And this is why my neighbors wonder about me....

No new lambs yet today, but the night is still young.

One of the new moms has been slow to produce a full udder, she is making milk, just not enough for both lambs. I have been watching her lambs carefully right from the start and could see that they weren't getting what they needed from her. I gave them a colostrum supplement the first day, and switched to milk replacer after that. 

I try to keep every possible emergency supply on hand for lambing....because that's how I roll.

I keep a stash of Pritchard  nipples in my lambing supplies, just in case, then all that I need is a 2 liter soda bottle to screw them onto- they work great- if you have a 2 liter bottle.

I had the Pritchard, I had the milk replacer, but I was lacking one important component. 

When I looked for a soda bottle to attach the nipple to, I had none. We typically don't drink soda, so there were no 2 liter bottles to be found -anywhere. I searched through our recycling bin trying to find something of a comparable size that I could sterilize and save myself a trip into town to buy a bottle.

I finally found something!!

Okay, so I look a little foolish walking back and forth to the barn in the middle of the night holding a plastic Vodka bottle with a nipple on it.....especially since I don't even drink....no, really. I don't. I make vanilla extract, and cheap vodka works the best for that. REALLY. True story.

So my neighbors have yet another reason to raise an eyebrow as they drive past my house. As if there weren't enough reasons already.  Sigh...

Lambapalooza 2012

Quick update here before anyone else explodes.

Ashumet had a single black ram lamb this morning at 12:30am. Based on the size and shape of her enormous belly, I felt certain she was going to have twins, but clearly my ewes were just a bit over-conditioned this year. And by "over-conditioned", I mean they have a little extra junk in the trunk this year. A lot. Okay, it's every year. Whatever.

Ash's ram lamb

Holly had a spectacular set of twins yesterday afternoon. 

As you may know, in addition to Saturday, Tuesday is my other Farmers' Market day and I typically leave the house by 2 O'clock. Holly started labor at noon, so I told her, "Listen, Sister, you need to pop these babies out by 2:30, so I can go to work...so I can buy you more food.....which you clearly don't need."

So, at precisely 2:30 both lambs were out and nursing. Thanks, Holly!

This is her ram lamb. The fleece looks promising on both of these babies, which I expected from Holly.

Though it's not perfect, her two-year-old micron was pretty decent:

Mic 26.0  /  SD 4.4/  CV 16.8/  CEM 7.6/  CF 85.4/  SF 24.5/  CRV 64.1 

Below is her lovely little fawn katmoget ewe lamb. Biggify to check out the fleece on this little girl....who is more than likely staying right here, BTW.

Interestingly, the four ewes that have yet to lamb have been continually lying around together outside....maybe they are seeking solitude from the indoor maternity ward..

Fingers crossed that I get some sleep tonight!

Semi-coherent Lamb update

Okay, so you need to catch up! Which, admittedly, would be infinitely easier if I would post in a more timely fashion. My bad.

So far 4 ewes have lambed, with a total of 6 lambs, 3 rams, 3 ewes, 6 more ewes left to give birth...I think, I can't do math right now because I am very, very tired.

Let's see, where did we leave off? Oh, yes, three have been born since last we conversed.

Bella, a first time mom, had a single ram lamb Saturday morning. Thank-you Bella for having him before I left for market in the morning, thus avoiding a panicked phone call from my husband saying, "I don't know nuthin' about birthin' no babies!"

He is a really nice little ram. So far, his fleece is crimpier at the shoulder and falls off toward the back, BUT, the fleece on his 'purse' ( if you don't know what that is, use your imagination...he carries his stuff in it) is very crimpy, so I am expecting that he will have lovely fleece by weaning time. Truly, I am not making that up, it is a good indicator of what adult fleece will look like.

Gah! I hate taking pictures in the barn, photos are so much better in natural lighting.

Bella's Rammy Lambie.

This morning, at 2:30 am, Luna had a matched pair of  ewe lambs. They are not as flashy as her ewe lamb Athena, that was produced from this same breeding last year, but they are both really nice girls.

