Ellie Mae

Have I told you all about this sweet girl? Her name is Ellie Mae. She just turned 13 and I have had her since she was 6 weeks old. As most of you probably know my most recent birthday gift was pretty awesome. But this girl was my birthday gift years ago. I also got a pony for Christmas one year, but that is another story. Animals are clearly my love language. I joke that I have had Ellie longer than I have had Timothy, but it's true! She is aging gracefully don't you think? Aside from loss of most of her hearing and a bit of gray on her face you hardly know that she is a grandma dog. She can't get around quite as fast as one of her nicknames ' The Black Bullet' would imply, but in her younger years there was nothing that could catch her. She has chased off black bears. Stood between me and a mountain lion on a wilderness trail. While backpacking she will wake us up in the middle of the night to show us elk and moose. She loves my children. And has finally accepted that Timothy is part of the family. I just might have more memories that include this dog than anyone else and we all look forward to many more!

A Big, Big Announcement

Did you know that today is my birthday? And what else should a girl get for her birthday than her very own milk cow? Meet Penny. It might seem a bit odd, but I have dreamt of having my own milk cow since I was a little girl. I read and loved a lot of historical fiction books when I was young and think they influenced me a bit. But more than that, I think this lifestyle is in my blood. Not literally since no one else for many generations has been a farmer/rancher in my family, but I have it. And I have it bad. So on this post election day when many people are uncertain, I get to go outside and take pictures of my girl. I scratch her favorite spot and she sticks her big ol' nose in my face. Do you have any idea how good she smells? I am more content than I have ever been. And in all honesty this cow is going to give my family more security than any politician ever could. No matter what is going on outside of our farm we will have milk, butter and cheese. Not to mention the beef from her offspring. And let's not forget about the bacon! You may be thinking that I am crazy because cows don't make bacon, but you are wrong. Pigs thrive off of extra milk and whey. So if you are not sure how to proceed on this day after the election, consider going out and getting yourself a cow and making your community a better place. Or find yourself a husband who makes all your dreams come true. First, he got me geese and now a cow! And you know what? He loves her just as much as I do. Gosh, I love that man.

Roller Coaster Week

The big news around here is obviously the new sheep. We have never had sheep before and purchased three young ewes last week. They are all 5 months old. The two spotted face girls are twins. They are a cross between Suffolk (wool sheep) and Katahdin (hair sheep). If you care to know, their names are Willow and Daisy. Willow is the leader of the group and thankfully is very friendly and enjoys getting her belly scratched. If I can get Willow to do what I want then I can get the other two to do it to. But lets be honest, all I really need to get them to do right now is to come over and snuggle me. The third sheep is that cute little white one. Her name is Radish and she is as cute as a button and sounds like she has a frog in her throat when she goes Baaaaaa. Radish is a Barbados Katahdin cross. Those are both hair sheep. And in case you couldn't figure it out for yourselves hair sheep have hair and wool sheep have wool. Your welcome for that very scientific answer.

Along with the sheep there have been the usual projects going on. Start painting this or that and then stop half way through and work on something else.

I guess we did get our entire pasture fenced within the last few weeks. Neither of us have ever built a fence. We feel pretty good after accomplishing that. I will try to remember to get a picture of it for next time.

Saturday was our first big butcher day. And let it be known I hate butcher day. Really hate it. For two days I wasn't able to eat meat. We butchered 16 ducks and 4 chickens of our own. Plus, 2 chickens that a cousin brought over. He helped with all of them and we were very grateful. My job was catching all the birds. It was probably the most emotional job I could have had except for the actual killing. It really brought it home that I was the deciding factor of wether they live our die. We decided the catching would be my job since the animals are calmest with me since I am the person they see the most. There is a saying that farmers only want their animals to have one bad day, but we like to try and take it a little farther. We don't want our animals to know that it is going to be a bad day and we try to keep everything as calm and clean as possible. Which means, me doing the catching and Timothy doing the killing here in our backyard. As much as I hate butcher day I hate factory farming more. So at the expense of me crying over our chickens and ducks my family is fed and my animals had a great life.

All in all this past week has certainly had its ups and downs. But so it goes with this life.

Happy Monday friends.