The view out my kitchen window.

The snow has never been this deep since we started to build this house in 2001.

Random farm shots the day after a snowstorm

The sheep did not go out yesterday to play in the snow, and I had too much to do to make them.
But, today I put their hay out as far as I could safely walk and they all joined me.

4 of the lambs are not sure what to make of the snow.



This is Snow. She is 100% Romney, born to 2 colored parents. She is slightly red in color. We will have to wait and see what color she really is.

Johan wants to know 'What's up?' and 'Why does my mom like this salt stuff?'

Maggie checks out the creep.

Where the lambs are hanging out. This should be interesting next shearing day, as the sheep are sheared in this hall way. Cleaning it and keeping lambs out will be fun!!

Check out high the snow is behind the house and beside the barn. We haven't had snow like this since we built the house and the barn!! The last time we had a big snow year was in 2000/2001.

We came home from Mexico to snow that looked like this. One of our neighbors plowed the driveway for our housesitter with a skidder!! Jerry can just barely keep up with his tractor...

Creep

Sometimes in life you need to learn to go with the flow.
Below you see our antique creep gate. As you can see, some of the bars have been bent to accommodate the larger lambs. Just outside the gate, out of the reach of the mothers, is the lambs' feed dish. Behind that, covered in plastic, is the less than desirable hay that we are using for bedding. And across the hall is the boys pen.


Above, at the far end, is where Shauna and Snow are.
The next picture shows where the none breeders bunk down at night.
Before we acquired so many ewes, the area across the hall used to be the lambing pen(s). We could fit up to 4 ewes and their lambs in there. The creep then used to be set up at the end of the main 'stall'.
But, now there are 18 ewes that had been bred, 8 ewes in que for next year, and 3 ewes not breeding. So adjustments had to be made. The creep gate was shorter than the green gate and a filler needed to be put in. It is not the prettiest setup, but it is very effective.
A creep is where the lambs can go and eat whenever they want and get away from Mom when they want. (o;

New life

Shauna presented me this morning with Snow. I am not sure what color she will end up being. As you can see, Shauna is tri-colored, black, blue and gray. John, the stud, is silver, gray and black. Snow seems to be a throw back to somewhere WAY back in the family tree. I am hoping that she may turn a little silver. Otherwise, she is unregisterable. Her father is registered Romney, but her mother is registered Natural Colored, even though she is full Romney. We will wait and see.

So, our two ewes to keep this year are Scarlet and Snow. As the header in our blog says from Isaiah 1:8b-[Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow;'

These two ewes will be a constant reminder to us that we need to confess our sins (Scarlet) in order for us to be forgiven of them (Snow), and for us to always keep our eyes on the Lord who gives and takes (Lola). Thank you Lord for all that you do in my life!!

Of life and death...

Saturday, Lola, one of our 'free' Dorsets, broke her water but showed no signs of labor. I went out every 1/2 hour or so to check her. Her cervix wasn't opening and there were no signs of lambs.
Yesterday, Sunday, my daughter and her husband came up from Connecticut for a visit and leg of lamb for dinner. Lola is looking like she is considering labor.......... Jerry takes his John Deere with the bucket on it to shovel/plow a path to the backhoe. I requested prayer for God's will to be done from my friends at Christian Artisans (@ Yahoo! groups). Jerry gets done and I ask him to come in for a cup of coffee and to give God time to intercede. Yup! Like I really think God needs to take his time. No! It is me, the mere human dragging her feet toward the inevitable... But then the backhoe wouldn't start. So I started to hope. By then, Valery and Paul arrive and we stop to visit with them.
Val & I go out to meet the new lambs and to check on Lola. The longer we 'lamb watch' the more evident it becomes that she is in extreme pain and we need to euthanize her. And I realize that her lambs have also died inside her. (Just confirmed the vet's suspicions.)
So, I take out some bread, get her away from the rest of the flock and lead her outside feeding her bread all the way... I give her to Jerry and head into the barn to feed the bread to the rest of the flock. They are making so much noise inside, I don't think they knew what was going on. Jerry takes her to our sheep cemetery, and decides to try the backhoe one more time. And guess what!! It starts! See, God knew what He was doing all along. Why do I question Him? He gave me time to spend with Lola and He let us know that we did the right thing. I wish He would let us know what happened and if we could prevent it from happening again.
But these things are part of farming life. And the more animals we have on our farm, the greater the chances of it happening again.
So, good bye Lola. You will be missed!! And thank you Lord for lessons learned and prayers answered.

Lambs get turned out

Rachael & Horatio trying to stay warm.

The scene before we released them into the main flock.

'Wow!!' Look at all this space!




Chloe has to be one of the first to meet the new babies.

Grandma Veronica checking out the babies.

'Look, it is the other side of Chloe'