On Sunday, Mother’s Day, Nanoo Nanoo died.

She had not been well much of this year, but she seemed to be improving, at least until the last couple of weeks. Over the last few days she seem to retreat into her own private world. On Saturday, the retired ewes had their first day on pasture. When it was time to rush through the open barn door, Nanoo Nanoo stayed behind. It was a joyous day for the remainder of the flock. For us it was a day tempered by the condition of our old friend. The next morning she could no longer get up. Paul, one of our friendly vets, was kind enough to come out to the farm help put Nanoo Nanoo quietly to sleep.

When Nanoo Nanoo was born on March 15 in 2002 I was privileged enough to be there. For Mindy, her mother, this was her first lambing. It went so smoothly that all I needed to do was stand aside and watch. Within a half an hour Nanoo Nanoo had gotten up and nursed well and vigorously. When she was done with her drink, she walked over to me as if to say “Hi mister, it’s good to meet you.” Our friendship was sealed.

She had her own special personality and the ability to seemingly communicate with anyone. She was a peaceful creature who never seemed to quarrel with any other member of the flock. She was never the leader of the flock. Nor was she ever the overly friendly greeter when guests came to visit, but she would eventually show up for “conversation”, once the initial excitement settled down.

The void of silence that she leaves behind her in the barn and on pasture will take a long while to fill. May her spirit find a lush green pasture to safely graze upon. Farewell dear friend.

We are hopeful that very soon the flock will begin their regular spring grazing schedule. In a normal year that event usually occurs about the beginning of the third week of May. This year has been so messed up seasonally, it was anyone’s guess where we would be at this point. The record breaking warmth of March got everything growing, well in advance of normal dates. April returned to more seasonal temperatures. (It was actually a colder month than March.) For April we repeatedly experienced overnight frosts; in the last week of the month it got into the 20°s (F). The cold overnight temperatures, coupled with virtually no rain, slowed any pasture growth to a near halt. It remains to be seen how much damage the cold did to fruit crops in the county. We are very thankful that we began May with more rain than the entire month of April. Finally, the pastures are responding. There soon should be enough growth that it will not be harmed by “eager eater” sheep.

Most of the wild flowers are blooming well ahead of schedule. It is strange to see Trout Lilies blooming in April. This one, next to the stone fence in the 4th pasture, was in full boom in April.

Adding fuel to the accelerating pace of spring was our annual announcement of fleeces being available for purchase. Most of the 129 or so fleeces were sold in a couple of days in mid-April. If you are in the market for beautiful Corriedale fleeces, we have a number of colored fleeces still for sale. They are listed and described on our Colored Wool page. The bulk of the fleeces that have been purchased have already been shipped to their new home. The first shipment looks very “un-fleece” like sitting on the front porch waiting to be picked up. The bulging boxes are telltale signs that the fleeces are trying to escape.

At least the boxes were gone before the B&B opened. We are now open and enjoying our first wave of guests for the season. In addition, this coming week Gretchen and friends will be dyeing our yarn in a large, intensive project.  Our hopes are that the new batch of naturally dyed yarn will be ready for sale when we open the Gallery on Friday, May 18th.

Not to be outdone by our efforts, the most recent wave of seasonal migrants in the bird world have arrived. This week has been marked by the arrival of the Cliff Swallows, the last of the swallows species that nest on the farm. The Tree Swallows and Barn Swallows are already busy with nest building. The White-crowned Sparrows arrived a couple of days ago, like this handsome guy on the steps to the barn.

Even the Monarch Butterflies are back. We saw our first arrival on May 3rd, a good three weeks early! The pace does quicken!

As much as we would like to see the sheep on pasture, it is still too early in terms of the pasture growth. The virtual lack of rain over the last couple of months has not helped in that regard. From the long term perspective, I have to keep reminding myself that the flock is normally not out on pasture until early May, at best. The flock is doing well, despite their being limited to wintertime rations. On occasion, a couple of ewes can be caught wistfully gazing out the door, but they seem content.

