I have been needing to do some sorting and cleaning on the list of links over to the right. There are sites I have been meaning to add for a while. Some other sites are no longer active for a variety of reasons. One of the sadder losses came in November when Gerard, the proprietor of A Catholic Blog for Lovers died suddenly. Gerard visited us here on our Hillside several years ago, and we had always expected a return visit some day. On a happier note, Karl is taking a sabbatical from his St. Stephen's Musings blog to devote time to his new daughter. Be sure to page down and read his story of her rather dramatic entry into the world. I will be checking my referral logs and trying to link folks who have been kind enough to link me. If you have, and don't see a reciprocal link in the next week or so, don't be shy, leave a comment and I will add you in!

I am making an early night of it, so I simply leave you with a picture of one of rams, wondering if some of the grain in that sack will find its way to him.

Rough day on the farm; stillborn lambs, truck sliding off the ice-covered driveway into a ditch. On a day like this it is easy to wish you were someplace else. I think back to this time a year ago when the family was getting ready for a grand adventure in the Hawaiian Islands. It is tempting to daydream yourself back there. I have some beautiful photos from that trip, but thought this one was a good reminder that, even in paradise, nature doesn't always cooperate and, just maybe, I should view our bit of ice and snow with a little more perspective.

Here is the lost lamb from yesterday together with his twin.

After the snows.

Breakfast? We've been waiting . . .

Sunday morning.

This little fellow was born sometime this morning and could not find his mother. He walked up to every ewe in the field like the little bird in P.D. Eastman's Are You My Mother, with no success. Convinced that he had been born to a ewe who had abandoned him, I decided to take him up to the house and start feeding him as an orphan. He was bleating as I carried him through the barn and much to our surprise, a ewe I had placed in a pen with another new lamb bleated back. Turned out our "orphan" had snuck through a gate into another part of the barn, and then out into the big world, while his twin sister was being born. Mother, son and sibling were happily reunited.

Two new lambs today, one didn't make it. I keep thinking that part will get easier with time, but it doesn't seem to. I brought the one up to the house, chilled and dehydrated. She was failing as I carried her, but we tried anyhow. She stayed with us most of the way as we worked on her, then she simply wasn't there anymore. Not a great way to end the day.

What you see between the lens and the sheep is my breath, cloudy and rising in the cold air as the picture is snapped. Pneuma, as the Greeks would say it, or ruach as the Hebrews might.

Morning feeding.

A light dusting of snow before dawn today.

The lamb count is now seventeen. The newest addition was born to a little black ewe who was intended to be part of the boys' 4-H project until the summer got away from us last year. I was a little suprised, because today's weather was actually pleasant. Temperatures got high enough to use the hose down the hill to the barn rather than hand-carrying milk jugs full of water to the lambing pens. Tonight we dip back down below freezing and stay there until Saturday. More births predicted.

Gideon Strauss is linking to more lists of things people love reminding me of my earlier stated intentions to do the same. In a way, this weblog is an ongoing report on the things, people and places I love, but nonetheless it is far from complete. I turn fifty this summer and perhaps it is a good time to reflect and see what it is that is still important at the half-century mark. Sounds like a good weekend project.

No new lambs today. The count is currently sixteen; three sets of twins and ten singles. We have had a break in the weather, with temperatures above freezing for the first time in a week. The mountain tops are still white, but our fields are no longer snow covered. The barnyard is muddy again, a foretaste of spring days that are still a long way off. Since we have more lambs to come, inevitably we have more bad weather ahead of us. On Saturday morning I brought a bouquet of flowers home with the groceries for Susan. Their fragrance made winter seem to vanish for a moment. Then the breeze cut through the gap at the bottom of the door . . . Here is another one of Jonathan Chaves' translations that captures those days on the cusp of the season, as winter becomes spring:

After Snow --- Impromptu

Dawn breaks, snow patches lie on the slopes:
far away, they seem like flocks of sheep
or maybe geese.
Remember--plodding through spring mud
to see the budding willows,
in camel-hair robe and sable hat
crossing the icy river.

Yu Chi

New twins.

The predicted big snow turned out to be two inches of powder with high winds. The boys spent yesterday afternoon sledding. By this afternoon the sun and high winds had stripped the east facing slopes of all but a dusting. Feeding at sunset, I watched the moon rise over skyline drive. There was a new lamb in the barn, and twins born earlier that needed a trip up to the house for some emergency care. By the time all chores were done, the sky was dark and Orion was just peeking over Skyline Drive.

Lambing pens at night.

Snow arrives, the mountain vanishes.

Storm heading our way.

Another backdated post today. The first part of Friday evening flew by preparing for the winter storm predicted to start Saturday. Propane for the grill, gas for generators, extra feed down to the barn, top off the pantry; all the usual things one does when you are at the end of the power lines and bad weather is on the way. We usually get by without problems, but there have been occasions . . .

After the most urgent chores were done, Susan and I let the boys hide out at the in-laws before the expected day of shovelling and sheep chores. We took advantage to run up to Winchester for a late dinner out at Passage to India before we get snowed in for the weekend. Tomorrow, snow pictures.