Sunday Dose of Cute: Weighing In

Auntie Rose's Big Newborn Boy (taken 3/20/07)

This picture cracks me up every time I see it. It's been moved from one 'to post' photo file to another for three and a half years, yet for some reason has never actually been posted until today.

We don't usually weigh our newborn lambs, but this one was so big when he popped out of Auntie Rose (who also cracks me up) that I was curious. We have a 200-pound hanging scale in the sheep barn for weighing buckets of feed, so I put him in a three gallon bucket and—very quickly because mama was already having a fit—hung him on it. He was a whopping 14 pounds. The only other baby lamb I've weighed was my sweet Cary's—the one who was stuck inside her and would have killed her if the vet hadn't made that late night visit out to the farm. He was 15 pounds. Big lambs are good, but that's just a little too big. (Don't know who Cary is? Meet her in A Tiny Tail for Mother's Day. She's doing great by the way.)

Speaking of weighing things, my wonderful 11-pound Oxo Good Grips digital kitchen scale, which I often use several times a day (and which lists for $55.50), is currently on sale at amazon.com for $37.44 with free shipping. I've raved about this scale before—most recently in this morning's In My Kitchen Garden post on six worthwhile kitchen investments for gardeners (or any foodie with access to a good farmers' market)—and I no doubt will again. The pull out display is awesome. If you've been thinking about buying a kitchen scale, I highly recommend this one. It would also make a great gift.

© FarmgirlFare.com, the accurate to an eighth of an ounce foodie farm blog where sheep breeding season is going to start in a couple of weeks (more about this soon), which means that lambing season 2011 will start in mid March. Thankfully for those who can't wait for all that upcoming cuteness, it's always lambing season online!

Wordless Wednesday Dose of Cute

Want to see more little lambs?
Lambing Season 2006 Photos & Reports
Lambing Season 2007 Photos & Reports
Lambing Season 2008 Part 1
Lambing Season 2008 Part 2
Lambing Season 2009
More Sheep Stories & Photos
Farm Stories & Farm Life Tidbits

© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the getting ready for breeding season 2009 foodie farm blog (and lambing season 2010 in the exciting new sheep barn which is already almost done! More photos soon!) where moments like the one above always make me smile—and this photo has been hiding in my files since I snapped it back in May of 2007.

Tuesday Dose of Cute: Are You My Baby?

Doll Face Looking for Her Lamb (taken 3/20/07—this year's lambs will start arriving in April)

Want to see more wool?
Sheep Photos
More Sheep Photos
And More Sheep Photos
Lambing Season 2006 Photos & Reports
Lambing Season 2007 Photos & Reports
Lambing Season 2008 Part 1
Lambing Season 2008 Part 2

© Copyright 2009 FarmgirlFare.com, the wooly foodie farm blog where we may have accidentally disappointed some of you cuties out there (if a bread lover is a breadie, then a cute lover must be a cutie, right?). The cute photos (both current and from the past but never posted) will defnitely continue; they just won't be called 'daily' anymore, since unfortunately they never really were. Meanwhile, things aren't nearly as wooly around here as they were this morning, since we just finished shearing the sheep! Photos will hopefully be up soon.

Farm Photo: 5/19/07

Patiently Waiting For Snow

A year of Farm Photos ago, with lots of daily lamb reports in there, too. Catching up again with these, though I'm still behind answering your comment questions and replying to e-mail. Thanks for your patience!
5/19/06: Woods, Water, Want To Sit & Stare A While
5/18/06: This Has Been Hiding In Here A While
5/17/06: Lilac Iris
5/13/06: Morning Mist Rising Off The Creek
5/12/06: Butterfly Conference
5/11/06: Who's Sog-gy Now?
5/10/06: Low Maintenance Livestock
5/9/06: Glorious
5/8/06: One Of My Favorite Photos
5/7/06: Stuck With Babysitting Duty
5/6/06: Spotted In The Front Yard
5/5/06: The Return Of Our Wet Weather Creek (and some reflecting)

© 2007 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where Farmgirl Susan shares photos & stories of her crazy country life on 240 remote Missouri acres.

The Tail Of Two Mothers: A Mother's Day Story From The Farm

Snugglebunny and one of Rosebud's newborn twins


This photo, which I first posted back in April, is one of my favorites because it always makes me smile. I felt a slight twinge of guilt as I pulled out my camera and snapped it, telling myself that I really should have been rescuing Snugglebunny.

She wasn't in any immediate danger, though, and was actually quite calm. She just stood there, moving her head slowly from left to right, right to left, as if trying to somehow see around the bucket. There was no frantic thrashing about or racing around in a panic. Snugglebunny has been in this predicament before.


I'm glad I took the few seconds to capture this moment because apart from it being so funny, it now has a special significance. You see, when Snugglebunny wasn't looking, I did a little switcheroo. This was after I had removed the bucket from her head of course.

