Changing views

We moved the sheep last night. In the horrible wind, in the rain, while holding a crabby Isaiah. Not a fun time, but it had to be done. So now I'm back to spying on them from the bedroom or great room windows. It had been kind of nice to be able to watch them grazing while I ate breakfast and dinner, but now it's back to the front pasture. Nate and I are still trying to figure out where else we want to put up permanent fencing for this year. We still have 2 rolls left. Along with that we have our 600 feet of temporary fencing to use also, and about 20 cattle panels. So, the hardest part is figuring out how we want to configure pastures, while still keeping some for haying. Well actually, the hardest part is putting in the posts, and attaching fence, and stretching fence... I'm just lucky enough that Nate usually does most of that. It's nice to have such a strong husband, who isn't afraid of hard work!

Talking more about breeding groups for this fall. We've decided we are going to keep Maon, and Charlok too. I guess after the condition we bought them in we've decided we have to give everyone a chance to show us what they can really produce. I am amazed at how much healthier my sheep look then they did in March. It's looking like Bam will be the lucky recipient of a harem of 5 ewes, and Maon will have his three that produced this year. I'll probably change my mind many times between now and November, but that's my current thoughts. In addition, we don't want to have lambing in March. The beginning of May sound preferable. The horrible April weather of this past spring has soured me to early lambing. Plus, the closer to summer, the more time I will have for my flock as school days wind down. We still don't have a barn up yet either, hopefully some time and money will magically produce itself in the next few months. I wonder if there are any money trees on the back of this parcel of land...

Speaking of school, Kohen is doing 'school work' each day. He's been a doing a couple of pages a day in a preschool workbook that I had picked up. Being a teacher, it's great to see anyone learning, but all the more special when it's your own offspring! He is so smart, Nate and I have at least one episode of just looking at each other in disbelief, at least daily. Right now his countdown is on for the airshow. It is one of the first questions each morning, how many days mom?

Isaiah is also not a slow poke. He is crawling and climbing nonstop. He used to sleep into 7:30-8 each morning, but not anymore. Now that he is mobile, that is all he wants to do. He is so in love with his big brother, they 'talk' to each other, and Isaiah just laughs.

For your viewing pleasure, here are a few pictures of our haying operation last week. The first is Nate on the OC-3 and dad on the farmall on the fourth. There was a large pole with about 15 feet of steel attached to it that they discovered in the field. The OC-3 did it's job and removed it. The next picture is dad with the JD B and the good OLD rotobailer. It makes small round bales (that are easy for me to lift.) The last picture is Kohen, overseeing the whole operation and delivering the grease gun. Notice he and Papa have matching hats.

Well, it's a dreary, rainy, gray day. A good day for soup and fresh bread I think. I'm off to the kitchen.