The Whole Murphy Thing

One thing you don't want to do is get between a group of sheep and a fresh grazing area.  Whenever I open a gate, I am very careful to make sure that the gate can swing wide enough, fast enough so no one gets wedged and that I am clear of the gate as well.

Last night I decided to open up Del Boca Vista.  The chain rattled as I unhooked it and the chorus of baas started and everyone came running.  As I moved some sheep around so the gate could open, I quickly stepped back, pulling the gate towards me.

The sheep started swirling around, jostling for position, but no one raced through. This all happened in a matter of seconds, but still long enough for me to notice the strange behavior.  And then Murphy walked up, through the group, out the gate and everyone followed him.

I find this whole Murphy thing* fascinating.  Did he do something to earn their respect?  Are they all snickering behind his back as they send him off to look for lions and tigers and bears?  Has he pulled some sort of Graham Lamb scam to trick them into believing he's the only one who can go out first?

There's a story here I'm sure and I'd love to hear it.

*I linked this to all of Murphy's posts, so you'll need to scroll down a couple to find the stories about him leading everyone out.  If you are new to the blog, you can click on any of the "labels" over on the right side of the page, down a bit, and read all sorts of stories about any of the individual animals or events.  For example, if you don't know who Graham Lamb was, those are usually pretty...um...interesting ;-).

 

Don't Quit Your Day Job

Last year I grew a completely accidental pumpkin patch and it was the most fun thing I've ever grown.  I had the best time watching the plants overtake a pretty big section of the side field and the pumpkins were all different sizes and colors and the sheep had two big pumpkin parties at the end of the season and I decided I was going to be a pumpkin farmer.  Pumpkins at Punkin's Patch!

This spring I picked out three different varieties of seeds (including one called Big Moose!), figured out my plant date for fall pumpkins and then found out the extension office was going to do a "Who can grow the biggest pumpkin in Harrison County" contest and I was All In.

I waited with great anticipation for the date I could go pick up my free pumpkin seeds and in the meantime strategized as only I can over-think things and gathered up special dirt and compost and researched and watched YouTube videos and created a baby pumpkin nursery and went ahead and planted my earlier chosen seeds out in a special safe zone in the yard, fenced off and everything.

Since all the volunteer pumpkins last year grew so well just laying out on top of the pasture, I thought if I made a little effort to amend the soil for each seed this year they'd really take off.  And I thought the Big Moose pumpkins could just live in the fenced area with the other pumpkins. I mean, how big could they get?

When I got the educational handouts from the extension office I found out that the Big Moose pumpkin getting labeled as a "giant" meant it was going to be...a giant.  Who knew.  I carefully dug as many of  those seeds as I could find back up and put them in starter pots along with the extension office seeds.  The rest of the seeds sprouted, but have not taken off in any sort of manner.  Pumpkin farming, not as easy as I'd hoped.

Four of the five extension office seeds sprouted and four of the five Big Moose seeds I found sprouted as well.  As the babies grew I made their fancy growing mounds, which involved lots of shoveling and moving of heavy materials on some really hot and humid days.  I was becoming less enamored with pumpkin farming by the day...but the baby pumpkins all grew well and looked good.

When the plants got big enough to transplant, I moved them into their respective mounds.  Four Big Moose plants and three of the extension office plants (I'll try to remember to come back in and update the variety) were planted in Del Boca Vista.  I put the biggest and strongest extension office plant out front, next to the driveway so I could really keep an eye on it, in preparation for the October 27th weigh in at the office.

I lost one of the Big Moose pumpkins in a wind accident fairly early on.  I moved a tiny volunteer from just outside the Wool House into it's open spot and babied it through some hot weather and it survived and is now doing a great job trying to catch up.

I'm concerned about these leaves turning yellow.  This is my biggest Big Moose plant...of course.  It's also the first one to produce any female flowers and now has two pumpkins growing along it's reaching vines.  I haven't decided if I'm going to limit it to only two in hopes of growing a true giant.  At this point I'm probably just going to be happy if I get any pumpkins.

This Big Moose plant did not look good yesterday and has not rebounded today so I'm afraid it's going to be a another casualty.  I've been carefully watching the plants for bugs and mildew and all sorts of other problems.  I've used diatomaceous earth and a couple of careful applications of organic Neem Oil in the evenings when the bees are long gone, but I don't have any control over the too wet conditions that may be causing some of my issues.  

