Another day on the ranch...

 

Another lamb was brought into my ICU for a little extra TLC.  Jessie, our 13 year old Border Collie/Australian Shepherd, just loves sheep, and she thinks that any lamb that is brought into the mudroom is hers to tend to.  She whines and stares with interest at the lamb and then when she can't stand it any longer, she gets up and starts licking the little fella all over.  

Here is the patient, fed and warm and ready to go back to his mother.

The hens were having a "Hay Day" out scratching in the bulls' bedding.  They dig and scratch through the straw and try to come up with some digested corn or maybe a bug that has come out of hibernation.  Everything tastes better when it comes from the poop piles, I guess.

We were under fog and frost for most of the day, but by mid-afternoon we were blessed with sunny skies and warmth.  Everything feels better this time of year when the sun shines and the temperature rises. So do I.

We brought in the heifers from their pasture, sorted them according to their calving dates, and gave them each a shot of vitamin A&E.  It is one of those "good for you" shots that will aid in dispelling the afterbirth when the calves are born.  When Hubs got a drop of the A&E on his lips, he said it tasted like cod liver oil so I checked the ingredients on the label and sure enough, it contained cod liver oil.

We will keep fifty heifers near the barn so we can watch them closely as they calve, and the other fifty or so will be turned back out to pasture until their due dates draw near. The heifers are having their very first calves this spring and they can sometimes have trouble or become confused.  They need a little more TLC than the mature cows.

I made a cherry pie today from the sour cherries we picked this past June.  Sunshine on a fork!