So sorry for the lack of posts…. ’tis the season for us and we just get so overwhelmed over the holiday season with our various businesses and such. Just making and packing orders as fast as we can!
It will slow down in a wee bit and we’ll be back to share all the news that is fit to print!
Join us on our Facebook page if you’d like to hear little tidbits of our day and say hello!!!
https://www.facebook.com/WindhavenFarmOhio/
Meanwhile, be nice to one another!!!
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A fun day! And it didn’t take us all day to do either! We are getting better at all of this!!! Enjoy!
What we were doing was sorting out our breeding animals and our non-breeding animals into two groups.
We had our ram, Lukkus, up front with his two little whether pals, Fennel and Huldur. And back in the main group we had to remove several animals that didn’t belong for various reasons.
Angus, the whether, feels he is the protector of the girls and he interferes with the breeding ram. Just too much competition and so he needed to go for a break.
Bonnie, a ewe, is our mixed breed rescue gal who is not exactly a spring chicken. She had her two sweet girl lambs this year but I think that is plenty for her. She will be a good babysitter and protector of the up front, non-breeding flock.
Rosemary, Ginger and Raspberry, yearling ewes born this spring are really just too little. We have found that yearling moms are just not always that good at it and size is important. Too little and they just seem to have very little babies, or worse, stillborn. It’s just not a risk we like to take. Size and maturity really matters.
So, this is now the little group up front for a few weeks, waiting out their time and enjoying a little smaller group action. Angus and Bonnie will be the babysitters and the three yearlings will get a little time to grow up!
Lukkus will hopefully cuddle up and show off his manly prowess to the following girls… Iris, Beulah, Pearl, Emma, Galadriel, Lydia, Willow and Laurel. Eight ewes should give us about 10-12 lambs. That is a good number. We will keep a few, but the rest will be sold or traded late in 2016. After we see how they are maturing and all. A few boys will probably end up in the freezer. Someone’s freezer. We are not big lamb eaters but I have heard that lamb sausage is pretty darn good and we could always sell some shares and sides or even entertain the idea of home grown dog food. How wonderfully natural would that be? It’s all a part of homesteading… encouraging the animals to help pay for their way and their lovely life here. They are not pets but livestock, but we do love and care for them and their humane treatment and content good life is VERY important to us! It’s all good!!!
Now if we could only have a litter or two of piggies soon!!! Common’ girls… we are waiting!!!
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I decided it was time to get my sewing machine going, and to do up a few little projects that I had planned!
The first thing up with a little soft Ipad pillow that I could use to prop up my ipad when I am watching movies! (Or tv shows…) Usually, I was just propping it up on things and then I thought, wait, I could make a little poofy pillow with a bit of a back on it, and that would love lovely. I actually had some of those little teeny beads for the stuffing and wanted to use them up! It worked out so nice. And works perfectly!
It kind of looks like a little purple couch. For my beloved ipad. 
Maggie wanted a workshop apron so that she wouldn’t get her clothes so full of shavings and sawdust! Your wish is my command! I made her a nice heavy duty brown denim apron. She approves! It works just fine. 
Luna and Calcifer laying about, waiting for me to make something good for them. Haha… sorry kitties. Nothing for the kitties planned today.
I wanted to make a little pantry shelf topper for the top two shelves of the panty. I have a big plan, to make the bottom two shelves all cute and clever with nice jars and little baskets and such. But the top two will be storage for things that we don’t use as often and aren’t that pretty. The whole new shelves/pantry project is still in the works, as you can see. Still debating whether to put up another shelf in the bottom or not. I’d rather wait and see what sort of storage things I want to put down there and all. But we’re very busy right now with holiday sales, so it will have to wait until January! Still, the topper is a start and it’s so cute! 
Last up on the sewing parade is a couple new goat coats for the sheared angoras! We sheared a little later in the season than we really wanted to, so I made them up a couple of fleece goat coats to give them a little extra help from the cold. They are very simple in nature, but seem to work well. Just a big rectangle of fleece, with a couple little ties at the chest and then belly straps underneath to keep it on straight. Pretty simple.
Buttercup and Sam are doing fine in with the sheep. Even though Sam is an angora, he was very robust and has been fine. Buttercup is positively chunky in her fuzzy warm winter hair! We moved them in with the sheep for a few weeks to give Lefty, Rana and Rafeka a chance to bulk up a bit. They were a little scrawny, and just needed some extra groceries. It’s hard with fiber animals… when they are heavy coated, it’s easy to miss their overall body condition. The more meek, gentle animals can sometimes get bullied and pushed out of the feed by the bigger, stronger animals. Seeing that Buttercup and Sam were both in charge and rotund… I think a little separation was in order. 
Lefty got the Frozen look… she is modeling her nice blue snowflake look!
Rana and Rafeka look rather like hobbits on a journey! They love their coats, though. It’s funny, most anything you do to them… shearing, hoof trimming, shots, meds, they will fight and act like you are killing them. But when it comes to coats? They stand there patiently and pick up their legs and are really very cooperative. Makes me laugh! They are pretty smart. They know the coats and nice and warm! 
I don’t do a lot of sewing, but when I do, I enjoy it! I used to make some quilts and do clothing sewing, but just have gotten away from it. I picked up a pattern for a top awhile back… I think I need to just sit down and make it up soon! Because I really enjoyed today’s sewingpalooza! And by the looks of it, everyone enjoyed the results of my effort.
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