Farm Photo: 5/5/07

That Big Sheep . . .




The One Who's Pushing All Those Baby Lambs. . .




Away From Her Treats




That Would Be Cary

Guess who's turning one year old tomorrow!
(And guess who hasn't even baked a cake yet.)

Don't know who Cary is? Click here to read her story.

© Copyright 2007 FarmgirlFare.com.

Farm Photo: 5/4/07

Landlocked Lambie Dreams Of Sailing The Open Seas

© Copyright 2007 FarmgirlFare.com.

Farm Photo: 4/26/07

Cleanup Crew

Welcome New Visitors!
Click here for a brief introduction to this site.

A year of Farm Photos ago (catching up a little bit here):
4/26/06: Green, Green, Green!
4/25/06: Sheep Freedom Day 3: Slight Overindulgence
4/24/06: Sheep Freedom Day 2 Begins
4/23/06: And She's Up!
4/22/06: Lamb Love
4/21/06: It's Always So Nice To Come Home
4/20/06: Sometimes There Simply Aren't Words
4/19/06: Watercress Thrives In The Spring Runoff
4/18/06: Spots On The Glass? I Hadn't Noticed
4/17/06: Monday Washday
4/16/06: Easter Greetings To You
4/15/06: I Haven't Shared A Sunrise In A While
WDB#30: Dogfoot Tiptoed Through The Tulips
WCB#45: Doodle In The Woodbox
WCB#46: Patchy Cat Chills Out To Non-Stop Classic Rock

© Copyright 2007 FarmgirlFare.com.

Farm Photo 4/22/07: Curious Critters

Dog Inspection

Lucky Buddy Bear is half English Shepherd and half Australian Shepherd, and his favorite thing to do is work, preferably with his sheep.

He loves them all, but this time of year it is obvious that little lambs hold a special place in his heart. Bear would like nothing better than to have bouncing babies around all the time.

For the past six weeks or so, the entire flock has been penned up in the barn and the adjacent half-acre barnyard (well, the entire flock minus The Dirty Dozen, aka Studly Do-Right Jefferson and the wethers). This is for two reasons.

One, it keeps the sheep from munching down all the new spring grass before it has a chance to grow (instead they're fed bales of hay and grain treats several times a day). And two, it makes it much easier for us and the moms to keep track of all the new babies.

Unfortunately we only have a couple of days' worth of hay left, so everyone will soon be out happily eating sweet green grass with The Dirty Dozen (who were let loose a few weeks ago in order to save on hay). This means that frequent hikes out into the fields to do sheep-checking and lamb-counting will start taking up large chunks of my days.

But back to the barnyard.

Each night all of the moms and babies are locked in the barn so that hungry predators have a much harder chance of getting at them. The gateway separating the farmyard and the barn patio is about four feet wide.

This means that every single evening (usually before I get my dinner), 79 woolly creatures must be convinced to trot through this narrow opening. And every single evening a pack of baby lambs refuses to do just that, either because they simply haven't figured out The Nightly Plan or they're just too busy racing around having fun.

This is by far Bear's favorite part of the day. Once the majority of the sheep have been lured into the barn with a bale of hay, the two (or three, depending on if Joe has been roped into helping) of us spread out and attempt to move the babies and any straggling moms into the barn.

It feels a lot like you are in a life size version of one of those hand held games where you have to get all the little metal balls through some itty bitty opening—and inevitably there is always one stubborn ball that refuses to comply.

Unlike me, Bear never loses his patience. You won't catch him yelling, "Well you wouldn't be crying your head off for your mother if you hadn't run back out into the farmyard you little trouble maker!" or "Turn! Turn! TURN!"

No, at times like these, Bear is in his element. He gives me a patient smile that says, "We'll get this last one in, don't worry." And eventually of course we do. Then I tell Bear what a great job he did, and if he could stand up and give me a high five, I have no doubt that he would.

Bear knows that the sheep need to maintain a healthy respect for (and slight fear of) him, but he also knows that the baby lambs must learn early on that he is friend rather than foe.

Lambs are naturally curious, and so when they sneak over to check Bear out, he lays on his back with his paws in the air, as this puts him in the most submissive position. He lets the lambs sniff and inspect him all they want, and he never moves a muscle. And when they and their attentions wander away, he rolls back over, stands up, shakes himself off, and grins the biggest grin he possibly can.

Current Lamb Count: 39. Number of lazy, hungry farmgirls who ate their dinner (grilled homegrown, grass-fed, Angus T-bone steaks; warm and crusty pain au levain; and freshly picked spinach and mesclun salad) before tucking in the sheep tonight: 1. Number of stock dogs who didn't hold that against her: 1.

© FarmgirlFare.com

Farm Photo: 4/21/07

Action Shot (click on photo to enlarge)