Meet # 16:

 Charlotte Belle. A single ewe lamb from Fiona. I kept waiting and waiting for her to have a few more lambs, but nothing. And she still hasn't passed the afterbirth. I hope nothing is wrong. She had a really long yellow goo before having the lamb. And she was covered in yellow that looked like meconium. I cleaned her off as best as I could.

And you can see where she went as fast as she could get there! Straight to the milk. And she didn't fool around either.

I am kind of glad Fiona didn't have more because she's the one who had Bonnie and Bridget last year. And didn't want poor little Bonnie. I had to go get matching sweaters for them and had a time getting Fiona to stop trying to kill Bonnie. She finally did kind of accept her but would only let her nurse from the back end. So I guess Fiona does better with one baby. She's so pretty too.

So I hope they have lambs like every few days because both stalls are full right now. But then, I'd love to have them all here and done. I am SO allergic to lambs! My eyes are so red and puffy and my nose is all stuffy and I'm sneezing. It's horrible when all I want to do is love on these sweet babies.

Family

 Sunday, we had most of the family here for lunch. Son-in-law Jason and middle grand daughter Coryn weren't here. But we had lots of fun. It was a beautiful day and we sat outside. I even got to do some knitting.


This is Kansas, meeting little Cassidy for the first time. Aren't they both adorable?

I gave Chloe some honeysuckle vines for the alpacas. Of course only Misha would eat it. He's so sweet.

I have wanted this lone pecan tree cut down for years now. It's right there in the garden and cuts off all the morning sun so nothing will grow in half the garden. It's down now. I was taking a break while hubby rested, to write some here. I'm piling up all the branches to burn later and stacking the wood right near the trunk. We'll let it sit there til next year. I'm fine with that. Then we'll burn the brush pile in a few weeks. I am so glad it's down. It never really had but a few pecans on it ever. This way the whole garden will be in sunlight now.

 

And see that big cedar tree back there? It needs to go as well because it blocks the afternoon sun. And it's a stinkin' cedar tree. They're all over and I have apple trees.

I put the sheep back over in this pasture. I'm getting another round bale delivered today. Darla loves this back scratcher! They all take a turn here when they first come back over here. I guess I need to make one in the other pasture for them.  She is huge! When are they going to have lambs???

  And I banded the little lamb's tails last night. It sure was nice having help holding them this time. I had my husband stand at the gate and I was going to bring the lambs to him to hold. Well, he did the first one and when I got back with the 2nd lamb, he was gone.  I had to go all the way to the house to get him. He didn't know there were 2! Silly man.

But they are both fine this morning and out playing in the sunshine with all the big sheep. Just waiting on more lambs to play with.

Better get back out there. I hear the chain saw a hummin'!

Peek-a-boo, y'all!

Near disaster

This baby is so sweet. And I feel awful right now. It was cold so I told my husband I wanted a fire tonight. I had gone out and got some small wood. Then went back out about 10 minutes later. I heard the strangest noise coming from up front where the lambs were. So I ran back in the house to grab a flashlight. Ran out there because I heard that horrible loud wail. I just knew something was awfully wrong.

Earlier this evening, I had put a pallet up across the entrance to the stall where Adele had the lambs. The hens could get in and out to lay eggs. Well, I  guess little Cassidy had gotten outside and Adele tried to get to her and knocked the pallet over. On top of her. That poor little new born baby lamb was laying out in the wet hay under that heavy pallet for who know how long. Til I heard her when I went outside to get wood.

I can't even imagine. If I had waited to go check on them before I went to bed later, she would surely have been dead. Oh, I am so upset. Makes me so sad to even think about her under that heavy pallet, smooshed and cold and her momma couldn't do a thing for her.

I just got the pallet off her and she was laying there all flat as a darn pancake. I picked her up and wrapped her in my shirt and rubbed her all over. She was so pitiful. And Adele and the ram lamb were in the other stall, just standing there calling to her. It was the most awful sound I have ever heard. And I hope I never hear it again.

I hope she'll be ok. I set her down and she walked to Adele and nursed. I waited to see how she did. Then came back out later to check on her. Adele got up and both lambs nursed real good. I never want to go through this again. I feel horrible. I am sure she'll be fine. Maybe it might have just happened before I went outside. I hope so anyway. Please say a little lamby prayer for the sweet little thing.





And this little guy. He and his sister are not identical twins for sure. I noticed this morning that the ewe lamb is real kinky and the wool is close to her skin. His is real fluffy and hairy like.

I was thinking he could be Bilbo's lamb. But just now it hit me that I got him Oct. 27th. 4 months ago. Ok, I already told y'all I hate math. But this is bad.

Adele's mother is Katahdin so she is half Katahdin and the rest wool breeds. So that's how he looks like a hair breed. Sometimes it takes me awhile but the light comes on.


And he is like twice as big as his sister too.

