Thursday, February 11, 2010

This and that....

  Cow trails in the snow

The cows have quite a walk every day from their feed grounds to their water tank.  They make interesting trails in the snow. 


Up at the lambing shed there are icicles hanging from the roof.  Can you guess which way the wind happened  to be blowing?  (Hint:  We are facing north in this picture)


I loved looking at them. Isn't it just something how the wind can bend the dripping water and then freeze it into crooked icicles?

We've been busy with the sheep these days.  The super-cold weather broke and for the last couple of days we've been in the low 30's for temps.  What a relief to have a little warm sunshine.  

There have been all twins and three sets of triplets born thus far at the lambing shed.  No singles. However, tonight we checked the sheep and put a ewe and a large single lamb in the pen.  It looks like it may be a single, but who knows?  We may go up and check later on and find a second lamb in the pen.  That's the ways it's been.  No complaining here, but we're sure hoping that the ewes that have triplets will be able to raise them.  

  
This lil guy is our bum lamb.  He was one of a set of twins born to the ewe (from my earlier post)  that didn't have any milk.  Her brother died and we took this one from her mother and are bottle feeding it 4-5 times a day.  Every time we walk through the barn door she bleats for us.  It's her signal that someone is coming with a fresh bottle of warm milk.  We've become her mothers.  If we can, we will graft her on a new mother who has just a single lamb, but we shall see how it all plays out.

In between times, I've been working on my bathroom cabinets.  I have two oak cabinets and one oak closet  that I have all torn down, and I am taking them from a honey oak finish to a red oak finish.  Why oh why did I decide to do this project now?  I don't know, but I've already taken the plunge and I'm working hard to complete it.  There is still painting to do and light fixtures to put up, but I need to finish the cabinets first.  I thought I was going to have to sand the cabinets down to the bare wood which would have been a huge task, but I found another process that spared me all that stripping and sanding. You restain over the existing finish.  It's a miracle!  If you're interested, click here.  I have found that the best results are made on the smaller drawers and doors and that the larger panels of the doors are much more difficult.  I am also restaining the trim around the door and the baseboards to match.  It's going to have a totally different look and I'm excited about it.  I have decided not to work on the cabinets of the downstairs bathroom right away.  They will have to wait until spring or summer after lambing and calving season.


On a children's book note....
I have begun reading The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones.  It is on the night stand beside my bed, and every night before I lie down to sleep, I read a little bit from this dear retelling of the Bible.  The pictures are done by Jago and I find the art simple and appealing.  This is another new-to-me children's storybook that I intend to share with the Littles in my life.  Thank you, friend Joyce from Plain Ol' Vanilla, for telling me about it.

Tomorrow is Granny Day and I'm looking forward to having our lil Hazel Peach come stay all day.  Her mommy and daddy will have a date night and go to the Valentine Dinner at our church.  That means more play time for Grandpa and me!

9 comments:

  1. Those icicles are amazing. I wonder if it would be possible to film the exact moment they froze into place. Wouldn't that be something to see?

    Have a nice Granny day!

    Thanks for the great pictures--I love seeing what's going on outside your house.

    frances

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  2. Sweet little book...and the lamb's little mouth is so cute sucking on the bottle...the ice looks like the cold winds fingers...spooky! Blessing to you and the lambs and their mommies! Have a good valentines weekend and come say hi :D

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  3. Have a great day with your little one. Love the pictures of the ice...they do look like fingers.

    Stay warm!

    ~M~

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  4. Oh, how sad about the little lamb that died. Does the mother appear to miss her two babies? That cute little girl lambie is sure lucky that she has you!

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  5. Oh my look at those icicles!! The little lamb is so cute. I bought that book for my grandnephew and read some to the sections and was moved to tears...

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  6. Hi Jody!
    The lamb = precious, so precious.
    I'm finally catching up - Valentine's Day school stuff and granny days for me (at night!)
    I hope your granny day was amazing!

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  7. Left-Handed Housewife,
    I think part of the formation of these crooked icicles is due to the snow sliding down the tin roof and curling a little as it comes down, but there was surely a wind factor involved.

    Julie,
    The icicles do look like fingers.

    Thimbleanna,
    I'm sure the mother ewe misses her babies, but there's not much to do. The one bum lamb is getting a new mother, but the ewe is not so crazy about this lamb. She may have to do some solitary confinement to decide that she wants him.

    Ellen B.,
    I'm glad you have a good review of the Bible Storybook. I'm lovin' it.

    Pom Pom,
    My granny day was fun and busy. She went everywhere we did....to the barn, corrals, and putting cabinet doors on with Gramps.

    Jody

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  8. Hi Jody,

    Love those icicles! CZ and I were just noticing something similar this week as we walked along the Hudson and got to a pier where the icicles were all curved. We started trying to come up with a theory for why they were that way, and the best we could do was that as each drop came down, the wind blew it a bit to the south and it froze there. Yours look much more dramatic than ours, though!

    I think Sally Lloyd-Jones attends our church, although it being a very big church, I've never met her, only people who know her. Odd, isn't it? At any rate, they use her books in the Sunday school.

    And, as always, lovely landscape, and awfully cute lamb! Keep warm! I admire your industry, as always!

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  9. Laura,
    Hubs mentioned that he thinks part of the curvature in the icicles comes from the sliding mass of snow/ice coming off the tin roof and curling off the edge. Still, I am sure the wind played a part.

    Isn't it amazing that the Sally Lloyd-Jones goes to your church? It seems she couldn't possibly go to any "real" person's church, but sure she does! What a great book for the Sunday Schoolers.

    Thanks for stopping by and making a nice comment, Laura.

    Jody

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