Merry Christmas

It's been a long time (again) since I posted and updated you all on life at Ridgeway Farm. I have been busy finishing up with college for the semester. I also got the very sad news the other night that my grandmother in England died. Finally I have been busy with Christmas preparations. My parents are flying out on the 28th of December, and we have been getting everything ready here for that.

Here is the Christmas card we took for 2009. Left to right is Fiona and Annabelle, Sandra and Binson, Ian and Jubjub, and me and Daisy Mae. Thank goodness it was her as I never would have been able to lug Jacquith through the snow.

We have a winter storm warning ready to hit tonight, hopefully I can make the best out of it and get some good pictures tomorrow of everyone in the snow. I broke up the breeding groups at the start of December and everyone has settled back into their groups and are doing very well. I am of course hoping for lots of ewe lambs this spring.

Here is my blast from the past for you to look at. Muppet wasn't my first horse. This is Jack my first horse. He was a 5 year old OTTB who I owned for just over a year.

As you can see Muppet followed along pretty quick.

I don't know what it is about grey horses lol. That's a lot of bathing.

That's all for today. I hope everyone is getting ready for the holiday's, only 6 days to go.

Catching up

It's been a weird sort of month so far. First of all thank you everyone for the condolences for Mighty Mouse. The following Sunday our son lost one of his guinea pigs which was very sad too, and ou yard now looks like the start of pet cemetery.

Then I attended Equine Affaire in Springfield with my friend Alex, it is a huge horse event and we had a blast shopping, watching a clinic and collecting freebies. The next day I had a medical conference in Boston which was also good and I got even more free things. My son (been a bad month for him) also had H1N1, but so far everyone else in the house is well. He is better now and back at school thankfully. Oh and somewhere in that week I had time to break a finger and hyperflex a thumb on the same hand lol. However life is finally getting back to normal and I am looking forward to catching up on all the blogs I follow. So here are some pictures for you all.

A glorious sunrise from the start of November.

Christina the very broody silkie.

The brown breeding group of Sunnys. For some reason they all grouped into the shade.

Cammie looking like she is about the burst out of her sheep coat.

Sabrina taking in the sun.

Jacqui also enjoying the rare sunshine.

And the best picture I could get of Jewel who is sad not to be in a breeding group, and now insists on trying to be a close as possible to me.

Thanks again for your patience, I will try and update sometime soon. My daughters birthday party is the weekend and I have too bake a cake tomorrow for it before I take her to see "New Moon'.

Sad note

Mighty Mouse died today. It was very sudden and we don't know why. He played most of yesterday running around the outside of his wheel (which was what he liked) and was so much fun to watch. Anyway we buried him in our yard with a small bowel of food and the socks he liked to sleep inside.

Hopefully happier news soon.

A little bit of everything almost.

Today was very nice here at Ridgeway Farm, although I actually spent a lot of it at Muppet's barn clipping him. No pictures of that as I haven't done it before really and it didn't look great lol. Poor guy has to wait for his hair to grow in. Anyway I did take random pictures around the farm.

Here's a before

and after shot.

This is what I spent my Sunday doing. I still need to finish off the white trim but I think it looks quite nice. I have also insulated the inside so it looks like a shiny silver rocket lol.

My Grey's Anatomy inspired silkies Meredith,

Izzie,

and Christina are looking all grown up and are laying little pink/creamy eggs.

Jaquith is wearing the latest fall fashion accessory. Hay. All the sheep are predicted to be wearing it this winter. You read it here first.

Daisy Mae got weighed in today at 30lbs! That's a weight gain of 2lbs in the last 2 weeks. Very nice progress and she does look much better.

In non-farm news my mum back in England is getting a new puppy who was born on Sunday morning. Her name is Martha and she's one of the little bundles of joy below.

Phew I'm pictured out!

A wee nip in the air

Yesterday and today saw us waking up to quite the frost here in Massachusetts (they even say it might snow this weekend). I didn't have time for pictures yesterday but here's todays snaps.

Still waiting for the sun to rise more at 7am.

Frosty mums.

Dreamer's thinking today might be the day lol. I am not sure Amelia is convinced yet.

Daisy Mae is enjoying her morning snack. I am letting her eat grain and hay in the barn with me in the mornings while I muck out. She's increased her body weight by 17+% and is growing nicely.

Jaqui is looking really good in her coat. She actually went up a size last week, I wish I'd gotten pictures of her fleece. It is so soft.

Well that's all for now. I did get some pictures of the other group but they all came out looking a little possessed with the flash or something lol. I'm off to Provincetown on the Cape for the weekend after my midterm tomorrow. I might try to find a sweater for Binson my Jack Russell, she is really feeling the cold this year and it's only October.

Stay warm everyone.

