Feeling like Spring around here

Take away the heat, the browning pastures and it feels a little like spring with little bunnies running around and a new lamb.

I know it's not good to handle little rabbits, birds..etc, but this little bunny really was in danger.   The rabbit was hopping across the sheep pasture when our pyr Rosco took note and took off for it.   I called for him to stop (as I have thought before that he was killing baby rabbits earlier in the year when I caught him in a nest of squeaking babies)  So, Wyatt and I decided it would be best to take the bunny to the other side of the fence and we (ok, I) was hoping his mother would find him there.   I'm not sure if a rabbit of this size is still totally dependent on its mother, but we didn't want to move him far from where we caught him.  Long story short, Wyatt had decided it was "my bunny".   The bunny hung around for the better part of the day and then, was gone.   I've heard every day since "my bunny gone", and just yesterday we came home to find 2 large rabbits where we left the baby bunny, so now -"my bunny gone with his mom" and a happy ending it is.    

Roxy (from the last post) had her lamb 2 weeks ago.  Unfortunately, it appears she needed assistance as the lamb didn't make it.   I had been trying to keep a close eye on her, but when I went out to check on her (2:30am with a flashlight) she had just had the lamb.  I feel bad that I wasn't there to help her, but very thankful that she is ok.

Hiccup (one of our meat breed crosses) had her little lamb last Thursday.  

Cute as a speckled lamb!

Still.... still waiting on lambs

Seriously?     I have to research this, we've never had Icelandic lambs this late in the year.   I don't know if it's possible that their milk could be coming in without them being bred?   I have heard of it happening with goats, but this is a first for us.    Roxy here is one of two Icelandics that have been milking up.   I checked a few days ago to be certain that there's milk, and there is.. and I noticed as much as a month ago that her milk was coming in.   Maybe they're waiting for warmer weather to have those babies?  (100+degree record breaking weather right now)

Girlie here (below) is the other ewe that appears to have been bred.

Meanwhile, here's some of the other lambs that are nearing weaning.    This is Deloris' ram lamb:

And his sister:

 What a sweet little face

This lil guy is Murphy, and he's from our moorit ewe Sierra.   This is her first lamb and he has such a beautiful fleece of brown/gray and black.

This is one of DiDi's ram lambs.   He is one of a set of twin ram lambs.

Delilah's gray/black ewe lamb

(Deloris in the foreground) but one of our 3 gray moorit rams from this year in the background:

And the lovely Mr B.

Just a few of the 2012 lamb crop.   The heat is brutal here, but fortunately they seem to be handling it well.  Our pastures are terribly dry, but if we can make it to Sunday - hopefully we will get some much needed rain iand cooler temps!

A few new yarn bowls..

The "lil fiber'' sheep on the mugs has made it over to the yarn bowls.

 I'm hoping they stay put long enough to get them fired!

Verona Vineyards

We have a new local winery in our area, Verona Vineyards and they will be having a wine tasting / art & craft festival this coming Saturday from 10 to 5.  
http://www.veronavineyards.com/   I've heard the weather is going to be nice, so it would be a great day to come and check it out.  

Looks like a great lineup of vendors/artisans will be participating.  We'll be there and  I'll be bringing the usual - sheep pottery and  wool.  I am hoping to have some wine related pottery as well, (chillers and wine glasses w/pottery stems)  but I have to confess that I'm still making them..

I have new pottery designs and pieces in the works that I'll be posting soon.  Meanwhile, hope to see you Saturday!

Lambs, Lambs, Lambs

Deloris, our mouflon ewe, finally had her babies last week:

a little mouflon ram lamb,

and a little mouflon ewe lamb.

We are expecting a few more lambs from our yearlings, but meanwhile, here's some updated photos of our older babies.

Carlie's ewe lamb -what a pretty smile

 Alice and her gray/black ewe lamb

Cheyenne and her Black/Gray ewe lamb

 Carlie's Black/gray ewe lamb

 LeAnn and her white ewe lamb

Josie's Gray/Moorit ram lamb.

It's been a good lambing season, however it's not been without loss.   We lost our yearling "lil friend" earlier in the lambing season.   She aborted her lamb, it was malpresented.  I assisted and felt she would be ok but we lost her a few days later.   

