Happy New Year

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

Happy Mother's Day!

 

Six Months

Hard to believe... the boys are six-months-old!  They are doing great and are right now on their own with the bred ewes.  They do still have their... ummmm... teachable moments but all in all they have wonderful natural abilities and are just amazing.

Asher - ready to take off down the hill

Birka - guarding Hera

Red - watching the chickens

Happy Lunar New Year!

Of course around here, it is always the Year of the Sheep!

Happy New Year!

"And now let us welcome the new year, full of things that have never been." ~ Rainer Maria Rilke 

What better way to start the new year, than with a peek in at what the pups have been up to?  The boys have been making forays into the pasture sometime in the company of the shepherdess/s but most of the time they have been helping their mama out.  Bella is a tough instructor and keeps them pretty much in line. She is still quite affectionate, but doesn't take any nonsense.  Right now the pups are spending part of the day in the pasture and part of it in the barn next to a group of ram lambs. Although they are very busy learning their craft, Bella still finds time to work a little play in to the day.  She is doing such a great job being a mama.

Shearing

Saturday was shearing day, and we have been blessed with a beautiful crop of fleeces.  With the fleece off it will be easier to keep an eye on the lambs' conditions in between our scheduled scoring days.  Saturday was chilly, damp and foggy, but the sun came out for just a little bit on Sunday.  Despite all the rain, the leaves have hung in there and fall has been just beautiful.

{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.

{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 Day

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

{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.

{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.

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.

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing you all the happiest of Mother's Days...
a day full of tender moments, love and care.

{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.

 

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.

Lambing Time

Lambing has begun in earnest, with the first little group let out into the pasture yesterday afternoon. Temporary fence building to divide the pasture, moving troughs, setting up mineral stations, mucking out the lambing jugs, rebuilding jugs to get ready for this bigger group of mamas who are ready to pop... it was a full day.  In the midst of everything two sets of twins were born.  It's busy but we're happy things are underway. It's worth every exhausting minute to have the opportunity to see moments like this... when Little Miss 1402 discovers the big, beautiful world.
More lamb photos here.

One of These Things

We've been playing a lot of "One of These Things Is Not Like the Other" for the last week or so.  With the heavy snowfalls and the apparently inherent 'es-capability' of hoggets, there has been an on-going game of musical pastures.  Each morning at feeding time everyone is moved back to their appointed pasture, and the next morning everyone is back in the barn paddock.  This wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing except for the varying nutritional needs of the different groups.  We didn't really have the time or energy to discover and repair the escape routes before the next round of snow began.  So for now... musical pastures it is :)

{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.

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...