Cats and mice...well mouse technically

Here's the long awaited update for Might Mouse. He's doing great and eating solid food. He has more than doubled in size and only gets a small handwarmer at nighttime now. Here he is with one of his favorite foods, a raisin.

He's still pretty tiny and not heavy enough to move his wheel or ball around yet, we're not sure how much bigger he is going to get.

Obviously the house cats Puff (ginger) and Spuckie (grey) are not overly stressed about a mouse being in their house though :)

The breeding groups are going very well. Everyone seems very content with each other and the boys are still behaving nicely still. I need to go out and buy pumpkins for everyone soon. I hope everyone else is enjoying this very nice Fall.

Let the fun begin

The leaves are changing here at Ridgeway Farm, which means breeding season is upon us. On Saturday I put all of the sheep in their groups. The weather was horrible, so there weren't many picture opportunities.

Group 1 is Dreamer with Amelia. She had 2 lovely black lambs last year and was a wonderful mom.

Group 2 is Sunny with Sabrina, Gypsy and Cammie. Sunny has more because I loved the lambs from Sabrina and Gyspy with him last year, and breeding Cammie to him just makes good sense.

I'm very excited to see what lambs are produced this year. Last year we had a wonderful group of lambs, and so my hopes are high.

Jewel says "I seem to have been overlooked."

Yes, Jewel has a year off (I hope lol) and so is playing baby sitter to Jaqui

and Daisy Mae. Neither one is old enough to breed this year. Daisy Mae has gained 17% of her body weight in 7 weeks and is doing great, as you can see she is a bit of a loner.

Here's wishing all of my sheepy friends a successful breeding season :)

Vegetables, fruit, and eggs

Well it's that time in the year when all the fall fruit is ready on the trees. Our pear tree is overflowing this year. None of the fruit will win a medal for beauty, but the taste is wonderful.

This was our first ever pumpkin. 

The spaghetti squash was quite the over-achiever this year with it's harvest. This is half of them. The sheep have already eaten a lot.

The bell pepper plant on the deck gave us 2 peppers that are ready to be picked. 

And here is a sample of the egg variety we are having. From left to right we have the mammoth egg by the mystery layer, pale green, pale pink and pale blue are the easter eggers, Rosalie's brown egg is next and finally we think this might be Annabelle's first egg as it seems to be bantam sized. We are still waiting for the silkies to get laying :) I believe their eggs are a creamy color.

Fall has arrived here and I am starting to look at breeding groups for the sheep in the next week. Let the fun begin.

Our newest house guest

On Saturday my partner asked me if I saw the mouse that one of our barn cats Miss Kitty had killed that morning. There was a tiny baby beside it. We didn't think the baby was alive at first. It was very cold and barely breathing. She put it in the sun with some hay to warm up while we mucked out and I think we both expected to find it dead when we had finished. But no he's a fighter (we think he's a he lol). 

So inside he came to get warmed up. He drank pedialyte for a day before starting on soy milk baby formula. He needs to drink from a piece of rag as everything else is too big for him.

He weighs less than an ounce. And for now he goes by the name Mighty Mouse. I'm happy to say he is doing very well...even if he does get his formula all over himself. His eyes are even beginning to open.

I guess we need to buy him a little cage with a wheel :) Hopefully he continues to be healthy and grow strong.

Finally sheep

I know I promised a sheep post a week or more ago but life went rather busy on me. Anyway it is a lovely day today, so I spent some time with the girls' in one of the small paddocks as the boys' enjoyed the pasture. 

Can you spot the sheep?

There she is.

This paddock needs mowing as the weeds are taking over the grass. Not that Sabrina is complaining.

Or Jewel.

Or any of the other girls' for that matter.

All of the girls' are doing great. I need to change a few coats for the next size up. I'd also like to get hooves trimmed this month. It's not long before I start breeding groups, which is always a fun time (trying to keep girls' away if they are not breeding). Oh and don't tell the sheep, but we have our first easter egger eggs this week. Aren't they pretty? Rosalie is still laying about 6 eggs a week too.

Have a great weekend everyone :)

Busy weekend

I apologize in advance for another chicken post. I promise the next one will be sheep related. Our labor day weekend was spent building a chicken pen that can be moved onto a fresh area of grass every day. 

It's 8ft by 8ft and the girls' seemed to really like it.

They already have the hang of waiting by the coop and pen door and then running to the new pen for their grass.  Annabelle has to be carried over, but she/he? still moves around just fine, and isn't getting picked on.

Rosalie is still our only egg layer so far and has given us 5 eggs in 6 days. I'm sure the others will start this month now they are 5 months old.

The cats like the pen too and are really enjoying 'chick TV' :) This is Sugar our abandoned barn cat. She's a sweetheart, hence the name.

Anyway that's all for today. I have college now and won't get to be home until it is dark. It's going to be a long day. I hope everyone had a great weekend.