As slippery as...

It was slippery at the farm last Sunday morning. The farm was an ice rink -- a slick sheet of rain over the ice added to the hazardous conditions. So, of course, I chose that ideal day to introduce my 8 y.o. daughter Tegan to volunteering. Faith (my 14 y.o.) and I are used to this sort of thing, so I hoped the weather conditions wouldn't curb Tegan's enthusiasm... It didn't. She loved seeing the newborn lambs -- helped me spread straw in the pens -- after I bobsledded (a real word?) down the barn ramp holding onto the wheelbarrow piled with two bales of straw. We also shelled three big tubs of corn with Dave's help -- after getting all the chores down, of course. We took a break somewhere in there and enjoyed the donuts Mark brought (he was late). At quitting time we changed out of our soaked-through clothes and walked back up the slippery lane to join the 21st century once again. I mailed Tegan's official volunteer paperwork today. Welcome to Kline Creek Farm, Tegan!

Elastorator Joy

Faith and I were at the farm again last Sunday. She drove the team for the first time. Did ok. Lambs born. Faith bottle fed one. Mark put the elastorater on lamb tails. Can't wait to find the severed tails on the ground -- one of the seasonal joys. This is the time of hitching and hauling: feed, straw, hay. This is the time of mixing feed and grinding corn. The new cattle shed is progressing nicely. Can't wait to got out there again.