Gracie Belle and her sweet lambs

And here is Gracie with her new lambs! The red one is a ram lamb, #9. He looks a lot like her ram lamb from last year, Axel. And the black one is #10, a ewe lamb! She is adorable. And Gracie is such a good mother. Very protective. Every time I'd try to get a picture of both lambs together, she'd get in front of them.

She's doing good so far. I am proud of her. And the lambs are already bouncing around. She had to take the 3rd stall, which is the chicken coop. She had them around 6:30 this morning.

Now Fiona is going to have hers next, hopefully today. I let Leelah out of her stall, and Fiona went right in. So we shall see.

So far, 3 ram lambs and 2 ewe lambs! Not bad for 3 sheep lambing. I had just 5 last year from 5 ewes.

My morning, so far

The phone rang at 6:07. My daughter calls after she's left for work to get me up to get Kansas up and ready for the bus at 6:40. So did that. Came back up the driveway and turned right to go check on the sheep. As I thought she might, Gracie was in the 3rd stall and had just had 2 lambs. Ran to the house to grab more towels and water and feed. Got them both dried off. She had a red ram lamb first, #9. And a cute little ewe lamb that's kind of blackish gray, #10. So right now it stands at 3 ram lambs and 2 ewe lambs!

Went back to check on Darla and Leelah. Leelah is going crazy, baaaing really loud. While I was feeding hay to the others, I saw a white streak fly by. It was #6, out of the stall. Leelah was trying to find her. So got her back in and fed Leelah. Good there.

Looked in on Darla. She's moaning and groaning. Has a really messy rear end. Runny poop. Nasty. She hasn't eaten anything. Just standing there, moaning. So ran inside to the box of goat and sheep meds. Got the Sheep Nutridrench, Cydectin for worming, Pepto for the runs, B Complex shot, LA200 for antibiotic, and Red Cell. Gave her all that. And fresh hay and water too.

Hauled water to everyone else. Then fed the dogs and cats. Got  Penelope, Sandy and Zeeboo on the stanchions to feed them and milk Penelope. One of Abby's buck kids came in and helped himself to the milk bar. So I let him get his milk there and milked the other side. She did not like that at all. Took the milk in and put in a bottle for the other kid. Got them off the stands. Went to check on Abby and Zarah.

So Abby is standing there outside the barn against the wall, with white foamy froth on either side of her mouth. Good grief! Went and got the Red Cell. Gave her some. Took her to the milk room and milked her out. It's really yellow milk. Dumped it. Could be from all the Vitamin B and red cell?

Checked on Zarah. Still hasn't eaten a thing. No grain or hay. Or drank any water. Gave her more Red Cell, fresh water and hay. I had to give her all kinds of stuff yesterday when I saw she wasn't eating.

Then went back to the house and cried. And cried some more. Called the vet at 8:15. He called back in a few minutes. Told him what was going on and I wanted him to come out here as soon as he could. Which he said would be after lunch. Thanks. Hope Darla's not dead by then. More bottle babies for me. Cried some more. Balanced check book to see if I had money to pay him. Yes.

And now it's 9:15. I just had a cup of coffee. It's 58 in the house. Forgot to turn heat on last night, so just did that. I let Leelah and her lamb back out, since she wanted to get out. The other ewes sniffed around her for a few minutes, then went back to eating hay. She's just another one of the flock now. Took more pictures of Gracie's cuties. Will post on another post.

More lamb love

These are Darla's new ram lambs. Born this afternoon. I had to go to town again and when I got back, i noticed Darla in the stall. She was in there this morning too. But then back out in the field when I left. I didn't really think she'd have lambs this early. Anyway, #7 was still wet and covered in slime. So I ran to the house to grad some things. Got back out and was drying him off, when out flew another lamb. I think he came out backwards because he was facing Darla, who was standing up. Strange. So got them both dried off as much as possible. Got them over to the milk bar. They both had some think warm colostrum.

#7 was a little weak. He laid around a lot. I gave him a few squirts of Nutridrench. He looked a lot perkier later. I still had to rub them some more. They were still wet. It sure takes a long time for that wool to get dry.

They are both so cute. #7 is in front and #8 behind him. #8 had a lot more energy than 7 did. He was already trying to bounce.

SO far the 2 ewes to lamb are pretty consistent. Leelah had a single ewe lamb last year. Now Darla with twin ram lambs after a single ram lamb last year. I hope Gracie and Fiona have twins too. So far Leelah is the only animal to have a single. All goats have had twins so far. I have 2 more to kid. And 6 more ewes to go. But 4 will be May or June lambs.

And please remind me to never breed for so early. What was I thinking anyway? It's COLD out there!

So a pretty good weekend here at Outback Farm. With twin kids and a single ewe lamb and twin ram lambs. And we are at 4 bucklings and 4 doelings so far!!!!!!! But we have Sandy to go yet. And she usually has more bucks. Which this year, since I bred her to the Boer buck, I don't mind if she has bucks.