Tag Archives: lambs

Happy Birthday, Lambs!

Posted on April 16, 2012 by | Comments Off on Happy Birthday, Lambs!
Can it really be a year ago today we were rewarded by the birth of our two Gulf Coast lambs, Rachael and Moses?


Rachael, the firstborn, gave us a hint at her gorgeous fleece, even from her first minutes.  Mary Elizabeth did a wonderful job as a first-time mom.


Three days later, they were out romping in the grass.  Moses, here, even after a bit of a shaky start, finds his way around the pasture with no trouble.


And now look at them.  You can hardly tell them from their mom (in the middle).  I spent some time with them in the pasture this evening, recalling our very rare lamb birth on this evening one year ago.


They've turned out so beautifully.  They are sweet and curious, with amazing fleeces.  Moses has little scurs (pseudo-horns) but they haven't been much of an issue at all.


They must have been a little itchy tonight.  He's scratching on my knee. 










Meanwhile, in the bachelor pasture next door, the boys are looking for the birthday party.  Where's the party food?


Ah, that's more like it.  Crunch.


Tella's standing by to see that the festivities don't get out of hand.  

So, happy birthday little lambs!  Keep growing and growing!  Maybe next year, we'll have another set of lambs... just to keep the fun alive.  Hmmmm?

Comments Off on Happy Birthday, Lambs!

Tagged , , ,

Lamb #10 is a girl!

Posted on April 15, 2012 by | Comments Off on Lamb #10 is a girl!

Born at 4:30 a.m. We haven’t named her yet but she sure is pretty!

 

Comments Off on Lamb #10 is a girl!

Tagged ,

Meet Diane and Cordelia!

Posted on April 14, 2012 by | Comments Off on Meet Diane and Cordelia!

If there’s one thing I can say about the lambs we’ve been having this year, it’s that they all have the most impeccable timing. Right after finishing up evening chores, I noticed that Capri was in labor. Capri, mind you, is the ewe who’s been giving us all the false alarms by pretending to be in labor for the past 3 days. This time, though, there was half a lamb sticking out of her– there was no faking this one.

Around 7:15 pm she delivered Cordelia, a strong, beautiful, 10 and 1/2 lb ewe lamb.

We got her all cleaned up and taken care of, and then went inside to have dinner. Since Capri wasn’t a first-time mama, we had a feeling that she might deliver twins– but, on the other hand, a 10 and 1/2 pound lamb is a pretty big lamb, and I was willing to believe that Cordelia was a single lamb.

Of course, I should have known better. In the middle of dinner, one of our farmstay guest children (can you imagine how lucky it is to be able to see this all, first-hand?) came in and said, “There’s another lamb!”

Capri had had that twin!

Diane is a 9-pound ewe lamb, equally gorgeous and equally vigorous.

They’re both so sturdy that I don’t even begrudge Capri all those times she faked us out– it was all worth it in the end, having these two sturdy ewe lambs.

You can watch ‘em (and baby Perseus) all night on Lambcam3, if your heart desires.

ETA: For those who’ve asked, Darcy’s single ewe lamb is named Dora.

Comments Off on Meet Diane and Cordelia!

Tagged , , , ,

Ewe in labor on Lambcam 2

Posted on April 13, 2012 by | Comments Off on Ewe in labor on Lambcam 2

Capri is in the pen nearest the camera.

 

Comments Off on Ewe in labor on Lambcam 2

Tagged ,

Baby #6 is a GIRL!

Posted on April 11, 2012 by | Comments Off on Baby #6 is a GIRL!

Born to Darcy at 7 p.m. ish. She weighs in 8 1/4 pounds and WOW what a beauty! Name to come soon.

Comments Off on Baby #6 is a GIRL!

Tagged ,

Yet ANOTHER set of twins!

Posted on April 11, 2012 by | Comments Off on Yet ANOTHER set of twins!

Jeykll gifted us with two ram lambs tonight, one ENORMOUS and the other tiny. Lewis is the larger one, weighing in at a whopping 12 pounds (!) while wee little Clark is around 5 1/2. I tried to capture the size differential in this photo.

Both babies are looking great, so I am going to try to snag a couple hours sleep while I can.

 

Comments Off on Yet ANOTHER set of twins!

Tagged ,

Willoughby is a Mama!

Posted on April 10, 2012 by | Comments Off on Willoughby is a Mama!

Willoughby gave birth to a tiny baby girl this afternoon, around 5 pounds. She wasn’t doing well at all when she was born. She was chilled and weak, and floppy.

I was a little concerned we might lose her, so I tube fed her to get a bit of warm milk and colostrum into her belly for energy and warmth. She was still chilled, so Caroline and I quickly constructed a warming box–  shipping box + blowdryer = warming box –and try to warm her for the better part of an hour.

Once we’d done everything we could, I came in to write a blog post but the internet wasn’t working properly at the moment, so I decided to check the mail while I waited. Much to my surprise, Willoughby had produced a twin in the meantime, an 8 pound ram lamb!

Both twins are doing well now and we’ve named them Earhart and Lindberg, in the adventurers convention you all voted on.

This is little Earhart. She’s doing better but she still needs your good mojo, so keep her in your thoughts.

We moved the family into the stall with lambcam 3. You can watch their antics there.

Comments Off on Willoughby is a Mama!

Tagged ,

Hello, Alexander!

Posted on April 10, 2012 by | Comments Off on Hello, Alexander!

