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!

Part 5: Back home. (and that's all folks!)

I just had to post all my favorite goat pictures. And some dogs too.

Zarah and Penelope, looking toward the house.

                                                                   My sweet Sandy.

Zarah again. She is getting to be quite like her momma Abby now. She has the beard like Abby. And I have noticed she is a hay and feed hog like Abby too. I'll put down 4 piles of hay and she's hogging all of them. Just like her momma. I sure do miss her. It's been a year now.

                                                                        I love this one.

                        Penelope Jane. She's a little sweetie, this one. Can't wait to milk her again.

                                                      Bubba, the man! I love this dog.

And here's their favorite spot to be. Even in winter. They got out one day a few weeks ago and came back home full of icicles hanging on them. Silly dogs!

                                          Finally back home again. It was a long hike we took.

This is where we were. It's so beautiful up there. I need to go back out there to see if those daffodils have bloomed yet. I need some in this house!

A few days after this, I sold John Henry to a couple in Tn. I got a text from the man's wife today, saying how she just loves him and what a great buck he is. I was really happy to get that text. It made me feel so good to know he has gone to a good home. I really was a bit worried that they might have taken him to a goat sale or something.  I am happy for the ole stinkin' buck. And my sister will be happy to know this too.

I am done with this long story. I just love taking pictures. I have my camera with me all the time. I sure hope you all weren't bored with this. I will be back to blogging about other things now!

Oh, just have to say that yesterday and today, in the high 60's with beautiful blue skies. Just glorious here. We had a little rain last night and some tonight but I am fine with that.

Also no lambs yet. Still waiting.

The walk: part 4

Ok, 1 more after this and we're done.

Zeeboo said to go this way. Bubba is already over there, ready to go down. Look at that pretty bright green moss. So green.

Now across this ridge. It only went so far, then stopped. There were a lot of trees across the end, so we just headed straight down toward the house. Don't these guys look worn out?

Through this limb, that long white shiny thing is the roof to one of the chickens houses across the road from us. I think there are about 5 or 6 at least. But I never knew they were there when we bought this place. The house we moved from in Ringgold had 7 chicken houses down behind us. And they really stunk bad. That's one of the main reason we moved. But these houses are way across the road and back over the hill, so we really never notice them. Just every once in awhile, after the chickens have been taken away, when the houses are cleaned, that's when we smell them. But not always.

What we are walking down. It was pretty steep in some places. I found 2 pretty long branches for walking sticks and I'm glad I did. They saved me several times from rolling all the way down. It was pretty slippery.

Aw, down in the valley at last! Just look at that view. That's Pigeon Mt. You can just see the shine of the garage roof to the left through the clearing. To the right, that shiny spot is the pond the dogs love to swim in when they get out.

This is the little hill I usually climb up when we walk out back. It's got the best view right there.

                                             So I sat down and took a break. I love it here.

Poor Bubba was quite worn out here. Stella was way down the hill, waiting for us. But we stayed here a good 20 minutes, just resting.

I'll do one more post because there are some really good pictures of the goats.

It's a beautiful day today. There might be some rain later, but tomorrow close to 70! It was amazing yesterday too. I told all the pregnant ewes they can go ahead and have lambs now. I am thinking Adele is just about to lamb. She is getting pretty loose in the back end and walking really slow. I keep hoping I'll go out and see a few little lambs but she's holding on. I think I put the ram in about the beginning of October. So they may have a few more weeks to go. They are all SO huge though. It's so exciting waiting for lambs.