Tricia continues with her recovery, for which we are all very happy. A few days ago she was acting as if life would be better in the main pen with the rest of the ewes and their lambs. We were happy to oblige her. Her boys, Blimey and Boomer, have had more difficulty adapting to the move. Unlike the rest of the lambs, they did not get to acclimatize to a small group of ewes and lambs before joining the assembled group. They still seem a bit lost. They are also not getting the normal amount of milk that one would expect from Tricia. Her start was so slow that I suspect that she will never quite get up to where she normally would have been in terms of milk volume. We are just glad she is as well as she seems!

Lost in the frantic final days of lambing was Yoko’s transformation. It may be remembered that she was only allowing her lamb, Brewster, to nurse while she was also eating. As she moved into the larger group of ewes, we suddenly realized that we were seeing her allow Brewster to nurse normally when she herself was not eating. We theorize that she might have heard us grumbling about her questionable motherly performance and the possible unpleasant consequences of continuing as she had been. It is a pleasant sight to watch the two of them together.

On a different front, the double weave blanket was completed long ago. I just did not find time to write about it. It has already left for its permanent home.

It turned out well, especially considering the scope of the project and the fact that both of us, Lorrie, the spinner and myself, the weaver, had not tackled something so large, in terms of spinning, dyeing and weaving. At this point I would be remiss if I did not give credit to the other two major contributors, Quiche

and Uhlayla. Without the two of them we would have had nowhere to start and nowhere to go.

This week we will be offering our 2012 fleeces for sale. If you are interested in purchasing one or more of our Corriedale fleeces, visit our Fleece page. It will be updated on April 18th, Wednesday morning at 10:00 AM CDT. At that time it will show the new fleeces that are available and will direct you to the appropriate lists of fleeces. We will not be taking any orders prior to that time. Gretchen and I look forward to discussing fleeces with you Wednesday morning.

With the birth of Winkie’s Binky exactly a week ago, the barn was left without anymore pregnant ewes. The most immediate result for us was that I was no longer having to awake at 2 AM to check on the barn. Based upon the peaceful nature of the barn over the next few mornings, it was evident that the ewes and lambs were also glad to be enjoying more uninterrupted sleep. All of us, sheep, human and feline, have benefited from the extra rest. With the final birth out of the way we also needed to move to a post-lambing routine.

Besides the usual morning and evening feedings, the new moms need more attention than they otherwise would get. We are now giving them extra hay in late morning and before bedtime. While they are in separate mixing pens, each group drinks from manually filled water buckets. These buckets need to be checked at the extra feedings to make sure they are sufficiently full and clean. Feeding time is also a good time to “check bags”. It is important to make sure that each ewe is being evenly milked out by the lambs. A lopsided udder may mean that either a lamb is not nursing or the ewe is not letting the lamb nurse or is not producing milk on that side. Any of these situations may mean that the ewe could have mastitis, or a teat injury, or that one of her lambs is not well. To date, all of the udders are looking good and the lambs seem to be nursing well. Some are growing better than others, but this is to be expected. We are disappointed in the growth of a couple of lambs to date, but as a group they are doing well. This photo shows that moms and lambs prefer to eat at separate feeders if afforded the opportunity. (I must admit that I would just as soon not eat at a table with children crawling on top!) It also shows why this is a good time to check bags.

Tricia is still with us. Her recovery has been slow but it seems to be progressing. (For the first few days we honestly were not too hopeful that she was going to make it.) She is now finished with her course of antibiotics. The sutures that kept her uterus from popping out have now been removed. The biggest challenge has been to get her to eat. To begin with she had virtually no appetite. We feared that all of the antibiotics were also destroying the good bacterial flora in her rumen. For a few days she received a dose of probiotic (a paste with live, naturally occurring microorganisms, i.e. a fancy yogurt). The combination of probiotic and suture removal finally seemed to make Tricia’s appetite improve. We also sought out a source of high quality second crop hay for her, since we had none of our own from last haying season. She now has her own private organic, lush green hay, compliments of Gary, the diary farmer I used to work for. Ever so slowly Tricia is eating more each day. She still does not have the appetite one would expect of a ewe in early lactation. Nonetheless we are hopeful for her.

