More Snow and Lambs

Got more snow today.


We started putting more dog houses out. Most of the ewes put their lambs inside and stay outside the dog house.


This ewe, Morwenna figured out how to get herself in side as well.


We are feeding more hay out on pasture to the ewes.

Major Snowstorm

Today we got a major snowstorm. Putting the ewe and her twins in a jug with a dog house to protect the new lambs. Had another lamb today too.




We had one ewe lamb born during the storm. We put a dog house and jug panels to keep her and mom in one place.

The twins from yesterday are also jugged with a dog house.

I hope no more ewes decide to lamb for a while yet. We are supposed to have snow and cold until Monday at least.

First Lamb!

It's a good thing we burned the brush earlier. Today it's blowing hard with up to 52 mile per hour gusts and a steady wind. There is a lot of dust in the air.

Of course one of the ewes decided to go into labor.


First lamb of the season. A nice healthy ram lamb.



Ken watching the lamb. The mask is because of the wind and dust.




Several hours later the twin arrived. He was behind the placenta! However he is out and ok now.


Baaa! Make the wind stop!!!


Dust blowing in from Utah.


Break in the clouds in the late afternoon.

More Brush Burned

Got another big pile of brush and old trees burned today. This pile has been sitting here for a couple of years. We still have one pile to burn but it's too close to the hay barn, we have to wait until there is no hay inside and be sure the wind is from the right direction.

Sheep on pasture

Pregnant ewes out on pasture.


They enjoy sitting in their hay.

More Brush Burned

Got more brush burned today. These are the last 2 piles in the main orchard pasture.

Spring or not!

Woke up this morning to more snow.


But it melted off pretty fast and we got the pregnant ewes out onto pasture. Just in time, live cover ewes are at 144 days gestation and the AI ewes are at 142 days. I am expecting lambs by this weekend.


A few flowers even started to poke their heads out.


The ants were having fun on the early dandelions.

Brush Rake & Burning Brush

Larry brought up his brush rake to push the brush from our orchard into burn piles. You can't see it from here but the entire orchard is full of brush from pruning.


Larry on the tractor, Ken & Daniel with the brush rake.


Detail of the brush rake. This one is sturdy and flexible enough to float over most of the rocks.



In use, pushing brush into a pile for burning.


Starting the burn as soon as the pile is large enough but not too large.



Once it's going Larry uses the rake and tractor to pile more brush on top.




We got the east side of the orchard cleared in about an hour and a half. Then spent the rest of the day picking up the firewood . I got all teh electric fences out and ready to string up so we are very close to turnout of the pregnant ewes.

Harri Meets the Ewes

Harri is an Akbash protection dog. This is his first meeting of our pregnant ewes. They were doing well but he is a bit more active than Kimball so they are not yet used to him.

Wooly Lawnmowers

While the main orchard isn't growing well we do have a bit of grass around our guest house. So we decided to use the pregnant ewes to mow it.

Burning Brush

We're late getting the brush out of the orchard. We burn the prunings and we got one pile burned today.



This is the view down the orchard. Still not much grass!

Spring Work Continues

The last couple of days we've been vaccinating the sheep and also doing toe trims. I can't do too many toes before my hands give out so we do them in batches. Pregnant ewes are now completely done except for the spring dewormer. I do that 24-48 hours before we turn them out on pasture so help keep the pastures cleaner. We're holding them in the winter corrals as long as possible because the grass is still not growing well.

Adult rams and ram yearlings all vaccinated. Ram yearlings toes all done.

Left on the list, ewe yearlings shots and toes and adult ram toes. We're slowly getting them all finished.

I've also been doing some farm tours. Yesterday was a group of chefs from Aspen learning about where the meat they buy from us really comes from. Some farms are charging for tours this year but I still think it's part of my job to educate the consumers about real local food.

Getting Ready to Open the Shop and Fun for Chickens

We are starting to get more customers. We are not officially open with regular hours until the end of May but I do open up if people call first. Here is the wool and meat shop. Lots of lovely rovings in stock and a lot of new yarns as well. Plus we still have our lovely Black Welsh socks and meat.


Wall of Wool


Socks, yarn and some combed tops

Chickens are now going out most every day. I tried to get some good pictures but ended up chasing chickens for almost an hour!


This is a Gold Campine hen. The bad thing about predator savvy chickens is they are very wary and so very hard to take pictures of.


The Russian Orloff did finally allow me to get fairly close.