The Fat Ewe Farm and the bed and breakfast are going to be two separate sites and the bed and breakfast site will host the new name, Moose Hills Inn. The mountain, if you want to even call it that, that the farm sits on the base of, is Moose Mountain and to the east of the farm, there is crown grazing land. Moose Mountain and Moose Hill are right here in Lakeland country, right where the farm is. To reflect the upscale atmosphere in the facility, it will be renamed then, Moose Hills Inn. Hopefully, people will look into our delicious meal offering with a taste of the farm fresh to the plate, and our client meeting rooms where the guests can host their client meetings right here at the inn. 

The furniture is authentic antique, the draperies are silk, the carpets, luxurious wool and the beds are to die for - organic real foam rubber from trees mattresses with divine organic cotton sheets and organic wool or down duvets. The pillows in the Master Suite are shredded foam rubber from trees as well and the Sunshine room has a variety of organic foam rubber pillows as well. There are organic linens and towels and organic cotton robes. Slippers are an option for those who prefer them. 

There is a water dispenser on both floors with hot water, hot enough for tea, and cold water from our farm well that has been filtered through an activated charcoal filter, but retains the majority of the minerals. Both floors have microwaves for client convenience and mini fridges are in each room. Though the inn does not have television, there are two dvd players available for those who prefer to watch a movie while relaxing. Internet is usually available though in storms can be intermittent, in which case, our guests have tethered their cellular networks to their computers and never missed a beat. 

The inn is located on a working farm, with dogs that work at night, however; the house is well insulated and built into a slope making outside noise inaudible for the most part. Roosters crow, not just in the morning and a gaggle of geese may waddle by the deck tending to their young. The farm is a budding permaculture farm and also a rare breeds farm. Our Jersey cow is just about to give birth and although we cannot share her milk, we can enjoy it ourselves. The chickens and ducks lay copious quantities of fresh eggs daily, but due to regulations they cannot be served at the inn. Patrons, can, however; purchase the eggs at the farm gate. We also offer farm raised duck, goose, chicken, lamb and pork for the farmhouse suppers and local bison on occasion. 

We are excited about the new name, Moose Hills Inn, and hope to serve our guests with the same quality service as always, just with a slightly different approach. 

We may have a day before the next thunderstorm, but there is one predicted for tonight too, so who knows. The exterior is ready to paint except for the moulding around the porch door, which I will cut and install tomorrow. The screen door is prepped and sitting in the porch ready to paint and the porch interior is also ready to paint. Then the stuff can be moved where it belongs and the exterior can be painted. The colour for the exterior is what I cannot decide. I was leaning to pink and white and cream, but also love the colour of the Ameraucana chicken eggs from the farm, a soft blue green. Co op had a sale on exterior paint, at 99 dollars for 5 gallons exterior paint in white, red or green. I bought some and a quart of a dark blue green which I intend to mix into the white. The old stain on the house is getting very brittle and dry after 30 years, so the exterior could do with a spruce up too. It is cedar and I have always thought it was a crime to cover wood with paint. In this case, it might look wonderful. I am thinking of staining the house white and then using the light blue green and a darker version of it for the doors and trim. The option would be to paint the house white and use the pink for the trim. I plan to build rustic shutters for the exterior, but functional ones, which should help in the dead of winter when the winds are howling from the north. Today I installed the bottom weather stripping on the front door but cannot figure out how to do the door handle. I need a chisel to enlarge the place where the striker goes too and I do not have that. The right side of the door is not snug enough and will let the wind and cold in when winter comes. The weather stripping I bought does not work, so I will have to go back and find something better. I did mange to cut a piece of wood to fill in the gap at the top where the old door was, which was taller than the new one. I cut it at an angle with the skill saw and was proud that it just fit and was working for that space. If it rains tomorrow, then I will paint the ins

Some hens want to raise babies so badly, that no matter what happens, they will return to a nest and insist on incubating even just one egg. So it is with four hens and a duck. 

They were in the chicken coop nesting boxes where the rest of the hens laid their eggs, only they claimed the eggs as part of their own nest. Then more eggs were laid and more and finally there were up to 40 eggs in the boxes and still hens were trying to get in to lay. At the height of the broodiness, the coop stunk, the hens were two or three to a nest box and there were maggots in the boxes from broken eggs that flies had laid eggs in. It was one of the grossest messes I have ever had the pleasure (NOT!) of cleaning. 

So the coop was closed. The old dog house was left outside as a nest box and four hens and Muscovy duck continued to be brooding in there, all of them, all day and night long. I threw them out amidst much protest and they clucked and pecked at me and fluffed up and fussed. Finally, I dismantled the dog house and emptied it. I have no idea where the normal hens will lay now, but there are no nest boxes available. And what did those brooding hens do? 

They stayed exactly where I dumped them, clucking and fussing. One had an egg, so I took it away from her and all day, today at 32 degrees in the hot sun, they stayed there puffed out and brooding nothing. Now I know what is meant by annoyingly broody. I would give each one of them a nest box and some eggs if I thought they would not crowd into another hen's territory. Perhaps tomorrow I will try that. For today, they are brooding in the corner with nothing. Silly chickens!

We should help others when and if we can, right? The young lady I bought my three Nubian goats from needed a place to stay until she is back on her feet and she needed a place for her goats. Her father has a fifth wheel trailer that she could park in the meadow near the farm house and the goats can go in the pen with my new ones, since they were hers to begin with. I didn't know there were a whole lot of bottle babies, about 14 or so, plus the one little buckling I purchased, which I feed. The adult goats have not yet arrived and due to a serious problem, they may all be sold outright and never arrive. I do hope that does not happen for the sake of the young lady who loves her goaties and had a cheese making business from their milk. The fifth wheel trailer got parked in the meadow this afternoon and the young lady should be here soon enough. Her father has made ready things for her and must go back to work shortly. He is going to set up a 7 foot fence around the old tennis court for her dogs since Robbie, my border collie, does not like other dogs on his farm. The livestock guardian dogs do not mind the female dog, but have not yet met the male. I would not prefer them to run free. 9 dogs is too many!

Anyhow, I am happy to help and I hope the stay at the Fat Ewe relieves some of the pressure on her until she gets on her feet. That is the least one can do, and no, I did not know this lady until I went to buy goats from her. Welcome to the Fat Ewe Farm 4 legged and two legged guests.

Momma duck hatched 7 ducklings and one chick. Mamma ducks are great for ducks but poor for chicks. Chicks need to be shown where and what to eat and do not care to go in the mud or puddles. The chick hatched almost 10 days before the ducklings because incubation for chicks is 21 days or so and ducklings is 30. The chick managed to survive because the mother was not off the nest. Otherwise it would have gotten cold because ducklings do not require warming nearly as often as chicks. I left it food and water and it did well. Until today, that is. 

I saw the chick running around and it appeared there was something caught on its throat. At first I thought its heart was torn out of its chest, but it was the gizzard that was. Something literally tore the gizzard right out of the chest. I have no idea how the chick was running around. Maybe after the initial injury, it did not hurt that much, though the bare breast meat was exposed as well as the gizzard, which was hanging out. I felt sick. I knew the best thing was to knock it on the head and put it out of the terrible pain and misery it must have been experiencing. Poor little chick. 

So, I did. I put its head on the fence post and smacked it with a rock. The body jerked and jumped and then there was nothing. I felt terrible - my first killing. This part of farming is NOT fun at all. I am so sorry little chick. I am so sorry. 

The four Rouen mother ducks sat on three nests, two together on one and the other two on their own. They synchronized their nesting so that the ducklings would hatch at the same time and they did, 42 of them. Of course, the mother ducks had no idea whose belonged to whom so they are trying to take care of them all. Already 10 have been lost to various episodes, some to the geese when they got too close, some left behind and they got cold and expired and who knows why the others did not make it. I guess that is why they have so many. 
But today, the mother duck with the white on her had a tiff with the other mother ducks and she picked up one of the ducklings repeatedly and threw it down, the same one. It was a little yellow duckling, so it will be white and the only white duck on the farm is the white Khaki Campbell, so it is safe to assume that it is at least cross bred Khaki. I watched the whole thing from the window of the skid steer with a huge bale of hay on it, so was powerless to help the little duckling. Finally the disagreement ended and the little duckling tottered a bit, but was able to walk. 
The last thing Robbie and I did tonight was to close the sheep pen and there was a duckling peeping. Robbie found it and sure enough, it was the little yellow duckling that had been so badly mistreated before. He was weak and cold and alone. I picked him up and cuddled him in the palm of my hand to warm him, but it is not looking good. He is in the porch in a Rubbermaid tote with a hot water bottle to snuggle up to and a bunch of wool to simulate another duckling. I fried and egg for him and gave him some pellets, but he showed no sign of wanting to drink or eat, so I left him huddled in the corner next to the hot water bottle. I am going to heat it again for him before I retire and hope he will make it through the night, though with that very rough treatment it does not appear he will pull through. Poor little duckey. 

Of all the dogs on the farm, I am least attached to Joe. He should stay with his sheep, but doesn't. He ripped the skin right off his neck which then proceeded to get badly infected and that was because he cannot be tied up. I might try putting a harness on him to tie him up. He can do a lot less damage to himself. He does not like to be tied but neither do Jade, Jenna, or Mikey. 
Today Joe decided to roll in something really incredibly stinky. I thought it might be cow pie, but that does not stink as badly as whatever Joe rolled himself in. Gross. Joe is a follower, not a leader and sits near the bottom of the pecking order in the pack. He does not come when he is called, which is not entirely unusual for livestock guardian dogs, but he will come if he is hungry and thinks he is going to be fed. His brother, Mikey, stays with sheep now about 90% of the time, and Joe only stays about 10%. So, poor Joe, though he is a great all round farm dog and shows promise as a guardian dog for the livestock and birds, I do not need another one of that kind of dog. Already, Ofcharka, Harley, Jade and Jenna do that. Four general farm dogs is sufficient. Could I sell Joe? Well, he is part of the pack and I have had him since he was a five week old pup and he loves me dearly and loves to be patted. No danger just yet, Joe dog, but puhleeeeeeze, don't roll in stinky stuff and come for  pets. Peeeeeewe!

Anna has coccidia. It is a fatal illness if not addressed quickly, especially in young goats and sheep. Anna is just 5 weeks old and was a bottle baby from the start, although I did hold the mother the first three days so Anna could drink colostrum from her, which contains antibodies to keep her healthy until she could establish her own. Two bottle goat kids also had it and Anna was hanging around with them. The goat coccidia protozoa and the sheep coccidia are not necessarily the same though. The protozoa creates severe diarrhea, then dehydration and loss of appetite and finally death, usually within a few days. Anna has been receiving bottles of water with a little molasses for palatability and has had two doses of Amprolium. She will need to continue Amprolium for 21 days to completely defeat the organisms. If the Amprolium does not show signs of improving her diarrhea within 24 hours (tomorrow) she will have to have a different antibiotic, and fast. Anna does not like having her bum washed with the hose, but she doesn't mind if I bring her in the laundry sink and use warm water. With the frequency of her runny poop, the hose is much easier at this point. Sorry Anna. She will not be given her milk replacer until all signs of diarrhea have stopped. She also had some Pepto Bismal twice, but it has not stopped or firmed the poop even. With no improvement in two days, she will have to go the veterinarian's for further testing. Come on Anna! Get well quickly baby girl!

I have some chicks that are from the Neanderthal era, I am sure. At first I thought they were Speckled Sussex crosses, but they are not. They have big long yellow legs and small bodies for those legs, much like we envision the dinosaur birds of long ago. The head of these chicks is starting to develop into what appears to be a predator bird, with a face like a hawk. Upon careful investigation, I thought them to be Malay chicks and went to my friend's place to see other Malays. Sure enough, that is what they are, a bird bred to fight, hence the long legs and the hawk like appearance. I will give them away to my friend, since he already has some and enjoys them. 
The huge contrast to the dinosaur bird is the little grey blue Silkie chicken. What a beautiful creature it is, with soft downy feathers and a quiet disposition. Silkie chickens are the best brooders and will raise any other bird's chicks. They are docile and quiet and sometimes, because of their gentle natures, can be picked on. Isn't the Creator wonderful to have thought of so many incredible creatures!