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Well, it finally is starting to feel like spring. I realized that I never put up any photos of the inside of the barn with the chicken coop. Also, we have a temporary hoophouse that will come in handy since I've planted 8 trays of seedlings inside the house - flowers, herbs, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, onions, leeks, and even luffa gourds!

I suppose it's officially spring now, but we still have three feet of snow and it was -10^oF this morning, so I still call that winter. The ewes are holding on so our lambs are late. Maybe they're waiting for it to actually be spring. But, around midnight between Friday/Saturday (March 21st/22nd) Jewell had her twins, Othello & Oscar. Othello is the one with floppier ears in the photos, but as of this morning Oscar's ears have now flopped too. Othello is larger and learned how to feed faster than his brother, but both are doing fine.

We have a few new things going on at the Womerlippi homestead this summer. We got some new animals and have two building projects going on.


Abe in January 2007		Abe after being sheared in May
Abe, the ram (or Abraram) - Abe is a pretty mellow fellow, although he has decided that I'm is just another sheep to play with and occasionally tries to ram me.


January 2007	With newborn Nugget in February	After being sheared in May
Tootsie is a black ewe but has a beautiful gray-brown fleece. Tootsie is the bossiest of the ewes - maybe she thinks that being the only one to still have a tail gives her the right to be in charge.


January 2007	With newborn Nellie in February	After being sheared in May
Jewell is the most skittish of the older ewes, although she's gradually warming. She's also the smallest, which is why were surprised when she was the first to drop this winter. Jewell is the mother of Maggie (2006) and Nellie (2007).


January 2007	With newborn Neeps in February	Wanting some attention	After being sheared in May
Tillie is the most pet-like of the sheep. She always wants love and attention and will follow me around like a dog some times. She is also a very good mom and incredibly defensive of her babies for the first few days. I also saw her acting as a nursemaid to Nugget and Nellie, both of whom would sneak milk from her. Neeps didn't suffer though, as you can see from the photos below! Tillie is the mom to Lark (2005), Molly (2006), and Neeps (2007).


January 2007	After being sheared in May
Lark is the smallest of all the sheep. We think she was stunted early in life. We also originally thought she wasn't the brightest of sheep, but after getting all that wool off her face, she seems a little smarter. Lark, like her mom, is very friendly.


January 2007	After being sheared in May
Molly is a very sturdy young ewe and looks like a classic Corriedale. Unfortunately I chose to try to learn how to shear (using dull shears) with Molly. She does not have mange in the May picture, it's just a demonstration of my very poor shearing ability. We ended up hiring a student to finish off the sheep that were left after we gave up.


January 2007	After being sheared in May
After being sheared, Maggie looks just like her mom, although it seems like she might end up being a little bigger than Jewell. She has her mom's same skittish personality as well. Maggie is also one of the more quiet sheep.


Was, and always a big eater	Potbellied by May
Neeps (which is British for turnips that you eat with haggis) is the most personable of this year's lambs. He has his mom's adventurous and friendly personality. Neeps was born in the late morning of February 11. Neeps has a new home with the school sheep and is doing well with his new friends.


February	May
Nellie gave us the least trouble early on, but later suffered from white muscle disease. A couple shots of selenium and some nutritional paste with vitamin E took care of it pretty quickly. Since then she's been trying to keep up with Neeps in the potbelly area. Nellie is more friendly and adventurous than her mom and big sister. I think this is likely due to the influence of Neeps. Nellie was born about 9 hours before Neeps. She'll remain part of our flock.


February	May
Nugget is a tall, lanky lamb. Born a week after the other two, he gave us lots of trouble initially. He was a lazy feeder. Combined with Tootsie's huge and sore udder, it meant that we were bringing him in regularly for tube feedings. Eventually though we got him to feed off his mom and since then he's been inseparable. Nugget is currently for sale if you are looking for a breeding ram.


