Happy Thanksgiving

We've been busy around here getting ready for Thanksgiving. The turkeys were processed yesterday and they weighed 12 and 10 1/2 pounds which was pretty good for being only 12 weeks old. The rams are in their breeding pens and the girls have adjusted to being in their company. Boggart, shown here with Elsa, did not like his ewe lambs, so they went to Bombarde instead. Bombarde now has six ewe lambs. Boggart had 4 ewes left, but now has 7 ewes. Donder's ewes have been added to Boggart's group after Donder broke a basement window last week. He was actually squeezing out under the chain link fence - amazing because he's a bit of a chunk these days. It wasn't so bad to have him grazing the backyard -- until he saw his reflection in the basement window and decided to bash it....

The kittens are four weeks old already but I don't have any current photos and my batteries are dead. We lost the calico kitten a couple weeks ago. The photos show them at two weeks and then at three weeks. Mama kitty didn't care for them crawling all over, so she moved them down to the basement in a corner contained by the base of a floor fan. It was so cold down there that we moved them back upstairs and I'll get more photos soon. They are very mobile and very cute. I'm trying to introduce kitten chow now. They will be ready for their new homes in about 2-4 weeks. Anyone interested, please let me know. I can only imagine how they will react to the Christmas tree!

The Pole Barn is Finally Repaired

Stan finally finished repairing the pole shed. It's so nice to have it enclosed again! It felt like a big open wound everytime I drove by and saw it burned and wide open on one end. Even though you can still see the tell-tale signs of the fire from the outside, and it's eight feet shorter than before, it looks SO much better and we can close it up again.

I'm really proud of Stan for getting it done. It was a LOT work and he did almost all of it himself. He had help with placing the new posts and installing new trusses, but he did the rest of it pretty much on his own. I offered to help and I didn't like the idea of him up on that roof all by himself, but he prefers to do things like that himself.

So today Stan is off deer hunting and I went out shopping at the area craft sales. Tomorrow four of our rams go in their breeding groups. They are definitely READY. I hope the girls don't get too stressed, but it's all in the hope of some fabulous lambs for spring.

The kittens have finally gotten their eyes open. I'll take photos and post them tomorrow. What a bunch of cuties they are! Poor mama cat has her paws full with seven babies to care for.

Meet some of our rams

What a beautiful day we had today! With breeding season just around the corner, I've been planning my breeding groups and the necessary pens. Here are a few shots of some of our rams.

Minwawe Donder, Black yuglet/sokket who did an excellent job as our flock sire last year. He carries moorit and will get three mature ewes. (Notice how big the turkey poult is getting too!)

Here's a shot of River Oaks Isaac and Ace taken a few weeks ago. Isaac is a solid black ram lamb with fabulously soft fleece. Notice the wool on his poll and cheeks and the great little tail he has. Ace is the moorit yuglet ram lamb with a turkey on his back. Since this photo was taken a few weeks ago, you can see the turkeys were much smaller then.



This is Sheltering Pines Bombarde, a fawn katmoget, F2 Roban Dillon with excellent conformation and super crimpy fleece. He's RR AA will get four ewe lambs...

And here's Beechtree Dougal, our Bluefaced Leicester ram lamb will get three ewes, one BFL and two Shetlands.

And this is Windswept Boggart, a mioget with fantastic horns and a beautiful dual coat. He was 1st place Ram Lamb at Michigan Fiber Festival in August. He will get 4 ewes and two ewe lambs. We're hoping to get more modified colors, longer fleeces and perhaps some spots from him.

Kittens, kittens and more kittens!

Well the excitement just didn't stop around here this week. After shmoozing with Al Franken on Sunday night, our recently adopted cat delivered SEVEN kittens on Monday night. So suddenly we're up to eight cats in the house. The kittens are so very cute and tiny. They're all different colors -- two tiger striped, one black, one orange, one calico, one black and white and one gray and white. Not sure on the sexes yet....They will be ready for adoption in time for Christmas gift giving, so if anyone is interested, please let me know...of course they are FREE to good homes.

I wanted to get a photo of the mama kitty before she delivered and we made her a little cat bed, but she picked out a spot in our luggage set at the back of the closet. I was spinning away on Monday evening when I heard a faint squeaking noise. Ozzie, our Aussie and I followed the noise only to find a purring mother cat and 5 kittens already born. That was plenty in my opinion, but by the next morning we found two more for a total of seven. The mama kitty just purrs constantly with her babies in there. We have to use a flashlight to see them. We tried moving them out into the cat bed, but she would have nothing of that and carried them back into the suitcase.

