Tuesday, March 13, 2012

This and that around home....

 Hubs built us a new gadget.  I really wanted to put the name of it in the title to my post, but I figured I'd get all kinds of weird comments and spam if I did.  Anyway, this is what we call a nipple bar.  T. built this box out of scrap lumber and then made individual boxes to accommodate the bottles.  He drilled holes in the bottoms so that the nipples would slide through for the lambs to reach.  They can really tug and pull on the bottles so the boxes keep them from sliding around and flying out.  It works like a dream and as you can see, we can feed six bummies at a time!  Hooray for us because we are now feeding 24 bummies!

 Here are the little fellas looking out a fence panel at me.  
Aren't they just the sweetest?

This one must be telling her friend a secret.

  
And since Thimbleanna asked, here is the Mama Sheep.  I would have tried to take a picture of me and the bummies together, but that's rather hard since they love me so much I can't do a thing when I'm in the pen with them. This is my feeding get-up....a sweatshirt over my shirt (to protect it from stink and filth and woolie fuzz and a stocking cap to keep some of the stink and flying milk out of my hair.  It gives me "hat hair" but I don't mind because it also calms down my extra-curly hair a little bit.

 
Now that lambing is behind us, we have started up The Next Big Thing -- calving heifers.  Heifers will be first-time mamas and so they need a bit more watching and tending-to than regular cows who have had multiple calves.  We have them close by the barn so we can get them in easily if they need assistance, and we are keeping watch over them through the nighttime hours too.  I've got the 12:30 a.m. check and FirstSon has the 2:30 a.m. check while Hubs has the 4:30 a.m. wake-up call.  Needless to say, we all hope for a nap time every once in a while.
These are the Ladies in Waiting 
(waiting for their babies to be born)

 
 I took a picture of this granary tonight on my way to the chicken coop.  It sits right beside the coop and a big stack of hay bales.  Way back at Christmastime, FirstSon decided to weld a cross and string a bunch of lights on it and attach it high up on this granary for all to see.  He hasn't taken it down, and I'm kind of glad of it.  I like seeing that cross lit up across the barnyard.  It reminds me, "The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein," and "every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills." (Psalm 24 and Psalm 50)

14 comments:

  1. You are so busy right now!! Wow! I hope you can sneak in a little nap here and there:). The nipple bar looks great...I bet it is a real time saver!! Oh my, those lambs are precious! Your pictures are beautiful.
    I love seeing pictures of you! Jody...you are NOT the Mom of 5 grown children...you look like you are in your 30's!:)

    Hope you have a great day.

    ~Julia

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  2. Love it! Necessity is the mother of ... the nipple bar! I think it is sweet that they love you so much.

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  3. Those babies are so sweet. I like the idea of the cross on the granary all year round. What a comfort to see it and be reminded that God is watching over us all the time.

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  4. Julia, you are a darling. I am what I am. You don't see all the silver streaks in my hair under that stocking cap.

    Leslie, necessity calls!

    Marti, I like the what the cross proclaims across our ranch.

    Thanks, sweeties!
    Jody

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  5. That really is a great invention for sure. I had some non stop feeding frenzy around here since last Thursday. Finally tomorrow all my meals will be out with someone else doing the clean up! Love the photo of you in your feeding get up! Glad you have a crew to share the feedings through the night...

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  6. Cute lambies, and look at you! You are just as I imagined, Jody, so pretty. :) I wonder if I'll be brave enough to put a piccie up soon. I have done before, but whipped it away again, lol! xx

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  7. What a great post (and a wonderful verse to end it with, that goes so well with what your farm is all about!) I do love the pics of the lambs -- what loving faces they have! My brother has lambs, but not as many as you! Thanks for the pic of you -- I don't think I've seen you before :)

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  8. Mama Sheepie! You're looking just toooooo cute! This is SOOOO funny too -- when I was reading your last post about having more than 20 bummies, I'm not kidding, I was thinking in my mind that you needed to make a contraption to hold all those bottles and it looked a LOT like the one that you DO have. When I saw the picture I just laughed! Now I know I'm in the wrong place LOL!

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  9. I feel like such a slacker. That is an ingenius contraption. You should patent it. Such cute little lambs. Too bad they don't stay that cute forever.

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  10. Oh my gosh, that is what I spent so much time doing as a kid, my shift was the same as yours. We would start calving now too. I think your feeder for the bummer lambs is totally awesome. When we would have bummers, we spent so much time feeding one at a time.
    The cows and calves look really great.
    I think I knew I was madly in love with my boyfriend and decided I wanted to be a wife, walking with him checking heifers. :) Best dates we ever had. We still laugh about that.

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  11. For my eyes have seen the Glory of the Lord ( the Cross -- thats what I thought of when you talked of the cross on the barn)

    It takes a special person to be loved by animals and to be a shepherd is just will .... the Lords work... May Jesus guide and keep you in the days ahead.
    Dani fla

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  12. YOU are beautiful, my Jody-friend! Can I borrow the lamb pictures? I'd love to show my students this wonderful image of spring! Those lambs are so darling, I just can't believe it! I have a severe case of lamb love.

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  13. A nipple bar -- what a smart man you've got J! Of course, he got you, so he's gotta be, right? Lovin the little lamby faces and the pretty Jody face most of all!

    G

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  14. The bummies are so sweet! I like your barn feeding clothes. I would do the same. I hope you'll post lots of photos of the new calves too.

    Blessings!
    Deborah

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