Another Busy Week: Pawlonia, Sequoia, & Marble

Pawlonia lambed on Tuesday afternoon.  Although it was a completely normal birth, it took awhile.  Pawlonia's lamb is a small brown ewe.  She could stay solid brown, but more likely, she will look like her mother.  We've named her Wren.

On Wednesday afternoon, Sequoia lambed.  After a long wait, I decided to intervene.  I pulled her lamb.  It was definitely necessary to save both Sequoia and her lamb. Sequoia's lamb is a huge white ram.  After much debate and a few name changes, we've named him Pelican.

On Friday morning, I released Marble back into the pasture with the rest of the ewes.  She was seven days overdue (that's a lot for a sheep), so I thought perhaps I was wrong about her due date.  When preparing to leave for an appointment, I saw Marble in the middle of the pasture with a lamb.  There was quite a bit of drama as the boys and I hiked across the pasture, gathered up the lamb, led Marble to the barn, and in the process, lost my cell phone.  The cell phone has been recovered, and we managed to get Marble and her lamb into their jug. 

Marble's lamb is a ewe.  We've named her Kestrel.

Acacia: A Little Weird, But Mostly Wonderful

Acacia was acting a little odd Sunday morning, so we put her in a lambing jug and went to church.  When we arrived home, I went to the barn to check on her.  It seemed like nothing was happening. About fifteen minutes later, I was watching the video monitor and noticed something small in her jug.  Acacia's lamb?  Another lamb sticking it's head through the jug?  I headed to the barn (again), and I was right about both things....

Eagle checks out Acacia and her new lamb, Dove.

We suspected that Acacia was having twins, but as time passed, I thought maybe we'd been wrong.  (We've been wrong before.) After multiple solo trips to the barn, I took the whole gang with me to check on Acacia.  My oldest son said, "She had another lamb!"  Two hours had passed between lamb one and lamb two....Definitely a Sleepy Acres record!

Swan

Both of Acacia's lambs are white ewes.  The firstborn is Dove; her much later sister is Swan. 

Dove (sitting) & Swan (standing)

It's going to difficult to tell these two apart when they are a little older!

Proud mom Acacia

(Mostly) Lamb Pictures

While we're waiting on more lambs to arrive...

Adelie

Merlin

Lamb attack!

Merganser

This chicken flew over the fence to get to ... gravel?!?!

Marble is expecting her lamb any day now.

Henrietta jealously watches the lambs.

Molly with everyone's lambs...

Molly with Sandpiper (one of her own lambs)

A Very Busy Week

There's been a lot going on in the past couple of weeks.

Last week, I had the flu.  I asked the ewes to wait to start lambing until I felt better.  By the time Mimosa lambed Saturday, I was feeling a little better.  

Eagle, Mimosa's lamb, has already begun to lighten.

Sassy lambed around dinnertime on Monday.  Although her lamb was positioned properly, he was enormous so we needed to pull him. 
Sassy's lamb is a single ram.  He's solid dark brown.  It doesn't look like he will lighten much.  We've named him Budgerigar (a type of small parrot).  We call him "Budgie" and the boys sometimes call him "Fudgie Budgie."  He's a big guy with a big personality and a lot of energy!
Budgie was a result of the Halloween ram break-in.   Now we know who the mystery father is: Budgie is a lot like Clove.

Budgerigar, a.k.a. Budgie

Molly lambed on Tuesday afternoon.  She was very overdue.  Molly had twins: a brown ewe with a few white spots on her head and a black ram with a lot of black spots on his head.  We've named the ewe Sandpiper (and we plan to call her Piper) and the ram Cormorant.

Sandpiper and Cormorant

Beryl lambed the same evening (Tuesday), right around bedtime.  She quickly delivered a single ewe lamb.  Adelie (a variety of penguin) is black with a lot of white markings on her head.

Beryl licks Adelie

Adelie

Myrtle lambed around midnight on Wednesday night.  She had a single ram lamb.  He is dark brown with a white head--exactly like his father Cypress!   We've named him Osprey.

Osprey

Osprey again

A few hours later, our youngest son woke us up complaining about belly pains.  To make a long story short, he had appendicitis and we spent two and a half days at the hospital while he recovered from his appendectomy.


Meanwhile...On Friday morning, Czadas surprised us with a black and white spotted ewe.  We've named her Oriole. 

Oriole in a bowl

Oriole

On Saturday morning, Tiffany had twin rams.  They look a lot a like.  They are both solid dark brown.  One (Hawk) is quite a bit bigger than the other.  The smaller twin, Merlin, is having some problems--mainly he's not as perky and playful as the other lambs.  We're keeping an eye on him. 

Tiffany, Hawk, & Merlin

We returned home Saturday afternoon.  While checking on Merlin at midnight, we discovered Elvira with two lambs--an all-over spotted ewe and a black ram with some spots on his head.  The ewe's name is Meadowlark (Lark) and the ram's name is Merganser. 

Merganser

Meadowlark

We have about a two week pause, then there are five more ewes due to lamb--if we've had no more barn break-in surprises.