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! 

June is a Mommy!

I'm so proud of little June becoming a mom! She had a beautiful little ram and she's a natural at motherhood. He looks just like June and Ash (who is June's half brother, and also has the same father as June's lamb). Keeping with the tree theme, he's being called Aspen.

 

With his underlying spot patterns, I'm pretty sure he's a gray Katmulget, but with a HUGE spot over it all. Shetland genetics are amazing!

. . . 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.

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!!

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?