Fresh snow and fresh lambs – what could be better!?

Overnight, Polly delivered two adorable lambs and the sky delivered about four inches of fluffy snow. We like to have snow when babies are being born because it seems to insulate the barn and make everything cozy. Mornings like today are tough to beat – a short walk to the barn through soft drifts to spend an hour snuggling new babies in the sheltered stone foundation. Sheep are shy by nature, but they don’t really come into their skittishness for a few weeks. Tiny lambs are easy to catch and scoop into your arms and once you have them held tightly they relax into you. Then you can press your nose into their greasy, tightly curled fleece. Mmmmm – lambs smell like salt, hay, milk and lanolin. Heaven in a barn.

Like mama, like daughters. Pretty and Precious are all about food – and imitating their mom. Polly is my best mother. Last year she fed three lambs of her own and adopted a rejected triplet from another family. I think these two lambs will grow fast under her care.

Pretty and Precious are enjoying frisking around in the brisk air of their tarp-enclosed pen…

...while Jiminy and Christmas are enjoying leaping and sliding in the few new inches of snow. Cricket is always close by but those lambs are getting fast!

Meanwhile, Lacy and Macy, the first of our winter lambs, are getting fat! And no wonder –

They’ve got tons of great-smelling alfalfa hay and sweet milk. Those of you who are spinners out there checking in – look at the wonderful fleeces on these two! Their mom’s soft Finn-Rambouillet crimp is combined with the length, luster and curls of their Romney-mix dad. Can’t wait to get my hands on their wool!