In an attempt to save hay and keep the sheep's coats free of vegetative matter, I am testing an idea. This is grid wall, the sort of panels that one would find in a store with many things hanging from them on special hooks. The panels are sturdy heavy guage wire, so the sheep and goats will not be able to bend them as they do fence wires. In this trial, I want to see if the critters are able to feed and not spill so much hay. In the current model, they are able to stick their heads in a vertical opening in the fence and select a mouthful. There are several problems inherent with that feeder. 

One is that the sheep and goats choose what they like the best, leaving the rest. 
Two is that they are able to pull a large mouthful from the feeder, despite the slanted slat openings, and in doing so, they drop hay on the ground. Once on the ground, it is not retrieved and becomes waste. 
Three is the waste hay still in the feeder has to be forked out every second day for sure. The sheep and goats feel they have eaten all they like and cry for more feed. In all fairness, they do not digest stems with high lignen content, so the hay left is usually coarse stems, but there is often a lot of good hay amongst the stems. For the goats, I have been removing the hay and using it for bedding in their barn and shelter and also putting it in a large container for them to sift through one more time before it becomes bedding. 
Four. The small size of the goat kids enables them to fit through the stlat openings in the feeder and enter the feeder. Then, of course they can select exactly what they want without competing for it. The problem is that they poop and pee on the hay, plus bring manure on their feet. This spreads worms if the others actually eat the soiled hay, but generally, once it is in such a state, it is totally wasted and not the little ones in the feeder or the big ones outside the feeder will touch it. 

Currently there is about 50% waste with the goats and slightly less with the sheep. Tomorrow I will see how the goats have done judging by how much hay is left in the feeder and how much is on the ground. if they have managed to eat the hay, then the next step is to build feeders. 

The feeders will be only 2 feet of this grid, put on a plywood tray to catch that which falls and the tray will be elevated from the ground about 18 inches. In one previous feeder trial, the problem with an elevated feeder was in the winter, the snow was much higher than the 18 inches and the feeder was frozen to the ground, so it was abandoned. I am not sure yet how to fix that problem. 

There are two groups of goats that have only been together for a week. The Nubians, though much larger than the Nigerian Dwarf does, are easily pushed around. The herd boss, Celia, runs around selecting what she wants and using her horns to move any of the goats out of her way. They now respect her and when they see her coming. they move. The gentle Nubians and the kids from last year do not eat when the other group of Nigerians are at the feeder, so they do not get the best feed. With this new grid system, the Nigerians cannot select morsels that are to their liking as much, and must take what they can get in the mouthful. 

I will try this for a week and monitor the progress. Hopefully it will solve the hay wasting problem, or at least reduce it immensely, especially once the tray is at the bottom to collect the waste. I fully expect kid goats and lambs to use the tray as a play area though and there is not much that can be done about it when the time comes. Besides, they are too cute to get upset with!

Anna is considered a white lamb but was born to a black mother, who looks brown now due to the sun bleaching of the tips of her wool. Anna is a very furry faced little girl and I have to trim the wool from around her eyes so she can see!

When Anna was born, one of the forearms was pointing down. Babydolls have large heads and shoulders and should be born with the two front legs straight forward and the nose in-between. With Anna'a leg down, the mother was unable to move the baby. It was already midnight when the mother gave up and I called the vet. I did all I could and then the vet said I must pull the baby out or the mother and the baby both would die. At least I could save the mother. 

I did everything the vet said and got the lamb out, but she was lifeless and the vet said I would likely break her neck pulling her out since I had to pull by the head. I had no expectations that she would live. Her mother was not interested in this little one that put her through such pain and misery and did not want to clean her or anything. I picked the lamb up to remove her from the pen and began to carry her by her back feet and she sputtered. She was alive! I quickly got the membrane away from her face and toweled her off lightly then gave her back to her mother. Her mother had to be held in place tightly so the baby could nurse and she pushed the baby away as soon as I let the mother go. After two days, I gave up and raised Anna on the bottle. She was in the house at first, then had free run of the yard. She would sleep on the doorstep and cuddle with the dogs. I simply fell in love with her. She was so cute and so friendly. 

Anna has been with the big sheep now for a few months. She was with the other little girl lambs prior to that. Sometimes she still gets "lost" in the flock. She has one friend, Zoe, that she spent some time with before going into the mature ewes pen. But Anna mostly is on her own. She does answer to my voice and still comes to me freely. 

