Devil lambs

Well, my glee over Cybil’s milk was short lived. It looks like I'm going to have to supplement her girls, Alice and Flo. I hadn't fed them bottles since, oh it was Sunday sometime, midday maybe and yesterday afternoon they were about to take my leg off if I didn't give them a bottle. They didn't look emaciated but not full either. They're like baby birds, touch their heads and immediately turn upwards searching for nourishment.

They both sucked down 10 ozs pretty quick (and then waddled away) so more than likely Cyb isn't producing quite enough for them. I have to say, she looks quite smug while they're nursing on her. Its almost as if she's saying, "so there you bi#ch, I can feed them too!". She always looked very resentful when we were bottle feeding them and would actually come over and nudge their butts while they were sucking on the bottle.

Lambing is over!! April 17, 2010 (Jen)

Today Pewter gave us 2 absolutely beautiful lambs!! We’ve really been hoping for a grey lamb from her but she’s always given us black. We’d always bred her to Roark before so we bred her to Michael this year. Looks like that did the trick! The first was a very striking little grey and black ewe lamb, we couldn’t believe our luck!

Lambing Update – April 14, 2010 (Jen)

Our lambing season is just about over. It started tragically and has had a few bumps in the road but overall, its been a pretty good lamb crop and I’m pleased with what we’ve gotten from our girls!

On Wednesday (03/24/2010), Aliza lambed while I was at work. She had triplets and it was a cold rainy day and I had yet to remove Bella (the new guardian pup) from the lambing shed. I got home to find one already dead, another struggling and one doing ok. I got Aliza in a jug with her healthy ewe lamb, removed the dead ewe lamb and took the struggling ram lamb into the house to warm him and tube him. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it. Not a good start to the lambing season. Thankfully her remaining lamb, Emma, is a ewe and has very nice blue markings. Only thing I can gather that happenend is Aliza was so worried about Bella, who was obviously very stimulated by the lambing fluids and newborn lambs, that she didn't get 2 of the lambs properly cleaned off. The one I tried to save was very chilled and I couldn't seem to warm him no matter what I did. I'll never know exactly what happened but all the lambs appeared healthy and there were no marks on them.

Preparing for lambing March 2010

Finally, there are signs of spring around us, some good some not so good. Since we had RECORD setting snow falls this winter, you can imagine our mud situation. I called my brother yesterday to chat and he was in the middle of pulling a cow out of the mud…for the 3rd time. Thankfully, no stuck sheep. Yet. Poor Ollie is miserable though, he is one prissy Pyranees! He literally tiptoes thru wet ground and its hilarious to watch him prepare to jump over the mini ponds all over the place. You can forget mud, I don’t think he’d walk thru it even for a steak. Bella and Willie obviously don’t like it but they will at least walk thru it if necessary. The house dogs (Fynn, Sophie and Nora) of course don’t mind mud in the least. No, of course they don’t mind it. That would be why I’m hauling dogs to the bathtub every evening after they’ve wallowed in it all afternoon. After Nora helped me feed hay and move sheep on Sunday, I think it took 30 minutes of continuous spraying before the water ran (mostly) clear off of her. Amazing how much mud a BC rough coat can hold. Smooth coated BCs from here on out!!

Peeew!! (Jen)

Ollie got skunked. I knew it would happen eventually, guess I should be thankful its one of the LGDs (livestock guardian dogs) instead of a Border collie (which lives in the house...unless it gets skunked).

After the Storm... (Jen)

Last night we had a really bad storm, solid lightening, straightline winds (65-70 mph) and rain for 2 hrs. Started around 3am. Electricity went off around 3:30. Me and the dogs (Fynn, Sophie and Nora) sat huddled in the living room waiting for the roof to fly off. The lightening was so intense and so constent that you couldn't look the window for more than a few seconds without being blinded. At one point I looked out the kitchen window (to see if the wicked witch of the west was flying by) and the young sweet gum was practically horizontal. I knew it was bad.

One perfect day at Dreamcatcher Farm (Bridget)

It was the perfect day to walk around the back 30 acres where the three horses pasture. We wanted to see how the grass was coming along as it had pretty much been eaten down last year when we pastured several horses for some friends.The day was glorious-perhaps the last real spring day of the year. We followed the horse paths as the grass had indeed recovered. And unfortunately the poison ivy had also made a good comeback! The wild rose bushes were in full bloom punctuating the pasture with their draping pink and white flowers. The cherry trees were past bloom but the wild asters were arriving as the purple clover. The catalpa trees are leafing out nicely as were the redbuds which have shed their purple flowers. As we looked over at the pasture where the lambs were grazing the slight breeze made the grass heads roll in waves as the lambs grazed leisurely.