I've been a little preoccupied lately with the fact that I am going to put in a garden for the first time in about 20 years!  We have a huge wind break of trees around the house and that means one good thing in the summer, shade!  Shade is not very conducive to a productive garden, so our old garden spot is no more.

As many of you know, we leased out 5 acres to a young couple for the past 5 years.  They had a huge garden.  I had the pleasure and good fortune of walking out the door and north of the wind break to pick anything I wanted from their garden.  This year they are actually growing on their own land.  I am happy for them, but I miss the life and activity at the garden spot.  They were here yesterday to dig some herbs and remove the sprinkler pipes.  It was melancholy for both Jacy and I.  I wasn't home until they got ready to leave, but it was nice to see their pickup at the field again.  Jacy said she and her helper reminisced  about last year and past years there in that spot, telling the new intern all about it.  And so begins another chapter in both of our lives.

I feel as though I am relearning everything about gardening.  I've been reading and talking with successful gardeners and gleaning tips on growing.  When I was in jr. high and high school, I had a lot of inside plants and they all flourished.  I have grown a successful garden, but it has been a lot of years!  I feel like it's a maiden voyage!  I am nervous and excited at the same time.

We've been having some nice, spring rains here.  As the temperatures warm up, that only means one thing, mushrooms, namely morels.  Our son is a mushroom head.  He loves to eat them but loves to hunt them even more.  He's got an eagle-eye for them and can spot the smallest of mushrooms several yards away.  It's amazing!  We are hoping to reap some of the fruits of his labor soon!

Well, I am off to plan out my garden!

It has been a very busy time here!  The sun has finally come out and warmed the earth.  Things are popping out of the ground, out of their eggs and out of their mothers around here!

On Friday night, May 2, around 9:00 pm, the pig's water broke.  Just after midnight she had 3 piglets.  Just before noon she gave birth to her 12th and final piglet.  Two were born dead and a 3rd didn't survive.  I still am not sure why, because it was the middle of the night and I was asleep in my nice, warm bed.  My husband, Chris, was out with the pigs in the cold, night air!

So, we have 9 little piglet from our first gilt.  This is a first for us.  Here are a few!

As the piglets were being born, they turkey eggs also started to pip in the incubator.  This whole thing has been nothing short of a miracle here.  I am in constant amazement when I look at them.  Out of 12 eggs, 6 hatched.  They marbles are to encourage them to peck at the food!  They like shiny objects.

We had actually never named the brown sow, but since she gave birth in the dark of night (pigs usually do) and the turkeys began to pip the same day, her name is now Gladys.

Once again the valley is white.  We just can't seem to get past this winter weather this year.  Tomorrow is May Day and it doesn't look a thing like spring around here.

I have some good news on the bum lamb front.  He has gone to a Montessori school where the kids will love them and take good care of him.  I think he and the kids will be in 7th heaven.  The woman who came to get him is a Veterinarian, so he will have the best care.

I took these shots on a sunny day last week.  I love to watch the lambs sleeping in the sun.  They remind me of an old man nodding off.  Their heads will bobble back and forth and finally they give in and lay flat out on the ground, soaking in the sun.  I think it's very intoxicating to them!

Finally, 2 days of sunshine!  It doesn't take much of it to perk people (and animals) up!  It's so much nicer for the baby lambs when the sun is out for a while, rather than have them mucking around in the mud and damp ground. 

My little guy who had the bout with the runs has not been accepted back by his mother.  She only lets him nurse if I hold her or if he can sneak it.    I have always wondered why they call a bum lamb a bum, but I can tell you, he definitely bums a drink off of anything that might have one!  He even goes looking at the wethers and the wether goats!  He doesn't know better or care, for that matter.  He's just hungry.  He seems happier out there with the animals, so that's where he is now, but I have been bottle feeding him. 

Here he is enjoying a rest!

What mother chould resist this little thing?  His!

