Will spring ever come?

I am getting so tired of this cold weather! We're at -13F this morning with a wind chill temp of -31F. The girls are starting to get used to being wool-less and finally went outside again yesterday afternoon. At first I wondered if something had chased them out of the barn! But they were soaking up the sun at 16F. I snapped this photo from the kitchen patio door.

The photo below is of the Babydoll wethers and Granite lounging in their cattle panel shelter. Too bad that darn T-post got in the way!




I did put coats on a few of them. Little Lucy kept putting her front leg through the neck opening for a sarong look, so hers is off now. Ten-year-old Cordelia (above) and little Abby are wearing their Rocky Mountain Sheep coats with no problems. (Lucy wore a different brand.)

Below is Rhyn, she gave us a gorgeous 5 pound natural colored BFL fleece this year. Her fleece color is still very dark - yay! That's Cora next to her. Cora doesn't look pregnant at all. Last year she cycled late and was bred to the BFL ram giving us a June baby. I hope she didn't do that again this year. I had her in Windswept Boggart's breeding group in hopes of modified purebred Shetland lambs.


I'm going to wait until things warm up a little before feeding them this morning -- for their sake as much as mine. I'm sure they are all nestled deep into their bedding, trying to keep warm. I do love watching my little round ewes eating their hay these days. They easily fit around the feeders now and they look more like lambs themselves. I'm feeding dairy quality alfalfa hay along with free choice sheep mineral. I gave them a little corn on the colder days and right after shearing, but this alfalfa is pretty rich, so I don't want to overdo it.

I'm dying to skirt the fleeces, but have been busy with the Shepherd's Harvest booklet lately. It's supposed to be ready for download from the web site (www.shepherdsharvestfestival.org -- you'll have to copy this URL, I can't get it to link properly here - sorry!) around March 15th.
That and switching everything over to my new ISP. I transferred my web site two days ago and it's still not up and running. I didn't realize that would cut off that email account as well. Hopefully they will both be back up and running today with everything going to the riveroakssheep.com address.

We had only a few sheep in the rise at shearing. Hannah and her sister Hattie, both Holly F2's, and very surprisingly, one of our Shetland Mules.

Okay, it's time to put on the long johns and get out to feed the sheep...