We arrived in Ireland right in the middle of lambing season, so within a few weeks we started to see lambs grazing with their mothers in the pastures. They’re adorable!

Although they’ve caught on to the grazing thing, they still nurse from time to time especially when anxious about weird guys with cameras hanging over the fence.

A ewe will typically have one or two lambs in a litter, but occasionally there will be three. Because mom isn’t able to feed more than two, the third sheep becomes a “pet sheep,” bottle-fed by the farmer’s family and kept separate from the rest of the herd…raised to who-knows-what purpose. I didn’t want to ask. Let’s assume it’s wool production.

Like Waldo in the ever-popular children’s books, sheep can be detected in just about every photo I’ve posted of the Irish countryside. Here in County Kerry, sheep outnumber people. You may have noticed the bright-colored spots on the sheeps’ wool. Farmers here use water soluble paint to “brand” their sheep. This poor guy must have been at the front of the purple paint line.