The Good & The Bad

Yesterday was a day of good and bad. Lots more good than bad thankfully, in fact only one bad ...but I will get to that. The panic mode that consumes me in early spring wrapped itself around me tightly last week as the weather went from very cold to tolerable in lighter-weight clothing. I have been having lambs for how many years? Yet each and every fall I over think and worry and rethink and fret. So yesterday, fully panicked and worrying, I pulled on my insulated overalls and spent the afternoon mucking out the stalls, re-bedding, cleaning cobwebs, washing and cleaning water buckets and feed pans, and restocking my lambing basket.

I did however take a little time to love on Junior. At a moment of pure exhaustion, I sat down in the hay ...well actually lay down in the hay outside the barn door, and stared up at the blue sky. The sun was shining on the hill and it was warm. My overalls kept me cozy though I knew getting up would take an act of God. Luckily I remembered my camera.

Some days I do not have enough time to spend with him and I do feel very guilty. He is such a love and needs his daily fix of kisses. As soon as he stops growing, he can join the adults and be in the lower paddock. But for now, he has to stay with the boys who continue to Become "men" and eat proper amounts of growing goodness. I'll be in the barn more as soon as the lambs start arriving and I am sure he will love that. I don't feel too bad for him though, he and Mike and Angus have quite the games of King of The Mountain. Speaking of lambs, The first date on my calendar is Jan 25th. This is 145 days from the day I put Crazy Shirley in with Joker. Of course it could be 1-20 days after the date ...and usually the girls are not really willing on the first day. Udders and puffy "hoochies" will give me a more accurate date. I'll have to find the "sheep porn" picture that I took last year when we were about a day away from the first little woolie to arrive. Poor Shirley and Laverne had the hugest udders I have ever seen, and sure enough one day later Lyra arrived and then Pixie.

So all in all the day was satisfying. For once I am ahead of schedule and, dare I say it ...100% prepared. What I wasn't prepared for was the pile of feathers and headless, gutless chicken that was laying on front of the coop. So yes, that was my bad. I saw a large hawk flying around all day but thought that with the dogs out and me making so much noise that it would go away. Apparently when I was lying in the hay, it struck and killed one of my big Buff Orpingtons. He ripped out her feathers and ate her innards as well as her brain ( eeeeeewwwww) and eyes ...and then left the rest! Her crop was still full of grain, the poor thing. So once again I am down another chicken ...so frustrating.