RAMS ARE HERE

It's that time of year again ;)

Got a new ram lamb and an older ram for breeding this year.
Y'all remember Duke, right?
He's Irene's sire and a big chunky guy.

I bought one of his grandlambs to keep for a while.

Duke will go with Wendy, Pax and Diana(unless Diana's already pregnant)
Then in late August, Duke will go back to his home while I keep the ram lamb.

NOW this ram lamb is huge, and out of the other ram, Red, whom I had last year along with Duke.
This ram lamb is named Optimus and he's HUGE such a big boy for 3 months old!

He'll go with Jillian, MaryEllen, Irene and Raindrop sometime around September/October.
A lucky guy.

New sheep!

SO I GOT A NEW SHEEP ON THE 10th
Her name is Raindrop and she's awesome.
3 months old and a very pretty color pattern

Here's Raindrop

I'm also going to see and pick my ram lamb today. To make a final decision on which one I want

Also might be selling Irene instead of Jillian.

I'm almost liking the way Jillian looks more than Irene.

Jillian has a longer body and longer legs, she has more of a proportionally correct body as well....

I guess we'll see

I'll make a post later about the ram lambs when I get back

Goats?

Yeah, I'm getting goats.

Today, probably.

Wanted to just get one dairy goat to milk and then freeze the milk, just in case of an emergency with my lambs. BUT ends up I might be getting two goats haha...
The family I'm getting them from is moving out of state due to the husband's job.
They treat their goats extremely well and seemed genuinely sad to see them go.

Turns out goats are kind of like pigs, in the social sense. You can't just get one, because it will destroy the fencing trying to escape.

Anyway, I'm getting a 10 month old doe who is pregnant and due to kid in August. Hopefully.
I was originally gonna stick with JUST her, but this doe's mother is extremely attached to her baby.
So I will probably have to get the mother as well. She's about 8 or so, and currently in milk.
She came from an abusive and strenuous home, and was once hit so hard, she now has a crooked jaw.
She was then rescued and has been with her 'now' owner for about 3 years.

So I'll be getting a young goat, and an older one with a lot of character haha

This is the 10 month old doe.
She's 50% Nigerian Dwarf, 25% Alpine and 25% Nubian.

This is the 8 year old. You can't see her crooked face in this picture.
But you can get a pretty good idea of what she looks like?
She needs a good home to retire.
She's 50% Alpine, and 50% Nubian.

New ewe final decision

So you know those two ewe lambs I was choosing between?
I went and took a look at them yesterday to make a final decision.

I chose the black ewe with the white speckles.
Her name right now is "Rain" but I think I'll change that.
I was going to get the white ewe lamb named "LemonDrop" and I loved the name haha.

Maybe this new ewe could be named RainDrop? To honor her original name, and my original choice?
It's a cute name too heehee


ALSO, HAPPY EASTER

Here is Rain's sire, he's full Dorper. SO HANDSOME

This is Rain's dam, she looks like a Blackbelly, but she's really a full Katahdin.
The 'badger' markings are just a throwback color.

AND HERE'S RAIN.
She's gotten so big.
Chose her because she has a longer body, straighter back, and longer legs.
Plus she's so pretty, that always sells.

Getting a ram in July

WELL
The neighbor I borrowed Duke from has a ram lamb that I think I'm going to buy.
I plan for Duke to breed MaryEllen, Wendy and Pax if she didn't take to Buttercup.
Then I'll return Duke, but keep the ram lamb up through October to breed Irene and my new ewe I'll be getting in May. They'll be 8 months in October and old enough to breed I'd say.
The ram will be 6 months, also old enough.
So it'll work out.

This guy is out of Red and a Katahdin/Dorper ewe.
He was a single at 11 pounds. He doesn't have a lot of color to him, mostly white with a dark nose and a brown-ish tail.
He's a big guy though, and looked a bit better than my other choice, who was a colored ram lamb.

This one is a bit blurry, but here he is

Here's the little guy and his mom.

Spring Term

School started back up again and I'm super tired right now.
I crammed all my classes into MWF so YIKES
Tuesday, Thursday will be homework days for sure.

Buttercup is now in the freeze due to bad behavior.
He started hurting the ewes, so now he's gone to freezer camp.

Good news is though, the little lambs are growing up real nice
Actually starting to look like sheep, and not just lambs.

