Lambs and calves

Spring is speeding by at the moment, we're almost finished lambing, and have been shedding out(taking out any ewes that are still to lamb, or who are no longer rearing a lamb) in preparation for tailing(some call it docking) the lambs in a week or two.  The late lambers are going into a new paddock closer to home, and the 'has-beens' are off to a crop paddock to free up grass pasture for ewes who are rearing lambs. 

We have about 18 pet/orphan lambs we are feeding at the moment, three times a day.  When they are very young it is 4 times daily, and in a month or so will be down to twice a day.  It's much quicker once they get onto these buckets, feeding 7 at a time, with a few little ones still on bottles.  The first 7 get put in the pen for feeding  and then the ones on the outside get their turn, otherwise it gets pretty confusing who's been done and things get messy!

 So there has been lots of this happening here, as the girls also have a pet calf each for the first time, saved from the bobby calf(veal) truck from one of our local dairy farmers.

This is Donny and Ash, and they are pretty cute, takes me back to having a little Jersey calf of my own every year when I was a kid.

Clearly Donny is not happy about getting a halter on and learning to lead.  You always see lots of lambs and calves at the school pet day that look like they've only had a halter and lead on for five minutes before they were loaded that day - and that often is what has happened.  lol    So the girls are starting early on handling their calves.  In the interests of open disclosure these calves will one day be sent to slaughter with the rest of the farm cattle, the girls seem fine with the idea, Miss O has even suggested she could use the profit from this one to buy several next year and make even more money.  Don't get me wrong though, they do love their calves dearly and it will be a difficult day when it comes in about eighteen months!

Thanks for your kind comments on my Tis the Season finish on my last post.  I have signed up for the new SAL where we'll be making My Favourite Things quilt by Anni Downs from her new Some Kind of Wonderful book.  This is a wonderful book with lots of neat projects, but I need to get my last block of A Gardeners Journal done first.  I haven't anything to share stitching wise today, it's been a quiet week with the girls and I all feeling under the weather with head colds, but we're on the mend now.   There's Rugby World Cup quarter finals to watch on Saturday and Sunday nights so maybe I'll be more in the right frame of mind for stitching then.  GO THE ALL BLACKS!!!  ................................. and good luck to Ireland, Wales, England, France, Australia, South Africa and Argentina too! 

Have a wonderful weekend ................. Nicky

Tis the Season

I had a late night last night, putting the final stitches into the binding of my Tis the Season quilt, just in the nick of time for the September 30 deadline(finished with less than hour to spare. lol).  I'm really thrilled with the final quilt, and am so grateful for the encouragement and gentle prodding by all the girls at the Stitch-A-Long blog, where you can see lots of other versions of this quilt.  You wouldn't credit how one design can look so different in so many varying colourways.

My photos haven't come out very clearly but I hope you get the idea of the final look.

So now my rugby watching evenings will be filled with some other WIP's needing serious attention, I won't bore you with the list, there really are SO many!

Hope you're having a lovely weekend, whatever you're up to, thanks for stopping by today................Nicky

There are worse ways to spend a Friday afternoon..............

 ...................... than sitting on the deck in the sunshine stitching down the binding on my Tis the Season quilt.  It's a gorgeous day, the first one that I've needed to get out the sun umbrella, and oops I see the nose of my helper in the bottom right there. lol

This is the part I never really enjoy, but on a lovely day like today, it's pretty relaxing, especially when there's lots of other work stuff I should be doing. lol
It will be finished TODAY(I promise it will!), but it will be dark by then, so I'll get some pics tomorrow.  I'm so pleased to be meeting the Stitch-Along deadline of the end of September, and there are some wonderful finishes coming in thick and fast over at the SAL blog.  See you there tomorrow!

The wonderful world of blogging .......................

Isn't it funny how reading one persons blog post leads you to another, then on to another, and then suddenly you just have to make something RIGHT NOW!  Last Friday I was reading about Josies day with her friends and what they were working on, which led me on to a new to me blog, Kristyne at Pretty by Hand and her wonderful Project Simplify challenge.  Kristyne made every quilt and cushion in Camille Roskelly's beautiful Simplify book.  Do have a look at her blog, I had a good giggle, she's a very funny girl, and thankyou Josie for sharing the link.

