What a weekend.....

Friday night Andrew went out to the barn to feed the twin lambs their bottles and found another ewe about to birth. The poor ewe was in distress. She is our smallest eweand it seemed that she was having the largest lamb of them all. It had to be an assisted birth. We called the provincial vet for some support. The lamb survived and so did the ewe. We had to meet up with the vet to get some pain medication for her and some other things she needed after her truama. She won't let her lamb suckle probably because of the pain. So... that lamb is being bottle fed too. We are still putting the lamb on it's mother throughout the day to keep her healthy.

Blacky's smallest lamb isn't doing so well. He can hardly lift his head. We have been giving him medication and we have to feed the little thing through a tube. We put him in the front porch.

I don't know what we would do if we didn't have the front porch.

We worked outside for most of the day yesterday. When we were not in the barn with the lambs we worked in the greenhouse. Watering and weeding the planted beds. We also brought out all of the colder weather crop transplants to the greenhouse. I needed the room in the front porch to plant more trays. The transplants will grow better in the greenhouse anyhow. With the better sunlight and warmer temperatures.

JG

Snow!!!

There wasn't anymore lambs born today. Yet anyway. Blacky's milk still hasn't come in so therefore I am now bottle feeding them every two hours. They learn quickly who has the food. When I enter the barn and starting talking they go to the gate of their pen and wait for me.

My evening is going to be spent watering and seeding in the front porch. With every CSA membership we get I get motivated to plant more trays.

JG

#7 AND #8!!

"Blacky" had a set of twin boys this morning. The second was very small but is doing alot better this afternoon. Poor Blacky isn't making any milk though. The girls and I have been bottle feeding the twins every two hours. Their mother seems to have accepted them otherwise. Hopefully her milk will come in for the sake of the lambs.

It seems the past two weeks have been totally focused on the lambs. I have gotten some more seeding done in the front porch. I am running out of shelf space.

JG

More Lambs!!

I hope many of you got the chance to listen to Maritime Noon call-in show on CBC today. I really enjoyed it. If you missed it I think you can go to the Maritime Noon webpage and download todays show. The show was on buying local and how we as consumers can support our local farmers.

News from the barn.....

Our ewe "Erica" gave birth to a ram Monday night. She was really spooked. Andrew and I brought the lamb into the house for the night because it was going to be so cold and we were worried about Erica's ability to look after him. We brought him in and gave him a warm bath to clean him up a bit and dried him off really well. He spent the night in our bathroom. He was blaating in the bathroom and the dog was in the kitchen barking for most of the night.

Yesterday morning we took him out to Erica. After a full day of latching the lamb onto Erica and forcing her to stand still she seems to behaving like a good mother. We checked on her many times today to see how they were both doing.

Our ewe that gave birth last Thursday got her head stuck and had to be rescued. She is the one we have started to call "Shaggy".

Everything we have planted in the greenhouse seems to be growing well. The growing season seems so far off still the falling snow outside.

I am off to Fredericton tomorrow for a Canadian Young Farmer's forum.

JG

Miserable Morning!!!

There is ice everywhere. It has been freezing rain since early this morning. "Big Blue" is doing great with her new lambs. Andrew got a surprise this morning when he went out to the barn. There was another lamb. We didn't think that that particular ewe would was that close. But hey what do we know, we are learning.

Everything is starting to grow in the greenhouse. It is very encouraging. We have gone through a lot of wood though.

Our CSA box sales have been going good. A few more and will have hit our goal for this season.

Two more lambs!!!!

Two more lambs were born last night around 7:00pm. "Big Blue" did wonderful. We were all there if she needed help. She showed no signs of stress and seemed to know exactly what to do and when to do it.
JG

More Cold Nights!

We have yet another cold night night at -15C with high winds. The cool temperatures are causing a lot of nightly checks on both the lambing pens and the greenhouse. Thank goodness for family to help with many of the shifts.

We expect to have another sheep lamb sometime in the next day or so. The ewe has been showing signs of being ready as long as the one that gave birth yesterday, so tonight could be the night.

The plants direct seeded in the greenhouse have started to germinate. The work to heat now does not feel like it was in vane.

Lambs Are Born

Today marks the beginning of lambing season with the birth of a set of twin lambs born to "Little Bear". All went well and the birth was unassisted. The first of the twins was born shortly after 8:00am and the second 20 minutes later. The lambs appear to be healthy and walking around well. We will be checking in often to ensure they are both nursing.

CSA Memberships

After such a frustrating week fighting with weather it is reassuring and encouraging to see such a great level of support from local customers interested in joining our CSA. Our advertising campaign is off to a great start with a flurry of interest in memberships for the upcoming season. We will be posting more information and answers to your questions on our website soon so come visit us often. Feel free to send us an email or call us with any questions or comments you might have. Jodi and I both love hearing from our present and prospective customers.

Long Cold Nights

March has certainly come in like a lion! Snow, freezing rain and record rain fall has left us feeling discouraged and frustrated.

The last 3 rain falls have led to flooding in the greenhouse. Cold nights has reeked havoc on the firewood supply and left us tired and ran down due to the constant attending during the -15 C nights.

Today is sunny and will allow us a break from attending the fire during daylight hours. The temperature will no doubt reach the high thirties today, which will allow us to open the ventilation and remove some of the moisture that has built up due to flooding.

The flooding came on fast and water levels receded just as quickly so there is a possibility that the seed already planted will not rot.

We certainly hope that the rest of March brings warm nights and sunny days but as we all know the weather is in the hands of God.

May God bless our hard work and reward us with an early and productive crop this spring.

Time must now be spent preparing the barn for lambing as many of the sheep are showing signs of be due very shortly. Hope also to get the tractor repaired this week as it will be needed as soon as the fields can be worked. Other priorities include the completion of an apprentice cabin, repairs and upgrades to cultivation equipment and the completion of this years certification forms.

We started to heat the greenhouse today. We have started to seed the greenhouse today as well. We are hoping to get a head start for the beginning of the market season in April. More trays are being planted everyday in the front porch. There was a big snow storm here yesterday and today. There must be three feet of snow on the garden. It is a very comfortable temperature in the greenhouse.