Wesh Farm - Connie's Corner

Missing Luna

2012-01-12T13:37:00.000-05:00

Please share this info with anyone you know in the area. Our Luna has been missing since Wednesday, 01/11/12, evening.

LOST DOG Pittsgrove/Centerton, NJ: Blk/Brown short but stocky mixed breed female

Small, black/brown female dog named "Luna".

LOST OFF of BUCK RD in between Lawrence Corner Rd & Deer Pen Park in the Pittsgrove/Centerton, NJ, area of Salem County, Wednesday (Jan 11th) evening.

She's short but stocky, kind of looks like a Corgi mix (or a black lab with barely any legs), but not really sure. Her rescue said she was a Newfie mix, but she never grew.

Luna is about 7 - 8 months old now. She has a thick coat that's black with some brown mixed in on her belly and hind quarters.

She has no collar, no tags and she is spayed.

Luna loves other dogs, carrying around stuffed animals and is afraid of men/some new people.

If you see Luna or she approaches your dog - CALL!!! It doesn't matter what time ~ we just miss her

609-440-9070 or 856-358-4433

Other photos of Luna:

New Background

2011-06-12T06:51:00.004-04:00

Why the new background? Well, it ("We Can Do It") has kind of been the theme around here now that my dad can't do much.

Even simple tasks either seem to overwhelm him to the point he doesn't even start them and just walks off or he gets too distracted to even get half done, like filling up the horses' water troughs or going to get something in particular for my mom. In all honesty, the most peaceful for all things we can get him to do are sit in his room (where he's covered almost ever inch of wall space with old photos that he's put in definitely not the right size frames) or sit on the bench out by the lake (which is not a bad view and gets him walking some).

Anyway, like I was saying, the new background is for the new theme ... of getting things done. Things we want to be doing, things my dad would have been doing, things we don't want to be doing (but need to get done) and even just the simple (and sometimes not so simple) task of getting through the day. We can do it!

Big Farm Day!

2011-06-11T15:13:00.008-04:00

First thing this morning, a family came to pick up several of our very beautiful (very annoying) wild chickens. My mom saw a post online last night of a family looking for some more to add in with several young hens they had. Shelly & I went right out and apparently Shell is some sort of feral chicken wrangler/whisperer... she caught 3 roosters and 2 hens. I caught one rooster. While placing them all in a big dog crate for the ride to their new home, unfortunately one of the big roosters got out. Oh well, 3 roosters and 2 wild hens less here! Slowly we are getting rid of them!

Don't get me wrong, they're beautiful! But they're just annoying ... they crap everywhere, roost all over the horse barn, occasionally jump up on the backs of the horses and sheep (if I'm not riding them, you can't either!) and nothing is more traumatizing than finding a drown chicken in the horse water troughs! Plus, we've had an odd ration here of like just three or four hens and maybe twice that or more of roosters... I'm tired of watching these few girls getting cornered and humped by numerous roosters. It's just disturbing.

I sent quite a bit of information off to a friend who knows someone looking for a pasture pal for horses. I said Babydolls were great for that! Aside from links about Babydoll sheep and described Fawn, our newest baby, and Franklin, our withered boy. I think she was looking more along the lines to rescue, but I don't know how you can't see their faces and NOT love them.

Moving along with the farm day, we also had conversations with several people about our broken tractor and possibly selling it after posting it on craigslist. Within minutes someone was calling! Quite some time ago, my dad was on the tractor and it broke. With his condition, he just doesn't answer questions straight anymore ... especially important ones unfortunately like "What do you mean it's broken?" "How did it break?" "What happened?" "When did it break?" "Did you try to fix it?" "Can we fix it?" which is also terribly frustrating because if my dad was healthy, it A) wouldn't have gotten broken or B) he'd be fixing it, not walking inside to sit down alone in his room.

We've had a few calls, but because it's mysteriously broken, nothing has really been firm. We it on craigslist now though, my mom has also become re-interested in what's wrong with it. A friend is coming out later tonight to look at it, hopefully. Even if it doesn't sell for what we have in mind, it was undeniably exciting to have so many calls.

Not done yet! Back to the sheep, actually - I also got in contact with someone looking for a Babydoll sheep ram ... This man called a few weeks ago looking for a ram. Although we don't have any young, white unfixed males (which was what he wanted when my mom spoke with him), I called him today to suggest "trading genetics." I said that we have two pens and he could breeds his ladies with our ram in one pen and we could breed our ewes with his ram in the other pen at no cost to either one of us.

We've now had 3 seasons of babies from Arthur with Olivia and Mellie ... some new genetics would be wonderful! Not to mention, we could breed Rain who I think is a very classic looking Babydoll sheep. The man said this wasn't what he had in mind and he was considering just buying a new ram, but he said he would think about it, so ::fingers crossed::

Considering the wild chickens finding a nice home of their own alone, this day was a success!

Babies!!

2011-06-04T09:36:00.003-04:00

Just when we were sure that there were no babies arriving this spring, we were shocked!!

On May 4th, 2 days before Shelly was coming home from school and two months after most of our lambs have arrived, little Fawn was outside in the pasture when we went to feed the sheep that night. We were shocked! Mom actually cried a bit she was so happy... and then we proceeded to chase all the mamas around and look at their backsides because we had no idea who the mom was! It turns out that it was Mellie. Fawn was near Mellie when we first went out, but mom wasn't convinced that was the lamb's mama.

Fawn is a gorgeous baby black girl sheep. She looks just like a little baby deer - very leggy. I don't know if it's just the fact there is only one this year or what, but she looked gigantic as soon as she was born!

She's a month old now and beautiful! She hops around, jumps, leaps, kicks her little legs and chases the wild roosters (definitely my favorite hobby of hers). She's often in places she shouldn't be making me wonder if the "bad" gene is in Arthur's blood since her half brother Franklin is also a big brat! Sure, we had 4 babies last year, but just this one is pretty fun too.

Why the plural with the subject when there's just one lamb??
My you're quick!

Well, we've got baby ducks too!!

As of yesterday, there's one adorable baby :) The ducks (because, yes, there are two ducks on one nest!) have been sitting on a nest for some time now and I think we were all starting to suspect that much like the sheep, the ducks were not going to have any babies either ... but just when I was about to throw a broken egg out (this wasn't the first we would have found in the nest), I heard it peep - not a broken, bad egg, but a baby breaking out!!

The poor little baby seemed to be having quiet a bit of trouble. There was a lot of shell already broken off, but there was only a small hole where its beak was poking out of the thick inner-lining of the egg. So...

Please note again that this duckling was already well out of the shell on its own before I started "helping." You should never remove a duckling from its egg before its ready on its own.

Tips On Tuesday

2011-03-29T09:31:00.000-04:00

Basil repels flies and mosquitoes.

To deter ants, use catnip by sprinkling it in their paths.

Tips On Tuesday

2011-03-22T09:32:00.000-04:00

Worried about cellulite? Rub used coffee grounds where the problem exists (cellulite cream is mostly caffeine based).

Tips On Tuesday

2011-03-15T10:31:00.000-04:00

Smelly shoes? stick a piece of well-burnt toast in each one and leave them overnight – the carbon will absorb the bad smell.

Tips On Tuesday

2011-03-08T15:31:00.001-05:00

Store eggs with the large end up to keep the yolk centered.

Tips On Tuesday

2011-03-01T12:19:00.001-05:00

Place a piece of white chalk in your silver chest or jewel box to absorb moisture and help prevent tarnishing of silverware and jewelry

Tips On Tuesday

2011-02-22T12:19:00.003-05:00

If you happen to get covered in poison ivy, splash vodka on the affected areas. Vodka helps neutralize and denature the compounds involved so that you feel better, faster.

Vodka is also good to keep in the cabinet in case any of your pets accidentally get into anti freeze. See info here - http://www.2ndchance.info/antifreeze.htm

Country Diary Excerpt

2011-02-15T18:26:00.004-05:00

Valentine's Day was definitely a full day, but probably not the same way others spent their day.

Doug had an appointment at the U of P early on. While on the way there, I realized we'd probably miss the train over into the city and then definitely miss Doug's appointment. So, instead of stopping at the train station, I kept driving... I kept driving right on over the bridge and to the U of P. This is a drive Doug would normally be doing and this was also the very first bridge I have ever driven myself across in my life!

While waiting during Doug's MRI, I came up with a plan for a new green house design that I'm excited about. I also came across seed I can buy especially for the sheep and chickens that we can use. I'm considering buying it because I like the sheep and the chickens. Special grass from seed for them would be nice.

After the great bridge accomplishment, I figured I'd tackle the roof on our one horse barn. That didn't go as planned, either, I ended up in the local ER for 3 hours for a total of 3 stitches after cutting my finger.

Tips On Tuesday

2011-02-15T09:19:00.001-05:00

Have a skin blemish?

Cover the blemish with a dab of honey and place a band-aid over it. We'll have honey available at our farm stand, if you're interested ;)

Country Diary Excerpt

2011-02-09T19:26:00.003-05:00

I checked on the seedlings again today. The tomatoes have popped up, the artichokes too!

