by 
Hello Friends,
Last year was my first winter on pasture. I had just started grazing my flock in August and winter was an unwelcome arrival. I didn’t want the growing season to end… I wanted to keep moving forward at full throttle.
This year is an entirely different story. After an intense spring and summer, I am welcoming the slowness of the winter season with open arms. The Lord knew what he was doing with the seasons. A season of rest after a season of growth is such a beautiful thing! I hope you enjoy this farm update, and MERRY CHRISTMAS if I don’t talk to you before then :).
The Good:
We are grazing winter stockpile right now. Despite the fact that my warm season grasses got the upper hand this summer, there is a ton of green undergrowth. If my paddock-planning plays out well, I should be able to graze stockpile through January 10th. Come January 10th, we will be feeding hay until the growing season kicks off in mid March.
The Challenging:
You may have seen the video on youtube, but I had a couple of losses during a weekend of freezing rain that swept through. I lost two ewe lambs over that weekend. While this is disappointing, there was more to it than the freezing rain. These two lambs had moms that did not produce good first-milk (colostrum). I had been doctoring them all Summer in hopes they would pull through. Unfortunately, the moment the weather turned south, they were gone. Despite all this, my losses have been really low in 2021, so I am extremely grateful.
Thanks for reading this farm update! I really appreciate you being a part of what I am doing at Harmony Farms.
-the Shepherdess // “Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves…” Psalm 100:3
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