Westmoreland County Envirothon 2014

Fortiter Farm was honored to be the invited speaker at the county’s 2014 Envirothon. The Envirothon is a competition between county high schoolers on environmental topics. The winner of each county’s Envirothon goes on to compete at the state level.  These are some intelligent young people at this event!

Freckles and I were there along with two laying hens. The students were great and Freckles had a blast meeting everyone.  I talked about everything on the farm from how much it costs to produce a dozen eggs, the ins and outs of growing vegetables 11 months out of the year,  to how to control certain types of pests without chemicals, to sheep diseases.  When we finally got home and I unloaded her from the truck, she ate a mouthful of hay in her pen and then went to sleep. Little lamb you had a busy day!  Many thanks to all the high school students who were very attentive and welcomed us!

Triplet Trouble

Yesterday afternoon, when I got home from work, I went out and fed the critters like I normally do. When I was out feeding the sheep, I noticed that one of the triplets was acting very strange. She had a lot of white foam and mucus coming out of her nose and mouth…copious amounts. She was gasping. She was going up on her hind legs and coming down on all four. She also was urinating a lot. When she shook the slime off her face, she bleated. Her head was held way out and when she moved, she shook her head. Quickly, I ran in the house and looked up all possible medical conditions.

My first thought was pneumonia or some type of upper respiratory issue, but as I read the symptoms, it didn’t fit her symptoms. The next possible ailment was a type of bloat. I’ve never heard of a lamb, 2 weeks old and not consuming pasture grass, getting bloat on milk. Having no other alternative, it was my best guess. I called a couple who raise sheep and their thought was that it was a digestive issue and that I should expect a dead lamb in the morning.

Not wanting to accept defeat, I ran out and gave her about a tablespoon of olive oil to act as an anti-foaming agent. If it was a bloat, the reduction of foam would allow her body to expel the gases that were building up in her digestive tract. There was nothing else I could do but pray. I went out about an hour later and the foam had disappeared and she stopped bleating but she was just standing there, listless. I thought, “well, we’ll see”. I went out just before sunset, an hour after noticing no foam, and she was out there nursing with great fervor, acting like nothing ever happened. What a miracle! This morning, she’s acting like nothing ever happened. Needless to say, I slept very soundly last night.

Moving right along

The weather this past weekend was superb! A bit hot, however, for spinach. It was 83 on Sunday. Some snow arrived yesterday (Tuesday) along with sub-freezing temperatures. The vegetables looked fine this morning at 27 degrees. I started planting potatoes on Monday with 100ft planted so far. The triplets are doing very well. Here’s a shot taken yesterday when they were one week old.

New Faces on the Farm!

The next ewe to give birth did so this morning…around 06:00am. We have triplets! So far, all are doing well. I have to keep an eye on them to make sure that they all are nursing being the mother only has two teats. I stripped her teats to get the milk flowing and made sure all the babies got a chance at the milk bar. Here’s the link to see them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ldh6JBC_Wrc