Maggie was first with Pancho & Penelope	Jewell then had Paddy & Pumpernickel	Tillie had Pongo & Poppy - Tillie had trouble and we had to pull Poppy out
Starting the end of the second week in March, 5 ewes gave birth - 4 sets of twins and one single.


Ricky (a RI red we picked up) and Bitsy fighting over who gets to sit on the eggs	Charlie on the sheep fence


The lambs in mid-June - Poppy, Penelope, Polly, Picasso. Click on the photo of Picasso to see a lamb video.


Despite all the rain, we finally managed to get the sheep sheared. This is Nellie and Tillie, with Poppy looking on in the background, and Tootsie.



We have four pigs this year. We got Van in mid-May. She was a runt and quite abused by her fellow pigs who chewed off her ears and somehow caused a big scratch down her back. We couldn't decide if her name should be Van Gogh or Evander, so we settled on Van. The other three came from a different farm and are Vera (with the left sided tail curl), Ruby (who doesn't curl her tail, but likes to wag it), and Gus (who curls to the right). Click on the photo of the four piglets to see a video of them.


The garden in mid May on the left, and mid-June in the other two. Everything got planted by the second week in June except for most of the basil, which is still in the greenhouse until it gets a little warmer. Potato bugs are already here!


We started seeds in the house in mid-March and eventually they all got moved out to the greenhouse. This year we used a heater in the greenhouse so we could put seedlings out earlier. You'll also notice the ducks in the background . . . they're gone now. Their real owners came to get them after graduation.


Polly & Petey	Picasso, Petey, Polly, Poppy	Poppy already showing she's going to be trouble


Nellie & Picasso - Picasso was fathered by Snorri, a borrowed ram	Molly with Polly & Petey - also fathered by Snorri	All lambs


Lucy, a silly chicken, decided to molt in February and got very cold. I brought her in the house for a few days, but she ended up getting frost bite and lost most of her toes. She seemed to recover, but ended up dying at the end of May anyway.


Harvest has begun. Mick dug about 250 lbs. of potatoes. Tomatoes and cucumbers are coming in daily. Lots of peppers on the plants. We've frozen a bunch of broccoli and have many heads of cabbage. We're still waiting on dry beans and the onions are drying in Mick's drying racks.


I started making cheese! This is a ball of my homemade mozzarella. It's really easy. To see the process, visit my cheese making page.		My new home office and assistants.



This is our new mailbox. My artistic skills could use some development.


Hamlet & Ophelia are getting bigger. Hamlet is managing to do that faster than Ophelia which is partly explained by him hogging the food, but also because he's just lazier. When you call for the pigs, Ophelia will come running but Hamlet takes his time. Also, you can see Hamlet's favorite occupation (besides eating) is to just lie in the mud while Ophelia loves to play in the water.


We've been doing work on the outside of the house. We finally got the last window in the porch which makes the porch really sunny and a pleasant place to spend an afternoon. We shingled what places weren't covered with windows. We also put in a new septic, which meant cutting down a lot of trees on the south side of the house. Mick and our friend Tim spent three days with the tractors getting the septic in. We now have a lot more open lawn space than we expected to. On the south side Mick also did some landscaping making terraced herb gardens. He's planted two roses and some phlox in the lower part already. Mick also had to do some foundation work on the south side when he found some carpenter ant problems. We're planning on putting a plum tree and train it up the side of the house, but since I'm insisting on getting rid of the vinyl siding, I have to shingle this part first.


After much debate, we decided to hire a sheep shearer this year. He did a good job and was relatively cheap. Next year we're definitely going to the sheep shearing school in the spring!


The chicks are getting bigger and are in the chicken tractor now. They're perching now. Our Golden Comets last year didn't really perch until they were quite a bit older. Charlie and Shenzi are spending more time outside. Shenzi would prefer to never come in, but even Charlie occasionally takes a break from his lounging to climb a tree. Shenzi spends all day chasing birds and even climbs all the way up and out on branches to try to get them. At night she chases the very dangerous lightning bugs. We're planning on getting a cat door that goes in your window so they can come and go without us leaving a window open for them.


