Wonder Women

Yesterday was International Women’s Day which I spent being wonder woman here at home.  A week ago I had a csection to birth my beautiful second daughter and I am supposed to be home taking it easy.  Both of my parents are here to help with the farm and watching my older daughter (wonder woman in training) while I am healing and taking care of our newborn wonder woman.

Yesterday after lunch I decided that I wanted to walk out to the barn to check on my animals and move the barn camera so I could better see in the sheep area in case anyone was hiding and having lambs.  We have been waiting on lambs for weeks now and I keep telling myself any day now they will come out!  Upon arriving in the barn we moved the camera and Henley said hello to all the sheep and her barn kitty.  I looked down from bungie cording my camera to the barn (because bungie cords and duct tape will fix anything) to see blood dripping all down my favorite Ewe’s backend.  This was a sure sign that lambs would be arriving any minute.  We brought Henley inside to hang out with my mom and her new baby sister while my dad and I went out to make sure that the lambs made it safely into the world.

As we were shuffling the rest of the sheep out of the stall to give Purl some room and privacy Purl’s water broke followed by her birthing a tail.  Well for those of you that are not sheep farmers my heart sank when I saw only a tail present as lambs need to come out front legs and head first.   All of my sheep are first time moms this year and this is my first year lambing so to say none of us know what we are doing is quite accurate.  After calling my sheep mentor who confirmed that I would have to pull this lamb I put on my Wonder Woman pants and marched out to the barn with all my supplies and my reluctant dad.

After getting everyone settled and gloving up I had my dad hold Purl while I reached in to see what I could do to get this lamb out for her.  I could not get the lamb positioned exactly the way I wanted it since it was so far down the birth canal but I did manage to get the little guy out.  This one was a healthy ram (boy) lamb.  He took a really long time to stand up and nurse most likely from being wedged in the birth canal for so long.  I thought we were done and only having one lamb until Purl pushed out some legs.

Purl began pawing furiously at the ground and laying down and standing up repeatedly.  She pushed out two legs and then part of the body unfortunately it wasn’t a rear end or a tail.  This lamb was coming out front feet first with its head turned back making this one unable to come out on its own as well.  After considerable effort I got this lamb in far enough to turn the head and pull the lamb out.  To no fault of the sheep or myself this little lamb which was a ewe (girl) didn’t make it.

After some time little ram lamb was finally able to stand and nurse with some help.  Purl has not won the mother of the year award as she refused to let the little guy nurse.  We left Purl’s head tied up overnight to try to get her to bond with little lamb and make it easier for him to eat.  Unfortunately between Purl not letting the little guy nurse and stepping on him coupled with him continuing to become colder and weak we had to bring the lamb inside to bottle feed.

Henley is in love with her little house lamb and has been super helpful with feeding the lamb.  We are hopeful that with some tender loving toddler care and a watchful border collie the lamb will thrive and do well.

 

Build A Village

Raising children and running a farm is no easy task. Our oldest daughter is now 2 years old just old enough she thinks she can help and do everything herself. For the last 9 months I’ve been growing her baby sister. As the days grew closer to my due date I wondered how my princess would respond to no longer being an only child. Henley however surprised me once again by being the best big sister ever so far. She takes her responsibility as big sister very seriously! She likes to make she baby sister has a blanket and a binky and is very concerned when she cries.

It’s also time on the farm for lambs so as I was in the hospital with my new born I was watching the barn camera. Henley stayed with my in-laws all weekend and we have the best hired barn worker. It truly takes an entire village to raise a family and I couldn’t be more grateful for all the people who are a part of my families village!

Welcome Audrey Rose Cacia to the family!

Knits

Knitting definitely helps me deal with the ups and downs of farming. I find the repetitive motion very soothing. Here are a few of my recent finished projects! How many of you knit?

Farming is never easy…

Last year was a particularly difficult year for me. I had several losses including my first dog I ever owned, my grandmother, and lastly we lost Purdy at the very end of the year. I had my Labrador since my 16th birthday and she was with me through all my major life changes. My grandmother always called immediately after reading my blog posts and we would talk for awhile about it. I never realized how important that was for me until she was no longer there. We also moved to a new farm this past year. I had so many big dreams for my previous farm and it was emotional and hard for me to let go of those dreams. We have a new farm and have spent the last 6 months or so building new fences and planning our new farm.

The most recent thing that happened was Purdy our livestock guardian llama became injured somehow while out in the pasture. We thought that she was going to pull through but on Christmas Eve she took a turn for the worse and sadly passed. I spent a considerable amount of time in the barn while she was sick which only made me more attached to her and harder when she passed.

