A Colourful Addition
About five months ago I heard that someone was looking for a home for a black lamb. As I would eventually like to own a collection of coloured sheep and I don't believe a lamb should be eaten just because it is coloured, I offered my little farm as his new home. Also, Coco had died only a week or so before this. Back in October, I had noticed that two sheep were missing about a week before but didn't find them until I had moved the sheep to the next paddock. I hate not being able to walk amongst them now that I have 'Arnie the Charging Ram'.
Anyway, with one thing and another I had not been able to collect this black lamb, now a sheep, called 'Blackie' until 13 March. With any new additions to the flock, they have to be introduced by degrees, so as to escape the wrath of both Arnie and Bobbie, and even the other sheep. (I remember Coco had a hard time for weeks.) I put Blackie into the small paddock around the yards and encouraged some sheep down to join him. This proved difficult and I only managed to entice two sheep into the yard paddock. This would have to do, as I didn't want either Arnie or Bobbie to come in too. So Blackie spent the next three days with two ewes. I was surprised, though, because Spotty Nose gave him a bit of a hard time and I didn't think she would, especially as I had thought she would be a good introductory companion being the oldest ewe and my lead sheep.
On the Sunday we managed to separate Arnie into the laneway and Bobbie in the cattle yards and brought all the sheep into the yard paddock. I left the sheep to sort themselves out with both Arnie and Bobbie watching on the sidelines. Very late in the afternoon I reintroduced Arnie and Bobbie and everyone was one big happy family. Arnie nudged him a bit but Bobbie didn't bother him at all. So, all in all I think it all went fairly smoothly and I now have another black merino sheep for spinning wool. He is a fine black sheep with only a little bit of white on his face. Steve helped him into the trailer and said his fleece was very soft, so I am looking forward to the first shearing.

Early Lambs and Early Crutching
There was a new lamb on 24 January (not sure who the mum is) and Original Mum had a lamb on 12 February. I think there was also another lamb but it was lost. Because of Arnie, I can't get close enough to the new lambs and mums to figure out who is who. Arnie is certainly doing his job. I just hope he doesn't wear out the ewes giving them lambs seven months after they lambed last time.
On 4 March when moving the sheep I noticed that one had flystrike near the front leg (Rosie, I think). Also, Original Mum was very weak and I suspected she had worms (or maybe just old and worn out feeding her lamb). So, we had the sheep crutched the following Friday. We marked the boy lamb and ringed both lamb's tails. I haven't purchased this year's coloured tags, so I will tag them at shearing. Also when shearing I will ask the shearer's advice on which lambs from last year can be classed as merino. Some of them are 7/8 merino by birth but their wool may be good enough to be classed as merino. I will then identify them with a blue tag for ease of sorting fleeces at shearing in future, and also to help decide which ones to sell or eat.
I didn't remember to take photos at crutching time. Steve took a good close up of Arnie, so I have included that.

Socks Finally Finished
On 9 January I finally finished the socks that I started last year. I spun 100g of merino and silk and then started knitting. I soon realised that I didn't have enough wool to finish the socks, so I had to match the colour as closely as I could and spin some more. There are lots of variations in colour throughout the socks, so the colour change to the newly spun slightly different colour is not as noticeable. I actually finished them late last year but had to finish off the loose threads. I entered them in the show and managed a second in the handspun garment section. Now the winter can bring on the cold and my ankles will be cosy.

The Fence that Linda Built
Up until now I have been using a netting fence originally used with solar power as an electric fence to funnel the sheep into the yard near the shed, which I call the corral because it is round. The sheep sometimes got caught in the netting and had to be rescued, so I wanted a more permanent and less problematic solution. I made a fence using star pickets and hingejoint with two makeshift gates of hingejoint. It is strong enough for the purpose for which it is intended. I used this laneway to get the sheep into the shed for crutching and it worked just fine. I am pretty proud of my efforts and have included two photos.

Tons and Tons More Needed
On 18 December I (with a lot of help from my son) shovelled 750kg (1 cubic metre) of 20mm aggregate into the hollows of the driveway. Then some time in January or February (I didn't record in diary) I shovelled another 750kg load of 20mm aggregate myself into more hollows. Previously the driveway was like a roller coaster. It is better now, but I can see from the puddles after rain that I will probably need at least one or two more loads. I have included the photos taken after rain to better identify the worse hollows.