March 29, 2009 Today we will see sunshine. Yesterday I saw sunshine but it was not coming from the sky. We had a work party come from Issaquah, they helped dig out our accumulated straw and manure in the barn. A smelly, messy, muscle aching, job. It was cold and wet and even snowed big wet flakes all morning. I had just finished feeding the lambs when the first car drove up. My favorite barn coat has now lost it’s water repellency and I was wet, my fingers were frozen, I was crabby and sick of cold weather. Dan was the first one out of the car with a huge, warm smile on his face and even though I groused about the temperature my heart was beginning to see some sun breaks and I know spring will come. How much this group has blessed us I will never be able to recount. Our barn is half cleaned and that alone would be three months work for me fitting it in when I could, getting interrupted by kids, life, work, cheese. It is beautiful already. They are beautiful and have been down several times always happy, hard working, and just fun. Thank you! The lambs keep coming. Our yearling mommas have done well. We have one little girl who had a beautiful 12 pound baby who is 21 pounds at one week of age. Wow. She has made it all look so easy! We have two little mommas who had twins but have refused the first one out. We were not in attendance at these births both came at night in between barn checks. One little momma must have had them about 4:30 in the morning. I went out at 5 am and I could hear a new baby before I got to the shed. I found him. Sitting under a heat lamp all dried off and yelling for food. No momma within sight. I had to rethink all the recent births to see if we had gotten all the new lambs tagged. Nope we were up to date on ear tags so It had to be a new one. No ewe in the immediate vicinity showed any signs of a recent delivery. I searched further and there behind a feeder about 30 feet away was the momma with another baby. I brought Junior over for her, she was not willing to recognize him as her own. So then I had to rethink, was this here lamb....did anyone else lamb in the middle of the night? I looked and looked while the momma butted him away from her so I scooped him up to protect him and kept looking for another momma. Nope it had to be hers so I called Brad out to help me get feisty momma in a pen and make sure the second baby was eating. We milked out colostrum and fed it to our new baby. I have two bottle babies now. Just when we had graduated all the others off the bucket. Thankfully Big Momma had given us two bags full of colostrum out of her excess, so the babies are getting a healthy start and will finish up on formula. Whew, never a dull moment, though sometimes that would be nice. I guess dull is a matter of opinion. Some people would consider shoveling poop for 6 hours dull, or monotonous checks to the barn in the middle of the night dull but I don’t. I get tired of it but it is only as dull as you make it. As with any job. Our new mommas are doing well. Gretchen has loaned us Mayday, one of her beautiful big ewes, she is quite large and had now dropped. We should see babies soon and then we are down to only 4 more to go. Three of them we have been watching for half a week or so and then one was marked late. She will be delivering in April for sure. Down to just a handful.

March 22, 2009 Spring is here, so my calendar says. Actually the sun did shine yesterday. We cleaned out the old junk pile under the barn eaves. The old cow dairy milking apparatus was stored in this unused alcove 13 years ago when Brad cut it out of the milk house. It was stored, just in case any of those metal pieces would be useful. It was flooded and full of, now dry, mud so we pulled it all out and will scrape out the dust. We will put the feeders outside the barn now, under this alcove. Since spring is here it will be warmer at night and the sheep will need cover but not necessarily to be totally enclosed. Right. Tell that to our little momma who gave us two black ewe lambs last night at 1:30. It was nice to have them in the shed with shelter all around and lots of soft bedding. They are cute, jet black. We needed to have some black ewe lambs or we might have to change the name of our creamery. The White Sheep Creamery, does not have the same ring to it. Why did we choose the name, Black Sheep Creamery. A lot of people ask me that. Being the Black Sheep has some very negative connotations. None of which we were emulating when we chose the name. We were the first all sheep dairy licensed in the State of Washington. We felt we had gone against the norm. I guess we like to look at things from another angle. It does not all have to be uniform and just what is expected. Throw them a curve every now and then. It is fun to go to market and sample sheep milk cheese to people who never knew you could milk sheep. It is good to look outside the box, you might find something you really like. But don’t bring it inside the box, close it up, and make it “normal” keep your mind open and try something different. We had a potential intern stop in for a visit the other day. She was looking outside the box, it is all about staying interested and keeping an open mind looking at how and why things work and not just using what is easily available. We all have areas in our lives that we need to follow the rules and toe the line. And then there are areas in our lives we can be creative and enjoy all the world has to offer us. Taxes, dairy regulations, insurance, school attendance (yes, I am one of those moms) all are things that need to be respected in my book. Trying something new like sheep cheese, milking sheep, living on a farm, eating brussel sprouts, are all areas I can look at outside of the box. There are more. We all have parts of our lives that belong inside the box and outside. I don’t think God belongs in the box. I am sitting in church typing away while the kids are in Sunday School. It is interesting to think of those who would put God in a box to be brought out on Sunday and all the proper actions accomplished and tucked away again till the next week. I am sometimes guilty of that too. But then I look at the new little lambs, or the green grass and daffodils struggling through the snow and I see the beauty God created outside these buildings we call Churches. I see people who are “God in Action” ministering to the poor and needy both here and abroad. I see young people with a passion to put their faith into action. They have a purpose, and will, a burning desire to see God’s word expressed in the world. It is good to think outside of the box. The caution I have to give myself is that we all have our own boxes. We put things in and take them out. Perhaps it is in closing the box up that we run into close-mindedness. If I felt I knew it all and put in the box those finite things that I could run my life on then God would not fit. I am thankful that God does not fit in my box because it is a much bigger and better world looking at all that He has created and made for us to learn from. Some lessons are funner than others. We are all, unfortuneatley, judged by people, and are judgemental ourselves, but it is that final judgment that makes us feel comfortable with being “Black Sheep”. If I am willing to look at the world in a different way it is okay, God will judge my actions and Brad and I will have fun choosing what is in our box and what we hope to look at and relish on the outside. Like Sheep and Cheese and being “Black Sheep”.


