Category: sheep

The past week has brought two new additions to the farm. We have had two lambs born just days apart, right in the middle of what is usually the coldest stretch of the season.

Both births went smoothly, and the ewes handled everything with quiet confidence. Each time, we walked out expecting routine chores and came back with that familiar mix of surprise, relief, and gratitude that comes with finding new life on the farm.

It is always striking how steady nature can be. The temperatures may still dip at night, the hills may look bare and quiet, but life continues on its own schedule. The lambs are small, alert, and already keeping close to their mothers as they figure out the world around them.

Moments like this remind us why winter is not just a season of waiting. It is also a season of beginnings. Two small lambs now move through the pasture, quiet evidence that the cycle keeps turning even when the landscape looks still.

When we rolled into Tennessee a few months ago, we brought with us five adult sheep. They were the first grazing animals to set foot on this mountain land, and we hoped they would also be the first to help us begin shaping the woods into silvopasture.

So much of this journey has been faith. We do our best, we learn a little, we adjust, then we trust that the land and the animals will teach us the rest.

Today, that reminder arrived in a brand new and unexpected form.

This morning, our first lamb was born on the mountain. No barn, no stall, no alerts. Just a ewe, her newborn, and the cold air rolling through the ridgeline. It was simple and beautiful, and it felt like the land quietly welcomed us.

We have a long road ahead. Pastures are still just ideas framed in temporary electric netting, and there is much to learn about stewarding this steep terrain. But seeing new life arrive here has made this place feel more like home.

Here is to the ewe, the tiny lamb, and the first birth on Tennessee soil. It feels like our journey here has truly begun.

— The Langley Family