Feed my sheep, feed my lambs…………this is a full-time job!  The sheep and lambs are moved to the second paddock.

First one to the pasture wins!

No fair, she pushed me, baaaaaaaaa!

Hurry, hurry, they are beating us to the grass!

Making sure the sheep keep going to the right paddock!

Almost there.

Just in time for a light rain.

Before these sheep were moved, the gates were made ready on the next paddock.  It takes a bit of planning to make the grass go as far as possible.  Hay is so expensive and any bit of grazing is very helpful.  A whole lot of rain would make a huge difference on a hay bill, not to mention more of a profit margin!

The girls getting the fence ready for the next paddock.

The CAT makes life a bit easier and saves on backs and hands!

This is a busy time on our farm.  The sheep grazed the front paddock already and this was their second move.   The rains have not been adequate and we could use a whole lot more!  After we moved the sheep we transplanted a bunch of hops from the back plot up to the front hops yard.  The wind was blowing so hard I felt like I’d been beaten up with a blanket.  If you haven’t ever experienced a harsh prairie wind, you probably can’t even imagine how this feels!  Bella, Maggie and Mario were in charge of watering, I dug the new holes and killed thistles, while Marisa and Silvana transplanted the hops.

Mario and Bella water the new transplants. We can’t count on the rain in the forecast.

View of our front hops yard.

Magdalene hauling water with the skid steer.  Carrying the pails got to be too much work!

Mario…….I love that boy.  Learning to work while young is important.

Bella found these Robin eggs in our hops yard. Beauty can be found everywhere. The Robin chose a very low spot on our front fence.  She returned to the nest as soon as we moved on.

After we finished those two jobs, it was onto the Quonset to start clearing out stuff for the Barn Dance.  Maggie got a good start on painting the outhouse.  We moved the turkey’s that were nesting and put the eggs in the incubator.  There are others nesting around the farm as well but these could not be moved safely, as in the past and we hate to lose them.

The nesting turkey’s. We took 35 eggs for the incubator and also moved a Pekin duck and removed her 6 eggs.

The load of hay bleachers arrived on Monday. It will take a week of cleaning, off and on to get the barn ready for dancing.

We had a nice mothers day and Fred enjoyed his one day off a week with us.  Caleb celebrated his 14th birthday and we ended up making two cakes.  One cake on his birthday, which Fred worked so late that he missed, and then I made another one the next day so we could sing and celebrate with dad home!  He also fixed the brakes in the truck and that’s why his hands are so stained!  The spring rush at West Con should be over soon and he will be home more.  God bless all Fathers who sacrifice for their families. We sure appreciate how much he does for this family.

Fred enjoying his one day off, Sunday!