In Honor of Earth Day

We named the newborn lambs Eartha and Eco

Eco the not so little solid white ram lamb
Eartha the tiny tri colored ewe lamb

All baby watch, lambing and kidding are now over. Woo Hoo!

Scarlet lambed yesterday afternoon. Did and doing very well for a first time mom. Scarlet and babies are seemingly happy and healthy. And oh so precious!

I had her first possible due date as the 21st. Not far off the mark, lambing on the 22nd. :-) I knew Jackdaw had gotten right down to business on the first day we brought him home and put him in with the girls.

Delivery went well, the ram lamb came first. She must have had quite a bit of discomfort with him being so large. At times she laid flat out on her side in the shelter, with all 4 feet braced up against the wall during contractions. Poor girl. About 20 minutes after Eco was out, in the process of being cleaned by both Scarlet and I, she had a couple more contractions then out popped Eartha. I really mean popped out. I think both Scarlet and I were surprised and caught off guard at how quickly and easily she arrived. Scarlet was still cleaning Eco so I helped a tiny bit by cleaning Eartha's nose, mouth and head. Once she cried Scarlet was there.

While Scarlet cleaned every inch of the two I scurried around and got her molasses water, dipped the navels, cleaned up the afterbirth, lay out new hay in the shelter, took a couple of photos, checked the udder end, then settled in to hold the precious new lamkins.

The better half was actually able to be somewhat present during their delivery, I took him to the lambing jug on the cordless phone during the crucial moments. :-) Long distance the next best thing to being there ya know.

It's Feeding Time

In anticipation

all gathering at the feeders. Shetland boys at the back feeder. All others gathering at the front.

Pushing and shoving to get closer to the feed bucket coming through.

The Sundance Kid (gray/black) comes plowing through the group.

Politely waiting are

Bella Mia (black) and daughter Aurora (white) behind her.

Bonnie Lass

Bonnie's daughter Fairchild

Annie, Aurora, Bella with Fairchild in front.

We sheared all Angoras last month (April). It truly amazes me how quickly their fleece has grown in a matter of a month. I am also seeing change in the fleeces as each animal ages. Jacob's Chance has the tightest curls I have seen on a buck. In the photo below you can see Bella lost much of her curls this year, what use to be ringlets are now waves. She also has/is showing more white which was previously silver/gray.

The only non fiber producing animals in this group

Camel (Alpine/Boer) and her mother Annie (Boer).

Jacob's Chance our Angora herdsire in front.

Aberdeen (Shetland) and Fairchild eating on other side of feeder.

Jacob's Chance (white rear), The Sundance Kid (black side) at the hay feeder with Angus and Aberdeen (Shetlands) munching on a few alfalfa pellets.

Why no hay in the feeder?

Because they have 8 acres of fresh green pasture to browse.

And because I am hoping for beautiful fall fleeces with no VM (vegetable matter). By their browsing on pasture (eating downwards) nothing will hopefully stick in their fleece. During the winter they seemed to collect any and all debris that was in the hay. If the first fleece I skirted is an indication of what the others will be, the winter fleeces we have will not be worth much.

The Ewe Lambs waiting for their breakfast.

Scarlett

Pittypat.

Yeah, I agree really bad photos of the ewe lambs.

Just can't get a photo when they are velcro'd to you.


The Birds

At least most of them, the Guinea is in there, a couple of Peafowl, a few hens.


In Hog Heaven

It has been raining on and off everyday for the last 2 weeks it seems.

The feeder pigs are knee deep in their comfort zone...mud.

One barn cat takes a chance and cuts across the pig pen...you really can't see it but the pig is biting it's tail.

Tomorrow we'll visit the dairy girls - Barb, Isabella and Sarah Beth. Til then have a good day.

Little Lambsie Divy

With the better half being home on vacation come many changes to the daily activities on the farm. Not only is more work getting done it takes less time to accomplish. Leaving time to get out and about, away from the farm for short periods. I rarely leave the farm when I am home alone. Just so much to do and I hate leaving the critters unattended. So his being on vacation allows us to get out and about and I also consider it a mini vacation for myself.

