Maple syruping is in full swing!!!

I am very proud to say that Tim has finally mastered his phone and took these pictures! A spile with maple sap flowing from it! The weather is finally getting where it should be, warm days and cold nights get the sap flowing.

One of his trees from his sugar bush with his maple buckets on it. This tree is quite a producer!

The evaporator, fired up and rendering down sap...

and a selfie of Tim and his bliss, boiling down sap!

New Life on the Farm!

Mr Fluffer...

and Ms Tawny, would like to announce...

their new bundles of joy! Six new fat baby English Angora babies!!! They are healthy and Tawny is doing well for a first time mom! I am already in love with all of them!

Guess who came to live on Coon Hollow Farm???

Well we will give you a hint: their fleece is incredible and is called mohair, are does (girls)...they are Angora Goats!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We loaded them into my moms SUV and made our way home with them. They are so calm, laid back ladies. They laid down for most the trip and enjoyed the ride.

They don't have names, this lady has blond colored horns.

This little lady has black horns, one is bigger than the other. They were not sure if they are related or not.

I spent some time with them today after the craziness with the lambs being born. They are next to the ewe and her lambs and they watched the lambs with great intent last night. They let me touch them a bit, are a little nervous but I did get a chance to get my fingers in their fleeces! All I can say is "OMG"! So soft! Now we need to name them!!!

Welcoming twins and a surprise!

Lily finally had twins! Poor Lily has been big as a house, but yesterday she was panting and acting squirrely. I was doing a barn check at 9:30, came out of the house and heard their little cries. She had just had them on the hill. A ram and a little ewe. The little ewe had a rough time but she is up and strong and nursing! She gave us a scare this morning, Tim turned on the camera and thought she was dead, she was so soundly sleeping. I rushed down and when I walked in she lifted her head and stretched!

And this is our surprise! Can you guess what it is?

New products and changes coming to the farm!!!

With our beeswax that we harvested last year, we are adding some new products to our line of farm things.

Today I melted down some of the beeswax,

strained and poured it into some of these new molds I got...

and molded them into quilters wax. This is a great tool for quilters, it keeps the strands of the thread strong so they don't break. I aways use it when making a new quilt! Stay tuned, a lot of new life coming to the farm, as well as some farm friends moving on to new chapters for them. Lots will be happening on the farm, stay tuned!!!

Ivy is no longer the baby

Ivy is having a really rough time with the fact that she has a new brother and she is no longer the baby! She has been crying for her mom and then follows around Daisy and Patrick. This picture was taken just after Ivy head butted her little brother, and the mom Daisy gave her a very hard head butt from behind! It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Daisy is seen comforthing Patrick while Ivy sulks!

What is a girl to do when she is no longer the baby? Poor Ivy, she just doesn't know what to do. Someday she will be a mom, but until then she is holding onto her baby status!!!

When rabbits attack!!!

This broom never stood a chance!!! I guess it's a form of fiber right? I have been told an unsupervised rabbit is a bad rabbit, looks like the broom is yet another victim of their rampage!!!

Welcome Spring, with a snow storm?!

Yes indeed, we welcomed Spring today with a snow storm! This winter is not about to give up easy. The hives need to be cleaned out and readied for the new bees coming...

and our garden "Pan" statue is covered once again in snow. However, it is officially Spring just the same!!!

Welcome Patrick!!!

We woke up to this little guy this morning!!! He was born to Daisy. If I were a betting woman I would have sworn Lily was going first. I guess you can never tell, they are going to come when they are ready!

The lamb watch begins...

Today marks the beginning of the "lamb watch." According to the gestation chart we are here and any time after. So from left to right, we have Daisy, Ophelia in the back and Lily on the right. I predict Lily will go first, she has been going off on her own and I keep finding her in the barn, tucked in a corner. But we will see! Lamb cam is on 24, 7 as we wait!

With Spring comes mud season, uugghhhh

The chickens are happy to spread their legs and finally get their coop cleaned out! Frozen chicken manure can be quite tough to cut through!

On top of our barn is the melting layers of the many snow storms we endured this winter. I thought this was kind of cool.

With all those layers of storms, brings layers of manure, then ice. We pull one layer off and then have to wait for the ice to melt to get to the next layer.

The pitch forks are frozen into the ground, which is making it interesting to clean without your tools!

We are cutting trenches to re-direct the melting ice. So with warmer temps it brings mud, and so on and so on...

The long hard winter is coming to an end!

This winter is almost over, and not a moment too soon! The chicken coop is half way up the wall with snow. It is dark in the run with snow.

The girls have had it! They don't even want to talk about it!

Teddy says "is it Spring yet"? The snow is starting to melt and with that comes the mud! Not sure which is worse around here! But with Spring, comes many new things. Stay tuned to see what will be new on Coon Hollow Farm!!!

Our very own Oscar and Felix!

It amazes me the personalities that these two have. Fluffer our buck English Angora is so laid back, keeps his cage clean and even when he is out for exercise never into things, just a well rounded easy going guy...

but Tawny, she is quite the opposite! Always tearing her cage apart, fresh and protective of her cage and always getting into something when she is out for exercise. A real fresh diva through and through! I laugh when people say that rabbits don't have personalities, they have never met these two!

It's back,the Lamb Cam!!

What would Spring be like without lambs? The lamb cam is in position as we watch and wait for the lambs to arrive. Lily, Ophelia and Daisy are all expecting very soon! For now we are watching the alpacas at night in this stall as we get through a very tough winter indeed! However they are going back up to the upper barn very soon!

March is welcome!

What a winter it has been! We closed February out here in Connecticut with the coldest one in history! And boy was it cold! We woke with many a morning having the thermometer in the negative range.

The animals, especially Nigel here seems no worse for wear. They have enjoyed their nights in the lower barn on a thick bed of nice dry warm straw.

However, Teddy here seems to have a different expression as if to say, "What the heck, another snow storm?". So with yet another snow storm bearing down on us, the animals are tucked away, we are sitting by the wood burning stove and are really kind of okay with winter. Spring will be here in due time!