For Christmas, I got this neat shiitake mushroom growing kit. After following the instructions, I noticed today that brown patches have shown up on the mushroom blob. I'm excited to see how this goes ... and use the mushrooms for cooking!

Tips On Tuesday

2011-02-08T09:19:00.000-05:00

Splinters are not uncommon here whether it's from fencing or wood for our fireplace.

If you get a splinter (ouch!), just pour a drop of Elmers Glue all over the wound/splinter tip. Then let it dry and peel the dried glue off your skin - the glue will pull the splinter out with it.

Tips On Tuesday

2011-02-01T11:19:00.000-05:00

Did you know you can remove price tags/stickers with peanut butter?

Get as much off as possible as you can initially and apply peanut butter. Let it set for a few minutes and then wipe!

Like any of these easy, Tips on Tuesday that use a lot of common household items, this not work perfectly ... or it might just take a few tries. Good luck!

Country Diary Excerpt

2011-01-30T20:40:00.002-05:00

I started planting seeds. I have oregano, cilantro, basil, artichoke and grape tomatoes planted now in small pots and I can't wait for them to pop up! I'm hoping to have a great growing season.

I've come up with a new trick for labeling my seedlings too. I've always had trouble labeling - How to be more organized? What won't wash away? What won't get sun bleached? Anyway, my new idea is to write what is what on small post-its and then put tape over it to keep moisture out. So far it's going great!

There's been a lot of snow this week. There was 8 inches over night Wednesday - Thursday alone. I'm really putting the snow blower to good use.

Tips On Tuesday

2011-01-25T10:58:00.001-05:00

As a farmer, I know there is not much more aggravating and irritating as Chiggers. We have gotten them from the weeds in the garden left unkempt and grass that has grown too tall over a hot summer. We have gone to the doctor, gotten prescriptions, used nail polish, etc. Before shelling out a lot of money like we have, try this next time...

If you have Chigger bites, use Preparation H on them.

Country Diary Excerpt

2011-01-23T09:40:00.001-05:00

Here's an excerpt from my "Country Diary" that I've been keeping -

We gave the horses and the sheep extra hay last night at 10 pm to keep them inside and hopefully a bit warmer. It was 8 degrees out!

Happy Chickens

2011-01-21T12:44:00.004-05:00

The girls have started laying eggs again, thankfully. They went from laying 10 - 12 eggs a day to zip-o ZERO - a big disappointment! The girls are back to laying their average 10 eggs a day.

I am happy the weather report was incorrect. It was predicted 4 - 6 inches of snow and we did not get any! I purchased a snow blower last spring (hoping it would prevent us from getting any snow). It is only January 21st and I have used it 5xs! Maybe the snow blower purchase didn't prevent us from getting snow, but it sure beats shoveling the whole long driveway!

Tips On Tuesday

2011-01-18T09:58:00.001-05:00

Toothpaste on zits overnight help dry them up!

Tips On Tuesday

2011-01-11T11:58:00.000-05:00

Do you suffer from arthritis?

Use some WD-40 Spray on the area and rub it in.

Tips On Tuesday

2011-01-04T11:58:00.000-05:00

Got sunburn?

If you have a large amount of your body burnt, make a bath, empty a large container of Nestea into it, let the bath water cool and then soak for awhile.

If you have just a small portion burnt, like the back of your neck, make some tea (a mint tea like peppermint or spearmint are especially good for cooling), let it cool and then apply it to the area.

Teas have tannins that help the healing process.

Country Diary Excerpt

2010-12-29T19:57:00.001-05:00

For Christmas, I got a "Country Diary" in the hopes that I could carry it around with me and write more. Then, I could take my notes from that and add it to my blog here later to keep everyone more posted.

For today's entry, I'm writing that the chickens haven't been laying eggs in 2 weeks now! 2 weeks!! Right now we have 5 Buff Orpington chickens, 4 Rhode Island Reds and 2 black Barred Rock hens ... ALL NOT LAYING!

2010-12-10T14:55:00.001-05:00

It's snowing!

Prepping For Winter Pt 2

2010-12-06T08:24:00.002-05:00

My dad, even last year, has always hung the lights outside the house for Christmas. This year, he couldn't even pay attention long enough to untangle them. He kept wandering away or just stepping back and staring. He started to hang some of the lights and ripped out a spot light that had taken him and my mom hours to set up on the porch for the front yard - he just ripped it out of the wall! My mom started to hang the lights then and then, I took over after untangle the strands we had.

It took a couple of tries and lots of moving around of the ladder, but my mom and I finally got all the lights up, working and looking nice around the outside of the enclosed front porch. It took some serious finagling because half of one strands ended up not working and a couple of the clips that we needed to hold the lights up were broken. Plus, there was a portion of the porch that doesn't have the lip we use to hang the lights like the rest of the porch and my dad couldn't/wouldn't tell us how he hung them up last year on this section, so that didn't help either ... but my mom and I got it done and I think we did a really good job!

After the lights were up outside around the porch, we went inside and tried to figure out the wiring to the light my dad had ripped down. He was insistent on doing it himself, but he kept doing it wrong - tightening the screws without having the wires in the right place for the screws to hold them down. I tried to get him to show me how to do it or to explain it to me, but he just kept tightening the screws so I finally just stuck my hands in there to hold the wires in place. Thankfully, after being ripped out of the wall and my dad being all willy nilly about putting it back together, it did work again!

Prepping for winter

2010-12-01T17:11:00.006-05:00

Most of the year, the ducks are safe from many predators, including our ~~bad~~ dogs who sometimes get out the front door and book it to the lake to chase the ducks around. The ducks have the little island which land predators cannot get too and it is thickly covered with trees to prevent any birds of prey really getting access to them there. However, when the temperatures drop and the lake freezes over, our ducks are often left very vulnerable. Domestic ducks are typically too heavy to fly very far, if at all, and so they have no way to get away from animals who come after them. Last winter, we unfortunately lost most of our ducks in a horrible over-night attack. Just the thought of it upsets me still.

For awhile, our lone Pekin duck lived with our hens - the wrong kinda male in the hens opinion and not exactly the type of harem our male duck was looking for either! Over the summer we acquired four female ducklings (2 Indian Runners, 2 females of some black/iridescent type) and one adult female - don't ask me what she might be, I have no clue! :) It didn't take the Pekin Pimp to become a papa and we had these adorable ducklings running around this summer! Obviously, we have quite a few ducks now and though I can't imagine them reproducing again next summer, I certainly don't want to bury anymore either.

In an attempt to avoid another loss, like last winter, we decided to make an area where we could keep the ducks safe this winter, especially when the lake freezes. We have been slowly moving the ducks feeding spot up from down by the lake and have recently gotten them coming up to the garage to eat. This week, we took on the big task though - fashioning together some area to lock them safely into at night for this winter. Going over the options, we decided it was best to move up the dog kennel that was down by the lake and put that into the garage - an ambitious task to take on!

We pushed, we pulled, we lifted, we shifted, we turned, we twisted ... and we got this thing up from the lake side, up the hill side, across the front field and into place inside the garage! Then, we put the chain link and board across the top again, which we had taken off to make the dog kennel lighter to move since it was just me, mom and dad when he felt like cooperating. There were still some openings, so we got a green tarp and some plastic zip ties to pull it all together very securely.

I can't deny I feel accomplished! We've been feeding them inside the garage and leaving the door of the kennel open to get the ducks used to going in there. It doesn't help that the ducklings from this summer are a bit skittish and don't like us getting to close. We've still got some time before the lake freezes though.

Now, we just need to throw some straw down, actually get all the ducks in there and close it behind them ... ugh, please cross your fingers! :)

2010-11-29T15:21:00.005-05:00

We had a frost last night ... but the grass is still green! It appears we will need to put blankets on the horses soon. Our one boy, Beau, is 17 years old and it has gotten cold very fast - especially, I bet, for those old bones.

On another note, I am just returning from a funeral for a friend. It makes you realize how short life is. It also makes you realize how important your family is.

Giving Thanks For You

2010-11-25T14:23:00.006-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving, friends and avid readers!!

There's lots of cooking and good cheer here in the house on the farm today. Loved one are arriving and Michelle is home from school for the holiday. There's turkey (not for me) and lots of vegetarian options too ... with pumpkin pie and chocolate/oreo cheese cake cooling for later :)

Whether you are on your way here or another destination, know that we really appreciate your continued support of our farm and family. Here's hoping this fall day finds you well!

wordless wednesday

2010-11-24T09:26:00.000-05:00

Company for the sheep?

2010-11-21T14:45:00.008-05:00

Like my mom said earlier, we were getting ready this afternoon for visitors for the sheep. A woman called this morning and said she wanted to visit to take pictures of her children with our sheep. Well, technically, she wanted photos of her children with white lambs, but after a couple email exchanges to explain we had lambs (but they were several months old, though definitely little because of their breed) and, yes, they're friendly (but that doesn't mean they're going to pose), she was on her way down (a 2 hr drive!) with her children in their Christmas clothes.

