Weaning Time

We have been weaning our bottle-fed lambs, which is a long, loud, and annoying process. We have them in the pasture closest to our house so we can keep an eye on them, and make sure they are making the transition okay. The lambs happily go about their independent lives until they hear our voices, or see us walking by, then the bellowing and the hoof stamping begins. They clearly have no intention of being weaned.

Watching their histrionics, we could easily be convinced that they were on the verge of starvation - if only we hadn’t just witnessed them happily racing around the pasture playing and spending hours contentedly grazing by themselves. When I can, I walk the long way around our house to avoid being seen and stirring up their thunderous complaints. 

The front of the house, though, has been taken over by a robin who built a nest on the transom over our front door. The porch roof provides her with excellent protection from rain and predators, but she now takes issue with us using that door. She has two hatchlings, of which she is understandably protective, so we are constantly being divebombed and scolded by her unless we remember to use a different door.

Our bluebird hatchlings in the back yard are doing well, and we do our best to not disturb those parents as well.

Happily, we have a third door, which is out of sight from the lambs, and far enough from the robin, and bluebirds that we can use it unmolested and guilt free. We do however have to be sure to keep that screen door firmly latched since one of our more demanding chickens has discovered that if it’s open, she can often find me somewhere within.

It has been an absolutely wonderful spring and we are so incredibly lucky to live somewhere we can watch it unfold all around us. However, we are running out of doors, and it is quite possible that if this summer is a continuation of this spring, we will soon be climbing in and out of windows just to gain access to our house without disrupting the clan.