Annual visit

I really do wish I could make annual visits to the farm. Although this is something that I could not do yearly, I found out just a year ago that we do have annual visitors.

About this same time last year I noticed these white birds flying in and out of the farm, mingling with the grazing sheep. I think they are egrets. I inquired about this from my father and he said they come during the early part of the year and stay for a few weeks. Cool! The farm gets some wildlife visitors annually.

What other wildlife visit the farm?

Years ago I also learned that fruit bats roost under the canopy of the four mature Royal Palms. This may be the reason why we don't see any fruits from these palm trees. There are also undesirable guests like snakes and monitor lizards that make their presence known from time to time.

A house is not a home... an update

There was an old house in the farm that was in a state of deterioration because it has fallen into disuse. That was the subject of an older entry I called "A house is not a home."

To make a bad situation worse, the wicked October storm blew away the roof of this unused house. And so it looks like it is just waiting for the final blow, for the walls to crumble down into a heap of rubble.

The state of the badly damaged house after the passing of a strong storm...

But as part of the farm's rise from a hard fall, along with the other damaged structures, this old house was also refurbished. A new roof and door frames were installed, the surrounding areas were cleared and spruced up, and a cable fence was erected around it. It looks like someone is going to call this a home after all...

...and its spiffier look after some repairs.

Because our flock of sheep were left homeless when their shabby house was demolished by the storm, they have been left to weather the on and off downpour in the open field. Since the evenings have been cold and wet for the past couple of months they needed a warm and dry place to stay in after sundown. A vacant house and some homeless sheep, just the perfect fit.

The sheep leaving their new house in the morning to forage on the fresh grass outdoors.

One particular blogger friend (hello Andrea...) commented on my "Home-made" post that the house for our goats are way better than some of the houses of the rural folks and more so than the slum dwellers in the urban areas. I wonder what she'll say when she reads this post :-)

Even the veterinarian who regularly visits the farm to check on the health of the animals was surprised when she saw the new residents of this old and once empty house.

postscript:
In the rural areas, a typical house is either made of wood, bamboo or hollow (or cinder) blocks. Most hollow/cinder block houses have unplastered walls due to financial constraints.

The parable of the lost sheep

Our cute little newborn sheep that got lost during the strong October storm is now over two months old.

The newborn lamb that got separated from its mother during the storm.

Because he was rejected by his mom, in fragile state, and required constant bottle-feeding, he had to be kept near our house so he could be closely monitored.

The young lamb with other lambs in the pen.

Now he's grown older and no longer require extra attention. He's with his own kind now and is doing well. He's starting to eat what the other sheep eat, but is still bottle-fed from time to time for extra supplement.

While his human 'parents' are inside the pen he would follow them until they leave the enclosure.

What's so endearing about this little guy is that he's bonded well with his foster parents. Whenever any of them goes into the sheep's pen, he immediately leaves the flock, comes running to greet them and follows them around, not leaving their side until they leave the pen.

Might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb

December is going to be another quiet month in our farm and garden while the people in charge are busy picking up the bits and pieces to restore it as close as possible to its pre-storm state. This would also mean that there would be not much to write about either. Right!

I guess I spoke too soon.

I received an early Christmas present in the form of a text message from back home. A great news!

Photo from Wikipedia. The St.Croix sheep.

Brief flashback: Several months ago our farm applied for another shot at the government's starter sheep dispersal program. They are giving out a limited set of five ewes and one ram of the St. Croix breed to every qualified applicant. This new batch of sheep were all imported from the U.S.A. After the required inspection, our farm was again selected to receive this grant. But we had to wait for several more months until the the sheep arrive from the U.S.

Fast forward to today: The good news I received from my mother says that the sheep are now in the regional breeding station and are getting acclimatized to our local climate. The target release date is early 2011. We were advised to prepare our farm and the payment for insurance.

Insurance? Well, this is another requirement before we can take the animals out of the breeding station. Just like the case with our previous livestock grants, we need to have them insured just in case something goes wrong. But unlike before where the insurance was relatively cheap because the animals were already bred locally, this time it will cost us a hefty sum since they are coming from another country. I guess its time to tighten my belt even more, which unfortunately is already very tight. Ouch!

And why is it a great news? Considering that the amount required to insure all six sheep costs almost the same as buying a single pure-bred mature St. Croix from a local breeder, then that's quite a bargain. Still, the initial cash I have to come up with for the six sheep would be around PH₱54,000.00 (± US$1,260.00). Some may say that that is cheap, but to an ordinary folk (like me) that is a LOT of money. And it must be paid in full, not installment.

So why is it a great news again? Because not everyone who applies for the grant gets approved. In fact, because of the limited number of livestock the government can give out, very very few applicants are chosen. It would be unwise not to accept a rare privilege such as this.

So while my belt is already too tight due to the recent setbacks (read this and that), I have to tighten it more by one notch. Financially I'm already hurting, so I might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb.

It never rains but it pours

It's been a month since my last blog entry. There was not much to report for November since the farm and garden is still staggering from the lingering effects of a couple of wicked weather disturbances that visited our area.

After a devastating storm last October, a week-long and non-stop heavy rain poured down during the first few days of November.

The constant rain was not the result of any storm. It was simply due to a weather phenomenon called Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). It is not an unusual weather occurrence, what's unusual was the amount of rain it brought down this time. It flooded much of the low-lying areas of the northeastern part of the country.

The water in the picture is not a river but a flood submerging large swath of farmlands. This was the view from our farm of the town down below.

The rivers swelled and overflowed their banks due to excessive amount of water coming down from the surrounding mountains. As a result, it drowned farmlands and other low-lying areas. Our farm and garden sits on an elevated section of a valley so we were not directly affected by the huge flood even though we have a major river as a next door neighbor.

