April!

Henry!

The first day of April always feels like Spring, even though last year we were having a blizzard and lost power for hours. It was my first full day with Henry, and I remember feeling thankful to have the day off from school to stay home with the new puppy. He's still so much a puppy a year later. Hopeful that the destructive side will wear off with age...

Maya and Rita, the two ewes who spent a couple of months with Hercules last fall, are looking round and getting closer to lambing. Both have good sized udders coming in and have started to lay around more than usual, often times in the barn alone while the rest of the sheep are outside (beginning to graze, which is crazy at this time of the year). It will be exciting to have spotted sheep here at the Salty Ewe again, after starting with the Jacobs over ten years ago now. And, if they're anywhere as adorable as the spotted babydoll lambs that I have seen from Kelly's Romney Ridge Farm, we're in for a treat here on the farmette. I can't wait. They are, after all, the real sign of spring.

A younger Hercules. He still relaxes in this position!

2012!

The Salty Ewe Shepherdess has been out of the writing mode of late and hopes that everyone has enjoyed the holiday season and that 2012 is off to a banner start. The sheep are all doing great and still able to 'graze' since we still have no snow in Maine. Unheard of.

Lori's great photography - Winter Sheep

Hercules has adjusted beautifully and brought all kinds of good energy to the farmette. He is gentle and inquisitive, and he's got a unique little personality that I get to see on occasion. The girls are all well and looking a little chubby, which I would rather have over bony. Their fleeces have started to thicken up, and tonight's forecast of zero degree temperatures will certainly aid in the production of more wool I think. It's been so nice not to have the heated water buckets plugged in for so long - and to be able to see the sheep moving freely aver their pasture instead of snow-locked into the areas that I clear for them in the deep snow. Having said that, we're ready for snow in New England.
Happy New Year to everyone. Wishing you the best in the coming year and thanks for reading the Salty Ewe's blog - even when weeks pass without a post.

Thankful.

Holidays are hard sometimes. For people...I doubt so much for sheep. Distance and time and logistics sometimes get in the way of my family being together during the holidays, and lately it's because I am the only one who lives far away from the rest and cannot always make it to holiday central, which is in Georgia. It's a long way from Maine. This year will be one of those years.
And, so it goes. It makes me appreciate the times we are together that much more. It also reminds me that many families are together for that one day (or two) and not too close the other 364; not mine, and if I had to choose, it would be to be very close for all 365 and just absent in the physical sense for a day or two.

Bill. Heading to Shearbrooke Farm! Thankful...

So, this one has nothing to do with sheep, but everything to do with the shepherd. Thanks to all you people who I don't know for reading this blog...how crazy to think you're out there in India (who are you?) and Russia (you, too?) reading about this little life on a little farm in little Maine. And, thanks to my family and friends who have been reading these words and giving me encouragement. It's been a wild and wooly trip so far, and I am deeply thankful for the chance to live this peaceful life. And thankful for the chance to share a little of it here. Happy Thanksgiving to all.