And the 2nd thing...

 This is Adelaide, my Finn ewe. I love this girl. Her wool is so nice and silky. She's just turning 3 and has never lambed until  last Saturday morning. I knew she was pregnant, just not sure when she was going to lamb. She chose a really cold wet morning. And she just had those 2 ewe lambs right out on the dirty wet ground, in the middle of all the other sheep and lambs. And just left them apparently.

That's the morning that I just took my time to go outside too. I even had a cup of coffee, which I never do. I had looked out and saw all the sheep, so just assumed everything was ok. Well, it wasn't.

When I did go out and get all the feed ready, I got out there and put the feed in the feeder for them. That's when I saw the poor little lambs, laying on the ground. Still sopping wet. The little black lamb was already dead. Nothing I could do for her. I ran inside to get towels, went back out and put both lambs in a stall. Then looked for a mother. It was Adelaide. So grabbed her and got her in the stall with them.

I got the other lamb dried as much as I could. But she was so cold. Even her little mouth was freezing cold. So I just took her inside to get her warmed up. I sat by the wood heater and rubbed her and tried to get her to suck on the bottle of colostrum I had milked from Adelaide. She couldn't even do that. Plus she was shaking. Like convulsions or seizures. It was horrible.

I had a small tube that I tried to use to tube her. But it was too flexible and I couldn't get it down far enough. So had to go to Ace Hardware in town. I left her in front of the heater, covered up. I just knew she's be dead when I got back. And I got some colostrum from the co-op too.

Got home and she was still alive. I mixed up the colostrum and put what I had from her mother in it. Got it all sterilized and put that new tube right on down her throat. I think by then she was warm and hungry, because it went right down where I thought it should be. I put some milk in the syringe and down it went. And within a few minutes, that little girl was up and sucking on a bottle! Just like that. I was amazed at the transformation in her, once she got some good warm milk in her little belly.

And she's been a happy healthy little piggy lamb ever since!

I put her back outside later with Adelaide. She knew the lamb was hers, but she just wouldn't get her to nurse. I kept trying, and she would lick her and was nice to her, but it just wasn't there for her. That mother instinct. And still, when I bring her outside, Adelaide stays right with her. But no nursing.

And of course the little lamb follows me now.

So I have 3 sweet little bottle lambs. All ewes. All full Finn. I will be keeping all of them. I'll probably sell Adelaide and Amarillo now. I have been supplementing the Tappitt Brothers with a bottle a few times a day as well. I named this little gal Carabella. She is 5 days younger than Campbelle and Cameron, but twice as big.  I went ahead and docked her tail a few nights ago along with the other 2 and 3 more outside.  And they are all doing fine now. A few days ago, she weighed 7 pounds.

I hope I don't have to tube feed a lamb again. I hope these next 2 ewes will be good mothers and take care of their lambs. They are Katahdin mix ewes and they all have been good mothers so far, I am just waiting on these 2 and we're done. Tonight is supposed to be in the 20's. I so hope they have them today or wait a few more days. But I am thinking tomorrow morning. That's when most of the lambs have been born, early morning. We shall see.

2014 gardens underway!!

It has been amazing here the past week. No rain. March wind drying things up.

So I got outside. I got 2 wheelbarrows of really good alpaca poop that's been composting out back. And 2 barrows full of compost me and the chickens have been working on. And several bags of leaves that mom gave me and have been sitting along the driveway for way too long. All that went on just a few long wide rows. I worked it in real good. Got collards, kale and lettuce planted already!

I really love this tiller. Tiny got it going for me last week, so it was ready to go with just one pull. Great tiller.

I got about 3/4 of this garden tilled. I'll be doing 2 more garden spots as this one fills up. I am ready for a good gardening and market year this year. After the bad one last year, I am all set to get started and make this a good market garden. I just hope we don't get flooded like last year. I need to make a trench up in the yard above the garden. Maybe divert the little creeks that come from the back of the property.

When we first moved here almost 10 years ago, this garden was nothing bur red clay. It was awful. I have been adding compost, leaves, animal manures and whatever else I can find to add to it. It actually looks almost like brown soil now. Still hard in some places where I haven't been tilling. But I plan on using this whole garden this year.

I am so thankful for such beautiful weather here. I was looking at some blogs up North and they still have several feet of snow on the ground. I can't even imagine. We are in the 70'2 here. But in a few days, we'll be back down in the 20's at night. I'll have to cover blueberry bushes.

Are there any other market gardeners out there? What's going on in your gardens right now? Or are you just dreaming of when you can get to it?

The first thing I've never done before.

 It had been a little more than half an hour since April had the ewe lamb and nothing was going on. And she had these 2 water bags hanging out. She wasn't pushing or sitting, just concerned with the little ewe lamb.


I was getting a bit worried by then. It just felt like something was wrong. So I just went on in and felt around. I have never done this before so didn't know what all I was feeling. At first I felt little round things. Of course I thought testicles. But no, it wasn't. I finally did feel some feet, but no head. When I pulled and got them out I saw they were the back feet. April was contracting then and pushing. So I pulled when she pushed. I pulled downward toward her back legs and out he came. He was alive! I was so thankful. I got his little head all dried off and let her do the rest. She seemed good after that.

And he's up and headed to the milk with his big sister.

These 2 guys are so cute. Both pure white and full Katahdin. I won't have to dock their tails! The ram has a little brown spot on his side and his ears stand up. The ewe lamb's ears hang down and she looks like a little rabbit.

I names the ewe Cheney and the ram Chandler. They are both doing great. Got their CDT shots this morning along with 7 other lambs. All are out enjoying this beautiful day.

I'll post about that 2nd thing later. I am out in the garden, tilling and getting ready to plant some kale, collards and lettuce. And getting beds ready for onions and radishes. It's supposed to be in the 70's the next few days, but the end of the week we are in for some freezing nights. I have 2 more ewes to lamb and I trying to get them have their lambs today. It's not working yet. But they've had 18 lambs so far.