Black Sheep

Here's Mama Mia and one of her black lambs, cant tell which one.  Mia is a dynamite sheep with her lovely black wool and her ability to lamb every six months!! She is the mom to Sasha, our number 2 ram, and 4 others, including a set of twins, and she is only 4 years old.  When she gets to the lemon farm, she will be one of the ewe leaders out exploring the place.

Baby lamb time

This is our ewe Annie, and her newborn lamb in the "birthing jug".   There were 3 lambs born in the past three weeks. Newborn lambs and their mothers should be separated from the herd for a few days so the baby and mom can imprint on each other, and we can feed the mom some grain with molasses.  

Habitable building in one hour

Its freezing here!! Seriously, I found ice crystals out in the grass yesterday.  Its also been raining a lot still.  My husband Bob has been worried about the sheep not all having a place to get out of the rain, and he came up with this ingenious solution.
      First he took four pallet racks from work that he was going to get rid of anyway.  We brough them up to Ojai. Then he and my brother David put them together with these snap-on steel rods. Two racks for the sides, two racks for a gable roof. Side braces at the open ends.  A piece of plywood for the back, propped up with a post, a tarp over the top, tied on at the corners, and its finished in one hour.  All the sheep can get in there out of the rain and the wind.
     After we were done, we were having a good time admiring our work.  We got to thinking about emergency shelter that some refugees have around the world: just a tarp!!  Snapping together the pallet racks makes for a sturdy shelter that wont blow down in the wind. Later, actual walls can be built on and a door added.  This to be a temporary to permanent housing solution.  Since they are snapped together, they can also be snapped apart and moved.  One man or 2 women can carry a rack.
    Feel free to use this idea for shelter anywhere in the world.