Vaughnshire Farm

This year, we chose a female pig.  For those who haven’t heard our pig story from last year, you may want to go check it out.  Last year we had a male pig and that came with the duty to remove certain parts so he would grow into a nice, meat pig. 

However, this year came with a new set of operations…that of learning how to ring a pig’s nose so we could let her graze in the pasture without plowing it up.  Like last year, I stayed in the house and pretended not to hear the screaming pig or see the boys bent over struggling with a pig who obviously didn’t find nose piercing a pleasant activity. 

They finally finished the deed and released her into the pasture.  All is well, except our concern that maybe pigs like to eat baby lambs?  We are still relatively new to farm life so we don’t know these things yet? 

We separated the sheep and the pig with an electric tape fence.  The pig, of course, tested the fenced area we wanted her in and kept going to the fenced area we did not want her in.  After a while, we left her……and watched and hoped she didn’t eat lambs or try to hurt the sheep.  We quickly observed she befriended the sheep and seems to think that she is part of the herd following the sheep where they graze and lounging where they lounge.  It is sort of a strange site. 

So now that we have both sheep and goats we have the proverbial discussions among the “owners” of said animals as to which one is better to have.

We arrived home from a wonderful fellowship time at Church and started to settle in for the evening.  Dad and the children ran out to do the chores quickly before supper.  At supper, one of the children brought up the fact that they didn’t see our expecting milk goat when the cow was being milked.  In fact, no one had seen her at all since we had been home. 

After supper, my husband goes out to the pasture in the pouring down rain to locate the missing goat.  (..Who we later found out went through two fences to the back woods.)  We awaited anxiously as he searched the pasture.  It was taking too long and my daughter was starting to worry that something was wrong. 

The 10 year old offers his insight on the situation, “Well, maybe she died in goat birth?”    He seems to have a way with words and offering blunt opinions at just the right time

It was taking a long time.  It was now nearing 10:30 pm and I yelled out the back door to see if he needed any help.  He hollered back in the distance that we could come up and see…  to see what, we had an idea but weren’t for sure… but we hurried to get our boots and coats on and ran out the back door and up the hill…..in the dark…in the rain.

We arrived seeing a beautiful little, newborn alpine doeling.  The children were so elated and I was in disbelief as I didn’t even really believe the momma was even pregnant.  However, she was and kidded exactly when the breeder told us she would. 

We relocated the momma and baby to a covered area for the night and returned back to the house with a happy crew awaiting daylight to show the rest of their siblings the newborn kid in the morning. 

Actually, we really don’t have time to post with all the activity brewing out in the farm yard as well as the amount of work it takes to run a home of almost 10.   There is so much to do.  However, we will attempt to post short updates on some of the highlights over the past weeks. 

Stay tuned…

Sunday morning we awoke to find a new baby ram romping and playing in our pasture!  Our second baby lamb born here on the farm in a week.  All are well and thriving. 

Out of all the farm animals, I prefer the docile nature of the sheep.  They don’t fuss or try your patience like the goats, pigs or cows.  They aren’t incredibly noisy and seem to go along with your wishes without complaint.  They don’t test your fencing set up or run you down for feed.   My husband says…that’s because they are incredibly stupid. 

One of the highlights of our farm experiences came yesterday in the form of watching one of our sheep give birth to her first baby lamb.  Our 10 year old son is very interested in larger animals (as opposed to poultry) so he had decided to start an entrepreneurial venture around cows and sheep. 

We took a trip this week to visit a man who had a herd of sheep and came home with two pregnant ewes and one lamb.  We were told that the ewes were very close to lambing, within the next couple of weeks.  However, the next morning our son came running into the house saying that one of the ewes had something wrong with it.  We ran out to see what was going on, only to find out that she had definitely started the labor progress. 

Within a few hours we noticed that her labor was progressing as she started to turn around in circles, paw at the ground, sit down and stand up often and stay within a certain area.  She soon started having very strong contractions and we could see something appearing— a water bag, then two little feet and eventually she delivered a healthy, very adorable, baby ram.  Our 10 year old was able to watch her progress throughout the day and was the one who actually saw her drop the baby on the ground.  We took turns watching her labor from a short distance. 

Not all of us roosted in the barn rafters with binoculars

I had the children take a break for lunch….they ate in shifts as to not miss the lamb being born.  When it was the 10 year olds turn to eat, he quickly ate his lunch without saying a word, didn’t even ask for seconds or take a drink out of his cup.  He ate and then ran out of the house saying, “I’ve never seen anything be born before!”  Minutes later, one of the other children ran in the house announcing that she had the lamb. 

It was a very exciting, thrilling day for new shepherds here on the farm and we are in awe of the miracle of birth once again.  Now we await our second lambing here on the farm….which should be very soon!

We had 12 children in the house who were 12 years old and under.  There was much noise and excitement and lots of rain. 

Lots of muddy, wet, cold kids, but they had fun….and we enjoyed the visit of so many little cousins!

Much has transpired over the last week.  We are staying a float ;-)  Hope to be back up and posting soon about some new farm adventures and entrepreneurial ventures and new farm babies…

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080406/iran_opec.html?.v=5

 Wasn’t this Saddam Hussein’s great sin? 

 In contrast, Gold is “down” in the low 900’s…  It’s hard to say down when quoting a price anywhere near $1,000 an ounce.  It might be a good time to buy.