First-ever Fall-born Lamb!

There's a rhythm to sheep farming that I have become accustomed to. Today is...syncopated.

We returned from ram relocation (i.e. moving the mature rams to Brian's parents' lush pasture to prepare them for breeding) to find that the first of our fall-lambing ewes had delivered an adorable speckled ram-lamb. You could almost literally see 'clean out the barn' moving up on Brian's priority list! Meanwhile I was trying to remember all of the things we usually do at lambing time. Funny, it was second nature in April.

Mama and lamb are now safely tucked into a lambing jug for some bonding time, and now we wait for a flurry of lambs over the next couple of weeks.

A face any one could love!

This speckled baby boy is our first-ever fall-born lamb. He is definitely out of Dalton and his mama is definitely not full-blooded Dorper since she never fully shed her wool coat.

We spent most of last week sprucing up the farm in preparation for having our Bible study group here on Sunday. We rotate between houses, but we are so far off the beaten path that we aren't in the regular rotation. We mowed and ran the weed-eater, cleaned the garage, and just generally cleaned up the stuff that accumulates as we move from project to project. So things are looking really good around here right now. Which is a good feeling that I will thoroughly enjoy as long as it lasts! Plus the weather has really taken a turn towards fall with daytime highs in the 70s and overnight lows in the upper 40s. I even grabbed a jacket before heading outside to feed this morning. In the pocket of said jacket I found my headlamp, and that is perfect timing as I will be needing it for late night lambing checks.

Fall favorite: Autumn Joy sedum

Some kind of maiden grass, which I dug up from along the driveway and is now thriving. Gotta love that clear blue sky that comes will fall.

Asters. I have tried to grow these several different times from bareroot cuttings and had zero luck. So when I spotted these beauties at the Wal-Mart garden center I had to get them. When I planted them I discovered that some of the tulips that I planted in little pots (in an attempt to protect them from being eaten) last fall were completely gone. It was too late to tell if they had rotted or just died, but there was only powdery dirt and a papery outer skin left in my pots. One of these days I will resign myself to the fact that most tulips have to be treated as annuals, but for now I am still annoyed!

A Red-spotted Purple butterfly. I also saw the first Monarchs visiting butterfly bushes in the yard this past week.