Early harvest

 

 

Lovely rhubarb and asparagus harvested from our land. Blessed eggs from our happy hens!

 

~~~~~

 

And what did I do with the rhubarb? Oh, I made Srawberry-Rubarb crumble! Yay!

 

 

^__^

play play play!

 

Jude and I constructed a water wall, using some plastic bottles, nails and an old board from the barn. Here we've connected the hose to stream the water through but that was only after manually pouring into the top bottle lost it's appeal. Now we're trying to think of a fun way to use other things to direct the water, like tubes and gutters and such (: A great thing to play with on hot summer afternoons!

 

Ollie loves the water wall too, as do the chickens and lambs who drink from it all day long (:

 

Then we rolled these log pieces into a good spot and created a fun circle to climb/walk along. We have a few boards for bridges/ramps too! Both boys love this. We can spend tons of time playing here.

And then, we drew all over the logs with sidewalk chalk. It looked really pretty until the lambs rubbed their faces all over it!

 

 

Rainy day fun...or 'tons of mosquitos on a damp day' fun. Beans and rice in a sensory bin.

 

 

 

And of course, the classic piling up of cushions and pillows to jump on (:

 

 

 ^__^

 

Right now, I have some strawberry-rhubarb crumble baking in the oven. Only 5 more minutes and it's done! Yum yum yummy! The horses were very kind to eat all the huge wild grass growing around the rhubarb patch so it is much easier to harvest this year. Jason has started some pizza dough in the bread maker so we'll wait on the crisp and have some delish homemade pizza first. A feast!

Jason feeds the lambs

 

Cuties, all three!

Mud.

 

Everyone loves mud!

 

^__^

lovely lamb wool

Here is a close-up of Pippin's gorgeous, soft wool. I could pet him all day long, he is so soft and silky. What remarkable creatures are sheep, clad in layers of plush fiber. Wondrous!

Hugging Woolly Pippin

 

 

Woolly Pippin is a love-being. Since the first moment he arrived he has loved being held, hugged and snuggled. He is huge now, much larger even than the last photo but he still happily sits on my lap for lambie snuggles. Oh my goodness, I love these lambs of ours so much! I only wish they didn't grow so fast..They slept in a crib beside my bed for a month and a half so I could bottle feed them at night but then they became way too huge to sleep in there; Their diapers couldn't go the distance anymore and they would leap out over the bars and try to sleep with me. They seem fine in the barn now, although I do miss them trotting around the house (-;

 

Bottle-feeding my sweet lambie

Here I am giving Teapot her bottle (:
In everything I had read when we first adopted lambs, I was told NOT to hold the lambs while feeding them.
Well, miss Teapot just would not drink her milk unless I picked her up! She had been in a small space with about 10-15 other bottle lambs and they fed from a communal bucket with nipples along the side of it. From what I could see when I went to pick out a lamb, some of them were drinking up all the milk and the weaker ones weren't getting any. Very sad.
Our little Teapot didn't even bother to try getting her share. She just sat in the corner and looked up at me with her sweet, sad brown eyes. I grabbed her up and took her home and now she is a happy, happy lamb (:
She was very sick though, and had we not taken her in I'm sure she wouldn't have made it. It was a stressful first two weeks and I thought I was going to lose her...but she pulled through, thank goodness.
I love her so much!
She hides under my skirts and snoozes with her head on my foot, just like a dog! And she loves to have her cheeks scratched. Oh, she is such a lovely sheep-friend!
Now that she is older, she drinks her bottle while standing on the ground. This is a good thing, as she is very heavy! But when she was much smaller, I had to hold her under my arm and cuddle her to encourage her to eat. She wouldn't let anyone else feed her ~ I am very much her Mama (:

My babies

Woolly Pippin and Teapot (: Oh, how sweet they are!

The month of April in pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

It's a bit late to do an April post, but it was such a filled-to-the-brim sort of month that I didn't seem to have even one moment to document about it on my blog!
In short, we adopted two bottle lambs and again, our lives are forever changed!
I wanted the experience of raising lambs for both myself and the kids, but I am also excited at the prospect of learning to shear/card/spin their wool. They are beautiful, gentle, loving creatures, our 'Wooly Pippin' and 'Teapot'. I will write about them again soon (:

Oh, how I love Talulah!

 

Look at her! She's such a goofball! The best pet ever! (:

 

It was lovely and warm on Sunday, despite there being tons of snow still, so Gypsy and I went for a little ride. I didn't bother to put on her saddle, just threw on her bridle and away we went. I love her so much (: