{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.

Winding Down

Lambing is winding down, with Dolly hanging in there and Charity who was marked very late still to go. The pasture is filled with the wonderful sounds of lambs calling and mamas answering.  The grass finally got tall enough last week that we were able to open the bottom of the barn paddock up to the ewes and lambs.  We're hoping to keep them in this area at least until we can get through the first round of shots.
If you have a craving for more lamb pictures, take a peek over here.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.

 

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.

Birthing

Lambing is moving along at a nice pace.  The barn and pasture are busy and full of new life.  It's always so interesting to observe the different way each ewe experiences labor and birth. There is Jill who attacks the whole process with much the same energy that she attacks daily life.  She will have given birth within a couple hours of showing any outward signs of labor. Then there is Julie who has a much more zen-like approach to birth, slowly stretching and pushing a little off and on for eight to ten hours.  Every birth different... each new life, a new little personality.
Please check out our Lambs of 2014 album on Flickr for more lamb photos.

Lambing Time

Lambing has begun in earnest, with the first little group let out into the pasture yesterday afternoon. Temporary fence building to divide the pasture, moving troughs, setting up mineral stations, mucking out the lambing jugs, rebuilding jugs to get ready for this bigger group of mamas who are ready to pop... it was a full day.  In the midst of everything two sets of twins were born.  It's busy but we're happy things are underway. It's worth every exhausting minute to have the opportunity to see moments like this... when Little Miss 1402 discovers the big, beautiful world.
More lamb photos here.

Signs of Spring

Coltsfoot, daffodils, maple tree blooms, bulging bellies and finally...
Little Mister 1401 - born on Saturday, out of Maire (my+ra), one of the yearlings, and an unidentified suitor.  He is small, weighing 7 lbs 8 ozs but really just the right size as Maire is a yearling and not yet producing much milk.  We were a little worried, but he is gaining weight so we'll let him continue to 'encourage' her to produce more.
The remainder of the lamb arrivals will be pretty spread out as it took as several weeks to get all the breeding groups in place last fall.  The timing should be pretty good as the pastures are just beginning to green-up after the long, harsh winter.

Lambing Season Summary

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

We hope that you will enjoy this slide show of lambing season.  The last ewe had twins about a week ago... at 3 a.m. ... at the bottom of the hill... of course.  Here is a little summary of the season that will be known as either The Year of the Big Lamb or The Year of the Ram (we haven't quite decided which).

Lambing Ratio  1.5172
Average Weight Per Lamb  11 lbs  8 ozs
14 singles, 14 sets of twins, 1 set of triplets
16 ewe lambs, 28 ram lambs
29 white lambs, 15 black lambs

We only had two lambs that weighed under 8 lbs.  We had four lambs that weighed over 15 lbs.  The smallest lamb weighed 6 lbs 14 ozs and the largest 16 lbs 13 ozs.  We were a little disappointed in our lambing ratio this year, but hopefully we'll have a summer filled with big, healthy lambs growing beautiful, curly wool.

A Big Day

Yesterday was a big day, in more ways than one!  Hera who had been looking very miserable for several days, delivered triplets.  She had to have a little assistance, as the black one was trying to back its way into the birth canal and was a little sideways.  Once the shepherdess got him moving, his brothers popped right out.  Yes, they are all rams.  Having been sired by Strider, they were promptly named Merry, Pippen and Samwise.  Oh, wait... just realized that you cannot see them in the photo below because they are wearing their little hobbit cloaks of invisibility...

Here's a photo from earlier in the day.  Merry weighed in at 7 lbs 15 ozs, Pippen weighed 8 lbs and Samwise weighed 8 lbs 10  ozs.  Quite a load for one little mama to bear, but she is doing well.

To top the day off, Petunia gave birth to a big ewe lamb.  When we say big, we mean BIG... she weighed 16 lbs 13 ozs.

We've fallen behind on the lamb posts, but are attempting to catch up over on Flickr Lambs of 2013.  We're beginning to see the light at the end of the lambing season tunnel.

Catching a Glimpse

In between all the feeding, watering, fence moving, mucking out, and everyday farm chores, we are feeling so blessed to catch these glimpses of first breath, first steps, the first signs of independence.

The farm air is filled with sweet little lamb baas and mamas' answering nickers.

Today's a big day as we move the yearlings and attempt to bring the mamas and lambs back into the barn for shots and a health check.  All the while keeping an eye on the ewes that have yet to lamb.  Wish us luck... this first time getting everyone back to the barn can turn into a real comedy!

{this moment}

A Friday ritual.
A single photo - no words - capturing a single moment from the week
A simple, special extraordinary moment.
A moment to pause, savor and remember.
Participating with the SouleMama blog.



Moving Along

Finally a little activity on the lambing front yesterday.  Rosey was kind enough to have big, wonderful twin rams right in the most lovely patch of sunlight.  Her first born weighed 12 lbs 8 ozs, and the second weighed 14 lbs 7 ozs. 

The second born, Little Mister 1313 was very vocal from the moment he hit the ground.

Grace, a soon to be first-time mama came racing into the barn to see what all the fuss was about.

Later in the day, Faith, Grace's twin sister, gave birth to a black ram with beautiful wool.  He seemed small but weighed 11 lbs 1 ozs.  We've posted a short video, 'Faith's First Lamb' that shows Faith shortly after giving birth.  It shows a little bit of the confusion that a first-time mama goes through before getting used to their new role.  We're so proud of Faith, she is doing a great job. 

And as a grand finale to the day, we had to give a little assistance to Princess as she gave birth to a whopper of a ewe lamb, weighing 15 lbs 12 ozs.  It's hard to tell from this photo, but she is huge.  We'll try to share a better photo later.  This little one had a rough entry into the world, but seems to be doing great.

