Oh, Ye of Little Faith!

Our bluebirds reappeared yesterday. It was a brief visit – just long enough to check out the house we built for them outside our dining room window. We always clean it out by Valentine’s Day and make sure it’s ready for their spring inspection. This year was no exception, so, I know they’ll be back when the time is right to start raising a brood.

Today we heard peepers, which has to be about the happiest sound I know. The male frogs are looking for love and the faster they can sing, the more likely a female will choose them. Immature males that can’t begin to compete with the older males hang out quietly at the edge of the pond and hope the female will accidently choose them. If they tried their luck at singing - they’d get dumped in a New York minute. Size might not matter to peepers, but clearly speed does.

Our sow is definitely pregnant. She’s got several weeks to go but her maternal hormones have clearly kicked in. She now lays down as delicately as a 400 pound sow possibly can. She kneels on her front legs and slowly lowers herself down. This technique hopefully allows time for her soon to be piglets to get out of the way, and is a sure sign that she’s in “the family way”

Our ewes are starting to look like they are going to pop. It’s clearly just a matter of days before lambs start arriving. We set the lamb cameras up inside the barn so we’ll know when they actually arrive. Every year we name our lambs with the letter of the alphabet that corresponds to the year. This year is 2025 and Y is the 25^th letter of the alphabet, so all our lambs will have names that begin with the letter Y.

Feel free to leave us suggestions for “Y” names and be on the lookout for newborn lambs on our livestreaming “Lamb Cam.”

Happy Spring Y’all – it arrived after all.