Ewes & Lambs

The delivery of our sheep went great. Three ewes had 2 babies each a little over a week ago.  The 4th ewe had her babies just the day before they arrived.  Since these lambs are so tiny, we have them and mama in the barn in a stall to keep them out of the direct weather and for some added protection. They'll join the rest of the gang pretty soon.

The others are out on the front pasture in a temporary enclosure.  Dan has electric netting on the way so he can give them a permanent home.

 Everyone seems to be adjusting to their new home well so far.  We ran to the feed store to get them some grains as a treat and a mineral block for them to lick on.  They devoured their treats.  Maybe this will make them more comfortable around us sooner?

All of the mama's are very protective of their babies.  When we come a little closer than they'd like, they start pushing their babies behind them.  It's amazing that mama's of all species have this same instinct.

Sheep coming.......

We have a small flock of sheep being delivered in about an hour.  Four mama's and 8 babies, 2 of which were just born yesterday!

Pictures to come.........

First mow

Dan was outside enjoying the nice weather and tackling the first mow of the season.  Good thing he likes mowing because we have a lot of yard and a long season to go.

Sock monkeys are funny

Samuel's favorite crib toy is a giant sock monkey.  After his naps, he'll lay in his crib for up to an hour sometimes happily playing with sock monkey.  After this particular nap, he was in an exceptionally good mood - chewing on sock monkey's tail and playing with the slats of his crib with his feet.  Life is good.

Burnin'

A good portion of Dan's time is spent tending to pasture. Fixing fences in pastures, mowing pastures, removing logs, rocks and stumps from pastures. The previous owners only had a couple of horses and didn't use most of the pasture for grazing, so it needs an extreme cleanup. Dan has been removing rocks and stumps so he doesn't have any obstacles while brush-hogging the gazillion red cedars and thorn bushes (mostly blackberry and multi-flora rose). And he's been cutting scrappy trees and making large burn piles - about 40 of them all over the property. The problem is that we had such a wet winter, the wood is just now dry enough to burn. Which is what we did Saturday morning. Here you can see a couple piles burning and many more in the background ready to be lit.

Dan lit about 8 piles on fire and with a hoe managed the edges so our whole pasture didn't catch fire. Ideally you want it to spread a little... burning off the old growth is a great way to let spring grasses come in. You just have to be careful that you don't start more than you can handle in the event the wind picks up.



This shot was taken from the pasture looking up towards the house. It's not really as close to the house as it looks.




Here's one of our pastures that is finally greening up. It doesn't have anything to do with burnin' at all. Isn't it pretty though?




One hot stump. If you look close, you can see flames deep in the stump and some cool looking smoke rolling out.

Burnin'

A good portion of Dan's time is spent tending to pasture.  Fixing fences in pastures, mowing pastures, removing logs, rocks and stumps from pastures.  The previous owners only had a couple of horses and didn't use most of the pasture for grazing, so it needs to be tidied up.  Dan has been removing rocks and stumps so he doesn't have any obstacles while brush-hogging.  And he's been cutting scrappy trees and making large burn piles - about 40 of them all over the property.  The problem is that we had such a wet winter, the wood is just now dry enough to burn. Which is what we did Saturday morning. 



Dan lit about 8 piles on fire and with a hoe managed the edges so our whole pasture won't catch fire.  Ideally you want it to spread a little... burning off the old grow is a great way to let spring grasses come in.  You just have to be carefully that you don't start more than you can handle in the even the wind picks up. 

Homemade ranch dressing/dip

Ranch Dressing / Dip

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mayonnaise 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 cup buttermilk 1 teaspoon dried chives 1 teaspoon dried parsley 1 teaspoon dried dill weed

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon onion powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions:

In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.  It will look thin right after making, but will thicken up in refrigerator.

***For a thick dip, simply leave out the ½ cup of buttermilk***

TIP: If you don’t have buttermilk, put 1 ½ teaspoons of white vinegar in ½ cup of milk, stir and let sit for 5 minutes.  Viola… you have buttermilk.  If you don’t have vinegar to make buttermilk, you can make the dressing with plain milk.  It will be good, but will be missing its familiar tang.

Crib video

From the living room I could hear Samuel playing with the camera on his crib again. I grabbed my camera and shot this quick video of him in action...

4 and 1000 blackbirds sitting in a tree

I had WAY too many blackbirds to bake in a pie, so I had to rename the nursery rhyme.  This morning the weather started to get dark, clouds started rolling in and the wind picked up.  Right about that time, about a thousand blackbirds landed in the back yard.  Samuel was eating breakfast and stopped mid-bite to stare at the birds fluttering around outside.  After dining from our bird feeder, they all swarmed up into the trees like a giant school of fish......

First teething biscuit

Hmm, what is this?  I'll just give it a taste.

Oh yeah, I like it all right!

Hey, where'd my cookie go?!?

Do I have something on my face?

Uh, Mama, can I have another cookie, please?

Spring chicks

We just received our first batch of spring chicks - 150 of them to be exact. On Thursday Dan got the brooder house ready for them... put in a fresh layer of sawdust, got their warming hovers in place, and food and water ready. Friday morning the post office called bright an early to say they had arrived. After Samuel and I picked them up, I got them settled into their new home. Here are some pictures of their arrival...

This is how 150 chicks are packaged to go through the US Postal Service.

Here we are!  75 chicks per box.

Awe... aint I cute?

In our new home.  Learning to eat and drink in only a few minutes.

Chillaxin'

That's chilling and relaxing for you non-slang talkers.  I am, in general, not fond of slang, but I kind of like this one.  Samuel decided to take a break from playing to lean back and chillax.

Workin' hard

First of all, excuse my sloppy appearance.  And my sloppy desk.  Working from home does that to you sometimes.  Notice the coffee mug though... that is very important to my day.

Samuel likes to sit with me and play while I work.  And reach for whatever he can get his little hands on.  And type gibberish instant messages to my co-workers and press 'enter' before I can stop him.  He hardly ever just lays his head down to rest... he's constantly scanning his surroundings like an eagle.  But every once in a while he snuggles up out of the blue and decides a nap sounds really good...

Daddy was also working from home this day, so he was able to catch this rare event.

Slow Cooker Asian Pork Chops

Ingredients

• 6 pork chops
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place pork chops in slow cooker. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over pork chops.
2. Cook on Low setting for 6 hours, until internal temperature of pork has reached 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).

Slow Cooker Asian Pork Chops

Ingredients

• 6 pork chops
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place pork chops in slow cooker. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over pork chops.
2. Cook on Low setting for 6 hours, until internal temperature of pork has reached 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).

Recipes... coming soon!

Yesterday a friend suggested that I start posting recipes on our blog.  I love the idea of sharing recipes and since we cook and bake so much from scratch, I certainly have a lot of recipes to share.  So, I'll begin with the first installment today!

Oh my, what big teeth you have

Samuel would like to show you his two chompers.  This picture was taken at the beginning of the month, right after the second tooth came in.  He's slobbery again, so we think #3 might be coming in.  Or he just likes slobbering, which is entirely possible.

Who you lookin' at?

Samuel's discovered the camera mounted at the end of his crib and is intrigued by it...

Missouri weather

Here is a taste of our late winter and first week of spring weather:

3/14 - last week of winter - unexpected ice storm.  Sigh.
3/23 - first week of spring - sunny and 80 degrees.  Hallelujah!
3/26 - still the first week of spring - 30 degrees, sleet and snow.  Double sigh.

I think I'm going to move to the south now...


way south...



like the Caribbean.

6-month checkup

Samuel had his 6-month checkup yesterday on his half-year birthday.  Here are his current stats:

Weight: 18lb, 7oz - 50th percentile
Height: 26.5in - 50th percentile
Head circumference: 43.6cm - 50th percentile.  This is the biggest change.  Apparently he was born with a small head b/c up until this visit he was in the 10th percentile. Hopefully his head is only bigger in size and not in ego.  :)
Teeth: 2

The doctor was happy with all of his developmental milestones and was super-impressed that he takes 3 two-hour naps AND sleeps from 10pm-7:30am every night.

The office manager came in to have me sign something and the nurse came in to give him his booster shots. Both were commenting on how pretty his eyes were and how handsome he is.  He had to get 4 shots and the nurse was very apologetic before she even began.  On the first shot, he let out only a little whimper.  Nothing on the 2nd.  The 3rd he was actually smiling at the nurse.  On the fourth shot, he let out a single, 2-second cry then stopped when I kissed his cheek.  The nurse then stood there in awe.  She said she had never seen a baby take shots so well.  The office manager came back in to give me some papers - the nurse grabbed her and said, "Look at him... he didn't even cry when I gave him his shots.  I think this might be the best baby ever".

Mommy's ego was a little BIG after our visit.  :(