I feel like I belong here on this land, but not in this region. I love my farm, my animals and the beauty I behold every day, though I have not made a friend here after 6 years. It can be more difficult to connect as we get older and I am not the best at making an effort to be a friend. Life is busy on the farm with just myself to care for the critters, do the yard work and the bed and breakfast. 
This year, as every year, many containers and boxes were planted with beautiful bedding plants that have now begun to flourish. We have had an inordinate amount of rain so far this season and while it is good for the grass and garden, it has put me terribly behind with the pen cleaning and larger chores. The sheep pen is the only one that is finished and that is where my garden is this year. The rams busted in and ate all the beans and lots of the peas and trampled some seedlings. The chickens seem to find a way in and scratch up the seeds. I even have gone to great lengths to keep those darn birds out, but they fly on the fence and they descend and eat. 
The grain supply I had is not viable at this time. I am scrambling once again to try to find some grain that is not sprayed. The rabbits are going to be dispatched soon, leaving only three, two does and a buck. I really do not need 16 rabbits. So the amount of grain required will be greatly less. I don't know what else the birds could eat to thrive. They love meat. I have been toying with the idea of feeding them meat and fat and no grain. Even the ducks eat meat and fat, especially the Muscovies. Grass is consumed by all of them as well as tons of flies and bugs. They could likely survive the summer without grain, especially if I gave them meat. But I have to get the trailer hitch put on the Touareg first and that is scheduled for Tuesday. After that, I can hitch up the trailer that I used with the smart car and get some meat, plus haul away the trash. 
Sales have been just OK this year. Goats are usually the number one, but the lambs are keeping up. The ram lambs will be butchered for my own use. I barbequed lamb chops and a small roast this morning. Oh my goodness those chops were delicious! I think the young buckling goats will also be sent to the abattoir this fall if they are not sold. I just love curried goat in the winter. It is heart warming and body warming and yummy! I only sold 2 butchered lambs this year, so I wonder if it is even worth my effort to try again. This area is not comprised of people who would eat lamb or even try it. Sad. The steer will also be butchered in the fall and the meat shared with my sons and daughter. If these crazy hens who are all sitting on nests, about 9 or them currently, raise their chicks, there will be lots of chicken to keep me going all winter too. I bought a pressure canner and want to learn to can meat. I always worry that if the power was off for a long time, the freezer meat would be lost, though that would not be the case in the winter when it is colder outside than in the freezer!
The new Guernsey cow is a delight! I have her in a tiny pen for a few weeks to tame her and for her to be comfortable with me. After that she can go to pasture with the sheep, but I don't think I will put her with the other cows or I will lose that training I am doing currently.
So, some animals have gone, some more will leave, and a few have arrived. It is the way on the farm. My aim this year was to decrease the numbers of sheep and goats, as well as all other animals to half. I may have to revise that since only the Jacobs and Shetlands have sold as a group. The Icelandics and Romanovs have been offered for sale and some interest has been shown, but there are no takers. If need be, I will divide them and sell them individually. Taking my sheep to market is not a wise idea. Markets look for conformity, uniformity and want what they know and are familiar with. Rare breeds do not do well there and that is not the place to even begin to sell them. 
I think toward fall there will be greater interest in rams and bucks as people scramble to find breeders. At least that has been the pattern in the past. Lots do not seem to want to keep a male in the summer. Since I have lots of males, it is fine with me, as long as I do not have to keep them over the winter. For that, it does not pay. 
I am not sure how many more years I will be here. My daughter returns from Australia in December with her degree in midwifery and will be living in Surrey, BC, near Vancouver with her husband (partner). She is planning to have children, so I could end up living close to them, who knows. I do want to keep a few sheep, goats and chickens though, wherever the plan leads me. Do come and visit the farm if you can so you too, can feel its beauty. You are always welcome.   

The Fat Ewe Farm has had quite a lot of dogs since its inception. In 2010, the year of my retirement and my plan to move to Thorhild, build a monolithic dome home, live off grid and build an organic permaculture farm, there were Josie, my trusty, then 13 year old border collie, Sofi, my daughter's border collie, Mikey, a rescue border collie that I was rehabilitating for rehoming and Anna, my brand new baby Scotch collie puppy (think Lassie). All of these dogs were female and all except Anna were spayed. 

