Aoife had a baby boy today!

Mama and baby are doing great! More to come tomorrow!

He is tall and already pretty strong!

Sheep in a tree

And still no more lambs! Just snow!

Bees

Our bees, who worked hard all summer storing away energy in the form of a hive full of sweet honey, did not make it through the winter.  And sadly, neither did the sweet, sweet fruit of their labor.

Of course hindsight is 20/20, but we are now wishing we would have harvested the honey this fall instead of leaving the bees winter food supply in the hive.

Farmer J isn't sure what caused all our bees to perish. Maybe mites? Maybe dysentery? He tells me he needs to do more "research." 

All I know is this is the second time all our bees have died and we have had to start all over. Farmer J is ordering more bees soon. And, he and my dad will make a new bee hive with a totally new design. Fingers crossed that this system and these bees work out...or maybe, three strikes and we are out of the bee business.

I know bees are critically important and this link illustrates why in simple, straightforward terms.

http://www.bbka.org.uk/kids/importance_of_bees

So far this spring we are ordering bees, meat chickens, egg laying hens and feeder pigs! 

I foresee a very busy, but exciting, spring on our new farm! 

PS: In case your curious, no lambs. Farmer J just checked on Aoife and gave me an update on the status of her udder.

Full and firm, again, in case you're curious. Maybe leap year lambs? 

This is getting ridiculous!

Still no lambs. We thought for sure Aoife would lamb this last Thursday as you could see a tiny bit of an amniotic sac poking out of her girly parts. But no, nothing! Selfishly, I'm ready for her to have these babies so I don't have to look at her girly parts so often or read/send random texts to/from Farmer J talking about said girly parts! 

If she holds out to March, I won't be surprised. We've stopped trying to predict when she'll go into labor!

But then I think to myself, maybe tomorrow...forecast is sunny and temperatures will be in the mid-50s! Perfect lambing weather!  

On a completely different note, I apologize for the obvious break in daily blog posts! In the last week, I have had three different iPhones due to washing iPhone #1, iPhone #2 (the replacement phone wouldn't charge and had to be sent back and it took an additional 2-3 days to get and set up iPhone #3! The low point was when I started crying in the

AT&T store. 

One major downside to rural living- poor internet access! I'll go into this more fully another day but the short version is, the only way we can get internet in our home  is through our mobile phone hot spots! Therefore, no iPhone, no home internet either! The result: the fewer blog entries and tears of frustration, along with feeling like I was once again living in the 90s!

What I've learned the hard way:

- check coat pockets for phones before they get washed

-back up your phone frequently 

-check out internet access options before you move to a rural location and realize that cable high speed internet is highly unlikely when you live in the country 

So that happened...

I washed my iPhone in the laundry, it was in my farm coat pocket. 

Yesterday, I was out doing farm chores and then headed back inside. I took out the eggs (safely tucked in my pocket)...that cost a few bucks to replace- and left the pricey phone right there in the pocket. 

Within minutes, I realized what I had done...but it was too late!

Three trips to my mobile phone provider and some money spent...and I'm back in blogger business!

And guess what... Still no lambs. Honestly, I'm not sure what Aoife is waiting for- today was gloriously beautiful and warm!

Farmer J and the boys pruned trees in the orchard and carried lots of brush from here to there! 

Pickle enjoyed riding his bike through the melted snow puddles and JJ even passed up friend time to just hang out outside in the lovely 50 degree, sunny weather!

Ahhhh...a lovely winter reprieve!

I feel like a broken record but ...

still no lambs. It's official, Aoife is waiting for the 50 degree weather we are expecting tomorrow!

I'm thinking she will have twin girls...and I have the names all picked out! 

The snow we have melted a bit with the warmer weather we had today.

I went out to the pasture and fed Duncan and Aoife some apples.  They munched them right up. 

STILL no lambs

Today was sunny and warm- in the mid 30s. Farmer J was home today and was bummed that the lambs have yet to arrive. Maybe Aoife is waiting for the sunny and 50 degree weather coming in a few days.  

We are used to having mid-March lambs. In the past, we didn't have our "rental ram" visit until October, hence early spring lambs.

This year, we bought Duncan, our very own ram, in mid June. Hence, the earlier lambing season. 

As hard as it may be for Duncan, I think we'll try keeping him in his very own pasture until this fall.  And even then, he can only be with Aoife, Beatrix, Una and Jane.  

For obvious reasons, Saoirse and Skye will be kept away from him. But that will bring its own issues, as lambs always like to be by their mamas. 

We'll cross all these bridges when we come to them.

As farmers, there will always be fencing and pasture issues in our future!