March 18. 2009 Big momma and babies are doing very well. Deborah and I did very well yesterday. We made fresh cheese. We used the new cheese packaging room. We are very thankful to all the volunteers that helped piece our buildings together and to all those who sent in a donation to make that possible. It was a true blessing. Poor Deborah heard me grousing all last year about space for this, where is that, how can we work around all this stuff. We did everything in the Cheese making room last year. We balanced tubs on top of ice chests, perched our round bottom bowl on a 36 inch high stool, crammed our weighing, mixing, and scooping skills onto a 4 foot table top. It was tight and hot and we made it with no loss of life limb or property, except a few tubs that toppled off the round edges of the vacuum sealer when I tried to use it as a table. Yesterday we used 12 feet of table top with room for the scale to weigh the batches of cheese, measure and mix in the herbs and then had a bowl ready for the scooping and weighing that could be done at the same time. Last year we had to finish up one part of the process and then clean up and get out the other smaller scale for weighing the tubs, or use the make table which is a low table that worked, at the expense of one’s back. Wow, we did 30 gallons of milk in 3.5 hours. Deborah commented on how much more efficient this was, that was an understatement. It was nice. I took some of our Ten Willow Tomme to Steve’s Cheese in NW Portland and also the fresh order to Market of Choice. It is wonderful to be back in the saddle again. Today we met Lisa Owen who owns and operates The Mark, a restaurant in Olympia. She focuses on Spanish and Italian Cuisine and is certified organic. Sounds like a wonderful place to go. I am currently taking a two month trip to Italy, all for only $8.00. I borrowed a Frances Mayes book from the library and found I got through a whopping 14 pages in ten days. I found her books used for $8.00. It will take me a good two months to get through them so I am going on a two month tour of Tuscany and will enjoy every morsel described, every view seen, every person discussed, every weed pulled, wall painted or scrubbed, and every glass of wine lifted to their lives in Adventure. Her writings are so clear and vivid I feel as if I am there, though I have never been to Europe. I will savor each word and enjoy, that is why I purchased them I can take my time along the way. (besides I fall asleep if I sit down to read for any length of time.) Baby patrol at 2 am netted a new ewe lamb. 8025 had a girl but was so intent on licking it off she did not want it to nurse. I had to call Brad out to help me hold her so we could get the baby on. She did fine once she realized what all this was about...That is why we like to be out checking at all hours, it would not have made it till morning without getting fed. Today the sun is shining, it is good, I am ready for spring, dry ground and green gowing things. March 17 post had been erased for some unknown reason so we will report that Big Momma has three ram lambs weighing in a  total of 33 pounds at birtth.  She is now doing well and babies are gaining about 6 pounds a week on all that wonderful milk she has.  Brad got 10 pounds of colostrum milked out of her that first day and we have two bottle babies who have benefited well from her overachievement.  Will try to repost that wonderful picture of momma and Patrick.

March 15, 2009, Big Momma is still big and happy to be eating and getting bigger.  Our friend Gretchen says her momma that had quints had a bag that was as deep as this one but hit the ground.....oh my!

As noted on the home page Brad is starting a batch of fresh cheese today.  It will take about three days and we will be delivering this to Boistfort Valley Farms to put into their Winter CSA boxes, and to Market of Choice.  What a good feeling, breeding, watching, feeding, lambing, feeding more, graining, milking and now to cheese.

March 14, 2009 as of 5:30 am, Big momma is still big.  I will call the vet today to make sure we are on the right track.  She actually physically looks much better in the small pen but she does not like being separated.  So....hoping to move things along last night we put the newest momma in the lambing jug next to her.  So far it has not worked.  Candy had a white ewe and a jet black ram lamb last evening just as Brad finished up milking.  He had just been out to check on progress and was cleaning up when I came out to check one more time before getting kids in bed.  "Oh, it will be a while" he says, not much pushing going on.  We just to prove him wrong I walk in and she is pushing for all she has, I tell him she will let us get to bed a a decent time and by the time I walk 25 yards back the first one was out, and the second not 5 minutes later.  She is a first time mom and was more interested in licking than feeding.  We held her head and got the babies on the teat and she gave us this look like, so that is what that bag is for. I guess we had better be more careful when we name them.  Perhaps Candy is just full of empty calories.  The babies looked very good this morning the ewe lamb was taking a nice long drink when I walked into the barn and momma was standing for it like a pro.

Big Momma enjoys a chew as she stands around growing.

