Marcel The Happy has been allowed to go and live in the barn. Sweet as it is to have him pooping all over the furniture I have been waiting for a row of warmish days to get him acclimatised to living out with the other animals. He is a sheep after all. He is esconsed with great delight in the sunroom with his sunlamp and today he will probably be watching the snow through this window. Yes, it is forecast to snow today. And the shearer called last night and will be here at lunchtime so all the sheep are undercover. The barn is noisy again.
Sheila lived here, in the sunroom, for the deep winter and Daisy’s calf will live here next. Marcel the Happy has offered to warm up a spot for the calf. The straw is deep and warm and nibbleable. Yesterday got up to 50F (10C). the wind dropped and it was glorious yesterday evening. One of those evenings when I really, really did not want to come inside. I wished my kitchen was in the barn. So I could stay with my animals.
Here is a shot of Sheila on her bed. On not In. There is a car in the stall behind her. Don’t even begin to ask me why it is still there but it is useful for you to do the comparison, you can see how long Sheila is and how HIGH her bed is now. She likes the top bunk.
She is sleeping well tonight as the pub scraps bucket had a whole tray of over cooked buns. She almost died of excitement, then was a little shocked when I only let her have half.
Daisy. Pregnant with hope. I felt her calf move again yesterday, the Loch Ness monster of the bovine depths.
Good morning: Nine days to go before calf number one and the commencement of the milking season. Don’t PANIC!!
The skunks were out the night before last. They crept in and visited the chickens then I followed their smelly tracks in the snow through the field and then up to the bee hive. They walked round and round it, looking for a way in. So no dogs out after dark from now on. Especially not TonTon the skunk magnet. The skunks have decided it is spring!
Our featured image today (the one right the way at the top) is Ton on (not in) the hay field. I know it looks like ice, well that is because it is covered in .. um.. ice, but there is a little melt happening (she says hopefully). Not like melted cheese in a pan or anything but a little softening around the edges. I have taken the header off. It made the page look too busy but don’t forget. No outrunning the angels!
Dawn is here I must away and get ready for the shearer.
Your friend on the farmy,
celi.
The Kitchen's Garden 
76 responses to “Marcel the Happy”
Today the new layout worked perfectly! Marcel does look extremely happy, I hope he does lose that adorable face as he gets older. We got more snow yesterday, just a couple of centimetres but enough to be depressing. Spring really can’t come soon enough.
I took out the header and only gave you big images, glad it worked! that is great, though sometimes I will succomb to the call of the gallery.. c
Thanks!
Take a piece of hardware cloth several inches bigger than your hives all the way around and cut it so the pointy wires are all exposed on each edge and stick it under your hive. It’s an easy skunk deterrent. Skunks can be a big problem and the bees are too cold to do anything about it this time of year :-/. The pointy edges will stop them from reaching up and into your hives to eat honey and brood.
Thank you, what an excellent solution, I shall find something pointy and do that today, I have been trying to work out how to deter them!.. c
Is Boo lost without his lamby?
Boo watches him out there, so the lamb is seldom alone.. c
Oh good. I was a bit concerned Marcel would be lonely.
I love Sheila’s tall bed – like the fairytale of the Princess and the Pea. Only I doubt very much that a pea would survive in Sheila’s bed. It would be rootled out and gobbled down. Poor, starved Sheila. Only half a tray of buns….
I know and then she took the leaf of hay (that she always eats for dinner), carrying it in her mouth and added it to her bed! Too full for her greens I suppose..c.
Oh Sheila’s picture made me laugh. She looks like she did a bellyflop/face plant into her bed! Something out of the Far Side.
He’s such a cool little dude, that Marcel. The farm is certainly looking happier with some sunshine. It looks like reasonable weather is on its way to us as well. So good to feel sunshine:)
Marcel is adorable. What a great picture. The skating rink looks a bit dangerous but I hear the thaw is coming……please let it be true!
Shearing? Good grief, it’s freezing out there! Sheep here aren’t relieved of their winter coats until June!
Christine
I know, but this shearer is the ONLY shearer for hundreds of miles and I have a barn so they can stay inside for a wee while, so when he calls I say yes,. c
I was going to say that. It’s not often I question the wisdom of the Garden Angel, but really! Would you like to have a short back and sides this weather? Could you learn to shear them yourself? My Sally helps do it for the Flexigraze sheep in Northumberland.
What a beautiful post C and how lovely to see our darling Marcel where he should be. Give him one more kiss on the head from me for being such a good little lamb.
No panicking here – just long slow deep calming breaths.
Have a happy farmy day C.
🙂 Mandy xo
Morning Mandy, al kisses foindly delivered.. c
Yay. Thanks C. xo
Noooo not the shearers … there is still snow and ice outside. You are going to give Sheila the other half tray today right? Poor Mama, hope you have an alternative coat at the ready for her. 🙂 Laura
She will be inside in the straw, nice and warm, until friday when it really will warm up some more..and very shortly (in a matter of weeks I hope) it will be hot, it is like when a waitress walks past your table, order the drink now, if you say no thank you she will not be back for ages!! c
Dear Celia, I thought you would like to see this video because it’s a woman who not only accurately talks with animals but also tells us how we can all do it. I do this myself and know it’s something possible and wonderful. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiJOXKsOrsc
The Garden Lady of Ga.
Diann, thank you, I shall go and check it out.. c
How happy is Boo with the lambs move to the barn?
Boo just lays in the barn with him.. and his Waiting Station command is right next to the lambs house so he is there most of the day.. c
I thought Ton was standing in the middle of the sea!! Beautiful picture though. And our little Marcel, can’t get over the way he grins all the time, such a happy chappy! Snow melted some yesterday, which meant my kitchen floor was covered in muddy towels once more! Shelly isn’t so bad, but Sam comes in covered in ‘frozen’ mud come evening and as I don’t have any hoses attached yet (they would just freeze) I have to stand him in the middle of the kitchen and give him a sponge bath before he is allowed in the rest of the cottage. Of course i never get it all off, so still have floors to wash almost every day! I have seeds starting to show in the green house! Cabbage, Kale, Broccoli and Lettuce. They have little domes of plastic over them at the moment helping them to keep warm. I just hope the weather warms up before they get too big for the domes!
Hugs, Lyn
50˚!!! We never reached 30˚ and now it’s snowing. We’ve gotten about 3 inches. It’s supposed to keep going until early afternoon. I’ll be out with the blower after I finish the coffee or the Old Timers will be out there shoveling. I’m so looking forward to finishing my coffee in the back yard and not as a precursor to starting the snow blower.
It was the strangest thing, the temp went from 38 to 50 in an hour and the moment the sun began to drop, back down to 30 we went, it was a delightful tiny bubble of warm. Friday should warm up they say.. heres hoping.. c
oh! coffee in the backyard.. yes!
I can’t believe you reached 50F! That is spring coat weather for sure! It was freezing again yesterday and snowing now. Fortunately the snow means I get to stay home to work. That, I don’t mind one bit. I just love Marcel the Happy. His little face makes me so happy! I can’t believe Daisy is almost due. I’ll be thinking of you.
It was weird that is for sure.. probably partly sun on the gauge too! I had the doors open though. we have only had a tiny bot of that snow, looks like you are getting it all up there.. c