Thursday, February 27, 2014

2014 Lambing Season has Arrived!

So with the dawn of a new year the new babies start rolling in! So far our lamb count is up to 2 ewes and 1 ram. ReRe, a first time lamber ,did a wonderful job all on her own and with the guardianship of "The DogFather" got her lamb all cleaned up and on her feet before the frozen farmers got down the barn! Pictures are posted below of this years babies so far!!
Here's a list of this years events for Taj Mahal Farm.Of course the closer we get to those dates we'll update!
Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival
May 3 & 4 at the Howard County Fairgrounds
Come see us in the breed barn!
Long Island Fleece and Fiber Festival
May 17 & 18 in Riverhead, NY
Our tent will be up with the other outdoor vendors
Montgomery County Agricultural Fair
August 8-16th in Gaithersburg, MD
Come see us in the Open Class barns and at the Wool Display!
Ta-Ta for now! Pictures of the babies soon!

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Apologies and Updates!

First I apologies to my faithful readers for my lack of postings!

Here is what 's been happening down on the farm:

 The final lamb count was 16 and some of them have already found new homes :) Weening is done and everyone is out in their respective pastures. All of the adults have had their shearing day and are all naked eating the freshly sprouting grass.

The goats have kidded and would you believe it they all had BOYS!!!! So the kid total is at 4; Buster and Bronco were born April 26th and Frick and Frack were born May 1st. All Black and white and cute all over!

We went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival at the Howard County Fairgrounds and participated in the Breed Display with our pure bred Texels. It was so much fun and getting to educate the public about the breed was thrilling! We saw many friends and really had a wonderful time.

Next up was the Long Island Fleece and Fiber Festival which was a first time gig for us. We had beautiful weather on Saturday and made some wonderful contacts as well as educated people about the Texel breed and the versatility of their wool. This is definitely a repeat venture! And next year we will do both days! We also got some information about a festival in Brooklyn, NY in October that we might check out.

I promise to be more diligent with my posting! Until next time! And yes next time will have pictures :)

Thursday, March 21, 2013

A Sad Day on the Farm....

Well yesterday was not as wonderful as the weather purported it to be :( Juniper fell ill Tuesday night and passed away Wednesday morning. She had a bit of a rough go of it from the start but sometimes there is only so much you can do.

Today is shearing day at lease for a few of the ewes and I will post again with some pictures later today.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

And for my next trick.....

Sorry Everyone! I know you are all DYING to read my next post but the demands of the working world drastically limited my blogging time the last week or so! And of course I had to have something to blog about! So here we go -

JUNIPER UPDATE:
Juniper now weighs 15lbs and is religiously taking her bottle like a trooper 5-6 times a day. She spends her days at the barn, playing with all the other little lambs and trying desperately to catch on to the whole eating hay thing, and her evenings in the bathtub. When Juniper is in the house however she now wears a diaper so our lives are exponentially easier and we are not chasing her all over the place with paper towels :p Recently she has been taking her morning bottle on the veranda with Mom and her morning coffee before the short walk to the barn.

LAMB COUNT:
8-Ewes 6-Rams
We had TWO sets of twins born today!

IN OTHER NEWS......
While doing some internet surfing Mom came across a fiber festival in Long Island, NY that we are looking in to going to as vendors. This would be great exposure for our little farm and for networking in the fiber community. This festival will be the weekend of May 18th just two short weeks after we will be at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival as the Texel Breed Display.

 Right: Juniper sporting her purple monkey diaper




We are definitely looking forward to the warmer weather coming our way! Take care and I will blog again soon! Until then here are some pictures to hold you over!





Randall the ever vigilant Guardian of the Flock aka "The DogFather"

 
Hallie (right) and Josie (left) waiting impatiently for their food


Juniper peeking over her "bath tub barrier"


Randall taking a nap amidst the lambs

Pure Bred Texel twins making the great escape
 
 
Pure Bred Texel Ewe
 
 

Texel/Shropshire Cross Ewe

Monday, February 25, 2013

The Update

Well no new lambies since Juniper was born. She is doing wonderfully by the way. Taking her bottle and being spoiled :) She has mastered the art of escaping the bath tub and has decided the 1st floor of the house is her play ground.

Her trip to the barn today was fun. She got to play with the other little lambs and spend time with her mother. I seriously thought my fingers were going to fall off after hand milking her mother. Guess Im going to have to build up some milking muscles especially if we are going to be milking off Junipers mother everyday. Dad bought a battery powered milker that works for sheep and goats off of ebay.... I guess we will see how this works but we always have the trusty back up of hand milking.

Our shearing date has been set for March with Emily (see her blog here! ). Can't wait to see her and Lydia!

I have been toying with thebidea of taking a fleece and having it processed into yarn as apposed to roving like we usually do... I haven't exactly had time with work to spin and i have so many knitting projects I want to start on!

Friday, February 22, 2013

The Scoop

Since my last post we have made some big strides! Juniper is on a bottle now and is making day trips to see her mother, 575. This visit was mainly for 575's benifit. Even though she won't nurse Juniper she is still depressed that she has no babies...... oh how the mind of sheep work....

No new babies yet - we'll see how mom does with the baby tonight! I wonder how sleep deprived she will be inthe morning :)

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Juniper's Adventure in Hustontown

To start off we had no new additions born today :( Better luck tomorrow. Juniper is doing wonderfully and is already making strides toward actually feeding from a bottle as aposed to being tube fed. Tube feeding is neither fun for her or me so thankfully she has figured out the straight syringe method. With any luck she will be completely on a bottle by the end of the weekend. Unfortunately I will have to leave my little darling for a couple days so I can go to work. Not to worry she will be in the capable hands of her grandparents ;-)

Today marks the second time I have milked a sheep and boy was it frustrating! If it wasnt one thing it was the other between the ewe not letting her milk down and getting kicked in the hands repeatedly. But I persevered and milked off plenty for Juniper to drink for the night and into tomorrow. We always have goat milk as back up but for the comfort of the ewe and the health of the baby, mothers milk is best. On my list for tomorrow is to find a milker. For instances like these I think it is worth the expence and probably a lot less stressful for the ewe and when my goatie girls kid I will be ready for action!

Since Juniper needs to be fed every 1-2 hrs and I have adopted her as my charge, Juniper went to the fire department tonight for CPR Class. Everyone was thoroughly entertained and inammored with my little lamb. Of course there was teasing to my unique choice of pet to tote around. "You see people tote around dogs and even cats but since Sara's got to be different she carries around a sheep!" Juniper loved the attention and put her two cents in here and there with a carefully timed BAA! when the class was not paying attention to her.

All in all Juniper and I make a pretty good pair and I am very glad she is rounding the bend. She is very happy in her little bath tub bedroom and is much more active and vocal now that she is feeling better.

TaTa for now! Time for a little sleep before Juniper needs another feeding.