2011 lambing season is underway!

This is the first lamb of Annabel's lambing season, born a week ago. Now, so far the last total we had was 13 lambs, of which all but three are twins. 

This is Cortney's 4th year working with Annabel and this year she'll be doing it alone for the most part. Her Dad and I are so proud of her and she is proud of herself and thankful that Annabel has worked with her and given her the opportunity to learn all of the skills she has, in dealing with sheep.

Here is the little fella just inside the door of the barn. The wind was blowing so hard the day this photo was taken.

Annabel's new herd dog, McKenzie. Coyotes have become such a problem in this area, now even the cattle ranchers are suffering losses of calves.  Annabel shared with us, of how she saw tracks where McKenzie had chased off some coyotes. McKenzie will be worth her weight in gold if she keeps the coyotes at bay, especially during lambing.

    This is one of two Llamas Annabel has with the sheep as well, "Dillon" says Hello! He is very curious and doesn't hesitate to come right over and see what you are doing.
   "Denver", Annabel's other Llama is not so friendly, but he watches over his sheep!

    In this photo of the sheep grazing, you can see the dust blowing( sort of looks like Dust Bowl 2011, I sure hope not.) That evening we had wind gusts up to 80mph.  These winds did damage( tearing down fencing, damaging roofs and even blowing over sheds) in the city closest to us, the news forecaster called them micro bursts

    I'm not sure how many of Annabel's ewes are due to lamb, but it sure is fun to drive up to the barn and see them jumping and playing!  I know that Cortney is hoping for some bottle lambs, but also know that Annabel is hoping just as much NOT to have any bottle lambs.
   We'll post more photos of the lambs, maybe later this week

   Saturday Mike worked on tearing apart some hydraulic cylinders he was given to repair, Cortney cleaned her room and helped me trim up all but our plum trees. Our established apple trees were a mess of sucklers. For some reason the "Wealthy" seems to have 50% more sucklers than the "MacKintosh"*sigh*  I trimmed all but the very top ones, Mike came and did those because I won't crawl up on a ladder tall enough ( not afraid of heights, just unstable ladders*wink*)  We have two established plums to trim and top and we'll be done with the fruit trees, then onto finishing cleaning up branches from the fruit trees as well as the elm Mike took down in our front yard, last weekend.  Maybe if our weather holds and we don't get alot of moisture, we can begin cleaning up some of our larger flowerbeds, getting the seeds shaken in for our flowers this year. You see; I love to garden, but I am an admitted lazy flower gardener, LOL!  I like to just shake the seeds back in and see what comes up. It's ALWAYS beautiful and besides God combines colors I would have never thought to :o) 
   Yesterday was our local volunteer Fire Departments annual "Chili Feed" So most of our day was consumed with setting up, serving, visiting and then clean up and tear down.  They netted around $2,000 between their Silent Auction, Chili dinners, and Donations. The Fire Dept. was very happy with the turn out.  Cortney and I enjoyed visiting with old friends, as well as meeting and making some new ones.
It looks as if our CSA memberships may be; "SOLD OUT!" A lady approached me and asked if we still have memberships to our CSA available, I shared that we still had one 1/2 share and we were waiting in a deposit for a "Full share". She said she and a friend would be splitting one and I told her the 1/2 share would most likely suit their needs the best. She's going to drop off her deposit this week
 I bid on one silent auction item, as a surprise for Mike, it was a toy replica of a Farmall IH Super M tractor, just like the two we own. It became a bidding war and unfortunately I had a cap and lost the bid*sigh*  Cortney's necklace had several bids and I believe it sold for $35, which was good, the materials involved were approx. $25
   Not much else new here, just working, cleaning( Spring type) and enjoying our warmer weather.
   Blessings for your week