Three of the extension office plants.

While my volunteers last year were big, hardy, heavy producers, the volunteers this year (probably a different variety) have been a bust except for a couple plants here and there.  This nice volunteer is growing out in the barn lot, so I have zero expectations for a pumpkin to reach maturity surrounded by sheep, but it's helping provide pollination for the female flowers in the main patch.

The bees, hard at work.

Oh, here's a funny story.  The first morning I knew I had a female flower ready to open it was drizzling rain.  The flowers are only open for a short time on one morning so there's just a small window where they can get pollinated.  I didn't think the bees would be out until the rain stopped, so I read up on how to manually pollinate it, grabbed my paint brush, picked up some pollen from a male flower and when I went to dust it into the female, two bees popped up and scolded me.  

"Do you mind?!?"

I shouldn't have doubted them :-).

I think this epistle basically catches everything up on the 2023 great pumpkin venture.  I have lost any expectation that it will be a Great Pumpkin venture, but I hope I'm wrong and will have some happy updates through the next couple of months.  

I'm glad I'm just trying to find something fun to do during my least favorite time of the year and not trying to feed my family.  Farming is not for the faint of heart and we all need to be cognizant of that fact and remember that food does not miraculously appear at the grocery store.

It would be nice to be able to feed at least a couple of pumpkins to my sheep family.

It is really hard to type pumpkin instead of Punkin.

And One More Thing

"I'm just going to head out for awhile.  Don't wait up."

In my late night effort to not get a week behind on the SOTW I forgot to tell Baba's most unique behavior.  I'm not sure if I just raised her to be extra independent or if she would have turned out this way on her own, but on the rare occasion I leave the farm, I always have to leave a note for our farm sitter.

"If you find a sheep left all by itself in the barn when everyone else goes out to graze, this is normally a sign of trouble.  However, if the sheep is a fat, fluffy white one who also has a big black dot on one ear, that's just Baba...and she's most likely just fine."

Baba could not care less if everyone else has left her to go out to pasture.  If she's not hungry or is enjoying a particularly good nap, she's not going.  She also does not care if everyone is bedded down for the night in the cozy barn.  If she's hungry, she's going to go out and graze.  In the dark.  By herself.

She has always been this way.  Her favorite place to graze used to be down by the creek.  This could be due to fond memories of hanging out there in the evenings with me, Hank and Betsy when she was a lamb.  

I used to not worry about her doing that when Hank was alive.  Now I don't let her (or any other sheep) go down there at night.  When she moved herself into Easy Breezy this winter, she was happy to find she could now go out into the securely fenced yard all night if she wanted...until Rocky started having so much vision trouble.

Rocky stays out in Del Boca Vista during the day, but I bring him into Easy Breezy at night so he has some company and a warm, soft bed and can only get a little lost.  Jared really doesn't like being in DBV and prefers to be indoors.  He takes care of Rocky during the day so he gets to choose where they sleep at night ;-).

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Because I don't want Rocky to wander out the front barn doors at night and either get lost or tangled up in something he can't see, I've started putting gates up to keep everyone safe inside.  This is not making Baba happy.  

This is bothering her so much so that she and I had a big knock down drag out about it last night.  A literal knock down, drag out.  She kept trying to knock down the wooden gates or at least drag them out of the way so she could go where she wanted.  I felt a bit like I was trying to put a toddler to bed.

The incident reminded me that I'd missed sharing this trait in her SOTW post.  Putting the February end of the month photo compilation reminded me that I had a good picture of her at night.  And now typing it up here has reminded me that I forgot to post the month end on here as well. 

Two posts in one day, twice in a week. I wish I was just really ambitious and not just disorganized ;-).

Wool You Be Our Valentine?

Last year was a pretty funny Valentine's Day with Pinto still in quarantine/lockdown in Del Boca Vista.  It's hard to believe he's only been here a little over one year.  Somehow I never thought to share the pictures from his Kissing Campaign over here so for fun and posterity I'm going to share them here this year.

