Today was a busy day--we gave all the ewes their sore mouth vaccinations. Sore mouth is a virus that gives the lambs short-lived sores on their lips. My flock has a mild strain, so the lambs are never very bothered by it, but they transmit it to their mother's teats, and sores on the teats are bad news at the beginning of milking. So we vaccinate the moms and the lambs to keep the incidence to a minimum. The vaccination is like the old smallpox vaccinations--you have to scratch the skin and then dab on a solution of live virus. Lolo is  a pro at it, and our vaccinations have a high success rate. Photo: At the end of day the ewes frolicked on their way back to their pasture with Oso the dog. 

Bat, Panda, and Lucky, The Three Amigos, back together again after the season's breeding. We ultrasounded the ewes yesterday with Dr Dotti from Cotati Large Animal Clinic, and the great news is that almost all of the ewes are confirmed pregnant. Good ole Edith is incubating her usual brood of triplets fathered by Bat, and Piggy, Panties, Bebe, Guapa, Guapita, Pirata, and the rest of our top milk-producers, are all pregnant, most with twins or triplets. Based on Dr Dotti’s estimates, the lambs should start dropping around February 29th. Elvis rocks—all his ewes got pregnant, and so now we have Elvis in with all the ewe lambs, just to breed any that might still be open. Dr Dotti will preg check the ewe lambs in three weeks. We were so busy handling ewes during the ultrasound yesterday that I didn’t take any photos, but I’ll try to take one when Dr Dotti does the ewe lambs.

It was a windy afternoon, but all got calm as sunset approached. It was crystal clear, Tomales Bay was calm as glass and there was a huge expanse of glittering ocean visible beyond Point Reyes. Panda and his ewes were out grazing above our house in the waning light and Gordy watched the sunset and prepared to be on guard through the night. I can hear him barking now, telling those coyotes to stay away.

How much trouble could these two adorable boys cause? Oh man, don't ask. Think teenage boys out on the town. We put our ewe lambs in with two of our ram lambs today and these boys were the ones left without girls. We put them in our house-yard because we could keep an eye on them and they wouldn't share a fence with a breeding group, but they took things into their own hands as it were, and K-2 (on the left in the photo), the son of our acrobatic Katahdin ram Bat, jumped the fence and trotted up the driveway until he found Lucky Boy and his girls. He and Lucky had a fight through the fence, and K-2 managed to break a water pipe, sending a geyser 20 feet into the air, which Lisa and I saw from where we were working in the creamery. We dropped everything, got the little trailer, went to capture K-2, and moved him and El Guerro (his partner, on the right in the photo) to another pasture, where they unfortunately shared a bit of fence with Bat and his girls. An hour later, I looked down from my office to that pasture and saw blood--and Bat backing up 30 feet and ramming the fence. Bat and his son were locked in battle through the fence, and Bat had punched a hole in the fence with his head. I dropped what I was doing and rushed back to the creamery to get Lisa and off we went with the trailer to get the wayward boys once again. This time we brought them back to the night pasture, which shares a fence with Elvis and his girls. So we moved Elvis's group to the one remaining pasture we have that doesn't share a fence with another breeding group, and we hope we have solved the problem. While Lisa and I were taking care of the boys, Lolo was patching the water pipe, and by sundown our water was back on, and all was quiet. Damn that testosterone!

I was driving into the ranch today and saw our little ram lamb Elvis snuggled up with his first girlfriend. Each ewe comes into heat for about 36 hours, once every 17 days or so. So when a ram goes in with a group of ewes, he checks around to see who is receptive to his advances and that ewe (or maybe more than one ewe in a large group) is his girlfriend for the next day or so. There is sex involved, but also they just hang out together like a couple of lovers enjoying each other's company. Elvis and this ewe were so adorable, and I got off one lousy picture at a distance through the fence before my camera battery went dead. (click on photo to enlarge)

Today was the day for the rams to go in, to ensure that our lambing begins around March 1. The forcast said "chance of showers." It's been raining steadily all day, almost an inch so far. A miserable day for working the sheep, but we got it done. We started by milking the ewes one last time to relieve the pressure in thier udders, and giving them their dry treatment to keep their udders healthy until spring. Then we herded the ewes to the corrals and sorted them into 4 breeding groups, and weighed and wormed them all. I plan in advance which ram is the best to breed to each ewe, and then we sort the ewes into the groups to go in with each ram. After the ewes were separated, we moved the rams, Panda, Bat, Lucky Boy and our new little ram Elvis, into their respective pastures, and then moved the ewes to join the rams. It was a long, wet day, but Lolo and Ignacio and I worked efficiently and tonight everyone is where they are supposed to be. Keeping notes in the rain was a challenge, and I have soggy pieces of notebook paper all over my office drying right now. Photo: Pretty Guapita in the corrals waiting to meet her new boyfriend (Elvis!).

I made the last cheese of the season today! Only 40 gallons of milk, as we have been working hard to dry off the ewes this past week, decreasing their feed and dropping to once a day milking. Here are some of the Txikis, waiting for Lisa to weigh them and put them into the brine. I'm going up to take them out of the brine right now.

It's just a little over a week until the rams go in and for the past week we've been fence-teasing the ewes; we put the rams in adjoining pastures to flirt with the girls to make sure everyone is cycling and ready to get pregnant when the rams go in. Each day it is a different group of girls who have more interest in hanging out with the rams than in eating or sitting in the shade. Photo: Panda with today's harem.

The other half of the picture: the rams. This is Panda, our best sire. What a handsome guy. He doesn't know yet, but he has a date with Panties, the black ewe among tonight's hussies, who is our top-producing ewe. The lambs should be awesome.

We are getting close to the end of the milking and cheesemaking season. Only 5 batches of cheese left to make; this Friday we switch to once-a-day milking and begin to decrease the ewe's feed to help them dry off their milk. On October 10 the rams go in with the ewes. Finally our Marshall summer has arrived; it was dry and 80 degrees today and Tomales Bay was as calm as glass. As this season arrives every year, the ewes are cycling into heat regularly. We can always tell which ewes are in heat; after milking, they forego their dinner to head down to the corner of the pasture that is closest to the rams, and make eyes at the rams across the way. I call them the "shameless hussies."  Meanwhile, the rams in their pasture pose nonchalantly in the evening light and seem to take care not to look too interested. Photo: Tonight's shameless hussies.

Two weeks ago I had a very nice visit from Ray Bair, owner of Cheese Plus in San Francisco, and his niece Stephanie and her boyfriend Ty. I was too busy to blog about it at the time, but I had a great time showing them around. Anna was making cheese that day; they got to see the end of the cheesemaking, the aging rooms, and visit with the ewes. Today Ray sent around a very nice piece about the visit in his September newsletter from Cheese Plus. He also posted this photo of me with Bugeyes, as well as some lovely photos of the cheeses.

It was a long cheesemaking day today and when I got back to the house around 12 hours after I left, Nadie perked up and came over to greet me, with Edith and the others following. We had a "weedeating" session, in which I pull the the dandelions and other weeds that grow along the house-side of the fence, and feed them to Nadie and the gang. They happily chow down on the fresh salad and look up asking for more. I actualy have to apportion the weeds, making sure there are some left for tomorrow! Photo: Nadie, her granddaughter, and Edith, followed by the black ewe, coming up for some weed-salad.

I had a wonderful time this afternoon meeting new and old friends who came to the ranch to pick up their pre-ordered whole wheels of Txiki. Everyone got to meet the girls who were in the parlor for milking, and one enterprising couple brought a picnic that they enjoyed in our Bayview pasture until the fog rolled back in and chased them to the warmth of their car. Thank you everyone for coming out to get your cheese and for your support of local agriculture. Photo: another of Jodi's--I really love these Hipstamatic photos!

We had a visit this evening from some friends Melissa, Paul, Jodi and Ryan, who enjoyed visiting with our ewes Edith and Nadie. Jodi took this photo of me with Nadie and Edith, with her iPhone, using an app developed by Ryan's company, to make iPhone photos look like the fun photos taken by plastic toy cameras from decades ago. The app is available for the iPhone for $1.99. Check it out at Ryan's company's web site: www.heysynthetic.com.

We don't focus much on our rams during the lambing and milking season, but they are there, happily grazing in their pastures and waiting for breeding time. Our Katahdin ram Bat (pronounced "Bot," the Basque word for "One,") and our East Friesian ram Lucky Boy are old buddies, palling around shoulder-to-shoulder all year. When they come back from breeding the ewes, they are more likely to fight, but we control that by putting masks on them so they can't see straight ahead and can't charge and ram each other. 

This morning was foggy and cool, a perfect day for working the sheep. After the morning milking Lolo got the sheep scale set up in the corrals and I prepared the ewe lambs' tetanus and pneumonia booster shots. Lolo and Ignacio brought the lambs up from their pasture, and we worked with amazing efficiency, weighing and giving shots to all 40 ewe lambs in under an hour. Lolo worked the chute, letting one lamb at a time onto the scale, and recording her ear-tag number and weight, then Ignacio got her off the scale and held her while I gave the shots, and Lolo weighed the next lamb. These girls are our going to be milkers next season--we will breed them in November and they will have their lambs in April. They are looking beautiful and healthy, and weigh 110 to 140 pounds. Bringing the lambs into the corrals also gave us a chance to give their protection dogs, Big Otis and Shep, a much needed grooming. Neither Otis nor Shep cares much for human contact--the only way we can catch them is to bring the sheep to the corrals and sort the dogs into a small pen--but once we had caught them they tolerated us as we brushed them and removed fur mats. Photo: Otis with some of his charges in the chute.