So I dug out my copy of Simplify and decided that right then I had to make one of the cushions in it.  I did choose the simplest one of course as I only had about 1 1/2 hours before I had to go meet the school bus.  So our youngest arrived home to a new cushion on her bed and she is pretty chuffed about it!  I used some of my Sherbet Pips charm square and finished it with some straight line quilting.  Now our eldest has picked out a cushion for me to make for her room, but that will have to wait until my Tis the Season is finished.  Which of course will(hopefully) be by this Fridays deadline. After a long drought this is also an OPAM finish for me for September.

Aren't those little puppies the cutest ..............

And the book for the inspiration ...............

This week I've also been thinking about what to make for my partner in Chookyblues 2011 Secret Santa Christmas Swap, and to be honest I'm really not sure yet what it's going to be.  But it's been fun doing some blog stalking to get an idea of what my partner might like. 

Thanks for all the comments about my hens - it's 'eggciting' times around here, as we check the nesting boxes every day to see how many eggs there are, we're up to two most days now!

Until next time, thanks for visiting ...................... happy stitching ............ Nicky

Happy Hens

Last week, I headed off to town to pick up some hens, to come and live in my lovely new henhouse.  I bought 6 young hens, about 20 weeks old, and was told they were just beginning to lay.  They've been shut in for about 5 days, so that they could learn where to lay, how to roost, and to settle into their new home.

Here are the girls in their new digs ............................................

Today I thought I'd let them out, as the sun has decided to come back after a very wet Monday.  And look what I found - my first egg - doesn't take much to get me excited does it?  I've left it there for the kids to find when they get home from school.  They've been running out to check the nesting boxes every day so today they'll get a surprise too!

Anyway, I opened their little door, and waited.........

....................and waited ................

...................and waited...........................................

............... and finally they ventured out. 

They're staying pretty close to the door just now, but I'm sure it won't be long and they'll be roaming around, probably getting into the vegetable garden and harassing the dog. 

TIme for some more Tis the Season progress, I've joined the blocks together, and have now chosen my border fabrics, might get them on tonight if time allows, so I'm still on target to finish it before the end of the month.

Thanks for visiting with me today ...................... till next time................happy stitching, Nicky

Tis the Season blocks

Here are the last four of my Tis the Season blocks finished up.  Now I need to join them all together and get it finished up before the end of September so as not to be the last to finish this quilt over at the Stitch-A-Long blog where we've been stitching this since March.  I am one of the few slackers slower stitchers who still haven't finished their A Gardener's Journal quilts from last year, so I don't want to be in the same boat this time around!  In the final photo I'm showing some rather wrinkly progress of the stitchery for my final AGJ block.  I've been trying to put a few stitches in here and there so I can get it finally finished.

It's been a fairly awful week of rain, hail and cold winds, not the ideal weather for lambing, but not quite as bad as last year ....... yet.  The sun is out today though, so it would be great if it hangs around for the next few weeks at least.  

Till next time ................................. happy stitching........... Nicky

Lambs everywhere

The lambs are coming thick and fast this week, we're well over a third of the way through now.  This little sweetie called Midnight belongs to 'Pinkie' who was a pet lamb of the girls several years ago.  Sadly Pinkie has no milk, so they are living together in the house paddock, where 'Midnight' gets bottle fed four times a day.  Here is mother and baby together.................... if she wasn't a pet sheep they would not be remaining together!

It's rare for us to get a set of quads, but here they are, we know they're quads because they were born with a number four on each of their backs........... only kidding.............. but once we spray mark them it does make it easier to put them all back together if one wanders off.

Imagine trying to keep track of four babies at once ...........................

For the townies out there don't be alarmed by the colour of these twins below, it is normal, the ewe will clean them up pretty quickly, in fact she's eating some afterbirth in this photo(sorry about that!)

One of these is not like the other ........ the bigger lamb in the centre has wandered off from his mum, and is trying to get amongst the action with this ewe and her new twins.  Mostly the ewe will bunt him away, but occasionally if you don't remove it quick enough she may take this lamb and leave her own behind. 

 So that's a quick farm tour for today ........................ if you're lambing or calving I hope it's going well for you - we've had a rough 24 hours of weather here, an inch and a half of rain in less than a day, and even some hail and snow early this morning.  It's improved a little today, but they are forecasting more snow for Thursday.  We had a lot of very cold newborn lambs and their mums in shelter last night, and almost all have made it through unscathed.

If you've seen any of the Rugby World Cup games - hasn't it been fantastic?!  I'm loving seeing the lower ranked teams giving the big name teams a good workout.  Go the AB's!

Catch you soon, where I can finally share some more Tis the Season progress..........getting there slowly.

Nicky