More tomorrow... have a great evening!

Weekly Top Shot

Little Mister 1303 and Little Miss 1304 are enjoying their time in the nursery paddock.  Although weighing almost 4 lbs less at birth than all the other lambs, the little miss is having no trouble keeping up.  They are all enjoying the last couple days of sunshine.

Weekly Top Shot

Full Moon

Despite the full moon, there were no lambs born yesterday.  The ewes spent most of the day in the pasture in a seemingly meditative state soaking up the sun, and of course eating... there's a lot of eating going on. 

We moved three groups of lambs and their mamas out to the nursery paddock, where they enjoyed getting to know their older cousins, running, jumping and exploring.

All this lack of cooperation inactivity on the ewe's part, gave us the opportunity to clean out the barn, move some things around and set up additonal lambing jugs.  So in answer to Boo's Mom's question yesterday, here's a little more about jugs. A lambing jug is a small pen where the ewe and lambs are moved shortly after birth.  Unless there is a problem or really bad weather, we usually wait until after the lambs are up and have eaten.  This short confinement (usually two or three days) promotes bonding and gives us the opportunity to watch for any problems the ewe or lamb may experience in those first few days.  After using old wooden pallets and assorted other recycled items, we have slowly invested in this system of welded wire panels and connector hinges.  They are very sturdy and easy to climb in and out of.  They allow us to use our barn space more efficiently as they can be quickly put up, taken down, moved or reconfigured..

Hebe, Patience and their twins are the only occupants at the moment.  They're getting lonely... come on girls, let's get moving.

Keeping Watch

It was another quiet day on the lambing front.  Hebe had a wonderful set of twins, a ram weighing 9 lbs 14 ozs and a ewe weighing 10 lbs.  The old pro that she is, Hebe had the little ewe standing up while her first born was beginning to nurse.  She is a great mama.

A large storm front moved through late afternoon with fierce winds, thunder, lightning and a lot of rain.  By that time Hebe and the twins were settled quite nicely in the barn, snug in their lambing jug.

Just as we waited on the storm yesterday, we feel we're waiting on another... a lamb storm.  As we keep watch over the bulging bellies and swelling udders, the number of ewes that could go anytime keeps mounting.  Here's hoping all those lambs don't decide to come at once.

Meanwhile Back in the Barn

Spring has definitely sprung in our little corner of the world.  The redbuds are beautiful lining the river road.  The coltsfoot that provided that very first pop of roadside color have given way to the soothing white of the bloodroot, and coming up Rowlesburg hill the trilliums, both red and white, provide a blanket of blooms on the hillside.

Meanwhile, back in the barn, things are slowly moving along.  On Monday, Sweet Pea had beautiful lincoln-cross twins, a ewe weighing 11 lbs 5 ozs and a ram weighing 11 lbs 9 ozs.  Patience, not to be out done, also had a beautiful set of twins; a ram weighing 11 lbs 10 ozs and a ewe weighing 10 lbs 12 ozs.  She had them at the bottom of the hill, but kindly brought them almost to the top.  They were so cute following her up the hill.

We worked in the barn most of yesterday afternoon, moving things around and setting up additional lambing jugs.  So, in a very 'be careful what you wish for' kind of way, we are wishing that lambing kicks up into a little bit higher gear.  After all, we have four empty lambing jugs in the barn.

Hermione

Saturday found Hermione seeking a spot to rest and stretch out a little in between eating massive amounts of hay.  Sunday morning she spent a lot of time coming in and out of the barn, checking on Hannah and her twin rams.  Her lambs had dropped so we checked on her several times during the day, hoping that she would have them in the barn so that it wouldn't be too difficult to get them in a lambing jug. 

In the end, she chose to have them out in the field, where it was warm but cloudy and a little windy.  Only a second-time mama, we managed to get Hermione and her twins into the barn with only a little crazy running and not so gentle head butting of the shepherdess.  We had the lambing jug all set up with a big feeder full of second-cutting hay and a bucket of molasses water. 

The first born, a ram, weighed 10 lbs 5 ozs, and the second, a little ewe, weighed 6 lbs 14 ozs.  We were a little worried about the ewe at first and made sure that her brother didn't hog all the colostrum.  She was up and going strong last night when we went back to the barn to check on them.

Hermione was the other ewe that was caught during the October Snowicane.  We now have about 10 - 14 days until lambing begins in earnest.

Surprise

You may remember the big October snow.  All the interior fencing was down for weeks, as we waited for enough snow-melt to dig out.  It was inevitable that the rams would find the only two ewes that were not to be bred this year.  Really, who could resist the romance in this snowy October sunrise.

And so... while lambing will not begin in earnest for another couple of weeks, Hannah surprised us with beautiful twin rams yesterday afternoon.  When we went to feed yesterday morning, she was the only ewe at the top of the hill, so we suspected that it might be the big day.  Last evening she had her boys tucked snugly in the barn when we checked on her.  Hannah's twins were large - 1301 weighed 11 lbs 7 ozs and 1302 weighed 10 lbs 6 ozs.  Mama and twins are doing well and snugly tucked into the first lambing jug... an early nudge into lambing season.

Lambing at Sunrise

(Traveling back in time to May 5th)  Sometimes it seems that things happen for a reason.  Had Meara not pushed out a water bag at 12:15 a.m.; had she pushed out that first lamb earlier than 5:30 a.m.; this beautiful, foggy sunrise would not have been witnessed from the pasture.

The sky looked pretty clear to the north, but the fog began to come up the hollow from Wolf Creek, enveloping the pasture and continuing to roll across the hayfield.  Light filled the sky and the air was filled with a lovely, rosey pink glow.  The misty fog remained, clinging to the ground... the color in the sky intensified and the sun rose high enough to be seen above the fog... a bright golden globe... SUNRISE!