tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41180674647463083332024-03-12T21:02:36.617-07:00CraftyJewelerThe official blog for Erika May Designs Handmade Jewelry. This blog is dedicated mainly to my jewelry, but will occasionally dabble in other crafts such as farming, cooking, art and hopefully soon, music!
Anyone interested in buying jewelry from me can either contact me here or go through my etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/ErikaMayDesignsCraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.comBlogger90125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-16804124260068333662014-02-04T22:48:00.000-08:002014-02-04T22:48:02.352-08:00Where Did I Go?Lifes been pretty crazy as I'm sure you can tell. Alot of time and energy has gone to the farm, but I was also hired as an apprentice at a large jewelry company. I'd only been there for 9 months when I got promoted to a full time bench jeweler. My skills have improved dramatically...though there isn't much creativity. Unfortunately I have very little energy and time left for my own personal jewelry.<br />
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Hopefully as I get more settled and set up at the farm I can reorganize my jewelry studio and start making my own work. Until then: please wait for me. CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-73591383507407378822013-04-13T21:10:00.001-07:002013-04-13T21:10:21.191-07:00A Day in the Life of MeDid I mention I got fired?<br />
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Yeah, it didn't work out at the last place. Politicy stuff, ya know? So I moved back to the farm and focused on that stuff and got a call from a big jewelry company that they needed help and heard my name from someone I buy supplies from. Coolio. So I'm working that job as an apprentice jeweler. Last week I learned the "real" way to rip-tip stones and then I rebuilt some broken prongs and set stones. cool stuff.<br />
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So my morning starts around 7:30 feeding the animals, then milking the sheep. By 8:15 I am back making breakfast and getting cleaned up for work. If I have time I will run an errand like picking up more feed. Then I'm off to work by 9:20, work until 6:30. Pick up free veggies for the pigs from a grocery store, get home, feed the animals and try to muster up the energy to feed myself. Since my day typically doesn't end until 8:30 I haven't been putting much time into the bench.<br />
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This will change one day. One day I will be back here more frequently. Until then, forgive me for I am tired.<br />
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CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-62838670066480706572013-03-03T07:54:00.001-08:002013-03-03T07:54:36.712-08:00Farm Blog!I decided it was time to start a blog focused on my farming and return this one to jewelry. That means, yes, there WILL be less baby animals pictures here. BUT fear not, for if you come over to <a href="http://farmerista.wordpress.com/">http://farmerista.wordpress.com/</a> there will be plenty.<br />
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In jewelry news I have decided not to do a booth at the CMAG spring show this year. I may get around to putting some pieces in the gallery, but I don't know if I will have time to make something new. I don't know if I mentioned the bench jewelry job i got in december didn't work out? Yeah, various reasons i don't need to go into but I did just land a new one with the official position of "apprentice." Thats great: that means the other jewelers KNOW I'm supposed to be learning. It will mean 40 hours a week so fitting that into the farming and all...well, good thing I have lots of energy!<br />
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Anyway, I'll leave you with a picture of my bottle baby lamb, Blaze. She is totally sleeping on the couch right next to me at the moment. (If you want to know her story follow that link)CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-24191993062220078482013-02-19T21:24:00.001-08:002013-02-19T21:24:12.997-08:00TrainingGot my studio half put back together: I had many comings and goings over the last few months that left the space in disarray. Unfourtunatly, some of the ex's cats took to peeing in my studio and I can't sit at my bench without to the distinct smell of cat urine.<br />
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Despite the stench I trudged on (with the help of a scented candle). I had the neighbor girl over tonight to learn the basics of jewelry making. I started her on just hammering metal, then onto sawing. By the end of the evening she had made a cute copper dragonfly. <br />
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So I have a jeweler in training...hopefully she'll will help me battle through the cat stank by actually WANTING to be in the studio.<br />
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(dogs rule, cats drool. :P)CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-32983503226748701472013-02-17T21:04:00.000-08:002013-02-17T21:04:15.234-08:00Farming and stuffWell my friends, I have been up to alot. I moved back onto the farm and have been working non-stop to get it fixed up. among the happenings: I picked up a new sheep named Polly. She is and East Friesian x Lacaune which means another milker. She is a month or two younger than Ash, which seems to mean she is about a month behind in her pregnancy.<br />
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The ram was REAL excited to get to meet her, so I tried locking him up for a day to let him cool his jets while the girls bonded. This was him trying to crawl under the barn door.<br />
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She's spotted, so I'm hoping I'll get a good color when I cross her with a Jacob. Check out the cool spots on her ears: they are ringed like agate!<br />
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The adorable friendly piglets were so curious about the newcomer! She was interested in them...not so interested in Rosie (who walked over to say "Hello.")<br />
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Good ol' Rosie. Being a mom is hard sometimes: I guess she needed a pick me up when she tried to drink my coffee. <br />
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The piglets are getting big fast! I built a creep feed to help let some pressure off Rosie. They are starting to root around and eat worms and such, but they harass mom nonstop in the barn for more food while she eats pulling at her teats...puts her in a bad mood fast. So at breakfast time I give them a small amount of pellets with milk. They enjoy that while mom eats in peace. Then we all play. I feel like with giving them a little extra food they've been growing even faster...I already had to lift up the bottom electric line on the feed so they could get in. I am disappointed that she sheep haven't lambed yet and the piglets arn't getting the sheep milk: that was the plan. Didn't happen...guess they get powdered milk instead.<br />
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In the less than two weeks ive been back I have: repaired the barn walls Rosie punched out, replaced the rotten/broken board on the barn door, got it to open and close again, and reinforced it. The wood piled in the barn is mostly cleaned up, I built a creep feed and a simple pen for the sheep at night. Painted 2 rooms in the house, cut 1/4 a cord of wood (burned most of it already, too), cleaned up the front and am now getting the gardens ready. I need to build a self-feeder for rosie so the sheep stop stealing her food, then I am on to fencing. I am also about to start reorganizing my studio and working on my jewelry again. yay! <br />
<br />On that note I will be moving my farming stuff to a new blog soon and focusing back here on jewelry. I hope you guys have enjoyed reading about the animals, but its time to move this content onto its own site. I'll let you know the new blog as soon as I come up with a proper name. Any ideas? ;)CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-43034842241949075952013-02-06T08:24:00.002-08:002013-02-06T08:26:23.982-08:00Two Weeks!As of yesterday the piggies pasted a milestone: two weeks old! And what a happy, healthy, energetic bunch.<br />
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And what little trouble makers! They knocked over a glass pane and broke it, then they found this plastic and have been playing with it. Any piece of trash they find they put in their mouths (i guess how piglets learn is through their mouths). This property was covered in trash when we bought it and I had thought I did a decent job cleaning up. Nope, not enough for babies!<br />
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They started going outside when they were 5 days old...seems early but I guess not!<br />
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Now they are starting to root around like mom. <br />
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Rosie looks very satisfied with life.<br />
