Tag Archives: lamb
Almost Eclipse
Ninety-eight percent,
turns out isn’t mostly dim,
but sorta smoky
Like those brush fire days
when blazes light up the range
and wind blows our way,
Dimming the mountains.
I expected more twilight–
maybe a few stars.
Still—through the glasses,
the moon slid over the sun,
leaving a crescent.
It grew chill, and still,
and leaf shadows lay stipled.
Not Totality.
Along the spring sheep trails
We have started trailing from our wintering grounds to spring country where we have shearing and lambing in our future, and theirs.
The ewe lambs have spent the winter in the Powder Wash country. Yemerson has started them along the Powder Rim trail. In a few days, they will arrive at the Badwater Pasture, where they will hang out until early July.
In the meantime, the ewes who wintered on the Chain Lakes allotment on the Red Desert have started south. Their destination is the Cottonwood lambing grounds. In a few weeks, we’ll have wool in the bags, and lambs on the ground, God willing.
Puppies, and colts and lamb, oh my!
It is only early February, but we do have lots of young animals around. We have had more than one litter of Livestock Guardian Dog puppies (hence the difference in sizes), a litter of Border collies, last summer’s colt crop, and–oh yes–one lamb. The little ones are fun, but soon we will have scores of lambs and calves on the ground, so this is the calm before the storm. Barring bad weather, which we have definitely not had, I consider the time between when the bucks go into the ewes in mid-December, and when the purebred lambs and the heifers’ calves start arriving in early March to be the lull. How can it be going by so fast? And why do I still feel so busy?

Maeve and Siobhan with an adult guardian dog,overlooking the sheep watering at Lower Powder Spring (one of them isn’t dressed right!)