The farm where the plan was to be executed was pristine and lovely, but Waste Management bought 17 quarter sections around it to create a class 1 landfilll, so an organic permaculture farm could not be located next to a dump! I put it up for sale and went home to White Rock after a short sojourn hanging out in a large shop living in my 32 foot motorhome. I boarded my horses and sheep, sold my Canadienne dairy cows, and had to rethink my plans. Josie, Mikey, Sofi and Anna came with me. Mikey was ready to find a new home and I got the best situation any dog could ever want. She went to live with a millionairess in Langley, a widow with no children who hired a dog walker for her and brought her fresh liver when she picked her up. Mikey, after her initial life of being tied on a 6 foot chain with no reprieve, must have thought she went to Heaven. She did! only on Earth. 

We found the Fat Ewe Farm then, in Elk Point and moved in March of 2011. Soon thereafter, a little fellow named Petey joined the posse, followed by Joseph, a rough collie for Anna to marry when they grew up, even though she was a little older. Petey disappeared one day, never to be seen again. Anna was hit on the highway and the next week, I lost Joseph. I was beside myself and cried all the time. I got a fence built as soon as I could, but it was too late for my friends. This is not the place for rough collies. 

Josie was not doing well, losing control of her bladder more and more until she basically had none. It was time to say so long to my much loved companion. I swore I would not get another border collie. None could ever come close to Josie. But I missed her so very much, that I started to look at border collie litters of pups. One day, this little fellow came up to me, looked me in the eye, put his tiny paw on my leg, ran to play and came back and sat beside me, looking into my eyes. Of course, that was Robbie and he came home with me and is now my constant companion. He is not Josie, but he is my dog. 
I had been reading a lot about livestock guardian dogs and living in harmony with the predators. i did not want to get a gun. I needed a pack of dogs that would keep the predators at bay, who were born and bred for that work and who bonded to the livestock they guarded. I found Harley. 

Harley was no longer wanted and if he did not get a home, he was going to be shot. So I rescued him and brought him to the farm. I was told by his previous owner to tie him up and leave him and to be careful around him until he got to know me. He is a big dog, possibly only 2 then, but the vet said possibly 5 years old...hard to tell. Harley fought the coyotes but he needed back up. One dog is not enough for a pack of bad guys. So Charka came.
 
Charka was the only black pup out of a litter of 11, all others including the parents being white. No one could explain him. He was bigger than the other puppies and was off by himself. I really liked him and chose him. Charka was difficult as a teenager, killing ducklings as he played and Robbie and he chewing up a lamb they were playing with too. Bad Charka. He also jumped the fence to go across the highway to visit the dogs there, so I tied a pallet to him. He could jump the fence and not get hung because the pallet was 10 feet behind him, but that stopped that. He still jumps the fence and goes to the end of the driveway, but as far as I know, he does not cross that deadly highway, thank goodness. 

Then I heard of two tiny Maremma puppies, which is what Harley was. They were sisters living with sheep in Saskatchewan and 'not working out' so were going to be terminated. I met the owner after driving 2 hours in a blizzard and loaded the little girls into the truck . They were scrawny and terrified. One limped. They would pull wool from the sheep and run and hide and eat it and scarf down any grain they could find. That is how they survived. The wool had bulk to make them feel full and the grain gave them some substance, but they were starved. The one who limped, Jade, had been kicked and suffered a hip fracture which was healed incorrectly. There were not 8 weeks old as I was told, but closer to 3 months, just emaciated.  

Jade and Jenna would never be large enough to fight predators, but they are the sentinels, the watchers and first alerts. So, two more Maremmas with Pyrenees, just a quarter, were selected to join the pack. 

Mike and Joe were only 5 weeks old when they came to the farm. Their mother was hit by a car and killed and the owners wanted those who bought puppies to take them. I called the vet to see what had to be done. Fortunately they were eating and drinking on their own and though they would have greatly benefitted from being with their mother for longer, they would survive with care. They were two rolly polly little balls of white fluff with black eyes and noses. Soooo cute! Mike and Joe lived with the sheep until they were teenagers, then they were removed to keep the lambs safe from rough play. Mike stays with the sheep most of the time, though Joe is very social and is often found meandering around the farm. 

Since the dogs have been adults, with Harley to teach them the ropes and ways of the guardian dog, the pack is formidable and works together like magic. Robbie is not permitted to join the pack because he is not made to fight predators. His job is to help me gather and move the sheep and he does. He also chases the foxes. 

