Friday, May 1, 2009

~Happy May Day .....

Another week gone by already and May has arrived. A little welcome rain overnight. Our rainfall total is down for the month of April. Hopefully more is on the way. We start planting this coming week and our soil is dry.

This lovely woodland flower is Trailing Arbutus, better known as "Mayflower" in the Northeast. It's a definite sign that May has arrived. The blossoms are white to pink, on short stems. They love wooded, sandy soil and are extremely fragrant. Our drive is lined with them and we enjoy them in short vases for a few weeks during spring. I can remember picking these for my Mum when I was just a tiny girl. Some things really do stay the same :) She has a bouquet on her sink shelf today.

We have been busy finishing up sheep shearing and sorting wool. So much wool! I'm pleased that my sheep, especially the lactating ewes look so well without their coats. I fed minimal concentrates this past winter but did feed really good hay ( I buy the big 1000lb round bales and peel the layers off with a pitch fork and feed it to the sheep in feeders) pretty much free choice and free choice minerals. This systems seems to work well for us. Some of them are downright porky :)
We enjoyed our week with Jacob. We found him four little piggies to take home with him while he was here. Aren't they adorable?
He will raise two for his family and the other two are for a friend. He's a bright, nice young man who really enjoys farming and the animals. He went home this morning and we will miss him.
Lambing has concluded and the final count is 10 lambs. 7 rams and 3 ewes.....definitely a boy year :) Evening chores are concluded by watching lambie races as Mom's have their dinner :) I'll post new lamb photos soon.......

~ Have a great weekend ~

5 comments:

ChristyACB said...

Love the baby photos! And those piggies are pretty darn cute too.

lisa said...

they are cuties, the may flower picture is gorgeous. What do you do with your wool?

Sue said...

Striped piggies....how neat!

threecollie said...

Nice! Cute babies and gorgeous flowers. I hope you get the weather you need...maybe we can send you some rain.

Welcome To Wilmoth Farms said...

I loved reading your blog today...found it through another blog and its just beautiful! You must have fun with all the lambs! Lucky you! We live on a farm too but I've not been able to convince my other half that we NEED sheep! had fun reading!