Tricia is at least producing milk. It is not in the normal quantity but it is enough to kept her two boys, Blimey and Boomer going. We are trying to convince them to also drink from supplemental bottles until mom’s milk supply kicks in. So far we are having mixed results with the bottles.

Two days ago we combined the first two mixing pens. This morning we took down the third and last mixing pen. Now all the ewes with lambs (excluding Tricia) are together in a single large pen which takes up nearly half of the barn. It is such a joy for the lambs to have the extra space. There are anxious moments when the fences come down and the lambs and moms “loose” each other. Within a couple of hours everything is settled and happy. All the extra play also wears a lamb down. A nap in the sun is always nice!

The two of us are trying to turn our attention to other matters. We are close to being ready to offer our fleeces for sale. Last year’s customers will be hearing from us very soon. Notices will also go out to others who have expressed an interest in purchasing a fleece or two. Thank you all, in advance, for your patience.

We have also been “tweaking” our website and blog. There have been some changes in both appearance and content. Most significantly, we have added a Mercantile page. We are now offering our mill spun yarn and roving for sale online. We still have a few corrections to make to the website, but we are getting there.

Thanks for being with us during lambing!

Overnight I planned to check on Tricia at 1 AM. Unexpectedly the old alarm clock failed to go off then. A little subconscious voice told me to wake up, but it was already 3 AM. In the barn, Tricia was looking very uncomfortable but did not appear in labor. I set the alarm for 6 AM; it failed again! I awoke at 7:30 AM and made a quick dash to the barn. Tricia was where I had left her earlier, but was doing some straining, without signs of anything coming out! We made a quick decision that Tricia’s problems were beyond our expertise and therefore called for veterinary help. Despite a very heavy, wet snow that decided to start this morning, Paul was able to get here quickly. He brought along a vet student, Allison, who was on spring break. It was fortuitous that she came, as it turned out we needed all the hands we had available.

Paul was eventually able to assist the delivery of a large ram lamb. The lamb was a breach presentation (tail first, no back legs present), which is why Tricia had not progressed. That is also one of the most difficult and dangerous assisted deliveries to perform; it is definitely beyond our skills. Having successfully gotten the lamb started, Paul went back in for a normal presentation delivery of a second ram lamb. Paul also was concerned that all was not right inside Tricia. So after getting number two started Paul again went back in for an exploratory exam. He found that Tricia’s uterus was torn and that intestines were trying to enter the cavity. The only way to try to repair the tear is to prolapse the uterus outside the ewe, stitch up the tear and then re-insert the uterus, suturing up the opening so that the ewe cannot push anything and everything back out. None of the above is an easy proposition for a vet. Paul was hopeful that he had succeeded when he was through. Tricia was still not safe. Even if the surgical corrections hold up, the risk of infection is large. The amount of stress that she had been under also is extreme. After giving Tricia a battery of medications Paul was done. By 9:45 Tricia had her head up and was licking the lambs (albeit weakly!).

We thawed the last of our supply of frozen sheep colostrum and tube fed both lambs. It was the energy drink they desperately needed. By 11:30 Tricia was able to get up long enough to get a good drink of water. During the next half hour she got up twice, but was too weak to stay up very long. By 2 PM we decided that we had to move Tricia and the lambs from the birthing area (which we had fenced off from the rest of the flock). It was in a cool area; it was damp from all the surgery and treatment, and not a quiet place for the three. We were able to get Tricia up again and then gingerly walked her to a clean jug, with her leaning more on me than anything else. We at least made it. Once there she stayed up long enough for both lambs to try and nurse. The rest of the afternoon she was down. Close to 4 PM she began shivering, probably a sign of shock. We called Paul, who returned and got Tricia set up with an IV of dextrose and electrolytes. The two of us then sat with her for the next 45 minutes as the IV bag slowly drained into her. The fluid seemed to help. By the end of evening chores (which ran late, past 7 PM) she briefly got up on her own. At the 10 PM barn check she again got up on her own, ate some minerals, and a bit of hay. She had already drunk some water and eaten some hay before 10 PM. Even with the lambs getting in some nursing, we figured that it was not the normal amount, so we again tube fed them before bedtime.

