Lady Sheep

A few days ago, we purchased 4 Kathadin ewes, (female sheep), from a local farmer. We got 3 ewe lambs, (born this past spring), and one proven ewe, which means she is about 3 years old and has already had a couple of seasons of lambing. Lord willing, we’ll have 4-8 more lambs this coming spring. Every year, we’re naming our new batch of sheep after a certain theme, chosen by Mum. This year it’s herbs. Being that there’s 4 girls and 4 new sheep. We each got to chose an herb name.

The sheep in our horse trailer.
The largest sheep, in the back of the picture is the 3 year old, who I named Cicely. The black one was named Tansy by Grace has the brown one with the dark legs was named Ginger by Faith, and the biggest brown one was named Jasmine by Abigail.

The boys hefting Cicely over the fence

Cicely meeting Churchill

Daniel carrying Tansy

Ginger and Jasmine

Daddy watching the sheep to see how they like there new home.

The front of the sheep shelter during construction

The rear of the shelter.

Lastly, here’s a random picture of Samuel. Just because he’s cute *smile*

~ Amy

Entrance Trimming

This morning, Daddy, Josh, and Daniel went up to The Ranch to trim the slopes on either side of the driveway entrance. They borrowed a friend’s string trimmer and cut approx. 35 feet on either side of the entrance.  They took down all the small brush and grass but left the small saplings that were about 15 feet apart. Those, Lord willing, will eventually grow to be full size trees.

Before trimming it looked like this:

(to the left)

(and to the right)

Daddy cutting (Yes, it was as hard as it looks!)

And afterwords it looked like this:

(to the left)

(and to the right)

~ Amy

Of Barbed Wire Fences

Hi! How is everyone today? I hope you are all enjoying getting a peek into what has been going on around here thru this blog!

The boys have been working on putting up a fence between ours and  the neighbor’s back pastures. They’re using field fencing, with a top strand of barbed wire, strung on T-posts and supported by H-bracing using Osage Orange posts, also known as Hedge wood. Osage Orange is an extremely dense wood that is naturally rot and pest resistant and should last for several decades.

The boys sprayed an orange streak every 12 feet to mark where the T-posts would need to go in.

Driving in the next T-post

Daniel wrapping the wire around a T-post (Note the orange spray paint beneath the pliers)

Josh with the next bundle of T-posts

Daddy driving a T-post

The finished line of T-posts

An H-brace (before the field fencing)

An H-brace after the field fencing

~ Amy

Views on Our Homestead

Cutting the fence for the driveway to go in

Digging the driveway

The driveway entrance

The house site

Breaking ground for the basement

An old two-room shack down the hill from the house

The front hillside (beside the driveway)

~ Amy