After a week or so of cold, nasty weather, it’s finally going to warm up. Time to get back outside and finish working on coop. We picked up chicken supplies today and will order next week.
Got a few more pictures uploaded, still have a couple minor issues to work out, but for the most part, the Gallery is active, so enjoy and check back for more pictures everyday.
Cindy
Phew, finally. The ground work is laid. Now comes the fun of resizing my pictures and getting them uploaded. The ones there now are sorta like anchors. They are holding down the pages so they aren’t empty. Click here or at the Photo Gallery link at top right
If you double click on each image, they will enlarge somewhat. Still playing with that though. It’s getting late and all the pictures are starting to look alike. So it’s time for bed, and will work on it tomorrow.
Not much else going on, we got some sleet, snow, rain and a LOT of wind. So for the last 3 days, working outside is pretty much shot.
Time for bed.
Cindy
I’m working on getting a Photo Gallery up and functional. Naturally it’s not as easy as they make it sound, and not being a programmer I am having some issues. At the moment the Utah Gallery link is not working, it will be soon I hope.
They have some nasty spring weather on the map for us, but I am not holding my breath on this one. If we do get what they are calling for, we are looking at between 4-12 inches of snow tomorrow afternoon. Along with that will be winds hitting the “severe level”, not sure what that means, but I have a feeling it’s a little more that a light breeze.
SNOW? Man, I have already had my first painful sunburn. Guess the tomato plants go in the garage tonight just in case. I hope our tulips like the snow.
Later, Cindy
Well, we worked some more on the chicken coop. Got the roof peaks done, and perches almost done. Mom is happy with the progress and we will be ordering the chicks in about a week. We also got the second window cut out, and screening over it is next on the list.
The sheep decided to do a walk about last night. Bev went out this morning to feed and they were all out of their pen helping themselves to the hay. As soon as they seen Bev, they headed back to the pens and there was no problem getting them back in. They flipped the latch up on the gate and just walked out. It now has a bungee cord on it till we can come up with something a little better than the latch on the chain link gate.
Dusty was out playing in his round pen today. He is really growing. When we got him almost a year ago, he was 14.3 hands high. (a hand is about 4 inches) A week ago he was 15 hands, and he isn’t done growing yet. He is going to be a pretty big boy. He should be around 16 or 16.5 hands.
No pictures today, will get some up though this week.
Cindy
Finally a day we could get out and do something constructive. Beautiful day today, and we got quit a bit done before Bev had to leave for work.
Mom and I looking the situation over. She was asking questions about how it was going to be finished. This was before roof was fully on.
Mom, Bev and I cutting another section for roof. Mom wondered if there were any eggs yet. lol I was tempted to get an egg out of refrigerator and put it in a nest box and tell her there was an egg finally.
The roof is finally on and very firmly attached.Hopefully the high winds we get here occasionally won’t bother it.
Now all we have to do is the second window, the roost, and finish the peaks. We also have to put doors for the chickens to gain access to the outdoor runs.We are also going to put doors behind the nest boxes so mom doesn’t have to go inside the coop to get eggs. She can sneak in from the rear and snatch her prize eggs. At this rate, we should be able to order the chicks in another week. By September we should start getting eggs.
Cindy
Nina, this is especially for you. 
This is what our tulip bed looks like. We used hay from the lambs that they didn’t finish and manure mixed in.
When they start blooming will get more pictures and post them.
Cindy
Needless to say, no roof work today. Winds in the valley hit 40-45 mph and I decided, in my infinite wisdom, trying to work on a roof today was out of the question.
Today it threatened rain and we had some more wind, not as bad as yesterday though. But with having power tools with us, again decided not to try it. Will see what tomorrow brings.
One neat thing though, our tulips are starting to come up good. We planted 50-60 of them last fall. Should have a nice looking bunch of colors when they start blooming.
Cindy
It sure doesn’t look like much right now, but hopefully it will house a bunch of happy chicks in another 2 weeks. Still have a lot of clean up to do in the area, but it is progressing. Roof will go on tomorrow and will get another picture up, as the stages are finished.
The next stages include an outside run, nest boxes, some type of siding, door, and later on this fall, insulation. Also need to get a vent on the top. Maybe by the time all that stuff is done it will look a little more like a chicken coop. The size is 8×8 and will hold 15-20 laying hens.
Mom will finally get her chickens and farm fresh eggs she has wanted for the last 15 years.
