04/03/2017 Never a Dull Moment

It's been a moderately eventful week here at the farm. It all started on the 26th with the very early arrival of twin ram lambs. We aren't scheduled to start lambing until this week, and the ewe that lambed didn't even appear bred. She also didn't have any bag to speak of. Yet, there they were, two tiny ram lambs. And there she was, no milk, first time mom, wanted absolutely nothing to do with them. Ol' softy that I am, I bundled up the boys and relocated them to the laundry room without much hope of their survival. One of them especially, the red one dubbed Crybaby, wasn't even able to stand, and I'm pretty certain neither of them could see yet. Their first milestone was living through the day. The next was surviving for 2 days. I had to enlist the aid of friends and family to feed them

03/11/2017 Rebel’s Big Day

Yesterday was a big day here on the farm. Yup. Mr. Rebel Kitten officially assumed his position as Barn Cat. Given the speed at which he moved from place to place, and the efficient manner in which he kept an eye on absolutely everything, I'd say he's going to do things his own freaking way. Then again, that seems to be the theme around here.   Since Rebel seemed occupied with coming to terms with his new responsibilities, I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and firm footing (that's something of a rarity this time of year) and get some training in. The calves have been here a week and, though they've met the dogs, I haven't done anything beyond having Jig walk in on a nose to turn them. Having her own steers is going to do that girl a world of good. Okay, it's going to do us both a

03/01/2017 You Can’t Ride Color

With the end of February we said goodbye to Rowan, several weeks short of her 16th birthday. True story, she was the puppy I wasn't going to keep. I wanted a blue boy from that litter. The absolute last thing I wanted was a black-tri girl. My friend Joanne listened patiently as I told her how I needed to find just the right home for this pup because she was pushy, opinionated, and tough. She smiled when I finished and asked me what I looked for in a pup. I opened my mouth to answer, but the words that wanted to come out were all the ones I had just used to describe the pup I was looking to place. "But I want a blue boy!" I said, ignoring the title of this post; my long held adage from my riding days. Joanne, however, is very wise. The blue boys from that litter went