Tricia is by no means “out of the woods”. It is going to be a difficult recovery. For us it was a totally draining day, both physically and emotionally.

Saturday, March 31st: We honestly did not expect to find Tricia alive this morning, but there she was at 6 AM! She got her morning medications while she was still lying down, but then got up as we were feeding everyone else. She ate a bit of grain, then some hay, had a drink and then returned to the hay. None of these activities were vigorous, but still a hopeful sign.

I neglected to relate that yesterday was also a miserable day, weather wise. While we were all treating Tricia, we experienced a heavy wet snow outside. By noon it was all but over and slowly starting to melt. The overnight lows were not as extreme as originally predicted. Hopefully it did not get cold enough to seriously damage lots of the bulbs on the trees and alfalfa. The previous evening we cut the daffodils which were in full bloom next to the house. The early tulips would have to fend for themselves. Apparently the cold and snow did not do them harm. It is hard to believe looking, at this picture, that on Friday they were buried in wet snow.

Winkie is still playing the waiting game with us. I suspect she smiles at us every time we appear in the barn to check on her. At evening chores and later at bedtime barn check Tricia was up and eating.

Sunday, April 1st: Tricia is not quite as perky this morning, but she ends up eating and drinking a bit. Her lambs get to nurse. We do not know how much milk they get from Tricia but we suspect that her milk production is not where it normally would be. We continue to supplement the lambs for her. We were “socializing” with Hope this evening. It caused us to think that we have not had a medical problem as severe as Tricia’s since Hope was born 16 years ago. In that situation Hope’s mother, Candice, did not have the same problem, but she and Hope’s two brothers did not survive. I guess that we can be thankful that problems this severe have not been an annual event.

The other jug occupants are steadily moving into the last mixing pen. This morning it was Wobyn’s turn. Before the move she and her lambs, Batman and Bobbin, obliged us with the “cute picture of the day”.

Late, breaking news! (Why does this remind me of the Muppet show’s “This is a Muppet news flash!”? Probably fatigue)…. As we began weighing lambs this afternoon, Winkie went into labor. She had a nice, normal delivery. Binkie has arrived, and with him the lambing schedule is completed.Both are doing just fine.

Tuesday, March 27th: I think that the pace of the last few days is catching up with both of us. We are tired and my patience is wearing thin.

We are now at the point where any of the four remaining pregnant ewes could deliver. Winkie is the proverbial red herring in this equation. Based upon our breeding records she was due on March 12th. Obviously, our breeding records are wrong. Ulmer, the ram she was with, clearly marked her for that date. This was before we changed crayon colors so that we could catch re-marks. Winkie was never remarked. Nonetheless, she clearly looks and acts pregnant. We can extrapolate and add a full heat cycle to her first breeding date and then figure she was re-bred. Based upon that date, she would be due this Thursday, the 29th. Based upon the last possible date she was with Ulmer (or any other ram) she would be due on the 31st. Sometimes the delivery date is as much as 6 days after the due date. Will she string us out until April 5th?!

We checked one more ewe off the list this afternoon. Xanadu was building nests since a little before noon. Eventually we tired of repeatedly checking on her. She then delivered a huge ewe lamb at about 1:45 PM. It was obviously the first thing out of Xanadu (no fluids, no bags, just pure lamb!). She is another first timer. Bless her heart, she does a bang up job as a mother. She followed me into the jug quite nicely and retained all of her focus on taking care of her lamb. Mindy’s heritage shows through. Mindy is once again a great grandmother, which makes Nanoo Nanoo a grandmother again. Cheers to all concerned!

Wednesday, March 28th: Our problems with our website and with email are taking up much too much time, at a point when our patience for such things is much too short. At least the barn has settled down a lot these days, thankfully.

Paul, our vet, called us back today with further help regarding our pneumonia problems. The lab results are not yet back, but he has been talking with a sheep specialist/colleague at Ohio State Vet School. We now have some newer recommendations regarding medications and dosages.

