Dogs and Lambs

I got a phone call earlier today that our sheep dog Ellie was hit by a car. :-(  She is ok! I guess she jumped the fence in the back yard and got loose. My mom noticed right away, and Ryan went out to get her. He called her, but she wouldn't go to him. He heard a car coming down the road, and knew she would try to herd it. And sure enough she ran into the road. She was standing broadside when the car hit her. Luckily, she was hit by the bumper and she rolled under the car, and was missed by all 4 tires. Ryan says she has a bruise on the side of her face, but otherwise appears to be perfectly fine. She got up and walked right over to him afterward. The woman who hit her stopped, and was crying. Ryan calmed her down and everything seems to be alright. But Ellie will be under constant surveillance to be sure there are no complications. And as soon as she heals, Ryan will be working with her on the "come here" command!! We are so very thankful she is alright!!


In other, happier, news:
We have lambs!
8 so far, 5 ram lambs (boys), 3 ewe lambs (girls). So far all singles except for one set of twins. We have 3 black lambs, and 5 brown ones. We like the brown ones best, as they are worth the most money. But some of the black ones are really cute, so I definitely don't mind having them around! :-)  I was expecting more twins, and hopefully we'll get more, but I guess singles are usually born first. Makes sense I suppose.

This is Aram:

He's one of the twins. I can't believe how cute they all are! But, they aren't soft like I thought they'd be. Their fur feels almost like corduroy pants. I think it's so short that you just can't feel how soft it is. It's SUPER short! It'll grow fast though. :)

Ryan and I have decided the nickname for our farm will be "Plan B Farms: Where nothing goes as planned". Literally everything we've done with these sheep has had to be done a second time, because our original plan wasn't working! We've rebuilt barns, pens, fences and bridges... we've moved sheep 'here' just to put them back 'there' again... we had a breeding plan laid out, but then two rams jumped the fence, so our entire breeding plan for this year has changed... it's been really hectic. But I'm loving it all, and we're having so much fun.

The barn isn't very accessible. It's a muddy walk through the pasture to get to the barn, and once you get within 10 feet of the barn, you'd better have either knee-high boots or waders because the mud is literally a foot thick. there's no getting around it, you have to walk through it. Then, once you bravely make it into the barn (without losing a boot to the sticky clay/mud), you have to step up on a chair, over a 4 foot fence onto a ladder, climb down the ladder and FINALLY you are in the barn and can see the lambs. So, while we welcome any and all visitors, please note: if you don't have knee-high boots, or you aren't physically able to climb onto a chair, over a fence, and down a ladder, you aren't going to be able to get close to the lambs. This is definitely something we will be doing differently next year!

That's my life!