March 12, 2009, Well, Big Momma is still Big.  It was later on Tuseday we noticed Big Momma could hardly walk.  Brad said he had brought water into the barn a couple of times for her since she was not ambulating over to the water tank.  We called the vet and he said if she cannot walk it is time to induce.  She can get around but I would not call it walking, more like shuffling.   The vet said to come in in the morning and he would have an injection ready for us.....We have never had to do this before but she is up and eating and looks good.  I do not want to wait till she is flat out down, ketotic and dehydrated because she could not eat or drink. Tuesday night it goes without saying we were up every 3 hours to check on her, and the yearlings, who are now ready to pop.  Where was my two weeks off in between lambings?  I went out at I:00 am and looked across to the lambing jug we had made for her.  We put two jugs up together so she would have "plenty of space".  I looked over to the pen as I entered the barn and did not see her.  Oh my, I went around the feeder and saw her laid out in a corner with her legs stretched behind her high centered on her udder.  Oh my, what a nurse, first assessment, she was breathing.   Second assessment, she was stuck.  I opened up the pen a bit wider and put my foot down for her to get some traction on the wood floor and she was able to muscles herself up.  Oh my, had she been unable to help herself we would have needed a tow truck to get her back on her feet.  I decided then and there that we would get that induction going first thing in the morning.  So, at 8:30 I went to the vet to get the med and realized...this is Wednesday, the preschoolers are coming for a field trip today.  How long before this stuff will go into effect?  "oh, 2-3 days"  Oh, part of me wanted it to be over and done with but part of me knows if it takes a while the whole event should be more tolerable....we will see.  We gave her the injection hoping it would not send her into orbit and bring babies out during the field trip.  That would be a memory for some of those kids.  She is happy to eat and get special attention in her stall and she impressed all the mothers on the field trip bringing back fond memories of being engorged after our own babies.  Sigh, so as of this morning Big Momma is still big.  She looked like she was uncomfortable a couple of times yesterday so we had hopes it was all starting.  The up comes the cud and she was ruminating again and looking at us like "what am I the Circus clown?". 

We weaned the first set of babies last night.  It was a circus around here all night long babies were crying out side our bedroom window and then in the barn it was very noisy every time I went out.  It is sad but it was time.  We had noticed the first momma to deliver was being much less patient with her lambs.  She would walk away and not let them nurse long at all.  I don't blame her they come running up to their mom's, full speed, butt the udder to stimulate milk flow and then latch on and hold on for all their worth.  Mom's tend to walk away and the babies are  hanging on.  It was time.  We have noticed the longer they stay on mom the slower they grow.  I like to see a 4-5 pound a week gain in the first four weeks but have noted the longer I leave them with mom the less they gain.  If I wean them and get them on more creep feed, grain, they will continue to gain 4-5 pounds a week for a while longer.  By 5:00 am they were quiet in the orchard, It will still be noisy but at least they all got some rest too.
We will let you know how Big Momma does.

March 9 2009, My sister told me I was too much of a nurse with that last post.....Think of it as a dream, with dream qualities.  And momma still has not lambed.  Our friend Gretchen has had ewes that have gotten huge like this and as long as they are up and eating I guess it is okay.  I hurt for her every time I go into the barn but she seems happy to be eating.  She was "nesting" the other evening so we got up twice to check but she still just stood chewing her cud.  Sigh.
We will wean the first babies on Wednesday.  We had hoped to do that this weekend but it snowed....What a bunch of weanies they are probably saying in Wisconsin.  It seemed too cold to wean especially since we are moving them to a pasture with a shelter that is not fully enclosed.  They probably would have been fine but we are to warm up by Wednesday and will pull babies then.  It will be loud for a couple days but then all settles down again as grain is given and the mounds of mud are found to run and jump on. 

March 1, 2009 Still one more momma to lamb. Our “Mountain Momma” as Brad had named her is still huge, still has her face in the feeder every time we feed, and calmly sits chewing cud each time we go to check on her. She was marked twice, the first time for a February 17th due date and the second for March 19th. I hope we don’t have to wait that long for her to deliver. I had a dream about her last night that she went into labor and had troubles. I could not get in there to figure out what was happening so we called the vet. He stood looking her over and said it would be some huge amount of money to do a c-section so we had to make a decision. We somehow got to the point where she died and we had to cut her open to see what she had inside. I woke up after we pulled the 5th 10 pound baby out of her. I am glad it was a dream. This morning she was in the barn looking just fine. Dreams are interesting.

The babies are fun to watch. This week in the sunshine we had a band of about 25 to 30 lambs running up and over and around a large dirt pile in the barn yard. The funniest thing is the half grown lambs that join in. The little ones run all out and the larger lambs run with them with some extra high kicks inbetween laps. It is just plain fun to watch. The lambs are separating from their mommas just a bit. At first they are always at her side and they call back and forth to each other. Then they begin to stray a bit farther, then they are in this running pack of energy that when the “batteries” need recharging they lie in a puddle all together in the barn. This is amazing as well we will get a large pile of lambs all huddled and cuddled together. One of them will get a wild hair and jump up and the whole pack will follow on another wild chase around the yard and then they all collapse again, or find momma for a drink.

