Preparations

I'm getting anxious for lambs, and a little nervous. Russell's and my first dressage show of the year is on Sunday, so I am trying as best I can to prepare for that on top of being a homeschooling, small-business-running housewife. There is no way I can strip and re-bed the sheep fold and get ewes properly crutched before the show is over; what if lambs arrive before that? I really don't think they will because no one's udder is full and tight yet, but Dinah's has surpassed Inky's in size this week. On Tuesday night Rick held Dinah, Brava and Inky while I scissored away on their backsides in order to see something besides wool; Inky really didn't need it as her fleece is a lot shorter. But Dinah and Brava will need a lot more wool removed to give their lambs a fighting chance at finding food:(Yes, Brava has a shamefully wooly tail!)

(Dinah really IS a white sheep; this photo makes her look more dingy than she is.)

Butter, of course, lost her fleece after getting sick, so she is all set for lambing. Because she hung onto her lamb through that crisis, I think I may have to name her lamb Blessing, or Blessed for a ram (Ed for short - hee!). Fellow shepherds, could you ask for a nicer "rear view" than that? And yes, she has four teats, which I've heard may correlate with finer fleece.
This week has not been the most conducive to preparing for a horse show. It was very wet early on, making our arena sand soup (see above), but I have been able to school Russell a couple times. I don't have real high expectations for this show; I'm going to try and go just to see where we are after being out of commission for so long - and have fun!

That's it for now at . . .