winter wool

I sat and wound up a whole basket full of balls of roving this afternoon - enjoyed putting colors together and looking at the wool again in all of its different stages. Still have some pillowcases full of dyed cleaned wool and also several dirty fleeces from last spring (which are safely stored for now). Unlike my friend Lori, I do not have the space inside to do any kind of work with the wool in winter months - save knitting.

It's been so cold the past few days that doing much of anything outside is a chore, so it's been nice to be indoors and getting caught up on little jobs like winding up wool, watering plants and watching the shadows from the trees get longer and longer as they stretch across the snowy hill.
Been lugging buckets of warm water down to the sheep rather than plugging in the heated buckets so far this winter - we've had so few frigid nights that it seemed just as easy to switch out their water more often. But, the forecast is calling for more zero degree readings in the coming nights so it looks like maybe the time has come to plug in those buckets.
Callie is looking very round, and I think I saw the beginnings of an udder this afternoon. Probably premature on my part since she isn't supposed to lamb until early to mid March - so still 6-8 weeks away.
I'll need to inspect more closely one of these mornings. Having the lambs to look forward to each spring is really one of the best parts of raising sheep for me. The anticipation makes the cold, short winter days much more tolerable and the ultimate arrival - of spring and of lambs - all the sweeter.