After The New Year and Lambing At Full Speed

I’m really enjoying this after New Year time of the year. Julia is back at school, lambs are being born, and The Farmer and I are working on lots of plans for our farm, the farm classes and my design business, both jointly and separately. It is exciting to dream up ideas and hopefully we can put some of them into work. There are always way more ideas than I can ever carry out and afford to do.

My friend Lori and I were talking the other day and I was telling her how I was enjoying producing the downloadable patterns for sale on my blog. She does all my tech editing and is a real pro, besides being one of the most amazing lace knitters I know. We worked together at CEY for a few years and she knows me really well. She was reminding me of my working style. Procrastinate to the max until just before the deadline and then churn out a bunch of work. Her term was “erupting like Vesuvius.” I know she is right…… From now on in, I am going to put that image in my mind as I create. It’s a good one I think.

When you work at any way in the creative arts, project concepts build upon each other. Ideas simmer in the back of my mind constantly. Sometimes I act upon them and sometimes they sit there dormant until the perfect project comes along. I’m pretty sure most artists work this way. It is part of the creative process. Artists always have way more ideas than time and money, wouldn’t you agree? But it is that way with everyone, not only artists.

After the first five lambs were born just before New Year’s, there was a lull in the barn. That happens every year and we expect it. Usually about a week later, the ewes start lambing at record speed. It’s happening now…. As we speak.

Which leads me to these photos of a lamb being born yesterday afternoon. I was at the barn early in the afternoon and this lamb was in labor. I had to run to the school to pick Julia up. When we arrived back at the barn, the ewe had delivered a nice healthy lamb. She was still acting a bit distracted, pawing at the ground, indicating that there might be a second lamb. Julia and I decided to wait. We waited and waited and waited some more. Julia was really fascinated with all the stuff that was coming out of her backside. This is the first time she has asked a lot of questions about birth. Other times she has just watched and not known really what kinds of questions to ask.


All of a sudden the ewe started straining and a foot appeared. Then it was sucked back into her body. A minute later it appeared along with the nose....


You can see the first lamb at the left, a bit covered with dirt from the barn floor. Then the head....


the neck.....



and whoooooosh.....



out popped the lamb onto the dirt and hay covered barn floor.


In an instant, Mama started cleaning.....


and licking all the wet fluids off the lamb, no help necessary from us.....

A picture perfect birth.


The twins are doing fine today. It promises to be a very busy weekend in the barn and the temperatures are not very favorable to lambing. But that is life and nature and we will cope as we always do.