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Lots of joy, energy and jumps with the piggies are outside.<br />
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This is the only one I dare name: Peppercorn has lots of spunk! She might become a breeder in fall.<br />
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Look at those pretty piggy lashes!<br />
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So now we have our piglets out of the most dangerous age. Only lost one the first night. While I had hoped for 10, 7 healthy lively piglets is still pretty good for a first time 'round.<br />
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Now on to the lambs! I think Ash is going to drop anytime. She is uddering up and laying down alot. I've been pretty nervous because no one is there to keep an eye on her during her first lambing. Shawn has been trying to move out so he hasn't paid much attention to the sheep. I am moving back in today so hopefully she has put off lambing until I'm back. We will see. I don't know when I am going to get my sheep from our shared Jacob flock, so I went ahead and bought another sheep. She is a milker like Ash so it seems we will have a mini dairy going. hopefully I can pull off this milking thing. We shall see!<br />
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Either way I'm excited to be moving back "home," living next to my animals and getting back to *my* personal bench. Yes! that means jewelry will happen again!CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-50927534602878521362013-01-27T17:36:00.001-08:002013-01-27T17:36:34.259-08:002013 Seed OrderSo Shawn was to be the gardener. Alas, now the task falls to me. To be honest neither of us really got any beds in order. By now the pig should have rotto tilled the garden space, then amendments and cover crop should have been added. However, only one small cool crop bed has been prepared...everything still is covered in grass. The pen the pigs were in during the summer had cover crop seed, but it never took. I'm hoping to muck Rosies pen out and put all her dirty straw back there, but im not sure if i can: she jammed the door closed while puncturing a hole in the bottom of the door. So pigs can use the door, just not humans. This means I have to throw everything over the fence and climb in. Thanks girl.<br />
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2013 looks like it wont be the most successful garden year, but I can learn alot regardless. I'm trying to follow the advice of <a href="http://www.soilandhealth.org/05steve%27sfolder/05aboutmeindex.html">Steve Solomon</a> about high yield growing in Cascadia and eventually move towards more <a href="http://www.krameterhof.at/en/index.php?id=holzersche_permakultur">Sepp Holzer </a>style permaculture. (Assuming I can afford to keep the place)<br />
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My soil is very rocky clay which is not ideal for many plants. Over time one can build up humus by mixing in organic material...but that takes time. One of Holzer's methods is to build 4 to 5 foot hills hills, rather than raised beds. The hill may have a log underneath to add stability and slowly rot to release nutrients. The hill has greater surface area than a raised bed, and plants can be placed so they don't block each others sun. I won't get to building any hills this by summer, but I can use this method to combat clayey soil buy creating a loamy hill on top. It will also help with drainage.<br />
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I just got a bunch of sample sized packets from <a href="https://www.territorialseed.com/">Territorial Seed</a>. Shawn said they arn't as good as they used to be and their germination rates are down from what they used to have. I figure I'll give them a shot since most their seeds are grown in this bio-region, but next year I may try out <a href="http://www.victoryseeds.com/">Victory Seeds</a> out of Mollala.There are a couple other seed companies I hear good things about like <a href="http://www.johnnyseeds.com/">Johnnys Seed Co.</a> and <a href="http://www.fedcoseeds.com/index.htm">Fed Co</a>...but both are from the East Coast which means the plants that fruit seed well there may not do as well in the West Coast weather.<br />
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Of the more interesting things I will be planting: I am going to give quinoa a try. The leaves are apperently edible, too. After reading <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/16/vegans-stomach-unpalatable-truth-quinoa">how international popularity of quinoa has made to too costly for the poorest Bolivians </a>I would like to see how it grows in Oregon.<br />
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Other plants I will grow will be Japanese favorites like edamame, kabocha, Japanese cucumbers, and edible crysathamum. My old Japanese Restaurant said they'd buy from me if I could produce enough for them. That means I'll meed 40# of cucumbers twice a week to keep sushi supplied. I'm starting out small this summer to see what I can handle for them, but that may be my niche. We'll see. I'm excited to get started, though. Luckily the animals are keeping my farming bug satisfied.<br />
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<br />CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-11675228330078237692013-01-26T14:59:00.001-08:002013-01-26T14:59:59.424-08:003 Day Old Pigglets Rosie seems to be picking up on this mothering thing.So without further ado: lots of pigglet pictures:<br />
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Everyone seems to be doing well with their appetites<br />
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This little girl, though, as a big nasty cut on her leg. Luckily the straw is clean and the weather is cool so hopefully it won't get infected. Just gonna have to wash it every day and keep an eye on her. She's the most energetic of them all.<br />
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Rosie looks very happy and contented.<br />
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Looks like a few are getting daddy's floppy ears!<br />
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Yum yum yum <br />
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Bouncing around being happy babies. Looks like 2 boys 5 girls. Turns out Rosie did have 8, but it died the first night and got buried in the hay. Next time I'll change the pen so I can get into both sides and grab any injured babies. Other than a few with scratches they all look pretty good. They went outside for the first time yesterday. it is really amazing how quick they develop. I swear each time I look at them they are bigger.<br />
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Also, why arn't you people following Rosies twitter account? The more people follow the more "she' will tweet https://twitter.com/RosieDaPigCraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-81206141079478752022013-01-23T19:39:00.001-08:002013-01-26T15:00:12.202-08:00Piggies!It finally happened! Rosie had her first litter yesterday. My mother had to go to the farm in the morning and Rosie seemed to be acting funny. She gave her some fresh hay and Rosie immediately started to try and make a nest with it and seemed to be having an occasional contraction. I got a call from her at work "Rosie seems likes shes gonna pop!" By some chance I got off work early that day and decided to go up to see how she was doing.<br />
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I went in to find Rosie like this:<br />
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Breathing calm, but pretty clear contractions. I didn't know how long she had to go, so i got her to flip over so the piggles could get to her tits. Look and her boobies! Ay, I can't imagine how bad its got to feel to have 14 sore boobies! <br />
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Regardless, she seemed calm and I think happy to have me there. I encouraged here and gave her some space for a little bit. I came back with some water mixed with raw apple cider vinegar: she loves to drink that! Its good for digestion and she gulped it right down.<br />
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After she had her water and she flopped down again I noticed he water had broken. About 15 minutes later she started really heaving. I looked back and there were little feet!<br />
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Then with a little push it came out a little further....<br />
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Then went back in. The little feet see-sawed back and forth for a few minutes and I considered the possibility her first on might be breech so I decided to time it. If it took longer that 15 minutes....just as I looked at the clock *POP!* out it came! Rosie's very first baby!<br />
