So far, the ducks, geese and guinea hens have not laid eggs in the winter, which is a good thing, because the ducks lay them on the ground which is frozen and the eggs freeze. Last year, they started to lay in February. The eggs froze and then the ravens discovered them and they waited. The moment an eggs was laid they swooped down and stole it. This year, the ducks will be kept in their coop until noon. Usually they lay before 10 am but there is a straggler occasionally.

The Partridge Chantecler chickens have laid faithfully all winter. There are five hens and usually there are three eggs. The day before yesterday, three light Sussex hens and two gold laced Wyandottes were added to the coop. They did not lay the first day, which is to be understood. They were indoor chickens in the winter and are still afraid to venture outside, but the food and water is outside, so they will have to eventually. Today one of the light Sussex laid an egg and in the other box, a Partridge Chantecler was busy laying too. Usually there are not enough eggs to bother selling them in winter. The dogs get the excess in one big omelet. I did collect two frozen eggs today as well. The temperature did not get above minus 22 C and is going down to minus 30 again tonight. If the eggs are not collected within an hour of being laid, they are frozen and cracked. I try to go out four or five times a day, but still miss the occasional one. There was an Ameraucana egg today too, laid on the floor of their coop, even though they have a nest box. Silly chicken! Winter is a hard time for all.

Dora is a pure bred registered Karakul sheep. She has a very broad fat tail in which she stores nutrients and fluids, much like the camel does in its hump(s). With this evolutionary adaptation, the Karakuls are well suited to arid climates, such as the Middle East, where they are among the most common breed of sheep. Fat is also stored in the tail rather than the muscles, making the carcass leaner than most meat bred sheep with less mutton flavour. The wool of the Karakul sheep is coarse and very strong, ideal for felting for horse mats, floor mats and carpets and excellent for durable weavings.

Karakul lambs are born with a very tightly curled black wool coat which starts to unfurl within a day of birth. This is a beautiful soft lustrous wool, so tightly curled that it is water repellent and weather resistant, and very warm. Fur traders took note of the baby lambs fur and began to market the hides as Persian lambskins and in the 50's, the trade of the skins reached an all time high, that is until the general public discovered that the pelts were those of newborn lambs, or worse yet, lambs taken in utero. Karakul sheep that were imported to North America for the fur trade were slaughtered for pet food when the market fell away and the sheep are rare here now.

Dora has never been pregnant. She was one of the first three lambs The Fat Ewe Farm acquired and is healthy and strong and fine example of the breed. Her wool is very typical as well, with coarse guard hairs that can reach five to seven inches in length! But Dora cannot remain here simply as a pet. If she remains barren, she will be culled, because farming is not cheap and feeding and caring for a sheep costs dearly. When she is sheared this year, I will put the ram with her again, since Karakul sheep can breed out of season. Perhaps with a clear view to that area, when normally there is a huge amount of wool covering there, she will conceive. It is her last chance. Dora is well loved and is named after a favourite aunt, Auntie Dora, a sister of my mother. Come on Dora. Please bear a baby!

The Fat Ewe Farm has over 100 animals. Last year was a bumper crop for lambs with all but one ewe with twins, and most of the goats with twins, one set of triplets and one set of quads. One of the quads did not thrive, but the rest of the lambs and kids were healthy and strong. Some of the lambs will have lambs this summer because a tiny Babydoll Southdown ram was in to breed the Babydolls and was interested in a few of the early born or more mature ewe lambs. So this year, the ewes will have lambs and the lambs will have lambs and does will have kids and the kids will have kids. Then culling must be done.

Culling is done for two purposes. When an animal is unwanted for any reason, it are sent to the auction. Often a meat buyer will take those animals provided it is not sick and occasionally a farmer will pick the animal up too. Animals that do not fit the breeding program are not kept. On The Fat Ewe Farm, the most important traits for the ewes are that they are hardy and thrive on grass forage alone, they are worm resistant and also they lamb without aid and produce more than one baby. That pretty much fits most of the animals now, as this is the third year for the farm.

And the males, well, only a few are sold for breeding. The rest are food, sad as it seems. I cried when my last year lambs were killed and butchered because I saw them being born and raised them and knew them. Though I thanked them for their lives and honoured them, their loss was deeply felt. But what does one do? There are seven dogs to feed. Currently meat scraps and bones are purchased for them more economically than killing a lamb to feed them, but when an animal is butchered on the farm, then the scraps are utilized as well.

This summer will mean that some sheep, even Dora, who was one of my first three lambs, will have to go. Dora has never had a baby in the three years she has been here. She is a pet, yes, but this is a farm, not a zoo (though some might argue that point). I will try hard to find Dora a home, though who will want a barren ewe for a pet? See the problem? Then there is Little Johnny, the first ever lamb born here. His mother was bred when she arrived and lambed shortly after. He is a four horned Jacob and is quiet and very tame and friendly, but I cannot use him for breeding because he is related to every Jacob ewe here. What do I do with him? Lawn ornament? How many pets can I keep without going broke?

