Moving Yearling Lambs

We spend a lot of time moving our sheep around. During the grazing season (April to November) we have different flocks of sheep on different pastures. During breeding season (August to January), we keep certain rams with certain sheep so that we can control the genetics of the babies. All this moving around and sorting of sheep takes up a heck of a lot of time. Some days, things go really smooth and some days we run into disaster after disaster.

This year, we have wintered most of the lambs who were born last year at our farmhouse. These are the sheep in the snowstorm shown on my current banner above. They had no cover and it was not a problem. Everyone seemed healthy and happy and well fed. That is until last weekend when we had buckets and buckets of rain. It torrented. I kept waking up, hearing the rain beat sideways against the bedroom windows. It just kept pounding down, keeping me awake. I knew that in the morning it was going to be a muddy, messy, icy quagmire. That kind of weather is also what we refer to around here as "lamb killing weather." The ewes lamb outdoors and the newborns just can't get dry. They get hypothermic and perish. It isn't pleasant. That's really why I couldn't sleep. I was worrying.

On Tuesday, once it had dried out a teensy bit, we decided to move all the yearlings from our farmhouse pasture to the winter quarters. The rain had washed away some of the snow making this possible. Before this, we couldn't get the truck in.... too much ice and too deep a snow pack. Our friend Terri who has been helping out this lambing season had a few free hours so we enlisted her. Having another hand is so helpful!

Terri met me at our house, we mixed up the milk for the bottle lambs and then we headed to the barn. As we drove down, around, and up one of the many hills here in town, we were greeted by a mesmerizing sight.... a little bit of the forest completely covered with ice.

Every branch was covered with a thick layer of ice and they were shimmering like prisms.

 

I felt like I was traveling through the land of Dr. Zhivago. This is definitely one of the perks of living where we do and not going to a real office every day. I get to enjoy the incredibly beautiful sights that I would miss if I were rushing off to work, late as usual.

Back to the sheep.... After we finished barn chores, we headed back to the farmhouse to attempt our big job of the day. We knew it could take most of the day to move them. We use a landscape trailer and the biggest challenge is to get the sheep to walk on the trailer. A little grain helps, especially if you have a curious sheep or two who wants a snack. After the first load we knew that the job would take us a week. The sheep didn't want to climb on the trailer. 

Our sheep handling thingie was frozen under a lot of ice. The Farmer poured a bunch of salt on the panels hoping it would melt a bit in an hour. It did. Terri and I watched as he chipped away the ice. He can be really strong when he needs to be. I would have just given up and cried but he wailed away at that ice and the "thingie" came free. We corralled the yearlings into an area with the help of Nessie and the "thingie." Things were looking up. Maybe we could complete the job in one day? With the corral in place, we were able to force the sheep onto the trailer. The bucket of sweet grain helps. There's always a "pig" or two who will lead the pack.

Terri helped us with one load and then she had to go home to bed (she is an nurse who works the night shift!). The two of us continued for the rest of the day loading and moving sheep.

It wasn't a delicate sight. The trailer bumped around, up and out of the pasture. Do you see the gates? The snow and ice pushed them off the hinges. Something else to fix before the sheep come back to this pasture.

Off they went..... The beautiful blue sky made the whole job a lot easier. Another chore done.

Later in the day, it clouded over. The ice was still covering the trees and it was mighty magical. 

Winter is still here and we are expecting some really nasty weather tonight and tomorrow. At least we have all the yearlings where they can lamb under cover if they have the sense. But these sheep have been outdoors for most of their lives and they really prefer being outdoors. Fingers crossed.

 

We feel great to have that job over with. Now we're hoping for lots of healthy little lambs from these young ladies.

Sheep Photos from Times Square via One of You!

Isn't this fun? Lynn, a blog reader from NYC sent me some great photos of the sheep in Times Square. The sheep almost look like they are dyed pink from the glow from all the lights in the city. 

Sadly, the sheep have left. It sounds like they were a huge hit. I wonder how they made it through the weather. Not sure if there were torrential rainstorms in NYC but up here, a paper sheep would have disintegrated and floated down our hill only to become a pile of pulp and a frame. Maybe they were covered at night?