Just another day on the farm. And we did get that fire going. It's cold outside.

Meet...

The 1st lambs at Outback Farm for 2014!

                                                    From Adele Belle, twins! Her first.

                                                           #14, a ram lamb. Isn't he cute?
               

                                                             And # 15, a little ewe lamb! She looks like her momma, doesn't she? Looks like she's thinking about something.

She must of just had them around 7 this morning. The little ewe lamb was still a little wet. Adele is doing great so far. I had taken all the other sheep back next door and she was baaaaing like crazy. So April, Leelah and Gracie were all standing at the gate and I let them back over with Adele so she wouldn't freak out being alone. And of course they all promptly went in and ate all her hay for her. What great friends and mother.

Those 3 ewes should be lambing any time as well, so I'll leave them all over there for now.

These lambs are 95% Finn, so I'll have to dock tails in a few days. I went to the co-op this morning to get lots of bands. So I'm ready for all these little woolie lambs.

So here we go! Let the lambing begin!

Knitting again

My mom signed me up for a knitting class with a group at her church. It's at a home not too far from me. There are 7 of us, counting the girl teaching the class. I had taken a few knitting classes before and kind of know the basic casting on and knit stitch. But I forget between classes. So I thought I might learn a little more here as it's a 10 week class. The first project is a prayer shawl. We just cast on between 50-60 and go from there, just a knit stitch. Pretty boring when I'm doing this alone, but with others it's fun. Because all of the others are beginners. And I am the only one using these needles. Everyone else likes the round needles. I don't like them because there's no place to put the needle to wrap the yarn. I am not comfortable using them. I use my leg to hold the right needle when I wrap the yarn around. Anyway, I know I'll have to use the round needles to make hats, which I have made a few already. I will get the hang of it I'm sure. So we are all knitting at our own pace and when we get done with this project, we will move on to a hat I hope. Anyway, it's fun to be knitting again.

I hope to be learning to spin all this wool I am washing and carding. I'll be shearing again soon and will have at least 7 fleeces to do.

No lambs yet. When I went out to feed this morning, Adele was the farthest. I didn't think she was going to make it over to the feed pans. She is really slow and laying down a lot. They all are the past few days. But she's really slow. I hope she'll be ok. I wish they'd come on with these lambs. I stayed home to keep an eye on them while my husband goes to the wound care doctor. He's been so sick with whatever is going around. He was fine last week. Then I think it was Thursday evening, he went down fast. I mean, fine one minute, deathly ill the next. He was in bed for days. He's finally feeling a bit better, but not out of the woods yet. There are a lot of people with this, whatever it is.

I hope everyone is out of the snow and having some nice weather. It's been so nice and warm here, we let the fire go out and have open windows! We are in for some nasty storms though for later tonight. Tornado warnings for middle Tn. which we are very close to.

Have a great day y'all!

Lamb watch!

 It's coming back to me now. I remember when I took John Henry down to my friend Stephanie's does, that I put Abraham in with the ewes. And that was Sept. 17th. I was thinking it was the beginning of October.

So I just went out to check on Adele and all the sheep except Adele are laying down. I got closer and they all stayed put. Unusual for them. They see me and come running. So I go to check Adele and notice Leelah. Go over to her and she gave a little push!

These 1st 3 photos are of Leelah Belle. She had Adele 2 years ago and this is Blossom from last year. She has so far only had single ewe lambs.

 I hope no one is grossed out by close ups of sheep vulvas and udders. But she's getting pretty floppy and loose. Also noticed a little stringy goo. So she is really close to lambing!


This is Fiona. She's Bonnie and Bridget's mom. I hope we don't have a repeat of last year! That'd be great if she had her lambs first.

And Graicie. She's got a nice udder there.

Adele is just fooling me I do believe. I thought for sure she'd be first to lamb. But who knows? They always fool me.

Poor Bilbo Baggins. The only ram left. I took Abraham to the butcher yesterday. Really hated to do it but he got sick so much. I need to find a good healthy wool ram soon. I will keep Bilbo for the hair ewes though.

April is the big fat white one laying down next to Bilbo, the black ram.  When I got her she was already bread so she should have full Katahdin lambs. If these are ewes, I will keep them. I didn't realize how big she is til she lays down.

This is Adabelle. She was born here several years ago to my doe Ocho. I sold her to my friend up the road when she was just about 5 months old. She had a hard time getting pregnant but finally had twins last year. I went over yesterday evening and she was barely walking, poor girl. S this morning, Stephanie called and said Ada had the kids. She had triplets but one died. Or was stillborn. She had a white doeling and a black and white buckling. They are adorable!

They also have another doe, Jessie Belle, who is HUGE! She should have triplets too in the next few days.

It's warm here. We let the fire go out and have windows open. We also have tons of flies. All over. I have been killing them like crazy since last night. I hate flies! So here we go. Lambs, kids and flies! Yippee!