Goats and Chicks are Growing!

Rosemary and Sage, my newest fiber critters, are doing great. Darrel is being a bit of a butthead to them though. He rushes them and head butts them. They run when they see him coming. I'm not sure how to make him stop but perhaps time will take care of that issue. Once Rosemary and Sage are bigger and have their horns grown in, they could be doing a little payback. Watch out Darrel!

Rosemary

Sage

Doesn't Sage look studly?! He has gotten so much more confident in himself. What a handsome boy!

I have decided not to clip them this summer. I'm going to let their fiber grow all winter and then do a first clip next Spring. They should have a nice, long staple length and they'll stay warm and cozy all winter long in their long coats. I just don't think the fiber is long enough to clip yet and I'm afraid they'll get too cold if I clip them this late in the summer. We could easily have snow in 6 to 8 weeks.

The chicks are growing, too. Momma hen really wants out of the coop/run area but I can't let her out to free range for fear something will kill her or hurt her and the babies are still small enough that even one of the large ravens here could carry them off.

Here is Lovalea (momma hen) with the two chicks. Supposedly the one on the left is a male cuckoo black or gray Orpington and the one on the right should be a black Orpington but I don't know yet whether it is male or female. It is considerably larger than the other one so it may also be a male.

Cuckoo Orpington chick is in back (top/center) Black Orpington chick is up next to momma hen (center of photo) and momma hen is taking a dust bath

Another photo of the two chicks with Lovalea

Closeup of the Cuckoo Orpington rooster - see the bars of color? That is what makes him a "Cuckoo"

I made a video a couple of days ago. You can see what a brat Darrel is to Rosemary and Sage. And the little chicks were so cute running around and peeping like crazy.

Enjoy!

New Fiber Animals Here at Split Rock Ranch!

I love working with mohair in my fiber art. Mohair is the name for the fiber that you get from fiber goats, usually Angora goats. It is silky soft, yet strong, with incredible luster (shine) and slurps up dye like nobody's business. Mohair has gorgeous crimp and curl to it. Below is how mohair looks after being washed, rinsed and dried.

And to show you how beautifully it takes up dye, here are some dyed mohair locks - see that amazing shine?!

I wasn't sure if I could handle goats or not, so two years ago I got two young Nigerian Dwarf wethers (that means they've been "neutered"). Nigerian Dwarf goats are dairy goats, not fiber animals, but I didn't want to deal with the fiber aspects of goats just yet. Well, Darrel and Gladiator have proven themselves to be easy-to-care-for and a lot of fun. So, I recently added two young fiber goats to my little herd.

On the left are Gladiator (front) and Darrel (back) and on the right are Rosemary (front) and Sage (back).

Rosemary is a Pygora goat. Her mother is a Pygora goat (Pygmy/Angora cross) and her father is an angora goat. Rosemary is a gorgeous light variegated silver color.

Sage is a full Angora wether. Both his mother and father are Angora goats. He is a much darker color. His color pattern is called "reverse badger" - he has a dark body with lighter points. He was black and tan when he was first born and has gradually lightened up to the color he is now.

I can't wait to shear these little goats so I can use their fiber in something special. I'm not sure if I'll shear them this year or not. I don't have a barn to keep them in during the winter. They have a shelter but not a barn that I can keep them in if it gets really cold and snowy. So, I will probably wait until next spring and then do their first clip. 

Baby Chicks!

Several weeks ago, I sold three llamas to a young man who raises chickens. He brought 18 hatching eggs for me to slip under my Buff Orpington hen who had gone broody. Since I don't have a rooster, the eggs my hens lay aren't fertile so I felt badly that she was sitting on eggs for nothing. I would take the egg out from under her daily but she kept sitting, so I asked if I could please get some fertile eggs for her to hatch out. I am down to two hens now. The dadgum fox killed all my other hens! The incubation time from when a hen starts setting on eggs until they hatch is 21 days. I slipped 4 or 5 eggs under her on Saturday night, June 8th, just to be sure she didn't reject them, and the remainder of the eggs I slipped under her 4 and 5 at a time throughout the day on Sunday, June 9th.

The first egg hatched out some time on Saturday, June 29th, but the chick was dead. There was still quite a bit of yolk, etc in the egg so I think perhaps the hen pecked that chick out too soon. The second egg hatched out that Saturday but died a few hours later. I think momma hen accidentally smothered the poor wee thing.

Here is a photo of the first chick shortly after it hatched. Momma hen turned into Ninja Chicken whenever I tried to pick up the chick so I had to get a photo of it tucked underneath her wing.

The next morning, there was one chick already hatched out and a second one almost hatched out. Those two chicks survived and are doing well. Here are photos of the two surviving chicks, taken when they were one day old.