February 25, 2009  We could call if sleep deprivation, or laziness, or too much to do or? I just updated the Lambs for Sale page but be warned those I marked as a Wether, or a castrated ram, may become rams once again.....I did not write clearly on my barn cards which ones looked good enough to use as breeding stock and which did not.  Therefore that little item may be changing on future renditions.  

February 23, 2009 It is such a wonder that we live and work in such a small part of a big puzzle. Yet the concept of being only 6 relationships away from everyone else boggles my mind. We had a visitor over the weekend who is interested in the cheese field but not sure just where to fit in.....It amazed me the number of options she could see to use as entries into working with cheeses. Easy enough is to make the cheese, but do you raise your own animals and milk them or buy in the milk. If you are one who does not like to be tied down, buy in milk.....could that be done in a shop setting, such as Beechers where they have cheesemakers in the cheese sales building. She could open a shop and just sell cheese, or have education classes where she would teach about cheese and possibly work with wine pairings or just explore the vast numbers and varieties of cheeses worldwide. She could give insight on the history and uses of the cheeses they explore. The idea of running cheese tours came up. Rikki Carroll took a cheese tour through Europe a few years back, maybe she has since. What about tours of US cheesemakers. What about touring local wineries as well. Cheese distributors call us to offer their help, Cheese Judges, Cheese Writers like Tami Parr who has a book coming out and is already planning her book signings!!! (See the Pacific Northwest Cheese Project website, good Job Tami!) What a lot of ways to work with this one part of our diet. The idea of being such a small creamery in this big world of cheese is humbling. Reading about the farmers in Europe who make 8 wheels of a certain cheese and sell them is even more humbling. Then to look at the really big guys who need trucks and containers to ship. We laugh because a man called us from Cincinnatti to offer his help in distributing the cheese. Brad told him to bring his car and we could set an ice chest on the front seat...no truck, but thank you for thinking of us. It is so fun to go to a cheese store and find some new cheese to try. We are in desperate need of a Research and Development night. We like to find about 4-6 new cheese we have read about or want to try. We will buy them, get some bread, a complimentary wine, a salad or fruit and try them all out. It is nice to take the time to sit and taste the fruit of someone else's labor and learn about their product. It has been too long since we have done this life has been wild for the past year so I guess you just carve out a niche and do it. I still have a bottle of the Hip Chicks do Wine’s Syrah....maybe that will happen soon. On the home front, we still have two more mommas to deliver. Our one BIG girl, Michelle, has looked ready for about 8 days now. I remember getting up last weekend to check on here and she is now even bigger. I am afraid she may pop if she rubs the barn and encounters a splinter. Wow, her udder is like a basketball, reminds me of how our Mopsy used to get before delivering triplets. She was such a great milker, perhaps Michelle will be as good. We had the cutest little girl born yesterday out of one of Deb Benders ewes. All dotted with black specks having both eyes surrounded by black circles. Deb’s girls have been such a blessing to us. Not only are they good mothers but their fleeces seem to go for a premium. Last year we sent several to the Shepherds Extravaganza at the Little Puyallup Fair and they all sold quite well. In fact at the Farmers Market in Puyallup I had several customers come up and expound on the joy they had over spinning those fleeces. I am sure Deb is in the middle of lambing but keep your eye out for her ewes, they are great mom’s, deliver well, and have good fleeces. Oh and by the way they were some of our best milkers as yearlings. We are anxious to see how they do this year. Only 6 relationships away from everyone else, or however that concept goes. I guess even in the very small world of cheese and sheep we have made wonderful friends in many areas of the United States, and now have contacts in England and Germany. It could be true, we are all a part of the big picture, no matter how small or insignificant we think we are.....we aren’t. We all fit together. February 15, 2009 Our big weekend was quiet. We had 21 mommas due between the 13th of February and the 16th. We had no deliveries yesterday and it was quiet by the time I left for church this morning. Brad is graining the girls so he will have a report on who is showing signs of delivering next. They gave us another night off. I could almost feel human with two more of those. We have about 12 more mothers to deliver this month. We have had 45 mommas deliver with an average of 2.3 babies per mother. We have had 55% girls and 45% boys. We had 2 small ones delivered dead. That was something that must have happened in Utero. We have also had 2 stillborn full term babies. Each one part of a set of triplets so I figure something got mixed up inside trying to sort out one to deliver at a time. It happens. Those losses are expected each year. The loss of the two girls whose mother was too big to feed them is not as easily accepted by me. It is a case of the mother not trusting us. She was still new to us and was not willing to let us in to assist her babies. Rather than alienate her further we allowed her to do her thing. It was a choice. In hindsight I may have proceeded differently but we did not and a choice was made. We had another one go down yesterday. He was a 5 pound baby with two siblings who were 7 pounds or better. He was always pushed off the teat. I could tell he was waning and had tried to bottle him but he refused and would run back to his mother so I let him. I felt I tried with him but he did not want that bottle. He just got weaker and weaker and more stubborn so I had to accept he would not make it. It was sad but there may have been something else going on that I was unaware of. Sarah’s quads took the bottle I offered them yesterday. At least 2 of them did so I will keep supplementing them and let mother do the rest. If I get the smallest onto some additional nutrition they will have a better chance than my little guy who refused the extra help. Snowflake lost one of her babies. The last I had looked they were all up and I thought feeding but this one was the smallest and she may have not gotten onto the teat as often as needed. I tried to bottle her three that are left but they did not take it. We will see how they progress and I will try again as often as I can. Now our time will be spent watching, weighing babies, supplementing as needed, and getting the babies into the “creep feeder”. We have an area only accessible by lambs where we should have free choice grain for them to eat as they need. So far a few have found their way in and when I put the others in they are uncomfortable with the separation from their mommas and run back. It will get better, the lambs are starting to play and run and bounce so being away from mom is not such a scary thing. I will work on that after church now that the onslaught of babies is over for the time being. Whew, now we can get down to some real planning and caring for this multitude.

