Pondview Farm News

The V girls

2009-04-29T16:52:00.000-07:00

Our yearling ewe Lydia somehow acquired a side abdominal hernia during her pregnancy, making her whole side sag down low to the ground and causing her to have difficulty walking.
This means she needed help delivering her lambs, but all things considered, it was a success, giving us two lovely ewe lambs. The first one was the long legged black mouflon girl, and after checking for another lamb, we thought she was the only one. We went into the house, changed out of dirty lambing clothes, and relaxed with a glass of wine, happy to have a healthy lamb, and the tense time over with. Mark checked on the pair a half hour later and shouted to me Lydia's got another one! The little white girl with the black mask was on her way, and after some more adjustments we found her front leg and got her out.
If you have seen the movie The Incredibles, the daughter Violet, has super powers giving her the abilty to dissapear, and she wears a black mask. We thought this little girl, who seemed to be invisible when we first looked for her, should be named Violet as well, and her sister is now called Veronica, for no apparant reason (but I do have one named Betty) .

A Long Hard Journey

2009-04-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon, first time mom, Eva, went into her labor about 1 PM. I had been waiting anxiously for her to lamb, praying that all would go smoothly for her first venture into motherhood.
She labored for about an hour, with nothing much happening, so I went in for a check to see if there was a tangled up baby or two. What I found was a very large lamb, in the right position to be born, but the ewes cervix opening was so small she could not make any progress.
Mark and I work on her for what seemed like forever, with much pulling, and what we hoped were soothing and encouraging words for a distressed mom. I called a fellow shepherd for advice, and with those words of wisdom and a little more work, we finally got her out into the world!
Mom and baby are both doing fine.
She is a gorgeous black, badger face, 10lb ewe. We will call her Athena, for the goddess of wisdom, who is also described as "bright eyed, or with gleaming eyes". I think it suits her well!

New Babies are arriving!

2009-04-05T14:10:00.000-07:00

Well, the first lambs arrived Tuesday 3/31, and they are triplets! What a treat to discover! All gorgeous in their own special colors. ! A black gray ewe, a black mouflon ewe and a beautiful black mouflon spotted ram. He has big white legs, reminding us of a Clydesdale, so he has been nicknamed Clyde.
This picture is not good, more to come...
We also had 2 nice big twin ram lambs on Thursday night, then Saturday morning brought another set of twins, a white ewe and black ram.
8 more girls to go!

Meet the new girl

2009-03-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

She arrived on the morning of February 26, a sweet blue eyed girl, the same lovely black color as mom Aiona, and her sister Kiera. Her name is Aiteag (pronounced eye tee ah) a Scottish word meaning "shy girl". It describes her well, as she is lively and adventurous, that is, until a human appears, then she runs for the cover of mom's large body and horns for protection. We have a video link of the complete birth on our website home page.
This is Aiona's third calf, and she has done a great job every time. A new calf is always a big event, and so much fun to watch as they grow and play.
I have discovered that calves and baby lambs all play the same games, the daily run around the pasture while mom eats. We usually feed the animals hay in the late afternoon, until the grass has grown enough for grazing. When this happens, the calf decides mom's busy so it's play time! She will run at a full gallop in great circles, jumping over rocks and logs like a pack of wolves is on her heels, all the time looking very joyful for the ability to stretch those little legs.
When the lambs arrive the same thing will take place on a larger group scale, and it is a hilarious and life affirming sight! We look forward to 3 more calves this year, and will post pictures as they arrive. Happy Spring!

Mid Winter's Waiting

2009-02-07T15:46:00.000-08:00

This year winter seems much longer somehow. Probably because we are not doing any skiing, due to tightening of the budget. But also, the house is always cold, and that gets tiring after a while. Trying to thaw out frozen water pipes, hauling firewood, shoveling walkways and barn door tracks.
God, I sound like an old person. I really do love winter, I think you are foolish to live in Maine if you don't. But this year, I am anxious for spring. In a few weeks the greenhouses will be running, with the smell of warm soil, and later fragrant flowers. The annual joy of new lambs and calves is hard to compare.
The ewes are growing larger, weekly, and seem also to be waiting patiently. Next month they will start to get uncomfortable with their bellies distended, and I will try in vain to guess who is carrying a single lamb, twins, or triplets. They will surprise me, and I will be thrilled no matter what. This year we have the possibility of 20 lambs, and I will pray for easy births and healthy babies, although I know with the larger number, the greater chance of problems, and I will not get much sleep during lambing season. My husband is the same when calves are expected.
It is always a privilege to be a witness to the start of a new life, and certainly sweeps away the winter 's chill, with the optimism and hope of good things to come.

