Labors

Well! It seems that though the past few days have been a blur of hacking coughing, bleary consciousness, and general misery, there appeared to be quite a few photos that made it onto the camera. Probably because there was an awful lot going on.

There was the general labor.

General and pointless, as we really did not need enormous chunks of dirt in this bucket. But it kept Cubby entertained for a good five minutes while I sat drooling and half-awake in a chair on the lawn, so it's a useful activity from my viewpoint.

The sheep have been laboring, too, in the literal and somewhat bloody sense.

LAAAAMBS!!! Kind of far away lambs, since their mothers are not too keen on close-up interaction with their precious young yet.

The first one to go, the Merino, needed milking out a couple of times to give to the lambs in bottles. Both to get the lambs going and to relieve her obviously swollen udder so she would allow them to nurse. Something about the configuration of the teats on the Merinos makes this almost routine for that breed. The Cotswolds rarely need assistance. So far three ewes have given birth, bringing the current lamb count to four--two boys, two girls--and ten sheep yet to have their lambs.

And then, since nothing goes better with leg of lamb than potatoes, we planted some potatoes:

I'm sorry, was it in poor taste to refer to eating the lambs immediately after their birth? Too bad. Such is life in the country. Oh, and see my potatoes up there? WHEE!

In a marked contrast to last year, the potato field was prepped with the tiller this year. Which means it was done by A. He also hoed out some shallow rows and dropped the potatoes in at their appropriate intervals. So, basically, he did all the work. And you know what? I am TOTALLY OKAY WITH THAT. We're trying the mulching method this year, since I'm definitely not going to be doing any hilling in my current useless state. So the potatoes will sit out for a couple of days to green up and sprout some more, then A. will cover them in that sheep-shit straw he hauled to the garden last weekend.

Are you getting the idea that all the labors we're discussing here involve A.? You're pretty much right. I did manage to transplant my tomato seedlings yesterday by myself:

Hello, my lovelies.

But then here comes A. again to paint the shed roof and show me up as the lazy lump that I am:

Does this look like fun? Yeah? Well, it's not. Or so I hear.

That's a metal roof, probably about fifty years old. It's supposed to be painted in a latex covering every ten years or so. A. thinks it was last done at least fifteen years ago, so it was pretty rusted and way past due.

And then we went to get hot dogs and ice cream at the seasonal ice cream stand for dinner because I was obviously WAY too tired after all my picture taking to make dinner. Also, I wanted some ice cream.

So that brings us up to date as of now. Stay tuned for more lambs, more garden stuff, and more fun from Blackrock.