Irene always comes over for scratches, we have a good relationship.
6 weeks old.

Here's the twins.  Samson's in the front, Jillian's in the back.
Both are about 9 weeks old.

Here's Marty, showing off his impressive lip curling skills, after smelling Diana's.... urine.
WHAT A LITTLE STUD.
He's about 6 weeks old here.

New Ewe Lamb

It's been a while since I've last posted.
School is finally over for the term though, so Spring Break is here.

I've decided to make the decision to sell Diana for a more durable ewe.
Diana is really flighty, and consistently wormy.... both traits I don't really like haha
I do like her though, I think she's wonderful... just a little below the others.
I'm going to sell her with the chance she may has been bred, seeing as how she's been with Buttercup for almost two weeks now.
There's a chance, but then, there's also a chance she's still open for business.

Anyway, I've been looking for a replacement for her, and I came across this very VERY kind young couple who is raising a small flock of Katahdin/Dorper sheep. I've visited their place twice and got to take a peek at the ewe lambs for sale.
I'm going to contact the lady about a month from now and tell her which ewe I want.

I've narrowed my search down to these two lambs!
The black/white ewe lamb was born the second week of Feb.
She has long legs and has very flashy markings. She's also a twin.

The white ewe lamb is HUGE.
She was a big single I guess, born around the same time Marty and Irene were born.
This ewe has a nice big frame, but shorter legs.
Her ear tips are also kind of tan/brown-ish, which is fun.
Her dam is a tri-colored brown/cream/and white ewe. So she should throw color, I suppose.

The Sire of both of the ewe lambs is a HUGE Dorper ram. He's black with white speckles.
Not the traditional Dorper coloring, but he's a handsome boy.

Buttercup is HERE

Well, he's home.
It was such a mess getting him in the trailer and taking him back home.
I had to trim his hooves and he was incredibly muddy and just awful and messy oh my goodness.

Here's a picture from this morning

I think if I can keep him separated, I'll do that and then put him with Pax and Diana next Saturday on the 15th. That'll give me late August babies, BUT he's a handful and slightly dangerous.
He's going to do his thing and then he'll be OUTTA HERE.
Buttercup is small, but built like a tank. He also has this awful old man voice and it's incredibly hilarious.
Poor guy.

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.

Samson and Jillian

I feel like I've been up all night...

Both the babies were alive this morning YAY
Samson was nursing and Jillian was taking a snooze.

Here's Samson, all dried off and about 18 hours old.

And Jillian, about 18 hours old as well. She's got floppy ears.

Babies are here

Got home from school around 3:30 and I bet Wendy had her lambs around 5:00 or so.
TWINS
A girl and then a boy.

I named them Samson and Jillian.
Samson is bigger and lighter in color, while Jillian is darker and smaller.

SORRY FOR THE BAD PICTURES.
I only took a million, mostly when stuff was happening, so they are kind of nasty birth photos.
I'm just gonna show the ones where they are clean-ish haha.

I'll have more pictures later, but right now I'm tired and hungry and thirsty and it's almost 9:00pm and I have homework stuff to do.

Samson is on the right, Jillian is on the left.

Here is Jillian right after she was plopped on the ground

Update on Wendy

Saw the baby moving around today.
Must have been kicking or something, because it looked like a golf ball was rolling around under her skin.
KIND OF UNSETTLING.
But awesome to know that baby is kickin' around in there.

Maybe baby wants to come out and see the world???? :)

Any day now!

I bet she's waiting until 4:00am like... Wednesday night or something.
Like the most inconvenient time and the most inconvenient day.

Diana is incredibly photogenic

There is just something with Diana and her dainty lovely face that makes for some great photos.

Get ready for pictures...

First off, I want to say that Diana has recovered from her ordeal.
She seems back to normal now, which is AMAZING, I'm so happy.

SECOND
Wendy has gotten sooooo much wider.
A few days ago she was trying to scratch her face with on of her back hooves and could not reach her face because her belly was so wide.
So her leg just kind of stuck out to the side and flailed in the air for a bit.

Her belly has also gotten lower to the ground since Christmas!

LOOK AT THAT BELLY.
Plus take a looksie at her new collar she got for Christmas yup yup.

Didn't I tell you? WIDE LOAD. Kind of... getting there.
She hobbles and waddles, BUT when grain is involved boy can she run