Mom and I quickly cleaned out the sheep pen. Visitors for the sheep definitely calls for some cleaning since it's been awhile. Sure, I take photos of our sheep, but I know how to, well, to be frank crop the crap out. Here's a before photo...

(see all the old, wet hay around near the barn door?) Well, we got a wheel barrel, a rake, our electric leaf blower and got to work!! After cleaning it out, we got a little festive in celebration of this family coming for Christmas photos. We put out two bails of hay and put the bench back into the sheep pasture so that the kids coming down could maybe sit there if they wanted to give the sheep cookies. Look how nice it is now:

Hey! What the...

Quit eating the decorations you bad sheep!!!

2010-11-21T14:06:00.001-05:00

Getting ready for some company - a family wants to come take pictures with the sheep for their holiday card!

Unearthed Gems

2010-11-13T18:44:00.000-05:00

Digging around and weeding during this gorgeous weekend, my mom unearthed more crops she hadn't known that had grown in her garden. The summer was so hot that often times, the idea of weeding did not just seem unfun, it was dangerous! However, with fall here and cooler weather on the way, today was a great day.

In her side garden, today my mom found:
red onions
parsley
oregano
asparagus
beets
spinach
bib lettuce
hot peppers
tomatos
Rhubarb

Withe the help of these new found treasures and my mom's excitement over them, I have a feeling the farmer's market will be back next summer!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-11-07T16:44:00.004-05:00

2010-10-22T14:49:00.001-04:00

My cell phone's now connected to my blog!

Water Awareness

2010-10-15T11:23:00.002-04:00

2010 Blog Action Day is for water and so I thought to add something here. I wanted to keep this a simple post though. Please read and keep these facts in mind every day.

Simple tips you can keep in mind and (hopefully) change in your every day life to make a difference:

- For hanging baskets, planters and pots, place those ice cubes that dropped on the floor or were left over in your glass under the moss or dirt to give your plants a cool drink of water and help eliminate water overflow.
- Avoid watering your landscape during the hottest hours of the day (10 am until 6 pm) to minimize evaporation.
- Plant during the spring or fall when the watering requirements are lower.
- Use the garbage disposal sparingly. Compost vegetable food waste instead to save gallons and use this organic material as a layer on the surface of your planting beds to minimize weed growth that competes for water.
- (For my pet lovers:) Wash your pets outdoors in an area of your lawn that needs water.
-Peat moss, composted leaves (leaf mold), composted manure, composted kitchen vegetable scraps and grass clippings will all improve soil structure and enhance moisture-retaining capabilities (add organic matter into your flower and vegetable beds, preferably 12"-18" deep)
- Divide your watering cycle into shorter periods to reduce runoff and allow for better absorption every time you water.
- Turn your sprinkler system off during or after a rainstorm and leave it off until the plants need to be watered again OR consider installing an automatic rain shutoff device on your sprinkler system.
- Adjust your lawn mower to a higher setting. Longer grass shades root systems and holds soil moisture better than a closely clipped lawn.

Shocking facts that will maybe encourage you to keep the above simple facts in mind:

- In the developing world, 24,000 children under the age of five die every day from preventable causes like diarrhea contracted from unclean water. (from here)
- 884 million people lack access to safe water supplies; approximately one in eight people. (more here)
- Humans largely influence the factors that determine water quality, as they depose off their waste in water and add all kinds of substances and contaminants that are not naturally present. We now know more than 70.000 water pollutants. (from here)
- 17% of the world's population lack access to clean drinking water. (from here)
- The UN estimates that by 2025, forty-eight nations, with combined population of 2.8 billion, will face freshwater “stress” or “scarcity” (from here)

Some sites for you to check out
- Backyard Conservation
- charity water (one of my favorites)
- Global Water Awareness & Action Campaign
- Environmentally conscious agricultural practices by U.S. farmers would ease drain on world water supply, Cornell ecologists report

Make way for ... Ducks?!

2010-10-12T20:06:00.010-04:00

I wanted to update on the adorable ducklings we had this summer and went to toss them some food the other day to get them all together for some great photo shots to share here. They came charging over, right with their mom like they have been all summer and I was surprised.

Just when I go to post on and on about how cute these babies are and prove it with updated photos, I find that they're not ducklings anymore ... they're ducks!

I'm absolutely astounded!

And, please, don't even try to make explain how...

this boy

and this girl

made this crazy combination!

Whatever they're adorable ... now anyone know how to socialize them more or, perhaps, even better, want to offer one or two a good (spoiled) life with you??

Closed for the season(?)

2010-10-08T18:38:00.002-04:00

And so the time has come that we are now closing up our farm stand for the season... Sales started to slow, items to sell started to dwindle, the produce is mostly gone and, as you can see, we even dragged the sign up away from the road and back to the garage. Empty boxes and adorable Norman (one of our farm feral cats) definitely add to the sadness of this photo shot, I think.

We are actually having a hard time deciding whether or not to perhaps have this closing of the farm stand for the season be the closing for good. This summer has been interesting - the farm stand allowed us to meet amazing people who were so kind, have different, wonderful, local produce all the time and our friends were wonderful to support our efforts too. However, just the other day we had a thief again. Yes, I said: again! On and off we've had items vanish and quite noticeably because this is not someone that steals an apple or two and a dozen eggs or jar of honey. No, this was someone who stole our most expensive flower plant on Mother's Day (some gift, jerkface!), a dozen ears of corn and and, just the other day, ALL thirteen mums my mom had out for sale. Those 13 mums were about all she had out too because of this time of year, so it was about as bold as this scum could get, I think. Who does that?!

Here's hoping we don't let the jerks get us down. Here's hoping that we do open again next summer ... And, yea, maybe I'll be sending out some bad vibes here and there for awhile that karma/fate/bad luck catches up with whoever this awful person is.

Rescuing a Rooster

2010-09-25T08:31:00.003-04:00

I am not sure you can see it, but this rooster somehow got his one foot completely tangled up in a pool volleyball netting we had down by our pool (right next to our hen house). The rooster's tangled up foot is in the bottom right corner of the photo here. The rooster was stunned (and maybe tired) enough to hold still for a photo while my mom went to get the necessary supplies to free this rooster.

Apparently this poor guy had been stuck for some time. The dogs had gotten out at some point and munched on him. It must have been mostly mouthing him and drooling since there were no puncture wounds when I saw him, but I think this must have been when he got caught because I'm not sure how he would have otherwise. In flailing around, he had lost a lot of feathers and further tangled his foot too - just about every toe was wrapped up several times and really tight.

My mom and I went out, I threw a towel over the roosters body & head (to try to calm him) and we took scissors to the net. I took over the scissors pretty quickly and it wasn't an easy task. The netting was so tight and the tips of the scissors, the part you could get under the netting, were so dull. It took awhile, but we got him free! As much as I complain about them and hate them ... and this brat in particular since he's always circling our hens in their pen, I couldn't be mean. Plus, I figured he'd been through enough.

"Yea, like a Giant Bobcat!"

2010-08-13T11:21:00.006-04:00

Nothing broke my heart more than the morning my parents found all but one of our ducks dead out on our lake ... their webbed feet & wing prints etched out in snow and ice what must have been one awful, awful night where they desperately tried to get away from their would-be killer (an animal we could only guess at), but couldn't. Domestic ducks are mostly too heavy for their wings and can't fly much at all. The animal we assumed killed the ducks after asking around was a fox.

Our assumption were proven to be right just yesterday though.

My dad mentioned seeing a fox out back. We brushed it off though. Foxes are sly, foxes are cunning, foxes are fast - we all just figured that by the time he mentioned it, it was too late for anyone else to confirm what he saw. Not this fox though...

My mom called me a few hours later to say that she saw the fox as well and it was laying back behind the horse pen and panting. That doesn't sound like a healthy fox!

I gave her every number I had on hand at work for our area because our local animal control contact did not even answer the phone. After many calls for advice/help my mom found some ... but it required capturing the fox. My suggestion when my mom asked? "Well, they eat duck." She laughed. I did too in a sick way, shaking my head. "I meant, if they like duck you could try throwing something like cold cuts into one of my cages."

The advice she got from someone else though was to throw a blanket over the fox and to put it in a trashcan with a lid on it. That's exactly what my parents did and hit the road to meet up with a wildlife rehabilitater in Mays Landing, NJ. The final word on the whole sick fox after my parents handed it and their responsibility to it over? It was a gray fox that was probably suffering from distemper. Apparently foxes can catch the canine version of distemper and suffer horrible, horrible deaths, sometimes literally rotting alive when they become so neurological they cannot move.

Though I hated the animal that killed our ducks (most likely this fox, if not it and a friend) and refused to accept the whole "circle of life" aspect, an animal dying like that would be awful. I'm glad we found it and someone could humanely euthanize it.

So, what the heck does all this have to do with the subject of this post? My mom, in describing the fox said, "It's so small. It's like the size of a cat." And my sister's boyfriend, Steve, chimed in, "Yea, a giant bobcat!"

This week

2010-07-23T12:45:00.006-04:00

These week at the farm stand, we have...

