Interesting Facts:

1. Sheep love to eat pine leaves.
2. Pine leaves stay green even after the tree they were on has been cut down for two months.

Here’s proof — sheep eating pine leaves on branches from a tree cut down two months ago.

Sadie and Pumpernickle are still coughing off and on. We thought they were all better, and then they started again. We called the vet about it a while back, and she said it was either pneumonia or allergies. We checked their temperatures (don’t ask), and things seemed to be fine. We figured it was allergies. But, they keep coughing, and coughing is not good for sheep because if they cough too much their girlie parts and/or poopie parts can fall out. So, this morning we decided to start them on a round of antibiotics in the hopes that it will knock out whatever is causing them to cough. If it is indeed allergies, this obviously won’t help. Not sure what we’ll do then.

It’s tough to give sheep medicine. Andy lured them into the barn with grain, and then we tried to close the door. Alas, the doorway was blocked with bedding and we had to push old hay out of the way and wasted precious time. (The grain won’t last forever, you know!) Finally we got the doors shut. I stood to the side with a syringe in one hand and the lantern/flashlight in the other. Andy nonchalantly meandered up to Sadie and GRABBED her. She flung him round and round and finally he sat on her and got her still. When she realized she wasn’t going to get away, she drug Andy back over to the feeder so she could munch grain. I snuck up and jabbed the syringe in her leg, and we were done. Pumpernickle was next, and the dance was pretty much identical.

The whole time we were chasing and jabbing, the non-chased girl sheep were running around, but Sydney just kept munching. Doo-doo-doo. That’s Sydney. He’s the friendliest of the sheep by far. He’ll eat out of your hand.

And he’ll even give you a smoochie!

Yesterday morning we were cleaning house when a knock came at the door. In the city, when you aren’t expecting someone and the door bell rings, you can usually count on some unwanted bother: sales people, politicians, religious folks. Out here, it’s just plain strange and startling. My first instinct is to run and hide. (Especially after that time the weird fruit tree homeless guy bugged my mom while I was at work.) Andy answered the door, and I heard something about trees (AIE!) and then the person left.

Turns out, someone wanted to buy a Christmas tree!! So, Andy went hunting for a saw and went down the hill to the tree patch by the barn where we actually managed to trim a few dozen trees in the summer. We decided not to sell trees this year because we didn’t get many trimmed into shape and, well, honestly I don’t want to spend my weekends sitting in a cold shack waiting for people to come by to get a tree.

When Andy came back up after the folks found their tree and got it in the back of their van, he told me the story of how these folks ended up knocking on our door. It was a grandma and her son and granddaughter, and they had bought a tree here for the last few years. They even came out last year and trudged through the snow to find a tree. They’d looked around at trees in Roanoke this year, but they couldn’t find a tree they liked. The little girl said, “I want to go to the field of trees!” So, they drove out to our place. They were confused not to see the any sign of tree sales, so they drove on up to the house to see what was up.

It was neat to sell a tree, and it hit home that we probably really should have tried to sell trees this year because now all the “return” customers probably have found a new tree place. C’est la vie.

In other farm-type news, I’ve sold five dozen duck eggs at work in the last few weeks. There’s a lady there who told me she’d pretty much buy whatever we had, so we have some regular income from the farm. (HAHA, $2.50 a dozen, about a dozen a week, so yes it’s regular but noone around here is quitting his/her day job!)

All the critters are doing okay, and we haven’t had any more chicken disappearances/deaths. I still think the silkie will return one day with a suitcase covered in stickers from the far-off-places she’s been to.

Haven’t taken many photos lately, but for your viewing pleasure here’s the ducks splashing about in their pool a few weeks ago, back before things started being frozen.

This has been a sad chicken week on the farm. On thursday I discovered our female Japanese bantam Priscilla (companion to Elvis) face down in the hay of their house, dead. There didn’t appear to be any signs of foul (hah) play, and none of the others in her cage appear sick, so hopefully it wasn’t something contagious. Good thing Elvis has the two younger Japanese to keep him company. Unless they are really pigeons.

Sometime last night, the strong winds popped the top off of the d’uccle cage, and this morning the d’uccles were all huddled up…but the silkie has gone missing. I’m not sure if she flew off on her own, or something snatched her – it would be strange for a predator to leave the others, however. I hope if she is still alive she will wander back, she was one of my favorites (I have a soft spot for the chickens that look like they are wearing little Russian hats).

The ducks have been hiding eggs. I was picking up the visible ones when I felt one hidden under a lot of hay in their nesting box. Then I found another….and another. I don’t think they’ve been there for too many days (they didn’t smell, anyways), so they should still be good. But we’ll keep them for our own consumption just in case.

Today a lady came to take the rest of the bantams we were giving away. Unfortunately, one of them ran away into the shrub (and past the barbed wire fence). And I lost one while moving some chickens earlier in the day. The little brown one came back later and I snagged her, but the white one is wily, and has learned that if she stays in the bushes I can’t reach her.

Hopefully when it starts getting dark she’ll be scared and come back to the roosters.