Milk And Honey

Last November my three adult does Ginger, Nutmeg and Sugar were bred to Pistol a darling little Mini Lamancha  dairy goat buck. Pistol lives right up the block. He stayed here for about six weeks then went back home.

Ginger and her daughter behind her

Ginger is ready to come out and walk the goats four acre pasture to keep in shape for her April due date. But below Sugar is sound a sleep and didn't hear me while the others were being photographed!

Brown Sugar

Pattie and her Mom Nutmeg

Pattie, Georgia and Mira (black doe behind Ginger) are still looking for their forever home.

Georgia Peach

Sugar was awakened after I called her name, walked out on to the grass and preceded to lay right back down. She must have had a hard night because she is not big with babies yet. All three does are due to freshen in April.

Paula gave me some comb from one of her top bar bee hives yesterday. Instructions were to crush the comb and drain honey out. I want to save the wax also for another project I'd like to make later.

I placed the comb in a paint strainer bag and it's hanging from my kitchen cabinet.

 I've had fun kneading it now and then and licking my fingers, great stuff! I think I'll leave it here over night and clean the wax tomorrow.

Winter of 2013

So far this winter we have had more of our share of extreme weather events.

December 2nd I went out at four in the morning to make sure everyone was alright in the barn after a night of extreme wind. I couldn't find Casey so went out the back door and found our 40 foot spruce tree laying right by the back door. The picture below is what's left of the trunk of the tree. It broke in the wind about two feet above the ground. The other end of the truck was three feet away with the top of the tree on the barn..

Also there is a large Russian Olive tree down. That tree came out of the ground and hit the far end of the barn. There was good news in this event. Between the Spruce and the Olive is the power line to the barn and only a small branch was leaning over it so no loss of power to the house! Casey was alright she was up by the rams barn. She was not going to get near the big tree.

Moses and Heath

Then came the snow. Just before Christmas is started to snow. Between getting one or two inches in a few storms then we had up to eight inches one time and with the cold temperatures we had snow on the ground for over 6 weeks. Very rare for this area. Frozen water every morning and night with the deep snow was no ride in the park.

Angus

The snow is almost gone now only some ice spots on the north side of things and the water buckets stay unfrozen all day. Whoo-Hooo!
Sally the emu has been laying eggs. She has six at this date and last week most of my hens have started to lay egg again regularly. A few of my Easter-egger hens have supplied us with eggs all winter. Just enough to get us and the dogs all we needed. Great chickens!

Starting Over

I've been out of the loop lately. Just not taking the time to blog. I miss having a diary of things that happen here at Desert Peach so I'm going to make a New Years Resolution to blog more often.
Our guardian dog Simon is slowly growing. His body is grown and his brain is just now getting the idea that sheep are not big squeaky toys. 

Casey just turned two in December. I can't believe at this size and ages these dogs can still be puppies. They are just too playful when the sheep are so it's not time to start trusting them to live full time with the sheep. We're getting there!

Last week we had our first great covering of pogonib. I walk the dogs two or three times a day out with the sheep. This morning it wasn't easy to see threw the fence. Simon has a frosted face.

Heading back to the house. In this picture we still have 4-6 inches of snow. Our area always gets snow in the winter but this stuff has been here since before Christmas that is unusual. Most times a good snow will melt before a few weeks pass.

I think the ewe's enjoy the weather when its cold.

2012 Does and Kids

This year I freshened(bred) three does. All mini lamancha's from Paula's lines. Nutmeg had one buck and one doe.

Ginger with some of the kids. She gave birth to triplets, one doe and two bucks.

Megan's doe.

Megan's buck. Ginger's black doe kid in the back.

Ginger and one of her bucks. The other one is in the background.

Another picture of Megan in her show pose.

My third doe is Brown Sugar. Sugar has one buck and one doe. That's her buck with her.

And this is Sugar's doe! I think this is my favorite kid born this year. My Georgia Peach. I have three little doe kids for sale if any one is interested!

