More Lambs to Show Off

I've gotten behind! Yesterday afternoon, Sparkles had the best looking little girl! I really love her facial markings, and she's HUGE.

I watched Sparkles in labor via the lambcam until it looked like things had slowed a bit with the lamb's head out, but no further progress. When I went out to inspect the situation, I saw that we had a nose and only one hoof. Sparkles was pushing, so instead of trying to push the baby back in and adjust the hooves, I turned the lamb a bit to ease the shoulders and out she came.

And this morning, EmmyLou gave us an equally HUGE lamb ram! He's similar to Sparkles' ewe, but with a solid head. In fact, he's and HST (head, socks, tail). He carried the Katmoget genes, so I'm just assuming that he's got spots covering up those markings.

I don't have a pretty collage of him yet because I only had time for a few shots before heading to Kat's preschool for the morning.

Rose and June should be the next two to lamb!

Buttercup Gives Us a Ram!

This morning, Buttercup delivered an absolutely beautiful gray Katmoget ram! He's got the best wool I've ever seen on one of our lambs; I'm so excited!

This year, we've decided to keep all the ram lambs as fiber animals by making them wethers. That'll put our flock right at 20 animals, and we'll take a break from breeding. That'll be my final fiber flock!

Take a look at these curls and bright color!

He's a sweet little thing, too. He came to me and let me scratch him for a while before settling down for a nap.

We've also decided on names for Peridot's kiddos. Our theme this year is our family's favorite TV show characters, so we're starting the naming off with characters from Psych.

Juliet:

And Lassiter (Lassie for short):

 

Peridot Delivers Twins

Note: I've had to edit this whole post because I originally thought we had two boys, but apparently I shouldn't try to determine lamb sex when I'm tired! We have one ram and one ewe. 

We finally have some lambs to celebrate! Last Tuesday night, at 9:37 and 9:43pm, Peridot delivered a ram and a ewe. They're both nice Katmogets that look brown-based right now, but I'm pretty sure are actually gray.

Ram: He's darker (right now, but I'm sure that'll fade) with a nice white ring around his head.

Ewe: She's lighter with traditional Kat facial coloring. She's got nice white tips on her ears, though!

 

Photo should read "Ewe: 1 day old . . ."

Peridot was very frustrating to watch through labor. She would come into the barn, start having contractions, then leave to hang out with the flock and eat. Not normal behavior for a ewe in labor. She didn't read the chapter that explained how a ewe will set herself apart from the group and stop eating. She was so focused on food that even during active, heavy pushing, she would stand up and nibble the hay. I never knew sheep could turn to food for stress relief!

Wyeth

Our last lamb of the season, Wyeth, is growing up to be quite the looker. I'm so sad that his paternity wasn't 100%, otherwise, he'd be my top pick for a herd sire. Love his color, love his frame, love his face. I'll just have to cross my fingers and hope that Waylon can produce a copy for next year!

EDIT: I just scrolled down and realized I've already bragged about Wyeth with this picture! Well, what can I say, I really, really like him :)

EmmyLou finishes up Lambing for 2013

We had a sweet little moorit ram lamb born last Thursday (May 2). We've named him Wyeth which means, "from Land by the Willow." I had been watching EL all day, but a friend and her girls stopped by and we all got distracted with frogs in the pond. They left and about an hour later, I looked outside and saw a dark spot next to EmmyLou. Since Rose was the only other dark lamb, I knew she's lambed! When I got out there, he had been walking for a while and was all cleaned off and dry. I missed the whole thing! I'm sure it's the first of many lambings that I'll miss.

Here he is when I got to him.

Kat helped me get a better look the next day.

I think he is quite handsome. Of course, it may be because he's my favorite color!