. . . and a few more!

Sparkles couldn't be outdone, so she got busy and had a set of twin rams at 10:30 this morning.

The white ram is Ash and the brown ram is Hickory. 

We've named Emerald's girls Violet (left) and Lily (right). Here's an updated pic of them as well.

Now we just have Peridot to go! Well, and June if she's pregnant. That one will be a while though. I would expect a lamb from her at the end of April if she's going to have one.

First Lambs of the Season!

That change in Emerald's belly sure was a sign of impending labor!

Emerald had twin ewes early this morning! What a great way to start the lambing season.

Kat had come into our room around 4:15 am, and since I was up, I decided to check the lamb cam. Everyone was peacefully laying down, but I decided to do another sweep around the barn. On the second pass, Emerald was standing and pawing the ground. Good sign of labor! When she layed down and did this:

I knew it was active labor. That photo doesn't look very dramatic, but she was raising her head up and back, and one point looking directly into the camera. Sheep don't generally look up that high. Her odd position and the fact that she was up and down were all indicators of what was going on.

So I made myself a cup of coffee, suited up in my winter working gear, grabbed two towels and the medical kit, and headed out. I made myself comfortable to watch, and within an hour she was pushing. 

When the first lamb was born, she was so tiny, I knew there had to be a second one. Well, I hoped there was a second one or else something was really wrong. 

I grabbed the towel just to clear her face, and Emerald was doing a good job licking her off. Within 3 minutes or so, the second lamb was born. I didn't really realize Emerald was pushing again so soon until I looked up, saw the lamb dangling and heard a "plop." The bag hadn't been broken around her face, so I went to her pretty fast to clear the fluid and get her breathing.

I have the birth of the first twin on video, and I had to put the camera down to clean babies up, so I don't have many photos until after both were born. 

Sparkles and Peridot (though in this photo it's Sparkles and June) went to the lambs pretty quickly and helped clean them off. I thought this was a beautiful, natural thing, and good since these were Emeralds first twin and she may have needed help. Also, they came so close together that she didn't have time to get #1 dry before #2 was born.

I didn't factor in their mothering instincts. Sparkles and Peridot are GREAT moms, so great that they wanted to mother these two. Sparkles started pushing Emerald away from the babies, so I scooped them both up and put them in the lambing jug.

Sparkles and Peridot followed so closely that Emerald couldn't get into the jug! I had to put the lambs down and bodily drag the other ewes out, then try to get Emerald in. It was a mess.

Then I was stuck. We don't have a gate on the jug yet, and the pallet that we were going to use to slide in front of the opening was outside! I gave Emerald  a few minutes then had to leave my post. When I got in, we had the same situation all over again. 

I pulled and dragged (I think I may have pulled out handfuls of wool!) and finally got everyone where they were suppose to be. And slid the pallet in place.

I watched for a while, but Emerald was too busy eating to really pay much attention to the lambs, and I was tired. So I went in, gave them each a good rub down, removed the waxy plug from both teats, and even milked a little syringe-full of colostrum. This is a trick I learned from another blog: feed the lambs an ounce or so of colostrum and it's enough of a boost to get them up and nursing faster. Not exactly the most natural way to do things, but it lets you go back to bed sooner!

Here they are finally separated into their own jug:

Two nice gray Katmulgets ewes, one with some fun spotting on her head. There's a slight chance that the one laying down is fawn, but I'll have to wait until all the goo is off and the sun is out to really tell.

At two hours old now, they're both popping around and nursing well!

My prediction is that Sparkles and Peridot will both lamb within the next 24 hours.

Lamb-Watch 2013 begins

I'm not all that great with surprises. I love them, but my anxiety levels increase and I become a little obsessive. When I was little, I always went looking for my Christmas presents; OK, even now I do it! Mike has to hide things at his parent's house if he really wants to surprise me. 

That being said, lambing season is agony for me! When will the ewes go into labor? Will they have singles or twins? Will they be boys or girls? 

And don't get me started on the colors and markings predictions!

In my Ravelry group, everyone is making predictions about when the ladies will lamb. It's a lot of fun, but it has be staring at the lamb cam all the time.

When I check in on the animals today via the lamb cam, I actually noticed something different about Emerald that I don't think is my imagination! As labor gets closer, the lambs will drop and the ewes will show a hollow beneath their tailbones.

Here was Emerald yesterday:

And today:

Of course, maybe she just hadn't had breakfast yet, but I'd like to take it as a sign of impending labor!!

First Day of Spring

Bachelor Pad

Last Fall we set up a pasture for the rams in order to separate them for breeding purposes. We knew they would be wintering with the girls again, but for a few months, they needed their own space.

And with that, we made one of our first big newbie mistakes: electric fencing will not hold back a ram in rut. There's a few week's span that I have marked out on my calandar that indicates "unknown father" to lambs born then. Grumble, grumble. They won't be able to be registered, but they'll still have great fleeces! One thing is nice though, I'm completely certain Knox settled Peridot, and that's one of my favorite pairings. 

With our little mess-up behind us, we've been plotting out a permanent housing situation for the rams (which we should have done earlier, I know!). Last weekend we spent two long, gloriously beautiful days outside putting up the fencing. And this weekend (which was NOT a gloriously beautiful weekend), finished up with putting up a small house, trimming hooves, giving shots and moving the boys in.

Some work shots from last weekend:

The boys setting up the fence.

Matt looking cool.

The dogs got in on the fun (Axel is getting really big!).

Kat waved from the tractor (with Brendan driving) like she was a queen in a parade!

Just had to have a shot proving I can drive a tractor.

This is my favorite photo of the day. Kat and Matt eyeing eachother up: Matthew carting posts and Kat about to throw a snowball.

Another shot just to prove that I know how to do some manual labor. Really, these are photos for my family in Texas; I'm not sure they believe I do all this!

It's all good until someone slips in the mud puddle!

The next photos are from this past weekend (3/16/13).

Knox, Mike and Brendan demonstrating our ram-moving method. It worked pretty well. We even used the bucket to hold them down while we did hooves and shots.

The boys enjoyed the buffet in the new pen.

Knox inspecting the house.

Willie and Johnny giving it the go-over.

Update: this morning (3/18/13), I checked on the boys and they've knocked a hole in the side of their house. Perfect timing with this nice, new blanket of snow we got today. 

They're idiots; what else can I say?