February 14, 2009 Happy Valentines Day. We are happy today. We slept all night. We did not set the alarm for a midnight and 3 am check in the barn. We did not go out to the barn and find a momma in a troubled labor, we did not have to locate and dry off babies and make sure they suckled. Why? Because we have had 59 lambs delivered over the last three days. Whew. We ran out of mommas due to deliver. No one was showing signs of an imminent delivery so we decided we needed to sleep and replenish and wake up when we needed to on a Saturday morning. What a whirlwind of deliveries. We had two sets of Quadruplets. We had another frank breech birth. We had one baby stuck with one leg out and one in. A big baby so I really had to help momma by pulling to get him out while she pushed. I thought he was dead. He just lay there but oh,no, he was resting and was right as rain before too long as momma pushed out another big sister for him. This morning that same lamb had escaped from the jug with his mother and was out exploring. Wow, it is a beautiful sight to see. Sarah had quadruplets on Wednesday. She started labor and just kept pushing. Deborah, our new employee and old friend, was watching her for us and she thought she had seen feet and now a nose. I put my hand under there and found three feet. Oops. On went the glove and noticing that one foot was black I figured it may be the one that did not match the white nose (though I realize it easily could). I pushed the foot back inside the momma and tried to follow the other legs from the shoulder to the exposed parts then when confirmed we had the right legs mom pushed and we gave a gentle tug and there she was. The second one, was black and came right on its heels. The third one seemed to be presenting wrong so again I checked momma and got legs and nose straightened out. I told Deborah and Brad that I sure felt a lot of leg left in there but these lambs are so gangly perhaps I just felt a lot of leg. Oh no, there was the fourth on the heels of the third. Sarah had out done herself Snowflake also produced quadruplets, unassisted. This was her second time. We had plans to retire Snowflake and Georgie they are out oldest ewes and just seemed tired last year, each had triplets. I guess I would tire easily also. But there they were side by side the day the ram jumped the fence and again side by side in lambing jugs. Georgie had triplets though the first one was wrapped up in it’s cord and was born dead, the other two were bruisers though. She has only one side of her udder. Georgie, I have shared before, had gangrenous Mastitis. This is an awful looking disease that infects the udder and makes that ewe so sick they usually die. Georgie had all the signs except being sick. She just kept on eating and acting normal as half her udder turned purple and sloughed off. We gave her a year off and then bred her in 2007, she had the triplets and did okay but we felt it was time to retire....I guess she thought differently. They both look good with their babies. That was Friday morning, by time to get kids to school we had 10 babies. Then we had the breech birth and then the hard shoulder stuck back delivery. Lambs do best when they come front feet first, then you see a nose and figure mother can push her baby out “easily” enough after that. Well one of the big mommas who was having big babies had presented with one foot out and a nose. I tried to push the nose and foot back in but she being stronger and more determined than me pushed out the head. At that point I really did not want to push this dirty head back inside to find a leg, and I really don’t think she would have let me, even if I had muscles the size of a hormone using athlete. So I watched and looked at what was coming out. The lamb had begun to turn sideways so I looked at the closest lamb I could find trying to figure out the narrowest way to get shoulders and torso through her pelvic bones in the easiest manner. We just had to pull with all our might as momma was pushing. It came slow but sure. It lay there limp for a minute or so. I cleared the bag off it’s nose and got out of the stall so momma could do what she could. She got up slowly and nosed around, she began to lick and we saw a little shiver, she licked more and the head moved. Soon enough the head was up and before momma pushed out number two it was moving on it’s own. As I said before, they are amazing. As we were cleaning up and thinking about dinner....Tomi went into labor, followed by Sadie, followed by, 7067. There we went again, Tomi had one in the barn while Sadie was really beginning to push, 7067 left the building so after feet were coming out of Tomi and Sadie had a bag out I found 7067 out in the loafing shed with one baby out and feet and nose showing for number two, back to the barn Tomi had number two and more feet showing, Sadie had feet and by the time I got back to 7067 she had two out. Sadie finished with two and Tome stopped at three, thank goodness. By 8:30 pm we got them all into pens, gave them their molasses water, looked for any other signs of mom’s in labor and went to the house to eat the dinner Peter had cooked for us. What a guy. We looked at the list of who had delivered and who was yet to come and realized everyone who was to deliver by Valentines Day had. There was no one looking imminent so we rejoiced in the idea we could sleep. It was good to sleep. It is good to have Ibuprofen on hand as pulling uses a whole new set of muscles that I forgot I had, It is good to have good babies. We have had our share of losses this year but the bouncing springing lambs running through the barn make all that worth it. Today is a new day, the first check of the day is over and all is peaceful in the barn, save for the lost little lamb calling for its momma and the low gentle response back, Here I am little one, follow my voice.

