Happy Passover & Feast of Unleavened Bread!

It's Spring! Peep...Peep

The sounds of Spring entered our dining room on Saturday after "Chick Day" at Stevi Feed & Farm. Every March this local business offers 8 free chicks when someone buys 100 lbs. of chick food. The locals show up enmass, waiting in the cold in a long line that particular Saturday morning. We usually replenish our flock of laying hens this way. Our current flock is down to 8 hens from the original 15. Those remaining are all 3 years old & are not laying as much as they did last year. So, although we had Beth Tephila on Shabbat, we prepared early & detoured to Stevi Feed & Farm on the way. We chose to buy 6 of the Araucana pullet chicks at $2.99 apiece so we knew for sure that we were getting layers & not roosters. (Araucanas are pretty hens that lay either green or pink eggs.) We paid for the chick food so we could also get 8 Buff Orpington chicks for free...not being sure how many of each sex the store clerks would place in our box when our turn came after waiting in the long line. Through a mix-up by the clerk who waited on us, there were no more free-run Buffs as we slowly reached the head of the line. As a result, we were given the "deal of the day" according to the store by being given 8 Buff pullet chicks for free instead of having to pay around $24.00 to make sure we got layers. The long wait & then mix-up with all the discussing amongst the store clerks, made us late to Beth Tephila. Those waiting for us, easily forgave us once they saw the chicks. In fact, it was hard to pull away from chick watching to start the service. Louis set-up this old wire dog cage for the chicks once we got home. Rachel, our oldest cat, had just jumped onto the dining room table to check out the chicks when I snapped the above photo.

Later, Shadik was tantalized. She remained stationed near the cage all evening, watching the chicks as they ate, drank, slept. She circled the cage patting it with her paws to make sure she couldn't get one of them in her claws. Shadik is our huntress. She had caught two fat field mice & one small bird in our yard already this past week. We should have named her Diana or Artemis.

Can you see Shadik just under the heat lamp? This enticing situation was almost too much for her & Rachel.

This was an attempt to get a close-up of Shadik peering at the chicks in great hope.

Ben Ari's Dam as she received the last points needed to become an American Champion

Mattiaci Petrus & Fancyfree is the mother (dam) of our puppy, Ben Ari. Here is her official photo as she made the last points she needed to become an American Champion. We hope our puppy will look this good when he matures.

Update into Spring

Spring begins this coming Saturday, but we are already on daylight savings time & doing the spring chores. After almost two months at the vet's, Beauty is back home in her homemade stall. She is still getting a daily oral antibiotic for the laminitis she was developing & remains on her diet until she is only 1000 lbs. Special shoeing has kept her on her feet. She started with styrofoam...advanced to soft wooden horseshoes...now she has metal horseshoes that are somewhat padded. We are so thankful Beauty survived.

We've cleaned up the flower beds & burned the winter "bedding" along with pine cones & pine needles that fell during the Fall & Winter. Soon the flower bulbs will be popping up in these beds. Louis planted some new varieties last Fall, so I may post some photos if the results are pretty. As I removed the grass bedding, I noticed some mold starting to form on the underside. We didn't get the bedding off any too soon!

Last Friday I went on a "date" with Ron & Jeannie to see "Annie" at the Hamilton Playhouse. The Chidwick family were all involved in this great production. Andy was a wonderful "Daddy Warbucks", Elli was one of the orphans, Tano was the Dog Catcher & Sherry was one of the stage crew. What a delightful evening! Before Jeannie left to return to Washington, Ron had us look at another one of the homes he was scouting out in the Florence area. Elli had been to this upgraded model home before for a garage sale in months past. It was nice inside, but overpriced.

Ron, Jeannie & Elli came over to our home only 3 minutes away from the one above. Jeannie loved on Ben Ari, who was in his pen out on the back porch. He is about 3/4ths grown now & a sweetheart in his disposition. He & I have taken a few 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 mile hikes already. His mother just became an American Champion last week-end. His Sire was already an International Champion. We hope he ends up looking like them.

Lambing started with our arthritic, grandma ewe. Her lamb died before it was a week old. We think it may have had a birth defect as it didn't appear to gain any weight although it was feeding all the time. A couple of weeks later two more of our ewes each had a lamb. The one above has a tiny left ear. She appears perfect otherwise. She hop-skips & runs around the barnyard with our other lamb which Elli is feeding below. Does anyone have a suggestion for her name?

The ram lamb below is so tame. His Mom/ewe had her milk dry up shortly after he got a little of her colostrum. We've been feeding him bottles of goat's milk three times a day for almost three weeks now. Louis has named him "Zeke" - short for Ezekiel. Only one ewe has yet to deliver this Spring. Hopefully she will birth before the Passover Seder on March 29th. We are in preparation mode for the seder now. Louis has already koshered & roasted & frozen four large legs of lamb. We have seven more in the refrigerator & freezer to prepare, dependent on the reservations we receive by this coming Sunday. This will be Beth Tephila's first seder at our home church.