The calendar says spring.  Here in Montana it is anything but!  They say we have 9 months of winter and 3 months of company!  This year, I am afraid it's going to be true.  We've had 7 months of winter weather so far.  It is snowing again right now!  It's just after 1:00 am and I just came in from the barn.  A ewe was having twins and I hung around to make sure everything was okay.  I will go back out and check on things when I am finished here.  I have one ewe left and then I will be finished lambing.  I will be glad to be finished because it's always a worry, but I really hate having these little lambs on the cold, wet ground.  That's when sickness rears its ugly head.  I will just hope for the best.

One of the boys born yesterday, a twin, developed the runs and wasn't getting better.  I just kept an eye one him and thought I'd wait it out.  That's my general M. O. anyway.  This morning towards noon his stool was getting lighter and lighter.  White stools are not good, so I called a couple of friends and wound up taking the lamb to town with me for some Kaopectate.  I had to take him along because I needed to be at the shop in the afternoon and I simply didn't have time to run in and run back home again, besides I really thought he might be getting too much milk and that was part of his problem.  I left mom and brother in the jug.  (That's a small pen.)  When I brought him home just after 5:00, the mom wasn't very accepting.  She's still not.  I've had to pin her up against the wall to let the little guy nurse.  I am hoping that once he gets her milk back in his system and the Kaopectate leaves, his little hind end will smell a lot more like his brother's and she will accept him again.  We shall see.

Here's a picture I took on April 8.  Although I am sick of the snow, it can be very beautiful.  For one thing it covers up all of the trash..................but that's another story.  I fear it will look the same as this picture when I get up in the morning.  The flakes are coming down!

Morning update:  The snow is still falling.  It's not nearly as beautiful as the picture above for three reasons.

1.  There's more snow.

2. There's NO SUN!

3.  I am SICK OF THE SNOW!

Especially lambs!  I had 7 born today.  That's a lot for me.  I only have 2 ewes to go and then I am finished. 

The weather her continues to be ugly.  Snow, wind, cold temps.  The other morning it was 11 degrees or some ridiculous thing!  It's making everyone crabby.  We're all over it!  Come on sun, please just shine!  I do have one friend who said, "With each new snowflake brings the promise of spring!"  That was an interesting way to put it and the first positive thing I've heard about the snow!

Did you get to see the full moon Sunday?  It was beautiful.  It still amazes me that we can all share it!

Things are crazy busy around here.  Most days I'd really like to sleep in, but the lambs call!

I took some pictures of my little chocolate lamb twins this morning.  They were born yesterday.  The boy was so tiny.  As it turns out, he died this evening.  Poor little bugger.  I am not quite sure what the problem was.  I found him just lying limp tonight when I got home.  I tried to warm him in the house and get him going, but he just was too far gone.  It's always a bummer when you lose an animal.

I wish the weather would just straighten up.  We had rain and then snow last night and today.  I have puddles in my field.  I am sure that doesn't help the lambs one bit. 

First off, the turkey hen has decided to set.  That means she is setting on her nest under the back steps.  I am a little nervous about the location, since it's the door everyone uses and the turkeys are very protective.  Oh well, it's just for 28 days, but I may need to put up a "beware of turkeys" sign!  I am going to put her other 7 eggs under her today as well as attempt to enhance her nest a bit.  There's not much nesting material under there and I am afraid, with it being on concrete, the eggs may break. 

Also, about the aluminum cans.  I think I've written here before that about my ultimate pet peeve, litter.  Montana passed a law last year where you may not drive with an open container of alcohol in your vehicle.  Does it stop people?  No!  It only increases the litter!  They just throw the cans out of the window!  We have noticed a huge increase in cans laying on the side of the roadways.  I HATE LITTER!  It just galls me!  I've been known to stop and look in a bag of trash and get a name so I can call the sheriff's office and report it.  I've done it more than once.  A neighbor of mine sends me latex gloves to keep in the car just for that purpose.

With all of that said, I would pick up the trash on the roadways too, but I have no place to dump it in the end.  It would fill my own trash can and then some and I am just not willing to have piles of trash around here until I can get it to the dump.  It kills me to leave the trash behind and only pick up the cans, believe me!  So for now I will do my small part, WHEN IT QUITS SNOWING!  UGH! 