Because Alexander is a conscientious lamb, he waited until the middle of breakfast to be born. We were talking and laughing over coffee when Zac, who was watching the lambcam, ran in and shouted, “Someone’s in labor!”

We dropped our mugs, grabbed cameras and the lambing kit, and ran.

Bingley, one of our first-time mamas, was making a heck of a fuss, and her water had broken.

As you can see, she was one of our green-nosed girls, so our system didn’t quite work. However, since Bingley is a first-time mom, she didn’t quite exhibit the udder development that’s characteristic of impending labor.

I’m so happy that our shepherding-camp attendees got to watch the whole delivery!

Here are his front hooves and little nose (it’s super-wrinkly, just like his dad’s!).

Bingley had been laboring for quite a while, and hadn’t been able to get past her lamb’s forehead.

So Susan reached in, pulled out his front legs, and got him out.

He was a giant single ram lamb– 10 and 1/2 pounds, sturdy, and healthy. We haven’t quite decided yet, but Alexander (the Great) might get to be our ram in the future. We’ll keep you posted.

Bingley turned right around and licked him all over.

We were a little nervous that she might not understand what had happened– that she’d reject him. First-time moms sometimes don’t understand what’s happening to them, and don’t understand what their lamb is (“This thing wants to nurse from me?” or, “But I’m a lamb!” Etc.).

We’re lucky, because, when it came to Bingley and Alexander, we had nothing to worry about.

I could just watch this all day long.

We’re absolutely smitten with him already.

Here’s hoping we have a few more lambs this afternoon– stay tuned!

Comments Off on Hello, Alexander!

Tagged , ,

Sheep of the Week: Wren

Posted on April 9, 2012 by | Comments Off on Sheep of the Week: Wren

As we all sit and wait for the lambing season to really get underway, my mind’s been turning to this time last year– the very first lambs and kids to be born, and the sleepless wait for the inevitable (the fact that it’s inevitable somehow makes it worse: you just want to tell the ewes, Come ON already! Let’s get it over with! I wanna see lambs when I come check back on you in an hour!)

Piper was our first lamb born last season, but Wren was her close-behind younger sister.

She checked out all their little siblings as they were born last April (this is one of my favorite pictures of all time, and, to me, summarizes what uneasy big-sister-hood is all about):

The most distinctive thing about Wren is her voice– her baa is sort of flat, muted, and whiny. Once you’ve heard it, there’s no way you can her hear baa and not recognize her. I can’t distinguish the voices of the other sheep– they’re too similar, for the most part– but one of the most impressive bits of shepherding show-off I engage in is, Oh, her? Baa-ing way in that other pasture? That’s Wren.

Since Wren was supplementally bottle-fed (her mama had had udder problems in previous seasons), I got to know her voice intimately.

This past year, she’s grown into a fine, lovely yearling ewe:

She’s sweet, even-tempered, and neither too skittish nor overly familiar. She’s our friend Amy’s special favorite, and I really don’t think she could have picked a better sheep to dote on!

Now, of course, Blanca & Fresca and Camembert have Wren and Piper’s old job of older-siblings-in-charge. As soon as we can get this show on the road (any ewes out there listening?), they’ll be running circles around their new friends.

NEXT WEEK on SotW: I’m going to introduce you to my favorite goat!

NEXT NEXT WEEK on SotW: Check in on one of last year’s angora kids!

Comments Off on Sheep of the Week: Wren

Tagged , ,

Watching and Waiting

Posted on March 31, 2012 by | Comments Off on Watching and Waiting

We are now officially in the lambing and kidding window, which means that there are at least three frustrated people at the farm at all times. This happens every year, so I expected it’s arrival and I know that it will end, but it’s still my least favorite part of lambing.

We only bred 13 (I think) sheep this year, and I think there is a strong possibility that one of the colored yearlings didn’t get caught, as they say. We know that she was bred by Aldo, the ram we rented, but she may not have actually gotten pregnant. I hope I’m wrong, but she doesn’t look bred to me and she has none of the udder development we expect to see in a sheep this far along. So we are waiting for 12 sheep to lamb, and maybe one will surprise me.

Of course we also bred two of our dairy goats, Sam and Bertie, and they both look like they could go at any time. And the geese are sitting on 9 or 10 eggs that should be getting close to hatching.

So we wait. And while we wait, we find other things to do that have needed doing for a while. Fixing fences. Cleaning out stalls. Clearing away the cobwebs of winter.(I mean that one both literally and figuratively- you would BELIVE the cobwebs in out run in shed! Like something from a horror movie.)

Today we have dedicated to the kitchen gardens. Zac is outside tilling as I write this and Caroline is tending her precious seedlings, preparing them for the journey from the greenhouse to the garden beds. We have some lovely guests right now and my sister and Aunt Ann will be arriving in a couple of hours for a few days at the farm, and we plan to put them all to work.

So it’s not that we have nothing to do while we wait for lambs. Far from it. But the waiting itself gets exhausting very quickly.

The bright spot in all of this, of course, is that we have little Camembert to entertain us while we wait. He’s a bit of a cheat, since we bought him, but he is a delicious cheat.

My friends Jen and Tessa were here earlier in the week and Jen took loads of cute pics of the peanut. Here are a couple of my favorites.

We are also eagerly awaiting our T-1 line’s arrival. All of the equipment has been installed and now they just need to turn on the tap, as it were. We were promised it would be operational by April 1st, but I don’t think that’s likely at this point. I will let you know when it’s in, so that you can turn on the lambcams and wait with us.

Comments Off on Watching and Waiting

Tagged , , , ,