February 7, 2009.  Those babies keep coming...on their own schedule not ours.  We had a wonderful church in Issaquah send an energetic team of volunteers to continue with flood clean up and watch for babies.  They helped cut up the trees we had felled over a fence line that needs to get back up  so our babies have more space to leap and frolic and play.  Plus we have a bit more trim up in the house, though had I been on the ball it could have been more.  And we had barn helpers.  Two girls helped to get my bottle babies onto the bucket so I can feed them all at once and not have to sit with bent back.  They took all of 5 minutes to get these greedy little bottle babies onto the bucket.  The feeding instructions for bottle babies always say to give them so much less that I would think they need to grow on.  I will try to be frugal in my offerings but they are always yelling at me to give them more.  Since I am their momma they dog my feet and follow me around yelling, worse than my own kids!

Well our group came and worked and watched a left, about 4:oo pm and our first momma was definitely in labor at 4:30, then another momma went into labor at 4:45.  The babies came at 5:07, 5:19, then 5:30, 6:00 and the last at 7:30.  What a crew, they needed to deliver in private and did not want gawkers.  They must realize we have interested friends who like to "gawk" and see the magic they bring forth.  I will have to have a talk with them. 

February 6, 2009  Whew, It has been so busy I was looking for the March page to edit....but it is only the 6th of February.  Wow.  It is nice to see the barn filling up with bouncy babies.  It has not been uneventful this season.  We have a set of bottle babies, a loss of a ewe lamb, and now delivered a set of triplets the first one breech at 10:30 last night.  And we are only on Number 8 ewe with 22 babies so far.  Whew.  Sunday we had a friend come to stay with us.  Anna is 11 years old and loves the sheep.  She and Andrew have both learned to milk and when she stays with us they go out during milking season and "help".  She had come on Friday as the kids were out of school and begged her mother to stay an additional night.  Since she has no fun here and hates all the work so her mother was fine with the offer. But Anna had come to help out in the barn and only brought barn clothes so she and I  stayed home from church and watched for babies.  I went out at about 11:00 to swing through the barn and check.  I went out to the loafing shed and as I came back through, seeing nothing either place, I found a brand new baby delivered between looks.  Mom was not showing me any signs of imminent delivery.  I called Anna and we watched the twin brother be born.   Momma was a good momma licking and licking but not so good at allowing the babies to nurse so we got them in a small pen together and tried to set our second baby up on his feet to eat but he was too weak and cold.  I was trying to figure out the best way to get some nutrition into the little guy and then I remembered Anna could milk.....I of course am realizing how easy it was not to learn but maybe not so helpful.  I held momma and she let Anna milk 2 ounces of colostrum into a baby bottle and our little friend was warmed up by a heat lamp and had his first nourishment and now is fine.....Our mother did continue to like to lick and look at her babies more than feed them so they are my two bottle babies.  Oh well momma gives us milk twice a day and we feed it to here babies and any others who have needed to be bottled to get them going.   This has happened far more than I like.  We have so many animals who are new to us.  Our ewes we have raised here are used to us so hanging around during lambing is just fine with them.  With a barn full of new sheep we are fast learning about their personalities and quirks. 
Our lost ewe lamb was a sad story.  One of our new hefty ewes delivered twin girls.  Beautiful babies and such a caring momma.  At least until we got close to her.  She still does not trust us.  She came from a very large flock and had not been milked therefore we are just strange to her.  She has a very large udder and large teats.  We watched her try to nurse her babies but she would run and fight if we got too close.   Since the babies were trying to find the milk, heads bobbing along the underbelly and then sailing right on through the back legs we left mom alone with them to give her space and them time to find food.  Mom arched her back lifted her leg did all she could to help them make contact.  Every time I checked on them the babies were alert or sleeping.  Then in the morning we found one so weak and very cold.  We realized she never did nurse.  That is one of the basic reasons we like to attend all deliveries and I felt so bad that I had not forced the momma to let us see her baby latch on.  But raging running crazy momma was going to trample the babies if we did too much to her.  So we tried to tube feed our girl and immersed her in warm water and brought her into the house by the heater but she did not make it.  We then milked colostrum from our other mom with bottle babies, fed it to our other ewe lamb and made sure she was warm and fed.  She is still with her crazy momma.  We have them in a small pen and can tie mom up and milk her out.  She is getting used to our interference now and accepts it.  We still have to see if she will allow this to happen when out in the bigger barnyard.  They often tolerate things in a small space they will not tolerate in the large pen.  But the trump card is that momma likes to come into the milking parlour for her grain and Brad can milk her in there.  Our ewe lamb is looking quite good. 
Our last event started at 7:30 last evening.  We had been watching 320 all day and there she was going into labor.  Since Brad had told John he would play a game with him I said I would stay and watch to make sure all was fine.  She dilly dallied and pushed then waited and pushed and waited and got serious and got tired and did not seem to be making any progress.  After Brad got the boys in bed he came out to hold momma so I could check her.  Sure enough I had a hip and a tail in the birth canal.  Meaning the legs were forward and this baby needed some help to get out.  I tried to push him back in but with triplets in there I had no where to go with him.  I located as much leg and hip as I could and helped pull him out while momma was pushing.  She did a beautiful job and delivered all three lambs in five minutes.  She got up slowly to lick them off and was so forgiving of my interferance she even licked me if I got in the way.  We noted our breech baby was not walking well at all on his hind legs and one of his feet turned under.  We tried to get him up to nurse but he could not stand.  It is hard to see the little ones hurt and with two strong siblings we were not sure what his chances were.  Mom was very attentive so we let him suckle a bit holding him up and he could straighten his legs with concentration so we left them in a jug all together and hoped for the best.  We hallelujah this morning he was up and has been nursing.  We splinted his bent foot to see if it will mend and he will be joining the pack, playing in the barn before we know it.  God is Good and lambing will never get dull!