- our own fresh chicken eggs for $2/dozen
- white sweet corn for $4/dozen OR $0.35/ear
- tomatoes for $3/6 OR $0.50 each
- cantaloupes for $1.75
- a qt of peaches or nectarines for $2.75
- seedless watermelon for $4
- blueberries for $1.75 each
- large sweet onions for $0.50 each
- fresh basil right from our garden for $2 a bunch
- fresh mint from our garden for $2 a bunch
- yellow squash or green zucchini for $0.50 - $0.25 each (lg or sm)
- qt of red potatoes for $2.25
- cucumber for $0.50 - $0.25 each (lg or sm)
- eggplant for $0.75
- local honey of various flavors for $2 - $5 per jar

Surprise, surprise!

2010-05-05T14:57:00.005-04:00

Look what I found!
Yes, another baby! Olivia had twins. Mellie had her little black baby girl. So who does this little munchkin belong to? Patty! Yes, Mellie and Arthur's baby from last year had a baby this spring! Apparently at some point, Arthur got Patty pregnant and she had an adorable baby girl on the 4th.

Dad walked up from the back barn and said, "There's another baby back there."
I sat up from sunbathing (I just wanted to get a few minutes in before work, but apparently that wasn't going to happen!) "Another baby what?"
"Yea, there's another baby back there."
"Baby what?!" I said as he continued to just casually walk away from me.

I wasn't getting an answer, so I rushed back and found a shakey, wet, little baby sheep with Patty running around it a little franticly. Poor Patty, I don't think she knew what she was doing. Not expecting any more babies, I was lucky the "bonding pen" was even still together. Sadly, it was moved at some point and right next to the horse pen. I picked up the little baby, placed her in the pen and then tempted Patty in there with animal crackers. Needless to say, the horses were really interested in the screaming little black ball right by their pen...

Big, black horse inspecting a teeny tiny baby black sheep - a favorite photo of mine! The baby (still unnamed) seems to be doing well, though Patty seems to still be a little lost as to what to do. She seems to be a little lost without being with her mom, Mellie. Patty is all worked up being separated from the others, but never have I known how important that little "bonding pen" is. I'm sure she'd be running off and away from her little baby if she were loose with everyone else right now.

Yay for another beautiful baby though! That makes for so far this year (twice the number from last year!) since Olivia had twins. What a fertile farm! :)

Our Farm Is Stand Open!

2010-04-29T09:27:00.006-04:00

With everything in bloom now, "Wesh Farm's Farm Stand" is officially open for business!!

Right now we have our own fresh, brown eggs from our chickens, some flowers, herbs, asparagus and local honey in various forms, flavors & sizes. Since we're either working on stuff around the farm or at our actual jobs, we're going with the honor system for now ... though expect some actual "open days" soon where someone's down to greet you. We'll also be getting more fruits and veggies out there as they come into season as well.

Hope you can stop by soon to support local farmers & local food! :)

New Baby!

2010-03-27T18:51:00.005-04:00

Born while I was at work, here's the brand new, sweet, unique, teeny tiny adorable new baby - Mellie had an all black baby girl. She was born just yesterday (Friday the 26th) and, in my ~~biased~~ opinion, is just too cute for words!

With Mellie and her new baby needing the "maternity suite", we let Olivia, Amelia and Franklin (have I mentioned we named the twins? My sister chose the names) out to romp around in the one section of our barn so that we could still easily catch them to kiss them, squeeze them, hug them, scratch their fuzzy chins, etc. They're so darn cute ... ugh, and that little Franklin is just so darn adorable. He's so hard to resist! I hold him until he really starts to scream and squirm :)

Spring has sprung

2010-03-16T19:50:00.012-04:00

Spring has sprung for sure!

The sun is out, things are looking green, all of the garage cats (including lazy Champ) are off the side porch and lying in the gardens (note photo of Norman and Champ) and...

We've got babies!!

That's right - babies!! TWO! Our Babydoll Sheep, Olivia, gave birth to twins today! So crazy! So wonderful. (weird side note: last night, between fits of coughing, I dreamed of two baby sheep being born today!) Let me give you all the details.

I was just getting started on everything I wanted to accomplish on my day off (it was a whole long list that had gone untouched though half the day had gone by), when my dad came inside and said, "We've got two babies out there."

"Two baby WHAT?!" I said.

"Sheep," he answered - keep in mind, due to his condition taking away a lot of emotions, this was all monotone from him.

Grabbing towels and calling my mom, I rushed outside. In this hurrying, my dad also threw out some more information, like he thought both the babies were Olivia's.

Through the fencing, into the barn and through the first enclosure I went! I could see them then - two little babies lying on the ground with Olivia standing over them. My dad had also said on the way out to me that the baby sheep were both black which threw me off since both Olivia and the dad, Arthur, are solid white ... but nope, two white babies were in my eye sight as I continued through the barn and tried to figure out what needed to be done. I assumed they were both Olivia's since she was standing over them while the other girlies were all running around excited (birthing, new babies and humans coming into their pen - which normally involves food or treats!).

After getting into their pen, I picked both the babies up in towels and their good mom Olivia followed me into their "maternity suite" which is a little bonding pen we have set up so mom and baby(/ies) can have some privacy and, well, bond. After some issues with what my dad had to do to help (lay out wood chips, open the one fencing, open the pen, etc), everything was pretty much settled and I took some photos.

That's not one long lamb, that's one baby's back end and the front end of another ... their other halves just happen to be hidden by their mom. Like the sweaters? Yea, I also forgot to charge my cell phone this morning like I planned too (another task on the list neglected), so halfway through taking photos to send to people, my cell died. That's when I took the chance to put sweaters on the little munchkins. I put the most appropriate sweaters on them: the little boy has the blue with spaceships sweater and the little girl has the dark red-ish plaid one on.

Now, we're just waiting to see when Mellie will give Patty her first little sibling!

Also (though less exciting and you probably don't need me to tell you), the blog site has been remodeled. We've got a new background for the new season and fresh start! :)

Jersey Under Water

2010-03-15T12:44:00.001-04:00

Today's attire for walking around the property today? Well, it's this...

Why you ask?? Well, we're under water:

The fire pit is under water. Trees are under water. The island is under water. Everywhere around us seems to be under water! The lake is higher than it has ever been and the large area between the lake and the drainage pit out front (which is full instead of the usual half-filled) are so full that they're spilling over, covering up the ground in our front field and almost touching! Here are some photos from around the property today...

Thank goodness for boots! The usual paths we walk near the lake are also apparently covered. It was walk through a tree (an ability I lack lol) or walk through some water.

Coming Soon!

2010-03-12T18:02:00.009-05:00

I'm very excited to say that the farm stand my mom has been considering doing for some time now is going to officially be opening this spring!

We'll be selling eggs from our chickens, possibly some of my photos, the produce we grow in our own yard, local veggies and local honey too, which I'm quite excited about. The honey is made locally and with anything from pollen from wildflowers to the pine barrens to clover. Sounds yummy!

Just today we received these in the mail:

I'm stopping there though. I don't want to give away all our secrets! Just know that I'm excited and you should be spreading the word! Look, even this Blue Heron checked out our shed and flew off to spread the news :)

Spring Sprung?

2010-03-09T22:52:00.004-05:00

Has Spring sprung? I'm left wondering just that as things begin to warm up here even though some snow still remains. Maybe I've still got some vitamin D from my visit in the FL sun following through my blood, but still, I sure hope so...

House Work

2010-03-08T13:07:00.002-05:00

You may recall this post ... well, I returned to the farm from Florida to find a finished project - well, almost! Check out what all the noise was about:

We are very lucky to have some incredible friends willing to come to our house and close in our front porch. My dad stands a lot at our big front windows, so we thought closing in the front porch would be nice for him to be able to see more. Old high school friends (including the Nesbits from Florida who flew up), family and new friends all came to help out. It was very kind of them since this is a project my dad, if he were still himself, could probably have done himself. The help of friends was so wonderful!

And what, you might ask, were the ladies up to while the guys were busy measuring, cutting, nailing, etc?? Supervising!

Bang, bang, bang.

2010-02-27T14:15:00.006-05:00

Bang, bang, bang.

That's what is going on right outside on our front porch. Guys are here and they're putting up the framework to then install big windows to enclose our front porch for my dad. I think he'll love it! He stares out the front windows all the time now and now he'll be able to do that in a room with views in three different directions.

Oh and by "guys", I don't mean construction guys ... no just a bunch of family/friends.

And on another note, we only have 12 hens and yet we're getting like 20 some eggs every 24 hrs. Are these ladies unaware that it's barely been above freezing lately and that in the last month we've had like 3 feet of snow fall??? I'm thinking we might have to turn their heat lamp off for periods during the day. These egg numbers are ridiculous!

Sheepies

2010-02-21T14:38:00.006-05:00

With the temperatures rising and the snow & ice melting, huge blocks of icy snow chunks have been sliding off the roofs of the barns and were creating actual walls of ice all around the buildings. For the poor little sheep, this is not good. So, shovels in hand, we went out determined to move this heavy combination of snow chunks (solid from turning into ice). It was quite a task! However, we were concerned that baby sheep might be on the way because about this time last year, we were waiting for Penny and Patty to be born.