Here's what Lynn wrote me....."Hard to take self portraits in the dark with a cell phone and still capture the sheep. Stopped by after a weekly meet up with the Spin City group (spinning folk of all skill levels, mostly on spindles since we're getting there by subway, plus some knitters and crocheters), this evening - thanks for telling us about it!  Kind of funny that I had to read about it on your blog... Realized that you wanted pix with a person, but unfortunately I couldn't take a self portrait and knit at the same time, and wasn't in the mood to ask a passing tourist for help with a snap."

Here is a link to Lynn's Flickr account. She is knows as mknits on Ravelry. 

Thanks so much Lynn! You are a sport! Awesome job.

You can read Kyu Seok Oh's Artist Statement here. Check out his website for more examples of his work. Wish more people in the fiber/knitting community had gotten on board with this one!

Scenes from our Barnyard and Blogging Thoughts

To say that this winter has been amazing would be an understatement. There is still 3 feet of snow on the ground. Most of our farm equipment is buried beneath snow. 

 

We've had 3 appointments at the processor for lamb that we have had to cancel because we couldn't get the trailer out from under the snow. Finally, last week we borrowed a neighbor's trailer so we would be ready for any calls we get for Easter lamb. Catching and loading sheep in the snow and ice is no fun, let's just say that. 

Recently there was a study done in the UK about sheep intelligence. I thank the readers who pointed me in the direction of the study. You can read a brief summation here. I really wasn't surprised by the researcher's findings. Our sheep are intelligent. They remember where to turn on the road when we move them back to their winter quarters. They remember where the salt is over a year after they have been at a location. And in the winter, the little lambs know how to keep dry. They climb up on their mamas backs and sun themselves.

Or just take a nap.

We're still having newborn lambs but the pace has slowed down. I'm glad for that because it has been pretty impossible to do anything but farm. 

Feeding hay, watering, feeding eleven bottle lambs, and feeding again. While the mamas are eating, the little lambs run around the barnyard exercising. 

 

The lambs also feel safe resting in the feed bunks when they are empty. They squeeze their little bodies down in and have a nap.

 

I've had so much guilt about not posting photos but there is not a lot of time to spare. I've also been realizing how much time my blog takes up and am looking at ways for it to generate income. I have for years said I wouldn't have any advertising but I'm re-thinking that notion. I would appreciate any comments you might have on that subject. Do you stop reading a blog when they host advertising? For me, between taking photos and writing, each blog post takes a minimum of two hours. That's a lot of time when I consider it over a whole year and the number of posts I prepare. I also know how much it means to many of you from the private e-mails I receive.

I've been subscribing to some great "blogging" blogs and have lots of ideas for possible new products and income ideas. Check this one out if you are interested. I've also come to realize that I really do LIKE to blog and put my thoughts out there. The time frame for blog publishing (IMMEDIATE) vs. the time frame for print publishing (one to two years) really doesn't compare. With the advent of social media (Facebook, Twitter, Ravelry), I thought blogs might disappear. Now I do not think that is the case because it's really hard to give excellent content with 140 characters. What do you think about the subject? If you don't want to leave your thoughts in the comments, don't be shy about sending an e-mail.

Sheep Take on Times Square in NYC

Have you seen this? Love it! It will only be there until March 7th! Photo from this website. The sheep were made of paper by Kyu Seok Oh who lives in Brooklyn. There is a nice slide show here showing how they were constructed. Awesome!

Oh please - some of you NY knitters who read the blog in NYC need to go down there wearing wooly sweaters and take a photo. Please!!! Send me the photo and I'll post everyone I receive here on the blog next week.

Spring Thaw

Beautiful sky the other day as I returned home from chores. My neighbor's wrapped haylage is under mounds of snow.

 

We had a bit of a spring thaw last week. And it was much needed. 

The ewes are lambing every day. Eighteen one day, twenty-two the next, eight the next, and sixteen the next. Our numbering system has gone awry. Every morning when The Farmer arrives at the barn, he counts the new lambs and then tries to determine who the mother is. Sometimes it takes a day of us watching them, looking for clues to who is nursing from which mom. If we are lucky, we can get a number on the lambs denoting which number sheep their mama is. Trouble is, lots of the mother's eartags have fallen off while they have grazed over the last year. The best of plans sometimes go wrong.