Anna is quite fluffy for a Babydoll, but the worst part is the fluff around her face is too much. She does not like have to the fleece near her eyes trimmed and does not want to talk to me for a week afterwards, just like a pouting spoiled brat. She still has my heart and would make and excellent pet lamb for a new family. Anna is for sale for $800 dollars, purebred and registered.  She will only go to a home where she will be loved more than here and that would take a lot. So, maybe she will just stay home! 

100% Organic Hemp Oil Soap Recipe

10 lbs by weight organic hemp oil
3.8 poiunds of water, some use distilled, but I use tap water
1.3 pounds of lye

Slowly mix the lye crystals into the water stirring continuously. Wear gloves, long sleeves, and googles in case of splashes or spills. I do this under the range hood vent fan because it produces fumes that are harmful. In the meantime, the 10 pounds of oil is warming on the element. 

I do not pay much attention to temperature. This is a cooked soap, hot process and is ready to use when it is finished, however, it improves with age. The soap is soft, the consistency of petroleum jelly, and can be diluted with a variety of liquids to make liqued hand soap, shampoo, foaming hand soap, bathroom or kitchen cleaner (hemp oil is antifacterial naturally, though I don't know if the quality is retained thorugh the saponification and 3 hour processing. When the soap is done, I pack it in glass jars and seal it, then store it in a dark room. Light affects the soap, turning the lovely green of the fresh hemp oil a golden greenish yellow. 

Slowly add the lye mixure to the warming hemp oil and stir slowly and carefully, still wearing the gloves and goggles. 
At this point, I know the soap will take 2 or 3 hours to saponify, or longer. It has done so in 2 hours, even using a stick blender or yesterday, it took more than three. I finally gave up when it was thick but had not gelled to be translucent and wrapped it in towels and a wool blanket and went to bed after 1 am. 

During the time the hemp oil and lye water is cooking (I use my gas stove on the lowest setting and put a lid on the pot but many doing smaller batches use crock pots and have good results for hot process), I do other things and check on the soap and stir it every 15-20 minutes. Nothing happens for a long long time. Be patient. The oil separates from some saponified materials which floats around like mushy rice granules in the oil. The colour changes from dark green to that golden greenish yellow, but don't panic, when it gels, it will go green again and stay that way if it is out of the light. I have kept the soap in a jar covered tightly for a year and it is somewhat thicker but still has the same properties. Once it was opened after a year, it was becoming more solid, so I actually made bars. I tried making bars from this recipe but they are way too soft and will take a year to harden in the open air, if at all. I do not recommend trying to make 100% hemp oil soap as a solid bar. Besides, in its gel form, it can be used for so many things. 

Here are some things you can make: 
Shampoo. 1 tablespoon to about 6 ounces of water, leave over night and stir gently in the morning. Add some patchouli or peppermint essential oils, just a few drops. Some scents do not work well with the intesne green meadow scent of the hemp oil and nothing disguises it, so it is best to embrace it and simply enhance it or go without. The shampoo will lather once, but not keep a lather. It leaves hair soft and shiny without the need to condition. 

Shaving soap. Glop some into a container and leave it open to the air for a week. Then use it as shaving soap with a brush or alternatively, spread a tiny amount on your hands and rub it onto your parts being shaved, then add a little water until there is a smoothness and very gentle lather. Shave away. 

Bathroom cleaner. Put some in a spray bottle with 1/4 c of white vinegar and water, maybe a drop of two of lemon essential oil or tea tree. Spray and clean naturally. 

I have even washed a floor with it, but the floor was slightly slippery afterwards due to the excellent conditioning aspects of hemp oil. It is 90% conditioning as a soap, the highest single oil that is good for the skin, even better than rice bran or Argan oil. But, it is not cheap. Good things are worth the cost if you enjoy them and they are environmental and organic. There is a company in Britain that sells this soap for a lot of money and people seem to love it. 

Hemp oil is grown right here on the prairies, in Alberta and next door in Saskatchewan and then Manitoba and it is processed in Manitoba. I buy the oil in a 5 gallon black food grade plastic bucket from the hemp cooperative company. The shelf life of the fresh 100% organic hemp oil is 6 months from opening, but it must be kept cool and dark or it will loose its potent vitamins and benefits. I will write about the benefits of hemp oil for the skin, hair and body in another post. 

After I got tired of waiting for the soap to finish and turn translucent I wrapped it up in blankets and towels to keep the saponification reaction active, and went to bed, and sure enough it was perfect by this morning. I put it in various sized glass jars and it is in the basement where not much light comes in, but then I covered it anyhow. Pictures to follow. 

Making the soap takes a lot of patience. I tried to get a friend to do it and though she did it three times, she did not cook it long enough or wait long enough and did not have what it was supposed to be. On the third try she persevered and was happy to report she had made the translusent jelly like soap! You can too. And it is sooooooooo amazing to use. Try it sometime!

