Shetland Lambs

The Shetland lambs do their crazy morning run while the Blues look on. do you think they laugh like I do?

Happy Easter

Beautiful sunny day. Looking out the open kitchen window I can see flowering trees and my lambs. Hearing the lambs call to their mothers makes me smile as I get dinner ready. My favorite season for sure.

Almost Done

I was so worried when I realized Lilly Loo, just a yearling was bred. Well, my worry was for naught. This is what I found last night. Momma and baby girl are doing fine. Only one more Shetland to lamb and lambing season will be over. PHEW.

The Day Keeps Getting Better!

The day began with more rain. Out to the barn by 6:45 to sort lambs for my ethnic lamb customers. They never arrived after I spent an hour getting ready for them. GRRR. That pushed my too far button for sure. The customers called at 8:15 to arrange another time but once my too far button is pushed I'm unforgiving. To paraphrase the soup nazi..." no lambs for you."

At 10 the 4H group to whom I had donated a BFL/Shetland fleece for the PA Sheep to Shawl competition arrived to give me a beautiful shawl that they had made from the last locks of the fleece. It is spectacular and I am overwhelmed with their thoughtful gift. Can't wait to wear it. The attached photo does not show the true beauty of the weave and the colors.

Christine and I drove to the mill to get my yarn and roving for MD Sheep and Wool. I'll be in a frenzy dying skeins for the next two weeks but the yarn is beautiful and the roving is awesome. Christine treated me to lunch for my birthday. This day just keeps getting better as the sun comes out and the pastures look lush and green.

It's Great to Be a Shepherd..Rain and All

It's raining, cold and miserable. 2 Shetlands lambed simultaneously in the exact same spot in the barn. Of course,it's impossible to sort out who belongs to whom. All lambs are nursing from both moms and both moms are licking all lambs. I put them all in a pen to let them sort things out. I know from experience that human logic never allows you to match the correct lambs and ewes so I don't try anymore. Shetland babies always make me watch in wonderment at how quickly they get up after birth and head right to the bag for milk. No bumping around in the wrong plces... straight to the teat. Pictured are one of the moms with what I think is one of hers and one from the other set.

Shetlands settled I went to the BFL barn to find Clueless baby missing. Mom was bawling but there was no sign of her ewe lamb. In the pouring rain, I searched the fields finding her under the rolling water tank in the very upper pasture. She does have enough sense to come in out of the rain but not enough to follow mom back to the barn. Again I carried her to a reunion with her mom and brother. How long is this going to take? She is so cute but still clueless. Molly and I have named her Mitzi....aka Ditzi Mitzi.

Back to the Shetlands. The sorting out isn't going so well. We still have any lamb nursing on any teat available. Still don't know who the correct momma is. Maybe by tomorrow?

Clueless in Potosi

I checked my BFL ewe Cassie at 5PM and she was just lying there! By 8 PM, she and her 2 babies were walking around with the rest of the flock. It always strikes me funny when you look down at the lambs and there's one you haven't seen before with a wet navel cord hanging down and slightly wet. I popped Cassie and company in a lambing pen, checked for milk, dipped navels and went in saying to Bill, "Cassie had those babies early so I can sleep all night". When I checked the little family at 11 it was apparent that the lambs had not nursed. They were crying and wandering around clueless about nursing. Oh no... the curse of the stupid baby! I have not had one of those in 15 years. There goes sleep.

These babies had no idea where milk came from or what to suck on. The little ewe had her little jaw so tightly clamped shut that I couldn't even get my finger in to squirt some of mom's milk. I don't usually work with lambs to get them to nurse figuring if mom has milk that will come naturally but these 2 were in need of nursing 101 badly. I got lamb A attached and he sucked but couldn't find the teat again on his own. He was full so I tried working with the ewe. She wouldn't open her mouth. I milked mom and gave the ewe 3 ounces. She knew how to suck so I went to bed figuring they were full and by morning they'd both be nursing. Nope, by morning they were crying and empty. Nursing 102 went better with the wee man. He got the idea and reattached on his own. YES! But little girl was still clueless, wandering aimlessly under mom. I filled her up again with mom's milk and went in for coffee. Now 12 hours old, little girl has finally figured out that there is a wonderful creamy reward for sucking on a teat. And she can find it on her own now. But in the meantime crawling around trying to get them to nurse has cost me my favorite pen knife and I will be out there with a magnet looking for it this afternoon.

Who Needs the Gym When You Have Sheep?

I am so tired of waiting for Shetlands to lamb. I've worn a path to their barn with only 4 lambs to show for all my walks.This morning I walked out to find a ewe presenting 2 heads and 2 legs! Never had this one before. It was Selah, one of my less friendly sheep too. Of couse after catching Selah, I discovered that 1 leg went with each lamb! Double great! It was one big log jam. I could just hear the lambs bickering about who would go first while pushing the other out of the way. Both lambs were breathing and looking at me so pushing one back in was not an option. I tipped Selah up and poured in a bottle of OB lube and tried pulling one lamb.... nothing. Panic was close. Trying the other leg and head got the results I wanted. Out pulled one lamb. The second shot out right behind landing about 3 feet across the pen. As I tried to get Selah on her feet she took off like a shot right through the gate I had left open (@#$&*@) accross the yard and down the road in traffic! She ran and I ran faster, trying to get ahead of her to open a pasture gate to at least get her off the road. Success! Selah munched grass with no intentions of going back to her lambs. I put the lambs in the sun and took Lillian to school hoping Selah would reconsider and go back to motherhood. Wrong. The lambs were alone and crying when I got home. Selah was 2 pastures away with the flock, so I hearded the whole flock back to the barn. When Selah heard the lambs something clicked. It wasn't immediate recognition but for some reason she began to answer the lambs. First quiet bleats then loud baahs. Suddenly she bolted back into the barn and began licking her lambs as though the last 90 minutes had just been a small temporary insanity that a few blades of grass remedied. Both lambs are nursing and Selah is a wonderful first time mother and I need a cup of coffee and a nap!