Spring=overwhelmed?

Okay, Spring has sprung…the grass is beginning to rise, peeking under the snow.  The snow is about 2/3 melted, with large patches of pastures opened up.  Thirteen of the fourteen ewes are lambed out; some interesting looking lambs, but a lot with small eye patches and one ram yielded 9 ram lambs and one ewe lamb: this has never happened before here, where the land is acidic, or is it basic…whichever consistently yields more ewe lambs…so this ram has to go. I can’t afford to keep a ram who doesn’t give me enough stock to sell.  I have to sell stock to keep sheep.  Maybe it’s just the luck of the year, but I can’t afford to wait another year to find out, and have lots of ram lambs next year as well…

The baby chicks are in the barn growing.  The chickens are still at Julie’s for I haven’t found the hour I need to repair the chicken tractor and get them out on the garden to till it.  And I have a bottle baby…had two, but managed to find a home for the little ram lamb who will be wethered at the first opportunity.  The little ewe lamb is lovely, probably the best lamb this year, but I sure don’t WANT a bottle baby under foot and obnoxious til the day she dies.  So, what to do.  Her mother died, unfortunately, so to keep the line I either have to keep the lamb, or give her to someone to raise, in exchange for my breeding her here in two years, and getting first dibs on any ewe lamb, for free…maybe I can find someone who’d like a bottle lamb with excellent Hardy Hill lines, and be willing to have me breed her to the ram of my choice and give me one ewe lamb in exchange…near enough so that transport isn’t an issue…maybe not. AND, Lizzie is here. I’d forgotten just what a full time job having a puppy is…It’s tiring me out for sure.  She’s a love, but doesn’t yet get through the night so every night’s sleep is interrupted with midnight potty stops.  She’s got another three or four days before I start getting tough…My kids slept through the night…well, six or seven hours, at least, at 5 days old…surely this puppy can make it soon!  It’s just an overwhelming morning, so I’m tired and grumpy.  I’m sure I’ll be fine in an hour or so!  A little nappy perhaps while she is taking one…

With all this, it is great having Lizzie.  It is great being just about finished with lambing. It’s great having the chicks growing, the weasels killed, the chickens on their way back, the sun peeking through the clouds up there. (Part of the grouchies is that it was cold this morning, and there were snow showers last night: grrrr…

So, a new week begins, and hopefully, things will calm down and be a little easier…happy Spring.