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I got one shot with the flash when Rosie heard it squeal and jumped up and turned around. That's when I realized I was in a bad spot: in order to possibly help her with a breech (okay, okay, and to see the first one happen~!) I had gotten in her pen and was boxed in to the sides and even ceiling and the only way out was by Rosie and her new born. Any other pig would have killed me. Rosie gave me the stink eye, but was also confused by the squirming and squealing thing.I managed to slip by her by making it clear I wasn't going to touch the little "thing." I tossed my camera aside because it looked like I might need to get in and grab one if she decided to flop down one.<br />
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The next three popped out in fast succession. I was really surprised: maybe five minutes between each one? Rosie still wasn't sure what was going on and now she had 4 things squiggling about trying to nudge her. A few times she nearly trampled them to death. One of them kept screaming bloody murder whenever he fell over which would terrify Rosie so she'd hop up and start spinning around and everyone else would start screaming...She was having a very hard time of it. She was lying on her stomach wide eyed keeping an eye on the little things. She was so upset and the piglets were all over the place. It was below freezing and they were trying to find something warm: one got buried deep in the hay pile.<br />
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I finally decided to intervene. I got back in the pen with her and started petting her. She of course rolled over for a belly rub...and finally one of her piglets got to her nipple and latched on! THAT is what she needed! She started calming down and eventually the other piglets found their way over and latched on. You could see her relaxing with the situation and she started rolling over to give her teats to her babies.<br />
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As she relaxed then next few piglets came out of her. We still had one in the hay. I was afraid to move it because anytime she heard a piglet squeal she jumped up and started freaking out. She seemed relaxed, though, so I gently uncovered it and moved it out into the cold. Of course it squeaked and Rosie saw it. Once again a panicked look came over her face, but this time she looked down at the piglets suckleing by her side, then at the straggler slowly moving towards her, then at me-then, unlike before, she stayed calm, looked at me, then at her baby and called to it without bothering her her other babies. He stumbled over to her, nearly going behind her, and Rosie stretched her head out to meet him and guide him gently to her belly. Rosie became a mother.<br />
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I left after she had #7...she seemed to be getting the hang of this mothering thing and I was freezing! I was dressed in my work clothes not knowing I'd be spending the evening in the barn. Shawn was finally back so I left him in charge. He did a nice job creating roll bars out of logs!<br />
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Not living back at the farm yet means I don't get to see Rosie until I have time off work, but I guess she didn't have any more. My mother went by in the morning and she was protective of her new brood, but let her get a peek. Today they were running around, apparently. Can't wait to see who has floppy ears and who just has giant ears! <br />
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<br />CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-65089334882212578002013-01-13T15:14:00.002-08:002013-01-13T23:24:36.391-08:00WAHOO!<br />
Great news: Rosie is pregnant! Mr.Pig did his job just before he left, apparently. I assume the summer heat disrupted her cycling or made her miscarry...either way once things cooled down she must have finally taken. I was the one saying she wasn't pregnant when everyone else said she was, and thoguht she was pregnant when everyone else gave up. I guess thats what I get looking at her anatomy ALL THE TIME. Plus, she's been acting CUH-RAZY since early October. So fellow first time pig breeders take heart: it is hard to tell with some pigs if they are pregnant. Some people say look at their back end and if their vulva is pointed up, she is pregnant.<br />
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Well, not with Rosie. My clues were: stopped having heavy mucous breeding cycles, nipples were still small but pointed funny directions, wanted LOTS of grass, wasn't as interested in being friendly, and her attitude was just...a little crazy? But her vulva looked pretty much the same the whole time. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BOOBIES! This means BABIES!</td></tr>
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She sure is lucky that her teats are developing because she was juuuuust about to be sent to the slaughter house. So these babies will be a white meat (roast, tenderloin) breed (Yorkshire pig) and a red meat (bacon, ham) breed (<span class="st"> Gloucester <em>Old Spot</em></span>) making the pigglets Yorkshire X Old Spot. Apparently its an amazing combo, so we will see. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thanks Mr.Pig, I'm sure your babies will be crazy cute!</td></tr>
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In other news, I crutched Ash the sheep aka gave her a Brazilian. I didn't get any pictures of the process, but if you arn't going to shear before lambing it is pretty important to crutch. By cutting the wool away from the anus, legs and stomach mom is cleaner and the lambs don't mistakenly suck on poopy wool instead of her teats. When I turned her over and started shearing her tummy I saw her udders were caked with poop and urine. GROSS! The waste gets stuck in the wool and dirty tags grow bigger and bigger. She's all cleaned up now and ready to have her lambs. Also, I won't get as much crud in the milk. Her udders didn't look too big so I assume we are still a few weeks off. I hope so because I want to be moved back in before she lambs. <br />
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So the farm is really a farm!<br />
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<br />CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-50029440115912170462013-01-12T23:01:00.003-08:002013-01-12T23:01:53.699-08:00UpdateHey everyone! Things kinda changed for me recently. The whole "fiance" thing didn't work out, so I moved out for a while and got me a real job as a real bench jeweler. Or, at least they are training me to be one. It is a very high end shop in the area and they are great people. So I work 5-6 days a week there...thus, I am not getting much of my OWN jewelry done. And I guess I get to be a weekend farmer. <br />
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Now, the farm. We got the farm by buying through my mother (she applied to the banks) and we paid the mortgage. The ex is being kind enough to move out peaceably by the end of the month (this whole thing has been stretching on for a few months, mind you). I, personally, am ready as all hell to be back on the farm. LAMBS!!! I SHOULD HAVE LAMBS SOON!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">East Friesian X Jacob....what will it look like? </td></tr>
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I have this dream of creating an Oregon milk sheep by crossing the highly productive East Friesian breed with the hardy, old, goat-like Jacob breed. This will take many, many years and alot more land and alot more sheep. This will be my first generation and I am very curious what physical traits will come out: Ash's black wool is a recessive gene: will her babies come out white? Spotted? Will they come out with horns or no horns (I personally like horns because I feel like it gives them a leg up in chasing coyotes)? I believe the polled trait tends to be stronger, but Ash looks like she nearly has horn buds.<br />
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We'll see what happens, but my goal is to create a breed that produce sheep more productive milk wise with less health problems. As the average conventional sheep produces 100-200 lbs of milk vs East Friesian which produces 900-1,100 lbs of milk in a lactation. Big difference, eh? If I could breed a hardy breed that produces 700 lbs a lactation I'd be very happy. Interestingly, I am discovering this is not a NEW idea...lots of places use crossed Friesians...but I am looking to make an actual breed. We'll see how it goes in about 25 years. (I'm sure in 25 years I'll be laughing at my naivety....or rolling in dough from my brilliant idea! hahaha!) <br />
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It will be an interesting experiment. Now my other Jacobs are still stranded at another farm. Luckily, being Jacobs, they don't typically have birthing problems. So all those pure breeds are on their own for now. Not ideal, but it is what it is. Wish I could have all of them at my farm as I want as many babies as possible...but I guess I just have to settle with what Ash gives me.<br />
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Looks like our pig didn't breed. She had 3 months with Mr.Pig. I assume she is broken somehow. :( Very sad, I gave her a little extra time to walk this earth because her teats looked funny....but while they are going every which way if she doesn't drop some babies in the next week she's done for. Oh well. She guarded my sheep well so I don't regret having her stick around for an extra while.<br />
