The New Sheep Chute

The New Sheep Chute is designed, built and tested. It WORKED. I got the sheep in the barn in 2 minutes. It has taken me 2 hours before. Mike looked at the expensive chutes that you could buy and modeled ours after their design. The benefit is ours was cheap....inexpensive. This is the good looking team of guys that built the chute. . Luke, Mike... my great husband, Blair and Marcus, my wonderful dad. Luke and Blair worked really hard.....thanks so much.

Glory in his holy name;let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice! Seek the LORD and his strength seek his presence continually! 1 Chronicles 16 10-11

Visitors

We have had several visitors to the farm over the last couple of weeks. The lambs have been a big hit. I don't think I got Pictures of all of them but here are a few.

Jack and Ladybug

Jack and the Tractor

Higdon's from Nashville....they are so cute.

Movie at the Barn

Last month we had the High School Youth group from church out for Movie at the Barn. We wait till it is getting dark and then we watch a movie outside.....it is like a drive in movie. We watched Chariots of Fire. It is an old movie from the 80's that won Best Picture and many more awards. It is a true story and it has a great message. The story is about Olympics runners in the 1920s. Eric Little chose not to run in his Olympic race because the race was on the Sabbath. Eric held tough to his beliefs and was not embarrassed to stand up for God. A great lesson for all of us. I can't imagine this movie winning best picture today.

Best Wool Ever

I was so afraid tht the wool this year might not be good. Well I was wrong. It was the best wool yet. See for yourself.

Sheep Shearing

Sheep sheering was Saturday April 26, 2008. Mike was out of town so Jane came and brought a helper, Darryl. It was a great day. Cool, sunny and just perfect. Everything went just great. I was a little worried because Jane was shearing by herself. She did great and did not even seem tired when she was done. My mom and dad brought all of us lunch and we had a picnic in front of the barn. Thanks mom and dad for helping.

Here is a picture of the sheep the night before.

Here is Jane shearing

Here they are looking very funny!!

Know your sheep by name; carefully attend to your flocks; (Don't take them for granted; possessions don't last forever, you know.) And then, when the crops are in and the harvest is stored in the barns, you can knit sweaters from lambs' wool. - Proverbs 27:23-26

Mike is the bomb of the barn....Thank You.

I need to rent one of those big automated bill boards. The ones that make you take your eyes off your driving becuase you are watching what will be next on the billboard. The billboard would say Thank you Mike...........You are the bomb of the barn.

Mike didn't really want our first dog Rocky but he said yes to make me happy. He really didn't want our second dog Barkley but he said yes to make me happy. Mike did buy our farm without me seeing it but he had no idea I would fill it with a real life Noah Ark. Twenty eight animals later Mike is still making me happy. Thank you Mike.

The whole sheep thing was definelty my idea and those little buggers are not as dumb as everyone thinks. We have been trimming, vaceinating and worming for the past week and we still are not done. It is not the procedures.......we can't catch them. We are also getting ready for sheep sheering next Saturday and Mike will be out of town. Thus, Mike is at Tractor Supply again buying extra fencing to make a chute systems to outsmart the sheep. Mike and I do better and better but these sheep can really test our patience.

People always ask me if Mike is into the sheep like me. I always so no he just loves me. Thanks Mike for being such a great husband and working so hard to make me happy. None of it goes unnoticed. It is a true testimony to your faith for sure!!!!!! The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love. Galatians 5:6

I love ewe!!!!

I just added this because it wsa cute. This is Dora sleeping while Mke was working and making all sorts od noise. It didn't bother her. She has her paw over her eyes so the sun would not bother her. No work for her on the sabbath.

Kane

Kane arrived at our farm last summer. Daisy was not able to handle the whole farm by herself and when it stormed she would go off duty. Kane is doing a great job and because of him Daisy is a better dog. He just turned 1 year in December.......that means he is still a puppy. Can you believe it. He has a great personality and loves protecting our farm and his sheep. Here he is with Carmine.



Here he is meeting one of his new lambs. He was so excited.

