An Update

Yeti has moved in with the ewes.  He likes it a lot better. 

Henrietta and Peat are doing well.

Calico is quite happy, perhaps because she has a few weeks to go until lambing.

Czadas, on the other hand, only has a few days at the most....but she doesn't know what is in store for her.

Henrietta's Second Chance

Our first lamb of 2014 is here!

Meet Peat, Henrietta's ram lamb. Peat is black (no surprise there) with two white spots on his head.  His hooves are spotty, too.

Peat: Well-behaved in the car.

Why is Peat riding in a car?  Henrietta went into labor around lunchtime on Thursday.  By late afternoon, I could tell that something was wrong.  We did an internal exam and found that Peat was not in the right position for birthing.  We tried to correct it on our own.  We couldn't.  Our vet was out of town, so we called the University of Tennessee Veterinary Hospital and ended up taking Henrietta in.

Waiting for Mommy to refill her milk.

Due to his positioning, both the books and the veterinarians warned us that Henrietta's lamb had a slim chance of survival, but that intervention--and possibly a C-section--would save Henrietta and any twin.  Henrietta and Peat made it through, and are home again.  They are both doing well, but we're keeping an eye on them both for any complications. 

Nibbling some hay with Mommy.

Are we worried about the rest of our pregnant ewes?  Not really.  Henrietta had problems (small compared to this!) last year, and we hoped for the best but prepared for the worst.  Those preparations, along with the veterinarians at UT, saved Henrietta and Peat. This was her second chance...and even though Peat's positioning was not her fault, she's not getting a third chance.  Henrietta is retiring from lambing. 

Peat meets the bucket.

We have a lot of ewes due in the next week. 

Stare all you want, your turn is coming soon.

(A hint for those wondering what our naming theme is this year: pay close attention to the spelling of "Peat.")

Yeti

Yeti came home to live with us last night.

Baa, baa, spotty sheep.

If you think he looks a bit different than everyone else, you're right.  He's a CVM (California Variegated Mutant/Romeldale).  The rest of the gang are Shetlands, except for Elsie and her progeny--they are Shetland/Icelandic crosses.  Yeti is a wether (castrated male).  He's just here to grow wool.

Yeti resting in the shelter.

We've traveled with sheep quite a few times, but Yeti was the first to baa the entire way home.  It was very cold last night, so he stayed in barn with the ewes in one of the empty lambing jugs.  We moved him to his permanent home with the rest of the boys early this morning.

Meet and sniff.

It looked like it was going well at first.  The whole gang sniffed him, and everyone seemed content.  Yeti seemed especially fond of Sally, and Gunpowder was very gentle with him.  But after the others were grazing, Pecan started to harass Yeti.  We're keeping an eye on the situation.  (My eyes are very busy between watching the ewes for labor signs and the boys for bad behavior.)

One Cranky Llama and Many Large Sheep

Where's the llama?

Hint: He's the big brown thing.

Oh, there he is!

Cranky llama.

He's a bit grumpy because the new hay bale did not go in the barn.  With all the lambing paraphernalia set up, there's just not room.  We'll be hauling it into the barn, bit by bit, but Barack isn't quite so sure.  It seems he thinks it's all for Snowball and the boys (and the cow). 

Snowball in the "greener" pasture.

 In other news, the ewes keep getting bigger and bigger....some more than others.  The shocking part?  We have a week to go until our first due date--and that due date does not belong to Sandy, Elsie, or even Czadas.

Large white sheep: Sandy and Elsie

Czadas: Black sheep can be huge, too.

In my last post, I talked a bit about behavior changes.  Here's some proof: Tricot tormenting a cow. Both the cow and I were shocked....but in completely different ways.
 

"This is my pasture, bovine!" Tricot.

 Elvira is just as surprised as I am.

"I can't baalieve it," Elvira.

(Henrietta's) Expanding Belly

There's a little over a week until our first lambs are scheduled to arrive.  The way things look in the pasture, it might be a little sooner.  There are a lot of enormous bellies, milk-filled udders, and strange behaviors out there.  I don't remember it happening last year, but the ewes are fighting each other--some more than others and not the usual suspects.  The ewes often found fighting are all acting mellow.

This post was supposed to be about everyone, but most of the pictures I've taken recently are a little too close up.   But I have tons of pictures of Henrietta. 

"Don't interrupt--a pregnant gal needs to eat!"