Heritage Crafts and Politics

What a great weekend!
Last night my friend Denise, her daughter, Lily and I attended a fundraiser in Pine City for Democratic candidate Tim Faust. He's running for the MN house. It was a fun evening. Democratic state senate candidate Tony Lourey and his mother, Becky Lourey who currently holds that office, were there and they were very personable.
Al Franken was there and he was fantastic. I love the way he mixes humor and politics - his speech was great. He was mixing with the crowd and seemed very interested in all the people that attended. I loved all the speeches and how personable all the candidates were. I encourage everyone to get out and vote in the upcoming election. Every vote counts!
On Saturday I took a class at the Kanabec History Center and learned to do "countered twining" rug weaving. Using fabric cut into stips and a simple loom, you can make beautiful durable rugs that will last for decades. These rugs look like they are braided, but they aren't. I was surprised at how heavy they were. I wish I had a photo to show you, but I'll have to wait until I get one made -- I didn't bring the camera to class.
Stan worked on repairing the pole barn even though it was so cold and windy over there. He got the roof done (except for the peak) and started on the walls. We now have cattle grazing the pasture, about 30+ head. It's so nice to see them out there making use of the nice grass that grew in after the fire cleared it this summer.
Oh, and Saturday night we were guests for a delicious spaghetti and lasagna dinner at our friends, Dick and Kate's. Kate is an excellent cook and a truly creative person. She has a wonderful old spinning wheel dated 1899 that she got from her grandmother. I wished I had brought some string along so we could have gotten that wheel going. It looks to be in excellent condition with all the parts...

Fall is here...some photos

Our kitty is getting bigger every day. I think the kittens are due around October 22nd.

We had our first snowfall this morning, here's a shot of the deck and my poor petunia.




Yesterday was nicer, I took this shot of Donder with one of the three remaining turkeys. Those turkeys are the coolest things! The rams don't seem to mind at all having the turkeys roost on their backs. Yes, I do watch for turkey droppings in their wool, only once did I find some. You can see in this photo that Donder is holding his head back for the turkey to pick VM out of the wool on his head. And you can also see that Donder has filled out and looks like he's about to drop twins himself. I hope he's not too heavy for breeding this fall.


Here's a shot of our oldest ewe, Bramble Gillian. She's 9 years old and has such an inquisitive look about her. She's a moorit ewe, but I've noticed a small white spot on her nose this fall. Her 4 year old daughter Diana, also a moorit, has a matching one. Interesting...

Thinking Ahead to the Holidays...

Here's a shot of our newest additions with Ivan and Angus, they are turkey poults from the Minnesota State Fair Miracle of Birth Center. My friend Denise's daughter worked there five days and was awarded with several babies to take home afterward. When Denise stopped by my house Tuesday night looking for chick feed, I told her I was desparately in need of newly hatched chicks for my broody hen. (I don't keep a rooster so my poor broodies set on empties unless I buy them some fertile eggs.)
Denise and I decided that I should take the turkey poults and see if the hen would accept them. They were already 5 or 6 days old and picking at the smaller chicks.
I picked them up the next morning. When I got them home ,they were sleeping pretty hard and the hen happened to off the nest eating. They stayed quiet and sleepy when I put them in the nest with a few eggs. Then I chased the hen back in. It was so cute, one of the poults started peeping when she came in and she looked and looked in her nest at the peeping stranger. Then she hopped in an adjacent nest and settled herself over those eggs. So I put the peeping poult under her wing. That went well , so I popped another one in and another and another. They were quiet as mice and poked their heads out of her feathers. I wish I had the camera then! After a few hours I moved the new family into a dog kennel on the floor and all has been well since. The hen kept her new babies in that kennel for three days before taking them out into the big, beautiful world. That's when we realized that they are imprinted on humans and have a tendency to follow us as we do our chores. They also love being near the rams, much to their mother's chagrin. Fortunately, the rams are curious about them and none have been hurt yet.
Our kitty may be their biggest threat. But so far she's been good.
If all goes well, Denise and I will each have two turkeys for our families in time for the holidays. Just so we don't get too attached to them in the meantime...