Love is in the Air

2008-11-15T14:57:00.000-08:00

Well, it's breeding season again for the sheep. We have some excellent matches this year and I am almost as excited as when it is lambing season! I am probably not as excited as the rams though.
Everyone is in separate love nests, a ram with one or two ewes, for a period of 3 to 4 weeks depending on when the business gets done. I make checks on them a few times a day to see if the ewes have finally stopped running from the ram to settle down, and I can record the date for the upcoming blessed event.
Then in December it starts all over again with the ewe lambs, who will not be ready until then.
If all goes as planned, lambs will start arriving about April 1st, and the last ones will come in May, hopefully mid May, before it gets too hot.
We have posted all the pairs on the Our Flock page, so you can imagine how the new lamb crop will turn out! Stay tuned!

Shearing Day!

2008-10-03T11:40:00.000-07:00

Well, shearing day went off with no problems, everyone is naked and funny looking, getting
reaquainted with each other and their new extreme makeover looks.
I have bags of unskirted fleece calling out to me and I will spend many hours picking out tiny pieces of hay and vegetation. But, it will all be worth it to have that lovely, silky, shiny, soft and warm yarn to play with and offer to our customers later on this winter!
This picture is Elaine, our ewe lamb who was shivering on the first cold morning without her natural blanket of warmth, so I took pity on her and loaned her my vest!

2008-09-13T16:37:00.000-07:00

Border Patrol
So Friday afternoon, I've just come home from work and am preparing to spend a few hours focusing on making a delicious lamb chili recipe to wow the crowds at the farmers market the next day, when there is a knock on the door.
The cows are out. They are happily grazing in the neighbors pasture a few houses down the street.
I grab a bucket of grain and head out to start the long process of getting them back where they belong, needless to say, the chili plan went out the window.
Saturday afternoon the chore list called for finishing up the ram pen so we can move the boys away from the girls and plan for breeding. Instead, we do border patrol.
Our fenced area for the cattle is a mixture of grassy pastures, woods, swampy swales and an area we call the clear cut, although now it's more like thistle and wild rose hell. All of this is surrounded by a fencing system that consists primarily of very old barbed wire and cedar posts that are floating free of the ground in many places.
We go through it a couple times a year (usually when there is a break out) to yank on the wires, nail them to trees, twist up the tension with sticks, prop up posts with rocks, lift up fallen logs, and do what ever it takes to keep the cattle where we would like them to stay. On this day it is hot and muggy, not the nice cool dry September day you would wish for when planning a stroll in the woods. The mosquitoes are feasting on us as we slog through swampy, boot sucking terrain, getting scratched and gouged by vicious thorn bearing rose branches, searching for the the elusive escape routes.
You would think in such nasty difficult areas, the cows would stay out, lazing around on the grassy slopes, livin the good life. But no. There are plenty of large hoof prints to tell us they also participate in border patrol. Thing is, they do it almost daily, so when there is a crack in the high tech security system that we use for fencing, they go for a walk! We find not one, but many places of cow adventure opportunity, so we do the usual repairs and call it good.
As we walk along the ridiculously flimsy fence line, I think to myself, this would never contain my sheep, nor would a sheep predator give it a second glance before raiding an attack on them.
I know I don't talk up the cattle much, but they are easy keepers, bless them, and that gives my husband more time to turn his attention to helping me with the sheep!

Late summer evenings

2008-08-21T17:04:00.000-07:00

The field is lush from all the rain.
Yes, it has brought an unusually bad parasite season for shepherds, everyone has been complaining, it has dampened vacations, mine included... but tonight, after a few days of sun and warmth, it is as green and thick as late spring. The animals are gorging themselves, having just been let into a new area to graze. The sky grows dusky, the crickets sing, the air is cool and fragrant. As I walk through my pasture talking to my flock, I am filled with happiness at the sight of them. After weeks of being wet and muddy and ratty looking, they suddenly are clean and fluffy, with fleeces blowing in the breeze. Lambs are filling out and showing me their promise for the breeding season to come. These are the moments I offer thanks for the blessings of a farming life and the friends discovered with it, both 2 and 4 legged.

Summertime and the Livin is......