The young man who gave the eggs to me said the first chick (the darker one with the yellow spot on its head) is a male Cuckoo Orpington and should mature to be gray with black stripes. The second one is most likely a Black Orpington and I won't be able to tell what sex it is until it feathers out and is more mature. I'm hoping that the second one is a hen and not another rooster! I will keep them both, regardless. I guess I'll have to order more live chicks through our feed store if I want more hens this year. But, next year, with at least one rooster in the flock, we should have more eggs to hatch out and expand the flock!

Its been a very busy summer!

I haven't posted anything on here for weeks. Far too long... and I'm sorry. I seem to be pulled in twenty different directions all at once and cannot seem to get into a routine that works for me and still get everything done that needs doing around here.

In my last post, I showed you the greenhouse we installed. I got lots of herbs and vegetables planted in the greenhouse, as well as in a protected area outside the greenhouse to the east and north where the deer can't get to the plants. I swear the deer eat everything around here, including "deer resistant" plantings! Inside the greenhouse I have midget carrots, oregano, marjoram, cilantro, basil, leaf lettuce and mesclun started from seed. I also planted fennel, dill, celery and kale in with the leaf lettuce seeds. I used fiberglass wedge shaped planter boxes from an old round dome greenhouse that an old neighbor gifted to us years ago but we never got it put up because we were afraid the winds and snow here would collapse the structure. But the planters are perfect for the greenhouse we just built. We filled them with composted llama manure and everything is growing like crazy! Here is what two of the planters looked like right after planting the established plants and sowing the seeds.

And here is what these same planters look like a few weeks later. The red watering can is in the same location and you can see how huge the plants have gotten and how much the seeds have grown!

Also take note of the jars in the background - I have been using the greenhouse to solar dye fibers. I filled the jars with washed Border Leicester fleece, added citric acid (sets the acid dyes I use) and then filled the jar with warm water and sprinkled dye powder on top. I stirred the dye into the fiber with a bamboo chopstick, put the lid on it and set them in the greenhouse for the day.

Here is what those fibers looked like after I rinsed and dried them. Aren't they amazing? I love solar dyeing!

Here are more photos of the plants inside the greenhouse. I have Roman Chamomile, German Chamomile, Grapefruit Mint, Chocolate Mint, Cilantro, green pepper, tomatoes, several types of basil, stevia, ginger and a couple of miniature rosebushes, as well as a Martha Washington geranium.

  

The plants have grown even larger since I took these photos so I'll need to get new photos taken.

More about the new angora and pygora fiber goat babies and newly hatched chicks in my next post!

Wishing everyone a safe, fun and relaxing long holiday weekend!

Our new greenhouse is up!!

We've been busy around here lately. We recently purchased a greenhouse from costco.com and it was delivered on Tuesday, May 7th. We had to tarp it and let it set for a few days while it rained. I'm not complaining about the rain because we need it so badly. I don't want another wildfire summer like last summer! Hubby had Friday May 10th off from work because he worked 16 hours on Monday of that week, so we started putting the greenhouse together. Holy crackers! 56 pages of instructions (that's on copy paper sized paper!!!) and a gazillion pieces and parts. O...M...G... We managed to get one end of it built that day before it started raining again. 

The next day we had a llama club meeting to attend and were gone all day. We went to a friend's ranch and looked at their angora and pygora goats (goat babies!!!) - but more on that in another post (I picked out a doeling and a buckling and hope to get them next month!)

Sunday was Mother's Day and our son-in-law offered to come up early and help with the greenhouse. Our daughter wanted to take some of her Breyer and Peter Stone model horses out of the closet of what used to be her bedroom but is now hubby's home office, and take them to their house. Woo hoo! Closet space! So, while we worked on packing up her things and hauling them out to the truck, the guys worked on the greenhouse. The plan was to work for a few hours and then head down the mountain to Colorado Springs to my parent's house to wish my Mom a happy Mother's Day and take a plant to her (Asiatic Lily in a gorgeous shade of persimmon, by the way). But, they got to a point in building the greenhouse where they felt they were committed to finishing it so that the wind couldn't destroy it before we had a chance to finish it. Our daughter and I went out and helped remove the protective plastic off the panels so the guys could install them into the walls and roof. We managed to get it finished! At least to the point where I could move a few plants out of my studio here in the house and into the greenhouse. 

Here is how it looked when it was almost finished.

The greenhouse has shelves the full length on both sides.

This gives me double the growing space in the greenhouse! I can put smaller potted plants on the shelves and larger pots on the ground below. Years ago an old neighbor in Colorado Springs gave us a fiberglass dome greenhouse which we never had a chance to put up and after years in the high altitude sun, we figured it was too frail to withstand the winds and heavy winter snows so we decided not to even attempt to put it back together. However, there are 12 fabulous fiberglass wedge shaped planting boxes that fit perfectly underneath the shelves. I'll get pics taken of those soon. We put those in today and I planted the remainder of the herb and veggie plants we purchased and most of the seeds. 

