Farm Stories and Spring Babies

Springtime on the farm is one of my favorite times of the year. Soon babies will be popping up in pastures and barnyards all over the countryside. On our small family farm we had a wide assortment of babies every spring... lambs, chicks, foals, calves, kittens and kids. Each new arrival was a great source of excitement and frenzied activity. My young children were eager to observe and it brought about all sorts of interesting life lessons. Being able to see the miracle of birth thru the eyes of my young children was truly the biggest blessing of living on a farm.

My kids are now older and our life has changed as we moved from a working farm to a hobby farm and I went from a farmer's wife to an artist. We still talk about our farm days though. In fact just the other day we talked about caring for some of the babies on the farm and my daughter asked me.... "Mom, all those babies on the farm didn't NEED to come into the house, did they?" We had a laundry room that often housed newborn lambs and other 'bottle babies' for the first few hours or days of life. My daughter surmised that the babies might of done okay fending for themselves. Well, yes, I agreed. We did not take babies away from the mommas unless there was a reason but I think she was right... we didn't have to bring in as many as we did. The added warmth and feeding certainly helped give them a better start but part of the fun of having the farm is getting to take extra special care of the little ones who need it! Plus, I have some adorable pics of my kids bottle feeding some pretty cute lambs and kid goats!

to see farm animal, equine art and pet portraits by Sue go to http://www.suesteiner.com