These livestock guardian dogs have kept the farm predator safe for years now. Harley no longer works. He retired himself this year and spends most of this days sleeping on the porch or in the winter, in the porch. Jade, Jenna, Joe, Mike and Charka do the work. Harley does stand up and bark and sometimes will join the pack, but mostly he knows his fighting days are over. He has many scars to prove it. Mike is the most fierce and if I was a coyote I would run if I saw him coming at me. He is huge, likely over 6 feet tall on his hind legs and he weighs 145 pounds. He is clever and fearless. Joe follows him and together with Charka, the three big males are enough to keep the bad things away. Jade and Jenna will join in a chase but seldom a fight. Good thing. They are just too small. But they are also pretty fierce when they have needed to be. 
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I love my dogs. I cannot imagine life without them. I do not need a gun to feel safe, even walking at midnight in the bush, which I have done on numerous occasions. Dogs are a blessing. I am grateful for those fuzzy friends, over and over and over again. Bless them, my dogs. 

Leah and Lena came to the farm last summer as weanling doelings from another farm. They are first generation crosses of Nubian and Nigerian Dwarf goats. Unfortunately for Lena, the attempt at disbudding her, or dehorning, was a failure and she has scurs, which are partial horn material growing from where the horns would be. Leah has no horns though, but would have. Some of the mini Nubians will be naturally polled because Nigerian Dwarf goats can be. Nubians do have horns, so really it is the luck of the draw whether or not they are horned. 
Anyhow, Leah and Lena were kept apart from the goat herd because they were too young to fend for themselves without the care of a mother. My sheep and goats go to pasture which is partially in a bush. The livestock guardian dogs, Mike and Joe, go out with the herd in the morning to check around but sneak back later for their much deserved mid day nap. Sometimes those dogs work most of the night, so daytime is a relaxation time. Leah and Lena were just too young to be out there without a mother though, especially since they did not know the rest of the herd either. 
As a result, they became very friendly due to daily handling. Lena is shy and not so friendly, but Leah is great. Leah did not get bred for quite some time and I assumed she was still going to stay unbred, but Stevie Wonder had different ideas and would not give up. So Stevie went to the ram pen where he spends the summer, but Leah definitely got bred. She was later than the rest of the herd by a month and a bit, but three other goats also were cycling at the same time and were bred.
I was watching closely for Leah. She is a first time mother and is only a year old. Sometimes a first time mother is clueless and needs help with the delivery and after care, as well as to get started with nursing, but Leah was a perfect mom. She birthed the baby on her own, cleaned him completely, and nursed him. Thank goodness. There was a thunderstorm the day before she birthed and since the mothers had babies in the last two storms, I was sort of worried that Leah would too. She didn't. 
Little Ben is very much like his sire, Stevie Wonder, who was a delight as a young fellow himself. When I first met little Ben, he looked at me, said, "Nyeah" and leapt into the air. Such an attitude at a few hours old!
Ben will stay on the farm as a breeding buck. He is only a quarter Nubian, but has a Nubian face and ears. He is stocky and sturdy and has beautiful blue eyes. Bred to another first generation cross Nigerian Dwarf and Nubian doeling, I am quite positive the babies will be stunning. 
Thus begins the mini Nubian herd at the Fat Ewe Farm. Mini Nubians are smaller than Nubians, larger than Nigerians, but not by much, and have the hardiness of the Nigerians that Nubians do not. Next year I will likely part with my beloved Nigerian Dwarf goats, but that will be hard. In the move to downsize, I simply cannot keep them all. 
​Welcome, little Ben! 

The dogs are all afraid of loud noises, including gunshots and thunder. We have had some thunderstorms lately with a lot of rainfall. The big white dogs, Mike and Joe, are brothers and both run from thunder. They have dog shelters made from the plastic inserts in 1000 litre totes, but they do not use them. There are also summer dog houses and their winter ones if they want to use them, but they don't. Instead they like to crawl in small spaces. 
Recently I sold my trucks. I had three of them for some reason and decided that I no longer need to keep two vehicles since I bought the Volkswagen Touareg SUV. I am getting a trailer hitch put on it real soon and plan to get a small flat deck trailer and a small livestock trailer, or possibly rent the latter since I only need it once a year or so to take lambs in for butchering. There was a canopy on the Sierra truck, which I had taken off  prior to selling it. I thought that if I could not sell it separately, I would use it around the farm, maybe for a chicken shelter or something.
So the thunder was rumbling in the distance and the dogs were in their usual panic. I did not see Joe, which is not unusual, since he would normally have crawled under the truck by then. But wait! What is that in the canopy? 
Well, sure enough, it was Joe. He had a fondness for that old truck and slept under it a lot. I left the window open thinking he just might like to use it as his dog house. It was a bit low, but if he could get under the truck, he certainly could squeeze into the canopy. And he did! 
So, I think I will move the canopy to a safe location near the sheep and it can be his shelter during the rain storms. Mike and Joe never share the same shelter, at least not so far, but that one is certainly large enough for the two of them and even two more. Harley does go into his summer house and so do the other dogs, but Robbie comes in the house with me. Charka has been scratching up the screen door to get in during storms, and I did allow him to come in yesterday to save my door. I am pretty sure he would not go in the canopy if Mike and Joe or one was in there. He does not like to bend down and crawl like they do. 
The old truck canopy will be perfect for summer. I am positive it is not warm enough for winter, but I will fill it with straw just in case. Ta da! Reinventing the dog house at the Fat Ewe Farm! 

