Betsy's Backyard Blog

Betsy Freese is the editor-in-chief of Living the Country Life and executive editor of Successful Farming. She grew up on a fruit farm in Maryland (see www.strawberryfarm.com) and moved to the Midwest to get an agricultural journalism degree from Iowa State University. She and her husband, Bob, a veterinarian, have three children and own a farm where they raise sheep, hay, corn, and soybeans.

Quad city

We have had four sets of quads this year. That is highly unusual, and not a good thing. One ewe died, along with three of her newborn lambs; the fourth lamb we grafted onto another ewe. Two ewes had two dead and two surviving lambs. And one ewe is nursing all four tiny lambs — now that is a miracle.

The key to successful quads is having all four lambs the same small size. That way they can compete with each other evenly for milk. Usually one lamb is big, one tiny, and two in the middle. Often that many lambs in one ewe depletes her and the babies of too many nutrients.

Here are some older lambs we moved to the back lot in the sunshine. (That’s our overgrown alfalfa behind them.)

Prom!

Prom was Saturday night and the girls had a great time with dates Cody and Josh. Here are a few photos.

Left to right: Lauren, Dalton, Michelle, Josh, Carrie, Joe, Caroline, and Cody.

The dance was held at Adventureland in Altoona, Iowa, home to this lovely carousel.

Tags:
Prom

Compost it

I saw this stack of compost at the grocery store and started calculating how much our pile behind the barn is worth. Millions?

Bob had to add to the pile at 3 a.m last night. The sick ewe that had quads died. He was hoping nobody was watching LambCam when he had to drag her down the aisle of the barn. Livestock farming is not for the weak.

Getting a manicure on the farm

Our streaming LambCam video caught Bob and Caroline trimming hooves and tagging lambs last night. All the ewes in this photo were moved into larger pens on the east side of the barn, with more pregnant ewes taking their place.

We learned a lesson this year. One very pregnant, very swollen ewe started suffering from vaginal prolapses. After a few days of prolapses she stopped eating. A few days later, Bob performed a c-section and removed live triplets. But she wouldn’t eat or nurse. Two days later she delivered a fourth lamb, dead. Bob couldn’t believe he missed that last lamb, but quads are unusual. Lesson: If a ewe starts prolapsing it could mean lots of big lambs; put her in a pen and give her extra grain. Get those babies out early.

Tags:
Lambs,
LambCam

More mowers needed

Michelle got her first ride on a lawn mower. Caroline doesn’t like to mow the east grove (“boring”), so she taught the foreign exchange student how to do it. Don’t worry, Caroline, we will have plenty of grass for you to mow all summer once Michelle goes back to Sweden.

Bob gets plenty of ride time, too. Here he is on the west side of the house. Meanwhile, I’m sitting on the roof of the garage with a camera and book. HA.

Tags:
Mowers,
Lilacs

LambCam is live!

If you have been waiting for your baby lamb fix, here it is:

http://www.livingthecountrylife.com/animals/livestock/lambcam/

LambCam 2012 is live! At least it was when I posted this. If the internet burps, it goes down, but I will fix it when I get home.

Enjoy the sounds and sights of our barn when you can.

Thanks to Jeff Caldwell (right) and Justin Davey of agriculture.com for hooking it up.

Tags:
Lambs,
LambCam

Get that garden growing!

Weeds sprouted early this year and took over my garden plot before I got anything planted, so Bob tilled the bed for the second time. Yesterday I planted red and white potatoes, cabbages, yellow and white onions, three kinds of lettuce, and a few tomato plants. In the middle of planting I stopped to help our neighbor, Bill, pull a lamb. That made me think — I now have all the ingredients for next winter’s stew.

Tags:
Weeds,
Gardens

Hold my beer and watch this!

The quads are doing great. If you need proof, here are two of them. [Photo by Caroline Freese.] They spend all day jumping off and on the stumps in the grove. The acrobat above acts just like his dad, Little Billy. I’m calling him Bubba. Bubba Goat.

I posted this photo on the Living the Country Life Facebook page. Readers have entered many great captions… My favorite so far is from Jim Moffitt: “Hold my beer and watch this!”