Farming in the shade

The first time I heard about the process of "tubing" a lamb, or feeding via a tube, I was slightly horrified. It sounded so barbaric. But watching a weak lamb slowly die is not all that much fun, either.  So, "tubing" a lamb has become one of our strategies for lamb survival--a tool in our toolbox, if you will. It is important that the lamb is not cold--you can tell by feeling the ears. If the lamb is cold, you must warm it up before tubing it.  The three things needed are a chunky syringe, a flexible tube, and some lamb milk replacer (or mama's milk, if you can get it). You'll see in the photos below that the milk is in a standard baby's bottle. The bottle in this case is simply something to hold the milk in.  The Farmer likes to warm the tube in hot water to make it flexible. The thin end of the tube is inserted carefully into the esophagus. The wider end of the tube is attached to the bottom of the syringe. The warm milk is poured ...

I am recovering from a mild case of pneumonia. Having had a mild case, I don't ever want to mess with the real thing. The Farmer, during the past two weeks, worked his tail off. When he works his tail off, he tends to get sick. I suspect influenza (fever, body aches, head and chest congestion). Since neither of these topics is photoworthy, I thought I'd show you some of the things I've added to our etsy shop lately. If I'm really with-it, I'll figure out how to link to the shop. We'll see... Yarn from our Suffolk sheep Socks made by The Farmer from yarn from our Suffolk sheep Cool mittens made by my mom from recycled wool sweaters Roving from our Suffolk sheep Hand-crocheted cotton dishcloths What's new with my readers? ETA: I guess this proves I'm not "with-it". No luck on the linking. To find our etsy shop, click here.

I have spent entirely too much time on cats lately. We are over-run with them, frankly, due to people dumping them and wild ones just wandering over. We feed them, appreciate their rodent-control services, don't pay attention, and suddenly there are 4, 982 of them. Yikes! Last week I brought 7 kittens and 1 mama cat to the low-cost spay/neuter clinic 30 miles away. I paid my money, drove back home, and picked them up the next morning. Kept them in the garage for a few days while they recuperated, and let them all out. All is well, right? No. Several of them have a respiratory virus (common among barn cats, I'm told by the vet at the spay/neuter clinic), and are hacking and coughing and dribbling in a cluster right outside our front door. If nothing else, it'll probably keep the travelling cutlery salesmen from stopping... I was advised to buy the stinkiest canned cat food for them to eat while they're recovering. Apparently, they don't eat if they can't smell. A...