Moving On

It's been a busy few weeks since I last posted.  It hasn't really been anything noteworthy, just a lot of chores and projects taken care of, with the additional hands around.  Sadly, that has changed again - Dave and Nicole were unable to stay, as much as they wanted to, and have moved on as of Saturday.  We will miss them - they were a great addition to the farm, and we enjoyed their company as well as the help and energy they contributed to the farm.  Previously, the WWOOFer I mentioned also had to leave unexpectedly, but he is planning to return in a few weeks, so we're looking forward to that.  

Also looked forward to - another lamb.  We still don't have one, but another ewe is quite noticeably bagging up - her udder is getting bigger and bigger, and I think she'll lamb any time now.  At that point I really need to start milking.  It sounds strange, but when we have new help I'm even busier than without, since more of my time is spent showing them how to do things and working with them, getting projects started, and such.  With Dave and Nicole here, I couldn't even think of milking, so I've yet to get the first ewe started on that.  Now that the second lamb is imminent, I need to buckle down and get back into the milking swing of things.  I've also been waiting for the really cold weather to pass - I hate the thought of separating the lamb overnight, even in the little sheep house, when it's hitting teens and single digits at night.  Two of them, though, should be able to snuggle, and hopefully we'll be out of the very cold temps soon.  That's usually done by late January, and we're already pretty close to that.  Also, we have the house set up with a wire gate to separate the moms and babies, so they can't nurse, but they can hear and see each other, and even snuggle up back to back through the fence.  That should also help with warmth.  The fun part is going to be teaching these sheep to milk!  They've never done it before - but then neither have any of the goats I've milked.  This spring, Caleb and I both had to chase down Snowpea and corner her with crooks, and drag her to the milk stand every day for the first week or so.  These girls are much more attached to food than she was, I think they'll pretty happily hang out on the milkstand if there's some feed in it!