I got my new cheese press today, designed by my friend Harvey Levin of Hope Farm in Vermont, who taught me to milk sheep in 2006, and made by Dennis Ferl of Northbay Mechanical here in Petaluma. It is a pneumatic horizontal press, like the ones they use in the Basque country, but modified by Harvey to be on an angle for ease of loading, and to counteract the friction of the molds against the frame, so each cheese receives the same pressure. I expected an adventure operating it for the first time today, but it worked beautifully and was such an improvement over the way we have been pressing cheeses, in stacks weighted by water bottles. No more leaning towers and we are able to completely clean the cheese room and equipment while the cheeses are pressing. Previously, we stacked the cheeses inside the cheese vat, so couldn't clean the vat until the cheeses were done pressing. Thank you Harv and Dennis!

I just got some photos from a fun visit I had last week from Sarah Dvorak and her staff at the newly opened Mission Cheese, in San Francisco. They came at the end of my cheesemaking day last Monday, donned lab coats, booties and hairnets and helped me unmold and weigh the cheeses and put them into the brine. They bought some wheels for the shop, had me AUTOGRAPH them, and left with big smiles after watching the ewes be milked and helping me to bottle-feed our three late lambs. What a great crew. Sarah said they love our cheese and are selling a lot of it!

Today was pedicure day at the ranch. The fog was kind and stayed in all morning, keeping it cool and comfortable for both the spa-workers and the ewes. The ewes come down the chute one at a time and are ushered into the treatment pen where Lolo and Ignacio tip them into our spa chair, and Ignacio cradles their head while Lolo trims the front feet and Marcia does the hind feet (except when she's taking pictures). Hoof-trimming is important for the health of the sheep and our ewes all were happy with their newly-trimmed toenails. Our "spa chair" is from Premier Sheep Supplies. "Equipment that works, from people who use it...every day!" is their tag-line and they are right. We love their equipment. And it turns a day of hoof-trimming from a back-breaking ordeal into a pleasure for us and the ewes. Photo: one of our ewes having her nails done.

Our friends Rae and Felix from Vermont paid us a visit today with their daughers Mimi and Kasumi. We had a nice visit with all the sheep; Edith and Nadie got their chins scratched at the house, and up at the barns, the month-old lambs were a hit. Photo: Kasumi with one of the young lambs.

...but given the news stories about stifling heat over much of the country, we feel very lucky! We never saw the sun last week, but for the past few days the fog has burned off giving us cheerier days, but with temperatures barely reaching 60. Ha! Great weather for working outside and the sheep are very happy. We weighed lambs today and most have reached 80 to 100 pounds. Even little Peanut is 75 pounds and gaining steadily, as are our latest born triplets. Almost all of our meat-lambs have been harvested for this season; we have 41 ewe lambs left from the best producing mothers, and I'm watching them graze in the pasture below my office. Elvis weighed in at 105 pounds today and we are saving a son of Panda and a son of Ike as our other new rams (thinking of keeping with our rock-star theme and naming them Jimi and Mick...) Photo: view from my office of the ewe lambs in the late-afternoon fog.

It's a breezy but clear evening in Marshall. Never in our 18 years in Marshall do I remember such fog-free evenings in June and July. To be able to enjoy the long summer days, right into the evening, is a rare treat. I'm sitting at my desk finishing up bookkeeping, and looking out at our 44 ewe lambs frolicking and grazing in the hill pasture in the distance, while in the foreground Edith, Nadie and the other dry ewes are mowing the lawn around our house. Photo: Edith and Nadie one of their companions.

1436's lamb is doing well, palling around with Guapa's two. The new boy was 11 pounds at birth and is growing steadily, and Guapa's twins are already at least twice his size at a little over two weeks old.

We had an inch of rain yesterday, unheard of in June! And this morning was miserable, cold and drippy. But the day warmed and Corey and I celebrated his birthday sitting out on our front deck with martinis and a cheese plate, feeding grain out of our hands to Edith and Nadie. The sun was too bright for photos...

Photo: 1436's boy with Guapa's behind him.

We're having a beautiful June and the lambs and dry ewes are enjoying the pasture around our house. Our first cheese is out and selling fast at Tomales Bay Foods. We had our last lamb of the season born on Friday: 1436 had a single boy. Mother and son are doing great--photos soon. It is amazing how fast Guapa's twins have been growing. I need to weigh them--they must be more than 25 pounds already at 2 weeks old.

Photo: One of the older ewe lambs with Shep in the pasture.

You can buy our cheese this season at the Cowgirl Creamery stall at the Point Reyes Farmer's Market, beginning this Saturday! Our first wheels of cheese were ready last week. The very first went to Christian Caiazzo for our Outstanding in the Field dinner, and the next wheels went to our good friends Thane and Steve, to celebrate Thane's 50th birthday (our very first commercial wheel of cheese was served around this time two years ago at their housewarming party). I took our first 8 lots of cheese to Petaluma on Tuesday and sat down with the Cowgirls (Rachel, Debra and Peg) to taste. We were all delighted at the flavor and texture, and Rachel tells me our first cheese is selling fast. They have chosen our cheese as one they will sell along with the Cowgirl Creamery cheeses this season at the Point Reyes Farmer's market, so please stop by and buy a piece.

Photo: yearlings hangin' out in the shade shelter on a hot June day

Today was SO hot in Marshall that the sheep were panting. We kept 1436 in the barn where it was cooler with good air circulation, because she is ready to lamb any day. All the sheep in the pastures have shade shelters, but Ignacio moved the dairy ewes down in the front pasture to shade-up where it is pleasant under the cypress trees and there is a lot of green grass for them when they feel like grazing. This afternoon I was returning just as milking was due to begin and I saw the ewes wending their way up through the pasture, single-file. I looked for Ignacio but he wasn't behind them; he was up at the top of the pasture with his "tin-dog," the string of milk-cans on a wire. He didn't have to go get them; they were coming up in response to the familiar shake of his rattle.

This evening was one of those warm beautiful evenings that are so rare in Marshall. When have we seen the sunset on the solstice? Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, nature had its way and the fog returned, showing up first as a blur on the horizon over Point Reyes, then swiftly coming in and engulfing us. in the course of 5 minutes it felt like the temperature dropped by 20 degrees. The sheep seemed to pause in their evening grazing to breathe a sigh of relief, and once again, we did not see the sun set on this solstice. But MAN does it feel good to have our fog back!

Photo: The promised photo by Paige Green of 1436 giving me a kiss in the milking parlor. She is very pregnant and due to lamb on the 23rd...

We're still basking in the glow of that wonderful dinner.

The pet ewes have settled in around our house and now they watch us through the windows and come to the fence for a treat of a few corn kernels whenever we go out the door. It is good to have pets. After all she has been through, Nadie is looking really happy and healthy. And Edith is as much of a character as ever. Her two sons went off to be breeding rams for our friend Bill Barboni at his Hicks Valley Ranch. More photos of them soon.

Guapa's lambs are growing well. More photos of them soon also.

Tonight one more of Corey's gorgeous photos from the Outstanding in the  Field event.

Our Outstanding in the Field event was a huge success, thanks to the outstanding group who put it on, and to Christian Caiazzo's talent at showing off our lamb, sausage and cheese, as well as David Little's wonderful produce. We had an amazing evening, clear and warm with just a little breeze. Wonderful wines from Pey-Marin, a mead from Heidrun Meadery and a great group of guests rounded out the evening. What at treat to sit out in one of our pastures until after sunset, with a wonderful group of appreciative guests.

The sun is setting on a beautiful June evening, and we have sheep right outside our door! Edith, Nadie and the two open yearling ewes have become our "pet flock," living at our house. The two yearlings have great genetics and we'll breed them in the fall; we'll breed Edith again also, as she always has beautiful lambs every year. Her two boys went off today as breeding stock to introduce some Katahdin genetics into a neighbor's flock. Nadie, after all she's been through, will be retired and live here as long as she wants. Photo: Edith and one of the yearlings.

We received our Animal Welfare Approved certification for our ranch today! We are so pleased, because their values are very much aligned with ours. In their words, the Animal Welfare Approved label verifies that participating farms are putting each individual animal’s comfort and well-being first.To learn more about AWA, visit their web site.

We're having a spell of beautiful warm, calm weather for Marshall...hope it lasts through tomorrow when over 100 people will be dining in our pasture at the Outstanding in the Field event. Chef Christian Caiazzo from Osteria Stellina has crafted a beautiful menu showcasing our lamb and cheese.

These lambs are just too cute, and such a novelty in June. I had to include another picture of Guapa's boy. Tonight I was thinking that lambs in June may seem strange, but no stranger than basketball in June! I always think of lambing as our own form of "March madness," while sports fans indulge in the frenzied end of basketball season. But this past week my husband Corey has been obsessed with---the end of basketball season! In June. So what's so strange about a few lambs? (click on the image to enlarge it)

So last January when an ultrasound confirmed our fears that Guapa and two other ewes weren't pregnant, we thought we'd put them in with the rams and give them a second chance. It is supposed to be difficult to breed ewes out of season, but that wasn't our experience. As June approached, it was clear that Guapa and one of the other ewes, 1436, the sweet ewe giving me a kiss in the parlor on our "history" page, were pregnant. Guapa's earliest possible due date was Wednesday and we started bringing the pregnant girls into the barn at night and watching them on our web cam. This morning at 6:30 I got a call from Ignacio announcing "Babies!" Guapa had had twins in the early morning, a white boy and a black girl who is Guapa's spitting image, right down to the white anklets and little white beauty mark on her lip, just like Guapa's ewe-lamb, Guapita, from last year. Guapa was our third best overall producer last year as a yearling, and her daughter Guapita is one of the top 3 yearlings this year, so we have high hopes for this little girl. She'll be too young to breed this year, but we'll keep her anyway. But what to name her? We've got a whole lineage of little Guapas, just as handsome as their mother.