During a huge thunderstorm in April, a trio of lambs was born. Outside of course. In the pouring rain of course. 
This was hugely problematic. The scent of the mother was being rapidly washed off the babies who were getting very cold. One of the twin rams was too cold to make it on his own. Vigorous rubbing and a feed of warm goat colostrum, perked him up quickly, plus he had a custom fit fleece jacket. The ewe was in an area by herself with her own shelter. Why she chose to have those lambs outside in the thunderstorm, I will never understand. 
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So, today, as everyday, Robbie and I were doing our night rounds, inspecting the bush and pasture for stragglers before the gate was locked for the night. We are in a very heavy predator zone. The dogs do a remarkable job of keeping the animals on the Fat Ewe Farm safe, but they cannot go way out to the pasture and be in the night pen at the same time. The ewes know they should come home towards dark, but today there was a thunderstorm, another huge one with a downpour of rain so fast and furious, that the sky was hardly visible. Thunder frightens the dogs too, so Jenna, Robbie and Charka were in the porch. Harley was curled up at the door on his bed and I do not actually know where Jade, Mike and Joe took cover. There are many places they could have from the summer dog houses to special places set up for them during summer. 
Robbie went into the bush and came out after a group of sheep, moving them forward to their pen. The lambs were more reluctant because their mothers were already in the pen and they could see them through the fence, but we got them all moving. Then we went to the southwest section. 

There was a goat by herself by the tree. She was soaked. Upon quick examination, there were also two baby goats there with her, a beautiful doeling and a lovely brown and black buckling. The babies were soaked and so was the mother. The little girl was shivering and she needed desperately to get dry and warm, so I carried the babies so mom could see and smell them, all the way back to the night pen and put them in a cube shelter, where they curled up and fell right to sleep. The mom was a little worried they were not there and wanted to go back to the tree where she had them. but I locked her in with them and then went back to look for another baby, just in case. There was not one there. 

There were some sheep, however, out in the pasture. They stayed in during the rain and were hungry, so were making the best of the last remaining daylight. They had to brought in though and Robbie got them moving then we went to the further end to check for any others that might be wayward. Finally, we headed back for home and locked the gate. 

The mother goat and her kids were doing just fine. She wanted to be with the other goats but kept checking her babies, so I do believe all will be well. The kids had round tummies and were not hungry, thank goodness. She is not a first time mother and knew what to do, despite having babies outside in the thunderstorm. What is it about storms and babies anyhow?

I have been making some sugar cube scrubs for the farm store. Tomorrow I will do two more: a rose facial scrub which is very gentle and has rose damask absolute and rose hip oil, both lovely for skin. The other will be a body scrub with Himalayan salt. The day before yesterday I did a Floral Garden sugar scrub and today, a Peppermint Mocha and Brown Sugar scrub. It smells like peppermint, chocolate coffee and has both coffee grounds and sugar as the exfoliant, but not a great deal of each. Coffee scrubs can be pretty scratchy if there is a lot of grounds in them, so this one is more lenient with the coffee. 
Coffee and chocolate both are excellent skin conditioners. Coffee, especially, diminishes inflammation and redness and even may help with cellulite. Chocolate has flavanols which are strong antioxidants and have been shown to reduce wrinkles and hydrate the skin. That is a good thing when you have wrinkles on your bum! Or wherever. There is also real vanilla extract and brown sugar in the scrub. Peppermint essential oil is a great wake up for the skin, bringing the blood to the ends of the capillaries close to the skin surface. 
These scrubby cubes have really caught on. One excellent reason is they do not require preservatives. Scrubs in jars, even if they have no water in them, still require chemical preservatives because usually one scoops out a scrub with dripping wet hands and that introduces the bacteria from the water into the scrub. These little sugar cube scrubs are single use, so that is not an issue. 
Although they are very time consuming to make, they are also always interesting. First, one must make the soap. A great soap will make a great scrub and a mediocre soap, will make a mediocre scrub. Then that great soap must be grated and melted with a little liquid. I do that in the oven. In the coffee scrub went coffee, of course, as the liquid. A large portion of oil is added. The Floral Garden scrub from yesterday used Macadamia nut oil, which is high in linoleic acid. Skin loves that! The coffee scrub is rich with coconut oil, which in itself is anti inflammatory and helps rid the skin of bacteria. Some essential oils are added for therapeutic purposes, not simply for scent. The Ylang Ylang in the Floral Garden scrub is very relaxing to the senses and peppermint enlivens and awakens. The Floral Garden would be a great bath scrub and the Peppermint Mocha would be fantastic in the morning shower.
The Fat Ewe Farm Store is set to open in two weeks or so. Better late than never! There is always so much to do on the farm that things like the store are put off until there is real spare time. This morning two men and I caught all the sheep and goats and checked them for parasites. Fortunately only a few had to be treated, but everyone was checked. Then there was time to do the scrub inbetween grocery shopping for company coming on Wednesday.
Do stop into the store in a few weeks. There will be lots of goodies along with the scrubs to entice your senses and make you smooth all over! Til then.... 

