A Rainbow of Lambs

Acacia

Pawlonia, Filly, & a chicken

Sycamore

Acacia (again) & Mahogany

I leave my chair for one minute... (Maggie)

Aspen

Sycamore, Willow, Linden, Mahogany

New fun toy: the bucket.  (Pawlonia, Spruce, Bucky)

Sassy

It's harder than you might think to get pictures of this guys (and girls).  They're usually running in a pack, like this:

A Sea of Little Brown Lambs

Spruce isn't that little.  He is one of the youngest lambs, but also one of the biggest. 

 Sycamore and Sassy are getting pretty big, too.  (Sycamore is the one who is eating.)

The boys are begging me to keep Sequoia.  Why?  She's a cutie, but....

 ...she's also quite friendly.

All the other lambs want to see what the fuss is all about.

Pawlonia is thinking about being friendly.  Even thinking about being friendly at this age it pretty amazing considering how shy her momma Filly as a lamb!

Lambapalooza 2015

We've been very, very busy here the past week or so. 

Tricot lambed Wednesday evening.  She had a single lamb we've named Spruce.  Spruce is big, bouncy brown ram.  Tricot is very excited to be a mother (again), but she's still trying to lick all the lambs. 

Finally, her own baby to lick!

Spruce & Tricot

Theresa lambed Friday morning.  (She ate her breakfast between delivering her water bag and her lamb! Not what I expected from a shy gal like Theresa.)  Theresa had a single, solid black ram lamb.  We've named him Mesquite, even though he's fairly mild-mannered so far.

See Hazel having breakfast in the background?

Mesquite & Theresa

Calico lambed in the middle of the night, very early on a Saturday morning.  (I'm a little annoyed with Calico as she managed to lamb during the daylight hours in 2013 and 2014.)  Another single ram lamb--this one is almost solid white, with a black nose and some light brown spots on his legs. His name is Hawthorn.  Apparently, if you lamb in the middle of the night, you miss out on the birthing glamor shot.  All I have is a picture of little Hawthorne, a day or so old.

Hawthorn

Czadas lambed early Sunday morning.  I thought Hazel was in labor, but when I went to the barn, Hazel was stuck on her back (but not in labor) and Czadas was running around with her water bag hanging out.  Czadas had a single ewe (hallelujah) lamb.  Sequoia looks just like Mommy, but brown.
 

Czadas, Sequoia, and Barack O'Llama

Sequoia waiting for Czadas to finish eating.

Meanwhile... On Saturday, our neighbor told us that Myrtle was limping.  Scott found that she had a broken front leg.  (We're not sure what happened.  I was in the barn and the field most of the day, checking on Czadas and Hazel.  It must have happened on one of my brief forays to the house.)  Our vet was out of town, so the UT Emergency Field Vets came, x-rayed her, and put on a cast.  They returned on Sunday to try to line up the break more evenly, but it wasn't possible.  Myrtle had surgery at the UT Large Animal Hospital Monday. She did well and should be coming home later today.

Myrtle with cast #2.

Meanwhile....  Hazel lambed Monday morning.  (That's a euphemism for the middle of the night.  It's okay, because it's what she always does.  Hazel lambs at midnight like clockwork.)  More rams, but this time twin ram lambs (something we've never had, and they are wild already!).  First born is Cypress, who is absolutely beautiful.  He's dark, dark brown with white markings on his face.  Second is Cedar, who I've barely gotten a good look at--like his mother, he is a little shy. He is brown as well, with a small white marking on his head. 

A very tired Hazel lick, lick, licking.

Cypress

 In this midst of all this excitement: llama shearing on Monday night.  Although they were both cranky, Snowball and Barack O'Llama were fairly well behaved. 

"This is (one of) my cranky face(s)."

Filly, another fabulous first-timer

Filly lambed yesterday in the early afternoon.  She had a single ewe lamb.  She's brown and will most likely lighten and look like Filly.  My small helper named her Pawlonia. 

Tricot was standing by to "help," as usual.

We still have five ewes yet to lamb. They're all experienced mothers ... and they all have huge bellies!

Cashew is just like a pro

For a first timer, Cashew did a great job. She delivered lamb #1 around 6 AM (right in the middle of a thunderstorm!).  It's a little white girl who we've named Mimosa.  She looks just like daddy Feldspar.

There was no long wait for lamb #2.  Cashew's second lamb is a black ewe with gorgeous spots on her head.  We've named her Myrtle. I'm not sure if she will stay black or lighten up. 

Cashew had her little ewes up and nursing in no time.  It's impressive, especially considering that these girls were quite a bit early.  The other great thing about Cashew: she's so calm when I need to work with her and her lambs. 

Pistachio keeps us guessing

We didn't know Pistachio's due date because she was not marked (read about marking harnesses here if you don't know what I'm talking about). Presumably, the weather was too cold for the crayon to work. 
Going by her appearance, we've been watching her for about five days. 

When I went to the barn to check on Macadamia this morning, I saw that Pistachio was having contractions as well.  She didn't seem to be pushing too hard, so I thought she might have awhile.  Next time I looked, I saw her water bag.  Within fifteen minutes, her first lamb was out and the second followed less than five minutes later. 

Firstborn is a ewe lamb who looks exactly like momma.  She's brown with sugar lips, so she'll probably look exactly like momma when she grows up, too.  We've named her Laurel.

Laurel was followed by a big ram lamb.  He's mostly brown, and he's already starting to lighten up.  We've named him Linden.

Pistachio was a little freaked out at first (compounded by the fact that it's almost impossible to keep birthing fluids --and smells-- separate when lambing is occurring simultaneously), but she's doing fine now.

Macadamia has help

I heard tell-tale moaning coming from the barn this morning, and I could see on the monitor that it was not Pistachio.  I ran out to see who it was and found Macadamia with a baby on the way.  Macadamia wasn't due until next Tuesday, so it was a surprise.  (Anyone other than Pistachio would have been a surprise!)  Pistachio was also laboring, but more about that in a later blog post.

Macadamia was in the barn with Tricot.  She's been by the side of every ewe who has lambed so far this year (except for Tiffany, not sure why).  Macadamia delivered her lamb all by herself, but Tricot did help her with the licking.

 I put Macadamia and baby in a jug, and Tricot transferred her licking attentions to Pistachio's offspring.

Macadamia's lamb is a ewe.  She's all brown.  She looks like daddy Feldspar did when he was a lamb, except for the fact that she's not white.  We've named her Willow.

Willow is a bit of a preemie, but so far she's doing great.  Macadamia is an enthusiastic (and loud) mother.