Today is the 16th of March, and I have my first good sunburn of the 2007 season. It was almost 80 here to day and a light breeze/wind blowing. Couple dust devils came through also. But is was a beautiful day.
Cindy
Misty, RIP Jan 92/Mar 07
Misty went to the Rainbow Bridge today. She will have lots of Friends waiting for her, most of them she raised from their puppy hood, including her daughter that we lost to Cushings.
She had a full and productive life. She loved to duck and goose hunt, and after our move to Utah, she would just go out and wander around smelling all the things out here that are interesting to a hunting dog. She would go out and visit the sheep, and the horse. It would take her a bit of time to make those rounds lately, but she still did it when she got out to wander.
There will be an empty place in our hearts for a long time. She was the matriarch of our group of dogs, and will be sorely missed. The only consolation is that she is in a better place, free of all that ails a dog of that age.
RIP Misty and have fun chasing all the ducks and geese that got away.
Cindy
One of the things we have noticed out here are the beautiful sunrises/sunsets. Here are a couple of pics from the sunset last night. The intensity was amazing.
The second shot looked like fire on the mountain top. The first picture had what appeared to be a “V” formation with it.
Cindy
Well, here is our first bummer of the season. It is one of the quads from an earlier post. There would have been 2 bummers, but the other didn’t make it, so we didn’t even get a chance with it. This one is the next smallest of the 4. The remaining 2 are doing well and are good and strong. Dixie had already named him in keeping with his destiny: Freezer.
I also worked Dusty today in the round pen. He did pretty good. Got a little froggy later in the afternoon when I tried playing with him. But he calmed down after a few minutes, and we played for about 15 minutes and then he went back into his stall for supper.
Temperature was great today. low 60’s. Going to be down right warm here this week, in the upper 60’s and lower 70’s. Hopefully going to get some outside work done and take advantage of the warm weather.
Cindy
This is what makes it all worthwhile. This set of twins are 2 days old. Both are little girls and cute as a button.
This group of Quads were born Monday morning, and we got pictures later that afternoon. And we thought twins were neat? Quads don’t happen near as often as twins or triplets.
There are a couple other Ewes that look like they are going to have at least triplets and Dixie thinks maybe another set of Quads. She is due in about another week or so.
That’s all for now.
Cindy
What a Blast! We had a ball rounding up a bunch of expecting Ewes that didn’t want to be rounded up. The pictures tell it all.
This picture is after we got them in the pen we wanted them in.
This is where the fun started, actually catching these critters while trying to be careful and always mindful of their condition.
 The next picture is the Headlock. Sure glad it was fairly warm that day with all the time spent on the ground and in the snow.
This is the roll over.  After all, its a little tough to trim their tummies if they are on their sides.
 This round up was a necessary function. As all these Ewes are due to lamb in the next 1-2 weeks, they needed to have the wool sheared from tummy area so the lambs don’t mistake a long piece of wool for their dinner. It makes them pretty sick if they try to nurse on the wool instead of where they are supposed to.
Catch you in the next post.
Cindy
Finally back. Seems my host acquired an iFrame virus on their servers. It really messed things up for 6 days. Seems they finally got everything cleaned up and it is much appreciated, Good Job Guys.
Now I can play catch up with the happening of the last 6 days
Cindy
Finally!!!! Anyway here is a picture of the view to the NW of the house.
This pic was taken this morning, a day and a half after the 6 inches of snow. Temp. this morning at picture taking time was about 22 and not a breath of wind. It was really nice outside with no wind. I took the pictures without a coat on.
This picture is of the “barn” and round pen. The barn was here when we moved in and we have done a few modifications since, but not much.
Barns out here have a whole different “style” than what is called a barn in Ohio. In Ohio this would be called a leanto if it were real lucky. Out here it is one of the “better” versions of a barn. Dusty has no idea how lucky he is to have even that. A real Barn is on the “to do” list for this fall. Will keep you posted on that project when it gets started.
Saturday, we are going to our neighbors, Dixie, to help her catch her sheep and clip them in preparation for lambing. She stopped by a couple days ago to announce the first early birth of a set of twins. Needless to say she wasn’t prepared for them and they were born in the common pen.
The babies were at opposite sides of the pen with mamma in the middle calling to them. They were rounded up and put in lambing pens for the bonding process.
Will get some pics Saturday of the wee ones.
Cindy
PS: If you double click on any of the pictures in these posts, it will take you to a larger view.
