Today we had the luck to see both our friend Lisa and our friend Emily, Shearer Extraordinaire!

I was excited to see what kind of condition our sheep are in underneath all that wool, and to see if Alabama still looked like a planetarium once he was shorn.

He does.

Emily sheared everyone in no time flat.  She always has good advice and pointers and I got to see how my sheep are looking through the eyes of an expert.

Lisa’s littlest one came along, as did her older brother Alston to play with Oona.

Mountains of luscious wool sit in bags now, waiting to join with Susan’s and be turned into yarn and blankets.  Lisa and I got to spend a lovely day together while the kids played,  and Emily is on to her next shearing gig.

Cheers!

Last night around 10:30 I started having a funny feeling.  A feeling like maybe I shouldn’t wait to do my normal midnight check.  That I should do it now.

I don’t know where that feeling came from, but I am glad I went with it.  I found Piper laboring out in the field, struggling to deliver a large lamb (maybe I fed them too much grain???).

Maddie, Emily and Oona came out with towels and other supplies and stood back to watch.  The only real difficulty was that Jerry and Orzo were very curious and kept trying to sniff and lick Piper and get in the way.

I am not sure how long Piper had been trying to push that lamb out, but once it was born she put her head down on the ground and closed her eyes.  On the one hand, I knew exactly how she felt.  On the other hand, it worried me.  But, once I got the baby up to her face and rubbed her nose a bit she did a fine job cleaning off her new ewe lamb.  We had some trouble getting her to the shelter, and then some trouble getting her to nurse, but once we got her going, she was fine.  As of this afternoon mama and baby look great.

Say hello to darling little Beatrix!  She is jet black like Darby, but has white splotches on her head, nose, and under her chin.

Neve is hooked.  I never have to ask twice for her help with the sheep.

Orzo loves her, too.  Thankfully she is safely penned in with her mama so he can’t hurt her in his enthusiasm.

I’ll do a check on Fairfax and Wren this evening at feeding to see where they stand lamb – wise.

Today I sent Neve out with my camera to capture just how much the babies have grown and how ready those ewes are to deliver.  She’s been doing “butt checks” (checking for any ladies with broken waters or emerging lamb) several times a day for me anyway, so she was happy to add the camera work.

She and Maddie also do a midnight butt check for me – our thinking is that if by midnight they aren’t showing any signs and we don’t disturb them too much then they probably won’t lamb before morning.  We’ll see how this works out.  I’m calling it the “lazy peoples’ approach to lambing”.

Amelia looks closest to lambing – her udder is enormous and her flanks are totally hollow (in humans we say the baby “drops”, in ewes is gives them a hollow look about the flanks).  She’s been looking this way for a few days now, and according to when we think we saw her bred her due date was yesterday.  So….. any time now.

Piper also has a fairly big bag – kind of surprising for a first – timer.  Which makes me think she is fairly close to lamb as well.

Furble has adjusted well to life as a farm cat.  She hangs out most days with the chickens.

Sweet Caramel!!!

All milking has stopped since I have been sick.  It makes me sad, actually.  We’ll try to pick up again soon, but I’m not sure it will work out after such a long break.  The babies sure aren’t complaining!

Aster and Basil.

My favorite thing – kid in bucket!!

Doesn’t Miss Amelia just look ready?

Piper.  See that udder and teat back there?

Starting Saturday we’re expecting several days of colder temps and rain.  I hope they go before then.