One Busy Day

 It's been a nerve wracking time waiting for the lambs this year - after Vanessa having triplets and taking so LONG to do it - The Shepherd was starting to get just a little bit sleep deprived.

So even though he was thinking that Lyla and Katie might have babies today we still went ahead and headed off to church this morning.

 Sure enough- when we got home - Katie was in full labor and a little freaked out - the little one would not pop out - he had to pull her out.  Turns out her elbows were kind of compressed and when he got them straightened out - plop, out she came.  Katie is a new mom, but just fabulous - got her up and cleaned off. 

We had planned to drive down to Skagit county to look at the tulips in bloom and have dinner to celebrate our 24th anniversary (actually tomorrow)

One more check on Katie before we left and discovered she'd had another one.  All seemed healthy, so we went ahead and drove out the driveway.

 Dinner at The Outback Steak House was delicious.

And the tulips were quite beautiful.

An added bonus of a flock of snow geese - picking up some extra calories before they head out for summer nesting grounds.  

Here's a picture of Katie with "Colleen" her second one - has about a half dozen white hairs on the top of her little brown head.  

 And this was our surprise when we got home - Lyla had a set of twins too!  The littlest one was still wet, so they couldn't have been more than a half hour old. 

That's 4 more ewes!!!

Happy Earth Day and Happy Anniversary to US!

That's 9 lambs, 2 rams and 8 ewe lambs - Now he has to decide who goes and who stays - that's the hard part.

Happy week to you!  

Happy Anniversary Honey

Today was our 23rd wedding anniversary.  Sometimes it seems like it has only been a few months, and sometimes, well, you know the old story...the one that talks about "for better and for worse", etc, etc.....

However, the good times and the bad times all add up - and as we so often have, our anniversary cards were in sync - this is my card from The Shepherd -  my card for him said the same thing - You & Me - (different picture though)    One year we actually got each other the very same card - that was a wild one - I opened my card from him, saw the picture and went "Oh, no, I've opened his card!"

We had planned to go down to Whidbey Island, but The Shepherd was feeling under the weather all week and when I suggested that we skip, he said "lets sleep in and then just go down to The Farmhouse (an old favorite restaurant that's on Highway 20, on the way to Whidbey) for lunch and then come home.  We had a great lunch (I had a Reuben - they make their own corned beef and its not that thin deli sliced stuff and he had a hot pot roast sandwich - so we were both happy, and full, and didn't have such a long drive to boot), and then we decided to go looking at the tulips  -


The Skagit (rhymes with "Badge-it"} County area is renowned for their tulip fields - so much so that they now have a month long Tulip Festival during the month of  April.  These were part of the display gardens at the restaurant.

It would have been better if the weather had been a little nicer, but it didn't seem to deter the tourists. 

The tulip fields are just about done blooming, but the farmers have conveniently planted some "late blooming" ones that are just color as far as you can see. 

I was taking these pictures out the car window, on the fly, as the sheriff's were everywhere, giving out tickets to anyone who blocked traffic. But I couldn't resist showing you these pretty pink tulips.  Imagine thousands of people tromping through your fields - I'm surprised they don't have electric fences around them. 

Even with the blustery weather, there were quite a surprisingly number of people out today.

You can see more tulip pictures on my Instagram page.

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More Babies!

 OK, so I warned you.

A little sheep heavy, I said -

The Shepherd stayed home from church this morning.  #1 he was exhausted from the Wonderful Woolies Wool Sale that we took part in yesterday (I promise I'll post some pictures later in the week)  #2 - he was pretty sure that Donna was ready to deliver.  Two years ago (her first baby) she delivered one honkin' big ram lamb. 

 This year, she did the same thing.  Good thing he stayed home, although she did not need his help this year. 

Another fine, big (over 6#!) ram lamb.

And I introduce Marietta's Django.

And that color is pretty true too.  Donna spent a couple of hours cleaning him up.  He's pretty darn handsome!  

 Ahem, excuse me, sir, do you know when my room will be ready? 

So once she heard Donna talking to Django, Violet was knocking on the barn door, waiting and gnashing her teeth...

He no more than had Donna & Django settled in their jug, came in to get a snack, went back out and Violet had delivered a little grey & white ewe lamb, and wascleaning her up.  He came back in & got me (out of my nap, mind you) and so I grabbed my camera & headed back out with him.  Oh, Shepherd, I said - I think she is having another one.  "Oh, no, that's just the aftrebirth from the ewe."  Well, no, it was the second lamb.  This poor little guy made his appearance, kind of unnoticed by Violet - Plop, right on his noggin! 

 Which is why The Shepherd hangs out while the ewes are giving birth - they are generally pretty good, and Violet is a very good mama - but, they get a little sidetracked by the first one, and the second one often needs a little help.  He hadn't made a trip to Goodwill to get extra "sheep towels" so I had to dig through my stuff and came up with this paint stained t-shirt that I used to wear around the house - well, it's in the garbage now....

Wether #2 was a little bit slow getting on his feet, but was up and nursing in about 15 minutes. 

Unimpressed by these births, Bella took a nap in a sun puddle.  

Marietta's Vikki has some pretty unusual markings.  After Violet got her all cleaned up, she is bright white on the sidewalls with a browish gray stripe from nose to tail and grey brown legs. 

The Shepherd thinks she is the cutest thing going right now. 

Look at those curly little locks on her back.  

She really is pretty cute, don't ya think?  And boy, is that going to be a pretty fleece - 

Another gratuitous flower photo - this rhododendron was in the "decor" for our wedding 20 (!) years ago next Wednesday.  Wow, how time flys!