Baby animals

Here's a few photos of some of the babies around our farm...

                     
                        I had to help this duckling out of the egg, and it was cold at first
                        so it had to stay in the oven for a little while.
                                It's doing fine now though.

One of Inez's puppies.  They always look like fat rats when they're born.

"Sailing, sailing, in the little tin tub..."

Abandon ship!

WE HAVE PUPPIES!!!

Last Sunday, the 13th, Inez had four puppies!  Of course, she had them on the very day that Savana predicted.  She is a Great Pyrenees, and the sire of the pups is our neighbors' Chocolate Lab.  There are two white, and two black.  Both the whites are males, and one of the blacks is a female.  They are all healthy, and very fat.  Their eyes haven't opened yet, but should sometime this week.  This is our first time ever having puppies around here, so everyone is enjoying them immensely.
     Here are a few photos... Enjoy!

The first three pups...

At two days...

These little guys sometimes look like piglets (and they can squeal like them too!)

At five days...

Balloo, the biggest puppy.

Our sweet Inez

Ferdinand and his puddle ducks invade the stall where Inez has her family for the sake of the food in her dish.

Shearing Winnie the Ewe

As some of you may know, I was given a ewe lamb last year.  She had been sheared a short time before being given to me, but her wool, after growing all summer, fall and winter, was about 3" or 4" long, and she was getting very hot.  So, last week, with Farrah's assistance, I set about shearing her.  On Wednesday we washed her so that the wool wouldn't be quite so dirty.  Of course, she disliked washing, so it was definitely a two person job...

     After the washing came the shearing.  Since we didn't have proper electric shears, we simply used a pair of sharp scissors.  Also, this was our first time.  We had never even seen anyone shear a sheep before, so it was entirely new to us.  Of course, we had read a fair amount about sheep shearing.  Farrah held Winnie's head while I used the scissors.

Before shearing...

After about fifteen minutes of work...

The fleece is supposed to stay together in one piece, but I pulled on it rather too hard, so it pulled apart a bit.

Half- way through.

Finished!!!

    We ended up with about 2 1/2 pounds of wool- enough to fill a pillowcase.  We would have gotten more, but since we were so inexperienced I had to "double cut", and thus wasted some of the wool.  I'm hoping to wash it thoroughly, spin it into yarn with the drop spindle method, and then dye it and use it for knitting and crocheting.
     Hope you enjoyed hearing about this experience of ours!

Spring at the farm

Well, I know it's been a while since I've posted on here, but we've been really busy.  It is definitely spring here at the Feldman farm, and spring means that we will be busy.  There's been a garden to plant, an orchard to be put in, mites on the chickens, a sheep to shear (by hand, with scissors!) and also the usual animal care.  I've also found time to build an incubator, order chicks, and even do some fishing.  Hopefully we'll be getting a trotline out on the lake soon, so can utilize some of the natural resources there.  Daddy is planning to build a new porch onto the front of the house, which means that all the plants and trees need to be moved to new locations, so yesterday it looked like we were playing musical plants.  Evan also built a large cage on the girls' room window for our two cockatiels, Captain and Papageno.
    So that's pretty much what's been going on at our house.  I have an update from the Schmidts in Haiti.  They are continuing to build a relationship with Pastor Antoine, and are already moving their buildings out of the front yard to Pierre Payen.  Here is the link to their most recent newsletter.  SCH March NewsletterThis page on the Harvest Int. website has the newsletter from a different orphanage on it as well, so you'll have to scroll down the page to see the one from the Schmidts.  Thank you for all your prayers.  Please continue to pray for them.