Those are some handsome sheep. My first ram was a Gulf Coast Native - he put a lot of speckling into my flock. Yours appear MUCH better quality than mine! Now I've crossed my original Gulf Coast with Katahdin to try to get away from shearing. They are doing OK, despite hot humid summers, and ideal breeding grounds for all kinds of worms and liver fluke. My oldest ewe is ten, and still doing great, so I must be doing something right, despite all the obstacles. It's good to see a healthy flock in Florida. Do you shear yourself, or are you close enough to U of F to get someone from there to shear?

"Bp, when you're out there spreading huge bags of coffee grounds all over the lawn, do you notice that the neighbors start calling in their children and pulling the shades?" One neighbor came over and asked what I was spreading and when I told him, he said something like that was what he thought, but didn't believe it until he asked. Then he told me about some fertilizer he uses that makes it grow so fast in the summer that he can hardly keep up with mowing and watering. I didn't bother pointing out that I thought that was counterproductive. Another neighbor said he might try it after I told him they give the grounds free even if you don't buy coffee. But so far, I haven't seen him actually do it. Many of my neighbors think I'm nuts anyway, since I compost, I don't bag my clippings, I mow my leaves into the lawn and I didn't get the unmetered water. My water bills are already lower than they would be with the unmetered water, and I don't have nearly as many problems with weeds as I'd have with that water (it's not filtered very well and is full of weed seeds). I was walking around this morning and it looks like I'm finally getting sheep fescue and/or red fescue germination. Still not a lot, but at least some of it is germinating.

Nice! I'm looking forward to spring as well. Here's my back yard. This is last fall after I finished planting the back of the yard. It's on the edge of the property looking toward the house. In the foreground are two nannyberry shrubs (a viburnum related to cranberry) and then an area where I've planted a prairie garden and covered it with compost. You can see where I've left space for a path to walk through, and I plan to put a bench there. Back towards the house there is where the garden starts, and I had started planting there last year. It's nice in the summer sitting out on the patio, where I can watch the bird feeders and enjoy being surrounded by native plants. The area where I'm standing, with the nannyberry and the small post right beyond it, used to be completely infested with buckthorn and many invasive weeds. It took me 2 years to clear it all out. Now that the area is opened up a bit, I'm hoping that I'll have bluebirds nesting again (saw many here during fall migration.) I left this post standing as a spot for the bluebirds to perch, and to hang a nice sign. The post used to be completely obscured by buckthorn.

Aputernut what are the origins of your kings? They are magnificent!! DH and I took a trip to Bronner's this fall. #1 on my bucket list was a visit!! I am sooo embarrassed and feel so STUPID. I was not interested in the video of the history as I knew it and saw much on Youtube, so avoided the "Program room". I did peak in at one point and it was dark as a show was going on...The next day, an hour outside of Frankenmuth I began reading their literature. To my GREAT frustration I discovered in that dark room are cases of 150+ nativities from 50+ different countries!! I have been begging and the Bronner's Facebook page has begun posting pictures of some of them. Unfortunately they do not post as many Creche sets as they do ornaments. But they are not for sale--they are a private collection so I get it. ANYWAY I added a camel and cow to my outdoor set..and I am scouring ebay for a few more shepherds..there are some older characters out there I would love to get my hands on!! We also went to one large spot light. DH is very into cutting our wattage use DOWN. I have a star hanging on the back of the light pole, and we have enough snow to cover the blue extension cord so it is all very nice IMHO