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 Our wonderful, amazing Great Pyrenees, Sam, died last week. We all miss him so much; he not only was the sheep's protector, he was part of the family. Every morning when I went up to the barn, that big old head would rise up to see who was there. We called him "Polar Bear." It's hard not to have him there to greet me; he was just Sam & I miss him. We buried him under the big cedar tree at the top of the hill behind the barn. He used to like to lay there in the shade to survey his kingdom.
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 The lambs are finally old enough that I feel OK about letting them go across the creek with the ewes to our big pasture. This is an 8 acre field with lots of grass and clover; the sheep are always very happy to be out in it. 
 Sammy, of course, is always with them when they head out to pasture in the morning. He'll check out the whole pasture to make sure there are no threats to his sheep. 
 Yesterday I sold 2 of my Leicester Longwool ewe lambs to a new breeder in MD so my flock is down to 13 lambs. I had a big panic last evening when I went to count & shut the sheep in for the night. It was not quite dark with a half moon overhead so there was plenty of light to count sheep. OK, all 10 ewes are in. Counting 1, 2, 3 ... 11, 12 lambs. Count again ... 12 lambs. Count again! Oh, no! A lamb is missing; PANIC! Wait; what's that dark shadow over there? Oh, yes, Onyx! I keep forgetting I now have a black sheep who doesn't glow in the dark like all her white relatives. What a relief!  Onyx with her mama, Holly.  All 7 of my Leicester Longwool ewes have finished lambing - a total of 12 lambs (7 girls and 5 boys) with 5 sets of twins and 2 singles. There were a few bumps but all are doing well and doing what lambs do...
 A big surprise last week - Holly had a beautiful black ewe lamb. I knew my white ram had a black mother but, being perfectly content with my white Leicesters, I wasn't consciously breeding for black lambs. In fact, I had totally forgotten that Holly had one great grand-sire who was black - all the rest were white. So it was a total, though happy, surprise to see this black baby in the hay.
 Haley's twins were born early Sat. morning - a little ewe and ram lamb. I got out there at 5:40am, still dark out, but they were already there. I helped Haley dry them off, moved them all into a stall and helped them get the hang of nursing. They're both doing great! Haley's a good mama! 
 Shearing Day. Master Blade Shearer, Kevin Ford, shearing my ewes as the snow starts coming down. Kevin sheared for 4 hours as it got progressively colder and the snow deeper.  The girls waiting to be shorn. The 7" of snow we received that day was so rare for us. The humans enjoyed it but the sheep weren't too happy about it. Luckily they have a nice dry shed with piles of hay to lie in, and two days later it was a sunny day in the high 40's.  Sheep #12? Kevin warmed his hands up around a hot cup of tea midway through the morning.  I'm trying sheep coats for the first time in the hope that it will minimize the dreaded VM (vegetable matter) in my sheep's fleeces. Hopefully just using coats the last 4 months before shearing will take care of most of the VM (from feeding hay.) The girls show off their new look as they tuck into their morning grain. 
 Brrrr! It was a chilly - 1 degrees when I went outside yesterday morning. It's been quite a few years since our farm has experienced such continuous cold spells that we've had to chop holes in the ice in the water troughs so the sheep can drink. We've had to do this many, many days this winter. And when the ice thaws enough it's time to lift all the chunks out in order to fill up the troughs again and wait for the next round of below freezing temperatures. (This is this shepherd's weight lifting routine.) Maybe it's time to invest in the water tank de-icers that they use up north!
 Enjoyed demonstrating spinning while displaying my handspun yarn for sale in front of the Twisted Knitter during the Triangle Yarn Crawl. Our day ended early when the rain set in! 
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Mary Longhill
Shepherd, Handspinner Archives
May 2017
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