Monday, March 24, 2014

Dutch Sheep in Ottoland: Part 1


Remember when I did my post on the shepherd who came to Gorinchem with his flock of sheep to mow one of our nearby dikes?  That was in September of 2011!  Ever since, we've talked about going to his sheepfold in spring to see the newborn lambs.

Which we finally did!  In fact, we went two Saturdays in a row and had such a different experience each time, I'm going to make this a two-part series!

The first time was a zoo because everyone and their aunt and uncle were there!  Part 1....

 Even Silverleaf (our new car) got in on the action, out in farmer's country, 7 miles from home.

We were there to see the sheep, of course...and 230 of the 250 lambs being born this season.
The shepherd is building up his flock...to do more mowing out-n-about, like in Gorinchem.
It's good for the sheep and the public and the environment.  And it's educational.
If you can't go to the sheep, he'll bring them to you!

There were more sheep than you could shake a stick at.
Coming and going.

Don't you love the pink bonnets!
There were two colors designating the ram inseminations:  green and pink .
Green was for the first batch of lambs and pink for the second.
(Don't you love the chicken acting like she owns the place.)

There were even two billy goats owning the place.  This one we saw the first Saturday.
He LOVED the attention of anyone touching his horns!
(But watch your jacket and camera strap!  Nibble-nibble.)

However, it was the little lambsy-diveys everyone was there to see!
And what is cuter than a child holding a lamb.

This is where the zoo part comes in...we could hardly squeeze in to take pictures.

"Mommy, can we pleeeeease take her home?!?!?!?!"

Just act cool, Bro.

I AM cool, Bro!

Don't you love how the lambs can handle all the attention.

Even the older kids thought it was cool.

See what I mean?  I think Astrid put Blackie to sleep.
Lullaby and Good Night.

Speaking of Astrid, she got the total lay of the land, talking to the volunteers.

If you are a sheepie person, can you imagine volunteering there!

To be continued....

8 comments:

  1. First of all I noticed you were already in tomorrow – here it is still 10:45 pm – you get up early! Those little lamb pictures are like they say … TOO CUTE! It would be hard for me not to want to hold them too. I especially like the dark one that Astrid is holding – and it looks like he feels quite contended being held by her. What a wonderful sweet place to visit.

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    1. Oh, yes, Vagabonde. We beat you by 6 hours. HA! Normally I don't pre-schedule till 6:15a my time, so maybe I'll go back to that, so as not to confuse you. :)

      But yes, this is such a great place to visit, especially when all the kids are there. The next week we were there almost all by ourselves. And that, too, was great...in a different way.

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  2. It just surprised me that I was not asleep by the end of the post.....counting all those sheep (grin)
    This is a fun place to visit. And I got my education there. I cannot wait for us to go back and see them in the field, maybe we can walk a few miles with the herd too....
    Great pictures.

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    1. This is when I wish I could take everybody I know to such a place to see it with their own eyes, MLMA. These pictures hardly do it justice. Maybe the little videos I took will help a bit for the next post? I hope so. We both got our educations, it seems.

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  3. Absolutely adorable! What a great outing!

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    1. Wait till you see the videos I plan to share with my next sheepies post, Robin. You'll feel like you were there with us! :)

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  4. This is heart warming... brought back sweet memories. My Dad had a small ranch with a dozen or so sheep. Sometimes the mother would reject the lamb so he'd bring it home for us to care for. Feeding them with a bottle was fun, but I didn't care for the odor of the formula. Smelled like black licorice.
    Catching up on your posts... haven't had much reading time of late. I'm off to the next!

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    1. I just love watching the sheep, Carolyn. I can never get too much of them, especially at this time of the year. I never held one of the lambs...too busy taking pictures! Thanks for stopping by....

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