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.

What eggcellent surprise

Yeah it's a cheesy title I know. But today we got our first egg! 

It is small but perfectly formed, and great for a first attempt. My powers of deduction lead me to believe that it is from Rosalie our Buff Orpington.

I know what I am having for lunch today :)

What a nice day

The weather is lovely here in Massachusetts today. Not hot or humid, and not cold or rainy. If I was Goldilocks I would think it was just right. The geese are migrating, and in the evening they fly over the house calling each other.

The chickens run to the front of their pen every morning (or time I walk past) to see what I will drop in for them.

Miss Kitty (one of the barn cats) caught me a mouse today and then sat in the shade after she had eaten it...she was kind enough to leave the head on the barn floor. 

The sheep are happy enjoying the grass. After all the rain we had last month everything sort of exploded and grew. Amelia is mid-ear wag.

Daisy Mae is doing well and growing. She still feels thin but is getting better.

Jacqui is also growing very well, and has settled in great.

I don't have pictures but I have been riding again. I had my third ride back today and worked on getting Muppet in front of my leg. So far he has been super, and we are both having a good time getting back into work. Unfortunately college starts back on Friday so my summer vacation is over. I hope everyone had a great summer though.

Bolton fair report

Wow what a weekend!

The Bolton fair went from Thursday to Sunday this year, a new 4 day idea. I had to be there Saturday, and Sunday with my sheep staying overnight. Saturday I was by myself and that was the main Shetland show day and featured breed demonstration. Sunday was other breeds and the best in show classes.

On Saturday I loaded up Sunny, Cammie, Jacqui, and Daisy Mae (who was just going to watch), and drove the 20 minutes to the fairgrounds. I managed to get 2 pens that were in the shade, although the temperatures were in the high 80's and low 90's both days, and settled everyone in. I met fellow competitors and sheep fans, and found out the breed featured class was at 1pm with the show classes taking place after that. 

There were over 50 Shetlands at the show which was really great. The breed feature went really well, there were 6 or 7 breeders (myself included) and we all did a part of the talk. We covered breed history, conformation, colors and markings. I talked about conformation, and we had several sheep in the ring that people could come up and feel so they understood what to look for. We managed to represent 11 of the colors and quite a few markings. People really seemed to enjoy the chance to pet our sheep. I was so impressed with how the sheep behaved as they were in and out of the ring for much of the hour. Sunny still managed to wag his tail everytime he was petted. I think serious consideration should be given to a Shetland with the waggiest tail class lol!

After the demonstration/featured class, the actual show began. There was a large yearling ram class which I am proud to say Sunny won. We did not win champion ram, but I was happy to win the yearling ram class with him. 

Then Cammie was in a huge yearling ewe class of maybe 16 other sheep which she won, she then went on to win Champion ewe. 

Jacqui placed a very respectable 3rd in another large junior ewe lamb class, the judge said she liked her fleece a lot but also said that white does not do as well against the colors. I was still very happy with her and think she will do well next year. 

Outside of the ring I had managed to get Gypsy's  fleece skirted for the wool show. I entered natural color and won. The fleece also went on to win best in show. Wow. 

Sunday started hot. The sheep all got admired throughout the day. I encouraged young children to pet the sheep and feel Sunny's horns, and give out the occasional animal cracker. He was such a good boy and always had a little wag of his tail. Daisy Mae spent the weekend with her head in the hay bag lol, but did get admired a lot in the featured breed class where she showed off her flecket markings. 

Cammie competed in best in show but did not win. It is hard for shetlands to compete against meat breeds, but I think the judging over the 2 days I was there was very good, and the shetland judge on Saturday was excellent.

Overall it was an amazing weekend. I met some really nice people. Got helped a lot on Saturday by some great 4H er's and really couldn't be happier. Below is a picture of what I bought home from Bolton. It's actually missing the best in show fleece rosette (I couldn't find it Sunday). Still I think it's impressive. Nadine (at Painted Knoll) you can be proud too as you bred them :)

Now I need to unpack everything and relax. Thank goodness it is Monday lol.