I'm still without a camera, but Anna got one, and took this photo of me with one of our new employees, Lisa, washing cheeses (the title is Anna's). The aging room is filling up and the first cheeses will be ready in late June.

Lisa is awesome, funny and fun to have around, and a great help in the milking parlor and aging room. She is just one of a fabulous set of people working with me this season; Anna has graduated to assistant cheesemaker, and is making cheese two days a week, as well as managing the affinage. Lisa, who lives across the road, is milking on the weekends and also helping with affinage and creamery cleanup, and Michelle and Taryn will be doing lots of affinage. Lolo is still working closely with me to manage the flock and milking, and Ignacio is awesome in the milking parlor and in all his work with the sheep. We're a great team.

All this help should give me the time I need to catch up with office work, but I'm still woefully behind, and I apologize to those of you who have tried to sign up for our mailing lists. That part of the web site needs to be updated and fixed and I haven't found the time. Soon. Meanwhile, just email me if you want to be on a mailing list for our products.

I'll be selling cheese, sheep milk soap, and eventually sausage, blankets and sheepskins, every other Saturday at the Marin Country Mart farmers market in Larkspur, starting July 2nd. And Anna will be selling our cheese at the Occidental farmers market every Friday afternoon. 

Sign up now while there are seats available! Christian Caiazzo will be preparing Barinaga Ranch lamb, sausage and cheese and serving it accompanied by a wealth of other local Marin County produce, at a table set in our pastures with a 180-degree view of Tomales Bay. June 16 at 4 pm.

Yesterday was the first day of cheesemaking, and it went well, with Anna in training. We had a few surprises using our new vat, but nothing we couldn't handle. The biggest surprise was TOO MUCH MILK! We are only milking 36 ewes now, because we haven't weaned the second group of lambs. I was expecting about a half-gallon per ewe per day average, which is what we got last year at the beginning of milking, but after we filled the vat and measured the milk, it turned out that we're getting an average of 3/4 gallon per ewe per day, and more than half the ewes in the parlor at this point are yearlings! And this is after they've spent their first 4-5 weeks since freshening nursing their lambs. This was a very exciting problem to have. We had to adjust our cheesemaking schedule for the first few months of the season, and it was a bit of a scramble to get together enough cheese molds and get enough brine made, but by the end of a 16-hour day all the beautiful lot 1 cheeses were bobbing happily in the brine. Photo: the cheese room at the end of cheesemaking.

 I haven't been blogging because my camera is broken and I've had no time to deal with it, but I realized that shouldn't stop me because i have a great stash of nice photos. We weaned our first two cohorts yesterday. This morning we had our first milking, of the 36 moms. More than half of them were first-time mothers, but things went amazingly well in the milking parlor. The more experienced ewes led the way and some of the first-timers followed, while others had to be coaxed. I was up on the milking platform helping some of the first-time ewes, and I realized it does feel a bit scary and exposed up there. Some crept along like cats, but they all did it, and we have a bulk tank filling up with beautiful milk. We took our first lambs to the slaughterhouse yesterday--6 milk-fed boys, and Tom at the slaughterhouse called me to tell me how beautiful my lambs were, and how big and chunky for lambs their age. I was pleased--it's a testament to all that good milk. He said it also must be genetics, and I couldn't disagree. Photo: one of Estrella Blanca's handsome twins. She's the daughter of Lucky, our 100% Friesian ram. Estrella is 50% Katahdin, but one of our top milkers; her father Bi was a Katahdin who turned out to be a fabulous dairy sire, and his line also fathers incredibly well-growing lambs. This girl will be part of our dairy flock next year, and I think her brother would be great breeding stock.

We have a new addition to the flock, a 2 1/2 year old Great Pyrenees protection dog. She lost her former job when her owners sold their sheep and wound up back with Becky, who we get our dogs from. Becky said she thinks she is a perfect dog for us and after 2 days I agree. Her name was "Sheep," but I can't have a dog called "Sheep," so we named her "Shepherd," Shep for short. She doesn't like contact with people, which is the way we like our dogs to be. On her first day she was guarding her own group of ewes and lambs. She met Otis and Oso at the fence, and they quickly accepted her as a new member of the professional team. When we brought her group into the barn at night, she led the way just like Otis and Oso do, then hunkered down in the sheep pen and hoped I would let her be. But she obediantly went to her kennel when I cleared the way and made it obvious that was what I wanted her to do. She shows all signs of being a great dog for us. Photo: Shep with her sheep.

We had a beautiful day today, with only moderate winds. Warm, sunny, and the lambs and ewes were loving being out on the pasture in the sun. At 7:30 am it felt like 6:00 on one of our rare clear summer mornings, and put me in the mood to be up in the cool summer dawn, milking the ewes, and making cheese. We were busy today preparing for the upcoming milking and cheesemaking season, but did take a few moments to enjoy watching the lambs at play.

As soon as it stopped raining, the March winds began blowing, albeit a bit late. Still the ewes and lambs enjoyed being outside in the sun. We vaccinated another large group today and put them out for the first time. Guapita and the other ewes that lambed last are all doing well. Now it's time to catch up on office work, and clean up the creamery and milking parlor for the beginning of cheesemaking season.

We finally finished lambing yesterday. Gianaclis Caldwell from Pholia Farms in Oregon visited me in the morning and together we looked at Guapita, the last ewe to lamb. Gianaclis taught me to feel the ligaments that run from the spine to the pelvis on each side of the tail, which soften when the ewe is ready to deliver. Guapita's felt like Jello. Gianaclis suggested that after lunch I might need to investigate further and see why she wasn't in labor yet. I wasn't looking forward to intervening in yet another birth, but after lunch I was ready. Then Ignacio called to say Guapita had a water bag showing. I went to the barn and Ignacio and I kept an eye on Guapita for about an hour of labor. When I did investigate, I found three legs and two heads, indicating two lambs coming together. I sorted them out, pushed one back and pulled the other, a 12 pound black boy. He was followed by another beautiful lamb, a 12 pound white boy. Guapita and her lambs are doing great, and I slept for 9 hours last night! Photo: our white-board in the barn with the lambing stats: 134 lambs from 67 ewes, a full 200%. 68 boys and 66 girls.

Last night got busy when I neglected to watch the barn cam during dinner, then got to the barn around 9:00 to find one ewe with twins and another, Miss Piggy, with a single. Piggy was loving her lamb and letting him nurse, and 1590, the other ewe was loving her twins. Piggy went back into labor and I waited while she delivered a big black and white boy, 14 pounds, similar to her single boy from last year, nicknamed "The Tank" who was 15 lbs at birth and weighed 80 lbs when he was weaned (Miss Piggy is my second best milk-producer). So I put Piggy and her two lambs in a jug, and 1590 and her two in the next jug, and went to bed. This morning Lolo asked me, did I see Miss Piggy deliver that white lamb? No, but she was loving it when I got there. Well, Lolo said that she had rejected it by morning and only loved her big boy. When Lolo transfered the little white boy to 1590's jug, she loved him immediately and let him nurse. We replayed the barn cam for the hour before I arrived last night, and found that actually 1590 had triplets! One of them had wandered off to the corner of the barn where Miss Piggy was going through a very long labor, and got adopted by her! Ewes in a long labor will lie down and push and push, then get up and turn around to see if there is a lamb there. One time when Piggy did that, she found a lamb! And loved him like her own. That is until her own boy was born, who smelled even better to her than the adopted one.

Lolo had more to do at 4 am than just sort out those lambs--Speckles had a lamb when he arrived, which turned out to be a single. That was the only other lambing action today. We have only 3 ewes left to lamb. I'm watching them very carefully on the barn cam tonight and they are very still.  Photo: Pirata with her twins  (I named her "Tao" because of the lovely yin/yang marking on her face, but the fact that it resembled an eye-patch led Lolo and Ignacio to name her Pirata, so Pirata she is. She's a first-time mother, and a very good one.)

We needed a ram who has good dairy genetics and is not related to all the girls in our flock and the answer hails from Locust Grove Farm in Knoxville, Tennesssee. He's dark and handsome and given the Tennessee connection, we named him Elvis! Monday I went to San Francisco airport to meet Elvis, who at the young age of 5 weeks made the flight by himself from Atlanta to San Francisco. Thank you to Delta Airlines for taking such good care of him. My friends Jennifer Bice and Bill Davis, both breeders of quality dairy goats, assured me that they fly goat kids by air freight all the time without any problems, that the kids make the trip fine, and they also told me that Delta was the best carrier. So I placed my trust in them, and convinced Elvis's breeder, Sheri Palko, to trust me also. Sheri and I were nervous, but she assured me Elvis was healthy and ready for his trip. My friend Alice joined me for the drive to SFO and we waited anxiously in the cargo terminal for him to arrive. The Delta agent was very excited and said she had never received a lamb before. Then we were buzzed in to the cargo terminal, with all its fork lifts and noise, and I got more worried about how Elvis would have fared in that environment. An agent came up wheeling a cart with a large dog kennel on it, and I peeked inside and there he was, sitting there with what looked like a smile on his face, ears perked, and generally alert and chipper and taking everything in. Alice and I got the kennel strapped in to the back of our pickup, filled his water bowl and made sure he had some fresh hay to snack on, and drove him home. He hadn't made a sound, but when we pulled off the freeway in Novato and headed into ranch country, he started baaing, as if he could smell fresh grass and livestock and felt like he was coming home. Elvis is tucked into a lambing jug in our lambing barn for now, and is eating well and flirting with the ewes. As soon as our rain stops, we'll let him out on the driveway grass, adjacent to the pastures where our mothers are with their lambs, and once our lambs are weaned, he will join the lamb flock.

