Nora and Kentigern

Kentigern

Spring by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Spring


Soft-littered is the new-year's lambing fold,
And in the hollowed haystack at its side
The shepherd lies o' night now, wakeful-eyed
At the ewes' travailing call through the dark cold.
The young rooks cheep 'mid the thick caw o' the old:
And near unpeopled stream-sides, on the ground,
By her Spring cry the moorhen's nest is found,
Where the drained flood-lands flaunt their marigold.

Chill are the gusts to which the pastures cower,
And chill the current where the young reeds stand
As green and close as the young wheat on land
Yet here the cuckoo and cuckoo-flower
Plight to the heart Spring's perfect imminent hour
Whose breath shall soothe you like your dear one's hand.

-Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Twins in their first day

The Winning Combination.

Nora washing her lamb

Twins born 4/15/10

First Lambs of 2010

Baroque sheep dance.

I went out to check the sheep late last night after hearing the neighbors dogs barking and they were just having a great time bouncing around in the snow.  They had already been fed but seeing me were begging for more so I threw in a couple more pats of hay.  I have a spot light that hangs off the sheepshed.  It lights their little holding paddock. I can see them very well with the added lighting.  I keep that light on to keep coyotes away and so I can spot check for lambs with ease.  The ewes were in a gleeful mood and were banging heads and jumping in the air all the while snow swirled around them and glittered on their backs and faces.  It was like a Baroque sheep dance.  Seldom do they stay inside their little fold at the end of the shed. They enjoy the cold crisp weather. I think the neighbors dogs were probably barking at the yellow cat that just showed up here last month and hangs around the barn. This is the kind of winter weather I like best.  Snow but not too much and lovely crisp nights.

My thoughts as lambing draws near.

When I bought my first little crossbred ewe 25 years ago I did not know how much sheep would mean in my life. I have experienced lambing every spring but one since then and it seems as much a part of the year as Christmas or Easter to me. Another lambing season is about to begin here at Thistledown Croft. As always I look forward to the new lambs and the time when I spend allot of time in the sheep shed. We raise Scottish Blackface sheep and do not try to time our lambs for the Easter market. We try to avoid the very worst, winter weather by waiting until March and April. Western New York has a harsh climate and it can be very hard on the ewes when it's bitter cold so we avoid the worst storms and deep cold spells by waiting a couple months latter than commercial producers. Often we put our ram in with the ewes around election day in early November. Our flock is a homestead flock. We breed to produce breeding stock and to provide meat for our own table. In the USA Scottish Blackface Sheep are a minor breed where as in the United Kingdom they are the most plentiful breed. We really enjoy this smaller hardy breed that is so very resilient and tough. It suits our climate and we also find them very aesthetically pleasing. There is no breed that produces finer tasting lamb and mutton than the Scottish Blackface.