You know you don’t get away from the farm much when the friendly employees at the local farm/feed store holler across the store as you come through the door " Wow! They let you off the farm to come in to visit".

The last few days have been busy. We have welcomed a few new critters to the farmstead, the feeder piglets (photos and info to come later), replacement chicks and our new lambsies.

Excuse the poor quality photos, as you know I am so not the photographer and "el cheapo" digital camera seems to be on it's last leg.

The New Chicks

Some of our layers are quite old with a couple being our original birds and they have stopped producing completely. We stopped by the Cackle Hatchery to see what they had in-store. I was hoping for a few new Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rocks and Arucanas. None available that day so we chose a few California Whites, Dominique’s and Black Sex Links. Jim really likes the California Whites. He has a great story about one of our old CW’s that I’ll share another day. In a nutshell that old CW loved to lay her daily egg in the back of the pick-up, not in the hen house and actually took a trip to town. I am happy with the Dominique’s, they remind me of my grandmother, those were all she raised.

As most of you who read our blog regularly know, we raise our own meat. In the past we had been raising our own lamb/mutton though dispersed the flock when our goat numbers grew to over 150 head.
By my bringing the Shetland wether boys back to the farm for their fleece I think it made the better half remember how much he enjoyed raising sheep (other than shearing). We have also had customers requesting lamb, actually more so than goat. This also goes along with changing our direction on the farm.

Soooo ....

say hello to our new bottle baby sheepies. Scarlet and Pittypat

(Can you tell I watched Gone With The Wind not too long ago LOL).

Pittypat white with brown spots
Scarlet brown and white all over

Eating their breakfast (you can get an idea how colorful Scarlet is)

They are St. Croix/Katahdin cross ewe lambs. These breeds are hair sheep as well as meat breeds. They do not need to be sheared. They shed their coats. This was the main selling point for the better half, no shearing required.
Scarlet and Pittypat will be our foundation ewes. Their offspring ram lambs will be for terminal lambs. Their ewe lambs will stay to increase our flock. Of course this is all future planning, Scarlet and Pittypat are only a month old. When they are a year or better we plan to find a stud ram to borrow. I really do not want a ram on the farm.
Sunday after church we picked the lambs up at a fellow bloggers farm. All Natural Simple Life It was so nice to meet her and her family, plus visit with like-minded folks that were only just a few miles away from us. It actually is a small blog world. I would have not known they were even close if it had not been for blogging.
I have to share I was so impressed with her daughters. All were lovely, polite young ladies and obviously not afraid of hard work. They were out in the thick of things, caring for the animals, working side by side with their parents. Makes me wish I had granddaughters I could share our farm life with.

I also wish I could have brought home all 5 little ewe lambs they had. They were all so adorable.
Thanks so much Tonia, we love the girls.

Opportunity Knocks

Here we are just one week into the New Year and plans to move the farmstead forward have began.

A friend and fellow shepherd called, asking if we would be interested in adding to our flock. They have a large flock, actually a commerical flock which they are planning to downsize due to other family obligations. Their flock is mixed with Polypays, Suffolk and Dorset.

Truly coincidental that they should call, we were just debating if we should add one or two more head of sheep to the farmstead for various reasons (more on that later).

I have been doing a bit of research on breeds, focusing on quality of fleece along with market lamb production.

In the past we raised a small herd of Polypay. If you have not heard of Polypay...

From Sheep101

http://www.sheep101.info/breeds.html
"** Polypay **
The Polypay is a synthetic breed, developed in the 1970's at the U.S. Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho, and Nicholas Farms at Sonoma, California. Targhee x Dorset and Rambouille x Finnsheep crosses were mated to form a 4-breed composite that could produce two lamb crops and one wool crop per year. Polypays are a medium-sized, prolific breed with an extended breeding season. Good mothers and milkers, they produce lambs with acceptable growth and carcass quality. The name Polypay comes from "poly" for many or much and "pay" to indicate a return on investment and labor. Breed category: medium wool, dual-purpose"

During my reading on-line I also ran across a chart (shown below) that if anyone recognizes or knows where I can order one from please let me know. I think if you click on it, it will enlarge. Though don't hold me to it.

Any hoo, looks like the flock will be increasing soon.