February 1, 2009 Another set of twins to greet me in the barn this morning.  These two were a surprise as the paper said their mother was not due till the 16th but alas nature has its own plan that does not follow paperwork!  Isn't that a sweet blessing to find some of our work from the 16th over and done with?  and so beautiful too.  Two little ram lambs who are lusty and white and eager to eat.  The two born yesterday are aching to get out of their lamb jug with their momma.  They are already bouncing and prancing and ready to rock and roll with the two lambs born 1/29.  What a blessing to watch.  Brad reports that yesterday when the two older ones came out of the barn with their mother one of them stood and looked as if he was awestruck by the whole big world beyond his barn.  Just stood there with his"jaw dropped".  What comical babies we get and each one I hope to continue to see with new eyes as each one is a wonder of it's own. 
January 31, 2009  They are here! The first lambs of the season came on the 29th a boy and a girl.  Andrew named the girl Dawn, as in Dawn of a new Era, let's hope it is a dry one!  This morning one of the St Croix sheep blessed us with two girls.  We are running our experiment with these ones so girls were perfect.  To have a "hairy dairy" you cross a hair sheep with a wool milking breed.  Those babies will be wool animals but if crossed with a hair sheep again the offspring should be hair sheep with milking traits......we will see. Larry Meisegier has done studies on this and was not impressed with the final output in the milkers...if I remember right, but we will see.  Our Friends at Dancing Nanny Farm in Puyallup gave us these St. Croix so we will produce the numbers for them.  So, off to a good start, two sets of twins.  The only problem is we had 11 that were supposed to be due today and I have two young ladies who are here to see deliveries and we missed the one this morning by about an hour.  The day is young yet, surely we will see some action before it is over!  Within the next couple days I hope to begin a page regarding lambs for sale.  We need to sell the bulk of the lambs this year as our pasture is still recovering from the flood and we will be short on pasture.  We would love to see them all go to good homes so if anyone is interested contact us or watch as the lamb 4 sale page opens and see what you would like. 
January 19, 2009 Gloves, check. Lubricant, check. Tetanus, given. Ear tags, check. Lambing jugs, ready. Feeding tubes, check (just in case). Molasses, check. Alarm Clock, loud. Okay, the girls are sheared, they got their tetanus vaccine, they are getting grain in the milking parlour, the barn has been cleaned post shearing and we have four lambing jugs at the ready for our first babies. It has been a while since we have had our winter lambing season. Last year Kim and Doug handled the births and we lambed by e-mail. This year we are actually going to have to go out there in the middle of the night and check on our girls. I have always enjoyed the trip to the barn at night. As cold as it gets it is always so rewarding to see the ewes’ contentment and feel the warmth they provide in the barn at night. I love that “golden glow” I always talk about as lambing season progresses. The barn really seems to be golden at night with the yellow hay and straw lit up. Half the barn was whitewashed as it used to be the milking area for the old cow dairy that was here. Now dulled over the years by time and cobwebs it makes a fuzzy background for the straw, and the wool, and the low lights at 2 am. It is really peaceful and if nothing is happening getting back into bed and putting cold feet on someone else to warm them up makes it worth the trip. We are chugging right up to the due date for our first lambs of the year. Whew, it is hard to wait, almost harder than having my own. It is like watching and waiting for a friend or family member to go into labor especially if you are the labor coach. Brad is guessing about a week from today. The gestation calendar actually places our first one on the 31st, plus or minus 5 days so next monday would be the first plausible date. Especially if we are expecting multiples we would plan on them coming earlier than the calendar would predict. We have some big girls out there. After shearing some of the wider ones still have trouble getting through the chutes of the milking parlour to get their grain. oh my. January 11, 2009 Whew, we were not flooded as the possibility was predicted on Tuesday January 6th. Warnings were put out regarding a huge storm that was headed towards the northwest. A big warm storm following several feet of snow in some places. Roofs were already collapsing schools closed road crews taxed as we had snow on the ground for the entire Christmas Break and then more snow the day the kids went back to school. It has been a wild ride. The call came from our Adna Flood Releif person, “Meg, they just upgraded this flood to a possible major flood event do what you can to prepare.” So into action we flew. The furniture all started to go upstairs, the cupboards were looked at this time We made plans to move the sheep. In the midst of all that I took John to the Doctor as he was diagnosed with a double ear infection....just to add to the fun. People began calling what can we do to help. E-mails came full of prayers and encouragements. It would have been easy to panic...infact in my sleep deprived state I almost did, but we got it all done with help of friends. Wednesday morning we got the sheep moved, they were very willing to go, it was the smoothest move we have had with these girls. The rams were put up in the back of the dairy parlour. The gaurd dogs went with the sheep. Kim and Doug of Mountain Niche Farm did not even think twice about taking them. The furniture we have went upstairs....infact I am deciding I like having just enough chairs for company and do not need too much more as it would not fit upstairs. It was a good lesson in enjoying our simplicity. The office was emptied, I am using plastic file boxes now and have not purchased a new file cabinet. It was so easy to move these upstairs and back down.....they may even float if they got left behind. The Bowes kids emptied all the lower kitchen cupboards out and put up the food and dishes. Friends lifted the stove up onto a table. It was still new only put in in August and a very nice one at that.....it was safe. Then the wait. We let the two younger kids stay with a neighbor who did not flood in 2007. In fact as schools were announcing closures on Wednesday she drove around and picked up the two that had gone to school that morning. What a blessing. I went to bed early Wednesday knowing we had done all we could do, besides, I was exhausted. Brad got up two or three times to check the online river readings and he drove to the corner to check the water level. At 3 am it was up onto the road by 6 am when I got up the road was closed and it did not reopen until about 2 or 3 pm. I was able to drive through in the truck to get the kids from our friends. All in Adna looked fine. We were spared. Centralia and Chehalis were not. And many parts north were not. Linda Nuenzig of 90 acres farms was not. There is a big work party there this weekend. We would love to be there but our shearing date was yesterday and finish up today. We begin to lamb in 3 weeks we will follow up with the ongoing effort as we know that will be happening. Linda our hearts go out to you and our friends the Mollerstuens. It is just unreal how powerful and unpredictable water can be. It is Powerful. We feel protected and thankful in this event. We now have the knowledge and wherewithall to be proactive in the event of a major flood warning. We had a dry run. The cows from the neighbors were evacuated also. We have all learned a lesson, had a plan in place, and now have had a practice. God keep us from becoming complacent and keep our ears to the news and our eyes open. January 7, 2009 one last note before I go get some much needed sleep.  We appear to have dodged this flood that is threatening so many in Western Washington.  16 rivers in 9 counties are expected to flood and some will be of record setting proportions.  We will keep so many of our volunteers in our prayers, Susan in North Bend, Mary and Whitney and their families in Silvana, Gretchen in Monroe and her parents, The Klesicks near Stanwood.  So many of you have come to our aid and now are facing rising waters yourselves.  We will anxiously watch and wait with you and look at what has come of this in a day or two.