On Monday afternoon, we went to the hardware store and bought anchors so that we could secure the greenhouse frame to the railroad ties that we used to make a foundation for it. Once that was done, we removed the boards that we had placed on the ground and I started moving plants, pots, stepping stones, garden tools, etc. from a variety of places around the house and ranch. 

We planted lots of herbs: basil, feverfew, lemon balm, valerian, lemongrass, dill, cilantro and fennel - and veggies: kale and celery. Then today I planted garlic, shallot and red onion bulbs. And lots of seeds: lettuce, short carrots, mesclun mix, basil, chives, cilantro, sweet peppers, oregano and marjoram.

There is a 4'x4' area in front of the greenhouse that is filled with composted llama manure (the best soil and fertilizer ever!). We're going to put up lattice-work panels and will plant beans, cucumbers and peas and train them up the lattice. This will protect them from the deer, who tend to eat everything in sight around here! 

We had one tomato plant last summer that I grew in a large pot on the deck. By Fall, it still had green and almost ripe tomatoes on it so we brought it into the house and put it in my studio, which is actually what the house plans call "the breakfast room" off the kitchen. It has lots of windows and is in the northeast corner of the house so the lighting is pretty good. Apparently tomatoes love early morning sun. I assumed that we would pick the tomatoes once they were ripe and the plant would die off. I picked the tomatoes as they ripened and kept watering the plant. It kept growing. Then I noticed that it had blooms on it. And, a few weeks ago I noticed little green tomatoes. When I took a closer look, here is what I found.

In the last photo, take a close look and you'll see a bunch of green tomatoes! We were going to attempt to move the plant into the greenhouse but after looking at it closer, I realize that there is no way to move it without breaking off branches, which would be a shame since it is doing so well where it is at right now. I have some cherry tomato seeds which I'll just plant in a container in the greenhouse and see if we have any luck with them out there. 

And here are a few shots I just took of the plants in the greenhouse. We're going to be eating really well this summer! I can't eat anything but certified organic lettuce and leafy green veggies due to the pesticides that are used. I am so excited about being able to eat a salad again!

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed the greenhouse tour!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Oh look, Dad, Mom's watching us.

I know, let's do something crazy!

Okay, I'm a ferocious wild animal! See my gnarly teeth?!

Good one, Dad. High five!

Happy Vino Day - I mean Valentine's Day!

 Its Valentine's day, and that means a bottle of vino or champagne! I've created some wine bottle cozies to spice up the bottle and provide a layer of thermal protection. Above is a champagne bottle cozy in mossy green. Below is a wine bottle cozy in the same yarn with a fabulous handspun art yarn made from Wensleydale wool locks in a coordinating color.

 And then another wine bottle cozy in vineyard colors of purples and greens with a faux fur eyelash yarn around the top to dress it up a bit.

These bottle cozies are hand crocheted and then felted in the washing machine. The trim is added after the cozies have been felted and dried. They are all available in my ArtFire store here.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Was there a fox on the hen house?!

This morning I went out to do chores - feed the horses and llamas and check the water for ice, etc. The last thing I do before going back into the house is let the chickens out of their coop/run. I make sure that they are all in the fully enclosed run every night so that predators can't get them. I lost a chicken in December after running to Colorado Springs one afternoon and we didn't get back home until after dark. Something had gone into the enclosure where we have the chicken coop/run and we found feathers everywhere. My Rhode Island Red chicken was missing. We never found her.

This morning, when I went out to open up the coop and run doors, I discovered paw prints on the TOP of the coop. I'm not sure what they are from but I suspect a fox.

Here is what the coop/run look like.

 One door of the coop opens up outside the fully enclosed run.

The other door opens up into the fully enclosed run.

This morning I discovered this

These prints are on top of the coop roof. The tracks that run from the top right to the bottom left are bird tracks (the wild birds love to get into the chicken run to eat the seed I put in there for the chickens.)

Here is a close-up of one of the paw prints

And, an even closer view, color and contrast enhanced to show better definition

The enclosure that has the chicken coop/run in it is fenced on three sides with no-climb field fencing. The gate has chicken wire lashed to it and a board is sitting over the bottom of the gate. However, the fourth side is hog panels so a fox could probably get through there but they would have to go through the entire pasture where our female llamas are to get to that section of fence. The female llamas' pasture is also fenced with no-climb fencing completely around it, however it has a 10 foot gate that a coyote or fox, etc could easily go through.

I measured this particular paw print - it measures 2-1/2 inches across at the widest point and 3 inches from back to front.

I suppose it could be a tom cat print - there is a huge orange tabby tom cat that roams the neighborhood. But, I suspect a fox. Anybody else care to venture a guess??

By the way, the chickens were all safe and sound in their run this morning. Last summer we put bricks all the way around the entire run because a skunk(s) kept digging underneath and getting into the run to eat the chicken's feed. The poor chickens were scared to go into the run at night and were going to roost on the hog panel fencing for the night (NOT safe!)

Here are all four of my hens - they were no worse for the wear this morning