The Woolley Farm

Welcome to the snowy Woolley Farm

Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

Just cruising by? Well, why don’t you stop in and visit? Yes, come on up the driveway and I’ll show you around. It’s cold today 10* at 8am, but the sky is heart-breakingly blue and one has to squint as the sun on the snow hurts your eyes. Wrap up in this extra wool scarf & mitties and let’s go see what’s new.

Walls of snow

Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

Going up the driveway, the walls of snow are closing in. There’s barely room to drive the truck thru. See that fence post? It’s really 7′ tall!!!

Icycle Daggers

Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

The icicles are building up on the corner of the house. Pretty soon they will reach the snow! Note the snow is almost up to the windows. You can see the smoke from the good ole wood furnace in the background against the bright blue sky.

Let’s walk to the barn

Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

The barn doors are 12′ tall. There’s a tiny little path between the snowbanks. Shall we go in?

I smell grain

Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

It’s Cocoa, the mommie Moorit, standing up on her hind legs and looking for grain. Feeding twins sure builds up an appetite. Daphne peeks over the feeder next to her.

Bunny

Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

Miss Bunny, our Jersey Woolley (what else could we possibly have for a rabbit??), eating her breakfast. She hops around freely in the barn and enjoys greeting everyone.

Bear

Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

Bear is almost a year old and has a fabulous ‘horn set’. I just wish his nose was blacker…. He’s a real sweetie-boy and will be used in the fall of 2008 for breeding. His horns are the best of the entire herd. Hope they stay straight!

Elvis, are you Lonesome tonight?

Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

“No, not tonight. My mommie finally knows that I’m hers. But I have to go between her back legs, under her tail, to eat, otherwise she kicks me away. Maybe someday I’ll be able to go under the side like the other kids. At least she’s not trying to kill me anymore…”

Let me tell you a secret.

Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

“I know where Mom hides the grain! ” Cocoa whispers into Brandy’s ear while Daphne tries to listen in.

Purl

Originally uploaded by The Woolley Farm.

Purl
Purl is one of our first Romneys that we ever bought. 3 years ago, as a first time mother, Brandon had to pull (sleep language for grabbing feet & pulling the baby out of the mother) a 17 pound ram lamb, which arrived dead. Ever since, Purl has had trouble lambing. Last year her water broke, and after 2 hours, she still hadn’t gone into labor. We had to call the vet and $300 later, the vet pulled out 2 babies (we could’ve done that if the vet had just told us but we thought there was something else wrong). That was the first internal exam I had ever done on a sheep. Actually, on anything!

The babies last year were fine, but poor Purl had very little milk so the babies had to be supplemented with bottles. Mac & Tosh (Boy & Girl) are still with us. Tosh carries the moorit gene and Mac will end up as either a fiber wether or lamb-chops.

This year Purl had 2 black babies. I posted about these earlier and we had thought that Troubadour was the father, but now we believe it to be Jet, the 5 month old black Romney out of Knit. So these little lambs can be registered as both Romneys and as Natural Colored, which is great (more money for us than cross-breeds). I have named them Mitt Romney and Obama

Again this year, Purl does not have enough milk so the babies looked hunched over, tails tucked between their legs, weaker, and you could see their backbones at 2 days old. Yesterday I started bottle supplementing them. By Sunday they should be strong enough to run & play with the others – right now, they eat, then huddle together in a corner.