The garden is doing well. We're battling potato beetles, but seem to have the upperhand for now. We finally managed to get all of our 119 tomato plants caged!


We've also been doing work on the inside. We finally got around to doing something about the bathroom. Mick gutted the room, put in insulation, new drywall, a new window, new toilet, baseboards, and this great tile we got for nearly free from Home Depot's moving sale. I painted. It's a light yellow (the picture with the shower curtain is the closest to the true color. The white framed rectangle is painted with dry erase paint so we can write notes on it.


We got new piglets, Hamlet & Ophelia, who were runts of their litter, but are now doing great. Ophelia is a pretty picky eater for a pig.


Oscar & Othello happily running, jumping, and even climbing . . . all under the watchful eye of big sis Nellie who seems to be the designated babysitter. We also got a new surprise lamb, Oliver. It's Molly's first time as a mom and she did great.


We got new chicks (Buff Orpingtons). Most of these go to some other folks, but four stay with us. Haggis guards them intently. Seedlings in the greenhouse are really taking off!


Here's what the barn looks like now. The chicken coop is about 4' x 4' and has plenty of room for the girls and then some. We used hardware cloth this time. Chicken wire might keep chickens in, but it doesn't keep weasels out! And, the hoophouse on the side of the barn.


George - as in curious. She likes to run and greet you when you come home. And, six of the sheep hanging out by the swing.


Haggis and Mary were the most excited by the arrival of 10 Golden Comet chicks. One died, but the other nine are doing well and are out in the chicken tractor.


Everyone keeps an eye on the chicks out in the chicken tractor. (I'm sure Haggis and Shenzi are having different thoughts about the chicks!). Even the sheep like to keep them company.


The new barn is sited on the north side of the property, near the garden. We had a concrete pad poured for the foundation.


After I pointed out to Mick that his barn was a little too small (he's actually building the chicken tractor there), he made the barn frame in pieces and assembled it all pretty quickly using his contraband nailgun.


The second floor is already being used as a hayloft. Mick made a Dutch door for the back that sheep can use. The barn is just waiting for Mick to finish the gable ends, the front door, and for me to start shingling.


The sheep have settled in and can enter one of their paddocks right out of the barn door. (Tillie likes to get her head stuck through any fence she can.)


The porch at the house was very poorly built. The floor had sunk and the roof was sagging quite a bit. Mick tore out the porch walls and jacked up the roof. The floor was in such bad shape that he just removed all of it as well. (There was even trash under the porch!) The plans are for a stone kneewall, maybe a tile floor, and some large windows.


Haggis (Australian Shepherd) - We got Haggis for free when he was 1 year old (2002). He's not very good at being a shepherd, but he's pretty good at rounding up chickens.


Daisy (Aussie/Malamute mix) - Daisy was 7 1/2 when we got her from the pound in 2003. She is a homebody dog; drools and vomits in the car, gets disoriented on walks and then runs frantically home.


Mary (Redbone Coonhound) adopted us in Virginia (Christmas 2005). She was used for hunting bear and the hunter left her. We found her while hiking St. Mary's falls in the Jefferson National Forest. She still has scars from her encounters and is gun shy now.


Charlie (the black & white) and Shenzi were adopted as kittens July 2006. Charlie was found by a friend in her yard, alone, when he was only four weeks old. Shenzi came from the Skowhegan pound. Charlie is named for Charlie Chaplin because he has a black mustache (which is now more like a goatee) and he's mostly silent, only squeaking once in a while. Shenzi is Swahili for savage; she makes these disturbing growling sounds when she's chasing something. Shenzi is the hunter and climber while Charlie is the lounge cat. Charlie also considers it his responsibility to groom both himself and Shenzi, which he often does while laying on top of her.