I left the house at 3:30 a.m. to get to the airport for a flight to Maryland. Yes! I was on my way to MSWF (Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival). Friends and I went to this event last year and ever since I wanted to go again. It was only at the last minute before sheep entries were due that I found that I could get a ride for my sheep (to be shown and are going to PA with a new owner) so I booked a flight for myself.
I got here on Thursday afternoon and wanted to make the most of my time to see some of the country. I checked into the hotel and then got back in the car heading toward the Potomac River and the C & O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Canal.
I didn’t want to take the main highways because I love seeing the farm country.
I pulled over in a couple of places just long enough to get photos with my phone.
You can’t tell from this photos but that tractor is big enough that the car I’m driving could have almost gone right under it. I don’t know what crop that is for.
Crossing the Potomac River. I crossed a couple of times before I found the parking area for the National Historical Park at a place called Point of Rocks. (Actually I parked elsewhere and finally found this when I started walking toward the river.)
The C & O Canal follows the Potomac River for 184 miles and was used for about 100 years as a way of transporting lumber, coal, and agricultural products. 
The bridge from below.
I walked along the towpath for an hour or so.
Here is a tree I haven’t seen before. Flowers on the pawpaw tree.
I don’t know what kind of insect this is but it is a big one.
There are some lock houses still standing along the canal. These were houses provided to the locktenders who would be available to operate that lock 24 hours a day. This house, built in 1837, has been fixed up and is available for rent.
A view of the lock.
This photos shows the scale and proximity of the house, the canal and the railroad. Point of Rocks is famous because it is where the battle for the transportation rights played out. The mountain on one side and the river on the other left a narrow strip of land. “Both the C&O and B&O [railroad] fought in court for primary access to this “point of rocks.” The C&O won but the two companies compromised, sharing the narrow passage from here to Harpers Ferry.
There is plenty more history to learn and sites to see but I’m going to be spending the next couple of days with sheep. I will get back to this on Monday.
Goat paparazzi.
I’m not sure that I’d call this mannerly but everyone had fun.
After a rainy and overcast week the sunny day was a welcome change and the ranch was a beautiful place to spend the day.
The sheep were in pens when we got there.
We helped to move them toward the lane into the barn.
Most of the lambs were born much earlier but there were a few late lambs too.
The shearer works in the old barn where there are signs of what shearing would have been like in the “old days” when there would have been hundreds of sheep to shear in the day.
We brought each fleece to the skirting tables…
…and inspected them for strength, length, and VM (vegetable matter)
I ended up with 270 pounds of beautiful fleece.
We dragged it on a tarp over to the baler…
…where the shearer baled it. 
This is our 270 pound bale in the truck. I am grateful to Farm Club members for helping out on this day. It not only made the work easier, but it was fun to spend time together.
Farm Cub members are invited to be vendors. This is Jackie with Sheep to Shop.
These are some of her handspun, handknit pillows.
Colleen has Fiber Confections.
She usually sells at the Davis Farmers’ Market.
Gynna makes socks.
Here are some of her socks knit from my 
Joy sells dye plants…
…ready to use for dyeing and ready to grow. Her butterfly is made from a 
Of course, it’s all about the animals, especially the lambs.
Betsy, Mary, Sue, and Marina helped children pet lambs.
My little goats were an added attraction this year since Julie, who usually brings goats and bunnies, couldn’t be here. 
This fence helped keep the kids in one place. Moms could relax temporarily.
I saved the small field behind the shop so that the sheep would be enticed to come to fresh pasture for the weekend.
Now I find out that she likes watching videos with friends.
“Don’t you like watching videos with friends?”
“Yes Jade, you have nice white teeth.”
“You too, Lisa”
Zorra had plenty of cuddling while she was still in the lambing area with her mom. Lisa is a lamb cuddling Pro.
This is pet sheep Jade’s lamb (and me).
This is her again being held by Peggy. We’d really like her to be friendly too.
This is Zorra again with Sumi.
