Sheep Mom's AdventuresRaising Shetland Sheep off the grid

Things have been a bit busy here lately, and I can’t seem to take the time to sit down and post.  I don’t know how people post every day.  I sort of have to be “in the mood”. But, it has been TOO long, so here goes..

While I have been absent from posting, one of our broody hens sat on some guinea hen eggs and hatched one.  Eric brought it into the house and took care of it.  We had to take it everywhere with us.

One day, Ondra and I had gone to town and did some shopping at the grocery store.  Eric was off with our youth pastor, so WE had the guinea keet.  This little keet was nicknamed Gilligan because it was constantly getting out of it’s box and getting into “predicaments”.  That day was no different.  When Ondra and I came back to the car after shopping, Gilligan was no where to be found!  We heard faint “cheeping” somewhere in the car. We turned the inside of the car upside down, but no Gilligan.  Finally we unscrewed the spare tire because it sounded like the cheeping was coming from behind it.  It wasn’t behind it, but down in the wheel well beneath it!  Gilligan had fallen through a slit beneath the spare tire.

Ondra tried to fit her hand down in there (she has small hands), but could not get to Gilligan. A store worker stopped by and tried too.  I then went inside and bought some barbeque tongs.  We stuck those down the slit, and Gilligan ran to the other end where Ondra could just barely fit her hand in, and she caught him (or her). It took some maneuvering to work her hand (and Gilligan) back out.  He was fine and glad to get warm again.  Gilligan was a lot of fun, but all good things must come to an end.  He died a few days later.  It was hard for him to not be raised by a poultry mother.  His human “mother” did the best he could.  We were glad to have Gilligan for even that short time.

We have had A LOT of rain, for us, this spring.  We are seeing lots of mushrooms (probably not edible) around here.  And I actually saw a SLUG!, (a poor excuse for one).  It was only about an inch long. Not at all near the size that we had them in Western Washington where they can get up to 12 feet long, and slime you to death.  Whole towns have been drowned in slime.  OK, SLIGHT exaggeration.  But we did have those big banana slugs when we lived in North Bend, WA many moons ago. Things are MUCH dryer over here on the eastern part of the state, and slugs are rare, if not, non-existent.

Eric and Ondra bought some Silkie chickens at a chicken show not long ago.  Of course, they are in the house (where else would one keep chickens???). Anyway, they are growing and looking really lovely. On a rare sunny day (lately), the kids took them out to enjoy the sunshine.  In fact, all the animals were enjoying the sunshine.  Check out the photos below, and enjoy the cuteness.  Until next time….