I checked the ewes today, and ...

boldly predicted we wouldn't see any more lambs for a number of days.

Then Rosemary, later in the afternoon, dropped** ... and was holding her tail out (just a wee little bit).

Alison went out at 10:00 p.m. and she's making mommy noises to her unborn lamb (assuming once since it's her first time) and the tail is now cocked completely to the side.

It looks like another sleepless night :-P.

Note to Lona: How do you guys do this with such a big flock? How many ewes do you run? There are folks around here with 200 or 300 ... I can't even imagine. When I dropped of Claire's Venture application today, I was speaking to the receptionist and made a crack about lambs interfering with us getting it done earlier. She laughed, and said in the last week she's seen a number of teens (AND staff) enter the building looking haggard and drawn and unslept, and in each case it was because of lambing. You know you live in a rural area when lambing is the predominant cause of sleepless nights, rather than partying!

**Dropping prior to birth ... you can actually see depressions in the flanks of the ewes as they get ready to give birth. NORMALLY this isn't a big clue for me ... but Rosie made it very obvious this afternoon. We'll see. I'm still a little shocked that I was correct in predicting Corrie's impending lamb.

Claire's grad photo proofs :-), plus update on lambs and Roger

Claire's hair is still Annie-red ... only slightly subdued, and it is growing out beautifully! It's starting to look highlighted, and she doesn't have dark roots showing because the hair colour tones were almost identical. It's actually quite lovely, but she can hardly wait for her own hair. And wait she will have to, because NOTHING at our budget level covers this red! She has decided to go with Image 1 for her order. She has grown up SO much this year ... and not only on the outside. I'm very proud of her :-).

We just completed Claire's Venture Portfolio (what a big job this is!). This is toward her entry into the Venture program at the high school in September. Gasp. Two in high school. I just have to run in town and get a signature on a letter of reference and pick up a CD (she is including video of two of her musical performances, snippets from Annie and Enchanted Sleeping Beauty). Then, off to the high school to drop the binder off and pick up Alison for the weekend!

All I can say is ... hurray for weekends!

Farm chores ... gave new little lamb his Selenium-E shot last night, and will likely band him later today. Iain will be doing shop class this morning ... I have to modify our creep panel so that our smaller adult sheep can't wiggle their way in. Iain, with my guidance, will cut the correctly sized piece of wood and screw it on to the panel. For those not in the know, creep feed is a feed ration specially made for little lambs. It's a delicious concoction of various crunchy pellets, some grains, and molasses. Adult sheep LOVE this stuff, so a creep panel is a length of fence with a lamb-sized door cut into it.

Speaking of homeschool, here is Iain yesterday doing math ;-), along with Coriander and her new little guy. Unfortunately, Corrie liked nibbling on the math book ... which belongs to our school district ... so he had to move to the other end of the shelter.


And for those of you asking about Roger, here are some "Mr. Roger's Neighbourhood" photos. This cat, honestly, is the neatest cat I've ever been privileged to meet. I'm so glad he showed up. He has graduated from following Alison out to the bus, to following us EVERYWHERE around the property. When Iain heads over to the pond to explore, Roger follows him. When I took Dickens for a short walk a few days ago, he trotted after us for quite a distance! When any of us head out to the sheep pen, he now knows that fence is off and he comes out to play with the sheep. He loves the sheep, and Rosie and Coriander adore him. Here are two photos taken yesterday:

Here he is in his "Overseer of Sheep" position:

(He tried this when Jasmine was in here with her twins, and she was less accepting of him. But he and Corrie are buddies!)

And here is his as "Overseer of the Neighbourhood":



And lastly, two of Corrie and her babe. Here Corrie is attempting to recover from the birth. Aren't you glad human babies don't do this??? I'm glad we don't shear before lambing!


And the two, snuggling ...

Corrie's new ram lamb

born around 3:00 a.m. this morning. He's a very interesting colour, and actually seems to have a pattern of some sort, but not the one I was hoping for :-). Still, adorable.

Nooooo ... not tonight, dear (lamb) ... I have a headache!

I just got home from a lovely evening at Vic's home. She hosted a Norwex party ... very cool cleaning supplies that are, sadly, out of budget in a big way. I spent quality time coveting the mop system, and a special kitchen scrubby that apparently cleans showers with no effort. Mmmmmm.

