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We had a nice surprise this weekend that really said Spring was here. We have a power pole in the pasture to power the well house. Because it's in the field, it has four posts around it with barbed wire strung to stop the livestock from damaging the pole and cables. One of these poles is an old 2" steel pipe. I'm digging out a couple of beds behind the well house for potatoes and onions and as I walked past the pole the other day, a small bird flew up, nearly hitting me. I thought it may have been just perched there and I had surprised it.
A little while later, one of the twins was hanging around watching dad working and she happened to mention something about eggs. I didn't take a lot of notice at first as it was Easter and the talk has been about nothing but eggs. Mom had heard her and was taking a little more notice and turned to me and said "there really are eggs there". I looked to see what all the fuss was about and sure enough, about six inches down the pipe was a clutch of small eggs. I watched for a while and eventually a wren perched on the pipe and then dropped inside. Even for a wren that has got to be one snug nest.

Nice one, matt. The boy really liked the video of the new calf, asked a bunch of questions...

The soon-to-be lady of the house had a client at work yesterday with a ewe with a severe case of mastitis give birth to twins. With the ewe unable to nurse them, and no one in their right mind bottle feeding in January of the coldest winter Illinois has seen since 1977, I now have a pair of lambs in my kitchen. Of course I would prefer a couple of lambs in a different part of the kitchen, mainly on plates with garlic and herbs.... but these two are going to be getting a bit bigger and maybe giving us some milk or lambs of their own before they get on our plates.

Nice score, manny.

Oh man, right on! You are a shepherd! I know what you'll be doing this summer. Fencing!

Matt, have you considered getting some reds to go with your blacks?

I really don't care what color they are. My friend was all excited about getting a red, and wanted me to go in on him with her. I had to decline, I absolutely hate loading them up and driving them around. They aren't used to the trailer and it's a giant pain just to get one that's a different color. They all look the same on the BBQ.

Haha! We are different people, for sure. I like some variety in the pasture. They may taste the same, but having a whole herd of homogeneous critters just seems so... boring! I guess it's not a big deal if you intend to only keep a few though. Did you keep the heifer calf? What are your plans for the herd? Eating them all? Selling some? Are yours registered?

First lamb of the season out there this morning. Of course. The pasture is covered with 6" of slush/snow and basically is one big frozen slurpee pond. Sheep always pick the worst times, I swear.