Other news today: It's shaping up to be the wettest March we can remember, with our March rainfall about to surpass Decembers (and it was a very wet December!). But despite the forecast of 100% chance of rain today, the rain all fell last night and the ewes and lambs got to go out on pasture today. Three more ewes lambed today. The legendary Panties, best producer in the flock, gave us TWO girls (yay!), and two other two-year olds, twin sisters, lambed almost at the same time and each produced a single. We have only 10 ewes left to lamb! Lolo and I are both dead tired and hoping the ewes keep up this lambing rate so we can start sleeping more in just a few days. Photo: Elvis in his new home.

We had visitors over the weekend, our friends Chad, Susan and Alexis Waite, from Seattle. They are planning to raise sheep in Montana and wanted to learn a bit about lambing. We had a full weekend, and they got to see and participate in a lot of lambing activities ranging from flock vaccinations and all the routine shots and treatments we do to the mothers and young lambs, to births ranging from the routine to the heavily assisted. On Sunday, after we had done flock vaccinations, 8002, the ewe known as "Salt Lady" from her habit of standing with her feet in the salt last year, went into labor. She delivered one lamb and then stopped contracting, and after almost 2 hours of no progress I had to go in and pull the next two. The lambs were slow to nurse, but got lots of attention from Alexis and Susan as well as from our friend Laura Schwartz and her daughter Sarah who were also visiting for the day. Mother and babes are all doing fine now. Yesterday the Waites got to see another ewe deliver twin lambs, all by herself with little assistance, and this morning we had a whirlwind of activity with mastitis-checking for the ewes, and routine shots for the youngest lambs and their mothers as well as hoof-trimming and worming for the mothers.

After they left, it got even busier. We had twins born in the late morning to Katrina's daughter, then I got busy with a visit from my parents and my mother's cousin Joan and her son Peter and granddaughter Stella. We went off to lunch and when I returned the twins had expanded to triplets, and Lolo and Ignacio had one ewe in the barn in early labor, and another, Pirata, a ewe lamb with a pirate like eye-patch marking, delivering twins out in the windy pasture, too far along when Ignacio found her for us to bring her in. By the end of the day, we had twins from Pirata, triplets from Katrina's daughter, and twins from another ewe lamb, who has beautiful animal-print patterns on her ears, and who I haven't thought of a suitable name for yet.

As of tonight we have 113 lambs from 54 ewes, and only 13 ewes left to lamb. If they keep it up at this rate we'll be done by Friday. But I'm afraid that's wishful thinking.

Tomorrow--pictures of our newest addition: he's dark, he's handsome, he's sexy and he's from Tennessee. He arrived by plane yesterday and Alexis named him. . .Elvis!

Photo: Alexis with a lamb (click on photo to enlarge).

So things were quiet around the barn this afternoon, and I headed to the house to get some essential office work done. Mid-afternoon I got a call from Lolo and his first words were, "We have a surprise." One of Lolo's favorite expressions, when discussing the measures we take for the welfare of the sheep, is "We don't want any surprises." So I don't like hearing from Lolo that we have a surprise. Indeed, it was a surprise, but not totally unexpected. Chiquita, a ewe lamb from last year, who we thought wasn't pregnant, had just delivered triplets. I had realized two days ago, when Chiquita began to "bag up" or have a milk-filled udder, that i had made a bookkeeping error when we had our last 5 ewes pregnancy-checked. Our vet had found three to be pregnant and two to be "open" or not pregnant. I was the one taking notes, and i made a mistake and switched Chiquita's number with that of the other young ewe we were checking. So we thought Chiquita was open, and put her in with Bat, our ram, to try to see if she might get pregnant and have a lamb in June. When the other ewes were being coddled and fed high-protein diets in their final trimester, Chiquita was out with her boyfriend Bat and no special feed. But she had three buns in the oven, unknown to us, until she bagged up last week. Amazingly, all three lambs are strong, albeit skinny. And Chiquita is now getting the rich diet she needs, and is feeding her lambs. We'll have to keep an eye on the lambs, but all seems well for now. Whew. Photo: lambs and ewes on the pasture today.

We had another inch and a half of rain yesterday and last night, and it was so nasty yesterday that we had all the ewes and lambs in the barn all day. With nearly 5 inches of rain so far this March it is the rainiest March since we've had the ranch, and while it will be great for the grass, it does make things difficult in the short term. We are having a respite today, and the ewes and lambs are all out enjoying the pasture while we clean the barns.

No lambs born in the past 24 hours. Delia had twin boys yesterday morning around 5 am when Lolo was checking the barn, and Delia's granddaughter followed late yesterday morning with two more boys. We're still at 200% with 43 ewes and 86 lambs and at this point our male:female ratio is even, with 43 of each. Photo: lambs on the pasture this morning.

Outstanding in the Field, a group that hosts dinners set outside on farms and ranches across the US, will be holding a dinner at our ranch on Thursday, June 16. Tickets go on sale on March 20. Christian Caiazzo, of Osteria Stellina in Point Reyes Station, will be the chef, and will be using our lamb, sausage and cheese, as well as other local produce. These dinners sell out fast. For more information to to this link:http://outstandinginthefield.com/events/2011-tour/?dinner_id=127. The photo is from an Outstanding in the Field dinner last July in Sunol, where Guillaume Beinaime spit-roasted three of our lambs. 

Bugeyes finally had her lambs--our third set of triplets in a row! Lolo got to the barn at 5 this morning and found Bugeyes with one ram lamb on the ground, and working on a second, with only the head presenting. Lolo handled the difficult delivery on his own, got the lambs legs free and delivered him. The third came flying out, a girl. All three are black, and big! No wonder Bug looked so huge--she had more than 30 pounds of lambs in her. We had a busy morning vaccinating the second cohort of lambs. We had over an inch of rain last night but despite forecasts we were spared today and had a chance to get the mothers and lambs out on the pasture and clean the barns. No more lambs today. We're at 41 ewes and 82 lambs: 200%! Photo: Bugeyes with her triplets.

When I posted that blog last night i thought I was done for the day. But when I went to the barn at 10:30 for a last check, I found Nervous Nellie in labor. True to her name she was quite agitated by the whole process, but she produced beautiful triplet girls. The lambs were vigorous but it still took a long time to get all three to nurse successfully and wound up being another late night. No more lambs born today...yet. Forty ewes have lambed and they have 79 lambs, all healthy, a lambing percentage of nearly 200%! Thirty ewes left to go. Photo: Orphan Annie with her triplets. The lamb in front is Peanut, our first lamb of the year, who weighed only 4.5 lbs and got quite chilled because she was born in the pasture on a windy day. She was the first lamb I'd ever tubed, and it's gratifying to see her healthy and growing well.

Today was a slow lambing day. We put the lambs and their mothers out on the pasture this morning and the lambs had a great time running around in mobs then resting with their mothers. I caught up on office work. In the afternoon,  Ignacio and I put the expectant ewes into the lambing barn, then brought the lambs and their mothers into the mixing barn. As soon as we had finished with that, we returned to the lambing barn and heard the distinctive moans of labor. 1605 was not wasting any time; she delivered her first lamb just as we walked in, a beautiful, vigorous white girl. Twenty minutes later, after that first lamb had already nursed, she delivered an even bigger white boy, followed ten minutes later by a beautiful black girl with a big star on her head. I told Ignacio this was just what 1605 gave us last year; a white boy and two girls, one black, one white. Last year we called them Small, Medium and Large, because the white boy was fully double the size of the white girl, and the black girl was somewhere in the middle. This year they were 9, 10 and 11 pounds, and all are doing well. Photo: a pasture scene from today.

Just as I was finishing the last entry I saw a ewe in labor on the barn-cam and went up, walking in just as the first lamb hit the ground. A nice black girl. She was followed by a black and white boy and a white boy, and then the ewe threatened to have a fourth for about an hour before it was clear she was done. Gives me an excuse to post another nice photo from the pasture earlier today of one of my yearling mothers with her very handsome boy.

Today was a beautiful day on the ranch. We gave first vaccinations to the first cohort of 39 lambs and then they and their mothers got to have their first day out on pasture. The lambs had a great time racing around and the mothers were happy to see grass after a week in the barn. By the end of the day all the lambs were tired and ready to head into the comfort of the barn for the night. It was a good steady day of lambing, with 4 more ewes lambing, starting at 2 am and ending (I hope) at 9:45 tonight. Each had a boy/girl pair of twins. Photo: lambs enjoying the sun (click on photo to enlarge).

After a quiet weekend with Linda's daughter Josi and her husband Karl visiting, things have really picked up again. Yesterday afternoon and evening three ewes lambed. It seemed that every time we went to the barn to check through the evening, another ewe was in labor. All went well. This morning I was awakened at 6:30 by Lolo. He had three ewes in labor and one was not progressing. I went up and we had a very difficult two-hour delivery of very big twins. Meanwhile two other ewes had singles, and Delia's Daughter, who was HUGE, had triplets, all of which presented with a problem--a leg back, or backwards, but all are doing well now. With 29 ewes lambed, we have 55 lambs. Photo: Moving ewes and lambs from the lambing barn to the mixing barn on Sunday.

Of lambing, Ivan Doig has written, "lambing stretches as one long steady emergency, that keeps on demanding scurry and more scurry." That's how it has been; with no time to blog or take many photos. We have 38 lambs as of this morning. Two nights ago I spent all night in the barn again, this time with Nadie's daughter, a ewe-lamb in her first season, who ALSO had quads! I looked at the barn-cam just as i was going to bed, at 12:30, and saw a lamb running around. I dashed to the barn and found Nadie's daughter with one lamb, and the other running all over the barn. I got them in a pen, got them nursing, and was ready to head off to bed when she went into labor with a third. Damn! Then as soon as I delivered that lamb, a 4th popped out! The 4th, a little girl, was weak, and I had to put in a stomach tube and give her some colostrum that way. Around 3, when i finally had Nadie's daughter and her brood all settled, with full stomachs, another ewe went into labor and there went the rest of my night. I got to bed for a couple hours around 5:30. Nadie's daughter was a single, but apparently quads run in that family!

