Thanks For Waiting For Daylight

A new set of Bluefaced Leicester ewe lambs born at noon today in the sunshine! Thank you momma! She'll get extra grain for that daylight delivery.

Non Stop For 24 Hours

Yesterday was sheraing day for the Shetlands... 24 of the fiestiest little sheep ever. Not the "eat out of your hand" pet flock. My wonderful shearer,Nathan, sings the alleluia chorus when the job is done and yesterday was no exception. Cold and damp, sticky fleeces that clogged the shearing teeth but Nathan his usual exceptional job and I have a pile of beautiful fleeces that I can't wait to sort through. On the plus side, no one lambed mid shearing like last year but we did notice that many of the Shetland ewes are not bred. That's fine with me since last year we had too many of the little imps cavorting around stopping traffic on the road with their antics. A few less would be a good thing. For those of you that wonder why shear now, the Shetlands were happy to be rid if the year's growth and when the snow started last night I found many of the flock lying out catching flakes.
Exhausted and hungry, I got into the house long enough to warm and eat when the monitor to the barn announced that BFL lambs had arrived. Back out to the barn with snowflakes swirling, I found twins out of my BFL/Shetland ewe Jamie wandering around. The boy was all BFL while the little black ewe was all Shetland wandering all over the barn in true shetland fashion, full of milk. All I had to do was gather them up ,dip navels and put them in a pen with hay for momma.I laughed as I left hearing the little ewe smack her lips sucking more milk. Back in the house for two hours when the barn monitor announced more lambs. Now the snow was to my ankles. This time I found 2 of the most beautiful BFL babies ever!Perfect pigmentation, lively and healthy. They were set up in the pen next to Jamie, whose little ewe was still smacking her lips. Such a good sound to a shepherd. Maybe I can sleep now?????
NOT..... back to the barn for Wensleydale/BFL twins boys. Now my 3 pens were full with little lip smackers and cooing moms. BUT we weren't finished. A first time BFL momma was pushing in a corner. I just had time to divide one of the already occupied pens and set up for a new family. 8 lambs in 7 hours after a day of shearing was more than I expected but I'm so glad the have healthy babies on the ground with little more than a few walks to the barn for me and a few hours of sleep lost. 20 lambs total now..... finally. Here's a bad picture of my beautiful ram lamb.

Seven Lambs and Holding

Warm days... perfect for lambs and no one has lambed! Lambing here is usually slow but this year is outrageous. Everytime I check the barn, the lounging ewes just look at me and continue chewing their cud like I'm disturbing them. The seven beautiful lambs are growing quickly and jumping around the barnyard. I laugh when the close to birth moms hear those lambs BAAA, they act like their lambs have arrived and they must begin mothering. "If only having a baby was that easy Mama," I tell them. Hopefully this weekend will have some new lambs on the ground and new pictures for my blog. They are just waiting for the cold weather to return so they can torture me in the cold.

Lambing is progressing slowly as it usually does. This week we added 3 new lambs to the flock. A big single and black twins that really surprised me! Both ewes lambed during the day, quickly and took right to mothering. I am so grateful for their consideration since nighttime temps here have been bone chilling cold.

We have been promised warmer weather so hopefully the mound of icy snow in front of the barn door will melt and I won't have to carry bags of grain from the truck into the barn through the people door. UGH! The barnyard is so slick that with a few passes of a Zamboni I could open it up us an ice rink.

First BFL Baby

It's a girl....and a big one too. First baby BFL of the season. 24 hours old in this picture.

Triplets

Madeline (yes, all my sheep have names) my oldest ewe began our 2011 lambing season with her first set of triplets out of a BFL ram. It's so great to go out and find a ewe with lambs all cleaned off, nursing and content in spite of a temperature of 3 degrees. I love not being needed.

Herc

Another foot of snow . No lambs but I trudged to the barn to find my llama dead in the large feeding area. Herc was old and getting frail and thin so the bitter cold winter we have had was bound to take him. Of course the ewes stood right on top of him while I fed and tried to figure out a way to remove his body. Getting an old plastic sled and Tim, we rolled Herc onto the sled and slid him into the barnyard to the awaiting tractor. It seemed like a less than dignified end for a guy that took his guard job seriously and never asked for special attention.

Everyone that drove past the farm looked for him and visitors always wanted to walk Herc on a lead until he got close and his imposing size changed their minds. He walked elegantly for those brave enough to try and spitting was something he seldom did. I loved the way he checked each newborn lamb in at birth until he determined it was part of his flock and could stay. If I forgot to close the storage hole in the barn wall Herc would get his nose in there and pull everything out.. .records, pens, medications etc. I never figured out wether he was bored or just trying to be funny. And he was great at finding "not quite" hooked gates, opening them and taking the whole flock for walks on Potosi Road. Roundup time was done easily with a bucket of grain but I swear I caught Herc smiling.

Last night as I left the hole in the wall open , a tear dripped down my face and quickly froze. Herc's spirit will be in the barn with me as the lambs come, but I'll miss him looking over my shoulder wanting to be first to smell the newborn.