may the grazing begin!

The weekend was all-in-all relaxing, and full of exciting projects!

Like collecting dandelion petals for my winemaking & visiting the brew shop for some

 champagne yeast!  This week I will hopefully start making it.  Until then, the petals (separated from the green parts) hang out in the freezer.

I managed to get laundry done in Red Hook.  

Severine's rabbits look happy & healthy, and are excited to get handfuls of grass, clover, & day-old bread & bagels that I picked up in Red Hook too.  Happy bunnies with bagels!

And for the much-awaited guests of the farm: my Tunis sheep are finally here!  

I went out to Red Hook again to meet up with the sheep farmer & watch her trim

 their hooves before we loaded them up into her truck (two people clasp hands under their bellies & lift up) and drove back here.  Then we put them out into their first paddock.  We kept their halters on, so I could easily lead them to the barn after a few hours.  

They were so preoccupied with frantically munching grass they didn't seem to notice that the electric fence wasn't on.  It's really a visual barrier, a perceived enclosure.  But I probably will turn it on tomorrow.  

They have just been shorn, and won't need to be sheared at all the rest of the summer, says the owner.  We signed a contract that says they are on loan for the purpose of summer grazing.  I will return them by November 1st, the end of my internship here.  I will call her with any questions at all.  She cares a lot about these animals... and I think they will be really happy here.  
This one with the purple halter is the Gramma, she's 9 years old, and just had a set of twins.  The others are 2 years old.  One was used as a show animal for a while.  They are all very friendly & tame.  They have such great curious personalities and don't scare like other breeds of sheep do.  I used some organic sheep-grain (corn, oats, & soybeans) to lead them out of the field & into the barn for the night.  I filled buckets with salt, minerals, & water & put them in the corners.  They stood in the middle of the room & sniffed around... I hung out with them a little bit.  They came over to me looking for more grain, and I scratched one on the neck, talking gently to her.  I think I've already fallen in love!  It is hard to leave them in there & not check on them every 20 minutes!The rest of the week I will only take them out to pasture for a few hours each evening to graze, while their stomachs get used to eating such lush grass.  In the meantime, they'll spend a lot of time in the barn, eating a little hay.  After then I'll transition them to full days outside.  I think they'll be great lawn mowers.  Friendly lawn mowers, to say the least.