Seven Down, Four to Go

Ginger, with Beulah, (a girl!) born on the 27th.

We have 9 baby lambs on the ground, from 7 mamas. Only two sets of twins this year, but a better ratio of males to females (4 girls, 5 boys vs last year’s 3 girls and 10 boys). We have one more older sheep, Sin, to go (she was the last one to give birth last spring too). And then we have the three girls that were born last spring, who should also be pregnant. They should be giving birth in late February, at the earliest.

Bean is on the left. His sister Butter is on the right. Mama Wallula does her best to put up with all of us.

The Bean is doing great. He’s probably always going to be a little squirt, but he’s 3 weeks old today. He runs over to me when I show up with the bottle, sucks down what he wants (not always the whole amount, but that’s OK), and runs away. No snuggles with this baby. But he hangs out with his mama and his sister, sometimes standing on mama or sleeping with his head draped over his sister, and plays with the other lambs and generally acts like a normal sheep. His teeth are coming in (don’t know about the back ones, but I can feel the bottom front ones when he occasionally sucks on my finger). These sheep start gumming hay or grass almost as soon as they are born. It’s pretty amazing to see how instinctual that behavior is.

Cocoa with her twins. Names escape me at the moment, but the lighter one is a girl. Cocoa is part Soay sheep, and it tends to show in her offspring. Notice the lack of black bellies?

The weather…sigh…is overcast. We’ve had fog, and overcast, and freezing fog, and overcast, and rain, and the occasional snowflake, and then more fog. I shouldn’t complain. We’re not shoveling snow, or having lambs born into below zero temperatures. But I’m a sunshine girl. These gray days just drag on me. We had a very brief show of sunshine yesterday, which is when I took these pictures. Then it rained 1/2 inch and this morning everything was coated in ice. Ugh. I can’t wait for spring!

Malcolm, assisting in the garden planning.

So, I plan the garden and dream of warmer days. I purchased a 10 x 12 Harbor Freight greenhouse. With the sale price and a 20% off coupon (thank you RetailMeNot), I was able to pick it up for $600. Which no matter how you slice it, is a screaming deal for anything with polycarbonate panels (think clear thick cardboard, rather than just a thin layer of plastic sheeting). These greenhouses have a reputation for being unstable in the wind, so we’ll be doing a LOT of beefing up when we put it up, a la advice from this blog. SO excited to have a more formal space for plant starts. A friend of mine has one. She calls it her Germination Station. I’ve decided I’m going to grow all of my lettuce and spinach from transplants this year, so am definitely going to need more space for all of those starts!

I mean seriously. How gorgeous is this baby? I think we named her Bella.

And this weekend, I’m off to the Washington State Farmers Market Association Conference in Vancouver Washington. How cool is that? I applied for and received a scholarship, so just need to cover transportation and lodging. And it turns out I can take a train from Pasco to Vancouver for $33 one way. Probably less than what it would cost me to drive. I’ve never taken a passenger train in the U.S., so am looking forward to that adventure (and not driving in what might be sketchy weather).

So the husband gets to feed the Bean this weekend, in between watching the Super Bowl, which I will miss. I’m heartbroken. Can’t you tell? Wink.