2012 Lambs

This years lambs brought a few awesome surprises!One ewe Oma had triplets this year. That was a first for Desert Peach Farm. No ewe here has had triplets.

In my quest for some splashy colors I breed Stonehaven Cielia to her son Desert Peach Clancy and she had these twins. The ewe is the mostly white lamb. Yuglet, Ilget? (Yuglet markings around her eyes with black spots) and her brother looks like Dad with the Bielset marking around his neck and patches of white. .

A big surprise was when Thunderhead Argentina (gulmoget) bred to Desert Peach Rio (katmoget) had this fancy ewe lamb. I'd say she's gulmoget, yuglet with the pinto spots on her body. Since I've never had such colors I could use some help on how to register her and the other fancy lambs from this year.

Here is Rio a grey katmoget. His father Stonehaven Watson (black)Dam WSR Miryah moorit katmoget.

Then Desert Peach Hazel (black iset) had two ram lambs sired by Rio and this is what I got! The first ram is almost HST only minus the T. HST meaning he should have the white Head, Socks and Tail. Brother below is moorit katmoget.

Pretty little ewe lamb from Desert Peach Vala and Desert Peach Moe.

Rio's dam WSR Miryah bred to  Desert Peach Moe had one of my favorite ewe lambs born this year, Lucy a moorit katmoget. I haven't gotten a good picture of her yet cuz she's always on the move!

Two ewe lambs from Desert Peach Kiko and Clancy. Both will fade to grey like their Mom.

Catching Up

It seems like forever since the last post.This winter was warm and dry till this month. We have gotten some rain and snow in February, enough to get the grasses going but not much up in the mountains for the skiers and the water for Reno.
Stating with Simon and Casey my Livestock Guardians. Simon will be two in April. He is now a solid, calm  sweet heart to those he is introduced to, and a force to be reckoned with for any dog or wild predator on the other side of the fence.

Then there is Casey! She was one year old in December still too young to be trusted with the sheep while she is alone. She's the same height and length as Simon but lacks he's over all bulk and mature brain. She is just starting to learn to walk and keep her head down while moving with the sheep. Until the last few months when she greeted the sheep it was a free for all. She truly loves to be with them but she was treating her wooly friends with what I called "reckless abandon". Like in this picture she thinks life is good, full steam ahead  and if "I love you, I jump all over you."

Sally the emu and the chickens are in full laying mode! The first chicken egg was found on Christmas morning. Merry Christmas to me and now I get 6 to eight eggs a day. My older hens, at least five years old, were to first to lay. Then the new hens, my Easter-eggers followed about a week later.
 I'm proud of the old girls and think the kiefer and alfalfa they get each morning is helping with their good health and the large eggs they've been laying this year!

This coming May our spinning and weaving guild was invited to participate in Reno's first "Living History Faire"  to be held at a park in Reno. The Celtic group in Reno has adopted our guild so we will be setting up with them to form a very large showing at the Faire!
I've been felting hair clips or dreds to sell at the Faire. It feels so good to get back into felting again.

Since people participating at the Living History Faire are encouraged to wear "period" clothing my sweet friend Jo is making us some skirts and blouses with the Celtic look, and for shoes I felted these with some Shetland roving and stuck some of my old Birkenstock sandals inside for arch support!  

Fall Color

Sumac Trees

Apple tree

Ornamental grass, Virginia Creeper, and the orange color is a native bush. Not sure of it's name but we call it a Logan Berry. It is not a true Logan Berry but it did come from seed out of Mrs. Logan's yard!

A new area all turned, mulched and ready for garlic. If you biggify this picture you can see some red seed packs on the Asparagus plant. 

This picture was taken a few weeks back. The pumpkins are all orange now ready for Halloween.

 Ash tree and an Aspen Tree.

Ornamental grass.

Pretty little dwarf Cedar next to our house.

 Fall Crocus (Colchicum) are great fun. In the spring large green leaves fill their area dieing back in the hot summer. Come this time of year the flowers poop out. They are always a surprise to me.

Hattie and her lovely  moorit ewe lamb Betty. Shaela ewe is Limerick.