Here's a photo of Olivia with Penny, her baby from last year, and Patty, Mellie's baby from last year. After tackling the task of removing the walls of snow (they were literally so big there was no way for the baby sheep to get out of their inside enclosures), we tackled something else - Penny! Do you see her eyes in that photo?! No!! That was exactly the problem. She couldn't see - not even to look for cookies when I tossed them at her because she was too nervous to approach me (since she couldn't see me either). So mom wrangled up Penny (not the easiest task) and then I cleaned the wool out and away from her eyes. Poor girl is seeing much better now.

Remember how I said Mellie was really unique? Well, it's true! Here she is again proving it...

Can you say extreme close up??? I snapped this photo of her while I guess she was trying to decide what's more important: cookies or the limelight. Silly girl!

I think the cookies won. :) After the things poor Penny had to endure to clean up her eyes, I thought lots of cookies (animal crackers) were in necessary. Not to mention, Penny and Patty we are trying to socialize a bit more - cookies definitely help with that. Though I just mentioned it was Penny (and Patty) that the cookies were really for, this photo is of Olivia and Mellie - the cookie monsters! Mellie absolutely embodies that nickname. At one point, she even tried to stick her nose into the big plastic container of animal crackers. Brat! Between tossing cookies to Penny and Patty (when Olivia and Mellie wouldn't get out of their way), Mellie seeming to have a bottomless pit and tossing handfuls of cookies every so often to Arthur (big daddy), I think we went through half a container of cookies/animal crackers that afternoon.

Ugh, the work that just went into the sheep that day! We dug away the slabs of icy snow that had fallen from the barn roofs, we cleared a path to the barn with the little "post delivery" box, we cleaned up Penny's eyes and then we spoiled them with lots of cookies. Wow! Ok, the last part was pretty fun, but still! I was pretty beat after all that.

Meanwhile, back ~~at the ranch~~ on the porch, the boys are sleeping soundly. No worries from them apparently...

Photos

2010-02-13T10:27:00.002-05:00

I've been taking photos recently and plan on selling some when my mom opens her farm stand.

My aunt said this one takes the cake so far. Hooray!

Like it??? I'll be selling framed prints :)

Snow, snow, snow!

2010-02-07T13:35:00.006-05:00

When they said we were getting hit with a lot of snow, I honestly didn't know just how serious they were. Sadly (or maybe thankfully?) I wasn't home for it - I was house sitting ... however, I was able to steal some photos from my mom, aunts who live near by and there's a few shots from where I'm house sitting too...

Farm

Aunts'

Housesitting

Rumor has it, more snow is on the way too in less than a week! February: the month of snow?

Duck... and chickens

2010-01-31T10:38:00.007-05:00

Hmmm... is something odd here? Is there something out of place? Perhaps one that doesn't look like it might not belong? Look real close ... and to the left (in the light of the exit to the pen, if you really need more direction). Yes, there's a duck in with the chickens!

I posted a blog post freaking out about all of this, but I deleted it. The post wasn't very nice and was ~~slightly~~ very much so out of control in a big way! Anyway, it's been severals weeks now since the death of our poor ducks and the morning my parents found the whole horrible scene out on the frozen lake ... the blood, the prints, the wing marks as they unsuccessfully, but desperately tried to get away and most of their poor little bodies left behind. Ugh...

Though it doesn't make it better to figure out all the little details to understand something that broke our hearts (even my dad's and there is not much that seems to effect him anymore), we still tried. Such as, the culprit has been narrowed down to a fox (or two) for a couple reasons...

- the small prints all over the lake - they were smaller than our Dobe puppy's prints in the snow, so I kind of ruled out the adult Lab mix from next door then
- not only did the neighbors I strongly dislike claim that their dogs weren't loose that day, but they also later said their daughter (whose Lab mix is the killer), son-in-law and granddaughter had moved out ... along with their annoying dog
- what's left: several dead ducks, one missing duck and one that somehow got away (I'm convinced he has like toxic blood or something that makes everything run away after biting him once). Apparently foxes do this - they kill everything and take one. Awful!

After the one duck was found still alive that morning, some recovery time for him and after some advice, the lone surviving duck was put in with the chickens so as to not die of a broken heart ... apparently this really does happen, even with ducks. We suspected that and we were also told that by a few duck people. Poor, poor baby. He seems to be doing well in there with the hens and in the spring, we plan on getting some ducklings and maybe going to auction to get some adult ducks. We'll set up their own little area and train them. One of the problems with the group of ducks before was that they were made up of a few little groups that all did their own thing and we didn't train them since we couldn't all at once - sometimes they were together, sometimes they were seperate. So, when the lake froze and they were all together for warmth, they were alone in one big group ... and not trained to be locked up and safe.

It's too weird to see his white in with our crazy colorful chickens. It's strange to see his big, web-footed prints in the snow next to the little chicken prints. It's odd to hear him quack, quack, quacking in his quiet, little, male duck voice with all the hens clucking away. With all the snow we've been getting though, I'm so thankful he's in there. They have different little buildings to hide under. They also have a heat lap and their main building to stay out of the cold. He'd be vulnerable out on the frozen lake, he'd be lonely and cold all by himself too.

Ugh. Poor baby. I can't emphasize that enough. I just feel so damn bad about those other ones dying, the way they died and this one being all by himself now ... well, all by himself and his harem of chicken hens.

More snow?

2010-01-30T23:53:00.000-05:00

Lots and lots of snow is still to come, I hear, but this little bit of snow is so pretty right now. Check out the photos from the most recent walk around the farm...

Farm Fowl

2009-12-29T20:50:00.001-05:00

I love my Golden girl, Sadie - LOVE her! There is nothing like having a Golden, in my opinion, and I have had them forever. My parents' first "baby" was a Golden, Sunshine, that I grew up with and we've had Goldens ever since. Well, my heart dropped the other day when I look out our beautiful front windows the morning after Christmas and see our Golden Sadie standing on our semi-frozen lake. I thought for sure I was about the watch her go through the ice. Now, why is this post entitled "Birds, birds, birds"?? Well, she wasn't just standing on the ice, no ... she was chasing our ducks who were desperately trying to get away from her, but not being too successful with it.

I'd gone to call my mom, but couldn't find my cell or the house cordless, so I'd wasted time looking for those and then finally having to use the house wall phone in the kitchen. I'd tried to find boots (we'd had sooo many pairs out with the snow we just had a week ago) and could not find a single pair. I tossed on the only shoes I had: rubberish, running shoes that slip on and don't come above the ankle. In the rain and the cold, I ran out with a leash. The only reason I caught up to Sadie was because one of the ducks was stuck in some reeds. I got her! ... I had seen at least two motionless, disheveled looking ducks and one was definitely bleeding.

I figured the bleeding one was the most crucial and when I got to the spot where I had found Sadie and left the one Peking (bleeding) duck, it was gone. I was so upset! I looked around and it was limping into the woods. Whether from my cooing of "It's just me. Easy now. It's just me," or just sheer exhaustion, the duck didn't wander too far away before laying down. Did I mention my parents pulled in the driveway right as I'd caught Sadie? Well, they had. I'd tossed Sadie in their car so they could drive her up to the house and after safely getting her in, they came back to see where I was concerned about the ducks, but me too - I was soaking wet and could hardly even see anymore from the rain on my glasses (yea, no time to find contacts and stick them in during this craziness). I handed off the bleeding duck to my mom and went in search of the two I had seen in a bush ... they were gone, wandering up for food, actually.

After changing, getting boots on (from wherever my mom had found them) and calling my aunt, we spent at least on hour repeatedly walking around the lake, in the woods, using a duck call and trying to find duck prints in the little snow left. Our baby black duck that we just got this summer, a favorite for her unique coloring and the fact she tried to stand up and walk like her Indian Runner "sisters", was never spotted (and to this day remains missing). The 3 other Peking (including the one with the broken/deformed wings) and 2 Indian Runners were all seen, fed and fine.

This whole ordeal obviously ruined my day and even a hot bath for a long time didn't remedy my mood. Below are some pictures of my shirt (and me) post wrangling Sadie and carrying the bleeding duck around. And, yes, that sticker on my mirror does indeed say "No Mutts With Nuts"

The farm bird stories aren't done yet, but this one was pretty long ... maybe I'll save the others for later.

Defintely Winter

2009-12-20T00:26:00.010-05:00

Yesterday morning after I woke up and started moving around I deemed it officially winter. Though it looked like any other morning from my bedroom window, the windows in our living room showed something else: there was ice on our lake! If you look closely at that picture that I took just yesterday morning, you'll notice only one white duck swimming ... the others are standing on the lake! Yes, yesterday (Friday) morning was chilly and my dad stayed inside most of the day because of it. Now, why is this fun fact of the silly ducks standing on the lake blogable? Well, you see, we live in New Jersey and little did I know that our "trusty" weather reporters were about to UNDERestimate their predictions for today...