<br />CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-37893384710227725342012-10-22T10:40:00.000-07:002012-10-22T12:35:06.164-07:00Oh RosieFall has come, rain has started and the pig pen has turned into a mud pit. I built a pen for the pigs i the bar, but it really wasn't enough room for both pigs to spend all winter. Rosie was making it clear if I did't fix up her digs, she would take matters into her ow hands (cloven hooves?). Feed costs are also a problem as the pigs are not yet on pasture. My fiance prefers to overfeed animals rather than underfeed, Mr.Pig was happy to eat whatever came his way at a cost of $35 a week. Aint happening.<br />
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On Wednesday we said goodbye to Mr.Pig who has moved on to <a href="http://www.farmergord.com/blog">Farmer Gord's</a>. He has 3 sows and 30 acres. Its a better space for Mr.Pig. Of course, it was a adventure load Mr.Pig. I had to feed my piggies a little that day because Rosie was in a mood. She kept trying to tear open the fence, so I feed them in hopes of placating her...but them mr.pig wasn't as hungry as he should have been. So Gord had a family emergency and shows up a 9 pm. Luckily I had hooked up electricty to the barn...but it was just a single lightbulb. Everywhere else was pitch black. I untied some of the cattle panels to let out Mr.Pig and Rosie decided to make a break for it, them Mr.pig decided to take a hike too. So we chased the pigs around in the dark, got them back in the barn then focused on mr.pig. once we had him infront of the trailer he went in.<br />
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So Rosie has lots of room and food to herself now, all is good, right?<br />
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no. Wrong. I suppose I should have taken pictures as proof but believe me: she tore her pen to shreds and tried to run away. I sat down at my bench finally and started working on a new ring when Shawn looked out to see Rosie escaping into the neighbors Our permimeter fence is only a fraction complete and Rosie would not be contained any longer. We had to discuss the future of Rosie as we don't know if she is pregnant or not. She *might* be, but the again has always had trouble taking....I was fit to be tied and ready to turn her into dinner, however Shawn did not agree. As you can see our little flow chart:<br />
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You see the corner of the crossed out one: "dead pet." Oh Shawn, you might want to stick with being a vegetable farmer. So Rosie lives. We did call a vet to try and get an ultrasound to see if she is preggers, but alas the vets weren't able to sedate her and we couldn't. THAT was a horrible experience chasing her with giant needles and trying to stab and drug her up. Was she ever mad.<br />
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Throughout the day I babysat her and kept her from running away while Shawn came up with a plan...his plan eventually became "I don't want an ugly, crappy temporary fence next to my house, so lets build a rubbish pile that is too tall for her to climb!" So thats what we did: we cut down trees and piled up brambles all the way across the open fence line and I got the section of electric fence powered up. I personally am not sure it looks any better than a janky fence but it cost $0 and we did it in 2 days, so thats great. Did it work? No. The next day Rosie climbed right over the logs.<br />
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The brush pile was meant to be a mostly visual barrier, but it wasn't quite enough. So Shawn put up a line of temporary electric line in front of the brush aaaaaaand tada! it worked! Rosie is now free-range as are the sheep. I got her a new bale of hay for her bed so she is sure to come home at night. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Do YOU see the sly look in her eye?</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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I really hope this girl is pregnant. With all we have been through with her we need some payback. And adorable babies. Oh yes, and since she IS a pet offically she has a <a href="https://twitter.com/RosieDaPig">twitter account</a>. Follow her!<br />
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Now maybe I can get back to my bench?CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-80459238374711392032012-10-12T08:52:00.003-07:002012-10-12T08:52:59.311-07:00Pouring the FoundationWinter is coming up fast and our well needs a house! My mother and I took it upon ourselves to finally start the project for a small 4x4 slab. We dug out the space and when my honey came home he was like, "Uh, no ladies. Thats not how its going to be done." While he nixed our small foundation for a bigger shed that could function as a tool shed or possibly root cellar, we did get the ball rolling. ;)<br />
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What we ended up with was a 8x8 foot foundation and footing. He did the framing Wit the help of my mother. Next was the fun part NONE of use had ever done: pouring from a truck. Oh yes, and since lack of time/good weather/money we poured the footings and the slab as the same time for an extra challange.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Discussing the logistics</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Foreman is on the job.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOCNVODFA0iVk1x3oGimL5sro8WJbGE8dMr-68ry_ECdcaWWcGPX3TobE404IgxK4O-JUdoekrhKO5LV2J0m9-5XX3ANmE7-A414gvNhyphenhyphengrgDvMijxchljqrea4r-Z5FE6POe1sF66RK0/s1600/DSC_2804.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOCNVODFA0iVk1x3oGimL5sro8WJbGE8dMr-68ry_ECdcaWWcGPX3TobE404IgxK4O-JUdoekrhKO5LV2J0m9-5XX3ANmE7-A414gvNhyphenhyphengrgDvMijxchljqrea4r-Z5FE6POe1sF66RK0/s320/DSC_2804.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Evening out the concrete</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_mJbmtJfkYNJI3bR1rmkZoCtugbHHAvJiihyphenhyphendwp_7oE2SUEWv2cB47DIqYJm4nnHDSyoc0CvsgXYqI7iAB3ITLsfb4t19DxFYtXvjDP9MfaI0NhLN_b2Yi5B1TrjNzknMd973u_Wbpko/s1600/DSC_2805.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_mJbmtJfkYNJI3bR1rmkZoCtugbHHAvJiihyphenhyphendwp_7oE2SUEWv2cB47DIqYJm4nnHDSyoc0CvsgXYqI7iAB3ITLsfb4t19DxFYtXvjDP9MfaI0NhLN_b2Yi5B1TrjNzknMd973u_Wbpko/s320/DSC_2805.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still level!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicAkQxKeHzV_pytmjBmmL72H5cgny9XOgPGMI0IG3ANPIUeceWdHTMi0zSj6YX3Xs41mENWl6Do_J_jm7omeCpJFPzRa3pzkDneP4Uuf-0XV7XUcv5RnhxxW4zNrmFIHRVPXyZPyzEEA8/s1600/DSC_2806.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicAkQxKeHzV_pytmjBmmL72H5cgny9XOgPGMI0IG3ANPIUeceWdHTMi0zSj6YX3Xs41mENWl6Do_J_jm7omeCpJFPzRa3pzkDneP4Uuf-0XV7XUcv5RnhxxW4zNrmFIHRVPXyZPyzEEA8/s320/DSC_2806.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This part of the job is done! </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYa2mvwOJtV5lcHjFHt8hz270_ssDB1VebuUQPKedno7N2uPExPRxH9AUtOrOhKp7xbQ3LuARx8i8k4juswS9-d_lVvmEeYFJlqzYQLisPd-tRfIIzStNdBFiiA84draFWTYB005XwQws/s1600/DSC_2823.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYa2mvwOJtV5lcHjFHt8hz270_ssDB1VebuUQPKedno7N2uPExPRxH9AUtOrOhKp7xbQ3LuARx8i8k4juswS9-d_lVvmEeYFJlqzYQLisPd-tRfIIzStNdBFiiA84draFWTYB005XwQws/s320/DSC_2823.JPG" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taking off the forms revealed a few air pockets were missed, but overall a decent job!</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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So next we need to build the actual pump house and then our well will be set for winter. Gotta hurry, though: cold weather in almost here. We had our first rain this morning and first frost last week. After that fixing up the animals better for the rain.CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-41265640983407701922012-09-04T12:37:00.000-07:002012-09-04T12:37:24.777-07:00AshMeet Ash, an East Fresian sheep. She is a 8 month old dairy sheep. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The cats arn't to sure of what to make of this newcomer</td></tr>
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I agreed to buy her hoping to cross her with my Jacob sheep for a lower maintenance dairy sheep. Her mom made about half a gallon a milking, which would make almost a gallon a day! The day before I received her tragedy struck: her small flock was attacked by coyotes and only Ash and a goat survived. Then the goat turned on Ash and started beating up on her! When she came to my place she was really scared and sad. I wasn't quite ready for her so her first few days she was on a leash. <br />
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Now she has a pen around a plum tree where she can see everyone. We haven't gotten one of our other sheep from our old farm yet (they are basically wild sheep this summer), so she is still a bit lonely. But this has given me a chance to get her to bond with me and learn to trust us.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGWfvtx5tVDca0Dm7q_QGu5CLfXVsUsiZG_MHz2EIDeXkSNg0EDL9g_qzCpyAuAwh__8vX0WpcUQtiJZPd1wKYIud_1StIA0SYjmkweCPLp76LMoEYPfsIYlC1WPAeNeAev-4XlcBUgoQ/s1600/DSC_2781.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGWfvtx5tVDca0Dm7q_QGu5CLfXVsUsiZG_MHz2EIDeXkSNg0EDL9g_qzCpyAuAwh__8vX0WpcUQtiJZPd1wKYIud_1StIA0SYjmkweCPLp76LMoEYPfsIYlC1WPAeNeAev-4XlcBUgoQ/s320/DSC_2781.JPG" width="212" /></a><br />
