Woollies and winter blooms...

 

(Toodles loves to feed sheep alfalfa cake from her hand.)

The sheep are nearing the end of wearing their thick winter fleeces.  Next week Monday, we have them scheduled for shearing.  The woollies are sure going to feel the cold then, but it's important to us to shear them before they begin lambing.  It's difficult for baby lambs to find their milk when they have to nuzzle through a lot of wool.   I was up at the sheep barn a couple days ago and took the Star down from its Christmas position and wired it to the wall inside.  I was thinking about how very soon this barn would become my second home.  Not a home, really, but a place where I will be spending a lot of time every day, keeping an eye on the sheep and helping with the lambs.  I can't wait!  February 10th is the approximate due date for the lambies to begin dropping.   

I just finished a great little book called The Shorn Lamb by Hughie Call.  The author writes from experience as she spent years with her husband on their Montana ranch.  This story is about a young widow who is trying to keep her husband's sheep ranch running.  Oh the challenges she faces!  The Golden Fleece is another of her novels I enjoyed a few years back.

 

The laundry room "greenhouse" is bursting with buds.  The Halloween-Thanksgiving-Christmas-Easter Cactus is still pushing out blooms and now the orchid (above) is sending out shoots.  I don't know how long it will take to be in full blossom, but I'm hoping for lovely orchids by Easter!  Is it too much to ask?  Maybe, but I'll take orchids whenever they come.  I'm so glad for these small miracles that bless my heart during the frigid winter days.