As the lambs get a little older we have other Farm Days. This was Betsy’s first day on the farm and she jumpred right in holding lambs as we ear tagged and castrated. 
I don’t castrate many because it’s hard to know how they will grow out and which might be a great flock sire for someone. Some are easy though–too much or too little color to fit within the 15-85% breed standard. This one’s horns are already touching at the base under that hair. As the horns grow they will fuse and not grow well separately.
Marina and Maggie (no photo) helped catch lambs too and Mary handled the clipboard. The lambs were all tagged with their white ID tags right after they were born but we put added a colored tag on Farm Day. I like to use a second tag for back-up ID if the first one falls out and also to color code the sire. It’s interesting to keep track of that and it also helps to find a lamb when you’re looking for one among 75. You can narrow it down some if you have a color to look for.
This year Cayenne’s lambs got orange tags. Pink tags go in all the lambs that have been castrated.
Green means these are Buster’s lambs.
Blue was for Catalyst.
Peyton’s lambs are obvious so don’t need an extra tag.
After we tagged all the lambs Marina and Betsy stayed to help me set up the pasture for the sheep. I had put the sheep out for a few days but hadn’t cleaned and moved the water trough.
We walked around the pasture and took stock of things. I always point out the issue that I have with the dallisgrass that is out of control. That’s what all that dry grass is. I’d much rather see green grass growing. The whole pasture was looking somewhat dismal from a growth standpoint. At this point we had just had March rain after two very dry and cold months. I wasn’t seeing much growth–at least not enough to feed 55 ewes and 75 lambs. 
We spotted this grass that I don’t recognize.
I took photos to send to a friend of Marina’s who she think might recognize it.
During the discussion about other aspects of raising sheep we kept an eye on Zinnia, the ewe who was lambing. When she got more serious we watched.
One thing of note was the presence of two bags, each a different color. A lot of time I just see membranes that have broken so I wouldn’t know if it were one or two, but it seemed unusual to see two distinct bags. I saw a bit of a small foot emerging but the whole thing seemed to be taking awhile so I thought I’d check. There was one foot and a head. Not very far back was another head. Both lambs were coming at the same time, and it was obvious from the two sacs that one had meconium staining, a sign of fetal distress. I pushed the second lamb back and was able to pull the first lamb with just the head and one foot. I could tell that it was very small. Usually it takes a little while for the second to come, but it was right there too. Weighing these later, they were 4.8 and 4.2 pounds.
You can’t rush a lamb to be ready to nurse. I didn’t know if something was wrong with this one, but I knew that, even if it was normal, it needed a little more time. We went outside and looked at the fences and the pasture. When we came back in the first lamb was doing fine. The second still wasn’t able to stand but I could hold it up and get it to nurse.
We kept checking back and eventually the second lamb was on it’s feet. This photo was taken later in the day.
Later that afternoon a friend of mine came with another friend to take photos of the lambs. That’s Raquel with triplet ram lambs.
Here is the tiny lamb from the morning.
This was getting close to the end of lambing.
Here are those two tiny lambs 12 days later and here is their 
The last time there were goats here they were Chris’ Toggenburgs that he raised for his FFA project. Stephany was the last goat from that era.
Before that I had owned one goat. This is an Angora goat named Chenille in a photo from 1997. Katie was 9 then.
These are two of a set of quads. One was the smallest of the batch and the other was having some trouble drinking from the LambBar bucket with all the others.
I am not planning to show goats and I am bottle-feeding so those points didn’t matter…
…and I brought these babies home.
Oops. A third goat came along–mainly because my friend didn’t plan to raise him and I figured that I could find a home for him eventually.
Te goats are popular with 
That’s Ellie on the left and Amelia on the right.
Their temporary buddy, Kevin, is in the middle. He’s going to a new home tomorrow. Thank goodness. 
It’s sure easier to feed two than three.
I have been keeping the kids in the barn but the weather has turned nice and I wanted to introduce them to Amaryllis. She was definitely interested.
I hope that they will become her new BFFs. Here is 
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