First Spring Kids 2011

This has to be the best time of the year. There is an air of expectation. It is like Christmas but just warmer. Our sweet Bella is now a mother. It seems like just a day or two ago she was that little kid being bottle fed in the kitchen. We try to stay as close to home as possible with the sheep and goats having babies. However, work does get in the way. It pays the bills so I am very thankful. But I have to leave the babies! Oh to win the lottery and pay off all of the bills and stay home. Oh, sorry. Lost in a daydream. Back to BABIES! We came home and Bella was all done. She had a little doeling we named Molly and a buckling we named Ernie. After all of that work a new mother deserves warm water with molasses to give those cells some energy and get that colostrum flowing.

Here is Molly with her ears still wet. We toweled her dry and put all under the heat lamp to warm up.

Ernie poking his head out to get a good view of his new world.

After a couple of days it was warm enough for the kids to go out. We still had snow on the ground but the temps are rising.

Little Molly is curious of everything. She seems to be a bit more brave than her little brother.

There is always the chance that the new mother may reject the kids and refuse to nurse them. We weren't sure how Bella would react. She was taken from her mother immediately and bottle fed. Nature took over and we are happy to say that Bella is an exceptional mom.

She talks to her little ones. I love the little eenh eenh sounds they make to each other. Our buck Teddy is the proud father. That means that Isabella our Nubian is now a grandmother on Mainely Ewes Farm. And the saga continues.

Much Love and Prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm.

Happy 30th Birthday Sue

This past week I took a small trip to New Hampshire. There was a very special occasion. My daughter Sue was turning 30 years old. How did this happen? It seems like only a few years ago she was turning 10. It is amazing how fast time goes by. I remember sitting on my grandmother's front porch, swinging back and forth, and her giving me little pearls of wisdom. She would say that time goes by faster as we get up in age. Now I truly believe her. At that time in my life the biggest wait I had was summer's arrival. Many years later and time rather zooms past now. It is so important to experience and treasure our memories. Travel always depends on weather in our neck of the woods. NH is about a 3hr trip and the weather was threatening snow showers. No problem with my truck. Up early that morning, coffee in hand and away I went. Interstate 95 is a bit boring. The scenery improves greatly when you take the back roads. New Hampshire is a state rich in history with many woolen mills which used hydro power in years past. Salmon Falls damn still exists and has been made into a park. It looks much better when the sun shines. Here is the damn with an iron train trestle bridge. The current looks so dangerous and gives you a certain amount of respect for the water.

True quality American workmanship at it's best. The snow was really starting to fall.

These are the Salmon Falls Woollen Mills. Now it is filled with artists shops. But, thank heaven it is still standing. Many mills still remain in the Northeast area.

Sorry for the mirror in the middle of the picture. Dover, NH still has a Mounted Police Unit. I didn't think they would take kindly to me stopping in the middle of the road to take their picture. Not with traffic behind me.

Susan and I took a tour of the countryside. We had to stop for cows crossing the road.

And people pushing cows across the road. Brookford Farm is an organic farm in Rollinsford, NH. I love this place. Sue plans on getting chickens and vegetables there this summer.

And more cows. I love rural life.

And Happy Birthday Sue! What do I get for my daughter's 30th birthday? Why the same thing I got for her 9th. A shiny new bicycle.

I had a wonderful trip and enjoyed each and every minute with her. Making memories. Keeping in touch. Making my heart happy. Love you girl....ah woman. sniff sniff.

Much Love and Prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm. sniff sniff

First Lambs of 2011

The long awaited time has arrived. We have our first lambs of 2011. Our sheep are Icelandic with beautiful wool and horns. This past November we let Echo into the ewe pasture to work his magic. This is the ram we picked up January 2010 from Terry Carlson at http://redbrickroadfarmsheep.blogspot.com/ Echo has such a sweet and non aggressive disposition. This is Esther with her little ewe lambs. Icelandic sheep mostly twin or triplet. Esther too has a sweet personality and a voice like Ethyl Merman.

We are happy to introduce Beatrice at 7 lbs and......

and her twin sister Bernadette at 6 3/4 lbs. Bernie has a white spot on the top of her head so for now we can tell them apart.

They both got their BoSe shot (vitamin E and Selenium) and navels dipped in Iodine. They have a "what the heck" look on their faces. They nursed right away. The cutest little tails wagging with happiness

We didn't expect them for a few days, however they had different plans. I opened the back door and heard a little lamb baaaaa and yelled "Ted we got lambs". It was a wonderful surprise.

Now it truly is spring on Mainely Ewes Farm.

Functional or Art or Both

Memories are what give you that warm fuzzy feeling inside. It is funny how certain smells bring back memories of loves ones and time spent around the dining table. To me, those memories are what ties us to the past. The truly make us who we are. My paternal grandmother loved to cook and my father loved to eat. She made the best lamb chops I have ever had. I never called her granny, grandma, or Nana. She was always Grandmother or Grandmother Hough. She was a southerner through and through. She even ironed her sheets! She was a lady. While visiting with my daughter, Sue, this past week we took a trip to the Kitchen store in Newington, NH. I love that store. I found this cornstick pan from Lodge. I got a warm fuzzy feeling just looking at it and my mouth began to water thinking about the cornsticks from my childhood.

My mom brought me this big bag of Alabama cornmeal this past summer. Some people give gifts of towels or jewelery. My mom brought me cornmeal. She knows me very well. I mixed up a batch with the recipe from the label. No sweet cornbread here. Nope, southern cornbread.