The ewes are enjoying the sunshine. They love to eat the snow that falls off the greenhouse barn.

Lots of the lambs are getting older - they are starting to pick at hay and becoming more curious. They sure are cute.

 

 

They love to lie on their mamas back. Who says sheep aren't smart? The mamas are dry and their backs are soft and fluffy.

 

 

Have a great week everyone!

 

Sweetgrass

Via Blue Kitchen Via Food News Journal 

The Addie Connection

My father's brother Uncle Harry married a Norwegian woman from Lake Telemark, NJ named Adelaide before I was born. They lived an interesting life - first in Germany where he worked for the U.S. government in the late 1950's and then as the Press Secretary for a few different congressmen. Later, one of his bosses Barber Conable became President of the World Bank and Uncle Harry traveled the world as his advance man. Uncle Harry, Aunt Addie and my three cousins lived outside Washington, DC for all my life and we would see them a couple times a year when they came to visit Gram. When I was a teenager, they bought a farm in upstate New York not too far from Saratoga where my sisters and I would visit during the summer.

Addie was a beautiful woman with thick, strong hair. She was tall and slender and always looked well put together, almost in a Audrey Hepburn kind of way. Addie was extremely intelligent and probably the first woman I ever knew who was an intellectual. And Addie was a needleworker. At almost every family occasion, she would be knitting. I remember being envious of her kids' beautiful handknit sweaters covered with intricate cables. I loved to watch her knit and she was always encouraging to me, passing on the wise words that "Yes, Kris, you can do this too." I will never forget that. Addie was always extremely kind to me, in her stand-off-ish Norwegian way. When we first began our sheep flock, we named one of our first lambs Adelaide after her. As Addie got older, she developed emphesemia and had to tote around an oxygen tank. She developed a fondness for lavender. She grew it and made woven lavender wands that she carried with her. She said the lavender helped her breathe easier. 

Addie was always interested in history, politics, the arts, and wool and all kinds of textiles. She spent all her summers on their farm in New York - she loved it and the real country life. She loved to "junk" before it was popular and furnished her farmhouse with antiques she bought at local auctions and yard sales. When The Farmer and I got into the sheep business, she was fascinated and once again encouraging. One day I got a call from her, saying she wanted to buy some sheep to help her graze her lawn in NY for the summer. By this time, Addie was using her oxygen tank. The Farmer gave her advice on what kind of sheep to buy and the portable electric fencing she would need. My brother-in-law David, the Dairy Farmer, had a side-line fence business and she struck up a telephone relationship with him. One Saturday she arrived at the farm, oxygen tank in tow, to pick up her fencing. We were up in the woods working and I heard a loud noise. Up the path roared David on his ATV with Aunt Addie and her oxygen tank in tow. I will never forget the site. We all sat around and talked about farming, fencing and sheep. Soon, Addie left the farm with her fence and oxygen tank. She got two sheep that summer and they grazed outside her farmhouse all summer long. I always had the best time in my mind imagining Aunt Addie in her slim pants, beautiful thick gray hair and her oxygen tank moving her fence and sheep around their pastures and lawn. We got letters from her about her sheep that I still have somewhere. 

Addie passed away a few years after her sheep summer. When Uncle Harry was cleaning out her things, he gave me an antique wooden wool winder and some of her lace-making and tatting tools. Every time I stumble upon the tools in my jewelry box, I think of Aunt Addie, the kind words she used to share with me, and her late in life sheep. 

This past fall, The Farmer met another Adelaide at a farmer's market. She grew up in northern Vermont and has lived here in the Valley for over a decade. Her partner Dan and she run a business called Real Pickles in Greenfield. They recently were awarded a national Good Food Award. But Addie is interested in raising sheep. She worked on a sheep ranch in Idaho for a few months. This winter she is helping out with lambing chores and learning along the way. She comes to the barn a couple mornings a week. Last week, I was there too, taking some photos for you. 