Yippee is the last of our first time mothers. Early this afternoon she displayed all the signs that she was going to lamb. By 2:30 PM she was busy “talking” to her as yet unborn babe. Just as we were starting our afternoon lamb tagging, docking and weighing chores, Yippee went into active labor. She delivered a large, ewe lamb all on her own. She was a model mom and did all the right things.

Yesterday’s champion first time mother, Xanadu, decided to stretch our patience during evening chores. Before we could feed her, she jumped out of the jug. She then proceeded to desperately call for the lamb she left behind, almost as if she could not understand why it did not also clear the fence with her. We untied and opened the gate and back in Xanadu went. This scenario repeated itself four times (even after she got her dinner!) We finally took the time to set up a higher fence in front of her pen, which frustrated her efforts at last. Thankfully, by 10 PM she had relaxed, calmed down and seemed free of the gremlins that were bothering her earlier.

Thursday, March 29th: Today was a day for catching up. No lambs were born. Tricia and Winkie seem to just be biding their time. Over the last couple of days we put off trimming hooves and putting jackets on new moms. We have expanded the third mixing pen so we need to get a few more moms ready for their next big move. We moved Umeka and her two girls this morning. The two lambs were more than ready for the new adventure. Weft and her two little babes moved this evening. For them it was a bit scarier than it had been for Umeka’s girls, nonetheless, by bedtime they were settled in. The lambs in the first mixing pen are all doing quite well. It is hard to believe that we have already weighed 11 of them at their 15th day. Lots of tails have been lost in this group.

Wendolyn's Bryn keeps a wary eye on the shepherd when he is in the 1st mixing pen

This evening Tricia is behaving as if she may go soon. It figures…tonight we are supposed to get snow and sleet accompanied by strong east winds. Cold and damp here we come again!

Saturday, March 24th: Today was not particularly pleasant. Yesterday, we noticed that Zita’s lamb, Benita, was doing poorly. She is spending most of her time lying down and breathing heavily. We figure that she either has pneumonia which we have been trying to treat. The other alternative problem may be white muscle disease (a selenium and/or vitamin E deficiency). Last night we gave her a shot designed to boost the selenium and vitamin E. Unfortunately that treatment is more as a preventative rather than a cure. This morning Benita seems to be slowly shutting down.

Whatsits’ ram lamb is now showing symptoms similar to Benita’s, just not as severe. We started him on treatment for pneumonia. He has lost weight overnight. We therefore tube feed him some of the extra milk that we got from Whiskey a couple of days ago.

The day at least had a brighter note. This evening at 8:45 PM, Umeka delivered two very vigorous black ewe lambs. The first lamb learned to nurse before we could even get the three of them into a jug.

A good scene: young lambs eating solid food

Sunday, March 25th: At my 2 AM visit to the barn I was greeted by total chaos. Two ewes had recently lambed and all of the remaining ewes in the main pen were up and wired. Weft had managed to deliver a white ewe and colored ram near the back north wall, an area relatively protected form the general anarchy. Both lambs were well cleaned up and appeared to have already learned to nurse. It was a relatively easy task to get them into a jug. Ysabel, on the other hand, was in the middle of the barn making a terrible fuss about two ram lambs she had just delivered, neither of whom were staying put. Trying to collect her two lambs and get the family into a jug resulted in a general stampede. Luckily the lambs were not injured and we did eventually get them settled in a jug.

After we got everyone settled in the jugs and the main pen, we were able to check the mixing pens. As we feared, we found that Benita had died. (Since this is the second death due to similar symptoms we will have our vets perform a necropsy so that we can possibly treat the problem more effectively.) Zita is now very upset about Benita’s absence. It is especially hard when we consider how close they had become considering their shaky beginning.

Weft’s little ram is looking better. By this evening he had started to gain weight again.

Monday, March 26th: Today marks the beginning of the third week of lambing. This morning we still have six pregnant ewes. Today we set up the third and final mixing pen. Tilberta and Bert were the first residents. We then “bit the bullet” and moved Yoko and Brewster in with them. Theirs is a strange relationship. Brewster seems to only be able to nurse when Yoko is eating. At any other time she hops away from her boy. Somehow he manages to grow. Nonetheless, they always sleep close together. It will be interesting to see if these conditions continue once they are mixed in with more and more ewes and lambs.

