2011 Lambs for Sale

Here are a few of the lambs for sale.  We have another batch of lambs coming soon which are unrelated to our previous breeding stock.

Jacob/Finn Cross Ewe Lamb (single) out of Grace (Jacob) and Roland (100% Registered Finn).  $200.00

Jacob/Finn Cross Ram Lamb (single) out of  Mariah (Jacob) and Roland (100% Registered Finn) $200.00

Registered Cormo Ram Lamb (twin) out of  Kara (2258) and Herman (2404) $300.00

Registered Icelandic Ram Lamb (single) out of  Bam (LF RAM B2H 385W) and  Lacey (LF EWE B2H 408W) $500.00

Registered Cormo Ram Lamb (single) out of Marianne (2437) and Herman(2404) $300.00

Registered Cormo Ram Lamb (single) out of Paula (2358) and Herman (2404) $300.00

Additional pictures and 3 generation pedigrees available upon request.

Cormo Lambs out of Snuffy are due in May.

Sew Crazy!! and a contest :)

It has been a dozy of a week!  We have lambs everywhere :)  There is one more ewe due for April and she shows all the signs of going any day now.  I am hoping that she goes soon so I can catch up on some sleep before the next round of ewes starts lambing :)

And in the midst of all the lambing I have had sick kids.   For almost two weeks straight they have been either coughing their heads off or puking :(   Finally they got over it and guess what?   Yep, mom and dad got it.

Anyway on to the point of today’s blog: sewing!    Since I got my new Designer Topaz machine I have been sewing up a storm.   This week I wanted to share some fabulous new (to me) patterns I found:

Keyka Lou Patterns

All  Keyka Lou patterns are on sale for $5.00 until April 20th!

Lila Tueller is a new found favorite.

I found all of these lovely patterns and more at Pink Fig.

By the way, I am having a contest on The Counting Sheep Farm Facebook page.   Please drop by and click like to be entered.  If you already like the page then you are automatically entered.   Want another entry?   Tweet this contest, post it to your facebook page or tell people about it on your blog then comment here to let me know what you did!    Thanks guys!

In Between Hello and Goodbye….

Five years is a long time, yet it isn’t nearly long enough.

My sister leaves for Memphis in 3 months.  I have know for quite sometime but tonight it is real.  For whatever reason the deadline looms…

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and I cried the whole way home. 

Memphis isn’t all that far, about a days drive.   Tonight, however it feels like the other side of the world.   It is too far for quick visits, a dinner date.   Too far for “Can you watch my kids?” phone calls.  

Each goodbye feels more permanent.   Each time I leave the driveway brings me closer to the final time.

Isn’t it funny how blessing is overshadowed by hurt?    How quickly we are tempted to replace thankfulness with questioning…I am so willing to forget the blessing of 5 years, the miracle that brought her from our home state of Tennessee to Michigan, and instead to question a Sovereign loving God…Why?

She is called there.  I am called here.   She who is so much part of me is leaving.  

But as she goes there to serve with her surgeon husband, and while I stay to serve here to serve with mine, I know that He who calls is faithful.  And I choose between tears, in this time between hello and goodbye, to accept and be thankful.

…Assuredly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for My sake and the gospels, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time…or in the age to come, eternal life.      Mark 10:29-30

What’s going on over there?

Alot.  And I am exhausted.   We had another lamb born, a 100% Cormo Ram lamb.  Sorry no picture yet but I will have one soon!

Jed tested for his yellow belt.  (Doesn’t he look pleased as punch?)

Twila had a birthday! (She is 11 now) We spent all day Saturday creating this monstrosity of a cake.   She loved every minute of it.

And I finally updated the etsy store!

Bay Rum Soap

Hand Dyed Fingering Weight Yarn, Bittersweet

100% Merino, Leprechaun’s Gold

100% Merino, Serendipity

Have you visited our facebook page yet?   The sheep would love it if you would click like :)

Happy Wednesday, I am off to go check the ladies in waiting in the barn!

The Cormos are coming!

Two new ewe lambs just born :)

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.