Here you can see the greenhouse barn that we use for lambing. It was a beautiful day full of blue sky and cold sunshine. You can see that except for the lambs and ewes in the pens, the sheep are outside. Sheep prefer the outdoors - even in a snowstorm. 

Here's Addie putting an elastic tail band on a day old lamb. 

 

We use a tool called an "elastrator" and thick green rubber bands. Lambs are born with tails that are about eight inches long. In a couple weeks, the bottom part of the tail will fall off. We do this as a precautionary measure. In the summer, if a sheep has diarrhea or the poop doesn't fall away from the sheep, flies will lay their eggs on the sheep's butt. In a day, the eggs will become maggots and they will eat away the sheep's flesh. We really have to watch this in the summer. A sheep can die in a couple days if the maggots happen and they aren't attended to. Not a pleasant sight to say the least.

After the tail is docked, we spray-paint the sheep with its Mama's number. Green numbers mean the lamb is a twin, blue numbers mean the lamb is a single. The paint wears off as the lamb ages and it will wash out of the wool. Addie also puts eartags in the lamb's ears. Each lamb gets the number of its Mama and it helps to keep everything in a bit of order. Addie is really enjoying working with the lambs. Dan, her partner, isn't so sure about the manure on her boots when she comes home.

So here's the funny thing. I got an e-mail the other day from a woman named India who is a faithful blog-reader. Here's what she wrote:

"Hi Kristin- Would you consider mentioning in your blog Warm Hats Not Hot Heads, the knitters' campaign to restore civility in politics? There's a group on Ravelry and we're also on Facebook. The idea is to knit hats--which embody the concept of every stitch working for the common good--for every member of Congress and every Senator, to illustrate our desire for our representatives to put down the poison pens and take up the business of crafting solutions to the various problems and challenges facing our country. This campaign was begun by your fellow knitbloggers Twinsetellen (http://twinset.us/) and SpinDyeKnit (http://spindyeknit.com/). Thank you! India

p.s. Thanks, also, for mentioning Real Pickles a few months ago. My niece, Addie Rose Holland and her partner, Dan Rosenberg, are the people behind the pickles. 

I try to keep the politics out of my blog. It's not something I like to include so I was a little reticent to say yes. But I delved into the website a little more and discovered that this wasn't a political statement as much as a statement that politicians should listen to both sides of the story and perhaps meet in the middle. I promised India I would give the project a shout-out here.

Last night, I listened to the "On-Point Interview" with Tom Ashcroft about knitting. And who do you think was the first caller? It was India! Tom gave her the chance to talk about the Warm Hats Not Hot Heads Project. Awesome. If you didn't get a chance to listen to the show, you can find it here.

I guess I could have said this all shorter.... but it wouldn't have been so much fun for me.... Harry marries Addie and they live outside DC. Arch marries Nancy and I am born. Addie encourages me to knit. I do - and have a career. The Farmer and I get some sheep and name a lamb Adelaide. Aunt Addie buys fence and grazes summer sheep late in her life. I start writing a blog. A young woman named Addie comes to our farm to help out with lambing. A blog-reader named India asks for a a little publicity help with her project Warm Hats Not Hot Heads and happens to be Addie's aunt. I hear India on NPR.

That is my "small world" story of the day. Check out the Warm Hats Not Hot Heads project to sign up here. Good day everyone!

Barn Chores

Last night, I kept waking up. It was the wind that was interrupting my sleep. It was howling away bringing in some very cold air after a day yesterday when it hit 45 degrees. I kept thinking about the sheep and the lambs knowing that cold, windy air and birth are not the best combination. After Julia left for school on the bus, I headed down to the barn to help out with the lambing chores. This lambing season, we are expecting at least 300 lambs. We are living and breathing lambing season at this old farmhouse. So far, there must be 125 lambs so things have been busy. And to be honest, we have pretty much lost count. 

Upon arrival, I checked in with The Boss (that would be The Farmer) to see what kind of help was needed. He said there were 3 sets of twins already. He was expecting a shipment of grain so I started tending to the twins who he had just found outside in the snow. 

