Hungry sheep, Grandpa, chores

I knew Mama would win over the sheep at some point, but it happened more quickly than I thought it would. Mama told me that the sheep practically run her over as she enters the paddock with the feed. She was not sure if they were even coming to the feeders on the first morning, but they discovered how the feed is set out and they discovered that they really like the feed. I am not sure what type pf feed they are used to, but they like what we are serving. I do not think there would be a problem if we were to leave the two herds together, but we are still separating them this weekend. Hopefully, that goes well. Two of the ewes are showing signs of being close to kidding. The other three are still several weeks away, but it looks like all of them are definitely bred. Mama and I are a little worried about the youngest, she looks like the pregnancy is taxing her more than the other four. We will be keeping a close eye on her. For now, she is eating well and drinking well.


Mama got home late yesterday evening. Grandpa’s appointment with the hematologist was at 2 pm. That took a while, especially since the doctor ordered a set of blood tests to be run while Grandpa was in the office. The tests were all good except the one measuring the clotting factor. It is still pretty high. Just outside of the normal range on the high side. That test tells the doctor how well the blood thinner is working. The fact that it is still high means Grandpa might need a higher dose of blood thinners to combat the blood clot issue he is having. The doctor was impressed by Grandpa’s overall health and vigor. The fact that Grandpa works every day despite the occluded spleen and the blood clot in his left leg, was surprising to the hematologist. Pleasantly so. Mama stayed with Grandpa when doctor examined and counseled with him. They left Grandma in the waiting room because, according to Grandpa, she talks too much. Probably a good move since Grandma does tend to monopolize any conversation she joins, and Grandpa needed the doctor to talk while he and Mama listened. All in all, it was a good visit with good outcomes.


I succeeded in getting a lot of little things done before Mama got home – feeding and distributing feed, trimming back the Blackberry bush I will transplant tonight or tomorrow, isolating the pigs from the building, planting one set of onions in the raised bed, collecting the eggs and cleaning the nesting boxes. I do not know if the rooster is stimulating the hens to lay or if it is because the days are starting to get longer and generally warmer, but we got nineteen regular eggs last night and five Banty eggs. That is a pretty good haul for one day. We blocked the pigs out of the building because we do not like them using it as their preferred bathroom spot. Not when they have the entire pen to do their business. Mama and I will clean it today, lime it well, let it dry overnight and move the goats to that area tomorrow. In the meantime, I will build a very simple shelter for the pigs. Mama needs them to have a roofed area for rainy times. Assuming we have those this year.


I also disassembled the racks I had in the bed of the pickup. I did not want to keep them in there any longer than needed and tonight we need to get hay from Rick. Having the bed open will help me load the bales of hay. It won’t make the bales any lighter, but I will not have to duck and dodge to get them into the truck. The racks came out in basically three large pieces. Two sides and a gate; the gate made up the majority of the back of the enclosure. I set everything aside carefully so that it can be reassembled when needed.it will be nice to have that available to us. There have been several times in the last few months that we could have used it. All that was done after dark.


This weekend is a mixed bag of farm chores along with some serious cleanup projects, garden prep and animal relocation. In between, we have soul winning Saturday morning and Yilin’s birthday party along with Chinese New Year’s celebration Saturday night. I should probably say that all the farm work is sandwiched between those two events. How much we will get done is up for grabs. But I have found that making a long list keeps me on track with the most pertinent tasks. Mama tends to get sidetracked easily and drag me with her. They may not all get crossed off this weekend, but we keep them on the list until we do get them crossed off…eventually.