A couple weeks ago, we lost a lamb from our Gray Moorit yearling Savannah.   She had her lamb a couple of weeks earlier that I had expected, and her milk hadn't come in yet.   I supplemented with goats' colustrum, but it must have been too late, as she got weaker and weaker as the evening went on, and we lost her the next day, despite all the efforts to save the little lamb, I just didn't catch it in time.

I'm guessing Mr B will be a lifetime resident here.

A Few More Lamb Photos

This little guy is a Shetland/Icelandic cross (above)

 Josie's Gray/Moorit Ram

 Lambie's Gray/Moorit Ram Lamb

DiDi's twin rams (the white ones) 

Alice's lambs - Mr B(white lamb)  and his sister.

Delilah and lambs.  -black ewe lamb / white ram lamb

Mr B.

I have been really behind on getting new lamb pictures posted.   We are up to 7 ewe lambs and 10 or 11 rams.  I thought we had just a few more ewes to lamb, but it's looking like some of last years lambs -the yearlings, might  be milking up  

This little guy spent a night in the house with us last week.   I don't like to take them away from their momma, but this little guy was pretty unresponsive out in the pasture.   I checked on him several times and it seemed that he wasn't getting milk.   His mother was very attentive to him, and while best case scenerio would have been to take him to the barn with his family,  I couldn't get his mother in there.   (his mom is  wild Alice)   I had Alice in the barn to shear her when she had her babies and it seemed like he was getting milk then, but a day later it seemed a different story.

 Thanks to some wonderful goats milk from my neighbor Marlene, this little guy was up and running in no time!

 I took him back to Alice the next morning when it seemed like he was going to be ok and while Alice was a little uncertain about it all at first, she welcomed him back.    I was able to get her in the barn finally the following day and we were able to get the vet out to take a look at her.  It seems one of her udders has been damaged.  I thought she had mastitis last year, and after gathering the supplies needed, I tested and it was negative for mastitis.   I'm not sure, but think that she might have had mastitis in an earlier year and I didn't catch it.

 Despite that, she is a beautiful, hardy ole gal.   The vet said she is fine, and while I thought I would have to retire her, his advice was that we could keep breeding her as long as we didn't mind bottle lambs.  She has beautiful lambs, but I didn't want to keep breeding her if this was a condition that was hard on her.

 As far as minding bottle lambs ?  Does it look like we mind bottle lambs?

I just hate bumming milk!  (yet that goats milk is some really great stuff!)  Marlene is so kind and has always been so generous with her supply of goats milk.   We appreciate it and this little guy ? well, it keeps him coming back! 

Although he seems to hate to say goodbye, his mother is calling and he knows we'll be back in a little while.   Go ahead little guy - go be a lamb!

More Lambs

Out of 11 lambs, we are up to 3 ewe lambs. Fortunately we have several more ewes to lamb yet.

Meanwhile,
This little gal is one of Carlies' angels.

This is her sister:

This cute fella belongs to DiDi (from the lamb that had a broken leg/surgery, etc a couple of years ago)

And this is his adorable brother:

And this cutie is mine. He's been such a great helper. He showed me today that he can catch the lambs by himself now. (which is a skill that will be very helpful this fall come shearing time!) He sure loves to "hold the b mom!" "hold the b!"

Mug Giveaway

And the winner of the pottery mug (with the assistance of random.org) was comment #3 - Sharrie.

If you can get in touch with me with your address, I'll get this right out! Thanks for playing!

I'm a little behind on lamb posts - -ram lambs (looks like it's going to be a ram lamb year for sure -5 rams to 1 little ewe) - I'll post more photos soon!

Gray/Moorit Ram Lamb

Lambie had her lamb today. Her lambing record is pretty consistent: 1,1,1, ram, ram, ram. Her first lambing was a white lamb, 2nd year (last year) was a black lamb, and this year, she's had this lovely little gray moorit lamb.

I didn't realize Lambie carried the moorit gene, so that was a surprise. I guess a real surprise from her now would be twin ewes next year!

New Lambs

Deliliah had a set of twins yesterday, a ram (above) and a ewe.

This little gal here looks to be a gray black (see the silver around her mouth?) She'll have a gray undercoat with a black outer coat.

Big brother coming to check things out!