Life on a "Farm"

Things have been busy with our animals lately. At the beginning of March we had a lamb born. Wes just happened to be dropping off a trailer in the corral in  the middle of the day and saw something move. To my surprise, it was a black lamb!

 

Kimber thinks we live on a farm. I wouldn't necessarily call it a farm, but we do have lots of farm animals.

 

We left the mother and baby alone for a few hours, in case she had more lambs coming. By evening she hadn't had any more, and the poor black lamb was pretty lethargic. So Wes and Hallie worked together to get that little lamb eating.

As it was happening I was texting pictures to Meadow, who was said that Hallie was getting to live the life she had wanted as a kid. I never would have thought this would be my life-I'm not especially an animal lover-but my kids (and husband) sure enjoy it.

Our kids are learning all sorts of things on the "farm". They are learning to work hard-Hallie and Jaxson feed everyday after school. It is not easy for them and takes them 30-45 minutes to do it together-hay is heavy. And they never complain. 

A couple weeks after the black lamb was born, we had a little white lamb. Hallie happened to be out there this time and got to see it happen. This one had no problem bonding with the mom and learning to eat.

 

They also learn a lot about the life-how boys and girls are different, how animals reproduce and are born, and sadly, about death. They are all good lessons to learn, but sometimes it is hard.

 

A few weeks after they were born. The kids didn't name the lambs...we will be selling them because they are both males. We are hoping to have more lambs born soon.

 

The same day the white lamb was born we noticed that Big Red wasn't putting pressure on one of his back legs. It was swollen and we thought maybe he had been kicked by another horse-we aren't sure.

We gave him a few days to see if maybe it was just bruised and would get better. It became evident that it wasn't getting better, so we had to put him down. He was our most loved horse, and it was really heartbreaking to watch Hallie say goodbye to him.

(one of my most favorite pictures of our kids, ever)

It was really hard to say goodbye to Big Red, especially for Hallie.

We miss Big Red already. He was so easy going and let us pile kids on him without a care. We haven't replaced him yet, but will someday.