Happy Mother's Day!

 

12 Sheepy Moments of 2014

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.

Sunday Smile

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.

{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.

{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.

{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.

Weekly Top Shot

The lambs' wool is growing beautifully!  It will be shearing time before we know it.  Just look at the lovely ringlets on this guy!
joining The View From Right Here for Weekly Top Shot

Mark the Calendar

Well, Saturday is definitely a date to mark on the calendar.  When we went to bring the lambs in to the barn for FAMACHA scoring, there were the big boys, Poseidon and Aragorn in the wrong paddock.  Fingers crossed that there was not too much of a party going on.  Bad boys.

Good Morning, Lambs

{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.

C'mon Lambs

The lambs are settling in quite nicely... coming in for head counts in the morning and evening.  They are scattering while grazing, a sure sign that they are growing more confident now that they are on their own.  Saturday they will come back to the barn for a bi-weekly health check.  We are excited to see how they are progressing.

Weaning Day

Saturday was weaning day.  We set up moving lanes on Friday, and moved everyone, including the yearling ewes and wethers, into the corral overnight.  Bright and early the next morning, we got to work.  All the sheep were scored with the FAMACHA card and treated.  The adults went out the side door and back the moving lane into fresh pasture behind the house.  Liam and Strider have such pleasant personalities that we left them in with the ewes for the next couple weeks.  The lambs went out through the corral and out a moving lane into the graveyard field where hay had been made a couple weeks ago. 
After a late lunch and a brief rest, we headed back to the barn to finish taking down the temporary fencing for the moving lanes.  A rapid change of plans had to be made as the lambs had torn down a corner of their fencing and had moved into the pen with Poseidon and Aragorn, our two biggest rams.  There they were bunched up in the corner closest to the barn bawling for their mamas.  We set to work repairing and moving fencing, and, of course, by the time we were done they had scattered and were happily munching poison ivy leaves off the locust tree trunks.  Finally after much coaxing and gentle herding (all the while trying very hard not to attract the attention of the rams) we got (what we thought) was everybody moved back.  On the walk back to the barn we heard a lamb echoing down over the hill.  Of course it turned out not to be an echo, but 6 or 7 lambs down below the rams.  Luckily they had meandered back up to the top closer to the other lambs and we were able to coax them over the next morning.
The ewes spent that evening and the next day wandering from one end of their paddock to the other looking for their lambs, calling them all the while.  That always pulls at our heartstrings.  Everybody has now settled in nicely and things are much calmer... and much quieter.

And the Winner Is...

And the winner is.... Boo's Mom!
Thank you all for your comments! 
(Sorry it took so long to make the announcement; experiencing a few technical difficulties.)



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