Interestingly, except for Nadie and Edith, the only ewes that have lambed so far have been our ewe lambs, the young ewes just a year old and having their first lambs. They have done fabulously as a group, delivering their lambs largely on their own, with very little need for assistance, and their lambs are strong and healthy.

Photo: An experienced mom: Edith with her lambs (click on photo to enlarge).

We saved Nadie! Nadie is a very sweet 3-year-old ewe and one of our best milk producers. She came down with pregnancy toxemia on Friday, a condition that arises when a ewe has too many lambs in her and can't get enough energy from her food to support their growth. It is a very frustrating condition; by the time a ewe is showing signs, it is very hard to save her. I didn't have much hope for Nadie, but i was giving her all the high-energy treatments and vitamins that are recommended, and she was hanging on. We decided to induce labor, because she was due within a few days, and last night she went into labor. I was up all night with her and by 7 this morning she had 4 healthy lambs! They were our first quads born here, and obviously this was the reason she became toxemic. I had to pull all the lambs, because Nadie didn't have the energy to get them out, but they were all born very vigorous and Nadie seemed like she couldn't believe her good fortune, loving each one up and feeling better as she was gradually relieved of her belly-full of lambs. Meanwhile, while I was up to my elbows--literally--in Nadie, over in another corner of the barn, Edith popped out her standard set of triplets all by herself, got them cleaned off and up and nursing all on her own. Each time I looked over she had another, and the previous one was already up. Boy I love those Katahdins. Sometimes I wish I had 70 of them! Lolo got there around 6:30 and I went home for a few hours of sleep. By the time I got back to the barn, all 4 lambs were nursing and Nadie was up and eating and walking around. Photo: Nadie's gang competing for a drink. Click on photo to enlarge.

Lolo just returned from vacation, and got to the barn at 6 this morning to find another ewe lamb with a set of twins, both girls. The new lambs are doing well. Today was a beautiful day, sunny and not too cold. The ewes enjoyed the sun and grass in their pasture. Tonight things are quiet in the barn, although Bugeyes is huge and is threatening t to go into labor. Photo: Orphan Annie's triplets.

Well, lambing began today 3 days earlier than expected. Ignacio went out to do the noontime feeding and found Orphan Annie licking off a pile of triplets. With the Canadian cold front we've been experiencing, and a wind on top of it, it was nasty in that pasture, and the lambs were quite chilled. Two girls and a boy. The first-born girl was only 4 pounds and very cold by the  time we got them to the barn. We warmed them with towels heated in the dryer, and then with a heating pad Corey brought from the house. The larger girl got up and nursed with a lot of guidance from Ignacio, but it became clear I needed to put a stomach tube in each of the other lambs to give them a belly full of colostrum to get started. Annie had lots of colostrum which we milked out of her, and my cousin Linda instructed me over the phone how to tube a lamb. Linda was a great teacher and both lambs got nice full bellies and now are up and nursing on their own. No time for photos today, but here is a nice one that reflects what it looked like on the ranch today.

We've been doing very un-characteristic activities for winter, like painting the barn, and enjoying wine and cheese in bare feet on our deck at sunset. There is so much water in the soil that the reservoir is still spilling over in Nicasio, and the grass is growing in the warm sun. And we have faith that it will rain again before much longer.

Still sunny, and now it's warm, with the 10-day forecast showing nothing but more sunny weather. It's beautiful weather, but this is shaping up to be a very dry January and we need some more rain soon to keep the grass growing. We ultrsounded all the ewes and found out we have lots of tripets and quads coming in March. We also learned the approximate due dates which will help us manage our ewes during lambing. Two ewes were "open," meaning they are not pregnant. One of them was  a ewe lamb, and the other was Guapa, one of our two most productive yearlings last year. We put Guapa and the open ewe lamb in with Bat and Lucky, hoping they may become pregnant, even though it is not the right time of year for ewes to come into heat. Guapa immediately came into heat and Bat and Lucky beat each other up fighting over her. We reconsidered our strategy and left Guapa with Lucky,moved Bat and the ewe lamb to a different pasture, and all is quiet again. If these girls get pregnant we'll have some June lambs this year. Photo: Edith and her pals with Otis guarding. 

After receiving nearly 11 inches of rain in December, we're enjoying a week of sunny but cold weather. There is lots of frost in the morning, but the sheep are warm in their wool coats and are enjoying the new grass and the sun. I found Bat and Lucky resting yesterday; Bat was asleep with his head on Lucky's back. Keeping the rams in pairs is working well and we have far less fighting. Bat and Lucky are good buddies and Panda and Lau seem content together also. 

Bistro des Copains in Occidental featured this lovely "crispy hot purse of Barinaga Ranch sheep cheese," served with mesclun greens, Bartlett pears and a citrus chardonnay vinaigrette on their New Year's Eve menu! Our friends Thane and Steve said it was amazing.

It has been a great season, and our cheese is being featured at more Bay Area cheese shops and restaurants than I can even list. The newest is Bistro des Copains in Occidental, who posted a blog about our cheese the day they received it! We have some delicious sausage available in 4 flavors, including Merguez, the traditional Moroccan lamb sausage, as well as bratwurst and sweet and hot Italian, all made locally by Sonoma Direct. I have shipped off more wool for blankets and will have those available soon, we have some sheepskins still available for sale, and soon I will have wool-flled comforters available also, made at the Yolo woolen mill. I attended the annual dairy sheep meeting in Wisconsin in November and gained a lot of practical knowledge I plan to implement right away here at home. Our flock of 70+ ewes and ewe lambs should all be pregnant and expecting their lambs starting March 1. The ewe lambs have grown so beautifully that it is hard to tell them from the ewes. The ranch is looking beautiful after some good October rains followed by warm sunny weather gave the grass a good start. I promise to take and post photos regularly on this blog, so all our friends can share in our progress. 

It has been a busy summer, with cheesemaking, managing the ranch, and preparing to sell our old house and move into our new house on the ranch. Today I was back to cheesemaking after spending a great three days at the American Cheese Society meeting in Seattle, where our cheese was very well received at the "Meet the Cheesemaker" event.  I made some new cheese friends, including cheesemongers from around the country who are eager to carry our cheese. It was also great to meet and share information with Brad and Meg Gregory, of Black Sheep Creamery in Washington, whose Queso de Oveja won first place in the farmstead sheep cheese category. I also had the pleasure of reconnecting wtih Pat Elliott, of Everona Dairy in Virginia, from whom I bought most of my original dairy ewes. Pat's Piedmont took third place in farmstead sheep cheese. Today I was back in the creamery, and mid-day, the Marshall fog rolled in, dropping the temperature by 15 degrees in half an hour. At the end of the day as i was waiting to put the cheeses into the brine, I did my favorite thing and poked my head out to watch the girls trotting into the parlor to be milked. This photo is of Nervous Nellie and Bebe, both daughters of Pat's wonderful ewes, on their way out of the parlor. 

The pigs are supposed to EAT the whey, not bathe in it! Whenever they do things like this, Lolo just says with a smile, "Well, they are pigs!"

We had a visit today from Juliana Uruburu and members of her cheese-selling staff at the Pasta Shop in Berkeley in Oakland. They had a tour of the creamery and milking barn, followed by long visits with the ewes and lambs, and went home with 5 wheels of my first Baserri cheeses. Photo: a little kiss from one of next year's milkers

Corey and I had a wonderful visit yesterday and today from Craig Von Foerster, executive chef at Sierra Mar restaurant at Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, and his wife Tamara. They arrived yesterday in time for the afternoon milking, which Tamara was eager to see, as she grew up on a Jersey dairy in Missouri. I cooked them a Basque dinner with my grandmother's recipes, and Tamara shared stories of her grandparents, and of her growing up on a dairy, where her many jobs included cleaning the milking units and bulk tank, a job with which I'm very familiar! This morning they were up early to have a cheese making lesson and help me make today's cheese. After the cheese was in the molds, they headed back to Big Sur with lambs and cheese for Sierra Mar.  (Photo: Craig stirs the curd. Click on photo to enlarge.)

We have a new employee! Anna Erickson, who grew up on a ranch in Valley Ford and went to college in Montana, is now growing vegetables on her family ranch and selling them at farmer's markets. And in her spare time, she is working for me, taking care of the cheeses in the aging room. Anna is a great lover of cheese, and the cheeses are benefitting from her careful attention. She will also be learning to run the milking parlor so she can help out with milking on the weekends. Photo: Anna with the cheese. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

The aging room is filling up and June 27 is the date when our first cheeses will be 60 days old. I've been pre-tasting and they are delicious. If you have signed up on the cheese mailing list, please note that I'm having trouble with that provider and can't access that list right now, but hope to have the issue resolved soon and will be in touch as soon as I have your mailing addresses. My first cheeses will be going out locally to Cowgirl Creamery/Tomales Bay Foods in Point Reyes and San Francisco CA, Oliver's Market in Santa Rosa, CA, The Pasta Shop in Berkeley and Oakland CA, Raymond & Company, The Cheese Board in Berkeley CA, Rainbow Grocery in San Francisco CA, Osteria Stellina in Point Reyes Station CA, Nick's Cove in Marshall CA, Quince Restaurant in San Francisco CA, Restaurant Marche in Menlo Park CA, Sierra Mar in Big Sur CA, The Marshall Store in Marshall CA, Point Reyes Vineyard in Point Reyes CA, and The Basque Market in Boise, ID. 