 

The mama was attentive but these guys were definitely in need of some help. They were both trembling but when I put my finger in each of their mouths, there was a bit of warmth. All was not lost. We keep a supply of old towels rotating through the barn so I sat down with the lamb that looked the worst and used the towel to massage her legs and dry her off. She seemed to respond which made me feel encouraged. A little more massage and her head lifted off the barn floor. We decided to move the mama and these twins to a pen with a heat lamp and just watch.

So much of lambing season is watching. Watching and waiting. Trying to guess who will be next. When a ewe is close to lambing she will "bag up" which means her udder swells and looks like this.

After I finished with the one weak set, I took a walk outside to see what was going on. Lots of the little lambs like to hang out in the hay feeders sunning themselves when they aren't nursing from their Mamas. They are safe in the feeders away from the large sheep and can just snooze away uninterrupted.  Little lambs need lots of sleep - just like infants.

Further on down the hill, I found a brand new lamb. I must have missed its birth by seconds. The lamb had a bit of blood on her head which sometimes happens. The mama was attentive so I left it out in the sun and went back in the barn to do today's chores. 

When a lamb is just born and its umbilical cord is still moist, we dip it in iodine to prevent disease. We try to pen each set of twins and their mama so they can bond nicely. With the number of lambs we have had so far, we are running out of pens. Before the day old lambs can be released, their tails need to be docked and they need to be numbered with paint and an eartag. I'll show you this process tomorrow. After I finished yesterday's lambs' tails and marking, I started to release them to make room for today's crop. But before that, I had to check on the Mama outside who had just given birth. Yup, she had twinned. I picked both of them up by the front legs and slowly walked backwards into the barn. The mama followed nicely - I was lucky. She needed to be brought inside because it was really windy and cold - what we refer to as "lamb killing weather." The barn is a modified greenhouse designed for sheep and we put it up over 20 years ago. It functions well and helps the lambs live and thrive. This is one place that I let my love for aesthetics and beautiful things go - the barn is for lamb survival, that's it. It sure is nothing fancy but sheep don't care.

The first set of chilled lambs was looking better - in fact they were both up and trying to nurse. They are smallish but seemed to be doing well.

 

In the middle of all of this, the grain truck arrived to deliver the grain for the mamas. Our sheep eat primarily farm-raised hay but when the mothers are milking, they need a little more protein and energy which the grain supplies. Some people think sheep are stupid but I'm here to tell you differently. The adults all knew that the truck was there with the grain. They could hear it being blown into the bins and the combined baaaahhing was deafening. The trucker stopped in to see the lambs and have a quick chat with The Farmer. He was curious about the greenhouse and how warm it was inside. He then headed out and promptly got stuck in the snow. The Farmer helped dig him out and finally he was on his way.

In the meantime way down the field, two more ewes had just twinned. The Farmer put me in charge. I was in over my head. I couldn't tell which lamb belonged to which sheep and neither could the ewes. I had to get the lambs inside so I played lamb leapfrog - I picked up two lambs and moved them down the field about 10 feet. In the meantime, the mothers were tending to the other two. I picked them up and the mothers followed stopping at the first pair. I set the second set down 10 feet closer to the barn and kept repeating the process until the 4 lambs and 2 ewes were safely inside the warm barn. I watched and watched but couldn't tell who belonged to who. Can you tell?

We decided to pen them all together and hopefully by this evening the Mamas will sort out who belongs to whom. 

After I got all the babies taken care of, I fed and watered each pen full of new life. I filled up the water tank outside for the second time in the day (nursing mamas drink a lot of water!) and came home to write this blog post. I'm waiting for the bus again and then Julia and I will head on down the barn to see what else is going on and if The Farmer needs our help. 

That's the way it goes around here during lambing season. A lot of the same thing, over and over again with little bits of lamb life and death drama thrown in. It's not for everyone, for sure. Julia keeps threatening to move to "the city." We tell her, "that's fine" but this is where she is living now. I'm thankful that we can share lambing season with her and all of you. Good day everyone.

A Special Movie of Two Ewes Lambing at Leyden Glen Farm

Last Friday morning, I was helping with chores at the barn. I had my camera with me, as I usually do during lambing season. I was really lucky to witness two ewes each giving birth to twin lambs. Most of the time, the ewes will lamb when we aren't around so I felt incredibly fortunate. 