This is the lake this lovely, snowy Saturday evening! Included in the picture is also my sister, Michelle, her boyfriend, Steve, and the Dobie pup, Tali, moments before she tried to run on to the ice to chase the ducks. Lets just say it ended up being more slush than ice, but the pup barely got her toe wet before changing her mind about the duck attack. Yes, were ~~cursed~~ gifted a large amount of snow ... much more than was anticipated, I believe. Friday night into Saturday morning they were estimating only about an inch with maybe 6 - 11 more falling throughout the day. By 9 AM this morning the weather was predicting more like 3 inches every hour ... and it's still snowing now! So you can imagine what the yard looks like...

the horses are covered in snow

the sheep are snowy even inside the one barn

and even the ducks were up all day begging for food instead of swimming around in the slushy lake! (note: that area they're in was shoveled clean moments before I took this photo)

Call me crazy, but I think it was a pretty nice day. I woke up early and went out to see if my mom needed help repairing the barn (I heard a very loud crash in the middle of the night and though my dad went out to make sure everything was ok, apparently a huge board had fallen down and needed to be put back up). After taking some pictures, we headed in where I made sure the fire in our wood stove kept burning and we waited for my little sister and her boyfriend to wake up. After that, it was lots of playing in the snow, clearing areas that needed to be cleared and having fun with some of the pups - only Tali at first since we weren't sure we could trust Sadie completely ... and for good reason! When we finally did let her out, after being adorable for so long, she definitely got more than just her toes wet when she decided to try to chase the ducks. Goofy dog! We took them inside to eat then while my sister and her boyfriend played in the snow.

There was also more picture taking outside, hot chocolate, hay being thrown around (for the horses), extra wet food for the ferals, good smells while my sister was making tomato sauce, finding & setting up the fake tree (since going out to buy a live one today was canceled thanks to mother nature), lots of movie watching, puzzle doing (not by me, I'm too impatient) and we did not lose the electric. I think overall today was a great day and definitely put me in the holiday spirit: the snow, the lights, the decorating and everyone together getting along (though, of course, my blood pressure surely spiked during meal time with my dad).

I hope this post finds you warm, loved and content like I was today. Happy holidays!

The Garage Cats

2009-12-05T09:21:00.001-05:00

I was going to post the simple fact I had finally set up the porch for the garage cats for the winter, but then I figured - why be simple? :) So, here's a little introduction to the garage kitties.

We have 6 cats that I know of on the farm who have hung around or shown up. The garage 3 are the more social group of cats we have here on the farm. Spring, summer and into the fall, they mostly live in the Conestoga building we have right by the house which has a lot furniture from our old home (the cat particularly like curling up in the upside down chairs), my dad's tools and some of my rescue stuff - a few cages and a trap or two. However, for the winter, I set up the side porch (which has a hole cut into the screen for them to come in through) with a heat lamp, some soft blankets and a bed that warms up a bit too. The screen door and window also get covered up with plexi-glass so the kitties can still see out, but there's no real breeze in there. This year, they'll have to deal with the unplugged, no longer being used refrigerator, but I think they'll manage - less room, which means more snuggling :)

Here's who will be on the porch this winter, the garage kitties one by one...

Meet Norman - a huge beast of a cat who also happens to be FIV+ and a real love bug - no fighting from him so far. Norman I brought on in a desperate attempt to get Wilson to eat - I'd had him for about 2 weeks and he rarely ate a thing I left for him. Thinking he was lonely, I brought Norman in ... this is how he got his name. Although Wilson was named for the volleyball in Castaway, I always thought of the neighbor from Home Improvement - "howdy ho, neighbor", which is also the cute phrase the old man, Norm, I grew up next to used to greet us all the time. So, Wilson and Norman, the cheery older neighbors. Norman remains pretty evasive, though sometimes he'll let me pet him. I don't think he'll ever be as affectionate as he was when his best friend for life was still around, Buddy. Looking at Norman makes me still ache for Buddy and the pals they were together. He's also the biggest wanderer out of the garage cats. I've seen him everywhere from back by the back barn (trying to steal food for the kitties back there) to in the woods to down near the front of the lake ... I promptly hollered at him for that - once passed the lake, it's only another say, 50 feet to the road.

This little lady is simply known as "Momma" or "Irish Momma". She came to me from my great uncle who was feeding a cat outside his home and one day she brought him kittens. I sat outside for hours until I caught them all - the whole litter consisted of 4 female kittens. I hate to think how many kittens there would have been if I hadn't caught them!!! All the little girls were given Irish names (my great uncle is VERY Irish) and adopted out in pairs. Irish Momma wasn't a friendly house cat though, so I set her up in the garage where she has never left. I pet her for the first time in, wow, maybe the 4 years I've had her just the other day while she was eating. She's always around, but won't let me approach her. She's endeared herself to me with how adorable she is though. Her favorite spot? The stairs leading up into the hot tub or on top of the cover. She's a smart girl! :) I don't know if it's because she came from a small town with busy roads, but she's the least likely to wander. She's always pretty much in the garage, by the hot tub or in the garden between the garage and the house, though sometimes she'll wander up to the front porch ... so, as far as I know, her life consists of mainly a, max, 75 foot radius.

The most recent addition to the garage crew is Champ. I had just lost Buddy recently when a new cat was coming into work. The business behind us, Champion Tire, was nice enough to feed and love up some ferals (all fixed), but someone had dropped off a cat recently and they were just maxed out. Work agreed to take the cat in and try to adopt it out ... however, while doing our intake exam, we found out the poor guy was FIV+ and our FIV Suite was already full. Fresh from the loss of Buddy and looking at this poor kitty who was FIV+ like Norman and now with an unknown future (the tire place didn't want him, that's why he came to us and we couldn't keep him because we were already too full), I took it all as a sign and agreed to take him. "Champ" came home with me and though he's not wrapped up with Norman like Buddy used to be, the two seem to hang out a bit and he's a nice addition. I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but he's a real beast of a cat - huge! Long legs and a stomach that looks like he's swallowed a basket ball.

To say the kids were excited the side porch was set up is an understatement. As soon as I was out there, Irish Momma was walking in and out of the hole in the door, Norman was sitting at the bottom of the steps and even Champ wandered by as I set everything up for them. Below is a photo of the garage cats already settling into the side porch: Champ curled up under the heat lamp and Irish Momma eating. Norman's either off wandering or maybe tucked behind Champ. Nothing was more adorable than when Norman and Buddy used to both curl up in the heated bed together! Sometimes the only sign they were both in there was what looked like a fifth white paw on Norman - Buddy would be buried under him asleep with just his little foot sticking out from under Norm.

Mellie

2009-12-03T16:53:00.005-05:00

Mellie loves her mom and there is no doubt that Mellie is a special sheep, a unique ew. However, sometimes she goes above and beyond to prove it, such as this morning...

After some hard work outside this gorgeous morning, I came back into the house ... and apparently was followed by Mellie who was loose with the other babydolls to enjoy all the green from the recent rain.

Look at her. You can almost hear her thoughts: 'Hello? Helloooo?? I know you walked in there!' as she moves along the front porch from the front door to the large windows. I called Jen over as soon as I noticed to get some pictures of this silly sheep! Who was so persistent that she did not leave the front porch until I headed back out.

End Of November

2009-11-29T17:02:00.002-05:00

Another day, another walk, this time though it's come to the end of November and the plants are all starting to brown. Thankfully, I found some grazing sheep and nosy dogs to steal the spotlight a bit today...

A Good Day

2009-11-27T10:45:00.017-05:00

Yesterday was what my mom keeps referring to as "a good day" and I believe she's completely right with that. So, to keep things simple, that's what I've entitled this post. Yesterday was a good day for so many reasons aside from the obvious (Thanksgiving) - yesterday happened to be extra special here at the farm because friends and family gathered to help the school he worked 17 years for honor him during their holiday football game. We were surrounded by wonderful people all day long! And it all started at breakfast...

There are so many good pictures to share, but I believe this one shows best our time at the football field: the center of this photo has my sister, my dad, my mom and myself out at center field as my dad is presented with another gift - a small football statue with a personalized plaque for my dad. I'm not sure which he was more excited about, the statue or the jacket he got when leaving the field. Everyone clapped for him and it was so sweet. Can't deny I teared up some no matter how hard I had tried not to. It was a very, very nice morning...

My dad and his Camaro, which George at George's Autobody was nice enough to fix up for us as a gift to my dad... The Wesh guys: my Uncle Jack, cousin Andy, my dad and my Uncle Dick

Post football game, it was on to more serious things ... like throwing apple skins at the chickens! That's exactly what my cousin Corinne's son, little B, is up to in this photo. My Uncle Dick's whole family came over and we all made dinner together. It was wonderful! Little B skinned apples (for apple sauce) and some potatoes and then got to take the scraps out for the chickens. This was also after we fed them some very yummy watermelon - no exactly in season, but the chickens love it and so little B loved giving it to them. The day continued on with good food, good company and fun beers to try thanks to my cousin Gretchen's fiance, Ray. Below are a collection of photos from the night...