We never weaned Edith and Delia's lambs. They were among the youngest lambs and Edith and Delia are pure Katahdins and not great producers in the parlor, although Delia was amazing last year for a Katahdin, and her daughter and granddaughter are doing well this year. Nevertheless, Edith and Delia are pastured with their lambs, and the lambs have the additional attention of two maiden aunties--our two E. Friesians that didn't lamb. Edith's lambs are adorable and never far from her--three freckle-faced copies of their mother, always clinging by her side. And some days Delia's twins are hunkered with Edith's brood as well. 

After a long day of cheesemaking, and a very long cold week of extreme wind and fog, today the sky was blue and by the end of the day the wind had finally diminished enough for one to actually want to be outside. At 7:00 when I had finished with the cheesemaking, affinage and clean up, I wandered over to the pasture by our new house where the lambs are living, in grass taller than they are. I sat down in the grass and they all came to visit. Bugeyes' daughter, Ladybug, was walking by and I called to her; she immediately came to me like a puppy for scratches and affection. I tried to get a photo with my iPhone; but she was too close and curious for a good picture. 

We've had two days of rain this week, with nearly 3/4 inch accumulation, which is amazing for May. The grass is just growing and growing. Today was our day to weigh lambs. The lambs are growing nicely--we have lots of lambs that are 70 to 90 pounds and only a little over 2 months old. The gang went out to a new pasture after weighing, and if there is no rain in the forecast, we'll move them tomorrow to a more distant pasture with even better grass. Photo: Lolo and Ignacio with the lambs in the corrals.

We had a very nice visit on Monday from Colette Hatch and her cheese-counter managers from Oliver's Market in Santa Rosa. They arrived just as I was getting my cheeses into the brine, and they stayed to meet the ewes and watch the afternoon milking. Today we had a visit from Guillaiume Bienaime, the chef at Restaurant Marche in Menlo Park, and some of his staff. Restaurant Marche will be featuring our spring lamb on a special chef's menu this Friday and Saturday, May 23 and 22. It rained for both visits--I think I need to keep booking visitors; it will be great for the grass! Photo: Lolo milking.

My dad and I just spent a very nice weekend in Seattle, at the Seattle Cheese Festival, courtesy of Daphne Zepos who chose to feature our family story as part of her session on Basque cheeses. The city was beautiful, the audience very receptive and we had a wonderful time. I was only sorry that I didn't have any cheese ready for the session, but Daphne chose lovely examples of Basque cheeses to sample, including an Ossau Iraty, Abbaye du Belloq, an Idiazabal and an Ardi Gazna. We are so grateful to Daphne for such a delightful opportunity to tell our story. 

I've been locked out of my web site for a few days due to technical problems, but there has been a lot happening at the ranch. The first cheeses are in the aging room, and the oldest ones (two weeks old today) are starting to grow their rinds, with white geotrichum, some rosy B. linens, and some brown mycodore spots. We have harvested our first lambs and they will be on the menu soon at Osteria Stellina--Christian has already served up some seared lamb livers. The ewes are healthy and happy, enjoying their green pastures. Their milk is beautiful and abundant. We did our first milk-metering yesterday and have many ewes producing over 5 pounds a day, and three, including Bebe, the yearling who was in my arms in the photo on the mission page, are producing more than six pounds a day!

Sunday I sold 8 lambs to a wonderful couple in Sonoma for breeding stock. those little lambs--6 girls and 2 boys--are very lucky lambs who will be loved and doted on by a family. The same day we aquired 8 piglets to fatten up on the whey. They are enjoying the lush grass in their little pasture (formerly the maternity pasture). I tried to get a photo of them slurping up whey, but they all scattered and this was the best I could do.

Wow! I have been so pleased with the beautiful udders (size and conformation) on all our yearlings ewes, and eager to see what their production was like. Today when I transferred milk for my first cheesemaking, I was thrilled. My vat was full with just 4 milkings! I did the math and found that our girls are producing an average of 5.7 pounds/ewe/day. And that is in a flock with more than half of the ewes in their first lactation. AND most of the yearlings are 3/4 Friesian, 1/4 Katahdin. It's early in the season, of course, but these numbers are better than I had dared to expect. My first cheesemaking day was a bit hectic with all that milk and working out the logistics of operating with a full vat. Lolo helped me sort my way through several first-day crises ranging from water-heater problems to whey transport, and by this evening I had 9 Baserris and 9 Txikis ready for the brine, and a batch of ricotta made from from the whey draining in my kitchen sink for a dessert on Saturday. Saturday we're getting six piglets from Clark Summit Farm to grow fat on all the whey I can't make into ricotta.

We weaned all but the 10 youngest lambs this morning. Big Otis is doing his best to protect and comfort the lambs. This afternoon we had our first milking and the ewes did really well, even the yearlings. The milk yield was good and the milk tasted delicious! This evening the lambs were buttoned up in the barn chowing down on alfalfa and their mothers were knee deep in clover in a new pasture. We're expecting more rain! Photo: Otis and his charges after weaning.

Today was another gorgeous day and this afternoon Lolo and I did the parlor-training by ourselves. I was worried, but the girls were great--we didn't have to do much besides stand back while all the ewes, including this year's yearlings, eagerly waited for their turn to run up the ramp to the parlor. Tomorrow morning we're weaning all but the youngest lambs and we'll begin milking the first 40 ewes tomorrow afternoon. Photo: One of the Evangeline's triplet daughters from last year (the Barbies), ready for milking.

The girls are getting used to giving up their lambs for an hour or so and filing into the parlor. The older, experienced ewes are helping the younger ones get comfortable with the routine. Corey and Ignacio and I did the training this evening and it went very smoothly, and tomorrow Lolo and I will do it alone. Monday morning all but the youngest lambs will be weaned and Monday afternoon Lolo, Ignacio and I will begin milking. Photo: Three of the yearling ewes--Gigi's daughter, Katrina and Delia's granddaughter--on the milking platform.

The ewes are all sheared and enjoying their new haircuts in the warm weather. We've got the parlor and creamery ready and Lolo and Ignacio are finishing a new alley to bring the ewes up from their pasture to the parlor. The lambs are enjoying their last few days with their mothers. We will wean Monday and I'll make my first batch of cheese Wednesday. Photo: Lambs playing on the concrete footings from the old Marconi radio towers.

Phew--we had almost an inch of rain yesterday--Lolo and Ignacio used the rainy day to shear in the barn, and Pat and I tested the bulk-tank cooling system and cheese-vat heating system, then made a run to town. Today the shearing was finished, and we began to train the ewes to the parlor. The older ewes remembered the routine, ran up the ramp and filed in to get their feed. The yearlings were skittish, but Lolo and I coaxed them in, and we know from experience that tomorrow they will be more willing to run up that ramp, now that they know there is food involved. Today required a lot of hard work, but tomorrow we may have time to take a few photos of the process! Photo: Our Basque guests Asun with her husband and daughters on the ranch last Saturday.

We're expecting yet another storm tomorrow, while the ewes and lambs are enjoying the green pastures. Shearing is almost finished. Photo: The Tank, at 60 pounds and less than 6 weeks old.

It has been a beautiful weekend in Marshall and we have had many guests--my father and friends from the Basque country yesterday, and some business colleagues of Corey's today. The pastures are brimming with wildflowers and the lambs are growing. My friend Pat is helping me get the creamery, milking parlor and milk room ready for the cheesemaking season. After days of hard work the creamery and milking parlor are gleaming,smelling clean and ready to receive milk. Next week we'll begin milking and cheesemaking, which means our first cheese will be out in late June. Pat and I built a creep feeder in the night pasture today, and if the good weather holds, the mothers and lambs will start spending the night outside, this week, with two dogs for protection.  Photo: Edith and one of her lambs enjoying the sun.

While my friend Pat and I get the creamery and milking parlor ready for this year's season, Lolo and Ignacio are getting the flock sheared. Milking and cheesemaking is scheduled to start in less than two weeks. The mothers and lambs have been enjoying the warm weather.

Today I cleaned the milking parlor, and cleaned, checked and sanitized all the milking equipment in preparation for the start of milking and cheesemaking. After a blustery storm yesterday and nearly 2 inches of rain, it was still raining off and on today. As I worked at the sink in the creamery, watching the changing weather through the window, there was a beautiful moment between squalls when the ewes and their lambs wandered out into the pasture from the storm shelter, and were silhouetted in the sun against the steel grey sky.

We're expecting another storm on Sunday, and all this late rain promises to make this a great year for grass. The ewes and lambs are out on the pasture with a storm shelter to keep them warm and dry when the rain comes. The oldest lambs are starting to ruminate; it is so cute to see them hanging out chewing their cuds like grownups. Dave Ansley sent this photo taken by Ardy, the exchange student from Java, of his friend Li from Shanghai making friends with Belle.

Today we weighed lambs, and Miss Piggy's boy, nick-named The Tank, because he was a hulking 15 pounds at birth, now weighs 56 pounds, and he's just one month old! (Guillaume, this lamb is going to be on your special chef's menu in May!) Meanwhile he is having a happy life with his mother on our pastures. We also began shearing the ewes. We're shearing ourselves this year, for biosecurity reasons, and so far the ewes have been very understanding as Lolo and I teach ourselves. The first ewes won't win any beauty contests, but they were happy and cool and clearly feeling svelte. We had to stop today when it was time for Dennis, our dairy contractor, to come and talk us through the routine for bringing our milking parlor on line the week after next. Next week we're scheduled to clean and outfit the milking parlor, milk room and creamery, shear the rest of the ewes, and begin to reaquaint them with the parlor. The week after, we'll get our pigs who will be raised on the whey, and with luck we'll be milking by the end of the week. I don't have any photos of our shearing party today,but here is an archival photo of Corey in 2005, learning to shear a ewe at Linda and Dick's place in Idaho. This is a sight never to be seen again. Lolo and I are using the same system, shearing the ewes "4H" style, on a show-stand.

