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.