Signs of Spring

Sign #1 - The barn is clean. A mountain of manure now awaits spreading. It is composting nicely; although we got 18 inches of snow March 5-6, none accumulated on the top of the manure pile and steam can be seen rising from the pile in the mornings.

View from the front porch two days after the storm. Initially, the snow was really pretty and the trees and fences were outlined in white. But the melting started before the snow stopped falling and I didn't capture any of those pictures. The heavy snow broke off numerous limbs around our place, and we lost power for most of Wednesday.

Sign #2 - The sheep are shorn. March came in like a lamb before the shearers; 2 very full days, 76 sheep shorn, four wool bags packed. Only three or four ewes appeared to have no udder development, and a couple of those may start showing later as their due dates get closer. So it is confirmed; we will be busy with lambs very soon. Lamb-weather was soon followed by a lion of a snow storm, 18 inches over about 8 hours. Thanks to above freezing temperatures and a big rain, by yesterday (one week after the storm) there was very little evidence of snow...just a lot of mud. But we are thankful for the moisture; this was the first measurable snow of the winter.

 Sign #3 - The garden is awakening! Crocus had been blooming for a while now, but after the snow melted there are even more crocus out and the very first daffodils opened today. Now I really need to get out there and clean off the beds, trim the butterfly bushes, and start working on the vegetable garden. We also have some blackberry cuttings from Brian's mom that desperately need to get in the ground.

Sign #4 - No electric net fence in the fields. We took down all but three sections of fence in preparation for the snow storm and piled it in the barn to keep the snow from damaging it. The newly shorn ewes moved to the high-tensile field where we could keep a close eye on them and feed round bales of hay. The fall-lambing ewes and their lambs moved to the barn, and we finally got the lambs separated. A quick trip across the scales this weekend showed that the 10 lambs averaged 60 pounds. They are ready for the Easter market and will be sent to New Holland this weekend. Yesterday we started setting fence out again, preparing to move the fall-lambing ewes to New Hope, the rams to Brian's parents, and the spring-lambing ewes to the barn and the field surrounding it. The first group of ewes will go into the drop pen in the barn on Sunday.

In other news, we found Ramathorne (Thorny), our original ram, dead in his pen the day of the snow storm. He was nine years old and served us well. We have six of the 2012 ewe lambs bred to him, so they will be our final crop of his lambs.

On a happier note, we framed in the utility room at the barn this Saturday. It turned out nicely, just needs a little more work to move in our supplies. The electrician was scheduled to come last week, but had to help with power outages during the snow storm. So he is rescheduled to come tomorrow and we are a few steps closer to having lights and power at the barn and power in the basement kitchen. Saturday was a good day all around as we also got to spend time with Brian's family and meet our new niece Eden.

We have been working to get the barn ready for lambing, setting up jugs, hauling hay and straw home, and re-stocking all of our supplies. We ordered some panels to modify the layout of our working area a bit, and it looks like the order will arrive just before we start lambing. Ready or not, it's about to get crazy in Craigsville!