Add a little butter and heaven, heaven!

Then the pan becomes wall art in my kitchen. Easily accessible and ready to use.

After all, art is in the eye of the beholder. Better than a Rembrandt in my book. Happy Cooking.

Much Love and Prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm.

Keeping it Local

Each year we attempt a garden. I say attempt here because it is never a true success. The weeds take over on the days that I have to work and the garden disappears. It looks like a sci-fi movie with the weeds growing at warp speed. We love fresh vegetables, salads, onions, pumpkins.....on and on and on. We always had a garden in Florida. My mom worked very hard every day to keep the weeds at bay. They almost have a year round growing season there. They are having fresh strawberries while we still have snow on the ground. Maine has a very short growing season. Most plants are started indoors a couple of months before the ground outside is warm enough to plant. Otherwise they never mature and get caught in the first freeze. I tried to start some seeds indoors, once. The cats had a wonderful time and really appreciated the fresh greens. This year we have a plan. Our plan is to buy fresh organic produce through a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture Farm. We have bought a full share in Parker Produce , an organic farm in Newport, Maine. You can find them at http://parkerproduce.org/ For a fee, they provide a variety of fresh vegetables through out the summer and fall. They use sustainable organic practices without pesticides and poisons. That means fresh salad greens, peppers, kale, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers..........I love a colorful salad. Aren't these little peppers so cute? They are sweet and crunchy.

We will be able to provide our own farm raised chickens and lamb. We also bake our own bread. Last summer I bought this bread machine on Amazon.com and I am in love. The house smells so wonderful with bread baking. I know I could mix, knead, let rise and bake bread from scratch in the oven. However, in our kitchen the temp hovers around 65degrees on some winter days. Not warm enough for bread to rise. There are some improvements that I am very willing to use. This is one.

It always catches me unawares when it starts to bump and thump in the knead cycle.

So, if you aren't able to spend the time planting and growing your own fresh vegetables, do the next best thing. Buy local. Support your local CSA. Always buy local when possible. Keeping the money in state is the best way to kick start our economy. I think China is a lovely place but right now we need help right here at home.

Much Love and Prayers from Mainely Ewes Farm

Visitors to Our Farm

I am fortunate to work with a very special lady Marylee. She is one of our Secretaries in the ICU. She is always helpful, on top of situations and boy can she bake. She brings in goodies all of the time. Muffins, cakes and treats for the staff. She brought in a three layer walnut cake in the other day. Oh My Goodness! She has always wanted to visit the farm. We agreed on St. Patrick's Day and I would make corn beef with cabbage, potatoes and carrots. Mmmm...one of my favorites. Then the plan went to her coming and making soap too. Hey a girls day in. As the way with all well laid plans, everything changes. She received a call in the morning from her daughter in law needing a baby sitter and her son Adam was here from Portland, Maine too. So we made changes and she brought her mom along too. Asalind is a sweet 3 year old with a vocabulary of an eight year old. Very intelligent little girl with wonderful manners. Adam is very conscious of where his food comes from. He is vegetarian and against commercial producers. I agree with him hence we take very good care of our meat animals. The goats kept trying to get Adams hat. "We will give you goatie kisses for that hat."

Ted kept the goats happy with alfalfa cubes.


The chickens are in love with Asalind. She enjoyed feeding the chickens best. The goats were a bit offended.

Asalind learned where eggs came from. The ladys were very sweet and didn't peck the little hand poking around the laying box.

Marylee and Asalind visiting the goats with a barrier. The girls are a bit pushy.

We love having visitors to the farm. They came prepared with the required mud boots and treats. I feel that it is very important for kids to see animals out of cages and happy. We love our animals and they love treats!

Much Love from Mainely Ewes Farm

Happy First Day of Spring

Happy Spring! To some of our southern neighbors it doesn't mean a whole lot. Just a day on the calender. In Maine it is special. A true spring of sorts. The days are getting warmer and longer. The chickens are roaming around the chicken yard enjoying the daylight. The sheep are in the pasture waiting for the thaw. We put our order in for poultry at Murray McMurray Hatchery. I hope this will be the last order that we have to place for laying hens. I get so jealous hearing about everyone's hens "going broody". I think our girls like to party. They lay eggs and leave. None of that setting for these girls. We ordered 30 Buff Orphington laying hens and 2 Buff roosters. I think our roo may need help with all the additional ladies coming. We want chicks. Buffs are suppose to be very good mothers. We will have broody hens. I just know it. Our girls are 3 years old now. In hen years that is middle aged. We need to add some new blood to our flock. Our roo is happy about the additions. See the lecherous grin on his beak! In addition to hens we ordered 15 Bourbon Red turkeys and 25 Cornish Rock Cross broiler roosters. They all should be arriving around May 3rd.

Spring on the farm. We still have snow but it is melting more each day. Just last week there was a snow drift next to the house about 3 ft high.

Thinning snow means......

All of the waste from the wood pile is showing up. Looking nasty, muddy and genuinely ugly. We are still using fire wood and will have just enough. The yard will take a lot of work. It will be lush and green with paeony's, cherry trees, lillys, daffodils all blooming making the landscape spectacular. I can close my eyes and imagine. That is what I have to do for now because it really looks like this........

So Happy Spring to all from a very muddy Mainely Ewes Farm.