New Additions

We have added some new animals to the farm, thanks to our good friends Stasia and Jeff. When we brought home the Angoras in August, we volunteered to help them with their exploding guinea population. We took four keets off their hands. I'm not sure they even noticed, as they have dozens and dozens of the things. So we placed these four guys/gals in a small rabbit carrier and popped them into the back seat of the truck. Covered them up a bit, thinking they would think it was nighttime and settle down for the 3 hour ride home. Well, they weren't fooled one bit and chirped and sang and complained all the way to the first rest stop. Where we took their carrier and removed it to the back of the truck to ride the rest of the way with the goats! My advice to you, is never try to travel with guinea keets in the vehicle with you - VERY NOISY!

But I have always wanted some guineas, and "Mr Opportunity" was knocking! Here they are in our brooder, which was their temporary home until we got something bigger set up for them:

They have since moved into a dog kennel enclosure in our barn, complete with multiple roosts, while they get a bit bigger and become attached to our barn, so that at some point, when they are allowed to free range, they will still come home at night.

On our next trip to Stasia and Jeff's, we picked up a few sheep, including some beautiful Icelandic ewes, two of them pictured below. Thank you so much for allowing us to bring all of these beautiful animals to our farm.

And, because the majority of the animals on this place have to be productive - we are trying to bring in a bit of income, after all - we obtained this Icelandic ram at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival last month:

This is Oliver, who we purchased from Rick and Laura of Queso Cabeza Farm over in Michigan. He was the champion Icelandic ram at WSWF. I'm not sure yet whether or not I like the fact that he is polled, but he has a beautiful moorit fleece, which I promptly sheared off just after this picture was taken:

He's a lamb, so I'm hoping he is assertive enough to stand up to our Icelandic girls who are a few years older. We're hoping to have nice lambs out of them in April. I can't wait, as Icelandics are like Shetlands - it will be like Christmas, waiting to see what colors/patterns will be on the lambs when they are born! Already getting impatient and the breeding groups don't go together until mid-November!

Well, must get going - according to the Weather Channel, it looks like the rain is gone, at least for the time being. But the sun was shining half an hour ago, and now it appears to be gone. Hope I didn't miss the nice weather for the day, blogging. Cheer for the Packers tonight! We're playing that Brett someone and the Vikings!