Saturday, July 7, 2012

Our own wee lamb!

Thinking back, I did feel rather sympathetic for the ewes this year.  I watched them struggle to deliver their lambs, and felt such a kinship to them.

Imagine our suprise to find out that we are expecting a "wee lamb" of our own!  It appears that all of that estrogen in the barn this spring managed to get things moving in the ovaries department, and so in January of 2013 we will be new parents.

I am still in a state of denial. I went for the ultrasound and said to the technician "are you sure that's me?"  I have been told that once I begin to feel the signs of life it will all feel much more real.

Until then I am suffering with horrible heartburn and indigestion.   I suppose I should be thankful as I didn't have any nausea or morning sickness, in a way I got off easy.

If any other farm wives have advice for me on what to avoid, or things I need to think about in terms of the farm chores I welcome the advice!

Introducing the "Farm Kid".

Taking the plunge

We have realized that we are going to need more sheep. Starting with 21 was a terrific way for us to determine if we actually like sheep farming, and if we have a knack for it.

It seems we do, we successfully delivered lambs and didn't have to bottle feed a single one. (Thanks to my dear sweet firemans patience in teaching new lambs to suckle!)

In order to actually begin making money as a farm, we will need to increase our numbers to about 150. The trouble is that Rideau Arcott sheep are hard to come by. 

 My thinking initially was that finding ewes can't be that hard right?

Boy was I wrong. It was like collecting rare baseball cards. 12 from this person. 7 from this person.

At this rate it will be years before we reach 150!

So far, we have managed to secure another 55, which will bring us to just over 80 including our new ewe lambs from our own flock.  Not nearly close enough, so we will continue to search for ewes!