Michelle's boyfriend, Steve, does some serious reading with little B Little B looks on as the chickens enjoy their watermelon snack

Ris and Danny look on as little B peels apples and Ray offers some yummy banana bread beer
Mom's Uncle John (my great-uncle), dad's brother Uncle Dick and Dad at the table ... ok, I caught them mid-passing food, but it's a GREAT photo!

It truly was a wonderful, wonderful time filled with wonderful memories - a good day...

Bob's New Home

2009-11-23T13:20:00.006-05:00

Recently, my parents wrangled up Bob and sent him off to a new home. During a conversation with one of the wonderful vet techs, Kim, at Dr. Mac's it was discussed that she was looking for a goat to be a pasture pal for her horse. Now, obviously, Bob is no goat (goats creep me out!!!!!), but he's one awesome little buddy! With my mom considering condensing the farm to be more manageable for just her to handle (my dad is just going to continue to get worse), she suggested Bob. Our other sheep are all "marketable" for breeding, but Bob's been "cut" and aside from being a companion pet, most people would probably just consider him lamb chops (I can't even think of any of them like that!!!).

So, off Bob went to his new home for a "trial" run and they love him (of course!). Kim was nice enough to send me some photos on the first day they let him loose in their giant field. Look how happy he looks munching away! :) Think I can post this all on my "rescue" blog too??? I mean, technically he was saved and rehomed. Hmmm...

Good luck, Bob. I love you!

A Walk In The Chilly Fall

2009-10-19T20:26:00.010-04:00

The baby sheep are getting so big and they are so adorable. Above (L-R): Arthur, Penny, Olivia & Patty (black) ...

I took one of my walks today around the property earlier today and its so pretty this time of year. The extra beauty this time of year is from everything changing with the fall. Certain plants are getting ready to drop pods, others withering up with the cold and some still are just growing rapidly. I'll have t see if I can find the picture of this crazy marigold plant we have ... mom actually referred to it as the "mutant marigolds" earlier because it was so big and there were so many blooms on it.

It's extra cold in Jersey right now too, which is surprising. We already opened up the side porch for the barn cats - we set up a heat lamp and some cozy beds on the side porch for them so that they can stay warm when it gets colder out around here. Though we haven't used them yet, the horse blankets are already out too and ready for when the temperature drops even lower.

~~I also fear our times chasing feral chickens is not over yet either.~~ I know our time chasing chickens is not over! For starters, there's a hen with about 6 babies running around right now ... and on my walk today I noticed the two chickens we had caught but not sold yet are beginning to look quite different. When they were still growing, I thought they were two roosters for sure (no questions asked! Even my mom thought so) ... but they've been changing lately and I'm afraid we have one female and one male cooped up together. This a is nightmare. Darn feral chickens!

All In A Day's Work...

2009-09-29T22:11:00.001-04:00

Today was going along fairly normal - me planted near the kitchen to keep my dad out, trying to manage his pacing, get him to do some minor projects, etc. It was not a good day though. Around 4 PM, my dad came in and told me there was a fawn outside ... and it was stuck in the horse pen.

I had a dozen bad images in my head of this thing panicking as we approached it! Would I be on my way to the wildlife rehabilitation emergency facility a couple hours away soon? How hurt was this poor thing? I mean, stuck in the fence sounds pretty serious ... especially when I saw my dad grab huge wire cutters. Was the fawn's mom still near by? Was I about to get kicked with those nasty hooves? Agh!

As if I wasn't worked up enough, the sight of this poor thing just made my heart sink even more ... he must have jumped over the fence (and made it) when something went wrong. He was hanging upside-down by one hind leg with his body resting on the ground, but twisted so his head was laying between the fence and his own side. To top it all off, I felt awful because I had no idea how long that poor fawn had been hanging there because my dad had been inside watching TV for hours (when normally he'd be outside or in the garage near the horse pen working on stuff) because he was so awful today (he can get really destructive when trying to "fix" things).

I had grabbed the wire cutters from my dad on the walk through the one pen for our horses and told him to go turn off the electric tape that runs along most of the fence and to maybe consider getting the neighbor ... basically, I just didn't want my dad over there and upsetting the poor fawn further.

I was terrified as the approached the fawn. With the way the fawn was hanging there, so still and for who knows how long, I was shocked he was still alive! No time to space, I cut the fence and he didn't move at all. However, it wasn't as simple as just cutting the one fence wire loop. The fawn had fought so hard to free himself, he'd wedged his little leg into one corner and really pulled the fencing tight around him. For the next part, I'm lucky he didn't freak out and hurt us both! I had to pull on the wire and then grab that little munchkin's hoof and pull it out and away from the fence. Injuries-wise, the fawn had a cut on this leg, maybe an inch long, not too thick and thankfully not too deep. His leg was straight hanging there (didn't look broken) and he got right up and dashed off into the woods, so I'm hoping he's ok.

It was just a few minutes, but what a crazy day that made for! I hope that little fawn is ok tonight and his cut doesn't get infected. It's just such a shame because that damn metal fence has never actually caught a deer or fawn like that before and it's only around maybe 1/3 of our entire pen.

Chickens

2009-09-07T16:47:00.000-04:00

Today was one of the first days I have not liked the results of living on a farm.

As I've mentioned before, we've got lots and LOTS of chickens right now - an absolutely ridiculous amount of chickens. In no way am I denying that! But my mom posted them on craigslist and some guy came to get them this afternoon and I just didn't like him.

For starters, he brought those teeny tiny chicken crates - you know, kinda like this. Four of those little things for his intended 40 chickens. He said he just bought his daughter a new farm and she wanted chickens, so he'd like to take all 40 chickens my mom mentioned. I'm sorry, but no way does someone want 40 freakin feral chickens!!!

On top of that, when he came to get the ones we had caught during the day, he just reached in and grabbed the chickens by their wings, by their legs ... by whatever and then he'd shove them into that little chicken crate/cage thing. It was awful. Ugh.

Thankfully, we'd only caught 17 when he got here and he took them, but I feel super bad for whereever those 17 went. I'm trying not to think about it...

A walk in the woods

2009-08-09T20:32:00.005-04:00

I went for a walk around the property today while I had the place to myself. There's still so much blooming and though the sky was cloudy, I got a nice little adventure squeezed into the afternoon...

Lots and lots of veggies on the front porch ... including our giant zucchini

My roses are blooming again! They're not as pretty as they used to be (I'm guessing cross pollination has made them more pink than the purple/blue they used to be), but I still love them.

Look what I found: apples!

A pumpkin!

What a beautiful sunflower :)

Everything's in bloom

2009-06-12T22:38:00.003-04:00

Had to add some photos to make you all envious of what's going on at the farm. Everything is so beautiful right now. Check it out...

Produce/Farm Stand

2009-06-10T18:41:00.007-04:00

Everything's in bloom at the farm! It's beautiful! With our seeds from last year blooming and a few new gardens turned over and planted in, the whole property is looking very active right now. We even recently got new baby hens in order to produce more of our wonderful eggs which are being bought and appreciated by friends now. If you note the photo above, you'll see that with all this wonderful production we have decided to open up a produce stand at some point in the near future. The date keeps getting pushed back right now due to all the adjustments in our family.

The detailing of the sign was done by mt best friend Ali and me who wanted to really show off everything my mom has in mind for our farm stand - lots of variety! Vegetables, fruit, our own fresh eggs and hopefully some honey too. Obviously, we are not producing all these things on our own farm, but there are lots of wonderful orchards around us, other small scale farmers and a honey farm (which is why we're considering selling honey as well). We have a lot of our own things to sell as well too: tomatoes, snap peas, zucchini and our own brown eggs from our chickens. We are hoping to bring in other business too - like possibly boarding a horse or two and maybe finding a new home for some of our sheep.

Though our farm stand is put together physically (thanks to Doug and our family friend, Joe) and we've put feelers out on where we can buy produce in bulk to resell, we just haven't gotten our act together to actually open our stand. We're having too much fun wandering around to see what's blooming and picking stuff off the vine to enjoy like strawberries and snap peas right now. More information will be posted here when we've got it.

Blue Birds

2009-05-23T17:12:00.003-04:00

Have you ever seen a blue bird? We have the most beautiful blue birds here. They're just absolutely gorgeous!

We've had them here for years now. We hang bird houses for them on our horse pen posts, listen for them outside and watch them fly around too. The males are, of course, more showy, more flashy ... even just genetically speaking with their more vibrant colors. This doesn't make the females any less breath-taking though, just maybe a little harder to spot since they don't stick out as much against all the green around here.

I'm posting this because I caught a blue bird doing the cutest thing tonight. We were walking around and a blue bird flew right up to my friends' car and perched by the driver's window. Then, he (a boy for sure I know since he was so pretty) hopped by the the side mirror then back to perch by the window and then ... started checking himself out! It was the funniest thing and my mom said that they do this pretty frequently too on the cars.

Just a silly story I thought I'd share.

Those wonderful, fuzzy, always smiling faces ~ how can you resist!