So my total for 1 month (actually just 5 evenings) was 335 minutes of walking, or 5 hours and 35 min. 

March 9, 2008 90 minutes,  2 grocery bags full of aluminum cans (plus 2 bags of garbage!)

March 10, 2008  70 minutes, 5 bags of aluminum cans!

March 11, 2008 50 minutes, 1 large white trash bag of crushed cans!

March 12, 2008 35 minutes, almost 1 large white trash bag full!

March 14, 2008 90 ,minutes, 2 large white trash bags full +

My husband was heading in to the recycler today, so he took my cans in for me.  My grand total was $22.50.  Alumunum is now 50 cents a pound.  I made over $4/hr. walking the ditches.  My husband thinks I should calculate by the mile instead of the hour and it would look really good! 

Now, to start all over again!

I will try to simplify this story for you.  It goes back a few months to when a man came in to the shop and asked if I'd be interested in some framed prints and things they were cleaning out.  I told him I would and so he brought them back in.  I purchased them and we visited about their plans of preparing their home for sale and moving out of state.  As it turns out, they had already taken 3 pickup loads to the dump.  Included in those loads was a bear collection and a doll collection.    He said, "You don't even want to know what all we've taken to the dump!"  That's when I told him he was right and I didn't want to hear any more.  It just makes me sick.  Think of the charities that could've benefited from those collections!  UGH!  I begged him to stop at the shop on his way to the dump the next time. 

That brings us up to yesterday morning!  He stopped and told me he had a couple of things he thought I might be interested in.  I went out to look and one was a beautiful stained glass mirror, made by his wife's mother.  The other thing was a stained glass lamp, also made by her.  They were both just "ridin' high" on the back of his flatbed pickup.  He did have it tarped.

Along side these items were several black plastic bags and some rubbermaid containers.  I asked if it was all going to the dump because I could put the containers to good use.  Then I asked what was in the black plastic bags.  He told me he didn't know because he wasn't allowed to look.  I said, "Ok, I will!"  The first bag I opened contained a doll.  I asked him to set that bag on the sidewalk and told him I would take care of it for him.  The next bag I opened was a bag of board games.  LOTS of board games.  The list just goes on.  There were probably 6 bags total.  I am constantly amazed at what people will just throw away!

My lesson in patience for the month!  I put the 12 turkey eggs in the incubator Sunday.  Now I have become  obsessive about checking the temp and the hygrometer readings!  Every time I walk by I have to take a peek!  I am so glad this thing has a plexi-glass door.  It's not that anything is going on in there just yet, it's just the fact that you can see in.  This thing turns the eggs automatically.  It rotates slowly over time.  Now we just hope the power stays on for the next 26 days.

The very first thing I did was break the themomter.  It's the old fashioned glass kind.  Naturally they don't make that kind any more.  I am currently using a digital cooking thermometer.  I will definitely replace the one I broke with another.  As I told the friend I borrowed it from, I am not in the habit of returning damaged goods.  He says it's not necessary to replace it, but for me it is!

I have found more treasures in the trash!  I will post as soon as I can get the pictures on!

Also, I started lambing yesterday!  One very sweet little snow-white girl!  She was already cleaned off and up running around when I got home.  I just love that!

We awoke to 14 degrees above zero this morning.  I don't know of a single soul here in Montana who is not over winter!  Enough already. 

Our snowpack is already at 108% of the last 10 year average and 161% above last year.  That's every mountain range in Montana.  I am sure they'll still be screaming "DROUGHT" at some point.

The snow and the cold are worrysome.  I haven't started lambing, but often a spring storm will bring on the lambing.  That hasn't been the case yet.  I obviously got my timing way off, because I have written on March 27 on the calendar as "start lambing".  I guess you know who's boss around here.  Not me.  I checked on the chicks this morning and all is well.  I have lost 3 so far, so we're at 24 for the head count.

