Somewhere between serendipity and chance…

You find the grace of God.   A place where you can let out the breath you’ve been holding, collapse in your favorite chair and let the tension and fear melt away.  

Sometimes you do everything right and still everything goes wrong.   And sometimes…..

despite your worst fumbling…….

it all goes right. 

We found Lacy and her little ram lamb in the pasture during morning chores.   Warm and dry and nursing well, he is a hefty little guy despite his small size.   Our careful watching was evidently not careful enough and we completely missed how close she was to giving birth.   All that was left was to move them to the barn (although it seemed a bit pointless) and whisper Thank you….

Sometimes grace shines down like the sun, warming you and making everything shine.   And sometime it wraps you like a blanket and wards off the cold.   I have spent many a night the last 3 weeks plodding through the snow (or mud) in my fuzzy bathrobe to check on the Leah, the ewe pictured above.   Many times I found that she had once again prolapsed.   For the nights I lay awake worrying there was grace.  

For the night we found the lambs finally born (we had worried we were going to lose them all before it was all said and done) there was grace.   There was grace as we desperately tried to warm them up and get them to eat….and grace was right there when we discovered that Leahwas finally being to produce milk and being to feel well enough to stand.

There is something in shepherding that whispers the heart of God.    Love, hope beyond reason…..grace

Being Born…

I thought you might enjoy seeing a lamb (or two) being born through pictures.

This is Baby.   At this point she has been in active labor (her water has broken) for about 15-20 minutes.

She gets up and down several times trying to get the job down and find a bit of relief.

Here we see a nose coming through.  Ideally the feet should be coming through already or very close behind.

You can’t see very well in the picture but the head has been delivered and still no feet.   The process of pushing the lamb out goes fairly quickly but this lamb is taking a bit longer than usual.  I am suspicious that the feet are back so I check inside to find out what is going on.    I find that indeed both front feet are facing backward.   It is easy enough to pull them forward and the lamb is born seconds later.

Mom works on licking the lamb clean and a while later we see tiny hooves coming through.

Then a nose…

 

Safely delivered, one ewe and one ram lamb.

Joy and Struggle….

It all seems to meet at lambing time. 

So far we have eight healthy lambs.  Joy!

(Don’t worry this little guy is only covered in blood because he missed the udder and bumped into the afterbirth.  I know, lambing can be messy business)

And here’s the struggle…

The picture above is Leah.  Leah is a colored Cormo cross and is due in April.  During a routine check of those ewes still out at pasture we discovered that she had a vaginal prolapse.   We carefully cleaned everything up and put it all back where it belonged.  In the picture above you see the twine that we used as a makeshift prolapse harness to make do until the actual harness showed up.  She is now suited up in her new harness (thanks Allison and Todd for letting me borrow yours!)  which is helping but I found her prolapsed again this morning.   We are doing all we can to keep her comfortable but it is exhausting business.   She seems to be taking it all in stride as every time I check on her I find her happily chewing on her cud!

I wish that these things wouldn’t wait to happen until it’s a storm, a blizzard or I am in my high heels….

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!

 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from The Counting Sheep Farm!  In celebration I am offering free domestic shipping from www.countingsheepfarm.etsy.com when you use the code “clover”.   International customers, don’t worry I haven’t forgotten you!  Just message me for 50% off your shipping costs.

I am finally over the flu and able to stay out of bed!  However, I am so behind that I had to cancel our plans to dance with our Irish Dance School today.   I still have on my green even if I am just plodding my way through housework much of the day.   Oh and of course my green nails are quite festive!

Off to go check on our new lambs….

Baby’s got a brand new bag…

The challenge for the Ironcraft blog this week is green, as in the color.  I don’t have as much time to participate in the challenges as I’d like but this challenge fit perfectly with a project I had in mind.

I wanted a bag to use for Irish Step Dance classes.  In keeping with the challenge theme the front of the bag is green.  I embroidered ghillies on the front using my new sewing/embroidery machine.

I plan on making separate smaller bags to hold our ghillies later this week.

By the way we have a new lamb!  Unfortunately until I find the battery charger for my camera I can’t upload it :(

We have lambs!

We were patiently waiting and now the first lambs are here!

One girl and one boy :)

Wow! I am 35!

It’s my birthday so I am having a sale!   20% off when you use the code “happybirthday” at www.countingsheepfarm.etsy.com

March’s challenge: go Celtic!

Last month at The Counting Sheep Farm Ravelry group we focused on Entrelac.  This month?  Celtic of course!  Anything goes, it just has to have an Irish theme :)

I couldn’t settle on which project to do when a friend mention Aran’s sweaters.  I decided to do a bit of research and found an Aran sweater specifically for my clan!

The Connolly (Conley) clan crest…

The Connolly Clan Aran…

If you happen to be Irish here is the website.   Check to see if you can find yourClan Aran :)