My days will be getting busier



Check out the fat tummy on Hattie's ram lamb

If lambing and preparing for my slightly overbooked felt scarf class on Friday night, followed by shearing bright and early on Saturday morning wasn't enough, my husband has decided that NOW is the time to buy a new puppy.  A hunting dog puppy.  A yellow lab, a male.  He's on his way to pick it up right now.

He wasn't crazy about getting Ozzie, our Australian Shepherd seven years ago, and he was hesitant to bring home the big old lovable Great Pyrennees/Akbash guard dog in October 2009, but he didn't stand in my way.  So I am not going to stand in his way with this puppy.  But something tells me that I will be the one taking care of this new hunting dog.  Oh well, we'll get through it and Ozzie will be happy to have a friend again.

My table is piled with wool and silk I dyed yesterday. I want to make a few sample scarves for the class and I'm very anxious to make some felt birdhouses.  But I don't seem to get much done when I'm checking  the windows and the barn cam frequently for ewes in labor, and it is an absolutely glorious day outside!  The mother hen and her chicks are enjoying being outside in the sun.

Hattie delivered twin BFL-sired ram lambs in the wee hours of Sunday morning.  I went out with a flashlight before dawn to find one of them frozen solid in the ice just outside of the hoop house.  The other was up and nursing.  He's a little chunk!  We've only lost one other lamb at birth before and it was SO sad to find this one. Hattie licked him off very well, but he must have gotten too chilled out in the wind (with temps around 15F) to get up out of the puddle of birthing fluids.  Life goes on and I'm making sure the two BFLs who are due anytime stay locked inside at night now -- even though the weather is much nicer.

And the lamb races have officially begun!  Rhyn's twins and Hattie's ram lamb run in and out of the pole barn while the ewes are eating.  Bouncing baby lambs surely do lift the spirit!  Watch for puppy photos in the days to come.