...and We're DONE!

That project we started back in August is finally finished. We can review the results and survey the outcome. Now is the time to critique ourselves and our choices. Finally!

Lambing season 2012 is officially over. Twenty-one healthy lambs. 11 of those arriving in under 48 hours. The final count… 14 ewe lambs and …7 ram lambs. That is a weird ratio that might warrant investigation, but... Everyone that is on the ground is healthy and growing vigorously. Yay! SUCCESS! Ironically, the losses this year, while both tragic and significant, were not on a par with last year. Nor, might I add, are our totals. I suppose it all evens out.

This year was not our biggest year…but, in a way…it might have been our best year. There were lots of very large single lambs that should grow out well. The new genetics added a good deal of length to the lambs. But, I suppose the true results remain to be seen when we get the lambchop crop back from the processors.

It takes a long time to get from the planning stage to the actual lambchops. It takes almost a year to go from thinking about lambchops to actually EATING them. A lot of blood, sweat and tears go into that crop as well. We put a lot of effort into our farm work and we truly hope that it is evident in all our products. We are touched by the customers who tell us how much they appreciate us!

Now, it is time to get on to the next project. That would be starting the brassica crop. This week, we will seed 700 or so broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage for the early season crop. Then, we will start gearing up for Market season. The lambchop crop will be a matter of maintenance now that they have all finally arrived. The workload hasn’t really decreased, just changed in focus and intensity.

The barn has been the focus of my life for the past three weeks. Daytime checks, nighttime checks, assisting births, locating the “lost” babies for the somewhat frazzled new mothers, vaccinations and feedings left little time for anything else.

So now, it’s time to clean out the jug pens, wash all the lambing supplies (and probably my coveralls), and clean the kitchen floor one more time. (Every trip to and from the barn brings in a little more hay.) It’s been wild, it’s been fun, it’s been tragic, and it WILL be profitable.

However, all those nocturnal trips to the barn took their toll…

I really, really need a nap!