Not Too Bad, I said.........Part One

In my Great Management Scheme (and people who know me, know I have NO management skills) for the winter of 2009/2010, I decided to lamb in February instead of January, in the hopes of having more twins than I normally do by putting my ram in with the sheep in the beginning of August. I also only bred half my flock, so I would have sheep to work the dogs on over the winter.


Not too bad I said, as The Great Management Scheme actually seems to be working. I've had 6 ewes lamb, all with twins. What I wasn't expecting was the Great Snowfalls of the Winter of 2009/2010!


Preparing for our first big snowstorm last Friday/Saturday, wasn't too difficult. The ground was mostly clear and preparations went smoothly. Of course our first lambs arrived on Friday! Not too bad I said, as I put them in a jug to ride out the coming storm.

That first storm dumped about 30" of snow on the ground. Not too bad I said. I've got the tractor, which I had left down by the sheds, lesson learned for the second storm, so I can plow a path. When I arrived at the farm in the aftermath of the storm, the upper gate was drifted to my waist. Not too bad I said as I got out of my car and trudged thro the snow to the gate. The snow was pretty light and I was able to clear enough from the inside of the gate to get the gate open enough to squeeze thro.

Looking down the hill, it was a long walk down to the sheep and tractor. Not too bad I said, as it would be downhill all the way and it didn't look like any drifts. So I trudged thro mid-thigh snow, lightly holding onto the fence and walked down to the sheep and tractor.

All the sheep were up and milling around. Not too bad I said, no one else lambed and everyone was alive and the mom with lambs I had jugged were doing well.

The tractor started right up, Not too bad I said, as my tractor often does not start readily. A path was plowed up to the gate and the upper gate was opened and plowed. I hand shovelled the round pen gate to bring in the tractor to access the round bales of hay in the carport. Not too bad I said, as the snow was light and fluffy.

To be continued....................................................