He was pretty sure ALL the girls wanted to be his girlfriend and when he did finally get released into the general population later that month,  Jared quickly set him straight.  I'll share that video at the bottom.  It's long and not super action packed until around the 16 minute mark, but it was a beautiful afternoon so if you want to hang out on the farm for awhile, you are welcome.

This year we are going to have a Valentine's party for everyone.  I have a big stash of cookies from farm friends who included some cookie money with their calendar checks.  The kind notes that get included* in the return envelopes completely make my day.  The cookies make the sheep's days :-).  One of my favorites was the extra money specifically designated to replace the Cheerios Archie ate from Maisie birthday cake.  Thank you!

It's supposed to be a nice afternoon, so the cookie party will be at 4:00 eastern time tomorrow, February 14.  It will be live on Instagram, but if you can't join us there, I'll post the recorded footage over here and on Facebook later.  

Without further ado...Happy Baa-lentine's Day from Pinto (2022).  He's hoping everyone can be his Baa-lentine this year!

"Yeah, that ought to work."

"How you doin'?"

"No one wants to be my Baa-lentine?"

"Girls?"

"Anyone?"

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*You absolutely do not have to include a note or extra cookie or hay money.  Your purchases themselves support the farm and are very, very appreciated.  The personal touches though make it very hard to even consider turning the farm shop into a "click to purchase" website :-).

The Post You've Been Waiting For

Yes, Big Moose and Mini Moose now live with us :-).  Also Big Moose's mom and one of her friends.  We are still playing around with names for everyone.  Big Moose probably works, but Mini Moose seems like a name you might not want to live with for the rest of your life.  

Big Moose

I was worried that he wouldn't "tame down" very well as he's always been a bit bug eyed and flighty, but he was the first to succumb to cookies and scratches :-).

Big Moose's mom.  Also known as the "smiley ewe" from a post from last year.  She and I partnered up last year after I took her picture out in the field.  Interestingly, I have a file picture of her saved from 2014, so I must have always liked her.  I need to pull out an old Lamb Camp calendar and see if she was featured in there.

The two boys are best buds.  That's Big Moose on the left and Mini Moose on the right.  I love that he still has his distinct stripe.

We have had just miserable hot and humid weather for over a week now.  Just. Miserable.  In order to quarantine the new sheep, we had to put them in Del Boca Vista...which is really nice in the winter...and miserably hot in the summer.  I try to never put sheep in there when it's hot.

The two tents set up between the DBV shed and the barn are an attempt to add some shade for them.  The front gets blazing sun in the morning and the back/side gets cooked in the afternoon.  Everyone seems to be getting along okay, but we all wish the weather would break :-(.

Mini Moose.  I love his coloring.  It's almost like he waded in a black stream that came up to his belly while his top coloring is silvery light gray.  Both boys have lovely fleeces :-).

Two new puzzles!

Oldies But Goodies

I think I've talked about "Easy Breezy" on the blog, but in case I haven't, it's the bigger version of Del Boca Vista, utilizing the end of the outside stall and the level paddock next to the barn.  DBV is perfect for a couple sheep, but when the population as a whole starts getting older, more and more sheep needed to move into "assisted living" this fall.

Silly Lila, one of my very favorite bottle lambs from quite a few years ago.  She's not exceptionally old, but she has some arthritis issues that make it hard for her to keep up with the younger sheep.

Popcorn PeePee Pants.  Her birthday is in January, but I don't remember the exact day.  I'd look it up on the blog...but she's older than the blog!  She will be 14 next month.  

PPPP is the lamb on the bookmarks we hand out in the festival booths :-).  She makes a nice puzzle, too ;-).

Renny the invincible.  She's not old and definitely not skinny, but she's starting to have trouble with her horribly damaged back legs and can't negotiate the hills on the other side of the barn any longer.  She's loving the Easy Breezy life ;-D.

Billy Belly and Heidi.  Heidi is another of the old girls.  She'll be 13 this spring.  Billy Belly is only 11 this year, but he was a bit thin heading into fall so I moved him into Easy Breezy so he could get some extra food.  He's also loving the EB life ;-D.

Ewen McTeagle (11), Woolliam (10) and Allie (12) do still come out and graze at least a little bit.  Ewen can usually be talked into grazing in the yard for a few minutes after breakfast if I stand out there with him.  Allie likes to go out in the afternoons and Woolliam does a bit, but he's also quite happy to hang out indoors and eat hay and wait for the next Bingo game ;-).