After the weekend storm, it was wonderful to see the sun today. We vaccinated the rest of the flock for soremouth, with Ignacio holding the lambs and Lolo administering the small-pox-like vaccine, while I held Lolo's implements and noted eartag numbers.

We had a big rainstorm today; great April rain for the pastures, but kind of a gloomy Easter. The ewes and lambs stayed warm and dry in the barns. Yesterday was cool and windy but the rain hadn't started yet. We had a wonderful visit from Dave Ansley, my former editor at the San Jose Mercury News, now of Bainbridge Island, WA, his wife Jeanne Huber and their family and exchange students from China and Indonesia. Highlight of the day, besides the visit with the ewes and lambs was Li from Shanghai getting to see, and pet, and lead and hug, the first horse he had ever laid eyes on. He and Belle were instant friends. I'm only sorry I don't have a photo of them. But I do have this lovely photo Dave took of lambs in the pasture. 

We have 88 lambs and lambing is winding down. Yesterday morning I pulled up to the barn at 6:30 and heard that sound I love, of a mother talking to her newborn lamb. It was 9035, the last of the yearlings, and she had a pair of twin boys on the ground. The first was perfectly cleaned and she was dotingly working on the second. Within minutes of my arrival, Ignacio showed up and together we watched while the lambs figured out how to nurse on their own. Dipped their navels, popped them in a jug and got home by 7:15 for breakfast! We had a lovely visit from friends yesterday who enjoyed watching the lambs frolic on the pasture. We have two ewes left who haven't lambed, but they may not be pregnant. We'll give them another week or so until it is mathematically unlikely that they could still have lambs, and then decide what to do. Meanwhile, it's time to start to start preparing for milking and cheesemaking. Photo: 9035 with one of her newborns.

We have wool blankets for sale, made for us at a woolen mill with the wool from our sheep. We still have a few lap rugs left for $80 each. This is what they look like. (Cat not included). We are sold out of fulls and queens but plan to have more made this year if there is interest. We'll have a page up soon for blankets and other products, meanwhile you can indicate interest on the "contact" page. Photo: Courtesy of Thane, starring Emily the cat.

We've been busy again with the lambing finale, and rejoicing at the late-March rain. After the three lambs born Saturday, two more ewes lambed yesterday morning before I left for my presentation on the last day of the Artisan Cheese Festival. They were both yearlings and each had a single--one boy and one girl. This morning I checked the barn at 5:30 am and all was quiet, but by the time Ignacio and Lolo got there at 6:45, Edith was in the process of having triplets! Finally. She was as huge as a house for so long, we're happy she has her lambs and is doing well. The lambs are adorable, purebred Katahdins, that look just like her, with freckled noses and freckled legs. One girl and two boys and all are doing well. Edith is such a sweet mother. When I got to the barn at 9:00 to check in before going to meeting, Lolo and Ignacio had finished with Edith's triplets and were attending to 9043, another yearling, who was in early labor. She had a big black and white boy. We have 86 lambs and 3 ewes left to lamb, one yearling who doesn't look too ready yet, and Mini and Suffolk-face, both of whom look like they may not even be pregnant. That would be a bummer, but I hope with more time they will show signs of having lambs. Photo: Edith with one of her triplets, in one of her characteristic "sheepish" poses.

I was at the Sonoma Artisan Cheese Festival this morning giving a presentation on the Basque inspiration for my cheese, while Lolo held down the fort at the ranch. I returned at 1:00 to find the barn door open, and Lolo, his wife Lola and her sister and brother-in-law all outside the barn. I feared disaster, but Lolo informed me with a smile that we had "a new family" and Lola and their visitors had come up to see. One of the remaining yearling ewes had twins, a boy and a girl. I put on coveralls and helped Lolo get the lambs settled in a jug with their mother. Meanwhile another of the yearlings, one of Evangeline's triplet girls from last year (affectionately known as the "Barbies") went into labor. We brought her into the barn and she had a single girl. Lolo stayed with me until 3:00 wehn he left to enjoy the rest of the day wtih his guests. Seven ewes left to lamb, and I think we are getting into our next wave of lambs. Photo: Delia's daughter (a Friesian/Kathahdin hybrid), with two of her triplets. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

No lambs born today. When are those last ewes going to pop? We have 9 ewes left to lamb and Edith has been looking ready for days, but is still eating heartily and showing no signs of being imminent. Today was another unusually beautiful March day with minimal wind and warm but not too hot. We put the ewes and lambs out on a new pasture and they feasted on the clover. We also had a farm-visit from participants in tne Artisan Cheese Festival. Everyone had a nice visit with the ewes and lambs, and then after a milking-parlor and creamery tour, we had lunch on the lee side of the barn, hardly necessary on such a mild day. Photo: Katrina with one of her lambs, on the new pasture. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Tueday morning Delia delivered a beautiful set of purebred Katahdin twins. We realized that although Delia is a very good milker for a Katahdin, we wouldn't be keeping her ewe lambs for the parlor, so we bred her to our gorgeous Katahdin ram, Bat, in hopes of some nice Katahdin lambs, And these are lovely. Tuesday evening 1620 had twins as well, and those were our last lambs for the past few days. We have 77 lambs so far. We have used the quiet time to give our oldest lambs their first vaccinations. Today my father was visiting, and he helped us vaccinate lambs. He caught lambs and Lolo and Ignacio vaccinated. We had a great time working the sheep together. Dad reminisced about working the sheep in his youth on the family ranch in Idaho. My only regret is that we were so busy I neglected to take photos. Photo: Oso keeps watch over lambs in the pasture.

As I got out of my car outside the barn on my 5 am barn-visit, I was greeted by a soft bleating sound that I recognized as a mother ewe talking to her newborn lamb. As the lights in the barn came up slowly, I saw 1436, a very sweet ewe with big expressive eyes, laying down and talking to a very robust ram lamb who was standing next to her. 1436 stood up to greet me and it was clear that she had not only delivered this large lamb on her own, but that he had already nursed well. I clipped and sanitized his navel and weighed him (13 pounds!). It looked like the mother was expelling the placenta, so I figured she was done with a nice big single. I put them in a jug, gave her some water, and headed home to try to catch another hour of sleep. When I got back to the barn at 7:30, Lolo told me he had arrived at 6:30, just as 1436 was delivering her second lamb, a 10 1/2 pound girl! The lambs were amazingly robust and 1436 was a very good mother. Those were the only births today. It was a windy day so we put the ewes and lambs out in the small night-pasture, where they would have some wind-protection. Eleven ewes left to lamb, and at least 5 of them are not very bagged-up yet, so delivery does not seem imminent. This is the hardest time, when we are all so exhausted and eager for it to be over, but the last ewes are going to straggle in one at a time. Our two remaining Katahdins, Edith and Delia, are huge, and look ready to pop at any time. Maybe tonight. I have been bottle-feeeing Shorty, Evangeline's girl, to take some of the pressure off of Evangeline, whose milk is still sparse after her illness. Every time I show up in the mixing pen with a bottle, Shorty comes running; and close behind her is Bebe, now a mother herself, but still remembering her role as last year's bottle-baby. It's very sweet--this big ewe coming with some deeply rooted response to a person with a bottle, and then not quite sure why she is there. Photo: Emily's daughter, one of our yearling Friesians, with her twins. (The painted numbers are so we can easily tell which lambs go with which mother). Click photo to enlarge.

Saturday began for me at 5 am with a barn-check; all was quiet. I snuck back home to try to get another hour of sleep and was awakened by Ignacio beginning his day at 6:30 with a phone call: "Please come now." I launched out of bed and into my coveralls, and got to the barn to find Ignacio with a ewe in labor and what was showing of the lamb was a tail. This had been my biggest fear, a lamb presenting rear-end first, with the legs back. With Ignacio ably assisting, I did my first serious birth-intervention, easing the lamb back into the uterus and fishing out the hind legs,so I could pull the lamb backwards. It survived, and the ewe went on to have two more! Ignacio and I were elated from the experience. Carol, Taun and Alice came up to help with the days chores, and in late afternoon we all assisted at the birth of twins in the maternity pasture. After we had all the sheep in the barns for the evening, another ewe went into labor, and Ignacio stayed to help me deliver another set of twins. Today was a bit slower--beginning with twins at 7 am, wtih Lolo assisting, and me showing up just as everything was over, and then followed by a single lamb born in the middle of the day. The drama in that case was that the yearling ewe was very skittish, and we had to bring all the ewes into the barn to get her inside to put her in a jug with her lamb. All was quiet in the barn tonight. Evangeline seems fully recovered and today, 3 weeks after they were born, her twins got to play in the big mixing pen, with mom hanging out with 30 or so other mothers,all calling to their lambs. Photo: I find the mothers of single lambs form really sweet and tight bonds with their "only children." Maybe because I'm an only child myself, this really touches me. This is 9053, one of our yearling ewes (a first-time mother), resting with her ram-lamb. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

It was a slow lambing day--Lolo started off delivering twins at 6 am, and after that all was quiet. That gave Lolo and Ignacio time to clean both barns for the weekend, and reconfigure the mixing pen to give the mothers and lambs more room to play. I took the day to catch up on office work. And the sheep enjoyed the warm sunshine and calm weather--one of those rare and special March days. Tonight it was actually too warm in the barns, and we left the doors open until after dark. Photo: Bebe (the lamb who was in my arms on our "Mission" page) with her twins.

