Archives for spring

Poll Time – Help Us Name the Lambs!

March 10, 2011 | 4 Comments

Despite the emergence buckets on the sugar maples, the landscape in western Massachusetts still reads "winter". The snow cover is measurable in feet. Just two days ago the entire woodland was spectacularly sheathed in ice. A trip to the barn calls for hat, gloves, insulated boots and a heavy parka. So it's a little hard to fathom that within three weeks we'll be welcoming newborn lamb here at Springdelle Farm. It's the surest sign of spring's arrival. I am up to my eyeballs in fresh fleece and we have another round of shearing yet to go before the lambs make their
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Mistral

May 8, 2010 | 31 Comments

It seems it's a good thing I didn't go to New Hampshire this weekend, as Mistral has given me reason to be concerned. What started as a mild limp a few days ago has progressed to swelling in her left front leg. She can't bear any wait on it. After watching her barely able to keep up with the others in the rain in the pasture this morning, I've brought her into the studio for the day. Although I made a little corner in the kitchen with hay and some grain, she's mostly interested in resting where she can keep
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Video – Garden Lambs

May 5, 2010 | 11 Comments

I'm immersed in shipping Sheep Shares this week so I'll be posting a series of short videos of the lambs enjoying the yard as we let them out each morning. You'll be able to spot the bottle lambs – just look for the ones congregating at the picnic table! At the beginning of this clip, the school bus rolls by which always sends the flock running for cover. Enjoy!
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Evening Chores!

May 3, 2010 | 24 Comments

Some scenes from this evening: three frantic bottle lambs at dinner time! I promise, this is the last post about the bottle lambs for a while, but couldn't resist sharing these pics. After playing in the yard all day, they are crazy hungry. Mistral wanted to skip the bottle and eat the powder milk replacer directly from the sack. Georgia and Garamond lost patience and demanded counter service. Dinner is served. Storming into the house is getting to be routine for this group – it's so funny to call them in from the yard and have them come flying through
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Sunday’s Lambs

May 2, 2010 | 9 Comments

Time for Sunday visitors. The lambs enjoyed their first outing into the yard surrounding my studio this morning. The bottle lambs followed me in the front door and stormed right into the kitchen demanding lunch. Fun! Hope you're enjoying this lovely weekend. copyright 2010. Barbara Parry. All rights reserved. Feel free to share a link to this website. Please do not take content or images from this website without my explicit written permission. Thank you.
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Lambi-dextrous!

May 1, 2010 | 5 Comments

Bottle lambs, from left to right: Mistral, Garamond, Georgia There's no asking three ravenous bottle lambs to take turns, so I approach each feeding equipped with three bottles. Which makes this little trio very happy. A little tricky getting started, though, as they're all lunging at once for the nipples. I end up dropping a bottle or squirting milk all over their faces. It's time to cut back on the amount of each feeding to encourage them to explore other dining options. I just today purchased another 50 lb. bag of powdered lamb milk replacement and that stuff is
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Morning Chores!

April 27, 2010 | 7 Comments

Some of the lambs are getting a little tubby. Time to adjust the spacing on the creep panel. Holly had some help from Verbena's triplets: Georgia, Garamond and Gigi. copyright 2010. Barbara Parry. All rights reserved. Feel free to share a link to this website. Please do not take content or images from this website without my explicit written permission. Thank you.
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Lunch with Mistral – Video

April 26, 2010 | 13 Comments

Here's an update on Mistral. As you can see from today's video, she's getting leggy and also filling out quite a bit. In the barn, she's fitting in well with the other lambs, racing and exploring the pasture. I saw her sampling hay at dinnertime yesterday, a very good sign that she's on the right path. It's not unusual for bottle lambs to be very keyed in to people but it's been years since I've had a lamb this imprinted on me. I think spending her first night in my bed may have had something to do with it. She
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Lambed Out! Celebration GiveAway

April 23, 2010 | 68 Comments

We're all resting after a long journey . . . . . . and breathing a huge sigh of relief this morning. Our last lamb of the season arrived yesterday evening. Thalia delivered the sleepy ram lamb pictured above just as I was heading to the barn for Mistral's bedtime bottle feeding. It was really considerate of her to lamb before I went to bed for the night. Since he is our grand finale of lambing 2010, I've named him Zapfino – "Zap" for short. He had thirty two curious little noses poking through the slats of his pen to
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Observations: Lambs & Ewes

April 22, 2010 | 5 Comments

I've been observing the lambs as their "personalities" emerge. It's always interesting to see which ones are most inquisitive, the ones who are always tugging on the leg of my jeans while I fill buckets or feed the bottle lambs. Not surprising that some of the most friendly lambs are out of my most gregarious ewes. Tupelo's ewe-ling, Arial, demanded some chin scratching as I was walking the yard this afternoon. When I stopped to visit, her momma came over for her share. And so I enjoyed a pleasant moment with both of them, (above). Not all lambs are
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