What a lovely precursor of spring we had today!  It got to sweatshirt weather!  We were able to go out this afternoon without crampons/cleats for the first time in almost a week!  We did need the crampons this morning, when we found two more new lambs (Madison and Martha) - that makes 5 lambs so far this year, beginning Friday a.m ( Read more... )

We have our first lambs - Peaseblossom had twins this morning!  Welcome to Washington and Adams.  Artie did very well during the actual lambing - she patrolled the area around Peaseblossom to let everyone know she was going to protect her, and then settled down a few feet away to keep watch.  She got more interested when we put little Washington in ( Read more... )

We're concerned about Demeter - the dexamethasone (not the treatment of choice, but deemed necessary to save Demeter) is very likely to cause her to abort, although we're hoping it works out otherwise.

We think it's way too early for the lambs to make it; they can only be a day or so earlier than 145 days, and she's probably somewhere between 130 ( Read more... )

TATYSAMN, CLABKESN, and VBPAKAN are 3 of our 4-H members, and they have done several really fun videos.   This one is "Sweeney Baad, Demon Barber of Fleece Street."  It took some work to clear some copyright hurdles on this one ( Read more... )

When we went out to feed the sheep this morning, Demeter was down.  She couldn't get up, even with our help.  She didn't even try to do get away when we put her on a tarp to drag her up to the barn.  No acetone breath, so not ketosis.  The only thing I could come up with was pregnancy toxemia - very, very bad.

When Dr. Mike got here, he confirmed ( Read more... )

The Virginia USDA Vet/Inspector for the volunteer scrapie control program inspected our flock today. traderjack  and I had a bit of prep work to do this morning to get the ewes contained in the holding pen so they could be caught and checked off on the flock list as the vet checked them out.  We also got lots of really good information from the vet.

We had ( Read more... )

We're starting the process to get our flock registered in the Voluntary Scrapie Flock Certification Program - a 5 year process to get certified, assuming I keep a closed flock from here on out. The point is to have a certified scrapie-free flock (scrapie is a TSE). Our flock is clean, but the certification will be good to have, and doesn't cost ( Read more... )

A mega power transmission line project is being proposed to transmit dirty coal power from Putnam County, WV to Frederick, MD through Loudoun County, VA - right behind our farm. 765kV lines on 200' monopoles and/or 170' bipoles. None of this power is for VA, and 9 WV Counties and Frederick Co. VA have all passed resolutions opposing PATH, and ( Read more... )

We've been getting the barn ready for lambing for a few days, and have more to do over the next week or so. It looks like we're going to have an explosion of lambs right at the beginning of lambing time, so we need to have more pens in the "maternity ward and nursery" this year, which means rearranging the barn a bit. The last bit of January and ( Read more... )

My head hurts. I spent about 5 hours at the County Courthouse researching our farm title today (and missed lunch - bad move ( Read more... )