Typical March Weekend

In typical March fashion, Mother Nature threw a little bit of everything at us over the weekend.

We awoke Saturday morning to a beautiful sunrise, then just as predicted in that old saying – “red in the morning, sailor take warning” – a strong wind picked up and it began to rain.  Luckily it started right as we finished morning chores because it rained, and rained hard, all day and all night.
Those ewes that chose not to seek refuge in the barn, spent the worst of it standing completely still, facing into the storm.  We suppose this prevents the wind from ruffling their wool so that much of the rain just rolls off their lovely, lanolin-saturated locks.
More rain early Sunday morning and we, along with the rest of farm, were feeling pretty soggy.  Just as if on cue, as we finished dressing to go out for chores, the rain suddenly turned to snow.  It was a very wet snow, but it sure made our world a little less grey, a little more cheerful and turned the back pasture into a wintry, snow-globe complete with these fine, good-looking ram figurines.

Just Another February Storm

Yesterday began with rain and temperatures in the 50’s but the mid-morning cold front brought gusting winds, sleet and hail.  By late afternoon the wind was gusting, the snow was blowing horizontally and wind chills had dropped to the single digits.  Samson’s buckets and dog house made an unplanned trip over the hill, many of the ewes headed into the barn and Betty Lou and Beef hunkered down in the ram pasture shelter.

The rams didn’t seem to be too concerned about much of anything and were perfectly content to hang out in the pasture despite everything that Mother Nature threw at them.

We are leaving you with not much more than a pretty picture today, as the Shepherdess/s are off to the WV Small Farm Conference.  Today we are attending a day-long workshop on Cheesemaking!  Yes, Cheesemaking!  We have been very excited about this.  Oh, I know, we don’t have any dairy animals at the moment, but we grew up on dairy farm, have been talking about dairy goats for several years, and have been longing for a little Jersey milk cow, well, for forever.  We are also planning to spend a little time this evening at The Winter Blues Farmers Market.  It should be a great day.  Hope yours is every bit as good!

From the Heart

It’s not a long walk from the barn.  Raven races ahead, knowing exactly where we are going.  She waits… patiently…

Our last Valentine’s Day was spent, as many before, quietly filled with laughter… joking about the perfume he was trying to buy on the internet; the two of us excited about the tickets to see Garrison Keillor I had bought as a surprise.

“Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful;
it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect;
but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.
So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
— 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13, Verses 4 – 13

Pest Free

Davita

As soon as the barn door is opened, we are usually joined by one or more helpers during morning chores.  Whether it is tipping every bucket in sight just to see what might be inside, carefully watching the rabbit pen for real or imagined intruders or inspecting the feed and water in the brief period of time it takes to load the bed of the Ranger; these helpers take their jobs very seriously – protecting the feed stores by keeping the barn pest-free.

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