There are several large freezers on the farm. Most of them are for different meats, full at the time of harvesting the animals, but not so full by the next season. One freezer was specifically purchased for the meat shop attached to the farm store. In that freezer went 18 little piglets, professionally butchered at the Vermillion abattoir in the fall. There were also some rabbits, about a dozen and lots of ground pork. Unfortunately, the worst happened.

Someone unplugged the freezer. I am sure it was inadvertently, like tripping over the cord and not realizing it was meant to be somewhere, or possibly not even paying enough attention to know there was a cord there. It is highly unlikely that it was a dog, but that possibility is not ruled out entirely. 

Two weeks ago, or closer to just 10 days, I checked the freezer for available space. It was cold and working and only a quarter full. I did not put the bounty, which is brined smoked pork from the last of the piglets raised on the farm, in that freezer, but instead put it in the pink shed freezer, closer to my little farmhouse. That was a good thing. That was likely the day the freezer somehow became unplugged. And, for the days following, it has been hot, close to 30 degrees every day. 

For some reason today, I thought I should just check the freezer. I had mowed the lawn, unplugged the cord and plugged it back in to the source carefully and I just wanted to be sure all was well. 

When I opened the freezer, I nearly passed out from the stench of rotting meat. The dogs, chickens and geese, on the other hand, were greatly intrigued and came rushing over, in case it was for them. The piglets were slimy and hard to get a handle on. I removed the bagged rabbit meat and ground pork first, then the piglets. The big and small flies swarmed into the little side shack housing that freezer. I was entirely disgusted, but with only myself to rely on, the terrible task was to be done as quickly as possible. 

I got a bucket and mopped up the bloody water at the bottom of the freezer. Then I washed it with hot soapy water and washed it again with a very strong bleach solution. It is clean and sparkling now, and I left it open to air out because the bleach was very powerful. I washed down the sides on the outside as well. 

The meat was distributed amongst the dogs and birds and the piglets were taken to the compost to be buried when the rain stops. It has been pouring all day, except for this 2 hour sojourn when I had to do the nasty job. Thank goodness for that dry spell. I took the carcasses over to the compost in the wheelbarrow, but first put down 2 layers of cardboard. I double bagged the plastic bags so the flies could not get in and lay their eggs. If they do lay eggs on the piglet carcasses, the ducks and chickens will make short work of the maggots, and disgusting as it sounds, it is a very good source of protein for them. In the old days, a deceased animal was hung up just over the chicken pen so the maggots would dislodge and drop down to the chickens. 

Anyhow, once completed, I wiped down the door handle with a bleach soaked cloth and then ran a bath and soaked away for a half hour. Still I couldn't get the stench off my hands. Initially, I did not wear rubber gloves when I removed the meat from the freezer and even after soaking, the smell was still on my hands, so I washed again with Dettol disinfectant, scrubbed my nails and cuticles with a stiff brush and the solution and then applied lavender and peppermint essential oils, both of which are good as disinfecting. I no longer can detect the dead meat smell, thank goodness, only Dettol  and essential oils. 

That was one of the most terrible tasks I have ever had to manage! I hope never in my life to have to do such again. I have cleaned up a lot of disgusting things in my time, but this was without a doubt the worst. And I am not happy about the monetary loss. 11 piglets were left from the 18 at 75 dollars a piglet, plus 20 pounds of ground pork from my own pigs, and about 20 organically raised rabbits. What a sad loss. Boo hoo.