Peach Blooms, Lambs and Defeated by Rain

The Peach trees are in full bloom now along with many of the Bradford Pears and the Dandelions are popping out all over. The Redbuds are almost opened up but still no wild Plum or Crab Apple. The girls have plenty of blooms to work but they are as hampered as I am by this constant rain. Of course they don't have to wait for the ground to dry though to get out there and get stuff done.

The guy down the road with the small Peach orchard called to tell me both the hives down that way are coming and going and appear strong. I haven't been able to get back there because it has just been too wet and it seems when I do get a dry day I get called into work for a run.

They were forecasting a slight chance of showers today and of course we got an inch of rain. I must admit defeat now as the chances of the ground drying enough for me to get much done on the fence project until May is slim at best at this point.

Every dip or depression in the ground looks like the above picture and the grass is growing so fast now you can watch it reach for the sky. For the next month it's going to be a constant struggle to find the dry periods and stay ahead of the mowing. There will be little time for outside projects so I admitted defeat and started organizing the shop in prep for making new bottom boards and tops. I got the wide load of junk taken into the scrap yard today and almost got the truck stuck parking the trailer out of the way. Funny thing is we only had a slim chance of rain today. This is typical Missouri April time, rain, mud and no travel off the paved or gravel areas unless you want to leave huge ruts everywhere.

But the grass never stops growing like some lab experiment gone bad.

I did get a few new lamb pictures though.

Here is the first lamb born this year. Seven's little girl with the small light patch on her back. She is definitely a keeper and if I can keep her out of the cockle-burr patch that Black wool will be in high demand her first year shearing. After that it goes kinda reddish grey or brown more with age. I consider it good luck if the first lamb to drop is a black one.

Here is Hole-In-The-Ear with her two babies that were born yesterday afternoon. The White one is hungry I guess. These guys are in the late ram's old stall which is why I had to cover the entrance up that the ram used to come and go from. We have three Hole-In-The-Ear ewes this year. They lost their id tags somehow so when I tag the little ones I will have to give mom a new tag too.

One of Milly's new babies. Not sure if this one is a ram or ewe though and I didn't go in and check. Ear tags will be put in this evening or tomorrow. Right ear for girls, left ear for boys and I got the color coded tags for the rams so I will know who their daddy is. No more lucky Whethers after this year.

One of Marris's little girls. I didn't notice she had a bit of straw clinging to her until after i downloaded the picture. Marris has her hands full with only two nipples and three babies there is always a line waiting for her milk now but she is keeping up with production. We give Marris a little extra food though to help. Only Marris's three came from Lamar the ram we had to put down last week. The other six are all out of Frazier so I guess we know which ram got busy early.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!