Clara Potbelly is overdue by a few days.She is snuggled up under the hay keeping warm and has a nice nest built. The weather gas been cold and warm, and sometimes the change in the barometric pressure triggers labour, or so the old wives tales are told. I was hoping Clara would have her piglets on one of these warm days and not when it is so cold. 

Today was -10 but yesterday was +5. Yesterday would have been a great day. I have a heat lamp hooked up and ready, but if she has the babies in the middle of the night or inbetween times I see her and it is reallly cold out, they may get a chill and even die. Hopefully, she will keep them in her nest with her and cover them up too, just as she does herself. Most sows, though, with my limited experience, make a furrow type of nest with a bank that keeps the babies in the nest but do not cover them. The last experience I had with a potbelly sow was disasterous. She made the nest but attempted to cover the babies and instead, scattered them out of the nest with her fierce dragging of the hay. They were frozen solid and hard to find amidst the mess she made. Clara at least seems to be consistent in her nest and where she wants to be. 

The little boar daddy, Wilbur, has been relegated to the pen beside her and anxiously paces the gate a hundred times a day. He has busted through the fence a dozen times as well, and every time I repair it, he seems to find a way to unfix the repair. He is very strong for such a tiny fellow. These pigs are the smaller size of potbelly pigs. They are livestock on this farm and are here for meat production. They are cute, and intelligent and personable, but so are the big Berkshires that were here. It is hard ot raise an animal for meat, against my grain really, so we shall see if the outcome really will be that. They may just be sold to pet homes! 

In the meantime, Clara, please get on with the job! 

All the soap in these photos was the exact same batch, same recipe and same procedure. The only difference was the mold size. The large loaf mold went through what is known as a partial gel, but it also did something rather weird, which I have not seen in my soap before. Aside from the soft gel in the soap, the white patch, there was also a dark section near the bottom. The soap was made with milk and the sugars in milk can heat causing gelling, but I simpy do not understand the chemistry behind the dark section. The rest of the bars that were individually molded have turned out beautifully, consistent in texture and smooth, without any gel or discoloration. Gel is not a bad thing. Sometimes a soap maker will force the soap to gel, that is go through the saponification process to completion, by putting the soap in a slow oven or wrapping it in blankets. 

This batch of soap is tallow, lard, palm oil and castor oil, with milk from a cow and lye. If there was anything amiss with the ingredients, the problem would have shown up in all the soap, so I am convinced it was the size of the mold and overheating that caused the odd looking soap. Both, gelling and dark spots do not affect soap usage, only the cosmetic appearance of it. I will try to melt this soap down and repour it and see if the texture becomes consistent. For me, this was a first experience with both these properties, but soap is a strange thing and even when following the same favourite recipe that has never reacted, odd results can and do occur. 

Otherwise, the small soap bars are perfect, uniform in texture and colour and smooth. This is cold process soap, so it will take at least 6 weeks to cure before it is usable. That is the time when the soap will slowly go through the saponification process. The half gelled bars will be heated, which will complete the process and they will be usable immediately, though all soap is best when it has time to cure and harden. When fully cured, this soap will be very hard, fit for a good shower without melting away. 

Now, I hope not to have any more puzzling outcomes for a while!

With a concerted effort to become sustainable, using locally acquired materials to make soap is the logical next step. However, I still have some 'other' soap ingredients to finish using, so I have added some to the second recipe. 
The first recipe is cold process 100% tallow and cow's milk soap. The only other ingredient is lye. The second recipe of the day included a little lard I had left over from the last soap making, and palm oil (I am almost out and will not use that ingredient anymore. I believe there is no such thing as sustainable palm oil, except when it is wild harvested from the jungle in Africa. Then it has to be shipped a long distance to get here and that is not sustainable. So no palm oil. There is a little castor oil as well, because I would like the soap to be a shaving soap and castor oil creates great lather. The second recipe today is for milled soap, that is to grate and melt with lye sensitive ingredients to make exquisite soaps. After the soap has cured long enough, and is no longer lye active, then it can be melted with water or wonderful additions, such as carrot juice, which is fine for aging skin, or aloe vera juice for sensitive skin, herbs and spices, too. Clays, extracts and natural colourants can be added to milled soap once the soap has no active lye in it and then poured into fancy molds to make beautiful toilet soaps. Both soaps of the day will be very hard, so well suited to the shower. Soaps with soft oils, such as olive or hemp, make a soft bar which literally disintegrates in the shower after a short short while. Tallow bars are hard and adding palm oil also creates a hard bar. The tallow, lard, palm and castor bar was also made with cow's milk and lye.

