Buttercup

Went to see a ram I might be buying.
Went to see him after school, and I took some pictures.

As of right now, he's basically mine, I just need to pick him up and pay the guy.
I have named the ram Buttercup already.
Buttercup is fairly small as far as rams go.
He's built low to the ground, and he's pretty stocky, wide shoulders and such.
From what the guy said, Buttercup sounds to be 50% Blackbelly, 37.5% Dorper, and 12.5% Katahdin.
Buttercup will probably do okay here. We're not going to keep him very long after he does his thing with Pax and Diana.

HERE HE IS

He has a nice profile

Little tiny legs, but a HUGE body

His horns are crooked, but oh well

THIS is Buttercup's first son, born December 2013.
This little ram lamb is already pretty big, considering he's only about 3 months old.
That suggests, if paired with the right ewe, Buttercup can throw quick growing market lambs.

The Great Escape

Turns out Marty has learned how to climb hay bales and escape.
This afternoon I had noticed that the sheep were making all sorts of noises and I could hear MaryEllen from the house.
So I went down to check things out, and I saw MaryEllen and Marty out in the field???
Didn't see Irene, so I went back in the barn and she was still in the lambing pen, shivering and scared and panting and yelling. So I picked her up and re-united her with mom and brother.

I figured out that Marty had jumped over the hay bales to the pen, and then MaryEllen freaked, and jumped out after him, leaving Irene, who is much to small to jump, alone inside the barn.

Everyone is okay now though.
I'll have to keep an eye out for Marty... he's gonna be a troublemaker.

24 hours old

The babies are all bouncy and full of energy.
Still a bit wobbly on their feet, but that's okay.

They're all dried off for the most part and gosh they're cute.
Irene is still so small, I hope she does alright this next week.

MaryEllen had her lambs

MaryEllen had been in labor since last night, she only started pushing this afternoon.
IT WAS A LONG LABOR
She was so tired that I had to pull the first lamb.
It was a BOY, and he's good sized!

I went up to tell Ma and Pa about the lamb, then went back down to take pictures.
About 5 minutes after I got back, she had a ewe lamb.
Super unexpected! I thought 1 lamb was it.
This next lamb is very small, but she was the first one on her feet!

The boy is the two colored one, and the girl is all white.
Although the girl does have a spot of brown on the left side of her face.

Meet Marty(Martin) and Irene!

A baby is on the way

FAIRLY CERTAIN THAT MARYELLEN IS IN LABOR.
She's showing the signs.
She's not really all that close to lambing quite yet, but things are getting started!
Hopefully there will be a lamb by tonight or tomorrow morning.

I'm guessing it will be a solid white ewe lamb around 9 lbs
I'd be surprised if there are twins in there!!!

Waiting for MaryEllen now

MaryEllen's due date is coming up here on the 17th.

I feel like she'll lamb toward the end of Feb. though, so I'm just impatiently waiting haha

She doesn't look big from the side, but she's basically a beach ball right now.

 IN OTHER NEWS, the lambs are growing up and getting bigger every day.

Look at all that yummy green grass...

LET'S TALK ABOUT THIS SNOW

We have recently acquired a LOT of snow these past few days. Nothing like a good 'ol snow storm to ruin the weekend.
It's pretty to look at but a PAIN to drive in and walk in.

I let the lambs out to meet the rest of the herd for the FIRST time today ever.
They've met through the fence, but nothing more than that.

Pax took an extreme liking to the lambs, but that really made Wendy angry... so whenever Pax comes over to take a looksie at the lambs, Wendy chases her off.
MaryEllen and Diana ignore the babes, and the alpacas are incredibly interested in them!
The alpacas are so kind to the little ones, they hummed and smelled them a lot, but I think they like the lambs!

Roosevelt checking out the new babies.

TIME TO HAVE SOME FUN

Jillian on the left, Samson on the right.

"What is this???"

Samson looking up at Victor.