As a side note this is our new sheep chair. It is the best $89.00 I've spent in a long time. You back the sheep up to it and put them in the chair. Legs sticking out. You can trim their hoofs and give shots so much easier. Now if we can only find a better way to get them in the pen. We still have three to go.......we could not catch them.....can you blame them.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Galatians 5:6

Farm Helper

Last night I was so lucky becuse I had a friend come out and help me feed all the animals. Her name is Koryn Hicks. She has a brother but her was not able to come. Koryn did great with all the cats and learned to be patient with them. She went out in the field with me to close some gates and Kane came to greet her. He was as big as she was. Thanks Koryn and I hope your brother Jadeyn can come next time.

Here is a picture of Koryn and Jadeyn, her brother. This was a picture from and earlier visit to the farm. I didn't want Jadeyn not to have a picture.

1 Peter 2:255

You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going. Now you're named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls.

(from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)

David and Jonathan.....best friends

The names of the boys or in sheep terms rams are David (black) and Jonathan (dark brown). David and Jonathan were best friends in the bible. It is a really great story!!!!

You can read about it in 1 Samuel 20:1-42. One of the great lessons to learn from this relationship is, their loyalty to God guided them through the conflicting demands of their human relationships. I didn't think of that all on my own it came from notes in my study bible. Here are some new pictures of the handsome boys.

We also had some visitors this past weekend. My cousin, Julie and her kids Ben, Daniel and Ashley. They were so good and we had such a great time with them. We hope them come back soon. Lily really misses them.

Last but not least new pictures of the sweetest lamb ever. She will probably grow up to be a brat but right now she is so sweet and loves to get her head petted. Here's Cupcake and Dora the cat.

New lambs read the manual

We had new lambs born today. They must have read the manuel becuase they were born with no problem at all. I went down to the barn a little before 7:00 AM.....all was well. When I came back at around 10:00 AM Sophia had a set a twins. Two little rams. They were still a little wet but doing well. They are double the size of Cupcake.

I have not decided on a name but it might be David and Jonathan. They were best freinds in the bible and have a great story. I will keep you posted on the name.

They had a good lunch.

New Lamb has a name

Chelsey Harris came over yesterday afternoon and we had the official lamb naming ceremony. Her name is Cupcake . The name is in the heritage of her ancestors. Her great grandmother was named Strawberry. Her grandmother was Shortcake......Strawberry Shortcake....get it. Her mom was from a set of triplets. The mom is Sugar then there was Cream and Oreo. It is the perfect name. I think she looks like a little Cupcake.

Kane was very curious about the new lamb. I let Sugar out to eat some grass and they had their first meeting. He would not leave the fence and even guarded the lamb from the other sheep who were also very curious. He is serious about his job.

Jane saved the day ...and the lamb

Sugar went into real labor early this morning. Jane called and decided to come and help. She arrived around 8:30 am. Her water broke around 8:15. Jane had to help pull the lamb and we thought it was not alive but it was. There were two others that did not make it but they were not formed properly so it was a blessing.

The lamb does not have a name yet because Chelsey Harris gets to name her.

Creation is an awesome thing...Jane and I talked about our Creator God after the birth. When you see the miracle of birth it is hard to understand how someone could not believe in God and the Truth.

Mother and lamb are doing great!!

Thank you Jane.

Update from Jane

I went up to the house and came back down. No lamb. I called Jane (she know everything) and explained what was happening she said she is fine. To call back in 1 hour and give her an update. Jane thinks she passed the plug. The next thing is for her water to break then she will go into labor then a lamb.



Rev 5:130
the Lamb!The blessing, the honor, the glory, the strength,For age after age after age. (from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.) Rev 5:130

Play by Play

I'm going up to the house and eat a little something. If she has not had them when I get back I'm calling Jane....my sheep sheerer. She know everything about sheep.

Still waiting.......

Well I am still waiting. Getting a little nervous. She is pawing but still does not seem to be in great pain. Will wait a little longer. We have about 10 teenagers coming to our house for the Disciple Now Weekend. I hope she has them before they arrive.

Waiting on lambs

I am waiting and watching for Sugar to have her first lambs. She is in labor and I pray she is ok. I figured this would make the time pass faster. I've been watching but it just makes me worried.

Can you believe this is my first post. What a way to start. I'm going down to check on her.