Day Two of Lambs 2024 and Getting Stuff Done

Day two of lambs on Saturday started with feeding the ewes with their lambs. Even the little lambs are loving their grain!

Once everyone was fed I took Rico to move some sheep from a small pen near the barn to a large pasture in the back of the property where they could enjoy some fresh spring grass all day.

It was such a spectacular day!!! What a great day to spend with lambs, dogs, puppies and friends!

Once we had the morning chores done we headed up to the back pasture to see if any lambs were born over night. We drove through looking in the trees to see if there are ewes with babies under cover. And there they were…

Three ewes had a total of five lambs. Two sets of twins and a singleton. We got busy getting them all loaded up in the lamb wagon. This little one’s mom was nervous so my friend had me hold her on a piece of twine so the mom would stay close. If we had put this lamb in the lamb wagon while we caught the other lambs she may have been too stressed and would have joined the flock of pregnant ewes.

The mom stuck around while we got the other lambs loaded up and then this little lamb went in last.

There are five newborn lambs in that crate! So we were off to the barn with moms following along.

Wyatt the Australian shepherd helped keep everyone moving and Isaac the guard dog came along to be part of the action.

We got them all taken care of right away with ear tags, banding tails and castrating the males and had them in their pasture for time to continue bonding with their moms.

After getting those lambs and moms all settled we spent some quality time with PUPPIES!

They were wrestling and growling and having a blast!

One last puppy photo…

My friend had to make a run to the airport in Portland next so while she was gone I did some more work with Rico on a few sheep. He was brilliant again!!!

Then a quick dip to Rico cool off.

After eating the delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich I brought along we headed down the road to some logging company land to have a nice stroll In the trees.

These boys do love an opportunity to run free.

We walked about two miles then headed back to let Rico work the sheep one more time before my friend returned.

It was almost 3:00 by that time so we made another swing through the pasture with the pregnant ewes to see if anyone had lambed and there were no new lambs. But there was one ewe who was clearly in the process so we split her and three others off from the flock and had Wyatt help us get them down to a paddock near the barn with the lambs we had picked up earlier in the day. We left the mom in labor there and took the other three ewes back up to the pasture. Trudy let me know this evening that the ewe had twins!

I was on my way home at around 4:00 and was so tired! It was such a gorgeous day! Look at this!!!

Days spent lambing are two of the best days of the year! It’s spring! There are adorable lambs everywhere. I get to do things I’ve never done before And I get to do some physical work and spend the day outside in a beautiful place! Nothing wrong with any of that. Oh, and there were puppies this year!

I played pickleball this morning then headed home to start checking stuff off my to-do list. I did get my tax materials all put together and off to my accountant.

I also got my Aboriginal Libby quilt trimmed… first I marked a cutting line, then stitched inside that line, then cut the excess fabric away.

All those cut edges are on the bias so I used the line of stitching to keep everything in place.

There is enough fabric cut off to make one or two bags. It will not go to waste.

Once that was done I measured the quilt and calculated how big my backing needed to be and then dug in on that final project… a project I detest! I had it measured, cut, sewn and pressed in no time.

I was able to make the backing with fabric running across the width. Two widths will be enough.

And since someone will ask, here’s the info on that backing fabric.

My friend Linda gave me that fabric for Christmas. It was intended for this quilt. The trimmed quilt top, backing and binding fabric are all folded and packaged and ready to head off to my long arm quilter tomorrow.

After visiting my long armer tomorrow I hope to get my strawberry tank soil boosted with some compost I bought and then I’ll plant my new strawberry plants. After that, I’ll have a lot of time to square up the rest of my Brandon Leftover blocks.

Happy Easter!