January 7, 2009 As of now, 2 pm, 12 hours past last post we are ready to take what comes our way.  The sheep have been moved to Kim and Doug's Mountain Niche Farm.  The whole process went very well.  We loaded up the stock trailer 4 times and they all went very willingly.  They know when something is going on and were champions to load up so well.  We had many hands helping both outside and inside and everything we could think of is up and out of what we imagine harm's way to be.  The rain has not been consistent.  It pounded down most the night but this morning as we worked it has even stopped for a couple of hours.  The pause will give the rivers time to flow on out of here and hopefully take some of the bulge with it.  We have been blessed with friends and many helpful hands. 
Now we wait.  The river is expected to crest in about 12 hours from now.  Brad is going into town to see if he can help some of our friends who live in town.  Chehalis and Centralia will be seeing possible record-breaking flooding.  Our thoughts and prayers are lifted to them as they prepare for the unknown.  We will keep you all posted as this flood progresses and will pray for protection for our sheep as they should really not be moved this close to lambing but......you gotta do what is best.

January 7, 2009 It is 2 am and it it pouring rain outside, the River is on a Flood Watch with Major Flood Warning for the Centralia area as of Thursday.  It is a warm weather system following snow.  Western Washington is wet.  My heart goes out to those closer to the mountains they have had roofs collapse with the weight of the snow and now warm weather and rain.  The Cowlitz River is predicted to crest three feet above their highest flood stage in Packwood, and that was a devastateing flood, 2 years ago.  Maybe moving to the mountains is not such a wonderful idea. 
The sheep have a date with a truck in the morning.  We have borrowed a stock trailer from Kim Kerly and will be moving the animals to their farm in the morning.  Thank you so much Mountain Niche Farms.  We have several people who have offered to help and even though the animals should start to deliver soon we hope to move them out and hopefully home by the weekend.  Unfortunetaly we are scheduled to shear on Saturday......If that is not possible it may be several months before the shearer has an open date again.
My new couches are upstairs and I know this time to open cupboards and put things up on counters.  The Chehalis river is expected to crest three feet below the highest flood in Doty (the closest river reading station to the farm) that puts our water over 30 inches below December of 2007 but I am not taking chances and most things are upstairs already.  You don't forget what 30 inches of water feel like, as much as you might want to.  It has been in hindsight that I realized our last flood rose 4 feet in 1.5 hours.  The log jam that let loose was not predicted and sent a huge bulge of water our way.  Without the log jam we should have been better off but the sheep are moving to the hill country anyway, there are more logs up there and other problems could complicate things, like mudslides or other things I don't want to worry about now.  I will try to sleep so I can help move the girls along.  I keep praying this wild winter will settle down but there is weird weather coast to coast.