Mostly About Horns

Horn Drama
Remember Chipotle breaking off a horn?  Now he's managed to break off the other one.  (Although the originally broken one--the longer one in this picture--seems to be doing well.)  We're considering him for a replacement ram because he has a lovely fleece and is not related to too many of the ewes (like the boys on our sale page). 

Chipotle, destroyer of horns

Clove's horns look great.

Clove is getting to be a big guy.

Lavender's horns look great, too.  Wait, you might be thinking, Lavender is an ewe!  Shetland ewes sometimes have horns, and Lavender is our first one with honest-to-goodness horns. 

Lavender: How cute do her horns look?!?

Goodbye, Pepper

Pepper was the first lamb of the season to find new home.  He didn't seem to realize how lucky he is to be going off to be a pet sheep.  Marble, his mother, was a tiny bit freaked out last night but seemed fine this morning.  I was worried that it would be like the year we sold Tricot's wether, Slate, and she (loudly) looked for him for days and days. 

"Um, where's my lamb?"

"Whew, it's nice to not be nursing someone with horns!"

Getting Friendlier
Pawlonia has never been skittish, but she's never been the kind of ewe to hang out with people (unlike Henrietta and Czadas!).  Last night, she was hanging out with me...

Pawlonia: Looking just like mom and grandma.

...and again this morning.

 

Pawlonia

 She's also been hanging out with her grandma Hazel.  It's hilarious because they look so much alike.

And the biggest surprise of all-- one of Elsie's girls is getting (somewhat) friendly!  Or maybe she's just figured out where the food comes from.  Vanilla is the smartest lamb out of this year's bunch.

Vanilla Bean checks me out while the rest of the lambs eat.

Elsie's ewes: Cinnamon Bark & Vanilla Bean

And just because...some of the grown-up wethers and rams. 

Yeti, Spruce, Cypress, & Almond

Hairy Legs and Other Crazy Animals

The llamas were sheared last week.  They were not well-behaved.  Barack O'Llama's legs are just a bit hairy...

Hairy legs...

...but Snowball kushed (laid down) and refused to have his belly or legs sheared at all.  It doesn't matter if they look silly, though.  There's enough fleece removed that they shouldn't be getting hot.

Snowball: hairy legs and hairy belly

"It's a good thing I'm cute!" Snowball

Last night, we went to the pasture--Scott to dig up some thistles, me to try to get those pictures I've been promising. 

Tiffany decided to eat a thistle.

Yum, yum...

Maybe it''s what makes Tiffany tough?

I managed to get a good picture of Vanilla Bean.

Vanilla Bean, a.k.a. mini-Elsie

But not good pictures of Acacia and Wasabi, two of the three I was aiming for.  They're especially hard to photograph because, from certain angles, they look so much like some of the other sheep.

Wasabi's rear view.

Acacia leaping through the air.

Then I saw the first picture I took.  It's a terrible pictures, but there are Acacia and Wasabi!  (Of course, it was supposed to be a picture of Mace.)

Wasabi (little white ram), Acacia (brown gulmoget ewe)

 Other pictures...

Pepper and mom Marble

Chamomile

The Boys

Chipotle broke off one of his wee little horns.

Oregano....

and Oregano again.  He's really growing fast!

 Clove, contemplating what sort of mischief to get into.

Cilantro refuses to look at the camera, but Bergamot seems to enjoy modeling.

No pictures of Wasabi who somehow managed to scrape his face.  It's not very bad, and he's healing quickly.

The Girls

I thought Tiffany felt like posing last night...

...but it turned out she just wanted to sniff the Mule.  Perhaps she was checking for snacks?

Henrietta sees a peanut and really, really wants it.

There's a boy in this picture (more about him in the next post), but look behind him to see how scruffy Elsie looks!

Cinnamon Bark, her lamb, doesn't look scruffy at all.

Chamomile is determined not to make eye contact with me. She is shy, for now. 

Overall, the girls have been on their best behavior.  Not so the boys...

Pictures, As Promised

Bergamot

Marble, Pepper, & Cayenne

Theresa, Elsie, & their lambs

Beryl with Mace & Wasabi

Mace & Wasabi

Selfie with Molly

Coriander

(Not Very Serious) Accidents

Yesterday morning, we found one of the new chicks floating in the sheep water.

 (Have I even mentioned the new chicks?  A brief tangent from the tale... We brought six day old chicks home right before lambing began.  There are two each Easter Eggers, Barred Rocks, and Buff Orpingtons.  They are named Rose, Martha, Donna, Clara, Amelia, and River (for those of you who don't know, those are characters from Doctor Who).  They moved to the barn last weekend, where they have their own creep pen--a place they can run into but the other animals--even chickens--cannot.)

The nearly-drowned chick (Donna) was still alive, but soaking wet and not moving.  It took us a few minutes to come up with a plan, and I ended up wearing her in one of the slings in which I used to carry the boys when they were babies.  No pictures--I was still wearing my Cookie Monster PJ pants (it's hard to shower with a chicken strapped to you).

After a while in the sling, she started to show more signs of life.  We put her under the heat lamp (it's a good thing we hadn't gotten around to putting it away yet!), and within about another hour, she was ready to go back to the barn.  Now she looks like this:

Rose and Donna (the Barred Rock)

She's the Barred Rock.  Barred Rocks are quite sturdy chickens.  Floppy is still going strong(ish), too.  (And neither of the chicks laid the egg in the picture.  For some reason, they decided to hang out on a nest.)

Lavender had an accident, too.  Every year one of the lambs (or sometimes even one of the older ones) rips out an ear tag.  Because they are registered, they have to be tagged as soon as they are out of the lambing jug.   It's why we've been tagging both ears: it's unpleasant to ear tag a lamb, but really, really, really not fun to ear tag a fully grown sheep. 

Lavender usually sticks close to mom Cashew....

....and sometimes she brings some friends along.

Lavender, minus one ear tag.

I have a lot of other pictures to share, but I feel like I've been going on and on....  I'll have more lamb pictures up in a few days!

It's Odd...Or Maybe Not

Chipotle and Cayenne

Theresa's lambs are both friendly.  It's odd because she's a bit on the skittish side.   Sometimes, though, she does surprise us.

Cayenne checks out what her brother is doing.

Chipotle thinks my hands are udders.  Ow.

Theresa doesn't get as close as her lambs.

Chipolte and Cayenne's visit was interrupted by Barack O'Llama, who wanted all the attention.  I ate banana bread before going to the pasture, something I will never do again.  He was convinced I had bananas on my person-- or at least should have.

"Those are my bananas!"

One of Pistachio's lambs is in the creep feeder.  Most of the lambs have figured it fairly easily compared to years past -- whew!

Cilantro has all the food to himself.

Pistachio is trying to get in...but not for her lambs.  She's all about the food. 

Pistachio demonstrates how the creep feeder works.

 We'll forgive Pistachio for being obnoxious, because her lambs are gorgeous.  Here's Pistachio's other lamb, Coriander.

Coriander.  His fleece is fantastic!

Chamomile stays will her mom most of the time, unlike the little ram lambs.  They're like a little posse--until they're hungry.

Chamomile and Oregano stick with their mothers.

Hazel is looking pregnant.  Unfortunately, this is not too odd due to the ram breaks in January and February.  I'm hoping she's just fat, like Elsie who still looks pregnant. 

Chunky Hazel