Did a sheep check after I got in at 9:00 p.m. ... no lambs ... hurray! ... oh, but wait ... what was that noise? Was it ... NO ... yes ... mommy noises. Little Coriander is walking around with her tail in the air making mommy noises. NO. (Click the link at "mommy noises" and scroll down for a video of Latifah making those noises to her newborn twins in 2008 ... the baby draped over my leg is the one that may give birth tonight!)

But it's going to be so late!!!! (Or I'm wrong). We have been spoiled thus far in this shepherding business. Lambs have been born from 5ish in the morning to 9ish at night ... no middle-of-the-night shenanigans. I guess I'll grab my alarm clock and sleep in the family room ... set my alarm for 1ish and if nothing has happened by then, she'll likely wait until morning.

Two photos from today:

Here is Jasmine with both of her lambs. Little girl lamb had some issues this morning, but they seem to have been all sorted out. We did a quick run for "just in case" lamb milk replacer, which turned out to be unneeded, thankfully. We also had to milk Jasmine several times because she wasn't letting the lambs nurse on one side.



Here is Jasmine's little girl...

First lambs of 2009, courtesy of Jasmine ...!

who once again graced us with 8 pound lambs, one boy and one girl. The only difference? This year the little ram lamb has the eye patch, which is definitely too bad. I'm laughingly calling these lambies my Quarter Sheep (think Quarter Horses) because of their breeding. They are 25% Shetland, 25% Bluefaced Leceister, 25% Texel and 25% Rideau Arcott. All quarters.

The little boy, who has a few spots ...

The pair:



Encouraging little girl to get the first colostrum ... yummy!


Little girl (so far nameless, but this might be Rory), wearing her fashionable cowl neck sweater (ha ha):


Alison's vacation was slightly extended since I was at the ER for a UTI ... Kev came home ... no lambs ... 20 minutes later there were two. Jasmine is a real trooper. Kev headed off to get Alison from school to come home and take care of them since it's bitterly cold and very windy today (although the sun is shining). I ended up in and out of the hospital quite quickly, and we all arrived at the same time. They were very cold, and hadn't nursed well yet, so I'm glad we were not much longer.

One down, three to go :-).

Can you hear this?

Created by Train Horns

What do these photos have to do with our 2009 lamb crop?

Any guesses?

These shepherds have too much time on their hands (this is amazing!)

Am I sore ... :-) ... edited ;-)

It's been a tough winter ... the pneumonia really knocked me out through January, and I really felt as if I'd lost muscle. I've been a little worried by this lack of fitness. Today we trimmed feet and crutched the ewes ("crutched" - snipped away all the extra fleece bits that a lamb might confuse with a teat). We also re-tarped both of the sheep sheds, amongst a bunch of small chores. You know you're not very fit when you're sore by the time you walk back in the house!

Good news: all four ewes are definitely pregnant. And very fun (something we've not seen before) ... we spent some fun time watching lambs rollicking inside of Corrie. We didn't shear until the fall last year, so the staple is still quite short and we can see these big lamb movements.

Bad news: a couple of the ewes seem REALLY pregnant (swollen ****** (insert word for lady parts here, lol) , tails lifted already, very uncomfortable) and I'm feeling a little concerned about our trip to Burlington on Wednesday. By my calculations, the very earliest day we should expect lambs is March 24. We should be just fine. However, little Coriander worries me. She is quite tiny, and is carrying either twins or one large lamb (the second option is the worrying one). Alison has valiantly volunteered to stay here and sheep sit. However, I really want all the kids to come. What do do, what to do ... well, nothing for tonight, and we will keep checking tomorrow and make a decision by tomorrow night. I hope.

In the meantime, I'm going to attempt to stand up and make my way to the family room to watch TV with the family. Ouch. Pathetic.

My LOST socks are done!

Based on my FAVOURITE television program ->


Here are my LOST socks ->


Hints of aquamarine tropical seas, green foliage, with a hint of "darkness" -- (think smoke monsters, others and rampaging polar bears lol), all done with a simple broken rib stitch so I could knit 'n watch at the same time. Knit toe-up on US 3 circular needles. Wool is SRK "On Your Toes" 4 ply sock yarn (with aloe vera!) colour ON 223600.

What makes you cry?

I am on Facebook, partially to get in touch with old friends, partially to keep communication lines open with current friends in a busy life. I've looked over some of the "notes" that go around. These notes ask a long list of questions (and are annoyingly repetitive!) and appeal primarily to teenage girls. I was thinking of one question this morning that I've seen on many of these notes ... "When was the last time you cried?" The most common response to this is "meh" or "I dunno" :-).

