Fearful's Surprise

This morning when I went to check on the sheep, I saw Bear out and about...

...and Lady and her beautiful baby...

...and Fearful (still inside the shelter) with her lamb.

Wait, what?!

We were very surprised to see that early this morning, Fearful successfully lambed! Mother and lamb both seem to be doing well. Fearful's lamb is mostly black, with a brown face and a white muzzle.

Our whole happy sheep family seems to be getting along beautifully! (What's so bad about polygamy?)

Our older lamb is very curious and energetic, and a great older cousin!

Such knobby knees! :)

And so, in less than a week, our sheep family has grown from 3 to 5! And all on pasture, grass hay, and cut browse. Not a single grain! 

Gerard's Design Plan

One of our kitchen drawers was (we thought) malfunctioning.  

Gerard, however, had another vision for our cabinet.

Seriously? It's April 23!

We had gone to bed the night before to a gentle rain. Mickey got up before me that fateful morning and I heard him exclaim as he let Roscoe out. This is what we saw.

Our poor crab apple tree was ready to flower and everything!

Sheesh!

Day Two

Last night it started raining, so I tried to lure Lady into the shelter with the lamb. But apparently, if you pick up the lamb the mother doesn't know where to look, sheep don't fly, and she'll bleat and bleat and look for her lamb in the last place she saw her. So, with the lamb in my left hand held near the ground and absorbing the ram's charges with my right hand, I walked backwards across the pasture until I got them safely in the shelter. I hope Lady does this by herself in the future, because the next couple of nights will be cold and wet.

Jumping around:

Tired of jumping around:

One Rainy Afternoon...

...our first lamb was born!

A completely black lamb to a completely white ewe. Go figure. We had suspected that Lady was pregnant for some time, but it's just so hard to tell under all that wool!

April Fools!

Surprisingly enough, the birds didn't seem to mind Ma Nature's April Fools prank.

Our new Buff Orpington rooster works hard to maintain his dignity, although he keeps a respectful distance from humans after losing his "Who's Bigger and Stronger" challenge to Mickey.

As unseasonable as it may be, the huge snowflakes are beautiful! Also, we think it's neat that it was raining in the village and snowing on the hill.

April Fools! :)

Our New Baby!

Chestnut!

a 9-day-old Oberhasli buckling (with a little Alpine),

born in Covington, Pennsylvania.

He loves his bottle from his pa!

Getting acquainted with Roscoe.

Our two unweaned babies,

making sure there's no milk in Pa's fingers.

Our girls have been doing great too!

Hazel's ears no longer match in floppiness,

which we think is awfully cute.

And boy, does she love to munch pine!

Corylus likes the pine too.

...and hay.

And both girls love pellets!

They usually share nicely (mostly).

Corylus is certainly our most mischievous.

Munching the camera cord.

Chestnut loves to climb and jump.

Cheers!

Plumbing

Mick has successfully installed the first bit of plumbing. I think it is terribly exciting! :)

Animals and Spring

We are enjoying all of our animals enjoying the spring!

One of our Khakis discovered a leek,

and discovered that they are tasty.

We are so proud of the nest that Rosie built in her box!

We hope she is getting ready to be a mama!

The proud papa.

The sheep have been eating less hay as the pasture begins to grow.

On the way back up from the sheep pen, an apple tree, complete with leaves!

The piles of hay in the sheep pasture in the background mark the future home of cider trees.

The grass and especially the clover that Mickey planted along the driveway last year has greened up beautifully! It is hard to remember that it was bare, rocky dirt not too long ago.

And while Gerard enjoys climbing his crabapple tree, he still spends an awful lot of time inside just chilling out.

Sweet dreams!