It will be at least 6 weeks, preferrably 2 months before these cold process soaps are ready to use, however; the palm, castor, lard and tallow soap separated and went through the heated gel phase, so it will be ready sooner. The gelling of soap is created by the heat from the saponification process and gives a translucent bar. The other soap did not gel and will have a creamy solid look to it. I have never made 100 % tallow soap before, so it will be an interesting venture to see how it preforms. The longer the soap cures, the better quality the lather and cleansing properties are. The soap is going to be for sale in the farm store when the weather is warm enough, so likely May or June at the earliest, which will give it lots of time to cure. 

In a few days, the soap will be quite hard, so it must be grated the following day after it is created. Tallow soap and palm oil soaps are high on the hardness scale. This is what makes them great shower soaps, but in order to mill them, the smaller grated parts melt much faster than large chunks, which tend not to melt, so much as just get soft. The trick to milling soap is to ensure it is ALL melted and infused with the new lye sensitive ingredients. There was no extra fat added to these recipes, called superfatting, because that leaves room for the added fats, including glycerine and lanolin, when the soap is milled. Soap making is en enjoyable hobby and can be profitable when the right buyers are found. More and more folks are becoming sensitive to the chemicals and fragrances of store bought soap and welcome the pure soap without added ingredients. But there is also room for the fancy soaps for those a little less senstive who want a beautiful healthy bar of soap with which to wash. Come down to the Fat Ewe Farm store in June and try a few bars!

The ram lambs were born in May through June of 2014. These seven little boys were weaned in October and were still very small, so they went in with the little goats kids and the two Nubian does for company and warmth. The Nubians and kids have a round granary as their barn and it does keep them totally out of the wind. With the 14 bodies in the barn, the temperature can be twenty degrees warmer than the outside. For night that have been especially cold this winter, the extra warmth provided by the sheep has been good for the goats and the lambs too. 

But goats and sheep do have different nutritional requirements. Goats are browsers and eat from the top down given their choice, whereas sheep are grazers and like short grass the best. They both eat weeds and the goats prefer tree leaves to grass. Good hay for the sheep and goats will have lots of natural weeds in it. But the does benefit from the extra protein and minerals in alfalfa, though for rams, it is too rich and sometimes the extra calcium can cause urinary calcuali, little calcium stones that must pass the urethra, a painful condition. Baking soda helps with that, but prevention is better, so now that the lambs are older, it was necessary to separate them. Goats require greater amounts of copper in their diets, but too much copper is harmful to some breeds of sheep, so the concern for feeding minerals and mineral salts is also there. 

Moving the ram lambs is always a process. They are not tame and friendly, but not wild. They have not been haltered, nor ever fed grain, so leading them with the lure of a grain bucket means nothing to them and haltering one is a process. The term "jumbuck" is a young lamb on a tether, likely originating from the jumping and bucking they do. My poor arm and shoulder muscles will never be the same. I moved the first that way and then my son devised a plan. I had already thought that plan through, but felt I could not execute it on my own. Since he was there to help, we put the ewes in the barn, then opened and closed several gates, and along with the border collie, Robbie, got the rest of the ram lambs into the other goat pen. The goats were then easy to lure out with a bucket of grain, since they all knew what that was and they followed me to the pen where the lambs left from, to be with the rest of the goats. 

Then war broke out. The two herd bosses, Cecelia, the Nygerian doe and Mattie, the Nubian doe, had words. Cecelia has horns and knows how to use them. She won. The herd is still divided and I have been feeding them separately and will continue to do so for the next while until they sort things out between themselves. I noticed the Nygerians were sleeping in the shelter, while the Nubians still had their barn. What I would like to see is all the goats in the barn. The Nygerians are pregnant, but the Nubians are not bred this year. 

And poor Raven, the lone little buck was left with the ram lambs and has gone hoarse crying for his girls. I will move him along with the two little bucklings when the weather warms up somewhat. Oh the fun with the critters never does end!

The two new calves to the Fat Ewe Farm are Galloway, the heifer calf and the bull calf from different genetics, and both being the Riggid pattern, that is black and white speckled. the mother of the bull calf is an old type Belted Galloway who was bred to a White Galloway, producing the riggid pattern in the bull calf. He is 1/9 Highland though, as a result of a Highland bull who  jumped the fence some generations back, so he cannot be registered. The Galloway herd book is very strict. The heifer calf was the last calf born to an old cow, a cow in her fourteenth year, who had produced a calf for thirteen of those years. The mother gave the calf all she had until the calf was three months old, then the mother laid down and died. The calf was then motherless and left to fend for herself, with no special considerations. She has thrived, however, is small for her age due to the lack of her mother's rich milk and the early unintentional weaning. 

