preparing the nursery

Lambing is just around the corner here... According to the marking harness, we have five days to go until our first due date. Since lambing calculators tell you to add or subtract five days from the predicted date, that means we are on "any day now" status.

We haven't had sheep in the barn for many many months now, and it was well past time to get it cleaned out and spruced up for the new arrivals. Despite the torrential rains that were predicted this weekend, we couldn't wait any longer, and a (shockingly) willing and helpful crew made their way out there first thing Saturday morning. I had to run errands, so I deputized a photographer to document the cleaning out process for you. Though some of the pictures are a bit blurry, you still get the flavor of kid industriousness.





By far the best pictures were self-portraits of the photographer.



This one is my favorite... and I couldn't resist comparison between it and a picture taken about four years ago:



(That's Charlie the dog in the older picture. Now Charlie is so old that he doesn't even come out to the barn anymore, let alone climb up on the hay stack. Clearly better quality hay that year too!)

I am hoping to get the girls moved up tomorrow from the back pasture to the little paddock by the barn. The paddock was still a bit damp today, so I left them in their current digs for the moment. But it's time to start those 2 am barn checks again, and that is much easier to do when they are closer to the house. Not to mention safer for any lambs that are born in the barn instead of a wide open field.