Farm Livin' is the Life for Me!

We recently acquired a team of Belgians that are trained to pull a wagon. Their names are Jim & Jake, and they are very gentle. Caroline & Clayton have loved getting up close & personal with them in the barn. However, they've had a bit of a break from pulling anything on a regular basis, so Pete, Jake & Dad have been working with them. Today, for the first time, we got to hop in the wagon for a little ride around the ranch. It was awesome!

As of yesterday morning, we also have added two bummer lambs to our menagerie. Bummer lambs are babies that have lost or been removed from their mothers (ewes) for some reason or another. 2 years ago, our lambs were part of a set of quadruplets born to a ewe on our Neighbor Dave's farm. She didn't have enough teats to nurse them all, so we took over, raised them and ate them (YUM!) Neighbor Dave called a week or so ago to let us know that he thought he'd have some more bummers this year, if we were interested. Heck yes! I'm not sure how these two new ones came to be motherless, but one is 3-4 weeks old and the other is 3-4 days old. Caroline has named them Blackie and Spots. Clayton has taken over the feeding & care of Spots (Blackie terrified him for the first few feeds, but has gotten over it.) Caroline, I think, would love a chance to take care of Spots, but Clayton won't have it. Blackie is just big enough and aggressive enough that it's a bit of a trick for a 3 1/2 year old to hang onto the bottle long enough to get the lamb fed. But we're practicing. They're cute little things and fun to have around. But Caroline knows what they're for and has told more than one person, "When the lambies grow up, then they'll die. And then we'll eat them." Ah, the circle of ranch life! On our way home from feeding this evening, Caroline was singing "Baa, Baa Black Sheep" and Clayton was singing/dancing along. It was pretty cute!