Spring Scenes

Mickey has been converting frozen sap to delicious maple syrup.

The bird feeders continue to be a hub of activity, including redpolls.

Meanwhile, the hens found themselves a nice spot under the Kubota in the shed.

One of the ducks had a bit of difficulty navigating the hay bales.  (It may be hard to see in the picture -- she fell between two hay bales and got quite stuck!)

An empty nest in the corner of the coop. 

Not so empty!  The geese fastidiously build the nest each day, and cover the eggs when they leave.

 

We enjoyed a visit with my (Sarah's) folks last weekend, including some help with the firewood. 

 We have also been enjoying the double rocker they bought for us, along with the oil lamp in the background.  (And that's our new phone -- you get reception anywhere in the house! not just hanging out the loft window.  Sheer decadence!)

Gilly and Son spend most of their time like this. 

I saw a crow building a nest yesterday, and thought, "That's what we're doing!"  We'll be ready for our own eggs to hatch soon.

Loki and Laufeia

Friday morning, Mickey delivered a bale of hay to the sheep before he left for work.  When he returned to the house, he announced to me, "Well, the bad news is, we only have six sheep."  I did some quick calculations.  Six sheep... last night we had four sheep... that means -- Lady had twins!

Laufeia, the eweling, was born larger than her brother.  

She is brown and has a beautiful face.

Loki, the scrawny ramling, is nevertheless consistently more active and more adventurous than his sister! 

He is grey, and you can already see where his horns will grow.

Here...

...comes...

  

...trouble!  

He is even trying his hand at eating hay already.

Roscoe was soooooo excited to meet the lambs!

Lady is a very attentive mother.

  

It astounds us that the Shetland sheep hardly notice the snow, or the cold, or the wind.

While three pregnant ewes wait in the wings, we have been enjoying watching Lady's beautiful twins!

Coriolis

Friday afternoon, Corylus looked quite uncomfortable, and we thought her time was coming soon.  Sure enough, a couple of hours later...

Coriolis was born!  His name continues our "wind" theme, and goes nicely (we thought) with his mother's.

It took the two of them some time to get acquainted -- Corylus seemed so confused as to why this little furball was following her around trying to suck on her -- but they have bonded nicely.

His Toggenburg shines through with a stocky build, beautiful color, patches of white, and thick fur.

 

 He has assimilated nicely with his goat aunt and cousins.

Our flock groweth!