Saturday, February 28, 2015

Snow Llama...Or Not

Barack seems to like the snow...


But Snowball would rather stay in the shelter.


The soon-to-be mommies don't even seem to notice it.

Czadas

Tricot

Peanut (with proof that she slept outside)

Pistachio (with proof that she'd been snacking on snow)
The boys, on the other hand, seem to love it.

The boys are frisky.

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Ice Storm

Sandy & the ewe lambs.
Yeti is the only one who doesn't like the ice & snow.

Pregnant ladies: Macadamia, Peanut, Hazel, & Elsie

Henrietta

We're thrilled that it did not did the fence....
...Barack is thrilled to have a tasty snack,

And I have no idea what Snowball has been eating!

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Getting Ready

We're getting ready for spring.  The garden is underway.  We've done a little bit outside; most of our work has been inside, planning our layout, our planting dates, and ordering our seeds.

Snowball loves gardening.
It's a little over a month until our first expected lamb.  (It might seem a little early to go through lambing supplies, but we wanted to have plenty of time to order whatever we need.) We keep our lambing supplies in three 5-gallon buckets: mommy, baby, and general health.  The buckets are great because they are easy to carry where you need them, and you can sit on them.  The mommy bucket has things we might need during lambing: gloves, scalpels, a pulling rope, Nutri-Drench, and SuperLube.  The baby bucket has after-lambing supplies: a hanging scale and a lamb sling to go with it, Triodine and a navel cup, scissors, lamb jackets, and more gloves.  Our general health bucket has things we might need all year round, as well as the elastrator and ear tagging supplies.  There's also a big box of old towels, and I carry a backpack all the time during lambing season.  There are more gloves, more towels, Managing Your Ewe and Her Newborn Lambs, my cell phone, and a clipboard with the ewe's breeding sheets.  (There's usually a few snacks for humans, water bottles, and some easy knitting and/or spinning in case I'm in the barn a long time.)

Clipboard with breeding sheet.
 While we were doing this, the children did this:

"Stop playing with my food!" Barack O'Llama
 Elsie is getting ready for lambing, too.  She's huge!  I know I say this all time, but this year, her baby bump is enormous--visible before shearing and from a distance.  Or, she's just really, really fat.

My opposite ewes: Elsie & Henrietta
Peanut