Spot Of Gratitude For Simple Things

 Are you seeing spots? I see spots, and lots of them here on Cedar Pond. My Jacob Sheep are spotted, and the lambs are little jumping spots of joy. My sheep are simple pleasures. Just watching them brings me joy. This is Thora and her new twin ewe ( girl) lambs.

It is a real blessing to have twin ewes by Thora. The sire of these ewes is my new ram , Tonkin. I am thinking I will need to give these girls 'T' names...

As I did my daily chores I took an extra amount of time to simply stand & watch my sheep, chickens, ducks & turkeys. I realized I may not always have the pleasure of such abundance in the coming years, for who knows what the future brings? Ill health, a change of fortune, the need to occupy myself with other things...any and all could change my way of life in a heart-beat. I cannot bear to think of a spring time without new lambs and sweet , fluffy chicks. To not be able to sit by our pond and watch our silly ducks court, quack, and dive head first into the pond for things to eat leaving them bottoms up and making us laugh is a sad thought. Yet I know God in His wisdom knows us and what is best for us. Should he deem it best for us to live otherwise as we move on in the seasons of life, He has given us these times right now to savor and remember. I pause often to soak in the sights, sounds, and joys of today and remember the funny little antics of my farm animals. I make a conscious effort to appreciate the bounty I have here in the simple things. God is so good, praise him !

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." Melody Beale

Please Let Me Take A Picture!

It is difficult to get pictures of my newborn lambs.

As soon as I appear in the lambing pen with my camera the mamas block their lambs from me by putting themselves between me and the lamb.

A quick side shot with my camera,

then mama steps in.

Baaaaaaaaaa!( Leave my lamb alone!)

Cedar Pond's Thora gave birth to a ewe lamb today. I like her eye patch. It looks like she has blue eyes too. I wonder how many horns she has, they'll be popping out soon.

Little Lamb, Who Is Your Mother ?

Little lamb, is this your mother ?

Little lamb, are these your brothers ?

Little lamb, is THIS your mother and sister ?

Little lamb, they won't claim you...

...so I will be your mother. ~

Two weekends ago I found two of my ewes had lambed and there was great confusion between them. They had chosen the same spot to have their babies and there were 4 lambs needing a mother. I suspect one of the ewes had triplets ( you can tell which one from the pictures) but she was claiming only one lamb. The gray ewe ( Delilah ) had 3 little lambs bleating at her and she seemed very confused, but chose 2 little ones to tend. No matter what I tried, the 4th little lamb was either rejected calmly by Delilah, or speared by a horn ( Thora) and flung far. Now, I am little Cindy's mother. She sleeps in a bin in our sun-room and drinks her formula from a bottle. She is doing very well . So yes, I am Little Lamb's mother. Kathy had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb, Kathy had a little lamb ...

Preparations For Spring....

This is Swallow Lane Barnaby. He is 11 months old and he has been having a lot of fun with a small flock of ewes ( female sheep ). Barnaby needed to be sheared and then moved to a pen away from the ewes who are due to lamb ( have babies) anytime now. So this afternoon my shearer, actually Lanny's* shearer & husband, came over to shear Barnaby and a 3 other sheep.Barnaby is now a very naked ram lamb and I decided to spare him the embarrassment of displaying his nakedness online, but I am happy with his condition and he appears to be a ram that will out-ram Goth, given the chance. We'll see.....

Here is my Grandson, also my first grandchild. Hallelujah and thank-you Lord, he is a hard worker and he is now old enough and big enough to do hard work for ME ! Here he stops to pose for me by the goat's house and pen.

As you can see Thorin & Bombadil can really make a mess of their place. CT has been working hard to keep their place fairly clean, they do not cooperate though. So this provides CT with a job. And this is a job that needs doing every few weeks, so one could say Thorin and Bombadil are providing CT a valuable employment opportunity, very definitely steady income.

See? And Thorin and Bombadil also provide manure and rotted hay for compost and garden fertilizer. Once in a while I spread all this around our fruit trees and blueberry bushes. You could even say Thorin and Bombadil are regular producers of a valuable commodity in one way or another.

CT is quick about the job, wasting no time to dilly dally.

Younger sister MN is feeding the goats their favorite treat, soda crackers.Here Bombadil eats out of her hand.

Thora , Goth's sister peers over Naomi's back as I snap a picture of my two newly sheared girls. Naomi and Thora have both uddered up and Naomi looks ready to have lambs any day. Spring is in the air....