora goat named Chenille in a photo from 1997. Katie was 9 then.

I contacted someone I knew who might have goats for sale and went to her place when she had some ready to go.IMG_5778                 These are two of a set of quads. One was the smallest of the batch and the other was having some trouble drinking from the LambBar bucket with all the others.IMG_5781                  I am not planning to show goats and I am bottle-feeding so those points didn’t matter…IMG_5782                    …and I brought these babies home.IMG_5798                      Oops. A third goat came along–mainly because my friend didn’t plan to raise him and I figured that I could find a home for him eventually.IMG_5803                   Te goats are popular with Farm Club friends.IMG_5807

IMG_5907                                                That’s Ellie on the left and Amelia on the right.IMG_E5940-2                 Their temporary buddy, Kevin, is in the middle. He’s going to a new home tomorrow. Thank goodness. IMG_E5948                      It’s sure easier to feed two than three.

IMG_6028                       I have been keeping the kids in the barn  but the weather has turned nice and I wanted to introduce them to Amaryllis. She was definitely interested.IMG_6029                   I hope that they will become her new BFFs. Here is Rusty’s version of getting goats.

Amaryllis and Her New Shoes

Amaryllis has laminitis and I’ve been struggling with her condition off and on for several years. I should have known better than to get a donkey as a guardian animal for sheep that graze irrigated pasture but I did not realize the risk. Donkeys can thrive in desert conditions and can easily put on weight under any other situation. That, along with a multitude of other related factors, puts them at risk for laminitis.

She had a flare-up in October. I think it was a result of breeding season. I had the sheep separated into several different breeding groups and Amaryllis was getting little bits of alfalfa from under the fence that she shared with one of the groups. Maybe that had nothing to do with it but I thought that it might have been the trigger.

IMG_2892               My regular vet was out of town and I called U.C. Davis. The equine vets came out and evaluated her. This radiograph shows that there is slight rotation of the bone, which should be parallel to the hoof wall, but the coffin bone has not dropped down to the sole, which can happen in severe cases. IMG_2899                 Temporary pain relief was provided by some cushy pads that were measured and then cut to fit.

IMG_2903                 A paste of betadyne and sugar was applied to help the foot dry out…

IMG_2902          …and then the pads were taped in place. IMG_2914            This was just to help cushion her feet until the farrier could get here for the next trim.IMG_2930             She was also prescribed a variety of medications to help with pain and weight loss, some of which I had used before.

This was a month ago. In the meantime I attended the Donkey Welfare Symposium at UC Davis. It was an excellent program but I came home more depressed about the whole situation. At home I was struggling with how little improvement I saw, even with all the medications.

The vet offered another idea–SoftRide boots. Those came today. They are an outer boot with a gel orthotics.

1711-donkey_shoes-1             The instructions said to wrap the foot with plastic wrap when you first try the orthotics so that you can send them back if they don’t fit. 1711-donkey_shoes-2           That is easier said than done. I got the plastic on the foot OK but by the time I had her standing on the orthotics they weren’t in exactly pristine condition anymore. 1711-donkey_shoes-3                  I decided that I’d just have to go for it and put the boots on.

IMG_3435          What an amazing difference they made. This is the first time I’ve seen Amaryllis walk without obvious pain in weeks if not months. I don’t know if this is a permanent fix, but at least she is more comfortable now and will maybe be able to get a little exercise–even if that is just me leading her around the corral every day.

Donkey Photos

So many blog posts to write now that maybe I’ll have time…The show is up at the Artery, Hug a Sheep Day was yesterday, lots of natural dyeing, lots of weaving, trip to Tahoe. But I’ll start with Amaryllis because I’m going to the Donkey Welfare Symposium next weekend and they have a photo contest. They asked for “cute” donkey photos and I think they will make up categories for prizes as they go along. Here are some contenders.

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“She’s at it again.”

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“Let’s pretend we don’t notice.”DSC_4481

I love this photo but the announcement said 8 x 10 and this is square. I don’t know if it matters.

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I like this one. I will crop it to remove that sliver of tree on the right.

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This is the most recent. I wish that I had a little more of her head in it but it’s cute.

What do you think?

 

Things I see on the way to the barn

Bottlebrush Pink bottlebrushDSC_2601 Look at how tiny this new leaf is. Iris (1) One of my special iris plants that I got from Pleasants Valley Iris Farm.Iris Another one of the special irises.Rose (1) This rose  looks fairly common but the fragrance is spectacular.RoseSame for this one.Rose (2) These roses were on this property when we moved here in 1999. We moved them to their current locations. They don’t get much TLC, but hang in there.Rose (3) Several of the roses also have branches from rootstock growing up around them. I can easily identify those branches when they are flowering, but I hate to cut them off when they are so pretty.YarrowYarrow.DSC_2672Amaryllis (not a flower).

Farm Day – help with sheep chores

Our first Farm Day of the year was on Saturday and five Farm Club members helped me get ready for lambing. I forgot to take photos at the beginning but started with vaccinating all the ewes. In the meantime we kept an eye on the two ewes who were supposed to be bred that day so that they will lamb at the fair in July.DSC_8532There was no question about Miller and Donna, but ZZ left me wondering. He seemed more interested in his buddies in the adjacent pen than he was in Clover although she was doing her best to entice him. I decided that I’d better try another ram so Faulkner was the one. He knew just what to do.DSC_8508 While the rams were otherwise occupied and I had plenty of help it was time to clean the ram pen.DSC_8516Rusty usually keeps the rams away while I clean so he took his usual position although the rams weren’t there.  DSC_8523 The ewes watched through the gate while we moved wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow load. Those red marks are just from the marking crayon we used as we vaccinated.DSC_8524 After cleaning the ram pen it was donkey play time! Lisa discovered the bliss of brushing a donkey.IMG_9375Amaryllis had to hold still for me to measure her. She is about as svelte as she ever gets and I wanted to have a baseline measurement for her (670 pounds according to the tape, which is really meant for horses). By the way, I looked up svelte because I wasn’t sure how to spell it. Svelte, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: thin in an attractive or graceful way; and a. slender, lithe. b : having clean lines : sleek. Hmmm. So maybe svelte isn’t quite the right word to describe a donkey.

 

Donkey Diet

I have learned that a donkey is probably not the best choice as a guardian animal for sheep that graze irrigated pasture in the summer and eat alfalfa in the winter. My sheep eat a rather rich diet compared to what a donkey needs. So Amaryllis was put on a diet. For the last 6 weeks or so I have fed her grass hay, but to do that I have had to keep her separate from the sheep. As many of you know, Amaryllis doesn’t care much about the sheep, but she  really likes Stephanie, the goat (although the feeling is not mutual). So Stephanie and Amaryllis have been in a stall at night and I have put Amaryllis in an outside pen during the day.

I found a potential solution at my local feed store.

This is a grazing muzzle. There are holes that allow the wearer to drink and to eat little amounts of grass that poke through the holes. If Amaryllis wears the muzzle I can put her back in the pasture with the sheep (and Stephanie). I did that yesterday and today and put her back in her stall at night to eat grass hay. I will have to experiment with the amount of time she wears the muzzle and stays in the pasture. Maybe some horses wear it full-time.

I don’t know if the sheep were more interested in welcoming Amaryllis back or wanted to investigate her new muzzle.

They were happy to accompany her back to the pasture.

Before…

After. I think I can tell a little difference.