Rural Moms

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Comment by CynChrys on May 27, 2009 at 9:56am

I can only speak for my sheep. While they ate ALL of my wildflower garden to the ground, the roots are still there. And no....I was NOT happy about it at all. We had fenced it off w/woven wire and they knocked it down. Lesson learned, move the plants to another place completely in the fall.

Comment by Tara Liloia on May 27, 2009 at 8:39am

Is it true that sheep pull out the plants they eat by the roots while goats just nibble them down? I've heard people use that as reasoning for getting goats instead of sheep.

Comment by TeresaR on May 26, 2009 at 6:21pm

CynChrys, thanks for feedback on the sheep! Meat would be my dh's #1 consideration (since he thinks I would be insane to add spinning to my list of to-do's). Sorry o hear that you lost 2 ewes along with their little ones. :( Runaway sheep...that almost sounds like a children's story (except that it doesn't end happily in your case).

Comment by CynChrys on May 26, 2009 at 5:50pm

Bless your heart, Tara. I don't know if there is a good season for a baby. ;) lol I was 7 mos. pregnant when we lived in SC and picking up 150 lbs. of pecans from the ground. I FEEL your pain. Some memories never leave you.

We have Icelandic sheep. They are hardy, fatten well on grass and are a triple purpose sheep. I have had Icelandic meat before and it's considered gourmet lamb for a reason. It was the most amazing lamb I've ever had. Like I said, still learning about the wool. We have a black ram, a white ram and a gray mouflon ram. The colors in his wool are amazing. We had three ewes. Two died (both had lambs inside) and one ran away. So...our little venture got off to a bad start, but we're not giving up yet. Part of life on the farm. You're right about fencing being very important. Our asparagus is still too young to harvest, but hopefully next year. The beauty of living on a farm that's been in dh's family for 100 years is that there is family nearby with well established patches of asparagus, raspberries, etc. ;) My lettuce and spinach is still too small, but the dressing is ready!!

Comment by TeresaR on May 26, 2009 at 5:35pm

CynChrys, how cool that you have sheep! What breed do you have? We'd like to keep sheep (for meat, wool, and milk), but we don't proper fencing yet, so they'd just be neighborhood dogs and coyote bait.

Been harvesting our usual great crop of asparagus...yum! Also, the various lettuces, spinach, broccoli, and beet greens are ready; had salads for 2 meals.

Finished processing our batch of meat roosters this past weekend. We only bought 10 this time (split it with a friend). Last time (last fall), we processed 24 of them over 3 days. Very tiring.

That's all for now on our little homestead. :)

Comment by Tara Liloia on May 26, 2009 at 5:29pm

Why I ever decided to have a baby due in July is beyond me. Trying to do all of these springtime chores with a big belly is darn near impossible. And we added 31 more baby chicks to the coop this year!

Comment by CynChrys on May 26, 2009 at 5:13pm

They couldn't pay me enough to be on that show.

Busy here, too, Karen. Finally sheared the sheep for the first time. Oh my, amazing wool from them. Now...what do I do with it? This whole sheep thing is a giant learning process at this point. Got an orphan lamb about 5 weeks ago, too and she has decided she's not sheep, more like sheeple. She ignores the other sheep and follows the kids around. Always wants to hang by the house instead of with the sheep. Garden's not all in yet, either. Ack. Come spring...I feel like I stay behind until everything is canned, frozen, jammed, whatever.

Comment by TeresaR on May 26, 2009 at 1:37pm

Amanda's request cracked me up...some days when I'm PMSing badly, I can barely stand my own dear family, let alone some stranger's family.

Comment by Karen on May 26, 2009 at 12:42pm

Just wanted to say hi to everyone. Getting busy. Hubby has been planting, disking, chopping . . . Hope everyone is well.

Comment by Karen on May 4, 2009 at 9:20am

Hi Yevette, and welcome. Hi ladies. Well the weather has warmed up and it is planting season. I am almost forgetting what hubby looks like.

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