Linda left this morning and Lolo and Ignacio and I were very sad to see her go. It has been a wonderful two and a half weeks with lots of laughs and joy and hard work, which thank goodness Linda enjoys. As I feared, within hours of Linda's departure, lambs started coming. During lunch, 1745, also known as Speckles, for the spash of white freckles across her black face, went into labor, at the same time as our gargantuan ewe we call Tiny. Both had twins out in the pasture, with Lolo and Ignacio and I attending and assisting, as the lambs were large. Then, just as we were bringing the ewes in for the night, 8002, the ewe who mysteriously and hilariously always wants to stand in the salt, went into labor. She popped out a nice little ram lamb in 15 minutes, but took over an hour with the next. Lolo had to leave for a meeting, and Ignacio stayed to help me. With no sign of a lamb, I had to go in, and found a lamb all ready to deliver, but just not coming. I pulled that lamb, a nice boy, and then just as we thought we were done, she popped out a third, a ewe lamb. By 7:00, Ignacio and I had all three lambs drinking from Mom, and settled with Mom in a jug, and had medicated the mother to prevent infection from the intravention. Photo: Lolo wtih Tiny and her first lamb in the pasture (click on photo to enlarge.)

Linda just returned from the late-evening barn check to report that 24 ewes are resting in relative comfort with no sign of lambing before morning. And we had a hilarious laugh over this ewe, 8002, who for some reason spends all her time in the barn standing with her front feet in the salt dish. This has been going on for a week now--we figure she considers it to be salt-scrub manicure treatment.

Just one lamb born today, late this afternoon. But it gave us a chance to catch up on shots, ear-tagging and other chores. Also it was a beautiful day to watch the lambs playing and sunning in their pasture.

We're half way there--26 ewes have lambed and we have 26 to go. Today began at 5:45 when Lolo found one of our 2-year-old Friesians giving bitth to a nice single ewe lamb. Then at noon today, two ewes lambed in the maternity pasture at the same time. One of the 2-year-old hybrid ewes had triplets,and a yearling had twins. Linda and I were very busy with those 5 lambs and their mothers, as well as ear-tagging the lambs that were ready to leave the jugs, and giving vitamin shots to the lambs born in the past two days. In the late afternoon, Ignacio found a yearling ewe in the maternity pasture who had already delivered a lamb and had a second on the way, bringing our total to 47 lambs, 24 boys and 23 girls. This evening our jugs are nearly full. Evangeline is still recovering from her post-delivery illness, so she and her lambs remain in the lambing barn where they have become great pets. Today was too busy for much photography, except for a photo of Evangeline cuddlnig with her twins.

The day began with Linda's early trip to the barn, where she found Lolo delivering twins, and helped him finish. It was another beautiful relatively calm and warm sunny day, and around noon one of the yearling ewes lambed in the maternity pasture. Karl got to assist in his first lamb birth, a single girl. This evening, Lolo checked the barn after dinner and found another of the yearlings delivering a single boy. By the end of today 21 of our ewes have lambed and we have 39 lambs. Photo: Karl with the newborn lamb in the pasture (click on photo to enlarge).

Today started at 4:30 when Lolo found Katrina in labor. He stayed with her and she had twins by the time I got to the barn at 6:45. It was a beautiful day on the ranch and after breakfast, Josi, Karl, Linda Dick and I vaccinated ewes and gave vitamins to the recent lambs, while Ignacio cleaned the barn. in the mid morning Ignacio alerted us to a ewe in labor in the maternity pasture, and Karl assisted in his first lamb birth, a very big single boy born to one of the yearling ewes. The rest of the day was quiet--we had a nice lunch outside and a visit from my dad. This evening after dinner we checked the barn and found another of the yearlings in labor; she had a boy and a girl and we saw them take their first drink and settled mother and lambs in their pen before retiring for the night.

We've had 7 ewes lamb in less than 24 hours! All were yearlings and all had twins, with a total of 7 boys and 7 girls. Two ewes lambed last night when Linda and I were in the barn, then Lolo found one of Evangeline's daughters lambing at 4:30 this morning, and another yearling lambing at 7:00 when he returned to the barn. This afternoon Linda and I went to town and when we returned Lolo and Ignacio had just finished delivering two sets of twins. While we were there, Gigi's daughter finally went into labor and delivered twin boys. We have extra help coming tonight--Linda's daugher Josi and her husband Karl, and Linda's husband Dick. So far all our lambing has been in early morning and evening, none in the middle of the night, although we were expecting it last night. Photo: Gigi's daughter with her twins. The first, on the right, was the one who must have been holding things up in delivery (she seemed to be in early labor for more than 24 hours). His birth fluids had the orange color of a lamb that was stressed in delivery. His brother popped out minutes after him, and was as white and clean as snow.  

Tonight the spell was broken, and the yearling ewes started lambing, 142 days from when the rams went in with them. At 9:00 when Linda and I went to check the barn, Emily's daughter Emy had one lamb on the ground and a second on the way. She was a wonderful mother; she delivered both lambs on her own and loved and cleaned them up. A nice boy and a girl. Before we could even get Emy and her lambs into a jug, Nadie's daughter had two hooves and a nose showing, and soon she had delivered a nice girl, with another on the way, a boy. She was also an excellent first-time mother. By 10:30, we had 4 lambs, and several other ewes appeared to be in the early stages of labor, including Gigi's daughter, Bugeyes and Delia's daughter. Most of the rest of the 30 ewes in the barn were feeling uncomfortable and definitely cranky, and hilarious little fights and spats were breaking out all over. We decided that I'd better go home to get a little sleep, so I could come up at 2:00 to spell Linda if she was still there. I left Linda finishing up with the second set of twins and came home for a few hours' sleep.

Eva is holding out, looking like she's in early labor, but no lambs yet. Many of the yearling ewes look ready to lamb, and we've moved them into the same group with the older ewes,so they will be coming into the barn at night. We don't want any lambs born at night in the pasture. Evangeline and her lambs are still in the barn because Evangeline requires some extra attention, although she's almost back to normal. Shorty and her brother seem happy with each other's company and Shorty still likes to sleep on top of Evangeline (click on photo to enlarge).

Our March winds have arrived and it has been blowing for three days. Still, the mothers and lambs are enjoying the sunshine and grass in our night-pasture, which is wind-sheltered. Monday morning, Psycho lambed with twin girls. Psycho got her name because she was a very bad mother last year and showed no interest in her lambs. We kept her because she is a fabulous producer in the milking parlor. This year she loved her little lambs right away, and has continued to be a good mom, to our great relief. No lambs born again today. We are mystified that the lambing pattern is so different this year than last year, and will have to analyze our procedures once all the data are in. Today Linda and I prepared our second lambing group, last year's ewe-lambs, who are due to start lambing tomorrow, by clipping the wool from their rear-ends for cleaner lambing. Tonight one of our Katahdins, Eva, seems about to go into labor, so it may be a late night. Photo: Nadie and her lamb in the night pasture (click on photo to enlarge).

Another day with no lambs born! With the help of friends Rich and Lori, we cleaned the barn, set up a creep-feeder for the lambs, vaccinated, wormed and trimmed hooves. Mothers and lambs spent a happy day in a sunny and wind-sheltered pasture, since our March winds have begun to blow. We have 14 lambs so far, 7 boys and 7 girls, and 44 ewes left to lamb. Photo of Linda with lambs was taken yesterday by Carol (click on photo to enlarge).

Lambing is still slow, but one of these days it has to pick up. Thursday Elsbeth delivered three healthy boys. Later that day, Estrella Blanca had a healthy boy, after a difficult delivery that required assistance. Mother and baby are doing well. Friday no lambs were born at all. Evangeline is eating her regular rations with gusto for the first time since lambing. This afternoon Miss Piggy delivered the largest lamb we've ever had, a 15 1/4 lb boy. The older lambs and their mothers spent the day out on the green pastures and now are settled in a new mixing pen in the milking barn. The expectant mothers are looking even more expectant. We had help at the ranch today from friends Carol, Melinda and Heidi, and Carol took this photo of one of Split Ear's lambs in the barn-aisle. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Only one lamb born today, a beautiful black girl to 8024, who had triplets last year. The ewes were having their breakfast outside, but 8024 returned to the barn to go into labor and delivered a 14-lb girl, with Lolo and Ignacio attending. Evangeline was still out of sorts after lambing several days ago, not eating and worrying us, until she suddenly went beserk and started chewing on Marcia's sweatshirt sleeves. We wondered if she was craving something besides grain and alfalfa, and went out to cut her a fresh salad of grass. She stuffed her mouth greedily and has been gorging on fresh salad ever since, and seeming much happier.

We had 3/4 inch of rain last night, with intermittent sun and rain today. 1585 (Nadie) had a nice single ewe lamb last night around 9:00, and all was quiet when Linda checked the barn at 2 am. This morning Split-Ear had twin girls, a black and a white one. We have been feeding the ewes at noon rather than 5 pm, to encourage daytime lambing, and it looks so far like maybe this is working. And out of 8 lambs born so far, 6 are girls, so we're feeling very lucky indeed! Photo: Nadie with her ewe lamb.

Today was a slower lambing day then we expected. It started out with two sets of lambs; Lolo got to the barn at 7:00 and found Evangeline with twins, a girl and a boy, and 1605 with one ewe-lamb and another on the way, also a girl. Linda and I got there by 8:00 and I pulled 1605's third, a large boy. Evangeline's twins were tiny, but active, and 1605's triplets were small, medium and large, but all vigorous. No more lambs for the rest of the day, although a dozen of the ewes look very ready. We may have a busy night. Photo: 1605 resting her head on two of her triplets.

Our grass is green and lush from all the recent rains, and the wild iris are coming up in the pastures. Lambing is due to begin tomorrow, Monday, March 1. The girls are all looking very pregnant and we are as eager as they are for the lambs to start coming. We're expecting little sleep and lots of lambs in the next week, but I will try to post news when I have a chance. My cousin Linda arrived yesterday and today we trimmed the wool of all the ewes to keep them clean and tidy during lambing and help the lambs find their first drink of milk.