2008-07-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

.....Easy?
Not around here. Our song should be "The heat is on", and I don't mean temperature. The heat would be pressure, to complete a myriad of projects with the list never getting any shorter. Kind of like pulling a weed that sprouts three more shoots the next day. We are making hay at the moment, racing the clock with a stretch of dry weather, the same game played every year. Maybe this year we will get a good crop of second cut as well... we can only hope!
Mums are planted for fall deliveries, 400 pots, ever thirsty in the sun.
There are so many projects we have to do it makes my head spin at wee hours of the morning, my only comfort is getting up and writing lists, as if somehow putting it all on paper where I can read it will help take it out of my brain so I can rest.

The animals are the only sensible ones. They casually graze when its cloudy or cooler, and in the heat of the day they lay in the cool barn, or under the poplar trees. Chickens take dust baths and cows wade slowly in the pond cooling their bellies.
I guess we need to take lessons from them and work on chilling out and not stressing out.
It will all get done eventually!

Zoritta Joins the Family

2008-06-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

On Monday afternoon our long awaited Zoritta was delivered to join our farm family!
She is a lovely and statuesque addition to our pastoral scene. Her job is as a guard for the sheep, but she will just be adjusting for a little while right now. She comes to us from Greenbriar Llama Karma Farm in North Berwick, and has spent many years living in the company of other llamas. Here at Pondview Farm there are many new creatures to discover, chickens, cows, sheep, a pasture near a heavily traveled road, so she is decidedly unnerved at it all. In true llama stoic nature, she does not really show this, just quietly humms when she is nervous.
The sheep also are not quite sure about her, and are not the most welcoming group, but the more time passes, everyone slowly relaxes as they realize this new, large, stranger among them is not as scary as they thought. We are thrilled to have her, and hope that soon she may feel the same. For now I talk to her gently and she looks at me with disdain. Good thing I don't take it personally!

Enjoying the spring pastures

2008-06-02T11:48:00.000-07:00

Never ending fencing

2008-06-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

My husband complains all I blog about is the sheep, and what about his cows?
Okay, the cows are fine, calves are growing well, and we are going to be bringing two new bulls here soon, one for beef and one for possible breeding. There, that's the news on the cattle!
We have been working diligently on fencing for the sheep, every possible spare minute, the fence has taken priority, because they need to eat the grass, (there is no more hay!) and be outside, and can't do that without fence. We have invested in really nice high tensile 6 strand wire fencing and putting it up was challenging if you have never done it before. I give all high praise and genuflect to my husband for the heroic work done thus far. Now it's all up, looks impressive, but not charging enough to keep them inside it, and the frustration involved in trying to figure out why has been torturous. Jasper, the black mouflon badger faced ram lamb is the most adept at escape!
Meanwhile, the lambs are growing beautifully! They all have been putting on amazing gains and filling out to be strong and stocky, with glistening, silky fleece. We had everyone sheared the other day and now can see just how much weight is taken off of those ewes that are nursing and providing the lambs with all that growth! Most look skinny, but okay, a couple look really bony and I will be happy when weaning time arrives and they will have the chance to recover.
My ewe that is raising triplets look pretty good considering, and I'm glad for that.
It is a blessing to my eyes to watch them all grazing in the green field; to see the lambs running and playing king of the tractor bucket. Our long, brutal, record snowfall winter seems very far away these days.

An unexpected gift

2008-05-19T17:56:00.000-07:00

Our yearling ewe Esther, gave birth to a lovely ram on May 15!
I did breed her this fall, but when spring started to arrive and everyone was showing signs of being bred but her, I assumed she did not take, and just let it go at that. On 5/15, I was just about to head out for work and went down to check everyone, and she was having her baby! She did a great job for a first timer and he is a very nice white horned ram.

New Babies are so much fun!

2008-04-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

Matilda

2008-04-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

2008-04-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

April 23, 2008
Well Spring is finally here at Pondview Farm! We had an extremely successful first lambing season, with 4 ewes producing 8 healthy lambs in total, we could not ask for better results.
First born was a giant 13 lb ram from our newest ewe, Callie. It was an AI pregnancy, the sire was Ormur. This gorgeous black spotted boy is now known as Hagrid, due to his size, and shaping up to be very promising looking already.
Next was Delilah who surprised me with ram twins, I didn't expect her to deliver so soon, but they are nice looking boys out of our ram Pistol, one white, and one lovely moorit badgerface.
Fifi followed the next day with twins, this time a ram and ewe, big and healthy, fast and easy delivery, the ram is white and the ewe black spotted. Both have particularly bright and shiny fleece.
Last and best of all was Delancey, giving us our first set of triplets, two ewes and a ram. All are healthy and good sized, mostly white, she did a fabulous job.
Nothing left to do now but spend lovely spring evenings watching the babies leap and play and grow. And of course, plan breeding pairs for next year!