The sheep are not the least bit concerned with the weather, even with their newly shorn hairdos.  At one point the majority of my sheep were clear out in the pasture in the snow storm.  Here are 6 wethers.  The 3 in back were sowing their oats and head-butting each other.  The 3 in front came running when they saw me.

The goats, on the other hand, prefer to stay inside when it storms!

I am sitting here looking at sunshine!  I hope it holds for a while.   I got my cold frame planted on Friday and I am hoping for some warmth to sprout those little seeds!

Very egg-siting!  A full dozen!  I've got the incubator up and running and I am hoping to put the eggs in tomorrow.  It takes about that long to get it regulated for temperature.  I want to make sure it's all done right.  A scientist I am not and for me to be fiddling around with thermometers, thermostats and hygrometers is simply not my style!  You're never too old to learn!

Notice the jumbo egg on the left!  I am sure it has 2 yolks.  I will be surprised if it doesn't!  I'll keep you posted!

Here's the mother hen who has been doing all of the laying!

Here are all 3 turkeys.  The big one in front was a freebie.  All were supposed to go into the freezer, but here we are!  (If you look close to the left of the turkey above, there's a white rooster sitting on a brooder box.  He was the lone escapee who managed to avoid execution back during butchering!)

One more little chick dead this morning.  :-(  I still have 25 though!  That's not uncommon, as I have said before, but I still hate loosing any!

On a lighter note, I finished a needle felted bird I have been working on.  As with most of my creations, I've had the notion rolling around in my head for a while now.  It's fun to see it come out in true form!  I am talking about a Magpie!  Click on my etsy shop to see the pics.

The turkey has laid 9 eggs.  Number 8 was HUGE, probably a double yolker!  We'll see what happens with it.  I have ordered the wick for the incubator to regulate humidity.  When it arrives I will get the incubator going.  I think the hen will lay one more today and then take a day off like she did last week.  This whole thing has been fascinating to watch.  Each day she lays 2 hours later than the day before!

On the walking/picking up cans topic, I haven't been!  I didn't take the time with company here and then it turned winter again!  We've had snow and wind and cold.  Maybe I can get some time in today!

Baby chicks:  Had a dead one this morning.  It's not uncommon.  I still have 26!  They are very happy in their brooding box.

Yesterday, as planned, the phone rang early.  The man at the post office was calling to let me know my chicks had arrived.  That was obvious by the chirping in the background!  It always amazes me that 25 newborn hatchlings can travel such a distance and be so vocal the entire trip.  They all arrived alive in their speical little box. 

I have a routine I do with my chicks when they first arrive.  I smear vaseline on their little butts to make sure their downy feathers don't plug them up.  It helps.  Then I dip their beaks in the water and count them as I go.  The hatchery always sends and extra chick as well as an exotic, so I have 27. 

It was COLD here yesterday with a bitter wind blowing!  When I brought the little chicks to their new home I was a bit concerned it would be too cold and drafty.  After getting them settled, I went and gathered a bunch of scrap wool from shearing and plugged every hole and crack I could find.  Then I banked the outside of their brooding box with more wool to protect it from drafts as well.  Great insulation!  I have some bags of it for sale in my etsy shop for nesting material!  It makes wonderful nesting material! 

Spring is always so welcome here in Montana.  Today we have a coating of the fresh, white stuff, AGAIN!  It's been snowing off and on since last night.  I am due to start lambing today, but few look close.  Often a storm or low pressure system will bring on the birthing process.  Nothing yet.

It was fun to do the chores this morning with a fresh blanket of snow.  You can always tell a lot more about what's going on outside by the tracks in the snow.  After milking I followed a chicken's foot prints in the snow all the way outside of the fence and over past the shop to the large 5 acre garden spot.  It stopped at the fence.  There were bunny tracks mixed in and all jumbled together, so I have to wonder what went on before I even dressed for chores this morning.

