Morning Sunlight

Morning sunlight fills a corner of the barn pen, where the expectant mamas are waiting for their morning hay delivery.

All the animals and their humans are enjoying the little bit of spring sunshine that has come our way.

Weekly Top Shot

Peek-A-Boo

joining The View From Right Here for Weekly Top Shot

A Little Spring Color

Color is returning to the mountains, and it is surely a welcome sight.  The pastures are beginning to green up a little, flowers and shrubs are beginning to bloom.  Even the trees are providing a beautiful showing as the mountains surrounding us change from grey and black and brown to palette of delicate yellows, reds and even a little green.  Oh my, how we love our mountains... but you already know that.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.

A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week

A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog

What the Barncats Did...

The barncats have been enthusiastically doing their job ridding the barn and the surrounding area of any critter foolish bold enough to wander into their domain.  Once the weather turned cold, they began to take their job very seriously.  We won't disgust bore you with the evidence of their conquests, but instead will show you how they occupy their time during warmer weather... what we like to refer to as "The Barncats Summer Vacation".

Ever Watchful

A quick post this morning, as we are heading out the door... thought you might enjoy the runner-up shots for yesterday's {this moment}. 
The elusive Pumpkin... in the barn rafters... ever watchful... always watching...
She's a barncat and proud of it.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week.
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.

Winter Colours Week - (Unofficially) Brown

While Poppytalk's Winter Colour Week is officially over, here at Sheeps and Peeps Farm today is Brown.  This is necessary in celebration of the many Brown pictures taken for Wednesday, which actually was officially Green.  We hope you will enjoy this unofficial Day 6 of the farm girl take on Winter Colours Week.

Icy brown seed heads, not yet devoured by the birds

Sturdy beams of the old barn still providing shelter
and the memory of the quiet strength of family members no longer with us

Top of the old barn and our precious
hay crop



Bertha
our sheep... wool... providing warmth to combat the wintery chill



Winter Colour Week inspired us to find the quiet beauty in the everyday...
oft-times unnoticed and passed by

Thank you, Poppytalk!

Autumn Views

Late summer was so dry that as fall approached, the green leaves began to fall from some of the trees.  So, after weeks of worrying whether there would be any fall color at all; we feel so blessed to be surrounded with an abundance of autumn beauty.  Many leaves are now beginning to fade and fall, but here and on Flickr are a few of our favorite 'Autumn Views' from the past couple weeks.

The Old Barn

Great Aunt Nellie and Grandma Lena
family barn built 1900

We are so excited to have been working on our old family barn this summer. Terry has been doing some of the work, and we have also had the help of the crew from EcoStructures.   When we were growing up it was full of dairy cows and calves.  There was a tall silo, a grainary and a pigsty out back.  Right now we use it to house most of the hay that we have harvested for the long winter ahead.  Five generations of our family have made use of this sturdy shelter.  We hope that given a good dose of TLC a couple more will have at least the opportunity to build upon this legacy within its comforting walls.  We love this old barn full of friendly ghosts and fond memories.

Caution - Turkey Crossing

Often when making a trip down the old barn lane to get hay we encounter wildlife - a bunny, a deer - we pause in the springtime to observe the first Robins in the hayfield, the blooms on the Mountain Laurel. But a few days ago we had a real treat.

We had to suddenly stop the Ranger because of these baby turkeys (poults) in the lane.



We could hear clucking and shortly found Mama Turkey peeking out of the hayfield on the left side of the lane.



After much more clucking and peeping, Mama Hen ventured out and proceeded to encourage her poults to cross the lane.

She and three poults crossed to the right side, but she continued to cluck. Then we heard more peeping, and out popped some more poults!

... and more...

... and more...

Finally after several minutes of clucking encouragement, everyone made it safely across the lane, into the tall grass on the right side and then further into the woods.

And we were given a lesson in slowing down... pausing... enjoying Mother Nature's gifts.

More Birdwatching

We accomplished a lot last weekend, but it was hard to stay focused with all the birdwatching activity going on in the barn. It is hard to believe, but the cats have made no attempts to bat or lunge at either the nestlings or the adult birds when they fly into feed the little ones. They seem to be content to observe, and honestly become bored with the whole thing after about 10 minutes.



This brave little one made it out of the nest on Sunday to this perch about 15 feet away from the nest. Momma and Poppa joined him there for awhile.





But then began a huge effort to entice the remaining 3 baby birds from the nest. They tried scolding. When that didn't work they performed miraculous, airborn, acrobatic stunts in the middle of the barn, but that didn't work. They even tried to lure them to the barn door by chirping, quite loudly, from the sheep pen gate.

Despite their heroic efforts, these three little ones refused to budge.

Several hours later when we returned to the barn, the brave baby bird that left the nest earlier had flown back to its siblings. All 4 were back firmly ensconced in their now very little nest, and poor mama and papa were back to their frantic feeding schedule.