Summer Developments

An update on the critters is well overdue. We're now one sheep down (that was on purpose), one rabbit down (that wasn't on purpose), the chickens are getting huge and will hopefully be laying in a month, and the bees are so busy--we've already harvested a couple of quarts!

The sheep are getting a little bigger. They're still as scared as ever of us. At one point this summer we were trying to doctor one of them, and she drug me through the dirt, etc. After that her days were definitely numbered. We're still not positive if the 2 ewes we have left are pregnant. Someone told us we should be able to tell by August. If any of you can tell from these pictures, you can let us know.

Since our last post, Jacob convinced me to get 3 silver fox rabbits. I was reluctant, but they really are beautiful rabbits. After a couple of weeks, we discovered that one of them was a male. Unfortunately, Mr. Rabbit died about a month ago in a sad accident. Let's just say that an animal covered in thick black fur doesn't do well in full sun.

Also since our last blog, we got chickens! We have 9 total, and they very fun and happy. Jacob worked really hard at getting a coop and a run set up for them. Hopefully this week we'll put in nesting boxes. I think it'd be fun to paint the coop red with white doors and trim, but I don't know if it'll actually get done. Here are the chickens when we first got them and were keeping them in the barn.

Here's the first stages of the chicken coop.

And here are the chickens as of yesterday, enjoying a treat Jacob brought them.

And lastly, on the animal front, are the bees. They are amazing! We've only harvested one and a half bars and have gotten at least 2 quarts of honey. Here's a few images of the inside of the hive.

In this picture you can see capped honey at the top, then the dark circles in the middle show almost capped honey, and the ones at the bottom are just starting to be filled. It's amazing what they can do...and amazing that Jacob's only been stung 3 times so far :)

The garden is growing, though not quite like we had hoped. We scored some more cinderblocks and so we're going to try some "pioneer crops." I mean, the pioneers didn't arrive until July 24th, and they put in lots of crops. We're going to try a few more green bean plants just for fun in the bare portions of our old grow beds. And we're going to plant buckwheat in the new box.

And here are a few fun pictures of the Fourth of July in Cody. What you can't see in this first one is the swarms of mosquitoes that were about to eat us alive. But it was beautiful!

Commemorating our first (blind) date by going back to the rodeo.

Running the Stampede 5K with family. Dan really did finish abou 7 minutes before me and Juleen, but then he came back to help us run in the last leg. Thanks Dan!

Jacob went up Heart Mountain for the first time.

And Jacob's parents came home from China. They brought cool birthday candles that have a huge flame, open up into a flower, and sing happy birthday, and sing, and sing... We finally had to "deconstruct" this candle after it was still singing 30 hours later.

Cuantas sheepies tienes?

Ocho! That's right, Jacob and I just got ourselves a flock of 8 sheep! Jacob is so like the story of that camel who slowly worms his way into the tent. I was open to the idea of two lambs that would be "processed" in the fall. But Friday Jacob came home with a great idea--we could visit Grandma Goodrich for Mothers Day and then bring back 8 sheep! I was reluctant, but now I'm very excited! 

They are Katahdin Hair Sheep, so instead of giving wool, they shed in the summer. You'll see that the three ewes are still in the process of shedding, so they look a little straggly. And because they're hair sheep, they're not white, and it doesn't really matter. They're maybe not as cute as woolly lambs, but they grow on you. 

Anyhow, we ended up with three ewes and five babies. The ewes could possibly be pregnant. If so, we could have up to 6 more babies in September or October. 

One issue was how to transport 8 sheep from Duchesne to Riverton. We were able to use Jacob's dad's truck. His brother-in-law had built some sides for the truck, and then we tied in a few bales of hay in the back. Finally we tied the sheep in so that they couldn't jump out. Jacob did some excellent wrangling, and no one was seriously injured. 

This last picture was my view of them from the cab of the pickup. 

After only 2 and a half hours, we arrived in Riverton and unloaded the lambs. They quickly got to work on our weeds, just as we had hoped. 

We're thinking that our pasture probably can't support 8 sheep, even little ones, so we're not sure yet if we'll try to keep all 8 or sell some off or pasture them elsewhere. So stay tuned for more sheep news! 

New House!

Jacob and I have been very excited about our new house. On Thursday we finally got the keys. It's a little overwhelming, but very fun. 

One thing we really like about the house is that it's on a half acre, so we'd be able to keep chickens and sheep and potentially other animals. It seems like whenever we tell people in Wyoming they say something like, "Really? A half acre is enough space for animals?" Ok, so it's no Wyoming, but it is set up with a little pasture that we're hoping to put two sheep on. And we even have a barn. We're not sure what we'll put in there besides our wheelbarrow, but it's got potential. 

Another thing we were really excited about was putting in a huge garden. The former owners kept horses along the back of the property. So it's basically a dirt pad that's been stomped down pretty well. No fear, we figured we'd rent the biggest tiller we could find and make it work. Unfortunately, we discovered that under the inch or so of top soil is about 6 to 8 inches of gravel. Great for a horse pad, not great for a garden. 

We were disappointed. But we went home, and before long Jacob had located free dirt, cheap manure, and cheap cinderblocks (and lots of backwork :) on the internet. The manure was a lot more wood chip than we had planned, so we added a little ammonium sulfate. So far we have made one and a half raised garden boxes, and as soon as our backs mend, we may go get more cinderblocks and finish off the second bed. 

We figure that over the years we can add more raised beds as we get more materials. It will be another fun experiment, so stay tuned for more photos . 

And in case you were at all curious about the inside of the house, here are a few more photos. So far we only have a table, chairs, bed, dresser, couch, a couple of bookshelves, and piano. So it may look a little sparce for a while, but it will be fun to slowly furnish the place. And of course, if you're in town, we would love to have you come visit our new place! 

Bees!

I promised Jacob I would write a blog some day. I can't promise that I'll be as witty, but I'll at least explain the pictures. 

Jacob has been fascinated with bees since he was a little boy, and I've loved to eat honey since I was a little girl, so we were both excited with the idea of getting bees. Jacob researched it out and built a beehive, called a top bar beehive. Basically, the box is hollow inside, and you lay bars across the top. The bars have a thin strip of beeswax inlaid facing down. So when the bees are deposited, they know to start building from that beeswax. They build a file of comb that tapers down. They'll do that with each bar. So far they're building on about 5 of the bars. The biggest comb is about 10 inches wide and 10 inches long. It's really fascinating to see. 

In the picture below you'll see a little tiny box with one bee inside. That's the queen. She successfully ate her way out and is now reigning quite well in the hive. 

It's a fun experiment. Jacob looks great in the bee suit. And so far no stings--except for one that Jacob got on his pinky finger at his friend's house. In the picture below is the first bee we spotted returning to the hive with pollen.