I could hear the Sandhill Cranes in the swamp, the song birds were chirping and the Canadian Geese were honking.  As I looked back over my shoulder to see what the crows were causing a ruckus over, a Bald Eagle was circling just above them to see what they were dining on.  I really had to stop for a moment and just listen and watch and drink it all in.

The reason I was on a hunt was because I was looking for turkey eggs!  I got home last evening and walked up the back steps only to notice 4 "dirty" eggs under the steps.  I thought it was odd that 4 dirty eggs were left there.  As I looked closer I realized they weren't dirty, they were spotted and must be turkey eggs!  I have never before seen a turkey egg.  I gathered them up and took them inside rather than leave them for a magpie feast.  I placed 2 wooden eggs in their place as "decoys" so the hen wouldn't quit laying there.  I am hoping for more!

Let's go back to the beginning, the beginning of turkeys.  I didn't realize it until I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that most breeds of turkeys do not know how to reproduce anymore.  It has been completely bred out of them.  They are artificially inseminated and then the eggs are taken away to be incubated by machine.  When they are hatched out, they are not reared by their mothers.  It's sad that their cycle has been broken.  

I have thought for a while now that it might be fun to raise turkeys.  I've never even attempted to even raise purchased baby turkeys, so what am I thinking?  I've heard the stories and seen first hand the losses that friends and family have endured due to the stupidity of the little birds.  That's part of the intrigue to me.  That and the fact that my Dad and my Father In-law both raised them in their younger days.  My FIL grew up with turkeys and recently admitted to getting into a lot of trouble for teasing them.  Maybe that's why our Tom doesn't like him!    Years ago, my FIL's family was the only family around who raised turkeys.  This was the place to come for your Thanksgiving bird.  They would nest naturally and raise them naturally.  He's 86, so you can see what havoc man has done in the past 80 years or so.

During my Dad's recent visit he told me the 2 hens I have should be starting to lay anytime now.  He said I need to watch and see where they sneak off to and I will then know where their nest is.  Lucky for me, one of them was literally laying them at my feet.  I have yet to find the other nest.  I have spent most of the day keeping an eye on the turkeys every hour or so.  It's currently 5:30 and still no egg under the steps.  

Here are the 4 eggs I found yesterday.

My Dad instructed me on what to do with them.  He said mark an X on the wide end.  Then mark an X on every other day on your calendar.  They need to be turned every other day, so when there's an X on the calendar, the X should be up on the egg.

I am hoping the turkey hens will lay a full cycle.  This could be 30 + eggs each!  She will gradually lay later and later each day and then stop for 2 -3 days.  He said I might think she's quit laying, but she will start up again and lay about 12 more.  If I want to, I can let her have the last batch and see if she will raise them by herself.  The others I can put under a brood hen (if I have one by then) or put them in an incubator.  A brood hen is one that gets "clucky".  She's wanting to sit on a nest.  She won't be able to sit on as many turkey eggs as she would chicken eggs, because they are bigger and the outside eggs won't stay warm.

I will keep you posted on the turkey egg numbers!

Here's a close up of one!

Annabelle has had more visitors!  Looks who came to see her!

Happy Easter Everyone!

This is a picture of my cousin Jackie, me and my brother, Don.  We always called him Donnie and truthfully, when I am talking about him to my mom, I still do!

We are pictured here in Livingston, Montana at the Sacajawea Park.  They have held an annual Easter Egg hunt for years.  It was a big part of our Easter Sunday when I was young.  That and the pancake breakfast at the Moose Lodge.  This picture has to be over 40 years old! 

The sweater I had on was knitted by my Aunt Ida.  I loved that sweater!  I wish I still had it!  I remember that purse too!  I had it for years and could only use it on Easter!  I also had little white gloves to go with it.  I sure hope there's some candy in that thing and my cousin Jackie didn't hog it all! 

I was looking through a box of stuff today and came across these little chicks.  They were in my Aunt's stuff.  They just crack me up and I thought I needed to share them here!  The chick on the right has a crown and a scepter.

The doiley was made by my Grandma.

Here's a close up of the big one.  I love the pearls around her neck and the tall, pipe cleaner neck.