Equinox Farm

Today is our 15th anniversary.  It doesn't seem like it's been that long.  And it seems like we've been here forever.  Now that I think about it, I haven't heard our farm referred to as the "Douglas place" or the "Singer place" in several years.  Usually now it's "the place with the sheep."  I guess we've become part of the history now.  Or the sheep have.

I found some old pictures Tim took from the early days, the day we first saw the farm and some of the early work we did.  I thought I'd share them here because they are fun to look at and try to put then and now together...and if the house ever burns down, they'll live on forever on the internet.  Worst Case Scenario reason #168 for blogging... 

From the road.

This is looking at the back of the barn.  Tim took this picture from what is now the back of the Del Boca Vista paddock.  I am standing near the gate to the arena.  The corgi is sweet Sophie and the collie is my beloved Sam.

Standing at the back corner of the barn, looking out to the road.  Tim is standing pretty close to where the Grahaminator2000 is now.

This is the barn lot.  The weeds on the left are now where the front corner of the Del Boca Vista fence is, the two gates that make the corner.  The sliding doors are the barn aisle.  Those doors now roll all the way to the right along with two more doors that cover the end openings for the inside and added on outside shed.   

Looking out towards the back.  I think that's basically where the curved alleyway goes down the hill to the left, heading to the middle paddocks.

The gate at the front corner of the horse side of the barn.  Now the fence curves down to the left, following the driveway.

Looking up from the road.

The old stripping room, now where the Wool House stands.  

The corn crib on the left is now the garage.

Looking at those two buildings from the yard.

View from the back corner.

Closer view of the big pond, now known as the skating pond :-).  Where Tim is standing is now all full of trees and undergrowth.  

The old cistern.  Now the home of the greenhouse.

I find this picture one of the most amazing.  I'd forgotten how you could see the neighbors across the sheep field.  The raised bed garden is the asparagus bed.  Punkin is buried underneath; Abby on the right side.

There were two round rock gardens, one on each end of this.  There were quite a few little gardens or landscapings scattered throughout the yard.  I wanted to consolidate and clean them up so we connected the two gardens here and it made a nice natural division from the yard to the orchard.  

I fought weeds in here for years though and finally this summer I'd had enough and we took it all out.  I'd hoped to transplant the bleeding heart, but I couldn't find it.  I should have dug it just after it bloomed this spring.  I'm hoping a piece will poke through the grass next spring.  I did get my favorite rose bush moved and so far it seems okay.

This must have been the next spring when they started fixing some eroded areas and sink holes we and had the riding arena enlarged.

I'm not exactly sure what this is.  I know the wet weather creek runs through there, but there isn't water anywhere else so maybe this is leftover from the spring fed pond that used to be out front.  

It had been filled in years before, but I believe it needed some work and they also put in a bridge to drive from one side of the creek to the other.  Cecil Aguilar later added the stone work to all the bridges and culverts.

This is looking out back towards the Frog Pond.  The guys doing the grading work wanted to just tear out the little pond.  I'm glad I fought to save it.  Not only is it pretty, it's also good habitat for birds , rabbits and frogs, monarch butterflies, sometimes muskrats and even a skunk family has lived in there.

The barn.  Tim tore out almost everything on the right hand side and put it the big sheep stall.  

And the rock.  Oh the rock.  

This is something else I barely remember.  We walked up and down the grass hill to get onto the porch.  There is a concrete sidewalk to the front door and I think the couple we bought the farm from were front door folks.  I primarily use the back door and it didn't take long for this to get messy.  The rock sidewalk was a huge improvement.

I think pretty much everything was a huge improvement.  We've let some shrubs overgrow that I wish I'd stayed on top of better.  The beautiful tidy porch...will never be the same, but it's a porch that is well used and well loved and I think it's happy even though I'm sure it would appreciate an overhaul.  I think the rest of the farm is happy, too.  

Happy Anniversary!  We're glad to be here.

*     *     *

And if you are still here, leave a comment telling us your favorite part of the farm and Sunday night I'll draw for a winner and send out a 2019 Equinox Farm calendar.  They are almost done and ready to print :-D.