“If March comes in like a lion, will it go out like a lamb?”......

Today's the first day of March, and we all ask, "will it come in like a lion, and out like a lamb?"....we'll just have to wait and see, i'm leaning towards it coming in like a lion....since we've yet had any nice weather here in  my part of the world, and yesterday was a dirty day here, with school buses being canceled and school's closed....it was gusty, and the roads icy, and of course cold and miserable! We are still waiting to tap our trees for maple syrup! I just hope we get the chance to this year, and not just skip right over that precious window of time, ever so crucial for collecting sap!

Speaking of lambs, we had several new lambs come to us starting at Christmas, and into the New Year....We raise pure bred Katahdin sheep..."the meat sheep"....a nice low maintenance sheep breed that does not require shearing, easy lambing, parasite resistant, cold hardy, and just all around, a great breed to keep! I started to raise just a small handful a few years ago after watching my father and his wife successfully raise them, I purchased a few ewes and a ram from him, and have kept back over the years all my ewes to grow my herd. We sell off the males either for meat, or as breeding stock, and fetch a much higher price selling them as breeding stock. They are raised all naturally, feeding them our own home grown corn, mixed grains, and hay! I have no complaints about keeping them, rarely had any losses until this winter's births, and I think it was due to the severe cold we had, and perhaps first timer ewes, and lack of good nursing within the first twenty four hours....All and all....good animals to keep, just wish that they would fetch higher prices at the market, since buyers seem to be prejudice towards them because they aren't "woolly".....We keep two goofy half brother llamas who have been at our farm since we got the sheep in....I bought the llamas from a local who was selling off his stock, and felt i just had to have them both, even though I've been told numerous times, that I only need one for guarding over the herd. Oh well, they do a good job, and help protect the sheep from the abundant population of coyotes we have in the area. We also have a heinz 57 beef cow, that we artificially bred to a shorthorn and got a lovely shorthorn heifer calf out of the deal! We were hoping to re breed the heifer to shorthorn, to get ourselves a pure offspring eventually....we'll just have to see what we do....it takes some handling to get the beef cattle to become pets, in order to handle them for artificial breeding.....I do hope to get back some layer birds this spring, (it's been a bit since i've had layers, or meat birds, or turkeys), so i'm hoping this will be the year, we can get back into keeping more animals on the farm. It would also be nice to get some hogs going, and a fatten up some calves. Oh, the things one can do on the farm, just a matter of time, and sometimes some money....We also should be back to milking our own dairy cow, since my hubby spent his entire life pretty much milking....it would be nice to get a Jersey! Well, here's to the first day of March! Have a great day everyone!

~Rosemary~

Llama, Cow, and Katahdin Sheep in yard

Katahdin Lamb and Ewe

Llama's (the buddy's)