Rain

The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain. 
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It has been raining for days now.

We really appreciate the rain as this may result in a good hay crop, rejuvenation of the land and plants and the rain will help alleviate some of the drought conditons here in the Peace Country.

However, our farm is an old lake bed and consists of heavy clay.

Lots of rain = lots of mud.

Our yard is a mess, we have ruts everywhere and we are slipping and sliding all over the place.

All the rain has forced as to move animals around,
change routines
and find solutions for the mud problem.

Our ewes are lambing, we have a fairly large group of ewes and lambs that have acces to the barn and an outside yard area, where we feed them hay outside.
With all the rain, the yard outside became flooded and the ewes had to go through the mud to get to the hay feeders.
The lambs did have a nice dry staw bed inside to sleep in. However, the ewes became more and more reluctant to go and eat outside, so we were faced with a dilemma:
Either leave the ewes and lambs in, and let the ewes battle the mud but the ke lambs would be dry

or

move everything to the pasture where the ewes would have fresh, lush grass and no mud,
 but the lambs would not have a dry bed to sleep in...

We chose to put them to pasture hoping that the ewes would get a burst of extra milk  from the grass and, that this extra milk would help the lambs cope with the wet conditions.

It looks like we made the right decision as all looked wet but happy today.

As the rain does not want to stop,
and to cheer me up a bit,
I decided to take some pictures of some of the flowers in my garden,

at least I can enjoy them from behind my computer screen,
as sitting outside is not really an option right now...