purplequeenvt - Ivy Knoll Farm

[purplequeenvt]

We lost little Lucky yesterday afternoon. He only took about an once of his morning milk and wasn’t breathing very well. He had edema on his chest, belly, and one of his front legs.

We were thinking kidney failure induced heart failure, but when I did a necropsy, his kidneys looked ok. They could have looked ok and not worked I suppose. He did have fluid around his heart and in his chest cavity so the heart failure theory still fits.

 

[Baymule]

Sorry that you lost Lucky, it always hurts to lose one. We do all we can, sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. Big hugs.

 

[purplequeenvt]

Thanka

Sorry that you lost Lucky, it always hurts to lose one. We do all we can, sometimes we win, sometimes we lose. Big hugs.

Thanks. It’s a bummer to be sure, but not entirely unexpected.

It was such a good learning experience for my 3yo niece though. She was right there when we necropsied him and she had so many good questions. I’m a firm believer in honesty with kids, especially about hard things like sickness and death.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Very sorry for your loss, it never get any easier no matter how long you have had animals

 

[purplequeenvt]

I spent the day shearing the lambs. I like shearing them at this age because it gives you a good idea of how everyone is growing. That baby fuzz sure can hide stuff. I had a few dumpy looking lambs that look so much better now that they're naked.

Thurso is going to DE to my sister. She's trading me an unrelated ram lamb. I was going to keep Thurso, but I only have a few ewes that could be bred to him.


Thurso's baby fleece


#2001 Derry. He's a chunky monkey.


All naked!


Patti does NOT have triplets. I'm trying to wean Jemima's twins, but apparently when I took their mother away, they latched on to Patti instead. One of the twins has nursed from both Patti and Jemima since the start though.


Since I'm still unemployed (thanks Covid-19! ) and semi-bored (lots to do, but very limited funds with which to do stuff), I've been milking some of the ewes. I've settled on just 2 of them, Tay and Valarie. Not sure what I'm going to do with milk yet, yogurt maybe. I tasted some chilled milk this morning and it was sweet and creamy!

 

[purplequeenvt]

"Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey"


Elliot - moorit (brown) Shetland ram lamb




Derry trying to reach some vines.


Nevis


Esk




Isla is a small, but very correct girl. I'm still wavering between keeping her or not.




We got some little Bacon Seeds tonight. We'd been casually looking for some for a few weeks, but hadn't found any yet. Some of you might remember Shellymay who was pretty active on here a few years ago......anyway, we've stayed in touch and she lives 45 minutes from me. She mentioned that she was looking for a pig and I asked her to let me know if she found any. She found a guy with some and picked up 4 boys (castrated) for us when she went to get hers.

She said that they are Berkshire/Duroc/Yorkshire crosses.


They were pretty shy when we got them set up in the barn, but you can tell that they've been handled a bit because they don't scream bloody murder when they're picked up. We've got to get them friendly and trained to follow a bucket because they're going to be pastured out in the woods around the house.

 

[purplequeenvt]

I've been trying to come up with a new farm name since I moved and I've finally settled on one. My new KY farm/homestead is called "Ivy Knoll Farm".

 

[B&B Happy goats]

I've been trying to come up with a new farm name since I moved and I've finally settled on one. My new KY farm/homestead is called "Ivy Knoll Farm".

That's a very nice farm name, I hope you enjoy your new home at Ivy Knoll Farm for many years to come ...

 

[Baymule]

What a nice crop of lambs. They are looking good. I have been tempted to milk a couple of my ewes......so far, only tempted. LOL I like your farm name, my Mom used to sing that song, thanks for the memory.

 

[purplequeenvt]

The pigs got moved out to their pen in the woods.












All the lambs got weighed this morning. The oldest lamb was the heaviest at 82lbs. Only 1 of the Border Leicesters was under 40 lbs and that was 1 of the ewe lambs. She's not skinny at all, just petite. There was only 1 BL or crossbred ram lamb that hadn't hit 50 lbs yet and he was only .2 lbs off. The averaged ADG for the group (including the 2 Shetland lambs) is 0.566 lb. I'm pretty happy with the group.