Almost February!

Callie, in back, looking quite round

Even though we're still in the depths of winter here in Maine, there's something about the end of January that makes it feel like the end of winter is near. Or at least nearer. We've added almost an hour of daylight since the winter solstice, almost all of which seems to occur in the afternoon. Sunrise still at o'dark thirty, making the morning chores a little less enjoyable since it's hard to see. The shepherd's night vision isn't what it used to be.
The end of January also means that I start to look for signs of coming lambs. Callie is getting rounder by the week and yesterday I felt around underneath her and she is indeed beginning to bag up. That's the term that's used to describe the process of an udder forming, and over the years I have learned not only to call it the right thing but also to tell how close a ewe is from lambing out from the size of that udder; that and a few other signs that make it pretty unmistakeable. I remember taking notes and then even photos of different stages of a ewe as she got closer to lambing, because I remember thinking that I would never get it, that I would never know what the hell I was doing and now look at me; everything I've learned about these sheep has been from reading, experiencing and picking the brains of other people who keep sheep (that's another post!). From prolapses to stillborn lambs, and most recently the maggot episode, the lessons that the sheep have taught me about taking care of them are valuable in so many ways.

Who, me?