Indirectly, the flood affected us too. The carpenters we hired to build a new shelter for the sheep were unable to come because their homes were submerged by the flood and so had to attend to their own needs first. As a result our poor sheep were exposed to the elements the whole time the sky was weeping and wailing.

The young Boer/Kalahari Red buck hybrid (right) bought 4 months ago died of pneumonia along with seven other goats.

The sheep, however, are resilient creatures. They were able to survive nature's direct assault. I wish I could say the same for our goats. Eight goats including the young male Boer I asked my parents to buy died of pneumonia. The continuous wet weather, high temperature, high humidity and cramped living conditions may have contributed to their untimely demise.

It is now early December but the strong rain still keeps coming and going, a very sharp contrast from just a year ago.

The farm is still healing from the deep wounds inflicted by the October cyclone. With so many things to do and so few workers (no budget to hire more), the farm is just barely crawling towards normalcy. It's been over a month now since the storm and yet there is still no electricity. They're relying on a 4 Hp. generator which we had to buy because of this long and continuous power outage. It is only used a few hours in the evening and switched off before bedtime to conserve on fuel.

On the brighter side, Mom said it's like spring in the farm, the surviving leafless trees are sprouting new leaves.

Out of difficulties grow miracles

"Out of difficulties grow miracles."
- Jean de la Bruyere (French essayist and moralist, 1645-1696)

A few hours before typhoon Juan dumped all its fury, one of our pregnant sheep gave birth to a cute little lamb. During the wrath of the storm, the shelter for the sheep collapsed. Probably sensing the impending disaster, the sheep abandoned their shelter so when it came tumbling down no one was hurt. And so we thought.

The newborn lamb that got separated from its mother during the storm.

After the deluge has passed, all sheep were accounted for except for the newborn lamb. They thought it might have been carried away by the fierce wind and was counted as one more casualty.

Three days after, as they were sifting through the debris they found the little lamb crouched under a pile of wood covered in mud, silent but alive. Separated from its mother for several days, it was visibly weak from lack of nourishment. Quickly they took the young animal and cleaned it to get rid of the thick and heavy mud.

The collapsed shelter for our small herd of sheep.

They tried to reunite the young sheep with its mother but the natural bond between the ewe and her lamb has been severed. The mother no longer recognizes her own young and refused to suckle her baby. Now the lamb has a new family. Its human foster family take turns in bottle-feeding her.

Miracles do come out of difficulties. And sometimes they come in little packages too.

The hills are alive...

... with the sound of bleating...

Surely Maria Von Trapp wouldn't mind if I've made a little tweaking on the lyrics of her iconic song to something that suits my topic for today.

As I have mentioned before, my purpose for this blog is to chronicle the transformation of our sleepy farm into an integrated farm and tropical garden retreat. Part of this plan is to put a garden and landscape the area where it is either barren or overgrown with weeds and wild vegetation and blend it with the animals which also call this place their 'home'.

A few of the plants planted on top of a mound overlooking the sheep pen below.

One such area is the current grazing ground for our small herd of sheep. A sizable portion of the farm has been allotted for them so they can freely roam, play and seek their own sustenance. Watching them loiter in their own pen somehow elicits a sense of calm and relaxation. After all, these are peaceful and docile creatures.

Plants were positioned near the fence which will eventually hide the wire fence from clear view.

To embellish their stark surroundings, we have made the the initial step of landscaping their perimeter with tropical plants. As they grow thick and tall, this should help camouflage the wire fence and fence posts that surround the sheep. More plants and accent details like rocks, arbors, and water features will be added in stages as resource permits.

We all know that weeds and wild grasses are hard to get rid of. The best way to control their growth without using herbicides is to deprive them of sunlight. Hopefully when these garden plants grow bigger and fuller, the shade they produce will help stunt the growth of these unwanted plants below them.

A young Traveler's Palm and Crotons are competing with the wild grass for space.

Time and nature also need to lend a helping hand to allow these plants to mature and make them look like they have been growing there naturally. What I hope to achieve is to create a harmonious balance between plants and animals, at the same time create a strong contrast between a heavily vegetated area and a field that is in a constantly mowed down state.

The hills are indeed alive with the sound the sheep make and are getting livelier still with the addition of more beautiful plants.

Demo farm

Last Friday, a caravan of three vans full of people from a neighboring province came to visit the farm. Those in the farm were not surprised by the sudden deluge of visitors since they have been informed weeks in advance about this "invasion".

It turns out our guests were new recipients of the government's sheep module program. And they have been advised by the local office of the Department of Agriculture to visit our farm. They wanted to observe how our farm raises the sheep we received years ago from the government's livestock program. Dad escorted them during their entire visit to answer their inquiries.

Because of our success, ours has become an unofficial demo farm. In a way, this trip was to inspire the new recipients to strive in their new endeavor knowing that success is possible.

It's payback time

This post is way, way overdue. Its been waiting for me to hit the 'Publish post' button for weeks. Finally I did...

Last February, a representative from the Department of Agriculture (DA) called to inform that someone will be coming over to the farm to collect two young female sheep. This is not a surprise since it was part of the deal the farm agreed to when they signed up for the government's livestock program.

True enough, a few days later, two vets from the Agriculture department came to get the two sheep. This serves as partial payment for their sheep-raising starter program. And this is also when the vets confirmed that the female goat we bought is not Anglo-Nubian but rather a Boer goat.

The foraging grounds (which takes up over half of the farm and the site of the 'future' garden) for the goats and sheep have been drastically cut in size. They still have a significant size of grounds to feed on, except that now the sheep and the goats no longer share the same space.

This redistricting is the result of the construction of the dirt road, which is the first stage in the planned gradual conversion of the animals' foraging area into a lush garden space.