Wednesday, May 16, 2012

May 16, 2012

Mothers Day bouquet from my son Ryan, Julie, Lily and Kaitlin. Another beautiful day for us here in Colorado. The iris's are in full bloom. Here is a picture of me holding my 3 week old bottle baby Tiny Tim. When I am out and about on the farm, this little guy is my constant ompanion/shadow!
It was so nice, I decided to get caught up on some of my painting of feeders and out buildings, with red paint. Now, one of the goats decided to help out, can you tell which one? Luckily, the paint is made for livestock and non-toxic.
No, not war paint, just Dosedo trying to help out.
The Katahdin sheep are almost finished with their shedding. Someone said I should have kept the fleece for felting, I will have to remember that for next year.
This is Kipcha on the left, and you can see Lucy on the right. Lucy still has a patch of fleece that has not loosened up, still attached to her back. It is so nice not to have to hire someone to do shearing, just let nature take care of it.
More later.............................................................

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Welcome Stranger??????

We were out doing chores early in the morning which is our usual routine, when we were visited by this beautiful peacock. It actually belongs to our neighbor across the street. He is more of a "gentleman" farmer, and sleeps in, coming out to feed his cows and poultry after 9am. Well this bird saw us feeding ours, and thought that he would come and get his fill also.
Here he is after the livestock guard dogs spotted him. On top of the hay barn. One thing about peacocks, they can run like the wind, but not faster than a dog, so he took to flight, clumsy with his long tail. My dogs will usually chase hawks off our property as they fly overhead. Just doing what good dogs are bred to do. On top of the horse trailer.
Since I already had my camera out, I have decided to share some of our spring flowers that are blooming. These were gifted to me by my friend Linda. (Linda, the trumpets are starting to grow!)Purple Iris.
Peach colored Iris.
Wild Geranium.
Blogger. Well my blogger has changed the format to write blogs. I am having a hard time with it. Can't find spell check, when I put my writing in paragraph form, or put two spaces behind periods, the blogger does not do this for me. So bear with me for awhile as I figure this out. Takes longer to teach an old dog new formats I guess.
WEll, it is 52 degrees out with a predicted high of 60 for today. Not the 80+ degree record breakers we have had for the past days with gale force drying winds. Time to go out and do some painting on the sheds that have been waiting to be painted since last year. It seems to be always too, too hot, too cold, too windy etc. But no excuses for today. More latter...........................................................................

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

New babies, two and four legged!

There is a story to this signage. I made this out of recycled cedar fence and lattice. I am also making wind breaks for the chickens and turkeys, with three sections, and am in the process of priming and painting these. With the left over, I hope to have enough to make a decorative, protective fence around the air conditioner. Folks always drive by our place slowly and crane their necks to see what the Radi's are up to, especially when they see the Katahdins out in the front pasture with the long tails. Did you know, one way to tell a goat from a sheep is that a goat carries its tail up, and a sheep down, if they have tails anyway. Well, now they know what kind of animals we have back there. This sign faces the road in front of our house. I also painted something on the back of it, it will be a surprise at the end of my post. BABIES May Day, May Day! Boy did April fly by for us. Seems like only yesterday it was Easter. We have been very busy of late. Starting with the birth of our 3RD grandchild on April 24TH. Mom and baby are doing great, she is named Kaitlin Victoria Radi. Here is a picture of me holding my new grandbaby at the hospital.
Of course Lily does not know what to think of this new little arrival who is getting too much of her attention! Grandpa even likes holding her!
FOUR LEGGED BIRTHS We are all done lambing for the season. We ended up with 2 ewe lambs and 1 ram lamb out of our registered Katahdins. Kipcha was the only ewe who had birthing problems, her baby was huge and breech to boot. I did get it out, and it was quite trumatic for mom and baby. But we saved the both of them. The little ram lamb laid like a frog for two days, and could not get up. Then miraculously he ran and met me at the gate one morning for his bottle. I had stated bottle feeding him, and had tried to get him back on his moma, but due to the wild nature of the Katahdins, was unable to. So now I have a bottle baby. I call him Tiny Tim, since he had the back leg problems when he was born.
We finished the shelter covering the sheep feeders, just have to paint the wood. With the price of hay these days, we want to protect all that we can. The animals also enjoy the shade when the sun is stright up in the sky.
BOOK CLUB Those who are following my reads for book club, the books chosen this month are: My Antonia by Willa Cather(a free download on Kindle. This book was great!) Lone Wolf by Jodie Picoult. The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice(I am listening to this as audiobook, I did not want to waste my time reading it, since it is about a "Man Wolf" but I am half way through it and I am liking this book) If these books don't have me howling at the moon, I don't know what will. SEWING ROOM Unfortunately, only the placemats were finished in the sewing room this month. And I don't know of anyone else who is pregnant and expecting a baby. I do have 3 blocks to be done next month for quilt club. Oh, but wait, I did do another block, but not in the sewing room, it was out in the great outdoors! Surprise!
So that is what folks see when they leave our place. More later.........................................................