Happy New Year

Tilly - "All together now... Happy New Year!"

Happy Mother's Day!

 

Shearing Day

Saturday dawned with sleet, hail and strong winds... not the best way to begin shearing day.  Joe and Melvin made short work of our 37 ewes as we ooohed and aaawed over each beautiful fleece as it came off and was bagged.  We vaccinated with CDT, checked FAMACHA scores and checked body condition.  By the time we moved the ewes back out to pasture, the skies were blue and the sun was shining.  What perfect timing!
Lambing will begin in the next couple weeks.  And of course we can't wait to get our hands on all those gorgeous fleeces!

12 Sheepy Moments of 2014

Happy Thanksgiving!

Messenger
by Mary Oliver
My work is loving the world.

Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird—

          equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?

Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
          keep my mind on what matters,

which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
          astonished.

The phoebe, the delphinium.

The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.

Which is mostly rejoicing, since all the ingredients are here,



which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart

          and these body-clothes,

a mouth with which to give shouts of joy

          to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,

telling them all, over and over, how it is

          that we live forever.

Late Summer

It's been a busy few weeks, as summer winds down and we work hard to make the most of the pasture grass.  The guard dogs and the bachelors are settled in nicely in the back pasture.

After moving and rebuilding temporary fence, the ewes are happily established in the hayfield during the day, moving into the adjoining paddock with strong perimeter fencing during the night.

Which brings us to the lambs... well the lambs are living the high life in paddock #2 of the graveyard field.  So far they are growing out nicely, and producing beautiful fleeces that are ooohed and aaahed over when they come in for scoring and testing.  They are a lovely flock.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.

Happy Birthday to our girl, Maddie!

Moving Day

Busy weekend with lamb vaccinations, FAMACHA checking of the ewes, moving to a new paddock.  In the end we were all seeking shade.

Winding Down

Lambing is winding down, with Dolly hanging in there and Charity who was marked very late still to go. The pasture is filled with the wonderful sounds of lambs calling and mamas answering.  The grass finally got tall enough last week that we were able to open the bottom of the barn paddock up to the ewes and lambs.  We're hoping to keep them in this area at least until we can get through the first round of shots.
If you have a craving for more lamb pictures, take a peek over here.

Scenes From the Pasture

Birthing

Lambing is moving along at a nice pace.  The barn and pasture are busy and full of new life.  It's always so interesting to observe the different way each ewe experiences labor and birth. There is Jill who attacks the whole process with much the same energy that she attacks daily life.  She will have given birth within a couple hours of showing any outward signs of labor. Then there is Julie who has a much more zen-like approach to birth, slowly stretching and pushing a little off and on for eight to ten hours.  Every birth different... each new life, a new little personality.
Please check out our Lambs of 2014 album on Flickr for more lamb photos.

More

What a winter it has been.  Much like everywhere else we've had more snow, more wind, more sub-zero temperatures.  The girls... well they pretty much take everything in stride... as long as the hay arrives in a timely manner.  And the snow, well it does make for pretty picture taking.

Scenes From the Pasture

Sub-zero temperatures, mounting snow pack and strong winds have all made winter chores much more difficult.
We've tried to take a few moments here and there and capture the beauty of these days of 'snow globe weather'.
Here are just a few scenes from the pasture...

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.

Weekly Top Shot

Such a pretty girl... our Althea... always hanging around, looking for that photo op.

joining Madge at The View From Right Here for Weekly Top Shot

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.

Moving Around

A little late this year, but we finally moved the ewes to the hayfield pasture on Saturday.  Mid-summer was rainy so hay was made later this year.  Then it seemed to take the grass a little longer than usual to re-grow to pasture length.  The move went quite smoothly, and even Luke and Willet cooperated.  The ewes are very happy in their new pasture, and will remain there (with some paddock moving) until breeding preparations begin.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.

Moving Around

After a cool and foggy beginning, yesterday afternoon was sunny with a nice breeze most of the time.  A nice change from the oppressing humidity of the days before.  We had hoped to move the ewes into the hayfield, but it is still not quite ready.  So we moved them onto fresh grass in an adjoining paddock. 
We cooked up a jewel weed dye pot for the first time over the weekend.  We're hoping for a nice peachy orange like Elizabeth Murphy (@sittingtree) shared on twitter a few weeks ago.  We boil jewel weed quite often to relieve the itch and heal poison ivy, insect bites, etc. but this is the first time we are trying to dye with it.  Hopefully it turns out pretty, as there is plenty of it around.. a benefit of not having had time to weed.  We also had another big harvest of hibiscus flowers that are finishing up in a dye pot this a.m.  Hope to share some photos of the natural dyeing in a few days.