I decided to try giving her a mirror to see if that would help her feel less lonely. Well, she doesn't have much experience with mirrors, right? so I put a mirror up for her and she saw a sheep! yaaay! then she looked around the mirror, and no sheep. sad. Look in the mirror, magic sheep is back! she carefully headbutted it a few times not totally convinced of it....Ash spent a few minutes trying to figure out and talk to the magic 2 dimensional sheep, then decided it was ok....ish. She is certainly calmer seeing another sheep face, but its not the same as a real sheep. Still when she goes into her pen in the morning she runs over to look at magic sheep (or maybe shes figured it out and she is just checking herself out.)<br />
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Ash is a real sweetheart and seems pretty sharp. Whoever said sheep and stupid didn't get to actually know them, yes, they flock together, but they really do think. She is already learning some basic commands with clicker training.<br />
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Since she is polled (no horns) i didn't feel comfortable taking her to the old farm in Oregon City and leaving her in a new herd of horned sheep. Sounds like a great way for her to get hazed to death. So the plan is to pick someone from the flock of Jacobs up and introduce her to one member of the herd, then when we get the fences up the rest of the herd can come up and since one of the jacobs "knows" her, she will have an easier time joining the the rest of the sheep. CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-67227717133205503512012-08-23T14:55:00.001-07:002012-08-23T15:49:56.880-07:00Pigs!We got the pigs moved in a few weeks ago and boy was doing that an adventure. Getting Rosie loaded involved a half days work and many trial and error attempts.<br />
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First we tried asking her to go in with food, only to have the
trailer fall over and scare her. apperently the small trailer needed a counterbalance for the 500 lb pig climbing in. ok, fair enough, makes
sense. After that she was afraid of the thing. Next we tried forcing her
in with cattle panel (as suggested in a pig book). she just stuck her
nose in the cattle panel and tossed it (and me) aside. Or busted through
a wall, or the trailer, or whatever she thought would make us leave her alone. Finally
we built a chute (experienced pig farmers know thats what you need in
the first place) got her in with food. Still, she wasn't inclined to go
in the trailer so I got the hose and sprayed her. Actually, that was a
wonderful humane was to get her to move: it was hot, so it wasn't
terrible for her to get wet...just annoying enough she moved away from
the water. So i sprayed her face when she tried to nose out of the chute
which got her to stop trying to break out and then sprayed her backside
on up into the trailer. It worked! She went in and stayed calm (thank
goodness because she could have busted through that rickety trailer if
she wanted).<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3N3arIc7uP9wJoXgmVy-QyGgQyG3XUTyfaxesSZhwXGqSXBybZaOoghVaIpOTPMh6_vfr2do6KQ6n2WF_HlvUGMcB0OrFOVDtbfbjsSMTAj3vbHn108QZZjbAeMDaEi6ak1zoT9yGhGc/s1600/DSC_2746.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3N3arIc7uP9wJoXgmVy-QyGgQyG3XUTyfaxesSZhwXGqSXBybZaOoghVaIpOTPMh6_vfr2do6KQ6n2WF_HlvUGMcB0OrFOVDtbfbjsSMTAj3vbHn108QZZjbAeMDaEi6ak1zoT9yGhGc/s320/DSC_2746.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The beautiful lady using a natural sleepmask</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3jZUKwGADa0lH-3TxrabO7_E5Dtk_DruEVBJBac9BbBu_7gTydVjH6viXkc8z17S97DWKO-fROkq06g0tIp0LBlauu-kLTE40TCYWq-DmRW2_6h-SaSTbdOWhk2HUQbOV0mkN-h-0Vb4/s1600/DSC_2751.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3jZUKwGADa0lH-3TxrabO7_E5Dtk_DruEVBJBac9BbBu_7gTydVjH6viXkc8z17S97DWKO-fROkq06g0tIp0LBlauu-kLTE40TCYWq-DmRW2_6h-SaSTbdOWhk2HUQbOV0mkN-h-0Vb4/s320/DSC_2751.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yes, Rosie is a big girl.</td></tr>
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When we got to the farm the neighbours
came out to watch us unload. Rosie didn't turn around, no she decided to
back out of the trailer which worked for a few steps.....until she stepped off the ramp, tripped, fell on her butt and rolled out. A rather graceless exit, if I may say so. She was okay, though. The neighbor exclaimed, "Thats a pig?! I thought a baby hippo was coming out!"<br />
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The next night we went to pick up her new boyfriend. Well, THAT was an adventure coming back up a twisted, steep mountain side gravel road with a 500 lb boar we didn't know in a rickey trailer in a manual S-10 Chevy without 2nd gear. Lets just leave it at that. Oh the adventures of moving farm animals without money.<br />
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Anyway, the boars name is Mr.Pig and he is Gloucestershire Old Spot. His breed was designed for running under orchards and picking up fruit that fell on the ground before it rotted and attracted insects. His former owner was chopping down trees and turning it into pasture and used Mr.Pig to tear up the roots of the trees and undergrowth. I think he said they cleared 2 acres that way. <br />
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While I had hopped to use Mr.Pig in a similar way and run him under the orchard that we don't have planted yet I'm not sure how long we can keep him and his appetite. But we have two goals with him: a friend for Rosie and to breed Rosie.<br />
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Oh yes, did I mention the other thing I liked about his breed? Well, as I understand it modern pig breeds don't necessarily know how to have sex. Infact, the farmer either has to help insert the boars penis into the sow OR just skip the boar and use artificial insemination which means the farmer has to track the sows ovulation cycle and administer 2-3 doses of semen when she is in heat. Personally, I love Rosie but thats a little too friendly for me. I want to be the matchmaker for my animals, but i don't want to be involved in their sex lives.<br />
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However, these modernbreeds are MODERN, farmers once upon a time did not have AI, nor the time to stand around and help their pigs breed. The Old Spot breed can breed without human help. Mr.Pig is proven aka. he has made babies already: his balls work and he knows how to use them.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Who's got big balls? I've got big balls!</td></tr>
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His breed creates alot of bacon. The fellow we got him from recently slaughtered an old spot that gave him 75 POUNDS of bacon, plus hams. Rosies breed (Yorkshire) can be made into bacon, but overall the meat is very white. Instead it makes good roasts, tenderloins, and other white cuts. The fellow we got Mr.Pig from is very excited about crossing York with Old Spot as he says its the best possible mix of breeds. We shall see.<br />
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Rosie has mixed feelings about Mr.Pig. He's kinda a dick at feeding time as he pushes her away from all the feed troughs, but he is another pig to hang out with. I remember one day I fed him and he was in the corner chowing down on the slop I gave him. Food was literally flying everywhere and his ears where bouncing everywhere. then at the other side of the pen I had food for Rosie. She ate slowly, calmly, happliy chewing her food, looking around, took another bite walked over to the bathroom, went pee...came back for somemore food...went for some water...lalalala....and all the while in the other corner food is flying everywhere as Mr.Pig was choking it down fast as he could. What can I say? Rosie is a lady with manners, Mr.Pigs a bit of a country bumpkin. <br />
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Rosie has cycled, though. Her first few days with mr.pig she was not thrilled. I went to visit them one day and he was asking for backscratches from me, and she was nosing around his balls. At one point he was ignoring her, she stuck her nose between his legs and went *womp!* right into his balls. He went crosseyed, flew a foot in the air and let out a squeal that said it feels the same for all guys. Next day she showed signs on her backend of being in heat. Hopefully he preformed his duty and she took. We may have pigglets in the couple months. Lets hope!<br />