The Galloway breed is a very old breed, hardy and able to thrive where other cows would find only marginal existence. They are smaller and ideal for a forage based operation. the traditional Galloway cow has a double coat for winter, so they require 25% less feed than the modern cows, who use some of that energy simply to keep warm. They do not require straw for bedding or additional shelters, either, since their double coats provide all they require to keep themselves quite comfortable, even in the cold winters of northern Alberta. 

The Galloway cows have extra rich milk and lots of it. They easily can nurse their young ones for a year, however, the babes are best weaned when the bull calves show an interest in breeding for obvious reasons, around 7-9 months of age. The calves are born small with a strong will to survive and seldom do they require assistance to enter the world. The cows are excellent mothes with strong maternal instincts and have the babies cleaned and nursing very quickly. They are highly protective of the babies too. As a matter of fact, the Galloway cows will protect all the calves in the herd and seldom are any babies lost to predators, even pasture newborns. 

Although Galloway cows are not milk cows, they have been milked in trying times and the milk is high in butterfat and generally is A2, that is the type of old style milk with easily digestible milk protein and little lactose. There is a stong resurgnece of those seeking A2 milk since A1 milk has caused great problems with the human digestive tract, while A2 milk is eaily tolerated and beneficial to humans. I hope to make friends of my little heifer so that I can share her rich milk every year with her little calf. 

The beef from the cows is higher in the good fats and also nutrients of a forage fed cow. The cows eat many weeds that other cows will not touch, which in turn provides them with the minerals and vitamins to create healthy tissue. 

I welcome our little boy and girl Galloways to the farm. The bull will eventually breed Kylie, the little Highland heifer already here and since he is 1/8 Highland, the calf will be about 60% Highland, though it could come with the belted colour of the Galloway, or be white, or riggid or even dun, since the genetics for all of those colours are in the heritage of the bull and some are with the Highland calf herself. The riggid Galloway heifer could be any of the above as well. I do not intend to be a farmer of meat cows or dairy cows, but do wish to be sustainable and utitlize the land better. The Galloways will forage in the bush and eat the leaves of the shrubs and trees well into winter, and as well paw the snow to access the grass below as they did in ancient times. 

The Galloways are both from old style Galooway cows from a special North American premium breeder whose animals are sought after and well known through the Galloway world. The breed is naturally polled and bulls are used to introduce that trait to new herds, which is a heck of a lot better than having to burn their horns right out of their skulls as babies. The cows are quiet, easily manged and easily tamed. When the babies come to the farm, they will go into a very small area for a month while I take the time to tame them and they become familiar with me, then they will move to the next size pen. In the fall the heifter will likely be old enough to breed as they do breed young and it is not harmful to this breed. The bulls are calm and easily kept with the cows for most of the time. I wish to halter tain the cows so I have no problems moving them in their adult years. 

Say hello to my new Galloway babies, the welcome additions to the Fat Ewe Farm !

Dora is a purebred registered fat tailed sheep, a Karakul, one of the most common breeds in the Middle East, but rare in Canada. She is one of two Karakul ewes that I have, but the other sheep is only 75% Karakul. Dora is unique as far as sheep go. She has always been friendly and will come for a little attention. She does not appear shy, but is reserved. This is observed when it is feeding time. She does not rush in, nor push the other sheep out of the way as some others do, even though she is substantial in size. 
Karakul lambs are what the fur industry craved in the 1950's. The Mongolian lamb fur coats and hats were tightly curled black fur , which actually was the pelts of newborn or even lambs in utero. When people learned that the fur was not fur, but the skins of the babies, the lamb fur coat trade fell in and countless Karakul sheep were sent to their slaughter. The meat is very lean because fat is stored in the large tail, much like a camel stores water and nutrients in its hump. The coats of the sheep change colour and texture, becoming lighter and coarser as they age. Dora is going to be 4 years old and was pure black at birth. The sun bleached her wool the first year and it appeared a reddish brown, but when sheared the undercoat is black. The wool is excellent for felting and is strong and long, which is also wonderful carpet and rug wool. Dora has not had a baby, likely because the rams do not know how to deal with the extra wide fat tail. She is kept on the farm for her beautiful coat and her lovely disposition. Dora loves her livestock guardian dogs as well and is often seen having conversations with them, though it is telepathic. What a lovely girl she is, my Dora, named after my aunt, whom I loved so dearly too.