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Last week it was still spring…and chilly in the mornings and evenings.

Yesterday and today hot weather arrived, and the snowmelt from our mountains is roaring down into the creeks that stripe through our valley. There isn’t spot from which you can’t hear the water flowing! Soon the sound will intensify as rocks are tumbled along with the rushing water. So thrilling to see all that water; so distressing to be able to capture only a fraction of it for irrigation.

We have begun using that water (irrigation season began on May1), have already made the first watering cycle through our 5 hay fields, and are well into the second cycle. Lots of walking for us and for the dogs, but it is good useful exercise, and the green pastures and blooming trees are lovely.

We have just begun to sprinkle irrigate the sheep pastures, and are grazing all the sheep full-time. Such a good feeling….

The lambs were gradually and safely introduced to the electronet fencing, and all seem very respectful of it. Until last week, they had only seen the little green blades of grass around the periphery of their winter pen…now in grass up to their tummy-level, they are thrilled to be “sheep”. The first day they ran a bit, but now when they and their mothers are turned out each morning, they are “all business”!

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This is my mother’s 88th year. It has been a tough one for her…last December she was diagnosed with ovarian carcinoma that was widely metastatic within her abdomen. She was in a great deal of pain and the prognosis wasn’t optimistic. But she decided to have chemotherapy, all from her own wish to try to fight. My brother and I told her we would support whatever decision she made, but felt so very helpless.

After 10 weks (on Valentine’s Day), a repeat CT scan showed that 95% of the tumor was gone! Mom is quite weak from the chemo, and of course, has lost all her hair, but she has maintained her strong will to live. She has wonderfully supportive friends, the dearest of whom is Ruth, who despite complexities in her own life, spends most of the daylight hours, and all nights with my mother…making sure that Mom eats well, sitting up with her when she can’t sleep. When Mom started to lose her hair, she and Ruth began knitting hats, and have had a creatively good time doing it!

We don’t know what the future will be, but my mother has had some good months that she didn’t expect to have. Yes, she is weak and tired (and lately has battled a virus that took advantage of a low ebb in her white blood cell count), but she is stolidly continuing the chemo through next month, and then will be treated with another medication. We knew at the outset that a complete cure was not likely, but her progress so far is miraculous. She is so brave and we are hopeful…

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We have had some unsettled weather….today it snowed again, but didn’t stick. The March-like cold and wind are not what the pastures need!

But the past two days of bright haze have been perfect for photos…I went out with my trusty camera and took loads of lamb pictures. There are little ones who haven’t been photographed beyond the regular newborn documentation…and some who always get my attention.

This is Vega’s ewe-lamb. She is as well-marked as her mother, but will have Maximillian’s longer fleece. I think that she will be amazing…just what I was hoping for from this cross. Brook said with a sigh “well, there’s another one that isn’t leaving”.

Since I have posted one katmoget, it seems only right to show you the others. This big fellow is Sylva’s boy, who is getting more handsome by the day. He is Willym’s son and looks like another perfect cross. He has to be for sale though…the katmoget ram position is taken.

Hope and Willym’s tiny katmoget boy is still the smallest lamb, but perhaps the mightiest! Willym’s softness and the fineness of Nicolas’s line (Hope is a Nickel daughter) gave this little guy and his brother and sister beautiful fleeces. By the look of this little fellow’s muzzle, he got Hope’s Ag…and will likely fade as he grows.

Plein Jeu’s little ewe is the darkest katmoget we have ever had in our flock. Her ears are straighter now; I think that she is will be a very pretty ewe. And it feels like she is growing horn buds!

She is sweet and funny…and a bit of a monkey!

This is the promised photo of Hope’s triplet ewe-lamb who was adopted by Raven. She will be musket like her mother…and has the same soft silky fleece!

And here is Raven’s own lamb, a real beauty with a soft perfectly uniform fleece. She is going to be (is) a looker:

As I was taking photos, I realized that I hadn’t seen Grace in a while, so I went looking. She was trying to dominate the kelp feeder…but when she saw me, she was all innocence!

Better get on with the day…soon it will be time to go out and put the sheep in for the night. And to spend time sitting and schmoozing.

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