Spring Lambs and Goat Kids

<p>It’s spring in Virginia and we have calves, lambs, a goat kid and baby quail. So much is going on. This is true of every spring. After a sleepy winter, spring brings rapid growth and renewed life.</p> <p>I want to take a minute and say welcome to all the new listeners and welcome back to the veteran homestead-loving regulars who stop by the FarmCast for every episode. I appreciate you all so much. I’m so excited to share with you what’s going on at the farm this week.</p> <h2>Our Virginia Homestead Life Updates</h2> <p>We love our place here. The dream we started nearly 17 years ago just keeps going growing toward our ever-changing vision.</p> <h3>Sheep</h3> <p>The lambing has begun. Just yesterday, Cinco de mayo, we had a brand new baby ram lamb born. He is strong and healthy, weighing in at 6 lbs 6 oz. His mom is the youngest ewe out there. She is just now one year old. There are 6 more ewes still to deliver. A couple of them look like they are about to burst. Sheep usually have a single in their first year and twins in their second year. We have had quite a few along our journey that even have triplets on a regular basis. On the very rare occasions this breed of sheep will have quadruplets. We have not seen that. And I have to say that I am glad of that. Four lambs is a lot to keep up with out there. </p> <p>The sheep are no longer right outside my living room window. We ran out of grass in the pasture there so I’m making a bit of a longer trek to check on them a couple of times a day. Concern for their health and the health of the pasture drove that decision. Sure, it was much more convenient for me to be able to look out the window and easily check on them. But their health and the pasture health is much more important than my convenience.</p> <p>If the grass gets too short, it has trouble growing back. Especially if we have any kind of drought. We learned that lesson quite a few years back. Good pasture management is essential for our grass-based operation. The health of the sheep is greatly impacted by