Monday, February 15, 2010

February... Not Baaa'd

So far the winter hasnt been bad. Or baaaa'd I should say. The weather has been so mild the driveway only needed to be plowed once in the last 8 weeks or so. The sheep, the chickens, the dogs, even the farmer... all get outside from time to time. Although it is strange being in that it is not warm enough for some activities, but also missing the snow for a lot of typical winter activities. Speaking of getting outside, Mary Jo seen to the left, with an amazing sunrise behind her. There have been a lot of amazing skies this winter, be it a sunrise, a sunset, or a full moon. The beauty has been there consistently this winter.

The set up has changed a little bit as I approach lambing season. Of the three stalls, one was left open for the sheep to come and go as they pleased, a place for shelter and a chance for them to get out of the wind. With February and the grain feeding requirements, the Rams had to be separated. They are now isolated to their own 14'x14' stall for a month or so, and now the ewes and drogo are free to come and go from the middle shelter.
This leaves the last and final stall for lambing season. This will be where ewes drop their lambs and then are kept in lambing "jugs" to establish that connection between lamb and ewe. The first ewe due is Lisa and that is coming up in early March.

This is another shot of the amazing sunrises here at Windy Knob Farms. The cooler winter air allows for a wider variety of light colors. The spacing of the molecules, the temperature impact, the angle of the winter sunlight, all plays a part. Its not like there are bad sunrises around here, but lately these winter ones sure seem to take the cake.

Finally, with so much attention on the girls, and lambing season, I didn't want the boys to feel left out. This is Ahgosa (Moorit on the left) and Johnny. They are two of the three rams here at Windy Knob. They are about 3/4 of the way through their year's wool growth. These are the same two rams you can find on our website at www.windyknobfarms.com and you can compare them now to when they were shorn back in May. Soon we will have lambs, but also we will have more of the amazing wool we sell here at Windy Knob Farms. The same wool we sold out of in just three weeks back in the fall. If you are interested in purchasing a raw fleece or other wool products, contact us and we can keep you updated on our mailing list of what is available.