Around The Farm

The grass has been gradually turning green and the winter hay supply is almost gone:

 Blue and Remy are about to begin their annual battle with me over wearing muzzles to keep them from developing founder, a crippling hoof malady. I'm not sure how I'm going to handle it this year:

 But for now they are happy. Blue is especially lovely as the wind lifts his mane:

 And Remy is all cuddles and sweetness as he trots over to greet me in the pasture:

 The both seem to be finding more than enough to eat in the short, dead grass of the south field:

 And neither one is in danger of getting too skinny:

 And speaking of tubby animals, the Red Poll girls have certainly not gone hungry. Here, Amy and Rosella were sharing some hay:

 The herd was waiting and watching as I brought a new bale out to them:

 Violet had all the hay she needed and preferred to just nap on some waste hay:

 A new bale, just delivered:

 My six hardy roses arrived and I lined them up on the kitchen counter to replace spilled soil and give them all something to drink:

 Then I moved them to the back room, where they will share a big, east facing window with the seed trays (which are not yet planted). Spring is arriving rapidly and I am struggling to keep up with it:

Dogs And Cats

It's time for another post on the dogs and cats whose presence makes the farm house a home. I'll begin with Sammy, one of the newest and strangest pets. He's terrified of being picked up or restrained in any way, but otherwise friendly and playful. His first trip to the vet is due very soon, and I'm not at all sure how I'll get him into a carrier:

Seamus, Fergus and Daphne like to nap on the yoga mat behind my computer chair:

There are yoga mats and floor pillows in the kitchen also, another favorite hangout for both dogs and cats. This pet collection consisted of Fergus, Clover, Caspar, Bugsy, Seamus and Daphne. You can see how simply walking a straight line in my house can sometimes be complicated:

Sammy and Caspar sleep together sometimes, but not as often as they once did:

For naps and nighttime, the dogs come to the bedroom with me but the cats have to wait outside the door:

All four cats: Daisy, Bugsy, Sammy and Caspar:

Daphne, Clover and Fergus:

Caspar, Fergus and Clover:

And there's Jack, who has thus far been missing from the photos because whenever I stand, he runs to be near my feet. In this case, however, he was content to snooze with Daphne, Clover and Fergus:

The big green bed was supposed to be for Seamus, but he seldom gets to use it:

Sammy:

The sleeping foursome - Daphne, Clover, Fergus and Caspar:

Planting Season Has Begun!

At the last minute, I added one more rose to my order from High Country Roses. This time it was a climbing, continuous bloom, hardy, shade tolerant rose called Darlow's Enigma:

And I began cleaning up the mesh from the outsides of hay bales which had been too frozen to separate out during the winter. I'll clean up the moldy hay later:

But despite our warmer weather, there was still ice beneath many clumps of hay which still clung to the mesh. We will need more warming before I can get it all:

  Remember the old fashioned rose which I found trying to grow in the middle of the lawn? I let it grow and it had become a giant bush, with many canes too woody to produce flowers:

So it got the same treatment as the Rugosa roses. It will now have plenty of room to grow and flower:

I bought a healthy looking pink Hydrangea:

And planted it beside the Magnolia and red Hydrangea:

  Alas, right after planting, we got several days of rain and more very cold temperatures. The poor little Hydrangea wasn't prepared for such rigors and now looks dead. But it is a hardy variety and I won't give up hope yet:

The cows and horses are happy and relaxed, enjoying the sunshine and freedom from flies:

They are still getting hay, though I'm almost out:

Life is good:

The Daffodils are up and buds are swelling. We are later than most places, but such is life in the north country:

The Great Egg-scapade

It was a chilly, rainy, spring afternoon and the dogs, cats and I were lounging around and doing nothing much:

 But I had accumulated three dozen eggs (well, 35 to be exact), and decided to clean them out of my refrigerator:

 So I cracked all 35 of them into a nonstick pan:

 I scrambled them and distributed them into six dog bowls:

 I put Seamus into the laundry room with his own bowl because he, like me, needs to limit the quantity he eats. I put the other five bowls down on the kitchen floor. To my surprise, Daisy and Caspar marched right in and began helping themselves:

 At first, the dogs were unsure of what that odd, gooey stuff was - but they soon figured it out:

 In the other part of the kitchen, Jack, Bugsy, Sammy and Daisy helped themselves to scrambled eggs (note the accumulation of cat toys by the door on the right):

 Miraculously, all my animals eat together without conflict, sharing and waiting their turn, though having plenty of bowls surely helps keep the peace:

 Bugsy and Sammy moved over to taste some of Fergus' eggs. He didn't growl, but he accelerated his eating speed:

 And then they all lay down and burped while I washed dishes:

 You didn't see Seamus formerly because he was alone in the laundry room, but the other dogs and cats hadn't been able to eat all of their eggs, so Seamus did the cleanup after I let him into the kitchen. Then he too lay down and burped:

 Daisy, Seamus, Daphne and Jack all joined me in the computer room while I put this post together. It seemed to me that this had been a great success, but that night all the dogs vomited and had diarrhea. It was a horrible mess. I will try again in the future, but only with a much smaller quantity of eggs:

A Visit With My Sister - Part 3

Despite the bad weather during my sister's visit, we had a lot of fun. While passing through Malone, New York, we noticed that Bokie's 1950s chrome and pink drive-in diner was open for the season. Of course we stopped and ate lunch there. Bokie's is always fun and we always have a hearty meal:

We also visited my neighbors' sheep farm, less than a day after the first lambs were born:

Twin births mean tiny lambs, so the farmer puts mother and babies in a small pen to protect the little ones from being trampled by the flock and to help the ewe and lambs stay close while they bond:

We didn't dare enter the pen with the young, dangerous ram, but this pen had an old man of a ram who was content to ignore us as we visited. That's him lying down. He never even turned his head to see who was entering his pen:

On the other side of the barn was another group, this one without any rams, and all of the ewes were ready to give birth at any moment:

Doug, the friendly Morgan Horse, was loose and accompanied us wherever we walked. He likes people, sheep, dogs, cats - and nearly everybody. He likes company:

This mother had two lambs, though one was behind her when I took the photo:

Another pen of ewes. The colorful markings, like the red blotches, are used when giving medications so the farmers know who has been dosed already. Imagine trying to keep track without marking the animals!

If you remember a couple of earlier photos of two lambs born ahead of the others, they had by this time grown rapidly to an amazing size. We stopped and said hello to them before we left: