Rainbow Apple Farm
 
 
 
Things have been (thankfully) pretty quiet around here lately. We eventually determined that Cameo had been taken by an aerial predator (eagle? chickenhawk?), as unlikely as that sounds. It turns out she disappeared early in the morning, not at night as we'd originally thought. There was no place anywhere around the perimeter of the fence which was not absolutely muddy, and any predator on foot would have had to leave a track. The only evidence we could find appeared talon marks in the mud in the middle of the pasture. In any event, we have not lost any more lambs, and I suspect Cameo (who was the smallest lamb here, no bigger than a small house cat) was probably the largest thing the bird could have carried off.
 
We are now planning to purchase a pretty little yearling ewe from Santiam Valley farm, and I'll post pictures and details as soon as we get her home. In other news, we also bought a tractor! The kids and I have named it Trevor, after the "Traction Engine" in the Thomas the Tank Engine series. Yes, my kids are WAY old for Thomas but they were big fans when they were little.
 
We managed to get through our first round of vaccinations, worming, and hoof trimming without too much trouble, thanks to a lot of great advice from our buddies at SoaySheepBreeders. We've decided to keep Fuji intact this year and keep our options open with regards to future breeding potential, but this weekend I need to go out and catch Pippin and band him. Unless I chicken out, in which case we may  just find out what ram tastes like next summer.
Another Day on the Farm
Tuesday, May 15, 2007