On Monday I went to Brattleboro to visit my friend Beth Brown-Reinsel. She helped me learn a little bit about iMovie '11. Boy - some learning curve. The last version I had of iMovie was '05. The new version can do a lot if you can figure it out. Check out all of the videos Beth has been posting on You Tube here. They are really great and show many of the techniques she teaches in the knitting classes she travels the USA teaching.

This morning I went down to the barn (did I mention we got another half a foot of snow last night?) to help out. I also took my computer and recorded the audio. Let me warn you - if you have a Border Collie, this video could drive them nuts - it does ours. They look all around for the sheep and can't find them!

If you prefer to watch the video on YouTube, here is the link. Share it with your friends - because it sure is the miracle of nature. Pass it along to your home schooling friends too! I like to envision many of you sitting in your offices, perhaps in a high-rise in a very large city, watching our sheep lamb..... It's such a wonderful thought that the internet can make the miracles of farming available to so many people. Enjoy!

Lambing Continues and The Storm Subsides

All of these forceful winter storms have given me some great opportunities for taking photos of our sheep. Man, sheep in the snow - what could be prettier I ask? But I don't want to let you all think that this farm life is all just cute sheep photos all the time. That would be me telling you all a virtual lie. One thing I don't want to do is sugar-coat this farming thing, further adding to the wool-obsessed knitter's myth of getting a few sheep and living happily ever after. Don't get me wrong - I love sharing the photos of the sheep with all of you, knowing that many of you are knitters or crocheters who really have the sheep and wool love going on. I am so thankful to all of you for reading and spurring me on to keep learning about photography.

Our lambing barn is five miles from our house on the farm that The Farmer grew up on. The greenhouse barn lays about 1/4 mile down a dirt road. There we keep all The Farmer's large equipment in some equipment sheds that also do double duty as sheep barns when needed. The equipment includes two tractors, two trailers to move hay and sheep, mowing and baling machines, large hay making accessories, and lots of round bales of hay weighing about 800 pounds each. I am really not interested in the machines nor do I have the talent to operate them. The time I become interested is when something breaks, work can't get done, and it costs a fortune and takes forever to fix one of these big machines. We both have to drive four wheel drive vehicles that are high off the ground. If we didn't, we would never get anywhere. The Farmers starts his day early, heading off to the barns before Julia heads to school.


All this snow has just totally complicated our busiest time of year. It is hard to get into the barn because we don't have a plow. We just push our trucks through the snow, hoping not to get stuck. If we do, one of the tractors is used to get us out. It's actually all rather comical. I usually head down to the barn after Julia goes to school to check in and see if my help is needed. I don't have the natural talent of working with the animals that The Farmer does but I do my best. When I arrive, I get the low-down on how many lambs are born and what's going on. Often we are faced with lambs that are very weak, a mother that may be down or unable to produce milk to feed her lambs. Sometimes the lambs are almost gone - chilled and near death. Over the years, The Farmer has learned how to deal with these common problems and is quite good at assessing the situation. There are different things you can do to get a lamb going again and if I get a chance, I'll tell you about them another day.

One thing The Farmer frequently does is use a tool called a stomach tube. He passes a rubber tube down the throat of the weak lamb into the stomach. He can then give the weak lamb who has no sucking reflex milk. This thing has got to be one of the greatest inventions for sheep farmers. We have saved so many lambs with it, I can't even count them all. During lambing season, there is always one on the counter, one in the truck, and one at the barn.

One of the most important things with a weak lamb is to get the lamb warm again. The Farmer keeps his truck running and tucks the chilled lambs on an old jacket near the heating vents. If he has to go somewhere, they ride with him. It is easy to tell if a lamb is cold - you stick your finger in their mouth and if it feels like an ice cube, we know we have trouble. Sometimes we are lucky and the heater in the truck does the trick and the Mama Sheep accepts her lambs that we had to warm up.