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One last thing. The pen they are in is temporary. We want to build a paddock system and run them through the fields and forest rotating the pasture giving it a chance to rest. In some cases we will use the pigs on a very limited space to tear out weeds and rototill, then move them off and plant on the cleared and fertilized ground. If we can time this right we can really make the whole property healthier...if not we can mess things up. Compare the pen from when we first built it to 3 weeks later:<br />
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There is alot of bare ground they have opened up and their "fertilizer" is all the the corner and easily spreadable. It is defiantly time to move them before the ground gets too bare and compacted, but its pretty amazing to see how they can clear land so quickly. I am going to try and figure out a way to get up easily moveable fences that keeps Rosie in (thats the key part. she walks right through electric fences, tears through cattle panel is she chooses) and try and use them to clear a path through the woods. Well, its worth a try at least.<br />
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That was alot of pig info. I'm still learning about pigs myself. If you have questions or comments feel free to ask and I'll try to answer. More pig stories soon enough.CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-17828527463578576442012-08-23T12:46:00.001-07:002012-08-23T12:46:39.840-07:00Farm lifeHello fair and patient friends! I am still taking a break from jewelry as I am now working overtime and trying to get my farm going.<br />
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What do I mean I am trying to get it going? Well, I got a new place to live! wee! Its up north of Portland nestled in a valley with a lovely stream and forested hillside. Its dreamy.<br />
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The cabin was in the middle of being fixed up when the owner passed on, so there is lots of work to be done on the inside. <br />
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But the kitchen is pretty nice with a whole wall of cabinets, and island and bay window to grow herbs in during the winter. Behind the kitchen is a decently sized mudroom/laundry room I hope to turn into my own jewelry studio. <br />
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It has taken some time to get the animals up. We officially have the pigs moved in and the cats. My dog isn't quite ready to live up there: shes not ready to live with 4 cats running around. Hopefully soon I can get my work schedule fixed up and I can move in full time. Right now I am straddling between living at my old house (7 min away from work) and the farm (45 min away from work).<br />
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And the cats agree: its a nice place to take a nap.CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-80695763777017566562012-07-18T09:58:00.001-07:002012-08-11T13:51:08.680-07:00Gettin' Goin' Life has been a bit busy lately. I went to Mexico for a week, got back
and found my co-worker had to take sick leave and got bumped up to full
time, crashed my car a month ago and was carless a few weeks. Not to
mention this whole starting a farm thing. yeah. Suffice to say I haven't TOUCHED my bench in over a month.<br />
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Techincally my car was a total...but it was a front end collision that crushed the hood, lights and a fender then bent back my radiator. But the engine was fine and its been a good car with only 70,000 miles on it. So rather than take the money and run the risk of buying a lemon I decided to have the mechanic do the mechanics (and fix a few safety things i should have done a looong time ago) and I did the body work.<br />
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I drove my car home looking like this (turned alot of heads!)<br />
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My mom and I picked up a few parts from U-Pull it (oh the men there were hilarious. Had some guy in the parking lot hitting on me trying to the the "job" of doing my bodywork. "Don't you think you ladies could get someone who can do it better?" no, sir, no. i think I can do this just fine.) and a new hood and lights.<br />
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Had to drill a few new holes to put on the fenders.<br />
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Yeah mom! Drill that sucker!<br />
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Remember I mentioned the new hood? no one told us it didn't have a latch on it. Which is a really hard part to find. At that, no one told us it was not a "hood latch" or a "hook" but a striker. So for the first few days until we finally got the part I drove around like this:<br />
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Yeah, well, that worked at low speeds. I'm not going to say what happened when I got hit by a gust of wind going slightly faster than I should have. ....<br />
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Finally got the "striker" and part 1 of car repair is done. I need to fix the replacement bumper we got and then paint everything, but I can do basic auto body now! There's a dent in the side I am going to tackle soon.<br />
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This is reason #1 i've had no time for jewelry.CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-62045384296355528422012-06-19T10:20:00.000-07:002012-06-19T10:20:31.586-07:00How To: Basic PavéBasic Triangle Pave<br /><br />
I finally learned pave, yay! or at least this basic pattern. The pattern will change depending on the shape and there is a whole theory behind how to arrange the prong pattern which i haven't yet been able to comprehend, so lets just stick with the simple triangle, eh?<br />
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First set your stones table down on the piece almost touching, then mark their centers. Drill your starter holes <br />
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These came out a little close, so I put the stones in to see it would work, yeah, it will. <br />
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See how the stones are almost, nearly touching? That is what you want.<br />
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So now mark one side as top, and drill out the seat for the stone at the top. This will be your guide stone. make sure to drill deep enough when you put your stone it its table is flush (or just slightly lower) with the metal.</div>
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Drill your next seat a hairs width from the other seat. You want the smallest gap you can make between the stones without them actually touching. That is the hard part. Sometimes i drill close enough I have a sliver of metal that moves between the hole depending on which side i drill: this is a good sign to me.<br />
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Next drill out your third seat now only a hairs width from both of the other stones. That was hard, eh? Now take your tiny oval graver and cut out any wall material between your stones, be sure to leave the stub in the middle of the three stones. You can see what i mean by expanding the picture below: I tried to mark the metal I wanted to keep with a sharpie. You may need to touch up your seats again with your drill to get out any flashing. <br />
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Now when you fit your stones in they should all be almost touching,
tables flush with the surface and sitting straight. Not too much to ask.<br />
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as you can see in this picture one of my stones is sitting up too high so i had to pop it out and drill the hole a little deeper.<br />
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Once you get everything even its time to start setting. Take your knife graver now, put the tip into the metal at a 30 degree angle, then lift your graver up to a 70 degree angle and push into the metal wiggling side to side. this will make the metal mushroom over the stone and should only leave a dent in the metal. This is the beginning of your bead. This alone should set your stone, after you have all the corners done your stones should be set and the rest is cosmetic. In this piece there are 6 beads you want to create: the 3 corners, and the 3 pieces on metal between the stones. <br />
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Once you have created 6 beads now you need to set them free. Start with your knife graver and cut a little V shape around your bead. This should leave you with enough metal for a round bead prong. You can sort of see in the picture below how I started cutting away the metal. Do that with all the beads, then take a beading tool and burnish your little metal nubs into actual beads. The arrows below show which direction your prongs should go. Each stone gets a single prong in the corner, and the metal between the stones create shared prongs. Using your round gravers face you can tilt that center bead to hold the two lower stones, or if you have enough metal you can create a shared prong between all three stones.<br />
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Clean up the edges using a flat graver creating a bright cut around the edges. Add milligrain if you want, polish it up and there you go! A basic <span class="st"> <em>pavé!</em></span><br />
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<br />CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-15635318818778363472012-06-16T12:53:00.000-07:002012-08-23T15:51:03.960-07:00Shear ye! Shear ye! Yes friends, its that time of year. Infact, its a little late to be doing this. Finally setting out to shear the sheep. This was the first time I ever did it and it was fun. I tried both electric shears and hand shears and found I prefered the hand shears.<br />
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I watched lots of videos on youtube that <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L62EmEsacEY&feature=g-hist">made it look easy</a>...but it wasn't so much. Not terrible, but i certainly was not as fast. But there ya go: Sparkles whole fleece all cut off by me with the help of my family in holding her down. I finally got into the rhythm and up to speed the last part of the fleece.<br />
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Then there was John. Most sheep pass out when sat on their butts...him? not so much. Like Wilda, hes not inclined to be docile. It took Shawn a few minutes of wrestling to even get the sheep on the ground finally resorting to out and out tackling and rolling him over.<br />
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This time is was my sisters chance to cut. Gratious me, did I have a hard time not intervening.....she was very careful not to cut them and went slow. really. slow. painfully slow. all the while John was gathering up his strength for the next escape attempt. He needed more speed in his shearing.</div>
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Part of the time he was in a leglock between Shawns legs, and other times 3 of us held him down while someone sheared. Once or twice I had to throw my body over him to hold him down. His horns made it difficult to tuck his head in close enough for him to go in his sheepy trance. <br />
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Not the most perfect fleece as he tried to escape and tore it, buts its mostly in one piece.<br />
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That there is the naked sheep. Compare to the picture above with his fleece. He is a mighty skinny boy now. CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-30851541838178968502012-05-08T09:16:00.000-07:002012-08-23T15:51:03.966-07:00Fabricating a Bright Cut Pendant<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hello there! Been a while, eh? I've been very busy at my bench. One of my recent projects was this fabricated opal pendant. I started with 12 gauge silver sheet soldered to a back plate (20 gauge) and half bezel. I had to make sure my silver was thicker than the stones I was trying to set. Once I was done soldering I cut it out and got this:<br /><br />
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No holes for stones, though. Next I placed the stones and drilled starter holes for them. I'm testing the piece out to see if i've got thing spaced well.<br />
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Next I open up the holes with a flame bur then a setting bur to create a seat. Most my seats are a tad small so I use a knife graver to open it up enough to fit a stone. <br />
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After getting everyone to fit I take my graver tip press it into the metal then tilt the tip up: I do not cut, I simply wedge metal over the stones. This is the beginning of the bead process.<br />
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Next I cut a little V behind each bead to "release it." They are ugly at this point, but once I polish and shaped them with a beading tool we have pretty little beads<br />
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Once all beads are finished I am now bead set. I then take my flat graver and cut behind the beads to clean things up, remove stray marks, and create nice angled surfaces to reflect extra light. This is bright cutting and together it is called "bright set." There are many variations of bright set but the main idea is the setting surface has been angled so that it reflects more light creating a "brighter" look. <br />
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<br />The opal setting was quite tight already, but just to be extra safe since it was just a half bezel I epoxied AND set metal over the stone. I pretty happy with the finished product, though the bright setting could be a little cleaner. Also: don't bright set periot. Just. Don't.<br />
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<br />CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-77452220396021165252012-04-30T23:06:00.000-07:002012-04-30T23:06:56.826-07:00Busy Lady!Hello! Posting a quick note to let you know what I've been up to.<br />
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Finished lambing, 4 healthy babies growing fast and strong. And one lamb sprouted a second set of horns! <br />
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I finished my class on bead setting, got some great work coming up from that.<br />
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Right now my focus is on the Creative Metal Arts Guild's spring show at the Portland convention center. Lots and lots of work left for then...and only a few days to do it. eeek! keep you posted once this whirlwind slows down some.<br />
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<br />CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-10218814630832444532012-04-09T13:10:00.000-07:002012-04-09T13:10:38.285-07:00BandingHello all! been busy these last few weeks. All the sheep are friends again, yay! Sparkles tried to usurp Wilda's place, but didn't quite manage as her Sparkle's mom, Ariel, still follows Wilda. So Sparkles begrudingly listens to Wilda again, and everyone is happy. <br />
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You remember those long tails the lambs were all born with, right? Well, thats a by-product of domestication that doesn't usually happen in nature (sorta like curly tails on dogs). It becomes problematic in the summer because sheep may get poop on their tails and flys will lay eggs in it, not a problem until the maggots come out and start eating the sheeps tails. That is pretty horrible from what i hear, so we have to remove the extra long tails. Animals rights activists are trying to get tail docking banned, but it is necessary. One of out lambs was already getting poop on her tail, and I can't wipe her butt everytime she poops! We opted for banding: using an industrial strength rubberband to cut off circulation and eventually have the tail fall off. My mother, a doctor, noted that its the same method doctors use on kids who are born with extra fingers.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first day</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Week and a half later: almost gone!</td></tr>
</tbody></table> The one problem with banding (okay, besides the first half-hour where the lambs are in pain as the circulation is cut off, but after the first half hour they were playing again) is it increases chance of tetinus. I have never given shots before so it was a learning experience. Since I was the one to band and give the lambs their shots, they don't quite trust me, but no one is sick, no one died, so we're good. <br />
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All in all the lambs are growing incredibly fast and healthy. Ross-anna finally has her horns coming out--looks like she will have the pretty slender horns her mom has. The two ram-lambs horns are growing so quickly! Hopefully theirs are as nice as dad's. Still waiting for Cleopatra's to show through: I'm hoping the dot on the side indicates she will have 4..though it seems doubtful :( Still I am very happy with my first crop of lambs.<br />
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Milk is still flowing <br />
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Beautiful little babies.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cleopatra and Khoresh</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bademjan</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cleopatra</td></tr>
</tbody></table>CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-61504086058668092702012-03-20T11:09:00.000-07:002012-03-20T11:09:16.171-07:00Last of the LambsSo, we had some drama on the farm. Wilda split from everyone else to a safe spot, so Shawn left her out for the night. Unfortunatly she decided to hide in an unsafe spot in the middle of the night: right at the portal to the coyote highway. So we lost the ewe. :( We tried to stick the sheep together again, but Sparkles and Wilda kept fighting, splitting open Sparkle's lip. Shawn finally picked up Wilda and carried her to the orchard to keep her separate from Sparkles. While we were gone for just a minute Sparkles started attacking Wilda's lamb. At some point they will have to get together and fight it out with each other, but the lambs are in the crossfire, so we will wait until they are a little older. It was absolutely horrible, though, Wilda was totally distraught. Next time we'll have a better set-up and everyone will be happier. <br />
