Spring Preparations

Spring is here and it looks like its here to stay. We've been making changes to the farm in preparation for the 13-20 lambs which are expected officially by April 25th. A quick check this morning showed me a few girl's udders are starting to fill up, with Meg looking like she'll be first, Annie and Dot close behind. I'm quite sure I'll have lambs within a week. My 7 ewe lambs from last year have been put in with my 9 breeding ewes in a large area taking up 2/3 of my sheep barn with a small pasture. The other 1/3 of the sheep barn has now been cleaned up. I will be setting up 2 lambing pens inside and another spare one outside. The pasture associated with the lambing pens has been leveled with soil and overseeded. The sheep will be off of that pasture hopefully for a few weeks, so that the grass can come in. We finally had some great rain last night and this morning, but I'm still doing the rain dance!

Monica the Silver Appleyard Duck's house has been moved out of the sheep's pasture and closer to the house in the "Orchard". She was getting harassed by the sheep. A few young girls, mostly Morgan and Peaches, kept busting through her fencing and squeezing through her little duck door to get inside at her food. I would see Monica quacking about in the sheep pasture and go looking only to find a silly ewe stuck inside her house, because as she'd squeeze through the little door, it would get knocked and drop down closed behind her. Earlier in the spring, we have a low area in the front yard that stays wet for a while, making a pond. One day I carried Monica to the pond and let her play and eat the grass in the pond. She was so happy, making gentle duck noises. I watched her for a while to make sure she was OK, then I went to bring the garbage down to the roadside. She saw me walking away from her and she cut across the yard to follow me. I walked her back to the pond and when it was time to go back to her house, she followed me all the way back to her house in the sheep pasture. I had no idea she was so sweet and bonded to me. I did that several times while the pond still had water. With the recent "summer spell" we had over Easter, the pond dried up, but that's what made me decide to move her closer to the pond. The rain has filled it up again and I've left her fencing open today, so she is wandering about the yard, unhassled by sheep, happily eating grass and occasionally taking a walk down to the pond, but mostly she sticks close to her duck house where she feels safe.