Ummm ... in my case, about three minutes ago, as I read a story in the book "Messy Spirituality" that we are doing for small group, about a young man, uncomfortable with seniors, who ends up visiting a dying man once a month. When the man is beyond speech, his granddaughter comes to the seniors home to meet the one who her grandfather told her about ... "Jesus", who came every month just to hold his hand.

And yesterday, during the last half hour of "Titanic" ... a veritable sobfest (and I wasn't the only one, but I won't mention names!). What a tragic moment in history, and what an impressive movie. It truly gives face, though fictional, to what to me was a childhood rhyme and a set of statistics.

And Saturday, while reading the book "Shattered" ... many times I teared up, and several times I sobbed. This is an amazing book aimed at the teen market about a young, shallow, wealthy boy who ends up (by accident) helping in a soup kitchen. His journey leads him into learning about homelessness, rejection, genocide ... he is awakened from emotional sleep to the greater and more tragic world around him. So much food for thought, in particular how the book uses Joseph Stalin's quote as a springboard "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." At one point in the book, the protagonist is finally realizing the danger of statistics, and seeks to put a face to the genocide in Rwanda. (This happens to be the point where I lost it :-) ...)


I didn't used to cry as much. However, post-children, I cry. I cry for the rawness of life. I cry at victory and especially when ordinary people show moments of the heroic. I cry when I see glimpses of the Almighty in the day-to-day messiness of life, and in the ordinary lives of His motley followers. I cry when my carefully constructed walls are down. Apparently, I cry a lot ... but not always because I'm sad. Generally because I'm awed ... inspired ... sensititized to something that I've missed before ... and grateful.

Had a good cry lately? What makes YOU cry?

Knitting update!

The pair of socks I had been working on for Alison a year ago had gone missing. I had looked all over the house, EVERYWHERE ... except for in a large back of wool donated by Rosehaven Farm Store to the 4H Sheep Club, which I have been storing at our house. Luckily I had to pull that out to take yarn to a club meeting a few weeks ago. The plastic bag was buried right in the middle of 20 or so skeins of yarn! This wool was custom dyed by my friend Ann-Marie for Alison, and is a superwash Merino. They were knit using a broken rib stitch on U.S. size one circular needles.



I now have two pairs of socks on needles ... I'm almost done a pair for me, same pattern as above, that I call my LOST socks. They are in a colourway that reminds of my favourite TV series LOST, and the pattern is simple enough that I can knit while watching :-). The other set are Claire's next pair and my first foray into lace knitting.

I'm regretting now that I was on a knitting fast all fall, since I generally don't knit much once lambs are born and outside chores start up. Perhaps things will be different this year :-). What I would REALLY like is one of those old-fashioned hand crank sock knitting machines (so I can be like you Lona!!!) ... there is a huge market for these socks in this area and I would love to make hand cranked socks to fill the demand. It would be a great secondary income stream for our family, especially since my web work has fizzled for the moment (to be resurrected when UCB has money again). I've looked on Freecyle (haha) and I've looked on eBay (GASP at the prices). Lona, if you ever get gifted any more mechanical sock knitters, feel free to pass them on up north!!! (LOL).

Am I a terrible parent if ...

I was REALLY hoping that my kids were still feeling poorly today???

Yesterday I had all three home ... Alison had been off school for 4 days, Claire for 2, and Iain was now catching the fever/headache/achy flu that has been going around. There were NO expectations on my time ... no lunches to make, no school to prepare and do, no driving in to town to pick up kids doing after school activities. Iain slept for at least an hour in the afternoon.

I spent all day trying to sort through all of our books, and reorganize bookshelves, and bring order to the school room/office area. I felt terrifically accomplished by day's end.

I hoped to continue today, all day. Alison headed off to school in the morning, but Iain was also feeling well enough for school ... then I had to head in to town to take Alison to a doctor's appointment. I did have a little while this afternoon, and although not completely done, here is the school and office area ...


Bookshelves and school table:



Command central on the other side of the room:


This all stemmed from a comment Kev made a couple of weeks back that all of our current books (he gets quite a few from work) have been teetering unsafely on bedside tables and dressers. "With all the bookshelves in this house, you'd think we'd have some room for our own books!".

Now we do!