The Weekend Roundup

Now that Eden Hills has passed the torch on a weekly blog link to Tom the Backroads Traveller, I will still try to participate, although it's tricky with my crazy busy life at the moment.  Today's blog is brief because I have a lot on the "to do" list at the moment!

This week's prompts from Tom are:  Starts with A, Week's Favourite, and Art.

Starts with A
Here's a picture of Twilight, my sheep, adorned with hay after getting into the new bale that I put out for them.  Perhaps she looks a little abashed?  But still adorable.

Week's Favourite
I didn't have time to take many pictures this week.  In fact, the only pictures I took were a few last Monday of a pheasant in my backyard, under the bird feeder.  This one is my favourite because you can see the action of the snow flying as he was digging for seeds.

Art
I liked this painting of a cow, which I took a few weeks ago at the conference centre in Ottawa when I was there for a meeting.  I'm always fond of animal-themed art.

A barn! A barn! We have a barn!!

I am really pleased and excited to say that finally, after more than a year of needing one, we finally have a barn for Lucky Nickel, Tucker, and Twilight.

I am so relieved that this winter they will have a proper structure to shelter in, rather than my little hoop house made of a cattle panel and a tarp!  The guys who built the chicken coop for me were able to put this up over 3 days.  Now we are just waiting for the roof panels to come in, which should be in the next few days.

The barn is made from rough-cut lumber, which is ideal for an outdoor building and is very sturdy.  It is 10 feet square and has two very sturdy doors which lead to each compartment.


One side is for Lucky Nickel, who insists on bashing everything with her horns and generally intimidating the sheep. The other side is for Tucker and Twilight, who are calm and peaceful and just want to be left alone to eat their hay in peace.

The barn has two lovely windows (on the sheep side) which are 3 by 3 feet, and 4 by 3 feet.  They open and have screens, which makes for great ventilation.


Because they were low enough for Lucky Nickel to reach when she is on her hind legs, the builders put a cattle panel piece over the outside of them, and some boards on the inside, so she cannot break the glass with her horns.  It is very difficult to find cattle panels around here, so I am glad I had one for this purpose.  The other one will probably become part of my garden set up.


Each compartment has a hay feeder area that was also made with cattle panel pieces.

One for the sheep...

...and one for her highness.

Nickel's is smaller than the one for the sheep, because she is a little portly and there is only one of her, whereas there are two sheep and they need to put some weight on.  Now, they will be able to eat without Nickel constantly charging at them and chasing them around. Do not let this innocent face fool you - she can be a bully!

I have enclosed the critters in the barn tonight as a test to see if Nickel will try to jump over the centre wall.  I hope she won't.  If she does, some additional boards will need to go up.  For now, the sheep are eating peacefully...although somebody is trying to see if the hay is greener on the other side of the wall.

 What if they have better hay than mine?

In her younger days, she would have been up on that middle wall like a shot, and over onto the other side.  These days, she's not quite so agile.  She is 7, after all!

Munch munch munch.

I went outside and looked back through the window.  I can see she's thinking about whether she can make the leap.

Everybody's in their place for the night!  And I will sleep much better this winter knowing that they are safe and cozy every time we have a big snowstorm.

My next objective will be some decorating.  I haven't decided if I will do name boards on the doors, or a 'barn quilt' decoration for each door, or what.  It will be fun to get creative with it.  I'll update when the roof goes on.

I'm finally a shepherdess again!

After 2 years and 8 months of having my 2 sheep being cared for by others, they have finally come home.  I'm so pleased to have Tucker and Twilight back with me again!

I just love those woolly faces!

After putting in the fencing here at the new house, I was hoping to get the electric wires up as well, before they came home, but NB Power is taking a long time to install the necessary new connection to the outbuilding.  My friend who was caring for them really needs the space for her alpaca crias and my sheep were being hard on her fences too.  It was time for them to come back.  I really hope that they don't try any funny escape business before we can get those wires connected!

I managed to get a couple of welded wire panels, which are rare around here, to set up a temporary shelter for the sheep, and for their hay, until the barn can be put into place.  It's not perfect, but it gives them a dry spot to hang out in the rain, and keeps the hay dry, too.  It rained much of yesterday and they didn't seem to mind being in the rain, so their fleeces are still pretty damp today.

They have a fairly heavily forested area for their "pasture" now, so they will need hay all year round.  It's possible that once the goats come back (which will be soon), the trees may be affected, since goats like to strip bark.  Even Tucker seems to be sampling the bark!

Over time, some trees may be removed and that may add to the sunshine in the area, resulting in more grass growing there, but for now, it's just moss and some woodland plants.  I think they're settling in to their new woodsy environment.