Peacock colors

I was looking for a change-up in my life and decided to get some color streaks in my hair.  I couldn't love it more. 

Loving spring in the northwest

Dogwoods are just one of my favorite flowering trees.  This one is outside the restaurant where I had lunch with my girlfriend today. 

Spring pretties

This peony was given to me about 10 years ago by my friend Diane H.  Even though it's planted in kind if a sketchy place (more rocks than dirt,I think)it has flourished and has about 8 or 10 buds on it this year.  They start out dark and as,the,blossom opens it fades to pink.  Such a beautiful flower.  Thanks to my friend for so many years of beauty! 

Dreaming of summer

The Shepherd is just going nuts with too many things to do right now, and then there are all these little plants that need transplanted out of the seedling,flats.  A farmer's work is never done

A little thistle salad for breakfast anyone?

The sheepies have been out in the pasture right by the front gate the last few days when I've been leaving for work.  The lambs are growing so fast right now! 

Growing like Topsey

Oh my.  These lambs are growing so fast you can almost see them change from day to day! 

Down the garden path.

Happy May Day all. 

They saved the best for last

With one more ewe left to lamb, on Monday afternoon The Shepherd told our friend Nancy that he wanted a "Panda Girl" - or a ewe lamb with a white head, dark eye patches and white socks. 

Well, what do you know? 

His wish was granted.








Meet Cali - or, "Marietta's California Girl"

Her dark color is Dark Brown, and she's cute as a button, don't you think? 

He let mom's and babies who were born last weekend out this morning - Pure Pandemonium!  But so fun to watch, and listen to.

Pictures soon.   

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!  

Out in the wide world

The triplets got to go outside yesterday.  Two moms down, 4 to go!!

Here they are

Here is a first picture of the tribe.  Two ewe lambs and a ram lamb who will soon become an "it" . They are all doing well.  Mama's udder was a little blocked from being so distended for the last week, but the lambs had pretty much taken care of that by this morning.  He bottle fed some colostrum and will get some milk replacer for the littlest one just to make sure she thrives. Vanessa didn't seem to mind and even gave the babies a face washing afterwards. 

There was a reason.

Everyone kept saying, "is she having triplets?"  But we didn't think so, never have had triplets born on our farm.  Well we have now.  The Shepherd just called me at work and Vanessa had two girls and a boy this morning.  Pictures soon! 

First lambs

Well I'm a little late with this, they are a week old today. We still have 5 more ewes in waiting.  It's going to be a long month. 

Happy Easter

We're on relaxed baby watch right now. Their udders are VERY full, but they haven't dropped yet.   They held off for Easter. 

One good thing

Boys went to the auction last week so now he has a separate little pasture to put our yearling ewes in while we have lambs coming.  It was kind of like weaning all over again (crying lambs into the night) but in the long run it will be calmer in the big barn.  Lambing should start next week. 

Happy Spring

The daffodils are popping out all over the place.  Lambs will be soon to follow. 

Also dreaming of summer...

The sheep are dreaming of summer too.  They were happy to have a break from the rain. 

Dreaming of summer

Got these little beauties at the store last night.  They were on sale for Valentine's Day, $5 for a little carton with twice this many berries.  Surprisingly they are quite good.  I'll eat a few fresh and freeze the rest to put in my yogurt for breakfasts.  Yum.  Worth every penny. 

Oh and I forgot to mention that we had a northeaster blowing, it was like 20 degrees outside.  Brrrrr.  But it's warned up today and the wind has stopped. 

Have a great weekend!

Time to let go

Heard lots of springtime birds this morning.  Guess it's time to let the Christmas wreath go. 

Teaching an old dog new tricks

Well, I decided to take the Instant Pot plunge.  The programmable electric pressure cooker that had taken the internet by storm.  And I must admit, it's pretty cool.

First off, I don't have any extra space on my kitchen.  One solution, give the bread machine to my church for our garage sale. 

Secondly, they are kinda pricey.  Enter Christmas elf, sister Merrill.  I could get it on sale at Amazon, and it was right in her giving budget.  Woo hoo. 

Gotta love Amazon.  Ordered that baby up and it was here in a day.  Then it sat in the laundry room/back porch for the past month.  I had to find the right time, study the blogs and the recipes, etc, etc, etc. 

Well that roast sitting in the freezer wasn't getting any younger, and I've had a week off to study and read, etc, etc, etc... tonight was the night. Actually it went pretty well.  I didn't blow anything up, and the pot roast was quite tasty.  Mind you it took an hour longer than I thought it would, they say "oh it cooks so much faster", but they don't mention all the time you have to wait around for it to come up to pressure or for the pressure to drop.  But now that I know that, I can allow for it. 

So, it might be a little late in the game for me to have one, but I think I'll enjoy using it.  Didn't have time to take a picture of that beautiful pot roast...someone was very hungry and I think he might have bit me if I said, "oh, wait, I have to take a picture". Ha ha.  Stay tuned for more stories from my kitchen and the Instant Pot