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In the meantime we were waiting and waiting for out last ewe to have her lambs, but it wasn't happening so we figure another cycle. Shawn woke up one snowy morning to find two new lambs, an ewe and a ram! The ewe is pretty striking with her odd eye patches, so I am naming her Cleopatra. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Babies!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ram Lamb still learning to walk</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pretty Cleopatra</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Learning to be like Mom and nibble on this green stuff</td></tr>
</tbody></table> As for the other two: Ross-anna is enjoying playmates and growing at an incredible speed. Nearly a month old already! I saw her trying to chew some new shoots on the blackberry bushes.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBkLsRXZ4J9ovkyjAFnEsQG-DMYoufVJEpsrU2i51U1oZhRz0xudQ0D0mic9VUudTY_fn121c6BmkDb6w0HTi2RUTe18fYZQSWCLoYkN13n7lyJbH0YG0VX_gIO_neL7wXpJkSVKCCwl0/s1600/DSC_1977.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBkLsRXZ4J9ovkyjAFnEsQG-DMYoufVJEpsrU2i51U1oZhRz0xudQ0D0mic9VUudTY_fn121c6BmkDb6w0HTi2RUTe18fYZQSWCLoYkN13n7lyJbH0YG0VX_gIO_neL7wXpJkSVKCCwl0/s320/DSC_1977.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> Wilda's poor son is without playmates because he is locked in the orchard with mom :( Mom figured out how to unlock the orchard gate, so she decided to come visit the rest of the sheep. Silly girl. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ-I2QmdQJ2rwVelbuSzLjH10xkxQ3Z7oS-y5sTiwTp7MoJWbq1DYa7qtuexAxhR3Xw9FvhJvlFU94-q3uP_cGbu4YKMlYpMzOVdBMu0l276uTnrbUK4JjGOunMl2qlBXxcFV8ErBF3CQ/s1600/DSC_1983.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ-I2QmdQJ2rwVelbuSzLjH10xkxQ3Z7oS-y5sTiwTp7MoJWbq1DYa7qtuexAxhR3Xw9FvhJvlFU94-q3uP_cGbu4YKMlYpMzOVdBMu0l276uTnrbUK4JjGOunMl2qlBXxcFV8ErBF3CQ/s320/DSC_1983.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>So other than the social rift we have a pretty good crop of lambs. Too bad Wilda didn't get put away that one night...but we learned our lesson and still have her ram. As I said to Shawn (who wants to carry on her genetics and really wanted the ewe), we can make alot more Wildas with a ram than a ewe. I am already plotting next years genetics. And by next year, we will have our own place with better facilities.CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-66779451813540071722012-03-09T15:33:00.000-08:002012-03-09T15:33:37.922-08:00Herd Dynamics Wilda, you remember: the friendly one, has been full of rushing motherly hormones as of late. Tuesday she was away from the group bowlegged and wide-eyed, her udders full and ready to feed. The next day she was relentless in her attempts to steal Sparkle's baby, apperently chasing them across the field and crawling on her knees. Shawn had to wrestle with her and got her locked away in the pen. All was thought to be good until he saw she had gotten the lamb in the pen with her! WTF?! Finally at 2 in the afternoon she gave birth to two lambs. Again, they were considerate waiting until Shawn had a day off work to give birth. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hello!</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td></tr>
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A boy and a girl! Strangely, though, Wilda then broke away from the rest of the sheep and decided to take her lambs over to the "trailer parking lot." Somehow she got the newborns up on a trailer bed and spent the night parked over there. That wasn't a problem because it as a safe place for her to sleep: elevated off the ground, blocked by a dense thicket on two sides. It was the other sheep, however, that were difficult to round up for bed. See, normally they follow Wilda who is more than happy to chase the grain can. The other sheep are more skiddish, and they like to sleep by the fence the coyotes run up and down, and we arn't risking loosing the lamb to coyotes! So my darling dear and I herded the sheep in the dark around the field. We almost got them in the area we wanted when the llama spooked and made them run every which direction while matronly Wilda looked on.<br />
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We got the lamb and her mom in the orchard for the night which is safe.<br />
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This morning when I wen't to greet Wilda and her new ones everyone else can by to say hi.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIJlyBuMFejCg1P7W7zZaySAZGHMuF5chTmTTVyPWLHBICxmrAFabLgxTtFlDhLWsO4QVK6LC6YfO8_GBktHqjWCwcHcl_nBchioUxBQ-rz9YXSAAiui5BGrnI_TVW5JhQ74iDguou-XM/s1600/DSC_1936.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIJlyBuMFejCg1P7W7zZaySAZGHMuF5chTmTTVyPWLHBICxmrAFabLgxTtFlDhLWsO4QVK6LC6YfO8_GBktHqjWCwcHcl_nBchioUxBQ-rz9YXSAAiui5BGrnI_TVW5JhQ74iDguou-XM/s320/DSC_1936.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQcF8nFR6gOIG8deOFqX10s8yujsBXkbaJMrKeKoLTkIE-bVx6Xq7cEWexuodvEa0G-BRSvbic9vuzSbWWiRe6y9MnYd9KcJ3kTiFfomTNmcRWYv9ih_qJ2INHHY9btk8UNn7FoD2givk/s1600/DSC_1943.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQcF8nFR6gOIG8deOFqX10s8yujsBXkbaJMrKeKoLTkIE-bVx6Xq7cEWexuodvEa0G-BRSvbic9vuzSbWWiRe6y9MnYd9KcJ3kTiFfomTNmcRWYv9ih_qJ2INHHY9btk8UNn7FoD2givk/s320/DSC_1943.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpbYBX7IIgP7w_TQZ7U1vwvUivA1n5vndMv5qi1pmM1nVx_Yg2BbtufyKq-61t6vaR0NIlxUe9Nzjr_WxZHaNqfXRQewssL8_Hqz5sEHVZubsEPRNFsuLQ9MJK3ooZxTOQ0LCi0E-cRa4/s1600/DSC_1945.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpbYBX7IIgP7w_TQZ7U1vwvUivA1n5vndMv5qi1pmM1nVx_Yg2BbtufyKq-61t6vaR0NIlxUe9Nzjr_WxZHaNqfXRQewssL8_Hqz5sEHVZubsEPRNFsuLQ9MJK3ooZxTOQ0LCi0E-cRa4/s320/DSC_1945.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zzzzzzz.....</td></tr>
</tbody></table>As for Ross-anna?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ_TG9iU9aFmQRvRlFaAF9hpuAUoC49ojP-A9lbOKFZolZgFPP1E49ZBgeDQZIM-2ipxAZ5ZpSlFUaaAsq87TFOyiM5XE7RTP2JxDXn9QGHtbuZaeQlViF2fF1_rMePfsILWPacQzTa1M/s1600/DSC_1946.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ_TG9iU9aFmQRvRlFaAF9hpuAUoC49ojP-A9lbOKFZolZgFPP1E49ZBgeDQZIM-2ipxAZ5ZpSlFUaaAsq87TFOyiM5XE7RTP2JxDXn9QGHtbuZaeQlViF2fF1_rMePfsILWPacQzTa1M/s320/DSC_1946.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>She had gotten BIG in two weeks! Almost time for her to enjoy playmates! Expecting our final sheep to birth today or tommorrow. <br />
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Wilda is being skiddish around the other sheep, probably expecting them to steal her babies like she tried to steal theirs. Hopefully she will be back with the other sheep soon, they at least are trying to be near her. But right now she is much calmer and has a stoic motherly look on her face not flinching when the babies pull on her teats. The boy has good markings and already big horn nubbins. I think he will make a good sire, so I'm inclined to keep him intact. We will see, though.CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4118067464746308333.post-63854214859087160442012-03-02T14:30:00.000-08:002012-03-02T14:30:18.434-08:00InsparationI do enjoy looking at other peoples work and ever so often something catches my eye and I go, "oh I wanna do that!" Well, thats copying, so not allowed. However, the other day I was looking at one of my favorite etsy artists work and this popped out<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img1.etsystatic.com/il_570xN.211561445.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://img1.etsystatic.com/il_570xN.211561445.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.etsy.com/listing/66738130/rose-quartz-drop-earrings">Rose Quartz earrings by Dana Evans</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>I loved the shape and simplicity. Plus, it reminded me of one of my favorite animals: squid. So I went on to create a pair of squid earrings inspired by these.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJaecRa6N8UNiSUen2Ysw_HrNSZHZ1kSv0EbZwv4ZY0DmkNnkqjQf3Zb-jjDjw7v5737sM10VV_yvpSmp4glm7o-Wu_-2CfkNYN2UfAO8aNGsWJikocLtKaDxM5Dx0Cfo3q2nIRLCHxeQ/s1600/DSC_1907.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJaecRa6N8UNiSUen2Ysw_HrNSZHZ1kSv0EbZwv4ZY0DmkNnkqjQf3Zb-jjDjw7v5737sM10VV_yvpSmp4glm7o-Wu_-2CfkNYN2UfAO8aNGsWJikocLtKaDxM5Dx0Cfo3q2nIRLCHxeQ/s320/DSC_1907.JPG" width="266" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2HyLUxwrCjgYMjAJmF5afAqr_LWPLQS1zpeR854fZ6jqz8zkfWmNLzYxgZKdbseLB4HWg9FLltZNi0TLbh6cAyJclHWN5JNdGSwLDVxkKMyECyivzm3ym4xbGalZQxYkVkYMom0hooAA/s1600/DSC_1908.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2HyLUxwrCjgYMjAJmF5afAqr_LWPLQS1zpeR854fZ6jqz8zkfWmNLzYxgZKdbseLB4HWg9FLltZNi0TLbh6cAyJclHWN5JNdGSwLDVxkKMyECyivzm3ym4xbGalZQxYkVkYMom0hooAA/s320/DSC_1908.JPG" width="257" /></a></div>Sorry, not the best photographs. Anyway, the little tenticles wiggle. So there ya go. Also, be sure to check out Dana Evans' work (link under the photo). Lots of great pieces.CraftyJewelerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11883967832290863728noreply@blogger.com1