A room for The Princess

Princess Girl's bedroom is finally ready!

We won't move over to the addition until all the bedrooms are in place, which should be some time next week: we have a bit more finishing work in Dinosaur Boy's room, and then flooring and trim in ours, and that'll be enough to allow everyone a place to sleep out of the dust and construction. The rest of the main floor will take a bit more time to complete, but it is sooooooo nice to finally see real progress!

Features of this amazing 'castle themed room' include the following:
- the bed is a real antique, it belonged to my great-grandmother (and is a size that is no longer standard, so it has a custom made foam mattress on it)
- the bunny on the bed belonged to Gram (my mom) and she gave it to Princess Girl at Christmas this year
- the ivory bedding was on this bed when it lived in Gram and Grandpa's guest bedroom last year
- and the oil painting of the ballerina girl is from my Grandma and Apple Jack's house (it hung in the bedroom I always slept in when I went to their house to visit)
- the curtains are a very bright red-pink crystal organza, from Ikea, and the curtain rod hangers are hand made by The Reluctant Farmer himself

Additional touches yet to come include the requisite wall shelves, of course, and several pictures of castles, many to be supplied by Auntie Ausra and Uncle Nato who have been to a few neat places in their time in Europe, and take wonderful photographs.

Have a look!

Hmm ... do you think maybe Natalie is pregnant?

or do you think she just needs a sign that says "Wide Load"?

Introducing ... Dingledork!

I promised pictures... here is one taken just after she was born.

District Public Speaking

The Boy, having won at the club level, was advanced to the District competitions in public speaking for 4-H.

We went today to the competition, and he did an absolutely fabulous job. His impromptu speech must be between 1 and 2 minutes: the biggest challenge is usually in filling that first minute, but he did exactly one and a half minutes on the topic of "my favourite animal" ... which was his dogs! Duggan, the beagle, featured prominently in the speech, as did Bob and McKenzie in their jobs as guardians.

He did not place first or second (the only two ranked positions), but he certainly did a good job and stated after he finished his speeches that he was proud of himself - as he should be.

Very few people really enjoy public speaking, and for him to be comfortable and competent in such a difficult task is something to be proud of, for sure!

Painting

We've been working steadily on the addition ... this weekend, we were painting!

And, a third lamb!

Bear, one of the new Hampshires, was looking rather out of sorts today. The Reluctant Farmer noticed that nothing seemed to make her happy: she pawed at the ground, sat down, and then got up and repeated the procedure a few feet away. She rammed other ewes who got in her way, and kept trying to get comfortable and didn't seem to be succeeding.

The Boy and I were away from the farm at the District Public Speaking competition, so we missed all this entertainment. The Reluctant Farmer was busy installing flooring, so he kept an eye on the happenings outside, figuring a lamb must be on the way (I believe his words were more along the lines of "I know a grumpy pregnant female that's about to have a baby when I see one"). Well, he was right: in the ten minutes between one glance out the window and the next, the lamb arrived! This is a bit of a surprise, as usually the process takes some time and there are clear signs that the whole thing is underway.

Being the good Farmer that he is, the Reluctant Farmer moved the mama sheep and her new lamb into the isolation pen. We were actually on our way home, so we were able to get outside and help The Boy do all those lambing tasks that are so important: making sure the lamb is fully dry, dipping the umbilical cord in iodine to prevent infection, tagging the ear so we know who she is and who she belongs to, and docking the tail so that the grown sheep won't be afflicted with fly strike in the heat of summmer.

So, we now have yet another ewe lamb - or, more precisely, The Boy has a new baby ewe lamb in his flock. The mama sheep, Bear, is officially part of his 4-H flock, and so this lamb will be his prospect ewe for the project year.

How to get a mama sheep to follow you

To get a mama sheep to follow you, you pick up her baby and carry it, low to the ground, where the mama can see it.

You have to remember that "low to the ground" part. If you pick up the baby and hold it up too high, the mama can't find it: baby lambs are short and mama sheep know this, so they won't bother looking for their baby three feet up off the ground. She'll lose track of the baby and wander back to where she last saw it ... and then you get to try again.

I figure by now you can guess out how I know this. :)

Here are some pictures of me getting Jaws and the newly arrived Dingledork across the pasture and into the isolation pen: