Earendel Fleeces place at the Royal Winter Fair

For those of you who are unfamilar with the
 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair; it has become the world’s largest indoor agricultural and international equestrian competition. and has been running since November 1922,
Quoting from their web site....

"The Royal draws more than 340,000 visitors to Toronto annually to see thousands of unique entries from elite Canadian and International breeders, growers and exhibitors, over 4,500 large and small animals, shows, activities, shopping, dining and – of course – The Royal Horse Show".

This is our first time entering our fleeces at a fair so why not start at the top.

There were dozens of entries from all over Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.

  We are so delighted to annouce that our home bred Earendel Kinwulf's fleece placed 3rd and  his aunt
9 year old Cherrington Sarah placed 5th!

Their fleeces will be auctioned off Sunday Nov 14 at the fair!

Cherrington Sarah( Molly)

 Earendal Kinwulf

Giant puff balls

Every autumn they grow  in the front sheep pasture!
If you harvest them before they turn brown they are rather tasty!

Sunset yesterday

This was the view out the lane way towards the road and  below was the effect the light was having across the trees looking towards the barn.

 and then just a few minutes later....

Cherrington Brandy ( March 29,1997- Sept 1, 2010)

Our grand old lady was euthansied today.
She had developed a lower jaw tumour
She will be sadly missed by all of us here
She is survived  by her three daughters and one son, all of whom are here at the farm.

garden and humming bird

The front garden space is coming along nicely. I wanted to capture at least the essence of a medieval monastic pleasance. The garden borders the front veranda affording a calm place to sit.

The fountain was a wonderful find at a local re-use store

This is a small garden room, one side ( above) sun and the other shade

I prefer to plan gardens in as small rooms ( more manageable that way).



One recent visitor has been a Ruby Throated Humming bird who delights in the bergomot ( Bee Balm)

As with all gardens this is a work in progress and there is still so much still to do... summers are just too short here!

Talking Turkey

Isn't he handsome.... this is Lurch, positively the stupidest thing we have on the farm!

Meet Lurkey ( hiding behind her man!)
Except Lurkey doesn't think much of Lurch either and prefers the company of the chickens


Why is Lurch so dumb?

1. Can't figure out how to go through and open 10 foot wide gate, persists in bashing his head trying to get through the little gap between the post and the hinge.
2. Can't figure out how to get back through the 10 foot open gate.
3. Totally afraid of the Rooster who chases him away from Lurkey
4. Totally afraid of the sheep who chase him.
5. Tries to entice the wild Turkeys into the yard even though they keep beating him up.
6. Don't even ask about why he keeps trying to head bash the electric fence.

And this heritage breed is supposed to have more smarts that your regular white turkey... makes one really wonder.

Happy weekend!

Chaucer

Just so everyone knows Chaucer has been diagnosed with Lymphona.

The prognosis is lousy but sometimes things can go into remission with steroids.... I will try