North and South

Locust...eeew. I am not squeamish about most things but large bugs that fly are on the top of my list. For some strange reason I envision getting them stuck in my hair.

WantonWoodsman said:

@micah wotring Thank you so much. You mention that it has been great having me on the forum.....has been? Am I on my way out? Like your version of North/East/South/West

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XD nah
Yeah, I use that often.

@babsbag I can only imagine.....

As for my sheep....On the 29th of March 2015 we bought our Dormer ram from Abrica Stud. We named him Grootseun (Big Boy) He weighed in @ 270 lbs! Some of you might have read my post (Sheep from Far Far Away) but for those who didn't.... We went out looking for an ewe and came back with 7 Dorper ewe's on the 6th of April 2015.

We had 4 lambs born by the 19th of September 2015. They were sold off. (4 Rams - Rodeo, Zorro, Blacky & Snowflake) We now have 14 ewe's and 2 rams. My wife mentioned that we should limit ourselves to only keeping a few....at the rate that she grows fond of them, I'll have double the amount in no time.

Oh....we returned our first ram (Grootseun) to the stud and exchanged him for a younger less aggressive ram. Lol

This was Grootseun


Our new ram (The one with the hen on his back)


Grootseun with his ewe's


The 5 new ewe's we added in February this year.


We lost 2 lambs in July this year, but we are keeping the other 4. Will post pics of them tomorrow.

Sorry all. Just wasn't up to it. But let's start with Zoey. Born 12th of July this year.



Next up Emmett. Born 20th July.



Okay that's 2 down 2 to go. Will follow shortly.

A bit off the current topic but hey I am so excited. I planted some Elsedina Iris last season and the first one bloomed yesterday. Everything is starting to sprout new leaves and the color of green is so welcome after all the brown I had to stare at for sooooo long. Lol.

It's kinda funny how most people want everything for free......even when they know you are unemployed and struggling to survive. I placed an advert to sell off some of my plants/flowers and was quite amazed at how many of the folks that know me......asked if I couldn't give them some for free.

But anyhow....this is my first pic on the Elsedina Iris.

The sheep are very good looking, both of those rams are nice. If your wife's fondness for sheep is anywhere near my goat addiction you better be very very careful. I have gone from 3 to 40+ in 8 years.

The iris is really pretty. We are just getting ready to go into winter so brown and dreary is just around the corner for me. We don't get any rain here after the end of May until Oct. so brown is pretty much the color here more than green. I plant a lot of flowers, mostly for the bees. Right now there isn't much in bloom and I am always looking for late summer/fall flowers for the bees...and for me. I even let weeds bloom this time of year just to give the bees their last supper. Wild mustard and clover in my lawn are in bloom right now.

I cured my first olives today. I soaked them in lye for about 10 hours and for the next 7-8 days I will be rinsing them frequently and then into the brine. These are green olives, I would like to do black ones but they seem to take a bit more work so I started with the easy ones.

Now that I have the olives under my belt my foray into making apple cider is right around the corner. I was going to make some Honey Peach mead too but the freezer with all of my frozen fruit had the door left open and I lost all of the fruit I had frozen for the mead. Also lost all of my frozen goat's milk for soap, and a lot of goat meat. Fortunately the pork, beef, and more goat was in other freezers and the goats are still in milk, but I really mourn the loss of all of that fruit.

babsbag said:

Now that I have the olives under my belt my foray into making apple cider is right around the corner. I was going to make some Honey Peach mead too but the freezer with all of my frozen fruit had the door left open and I lost all of the fruit I had frozen for the mead. Also lost all of my frozen goat's milk for soap, and a lot of goat meat. Fortunately the pork, beef, and more goat was in other freezers and the goats are still in milk, but I really mourn the loss of all of that fruit.

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Oh, apple cider is the best! I like it hot too. Every year lots of people in the neighborhood come to Ed's barn(the biggest and the cleanest) and we have a big barn dance and drink apple cider all evening. It's a blast.
My sister is looking into mead. She has two different flavors of wine going(fermenting?) right now and we'll be getting bees next summer.
Back to apple cider though, Try it You'll Like it. no, you'll LOVE IT! It's gotta be a little thick though. Much thicker than store bought.

I'd better shut up and get back to working on my school. :/

Wow crazy adventures you guys have!

I hope your growing season has gotten better for you.