I didn't realize that I wanted to mainly do sheep until this fall.  I wasn't sure how I was going to accomplish this because Babydoll sheep are not very common and very expensive.  I put myself on a couple of waiting lists at different farms hoping to get lambs to grow my herd this spring.  I felt like I would have time to save up some money to buy two maybe three ewes in April or May.  

Christmas came and went and I settled into planning for the new year, when I saw a post from the farm that I bought my ram from.  They were selling their entire herd of Babydoll sheep which consisted of three ewes and two Rams.  The timing couldn't have been more perfect as wer were expecting a settlement check from a car accident we had last year.  

I immediately sent a message to this farm and put a deposit down on the herd.  I was also informed that all three of the ewes were heavily pregnant and we hope to have healthy lambs on the ground in the middle of March.  I am hoping that my ewe is also pregnant even though I haven't seen signs of her being in heat this fall.  I am so excited at the thought of having lambs this spring.

Now that the deposit was put on them, my thoughts turned to where i was going to house and pasture them.  We have been slowly clearing land in order to make pastures for the animals that we already had but I was adding more animals to the mix and I knew I would need to make room without damaging what little pasture we had. 

Needless to say, the check from the settlement didn't come as quickly as had been promised so the clearing and the fencing didn't happen before the sheep needed to be delivered.  Saturday came and so did the sheep.  I was so excited and nervous to be dramatically increasing my herd all at once.

We also inherited a two year old Great Pyrenees female that had been with the sheep and I am hoping that she will be a LGD for them.  So far she only wants to be with us in the house instead of outside doing her job.  Time will tell if she will be the working dog that we were hoping for.  At least she gets along well with all of the other animals.

So now the next step to the farm begins.  We have started raising a small barn to house the goats and the sheep as they go into labor in the next few weeks.  It shouldn't take too long to complete and I am very glad we will have somewhere to house all the new babies that are due in the next month or so.  I have found a shearer to come to the farm next month to shed everyones winter coat in time for the Alabama heat.  I feel like I am getting more organized as I find my direction for the farm.   Time will tell if all this works as well as I hope it will.