I am sure there will be much deliberation when the time comes to say goodbye to the animals here, but if they produce babies like last year, there will soon be 200 , not 100. For one person, it is not feasible, sigh. I wish.

There are three coops on the Fat Ewe Farm. One is an open hoop shelter covered with a tarp and it even has a window on the south side, a favourite spot of the goose who loves to bask in the sun. The long coop houses the ducks and geese, but the guineas and some of the chickens also hang out there during the day. There is a dust bath of wood ash as a spa enticement, and a dish of oyster shell or another of gravely dirt to go along with the grain lunch. This coop just got a good layer of fresh hay, which the birds eat from as well as snuggle into.

The next coop is the insulated pink coop with a window and pop door. There are three rows of perches and a cage which housed the wayward bantams who were locked in at the start of the brutal winter because they preferred to be in the tree. After one froze and fell out, the rest were caught and caged, since locking them in was only good for as long as the door was shut - then they high taled it back to the tree roost. Now they roost ON the cage instead. Gross! The perches remain clean, but the cage is yucky. The guineas, Chanteclers, and bantams live in this coop, plus the Muscovy ducks, who like the climate better than the waterfowl house. This coop has an infrared heat lamp for those who like to bathe in the warmth of the light, and nest boxes in case they are inclined to lay an egg, which the Partridge Chanteclers have done all winter long.

The third coop is a hoop shelter half covered with plywood and corrugated plastic. It is not insulated but has a cool design that keeps the heat in very nicely, with the birds providing the majority of the warmth for themselves. The Ameraucanas have adopted this coop, plus the white Chanty rooster and a few of the bantams. They do not mix with the rest of the birds for some reason, likely because they were raised in isolation from any contact for the first 8 weeks of life. They are flighty and unfriendly towards chickens, humans and dogs. I would suspect that their poor socialization is the reason for their self isolation. I plan to keep the eggs and raise a new bunch of Ameraucanas from them and sell these to one who does not mind their unfriendly demeanor.

And that is who lives in the Fat Ewe Farm coops.

Everyone said I should get the baby lamb out of the shelter shared with llamas because they are big and will hurt him, but no way. The llamas are very gentle and careful with the new born. They bend down and say hello to him and even watch him when mom is outside eating. Lucy Llama babysits for mamma sheep when the lamb is left inside with her. He is comfortable around her and respectful too. The sheep and the llamas share the same feeder and although llamas are territorial when it comes to their food, they certainly tolerate little Dominique lamb under their feet and carefully step around him. He does tend to stick to the corners near mom and then curls up in a soft bed of hay for a nap when he is tired. Dominique is a pure bred Dorset sheep, a breed that was the most popular a century ago. Ewes weigh 150 pounds and up and rams 200 and up. Dominique had a slow start to life, being weak and clueless, but he is quickly making up for lost time and learning his way around the pen and shelter. The two mother llamas, Lucy and Karin are left in the pen because Jeanette Llama, Karin's cria was sold last week and Aiden, the little male cria from Lucy, has gone to live with the alpaca boys. Pretty soon, when Dominique is bigger, he and his mom will go to live with the ewes on the Fat Ewe Farm. Welcome little boy!

Mike is a shy dog, the underdog in the pack, at least for now. I somehow do not think this will last. He is smart and a smart dog will see opportunity and seize it at the appropriate time. For now, he hangs back and lets Jade boss him around. At times, I am sure he goes hungry, because she will not let him near any food. I have taken his meat to him in the sheep pen, where he still goes to his dog house for sanctuary, but Jade has now started to go in the pen and take it away from him there. She has been harshly reprimanded for this and I hope she will stop. In the meantime, I sneak food to him late at night when she is on watch. He comes to the door and waits and I have saved some good meat for him, which he quietly accepts and wolfs down until until he is satisfied. Then he lopes away. He walks beside me, something Ofcharka does too.

Joe is the opposite of Mike, a big goof of a dog. He would rather stay and get a whoopin' from Jade than run away, so he does. She bites him, but he is big and most of the time she does not hurt him at all. He cries out and lays on his back to feign injury and she stops. When the other dogs have finished eating, he is there to pick up the remainder.

Both pups were raised with the sheep and they stayed in until they were about 3 months old. Then the lure of the pack and the farm was too strong and they dug, climbed and chewed their way out so many times that I gave up. Now they are large enough to just jump over and that is what they do. They are comfortable with the sheep, but Joe has chased them with Robbie, the border collie, while Mike does not do that. Mike is by far the best potential of a sheep guardian, then Ofcharka, because he will go in with any of the animals. He just does not stay.

