Where's Spring??

Spring certainly has not sprung here in Northern Alberta, Canada!! We just finished another bout of -40c temperatures. When it did warm up, it snowed and blowed. Now, the weather is warming up, but the winds picked up (chinook blowing in??) and the weather promised wet snow the rest of the week. How I miss Spring in the Pacific West where I used to live. Palm Springs is on the schedule starting next week, it cannot come soon enough.

We have a short window of time to get out of the cold for a bit because lambing season (#2) starts the end of April. This year we have 13 ewes bred. I'm looking forward to seeing what surprises we get.

So, to make up for the lack of spring, I went out with the Shetlands (llamas and cats too) to take some new pictures. Here is some of the labours of our love!

This is all but 4 of our ewes. 13 of the 18 of them
are bred. 5 lambs were just too small and I think
I'm okay with not breeding the lambs anyhow.

This is my Shetland/Gotland/Finn ewe.
She was bred to Fibre Works Indiana Jones (Grey Katmoget)
in hopes to bring out some of the Gotland (Grey) colour.

This is Willie, he's the new ram to our farm. He was
brought in not only for the UK genetics but to
increase the quality of our fleeces and to
breed out the iset in our black fleeces.

With Willie is Windy Grange Aedan, isn't he handsome??

This is Willow Garden Anu, she's new to our
farm. I fell in love with her the moment I
saw her picture on Bill's blog. She is the friendliest gal ever! She is a beauty!

This is Fibre Works Eureka. She is a bit standoffish, but she will
come up for a treat once and a while. She is a regal soul and her eyes just pull you in.

This is Fibre Works Fontane and is our most vocal ewe.
She is friendly and produced triplets for us last year. I LOVE her smile!

Our farm cats, Oliver and Twist. They came from my husband's aunts home
where she nursed them from certain death.
My how they have grown and do they love LOVE!
Can you believe they are brothers???

Last but certainly not least (I took almost 100 pictures today)
this is the southern view from our house.
Just past the trees is a dug out and a mound of earth/grass.
Apparently, this mound is where the coyotes are staying at night.
I hope they do not think my Shetlands will be an easy meal.
I have a county worker from the coyote program here trying to catch they bold buggers.
My dog is sad as there are some traps out so he is in the pens with the sheep.
Llamas are dispersed with the flocks in case the coyotes try to enter the pens.
So far, there is no trace of the coyotes by the pens, but they are bold!
They have sniffed the traps, but not taken the bait.
Once the weather clears they county will put a man out back
and call the coyotes in and shoot them. He feels there could be a problem.
I'm glad I called them in!! We could never catch them,
but this man has nearly 30 years experience.