Sometimes that is not the case. Either the mother has died or she is not capable of producing enough milk to sustain her babies. Sometimes the lambs are just too cold and by the time we get them warm, the Mama won't accept the babies. That is when we have to step in. And those are the lambs that end up in our house. We keep the woodstove going and set the lambs beside it. Sometimes they are injected with glucose to bring them back to life. Sometimes we give them a warm bath in the sink. It's all a learning process, even thirty years in. There are many sheep farmer tricks -- just as many as knitting patterns I would say. Lots of them are available on great websites operated by many land grant state universities.


I'm letting you in on these things because I have been getting comments from readers about how cute the lambs are in the house and "isn't it sweet that we keep the lambs in the house?" I really wanted to dispel these myths and tell you that the lambs that end up in the house are there because they have to be.


There is no longer a Mama available to take care of them and so they become "bottle lambs." We step in and become their mamas. We feed them "lamb milk replacer" in recycled water bottles using a special tip called a lamb and goat nipple. I swear the milk replacer smells exactly the same as the formula I used to feed Julia. When the lambs are old enough, we can wean them off the milk and they will then eat hay and a little sweet grain. As soon as we feel they are capable of surviving in the barn, we take them back and put them in a separate pen to acclimate them. In a couple days, we let them out of the pen and they blend in with the rest of the sheep. I say that lightly because bottle lambs usually don't blend in totally. They are always a little more friendly and when they are little they are very noisy - running up to us begging for a hit of milk - just like an infant.


Yesterday, Coco and Chanel moved down to the barn. I can't say they are very happy there but in a few days, they will be used to it. We still have a set of twins here sharing the study with us who are a bit too small to move back to the barn.

If you are local and have a chance tomorrow, stop on over at Greenfield High School between 10 and 2. We'll be setting up shop at Winter Fare - Greenfield's once a winter farmers market. Good weekend everyone!

Scenes of Sheep in a Two Day Storm

Another two day snowstorm. This sure is the winter of the snow. I think the sheep are pretty much ready for it to be over.


When I look at these photos, it is easy to forget the snow, ice, sleet and unfriendly weather conditions. When my camera captures the moment and holds it in a digital file, I will remember back to the moment of the storm. For most of you these will just be pretty pictures of sheep in snow - as they should be. But what I will remember is being farm-bound, luckily with heat and lights, four lambs in the house, and the general anxiety that lambing season brings. Along with the snow comes snow days and an excuse to bake bread, knit and stay put.


The photos here are of the yearling ewes in lambs that are in the snow covered pasture just in front of our house. It is easy for me to get out there and take photos - no driving and not a long walk. These photos were taken Tuesday and Wednesday during the storm. Thank goodness these sheep (which were born last January and February) aren't lambing yet - they will probably lamb much later when the grass is green.

Snow covered mounds of sheep.... wish I could have taken them from the front but I was too lazy to wade through the several feet of snow to shoot it from the other side. Didn't want to risk losing my camera in the snow either!


These two looked happy chewing their cuds.


Look closely - she has icicles on her ears!


This ewe was so still, I thought she might be dead. But she wasn't - when I shoved the gate open for more photos, she got up and shook herself off.


Sheep are all about the food.... snow or not.


This is Olympia eating - Olympia as in last spring's postcards and "Olympia's Felted Knit & Crochet Flowers!" (HINT, HINT - great idea for Valentine's Knitting - pattern available on my Shop Page here!) She is a mature ewe now and most likely will lamb in a month or so.

Love this photo of the brown ewe with the snow falling in front of its face.

Some other brown ewes.

And this Border Leicester ewe. She is gorgeous.


They're just rolling their eyes at me.


Sheep with the garden shed behind. Here's what it looks like in the summer.


Our house looks so cozy with the orange door and the smoke coming out of the chimney. Must have looked similar to this back 200 years ago. They say it was built in 1751.

It isn't as easy for me to get the barn where the lambs are being born today. It is five miles from our house and with all the snow, sleet and ice coming down, I decided to stay put and feed the bottle lambs and hang out with Julia since school has been shuttered. She will be going to school forever with all the snow days they have had! The Farmer left early in the a.m. and we haven't seen him yet. That is probably good news since if a lamb wasn't good, he would have headed up here so we could try to bring it back to health.

Looking forward to when we see real blooms on the hydrangeas again!


Stay warm everyone!