The pups have taken to me, too and they look for affection and love, which they get plenty of. They are huge, beautiful dogs, still growing and eating lots and lots of food. It is too bad they did not bond to the sheep. They should have, but they didn't. Managing a pack of 7 big dogs will not be easy when the animals are at large on pasture this summer. I am quite sure I will have to invest in a shock collar for training purposes and also I may have to tie the dogs to something that will stop them from chasing. Ofcharka is large and strong, and a tire was not enough, so he got tied to a pallet, which he was able to drag easily, but not chase with. That worked. The girls did not need anything last year, but Jade chases everything away from her yard, so we will see when the cows arrive.

Joe and Mike are going to be great dogs. Now to teach them to stay with the sheep. Oh..wait. I have been trying that for ever with no success. I guess they will have to be general farm dogs then. Sigh.

Not in the distant past, but in the more recent past as far as Earth history goes, man walked upon the Earth and each step felt the pulse of the land. The planet is sentient, alive and has a heart beat. This energy, free to all who dwell upon it, is constant and ever present as the frequency emitted by the Earth, which can be drawn through the body through direct contact with the land. The trouble is that we have lost our contact with the Earth.

In the past, men slept on the ground, albeit covered with skins to fend off the cold, but they still absorbed the Earth's energy as a Hertz frequency pulse. They walked in bare feet on the sand and the soil, or in some cultures, with the skin of an animal tied on the feet as protection, but the pulse still penetrated the leathers and furs to heal the body.

The science of Earthing or Grounding, as it is sometimes called, is both ancient and new. The new part is that some are rediscovering the lost connection to the planet and are relearning the benefits from connecting with our mother once more. As odd as it might sound, there are reports of synapses reconnecting and the lame walking once more as a result of the Earthing experience. Science has revealed that the ground in an ordinary electrical outlet is enough to provide the pulse but there still needs to be a distribution point. Sheets with metal filaments embedded in them can offer that pulse if the sheet is plugged into an outlet with the prongs removed and only the ground remaining. Better yet, leather soled shoes or barefoot walking on soil or sand, not city sidewalks of concrete, also benefit the well being. This is why those who spend vacations barefoot on beaches or lying on the sand feel so revitalized. They are absorbing the Earth's pulse, but when they return to their highrise city living, the energy soon fades.

There is much to read and learn on Earthing. The easiest method is to walk outside. For this I have purchased a pair of moose hide moccasins with moose hide soles and I will use these when the weather is warmer as my main footwear all summer. I am thinking of purchasing a sheet that can plug in to the house's grounding rod too, but ...well, just not yet. Starting with the moccasins, let's see how that goes first. Hmmm.

Please note, this is not a statement of generality, but about three specific breeders in this area.

I bought some chickens from a lady who advertised them on the local internet buy and sell type of site. She delivered them after dark. I was newer to animals and thought not too much of the scenario one way or the other, but the next day, I saw that the chickens were not quite right. They were sick, had lice crawling on them and a few had very rough scaly legs and feet. After reading a lot, it was determined that the condition on the feet was scaly leg mites and that they were highly contagious. The chickens were quarantined in an 8 x 10 open wire coop covered with a tarp, but it was still summer, so that was adequate. They could not free range until they were treated and better. Some died. Some survived and got better, but this little hen, the Silver Spangled Hamburg, a pretty little thing with blue ears and black and white feathers, did not improve. I treated her every which way and now, a year later, she still had the mites or whatever was causing her problems.

So, I caught her and applied the new cream I made for people skin. It is a wonderful mix of shea and cocoa butter, coconut oil, and several other oils, all noted for skin rejuvenation and lavender essential oil, for calming the skin. The butter was applied and rubbed into her legs and feet. She had lost a nail and one toe to this condition already. I did not know what else to give her since she had had a gamut of medicines and applications over the past year. I think this will work.

The roosters I got last summer from a different breeder all were sick, and had to be destroyed. I do not quite understand why a breeder would sell infected birds, or as the first batch was, with lice and mites and who knows what else. The birds get sick from being raised in crowded conditions that are not clean. Birds need plenty of sunshine and fresh air and clean coops where disease and pests cannot reproduce and multiply.

Last summer, I also got some ducks from a different breeder and all but one out of eleven have died. They were likely inbred, that is bred to the brothers and sisters, which creates some weakness in the stock.

So, live and learn. I am not condemning every breeder in this area, but with three bad experiences, I won;t be trying any others unless I can go to the facilities and inspect the birds where they are raised in order to be satisfied that all is well and the birds are raised in a clean manner with plenty of fresh air. This poor little hen...well, hopefully my magic potion will help her recover fully and finally so she can be well and happy again.