Rachel and Anna Belle are torturing me. They are due! They are so huge. And yet they lounge in the sunshine. I swear they are waiting for better weather. It was 45 degrees and sunny today. But tomorrow it is supposed to be 59 degrees and sunny. How do they know that?
Clancy thinks I bother them so much that they are crossing their legs until I have to leave the farm. I have cut my trips to the barn down to every four hours. That's hardly bothering, in my opinion. But then again, a week ago I only visited them twice a day at feeding times.
What Clancy misinterprets as excitement for lambies is really annoyance at having to do barn checks in the middle of the night-yet again. It would be so nice to go to bed without setting the alarm for 2am.
To pass the time, I have begun using up my assorted small balls of Shetland yarn. I think I am making a hat. I won't really know for a while though. I don't read patterns yet so I just start knitting and see what happens. Eventually something starts to take form and then I get excited about guiding the project toward the finish. I know it sounds crazy. But so far I've created a beautiful scarf for a friend and a darling hat for a little girl at church. It's serendipity knitting.
I've been cleaning house and organizing clothes closets since the ski hill closed. One more trip to the Goodwill and I won't have a stitch of unnecessary clothing in the house. I truly feel liberated from a terrible bond. Being in charge of 5 people's clothes is a huge burden. Especially when everyone has too many clothes. In my enthusiasm for homekeeping, I even used some of my yarn to darn up some good wool socks. I felt so accomplished that I set off to patch some of the boys' jeans-by hand. Denim is tough and I languish. Holes at the knees are cool, right?
In true Lazy Sunday fashion, Clancy and I took a walk this afternoon. On the driveway we dug little trenches for the spring thaw to trickle toward the ditches. We got almost 20 inches of snow in the past week. School was closed Monday and Friday. The driveway was doing pretty good but it's mud again. Meggie came along for the walk and she looked like a dirty dish rag by the time we returned. She was exuberant in the mud.
Honestly, I have nothing more to write. I'm just trying to keep myself from yelling at the girls to hurry up and have their lambs. The sun is going down, the temperature is dropping. Even if they are smart enough to wait till tomorrow, I am still obligated to check on them during the night. My endurance for interrupted sleep means little to them.
Clancy thinks I bother them so much that they are crossing their legs until I have to leave the farm. I have cut my trips to the barn down to every four hours. That's hardly bothering, in my opinion. But then again, a week ago I only visited them twice a day at feeding times.
What Clancy misinterprets as excitement for lambies is really annoyance at having to do barn checks in the middle of the night-yet again. It would be so nice to go to bed without setting the alarm for 2am.
To pass the time, I have begun using up my assorted small balls of Shetland yarn. I think I am making a hat. I won't really know for a while though. I don't read patterns yet so I just start knitting and see what happens. Eventually something starts to take form and then I get excited about guiding the project toward the finish. I know it sounds crazy. But so far I've created a beautiful scarf for a friend and a darling hat for a little girl at church. It's serendipity knitting.
I've been cleaning house and organizing clothes closets since the ski hill closed. One more trip to the Goodwill and I won't have a stitch of unnecessary clothing in the house. I truly feel liberated from a terrible bond. Being in charge of 5 people's clothes is a huge burden. Especially when everyone has too many clothes. In my enthusiasm for homekeeping, I even used some of my yarn to darn up some good wool socks. I felt so accomplished that I set off to patch some of the boys' jeans-by hand. Denim is tough and I languish. Holes at the knees are cool, right?
In true Lazy Sunday fashion, Clancy and I took a walk this afternoon. On the driveway we dug little trenches for the spring thaw to trickle toward the ditches. We got almost 20 inches of snow in the past week. School was closed Monday and Friday. The driveway was doing pretty good but it's mud again. Meggie came along for the walk and she looked like a dirty dish rag by the time we returned. She was exuberant in the mud.
Honestly, I have nothing more to write. I'm just trying to keep myself from yelling at the girls to hurry up and have their lambs. The sun is going down, the temperature is dropping. Even if they are smart enough to wait till tomorrow, I am still obligated to check on them during the night. My endurance for interrupted sleep means little to them.
4 comments:
I think all your wardrobe spring cleaning is VERY impressive; I need to do that!
Have you considered not doing the middle of the night checks? I know, as soon as you don't something will happen and you'll wish you did. But I didn't fret over Rechel and she presented me with her twin boys when I went down to do morning chores. We'll see if I can remain as relaxed with the other two girls. I WOULD rather they be in a jug BEFORE they lamb, as I don't know that either of them is a supermom like my Rechel.
I make it sound so bad, when really I only get up once during the night. So far, I've only had one ewe lamb here in the middle of the night and that was a first time mom the first year I owned sheep. Zora. Usually lambs are waiting for me at 6 am. Or they are born around 4 pm. But I'm checking so much because of the fear of white muscle disease this year. I really need to give the Se shots as soon as possible if the lambs are weak. Plus it is unseasonably cool here and we have all the snow. I dread finding frozen lambs. My small barn is dry and full of bedding, but the doors are open so the sheep can go in and out. And six ewes couldn't heat up a barn anyway if I did close them in. There is also no electricity out there-so my best bet is getting the lambs dried off asap.
As for Rach and Anna Belle, they have already picked out their spots to lamb. They each have a dark corner that they refuse to share with the flock. :) I love older ewes. They are so smart!
oh sabrina.....i hate waiting for lambs!! Some of the girls have been so HUGE and bagged up for WEEKS I don't know when they will finally pop! It drives me crazy...sleepless nights......most of my girls have lambed between 2am and 6am, or at 4pm. i'm hoping next year they listen and have them at 7am and 10pm. much easier on their shepherd!! GOOD LUCK!!
My girls are doing the same thing. I had all the names (except three) neatly marked on the calendar with due dates. Only a couple lambed as I expected. Three were marked down for over a week ago and they are still hanging on - so I give up, when they're ready they'll come I guess. I've been doing a 10 or 11 p.m. check and then they're on their own until 6 a.m. I have a huge girl that I am quite worried about. I hope I'll be there for her when the time comes. This year all mine have lambed between 5 a.m. and about 1 or 2 p.m. Good luck, I hope they come through for you soon!
Also, I love your knitting style, keep up the good work. You would probably really enjoy Elizabeth Zimmermann's knitting books, she was an artist who championed not following patterns in one's knitting, just thinking about what YOU want to make and doing it.
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