Before and after

It's been a bright and beautiful Easter weekend here on the meadow. A busy weekend too!

It was sheep shearing time which meant a fair amount of preparation to set up for the Sunday morning arrival of our friends Brian and Debbie.

David had the sheep dry and fasted. He made auxiliary pens to have the ewes and the ram ready for their shearing. The shearing area was set up and ready to go when Brian arrived.

Brian is a professional shearer who first sheared our sheep last year. He does a lovely job. It's hard work and takes a strong back. His wife Debbie is his ready assistant handing him his tools and his upturned milk carton bench as required.

David brought the ewes to Brian one at time, introducing them by name and disposition. Once the shearing began, David would retrieve the ewe's lamb and hold them close by to minimize the lamb's and the ewe's stress levels. Once the shearing is complete, Brian takes to his milk carton and trims the sheep's hooves. With that, they are all done and David turns them out into their new pasture with their lamb. We gather up the beautiful fleece, seperate it from the tag and bag it up in empty chicken feed bags. The ram was sheared last, his fleece is the very nicest of all the sheep... just beautiful.

The actual shearing operation took just 2 hours then it was time for a shower and some lunch.

They are a happy flock of sheep today. The little ones are full of beans while the ewes and 'Mr.' seem relaxed and content.

Yesterday was also a day of new spring arrivals as our sandhill cranes returned to the meadow. Our bluebirds arrived and an osprey visited too.

Our grandson, new lambs, old pups and our first spring flowers

Our first spring flower! Bright and welcome dandelions poking their heads up at the edge of the house where the sun beats down.

We are thoroughly enjoying our little lambs gamboling about in the yard! Our ewes are such good moms too!

And the dogs are in seventh heaven. It's time to 'Play Ball' again now that the snow is gone from the yard. Well, almost gone!!

And finally, after 5 months of waiting for the roads to be passable and lots web cam visits and lovely photos from Jill and Charlie ... David and I stole a few days to get down to Vancouver to meet our grandson; Aiden! And what a beautiful boy he is!!

Three pies worth!

Our blackbirds.

Enough for at least three pies! :)

Their numbers have swelled in the last few days. Their song echos around the meadow. We counted more than seventy red winged blackbirds this afternoon! They decorate the view out our kitchen window and grace our trees with their beautiful flashes of colour!

Moose the lamb

Our newest and last lamb of the year just a couple of hours old here ~ we have named this little guy ' Moose' ! He is a big lamb; long legged and long bodied. That's a portrait of his mom below. Her name is Snowball and Moose is her first lamb. It was a difficult birth for her but she's doing beautifully now and is proving to be an awesome mom! Moose is finding his legs and learning how to keep his big head up. It's been snowing the last few days. All three lambs and their moms are still in their comfy lambing apartments till it's a bit more spring like outdoors. Soon they'll be bounding about out on fresh spring grass and as Matthew; one of our wood ring folks said " ...they'll be making the place look like an Easter greeting card come to life!" :) It's lunch time and we're just warming up one of our favourites ~ homemade (of course) split pea soup. mmmm.

The new lambs ~ a few pics.

St Pat's Day.

St Patrick's Day on the meadow.

Red winged black birds singing high atop the old spruce trees at the main gate.

Coyote wakes up from his afternoon siesta in the middle of the open meadow and the moose pay no attention.

Our resident cow and her two calves grazed for a couple of hours on the ridge across the creek. They are so comfortable with us; it's a lovely thing. We hanker for a telephoto lens so that we can really get close up and personal.

And indoors, our kitchen table tulips reach full bloom. Another spectacular day.

Brand new lambs!

"Shorts" (or Shorty for short :) our first spring lamb ~ was born March 8th at 9:30pm. This little ram lamb promises to be an entertaining addition to our wee flock. He and 'the Mrs' are doing just fine.

Then, last night at 11:15pm Missy delivered a ewe lamb. It was not an easy or quick delivery but the gentle shepherd was on hand to assist and in the end, all was well.

The weather has turned cold again today but the past few days of warm winds has melted a good deal of snow. Last summers dried grasses are poking up here and there and the meadow 'lake' that appears every spring is beginning to form at the low spots. Soon we'll be watching for the Trumpeter Swans and Sandhill Cranes on their spring migrations.

Our waning winter.

After quite an impressive blast of winter last week, the last few days have brought warm winds and rain resulting in some tremendous puddles around the place. Small ponds really :)

This is the driveway yesterday ~ the steep hill that runs from the main house up to the 8km of road that David maintains. This 8km road connects to the main logging road that takes us into town.

Our creek ~ showing signs of spring, and this morning our first Red winged Blackbird returned. Such a welcome sight and sound!

The grandson! An update

Young Aiden at not quite 4 months old. :)

A little chinook and a beautiful sunny day