I'm admiring the view from the dining room window as I type, taking in the flat gray light before the snow begins. In the foreground, the tubular feeder full of sunflower seed and millet is suspended from one branch of the magnolia tree.  The heavy skies obscure my distant view of the Holyoke range. It smells and tastes like snow.     This morning little ewes, Java, Violet and Pumpkin (left to right) poked their faces impatiently through the gate while I fiddled with my camera, capturing some final images of the year. Fed the boys outdoors on snow. Calvin,
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This morning I thought the weather was perfect for kicking back and doing nothing, which feels really good after the bustling around getting ready for Christmas. It has actually turned into doing a little bit of everything here. A lone llama and goat greeted me at the gate. Hungry sheep awaited in the barns. Water buckets were not frozen but dirty, all in need of dumping, scrubbing and re-fills.     Caitlyn commandeered the new eight foot feeder that my friends Chris and Caleb had built and installed just before the holidays. Additional feeder space makes such a difference at this
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I'm sending everyone my strongest wishes for happiness, warmth and peace. with love,  Barb       
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Holly sent me this shot of the ewes at dusk on the winter solstice. The girls were having their own quiet celebration as light returns. My solstice celebration was unique this year. I've been on hiatus, visiting my brother in southern California for a few days – an early holiday celebration. Every year, he comes east or I go west about this time. Given the scary weather on the east coast last week, I was glad for a change of venue (though sorry that Holly and Mike had more snow to contend with!). It was the first time I've been
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This week is off to a rather bleak start, with damp and drizzly days. The flock is getting a little antsy from too much time indoors, not enough exercise, despite our best efforts to get them out and about in the paddock. Some of the girls are picking fights, as you can see in this episode from dinnertime the other evening, featuring  the rather un-ladylike behavior of Amethyst and Deluth. I have no idea who started it and why. I suspect hormones play a part. The open (unbred) ewes get ornery and take it out on each other. See for
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Some shot from this morning at the farm. Massachusetts got clobbered by another storm starting in the early morning hours. By 7 am there was 5 inches on the ground. All schools were cancelled, I'm sure all the kids are happy for a pre-Christmas snow day (when I was teaching those days always felt like such a wonderful bonus, I loved them too!). Holly shoveled this lovely path so the sheep and goats can come to the gate. She stopped shoveling long enough to take a few shots.   The sheep seem resigned to the fact that winter has arrived
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Came across some photos of the boys standing waist deep in clover  last summer  - which reminded me of an old Don Henley song, the title of today's post. It was fun finding these shots in my archives as the days shorten and we get our first taste of winter.   To follow up on my last post: the vibe in the carriage barn has mellowed considerably. Yesterday I enlarged the pen, to see what would happen if I gave the guys a little more space. The usual amount of shouldering ensued between Tea and Cilantro, but it was just
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Do you remember the promise I made to myself last May, when lambing season rolled into its fifth week as I anxiously waited for Zuni's lambs to arrive? And how panicky I was because I was heading out to the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Festival and still waiting on lambs? That was a self imposed problem. I had let Teaberry dally with the ewes way longer than the usual four weeks last fall. Since Zuni had not bred in the first cycle, her lambkins were way behind the rest of the kids. Knowing that I can't put myself in
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