A few weeks ago, I stood outside in the parking lot of our 4-H meeting talking with our club leader about her new batch of baby lambs. We made the decision not to breed May and Penny this year in an effort to keep things a little simpler (mostly, on me). But sitting there listening to her stories of her babies, a little part of me missed those weeks just over a year ago, when we were welcoming our first-ever baby lambs to the farm. 

And while I wouldn’t recommend your first crop of lambs arrival to be simultaneous with the fixing up and moving to a new farm, those days of romping, leaping fuzzy-headed lambs in the barn sure were sweet. 

A year later, and it’s hard to believe what big beasts Pete and Paige have become. Just this weekend, I scheduled their appointment with a shearer and hopefully we’ll finally be able to see their sweet eyes again under those fluffy cheeks.

Though I do the occasional fill-in for chore duty, Emma is their person. As soon as the back door slams and they know she’s headed to the barn, the shuffling around the gate begins. 

By some magical contortions and animal husbandry tricks, she manages to get all animals out of the field and sorted into pens, fed, watered and bedded down for the night. 

In a few days, we’ll add two more lambs to our flock that will be Emma’s 4-H project for this year. There are pens to be built, hay to be bought and trucks arranged (or else we’ll be carrying them home in our laps, not unheard of in my family.) 

After this year off, I’m thinking that we might have to get back in the baby lamb business again. Looking back at these pictures is like flipping through the pages of my girls’ photo albums…I’m probably only remembering all the good and forgetting the stress, worry and sleepless nights. But still, we consider doing it all over again.