The older 3 lambs went outside for the first time today. The weather had been too wicked up until now for them to go out, but the skies cleared this afternoon and although it was still very windy, the temperature was warmer, and the sun was shining. The lambs had a great time mingling with the rest of the flock.....well, that is, after the ewes stopped trying to kill each other. Very unladylike behavior for new mothers!

Here are Menemsha's lambs.

Ram on the left, ewe on the right. Both are looking really good right now. The ram definitely has a nicer birth-coat at this point, but time will tell...his purse is crimpy too-thanks for asking!

 I am really liking the looks of this little guy. He will be mioget color like his dam.

Laurel's boy really enjoyed exploring the outside world too. I added this picture for my friend Cassie who finds it hilarious that some part of Ande the llama shows up in every photo...unless I crop him out.

Run, Forrest, Run! No, his name isn't Forrest, it just seemed appropriate. C'mon, we go through this every year, you know that I take forever to think of names!

Run, Little Ram, run! Yeah, I need to think of names soon.

....and done.

Ande is super-excited about all the new lambs.

Now you are somewhat caught up...I'll see what happens tonight.

Baa Baa brown sheep

And today for your cuteness fix, we have Menemsha's lambs.

Menemsha had a ewe lamb, and a ram lamb this morning at 8 o'clock. Thank-you Menemsha for not going into labor in the middle of the night...although it wouldn't have mattered, because this crazy shepherd still got up at several god-forsaken hours of the night to poke around the barn anyway. 

The ewe lamb was first-born and is quite a bit larger than her twin, but both are healthy and thriving. Both lambs are mioget in color. 

This is the ewe lamb.

 Her birth-coat is nice, but not super- impressive right now. I have learned to be patient over the years though, because lambs change so much in their first year, and it is impossible to determine at this age how they will turn out in the long run.

This is the ram lamb. His birth-coat looks fantastic at this point.....time will tell.

It's really hard to get good photos of these little guys when they are still in the lambing jugs. They rarely stay still, and when they do it is usually because they are nursing.....in which case I get a lot of rear-end photos.

Laurel's boy. All dried off now and full of himself! He knows he's pretty.

I have a couple of ewes that I was SURE would lamb today. While I was tending to Menemsha this morning, there were two other girls grinding their teeth and pawing half-heartedly at the bedding as if they were starting early labor.

These are the two suspects. I am not sure WHY I think they should lamb soon.......

Holly's glamour shots

..Cause full-figured girls are pretty too!

 Holly was bred to Avyt, so I know she will have brown-based lambs, probably katmoget pattern, like herself. She carries spots, so paired with spotted Avyt there is a slight possibility that I may get something spotted...being that she looks like there are 14 lambs in there, I guess that would up the odds considerably.

Ewe #2.

Halley's glamour shots.....

 .....Sorry, Halley, no amount of rubbing on the gate is going to make that belly disappear!

Halley is bred to WhitePine Nessie's Monster Mash...yeah, we just call him M&M.

He is katmoget pattern, she is gulmoget, both possibly carry spots, she is brown-based, he is black based, so there are lots of wackadoodle combinations that could happen here....should be interesting!

Of course, since I pointed out these two girls, it will most certainly be someone all together different that lambs next...what do I know?

Forgive me if future posts are less coherent than my normal nonsensical babble.....I'm already over-tired and lambing has barely begun.

Stay tuned....

LAMB!

Lambing has finally started here at Crosswinds Farm!

Notice the post title was "Lamb" and not "Lambs"...cause there's just one.

I don't normally like to post newborn's pictures while they are still wet and shaky, but I am not sure how much free time I will have in the coming days. This little ram lamb was born to Crosswinds Mountain Laurel x Firth of Fifth Avyt ( repeat of last year's pairing) at 5 pm, and it looks like I have one or two other ewes that may decide to lamb within the next day or so......as per usual, I haven't come up with my theme for names yet...cause apparently 5 months is not a long enough period of time to decide such things.

Little rammy's birth-coat is super-crimpy from his head to his bum....we'll see what happens as he matures.

SQUEEEEEEE! 

I am charging my camera battery as we speak...errr....blog....whatever.