She's been spending a lot of time snuggled with Macadamia.

Henrietta is Barack's favorite sheep.

We'll move from the tiniest ewe to the biggest one....Elsie!  Compare these two pictures of Elsie, taken less than a week apart.  She's enormous....and growing more enormous by the day.

Last week

Last night

Naughty Lambs

The lambs were really, really badly behaved on shearing day.  They were fine during their long wait (except Pistachio--she attempted to knock the barn down), but when it was their turn to be sheared, most of them freaked out.  We should have known by the crazy look in Pistachio's eye...

Macadamia & Pistachio: beware the crazy sheep.

Now that they've been sheared, we can get a better idea of their grown-up coloring.  Some of the "brown lambs" aren't quite so brown. 

Cashew looks more and more like Calico

...And I'm still confused about Filly's coloring.

A brown rainbow: Tiffany, Pistachio, & Filly

Acorn, on the other hand, is darker.

"Badly behaved lambs?  You've got to be kidding me!"

No huge surprises from the boys, Almond and Pecan.  Almond's fleece is even nicer than I expected.  Pecan's fleece is not really black; it's really dark, dark gray--not a very dramatic difference.

Almond: chunky around the middle just like mamma.

Pecan: Taking after his Icelandic side

Peanut is still white (and she's nearly as big as her mamma, Elvira).

Peanut: Another mini-Sandy

Macadamia chose not to pose.  Perhaps she is feeling insecure about her tininess?

Whoa, Momma

Shearing day was yesterday.  It was quite a day, and it will take me a few days to cover the highlights.  First, the ewes:  under the sheep coats and wool, we discovered lots of big, round bellies! 

If you think Elsie's belly is impressive, you should see her udders.

 Czadas's belly might be the most enormous, even though she's the fifth ewe due.  The boys have started calling her Czadas Hippopotamus.  

Henrietta doesn't look like much from the front...

...but from the back, she looks like a blueberry with four toothpicks stuck into it...with a coating of hay on top, of course.

Elvira looks dainty by comparison.  Trust me, she's not.

Tricot has longer of a wait than the aforementioned ewes, so she's quite a bit smaller.

We're not sure how long Hazel has to go.  It won't be in the next week or two, but other than that it's hard to say.

Tiffany definitely has a baby bulge.  (Did she borrow Filly to practice mothering?)

 Theresa's belly is barely visible, but it's there!

Is Calico brewing more mischief inside of her?  It appears so. 

As for Sandy, I'm not sure.  I know, you're looking at this picture and thinking I've lost my mind.  A few facts: Sandy is always a bit of a chunky gal and her belly was flopping around in ways that lambs do not when she was being sheared.  Seeing this does make me wonder because how else could her belly go out to one side completely on its own? 

Gunpowder has done his job, and now he will take a rest and chew his cud.

3 Weeks to Go: Tiffany & Theresa

Tiffany & Theresa: Beggars

Tiffany is another one of the Shetland ewes we brought home in October.  Tiffany is almost three years-old and this will be her first year having a lamb.

Tiffany

Tiffany is very friendly.  She's one of the first ewes to come up to me when I enter the pasture.  It's most likely for the peanuts, which she acquired a taste for right away.  She's friendly enough that I've gotten my hands on her belly.  It feels like there might be a lamb in there!  (Of course, this is a highly unscientific method of pregnancy detection.)

Tiffany getting close to the source of the peanuts.

Theresa has been with us since the beginning. This will be her first year having a lamb, too; she was too young last year. She had a bit of a freak out during lambing season last year; hopefully, she'll catch on to what's happening before it's her turn this year.

Theresa: She's all grown up now.

Theresa can be friendly--she's usually right alongside Tiffany begging for peanuts--but she's also the most skittish sheep we have.  She hears the slightest noise or sees the slightest movement, she's off.  There's no chance of getting my hands on her belly.  I've tried to sneak up on her, and it is impossible.

Theresa: Up and ready to run.

Cleaning out the Barn

(In pictures.  It is busy season, after all.)

Macadamia decides to stay in the barn with us.

The chickens love barn cleaning day.

Georgia takes a break to lay an egg--in the hay feeder.

As usual, Barack "helps."

Maybe he'd like his stall cleaned, too?

Barack escapes and must endure the walk of shame.

Eek!  The bull thinks we have hay.

 The barn is too busy so Macadamia squeezes under the coop instead.