We are starting this new year off with my daughters second birthday which was wonderful to see the joy of life on her face. I have started setting up our nursery as our second baby is due in March which is scary but also wonderful. Our ewes are due to start lambing any day now and today was llama delivery day.

I decided Cacia Farms wouldn’t be the same without a llama and today our new boys were delivered! Willie and Waylon will grow up to be our new livestock guardians for our sheep. They are only 1 1/2 years old so they have several months before they can go in with the sheep. In the meantime I will be socializing them and getting them used to all the farm things (this translates to llama snuggling and walks)!

I hope everyone’s new year is starting out as wonderful as mine has been!

Christmas Presents…

Everyone has that place or activity that soothes their soul mine is spending time in the barn with my animals. I find all aspects of it relaxing including cleaning the horse stalls. This morning I was minding my own business cleaning out the stalls and listening to the sounds of my barn. Our barn cat BC Mouser was in the loft growling at some sort of prey he was after. Occasionally I heard Mouser pouncing away upstairs while I was cleaning. I decided to take a short break and go look out at my sheep and horses out the back door. As I was walking under the loft area I get something drop on my head. I thought perhaps Mouser had knocked so hay off onto my head. Well as I reach up to knock it off my head it moved… yes it was in fact alive. Mouser had dropped a half dead mouse onto my head. The mouse was still alive enough to scurry off after I had a small heart attack and got it free from my hood much to Mouser’s dismay. I’m grateful I have a good barn cat to keep the mice under control but I do wish he would keep them to himself!

Purdy Awesome

Our wonderful guard llama sustained an injury a few weeks ago as some of you may know. We have done everything we can to try to heal our llama unfortunately she does not seem to be getting better. She is still eating and drinking and happy so we will make her a small pasture space just outside the barn. This way we can keep a close eye on her in case she gets worse and she will still have lambs to cuddle.

That’s not normal!

Purdy our llama is one of the key members of our farm as she guards our sheep. Tuesday when she came in for dinner we noticed she was a little crooked… as in her super long neck was really wrong. We have put her up all comfy in the barn and have her on the meds we can to help her heal and be comfy. We think she had some sort of trauma but not sure how it happened. Hopefully with time and care she will get better. This was last years farm Christmas photo hopefully she will be all better for the picture this year!

You’re Best Day

My Grandad always said he never remembered his best day of watching tv and horses were the best part of his childhood.  I truly believe every little girl needs a pony in her life and every horse needs a horse crazy girl to love them once in their life.  Growing up I always had a dog to tell all of my secrets to and spend my days with, my dog was my best friends. Henley is going to get to grow up with Dickens being her best friend.  I know that Dickens has had many little girls over his lifetime and I’m sure he could tell some pretty wild stories.

Henley had her second pony ride last night on Dickens. I hand walked him while Jeff walked next to Henley and she of course told him what a good a boy he was and gave him a carrot.  She was grinning ear to ear the whole time and when asked if she was done grabbed he saddle horn and said no one more time. Of course Henley’s dad is going to have to buy her a pony saddle and all the matching gear!

No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle. ~Winston Churchill

All The Stars Aligned

Every now and then the stars and planets align in life and great things just fall into your lap.  Anyone who has met my daughter Henley knows that she is animal crazy just like her mom and dad.  Although we have two horses already they are adult size horses and just not the right fit to be Henley’s first horse.  Well a couple months ago I was chatting with my mother when she asked me does Henley want a pony?  I resisted the urge to immediately scream of course my daughter wants a pony, I thought I better run that by my wonderful loving husband.  Surprisingly my husband was completely on board with getting said pony and actually thought it was a brilliant idea.

Plans started forming as to how and when Henley’s new pony would get here as he lived in South Carolina at the time.  Janet one of my mom’s friends had this pony for her children and he sounded perfect.  Dickens  is a Pony of The Americas pony and is absolutely adorable.  He is in his late 20’s and has had many little girls who have loved him and cared for him.  Janet being wonderful offered to drive Dickens all the way up to upstate New York for us.

Yesterday was the day that sweet Dickens finally arrived!  They didn’t get here until late last night as they were driving and Henley didn’t get to meet him until this morning.  The pure joy and delight on my child’s face when she realized there was an extra horse in the barn and that it was hers was amazing.  Henley immediately pet Dickens and told him he was a good boy, she then proceeded to feed him several carrots.  The gentleness of this pony with my daughter amazed me he seemed to just know this little person is mine and I must take good care of her!  I think that this sweet pony is going to thrive here with my little girl and I cannot wait to see how their bond and relationship grow!

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