2009-04-29T13:25:00.009-04:00

Wesh Farm is a small, family farm located in Southern New Jersey. Currently, we are loving and raising white and black Babydoll Sheep, all registered with Robert Mock registry, "The Original Babydoll Southdown Sheep Registry". Mr. Mock was the founder of the Southdown babydoll Registry, thus named The Mock Registry. This registry has been in existence for 17 years as of Sept 2008.

Our sheep are checked on a regular basis by a veterinarian and health is always our foremost concern! All of our sheep live in a clean & loving environment. Our family is dedicated to raising healthy miniature Babydolls with friendly personalities.

Why might someone want Babydoll sheep? They're just so hard to resist! They're quite small compared to most farm animals and pets. They're also docile and funny little creatures - countless laughs have been had by our family watching our sheep run around and the little lambs leap about. Though we are yet to spin any of ours, their wool is in the same fiber class as cashmere! Are you interested in "greening" your garden habits or starting an organic farm? Babydoll sheep are wonderful grass trimmers and their small size allows them to fit in on just about any acreage. Babydoll sheep make wonderful pets and are a great addition to any farm.

Our lambs are due in the spring of each year should you be interested in adding Babydoll sheep to your family as well.

Those wonderful, fuzzy, always smiling faces ~ how can you resist!

2009-04-29T13:25:00.008-04:00

Chickens

2009-03-28T13:59:00.005-04:00

We have 3 types of chickens: Buff Orpington chickens (the gorgeous gold ones), Barred Rock chickens (the black & white striped ones) and, fairly common chickens around here from what I can tell, Rhode Island Red chickens (the red ones). We have them in a shed that was already here on the property when we bought it. We seperated the shed so that there's still a space for storage and added a door to that side of the shed. We also cut a small hole in the back of the shed. We also set up green house pieces with netting extending off the back of the shed so that the chickens have a nice area to roam, kick up dust and scratch around while still being protected from any predators.

Last May we purchased around a dozen little chicks which we raised inside, then moved into an old rabbit hutch until they were finally big enough (and fairly friendly with us) to go into the shed we set up. A few chickens mysteriously died with in the first couple months - they seemed well and they weren't attacked by any animals (the shed set up is very safe for them), so I'm not sure what happened. However, the remaining 9 seem to all be very well and are now producing eggs every day. We actually just ordered a few more little chicks, the Buffs and Rhode Island Reds, because we've been selling the eggs. Friends and family seem very impressed with the eggs, so we figured a few more hens would be a good idea.

The eggs our chickens produce come in all shapes, sizes and different shades of brown (all three types of chickens lay just brown eggs). I think the photo here is a great example of what I'm talking about ... and excuse the wine cork, it's all I had around to compare the size with at the time. Aside from being protected from predators, we also have no rooster meaning that none of the eggs we're producing are fertilized in anyway. Sure, there's the "feral rooster" roaming around, but he can't get to the hens - thank goodness! The eggs are normally pretty big, very fresh and are from some fairly spoiled chickens, so we feel good selling them and sharing them with others. Right now, we're selling a dozen of the eggs for $3 to friends right now, though the price may change when we start up our farm stand soon.

Here's some more photos that just had to be added in:

Another Baby

2009-03-27T12:01:00.009-04:00

There was another baby born this weekend ... and what a cutie she is!
Less than a week after Olivia gave birth to our first little lamb, our adorable Penny, Mellie finally had her baby as well ... a super sweet looking little black female. I thought this was just so perfect - Olivia's all white and had her little white girl and Mellie is a black sheep (yes, she's a "black sheep" even though she looks brown, but that's just from her wool being so long and sun bleached) and she gave birth to a little black girl. Last year, it was the exact opposite, believe it or not! Olivia had a little black lamb and Mellie had a little white boy (note the last photo in the entry).

Check out this oh so sweet photo of the other sheep (Penny is out running around with the whole crew now) curious as to what's going on. They were so interested in seeing what was going on, especially when Mellie's little girl would start "bahhhing". While they were trying to nose their way in, we were wrapping the new munchkin up in towels and a little sweater. In doing that, we also determined Mellie had graced us with a little girl. Since Mellie had her baby one full week after St Patty's Day, Patty sounded like a good name - it just goes so well with Penny too: Penny and Patty.

Mellie wasn't a fraction of the size Olivia seemed to be when she was pregnant, so there wasn't any anxious waiting to see if another little lamb would follow Patty out that morning. That means Patty will be the last of the babies for this summer. These two little babies are just absolutely perfect though, definitely a wonderful start to Spring and I can't wait to watch them grow.

And here is Mellie with her little munchkin last year. Last summer she gave birth to our guy, Bob, the fixed boy we have here in our little group of baby dolls. How cute was he?!

The Circle Of Life?

2009-03-18T21:12:00.003-04:00

I hate to open with such a cheesy subject line, but it's honestly the most correct title for the day that comes to mind. What a day on the farm!

After a night out with friends (old and some more recent ones), my mom calls me at 7:30 AM. 7:30 AM?! I'm barely conscious answering the phone. This had better be good, mom!!!!! Ok, I didn't say that, but I was definitely thinking it as I hear, "We've got babies!!! Olivia had her baby! Come out here!" Wahoo! So, I find clothes and my shoes and head on out to see my mom carrying in this little thing...

How cute?! Oh my goodness. She's adorable - ADORABLE! And so little. You can't really tell in the photos, but she's really tiny. And she "bahhhs" all loud and high pitched compared to our crew who are all adults. Anyway, anyway, I come out and she's all cute and little and being carried by my mom who is putting her into our little whelping pen. I'm not sure if that's the correct name, honestly, but the concept is a small pen for mom & baby to go in for the first few days in order to bond and get to know one another. So, we dry off the little baby a bit more and put her in the pen before steering Olivia in there too.

Olivia was so big that we were sure she was going to have another (or two more!) once a few minutes passed (we were told about a half an hour after the first birth) ... hours passed and then the whole day now with no more babies. Was Olivia really just that heavy? I don't think she got that heavy last year when she was pregnant (before we got her). I mean, we went to see her then and I don't remember her being this big and Mellie, who is also pregnant, is definitely no where near Olivia's size. So, Olivia had just one baby this morning and she's our fist official lamb since getting our crew of babydoll sheep last summer.

Ok, so I keep referring to her as "she" cause about 12 hours after she was born, we officially checked and it's a girl. A girl born not long after the Ides of March (March 15th) and we've been so set on getting away from these silly, silly names my mom gives our animals (everything she can from Camelot - love it and Richard Harris's voice, but ::vomit:: enough with the names already!). Had it been a boy, I was thinking Julius ... but a girl? Hmm, what's not too fancy and silly (Olivia, Arthur, Lancelot), but not to common either (Bob) - oh and has something to do with Latin/Rome? Hmmm... Ah! Penny! As in Mrs. Cip, my high school Latin teacher. Cute, cute name and in the world of Latin/everything Roman I'm not sure any better name comes to mind for a little girl. So, congrats Cippy, you've got a legacy in a lamb :)

It was chilly out this morning and though the day got warmer, little lambs are not born with thick coats of wool. No, no. For this reason, the woman we purchased our sheep from suggested little sweaters and gave us two of her old ones in order for us to be prepared for when we had lambs. My aunt, the obsessive knitter, was able to make us some newer ones though, ones a bit cuter, I think. Blue with little spaceships seems a bit more modern and American than the plaid ones we were given. Reading that out loud as I write this makes that sound so much dumber. Hahaha. So sorry!

Born well, in the "bonding pen" (I like that more than the whelping term I think it's actually referred to as) with mom, moving around, dried off, sweater on, nursing and hopefully with a name now - all good things!

The same day we had our first lamb born, I ran into our one neighbor who I haven't seen in awhile since I was never really around when she was home this passed year and a half. It was so nice to see A today! To see her and to talk to her as well. While talking though, she mentioned some strange remains in the woods - strange in the matter in which this animal was killed because it sounds like some sort of canine killed it, like a dog or coyote. Not to mention, the carcass was not eaten or even picked at, strictly killed it seems. That terrifies me for my barn cats! With all these strange factors, I, of course, wanted to see the remains. Perverse, I know, but out of curiosity and concern, I wanted to see where the remains were to know how close they were to our property.

While out there in the woods looking at the remains, which were freakishly close to our front pasture, we came across more very strange remains not far from where the initial remains we went to see were. These were clean and quite white, so the strangeness was not how this animal was killed - no, in fact, it's because I have no idea what these remains were.

My neighbor thought that there were giant canine teeth on the skull, but when I moved it, I didn't see any. I thought maybe a deer, but my neighbor is convinced she would have smelled it rotting while she was out walking. She walks a lot. With the size of this animal, I think the smell would have been obvious, deer or not. Look at the size of the skull, the rib bone I also took a photo of. I didn't have much on me to use for size comparison, but I guess you could use the leaves on the ground to get somewhat of an idea. It's a mystery to me so, if you know what this animal was, let me know! I'm curious and so is A, my neighbor.

Conversations in the woods are so nice, even when there's a creepy element to them, and thus the title - a birth today and the curious remains of a death as well on the farm today.

Ok, after I've creeped you out with the bones, let's finish off this entry on a good note for the night: