But wait.... There's more

Yes more snow. I really don't think I am ever getting out of here. I was able to get to Delaware to pick Sarah up before this all began, she made it home just in time for a snow day. It is a beautiful snow, but I am just not as impressed as I used to be. I remember our first winter here and how accomplished I felt getting wood for the fire, shoveling and just being able to deal with the challenge of the snow, now I just feel overwhelmed and defeated. I did manage to get some wonderful pictures this morning though.

I got a call from Mom on the trip home that one of the sheep had given birth and the lamb was not doing well. I was expecting Athena to give birth, but it was one of the twins, that was a surprise. I didn't think they were quite due yet. She gave birth to a 11+ ram lamb and as near as we can tell, one of his legs was behind him during the process. He wasn't able to get up to nurse, so we brought him up to the house and I milked the mother for her colostrum, but our efforts failed and we lost him late last night. He was the first of Zeus's lambs. I fully expected to go to the barn and find more lambs this morning, we still have 2 ewe's that are pregnant, thankfully neither decided it was time yet.
This is one of those times that illustrates that I am still learning and do not have things quite set up the best yet. I am juggling space in the barn because both rams are inside right now. I had to move Apollo outside and he is not happy about it at all. We lost 2 of our shelters, so I cannot put him in either of the far paddocks, so he is constantly banging on the barn door. Life would be simpler if I could put him and Zeus together.

More snow

Not an exciting title, but I'm not very excited right now. Just when everything had almost melted, we got a foot of snow. Beautiful light, fluffy, powdery snow. However, Sarah is stuck in Philly, the Atv wouldn't start and the water froze in the barn barrels despite their heaters. I made arrangements for Sarah, charged the battery on the atv, and hauled warm water to the barn in order to melt snow and make more water. So in the scheme of good thing bad thing, the atv got immediately stuck 5 feet out of the barn. So there is now a shoveled walk from the house to the chicken house and then to the barn. Yes I am done with the snow. So I have decided to put up pictures to show those who do enjoy the snow. Well except for the first ones, Maggie does not enjoy the snow, she barely enjoys the outdoors.

Mom makes the trip to the chicken house before I got a chance to shovel a path. She is quite the pioneer.

Contrary to what some people think, Oscar loves the snow, he clearly loves being a snow puppy. He and Max are having a grand time.

Wallace and Marmalade are in agreement with Maggie, the outside is just no fun.

Spot and Slinky disagree, they love the snow.

And the ducks think that if they sit in the snow long enough it will melt and become a pond. "Positive waves Moriarty, positive waves"

So lets all send out positive warm waves, and bring on the spring.

Haircut's all around

It was shearing day today, my woolly beasties shrunk. I am always amazed at how small my goats really are under all the fiber. 3 of the sheep also got sheared today and we discovered that the remaining 2 Ewes are pregnant as well.

Zeus also got his first haircut, he wasn't so happy about it.

In addition to getting a haircut, Pine also made the move into the boy's pen. Up until now he has been in with his sisters. Luckily Castor and Esau were so busy butting heads, they really didn't pay him much attention.

I still have to get in and trim the hair between the horns, but until then most of the angora's are sporting mohawks.

The girls weren't spared either, the shearer also confirmed that Pearl and Pansy are both pregnant. Yeah Esau! We are still a couple months away.

All in all everyone came out just fine.

We did have an amazing wind storm a few days ago, and 2 of our shelters went tumbling. We're not sure if the one can be salvaged, the second one looks fine, just upside down.

Lambs day out

The lambs have made it out for the first time.

Melt Down

It is amazing that 35 degrees seems tropical, but I can hear the icicles falling off the roof and the ducks even found a mud puddle this morning. The goats are out running amok, well they are out of their pens, but only ventured outside for a moment, after all the snow is still deep out there.
The lambs are growing like little weeds, they are bouncing all over the place. I can't wait till they get outside to play.

I let the 2 Ewe's get to together for awhile, and after some head butting and trying to figure out who was who they settled into their old routine. Tomorrow they will become pen mates again, time to make room for the others to come in preparation of the shearer coming next week. Also at that point Athena will stay in until she lambs.

I got tired of painting the lambs to tell them apart, so they now have colorful new collars. Of course the boys thought that trying to eat them would be a good idea. Why is it always the boys?

Alice has been keeping a secret from me, can you tell what it is?

Yes, it would seem that she is going to have a kid. I am assuming the father was Pan, which would be very nice, but who knows what that kid will end up looking like. She is starting to develop her udder, so I am keeping an eye on her. She appears to be keeping an eye on me as well.

Flo is preparing for her grand kid, by learning to play hide and seek. Someone needs to tell her that just because she can't see us, doesn't mean we can't see her.

We have finally reaped the rewards of the angora goats. I am very pleased with the gorgeous yarn that Gurdy Run Mill spun for us. This yarn is 65% mohair and 35% jacob sheep. After seeing the results, I wish that I had access to more jacob. A friend kindly enough gave me some bags of it. It blended beautifully with the mohair to produce a lovely 'brushed nickel' color. I was able to get 42 skeins of yarn and am not sure if I should dye any of it, or just try to sell it as is. I am leaning toward as is. The shine on the yarn is not 'to dye' for. (pun intended)