It's Killing Me!

The waiting, that is!

Sparkles' lambs will be a week old tomorrow (tonight at 3 am, actually, but who's counting?) and Emerald and Peridot are still pregnant.

Peridot this morning

Emerald this morning.The plan was:

All lambs would come within 3-4 days of one another. All ewes and lambs would be in the barn for a week and a half. Then ALL the sheep could be turned loose on the fields at the same time.

Someone didn't get the memo. And now the ewes are going stir-crazy, and the lambs need to run free.

So today, I had to do some very complicated maneuvering. The main problem: the barn doesn't have a door (because we'll be expanding it again once the weather warms up), so we have a giant piece of plywood screwed-in to block the entrance. This would be fine if everyone had adhered to THE PLAN.

Never fear! I came up with a solution.

I moved Knox into the chicken coup (the chickens were not very happy with this situation).

The llamas were released into their temporary grazing area consisting of only two strands of electric wire that's not actually turned on. It's really just a suggestion to them, and if they wanted out, it would be pretty easy. I usually put them in there for an hour or two while I'm out doing chores in order to keep an eye on them. The sheep get to use it occasionally, but Knox has been banned due to his blatant disrespect of the non-threatening wires. This is what it looked like the day we set it up.

I then went into the barn, scooped up the lambs and had Sparkles follow me (well, the lambs) out the front door of the barn, around a set of pine trees, through the pasture gate and into the field. Luckily, she's the queen bee, and Emerald and Peridot followed her.

Once they were secured in the field, I pulled Knox (good thing he has horns and is still pretty small) out of the coup and into the secure barn.

Everyone is happy for the day, but tonight I'll have to do all this again in reverse. 

The ewes need to lamb!

Ewe's Fat!

I can't believe we don't have lambs yet. Sparkles, poor thing, just keeps getting bigger and bigger. But when I put hay out or their nightly ration of pellets, she comes running. Yes, running.

Here's a shot of her in the barn from our web cam:

Of course, she's laying down, but that is one big Shetland. And I'm pretty sure she's only having twins. I'll be surprised if she has triplets--they don't really run in her blood line.

Peridot's no waif, either:

Emerald is still small, but just starting to bag up, so at least I know she's pregnant.

Here's where the ladies stood a week ago as far as their udders go:

Emerald 3/23/12

Peridot 3/23/12Sparkles 3/23/12As of today, Sparkles and Peridot are neck and neck for winning the largest udder contest. I'd take more pictures, but every time I'm out there taking snap shots of sheep butts, Starr gives me really weird looks. I'm sure she thinks I'm a weirdy.

Can't really blame her; I never thought I'd be this fascinated with sheep udders either!

Beginner's Mistakes

I'm reading the books, scanning the blogs and staring at my sheep a lot, but still, it seems I have much to learn.

It was January, we were in the midst of winter, yet many shepherd are talking of lambing. I chalked it up to warmer climates, most of them being in the South or West, but that made me wonder . . . "when will my lambs be here?"

My brilliant idea was to check on Whispering Pines' blog to see when  their lambs started arriving last year. Logic told me that since these sheep came from them, they'll continue to follow close to the same schedule. After a quick look, I started planning for the beginning of April. Mike and I decided to build lambing pens and give shots about the middle of March.

THEN, a few weeks later, barely into February, a local friend of mine asked if I had lambs yet. What? Lambs in February? No . . . we're planning for April. 

And as soon as that thought crossed my mind, I realized the fault in my logic. Sheltering Pines actually plans their breedings. We've just allowed Knox to enjoy his harem at will. I have no idea when the ewes became pregnant.

Panic quickly set it, and Mike and I cleared our schedules one weekend last month and built lambing pens.

We now have two nice-sized pens for ewes and lambies.

And then we had to figure out what to do about shearing. It was too cold to shear last month, but I really couldn't tell what was going on back there. So my friend Sue (she owns The Critter Ranch AND provided me with the llamas) came over and we crotched the girls.

Crotching is when you shear just the back-end and udder areas so that birthing is cleaner and lambs can easily find their milk supply. The ladies were so humiliated.

After getting through that day, though, I was more relieved about the imminent birthing process. Mainly, because none of the girls had really started bagging up too much, and bellies weren't quite as big as they look with all that wool on them.

We're now half-way through March, and we're ready whenever they decide to come. I've been watching udders fill, but nobody is huge. However, I've read over and over that bagging up isn't a reliable way to predict due date. It's still fun to see the progress though.

This was Sparkles two days ago. Today, when I checked, Peridot is in the lead. I'll keep everyone posted!

Great Expectations

My girls may not be pregnant much longer, so I took some "expecting" pictures this afternoon.

 Pregnant Emerald--this is her first baby.Pregnant Peridot--this is her second lamb.Pregnant Sparkles--those would be twins in that belly!Sparkles is a proven twin-er, and Emerald, her daughter, was a twin, so eventually I'm hoping to see twins from Emerald as well.

Peridot looks to be the smallest right now, but she also has a shorter wool staple length, so I don't think that's telling me much about who will go first. If they had been sheared, I'd have a better view of what's going on.

Sparkles and Peridot are starting to bag up (their udders are filling), but being seasoned moms, that's also not telling me much about when to expect babies. My guess is by the end of March we'll have all the lambs here. Maybe even this weekend, but I doubt it.

Knox!!!

My newest friend, Hannah, came over yesterday to help with fiber work and shovel out the critter pen. She thinks it's fun work! Good friend to have, right?!

Another of the many benefits to having Hannah around is that she's always taking pictures.

Check out this close up she got of Knox.