By this afternoon Weft’s ram lamb has lost weight. He has diarrhea and is breathing heavily. Damn! here we go again. We took Benita’s body to the vets today. This afternoon Paul phoned with the initial necropsy results. She had acute pneumonia. At least we appear to have been treating for the correct problem. He is doing bacterial cultures and also sending samples to the Wisconsin State Veterinary Lab for further work. Hopefully this will tell us if we have a drug resistant bug that needs a different treatment.

It is going to be a long night! At 8:30 PM Wobyn quietly delivered a large, white ewe lamb. We commented  on how pleasant it was when things went well. Wobyn corrected us on that point. At 10 PM while making what we thought was a final barn check, Wobyn decided to deliver a second lamb, this time a ram. The delivery was backwards, which is probably the cause of the delay, but it went smoothly.

Uhlayla was building nests in the back of the barn as we dealt with Wobyn’s second lamb. Gretchen went for some much needed sleep. I opted to stay up to watch over Uhlayla. At 10:45 PM she delivered a large ram lamb. Ever so slowly she produced a second ram lamb by 11:15 PM. At least both lambs were vigorous and trying to nurse before they got into the jug.

At midnight, with no other ewes looking like labor was imminent, we opted to set the alarm for 6 AM.

Unfortunately we are not able to receive or send e-mail from this location or from home. Those of you who have tried to e-mail us yesterday (Tuesday, March 27th) or more recently, you will need to wait until we get back online, or you should telephone us. I will post something to the blog if and when our problems are resolved.

I have no idea when we will be back to normal. This problem could not have come at a worst time for us, since our primary concern is the welfare of our pregnant ewes and the newborn lambs. I was at least lucky enough to get away for these few minutes, a luxury I may not have for a while.

There were all sorts of little challenges today. Whiskey’s lambs had not been milking out the left half of her udder, contesting the right nipple and therefore letting the left side get over-filled. At a certain point that side becomes uncomfortable and Whiskey will not let them try to nurse the left side, even if they wish. Last night we spent some time milking out the left side. Whiskey was cooperative and provided over 2 cups of milk. This morning Brandy and Bud Light are nursing both sides! Hopefully the problem is solved and we will be able to move them into a mixing pen very soon.

Vinca’s second lamb, Bruno, had what appeared to be a slightly injured right rear hip (often due to a delivery problem and a situation that soon rights itself). Unfortunately he suddenly got worse the other night and seemed to have mobility problems with both back legs. We honestly did not expect to find him alive the next morning. We tried giving him a small shot of cortisone before bedtime. Amazingly he was much improved this morning. We are now quite hopeful for him.

Warp’s first triplet, Bippity has developed raspy breathing (probably due to fluid intake at birth). We are treating the problem like we would pneumonia. Time will tell on his progress.

Today we removed the last high panel in front of Zoe’s jug. She and her girl, Brie, are doing so well together that we now have Zoe in a jacket. The two of them will be moving to a mixing pen very soon. For that everyone is very happy.

We are not yet sure about Yoko’s relationship with her boy Brewster. She is still in the stanchion. We do not wish to remove it too soon.

In case one may wonder what we do to keep busy the rest of the day, I thought I would offer a brief summary of our usual chores. Here is a “normal” day during lambing, starting at midnight. At 2 AM I do a barn check, which, if nothing new is going on, will be followed by a 6 AM check. Assuming no new lambs at that time, the two of us will have a snack and a cup of coffee and then return to the barn for morning chores. The ewes with lambs get a serving of grain and then every one gets their morning hay (a total of seven bales to haul down from the mow). Water buckets are cleaned and refilled. Jugs are re-bedded with straw. We can then get some breakfast. With luck we may also manage a shower and get to check e-mail and the weather forecast. Mid-morning will require at least another barn check. The mixing pens will be eating so much hay that they will get their feeders topped off and more water in their buckets. Throughout the day there will be barn checks at least every hour or two (more frequently if we suspect someone is going into labor). Assuming no lambings are occurring, we will schedule an hour or more before 5 PM for “lamb chores”. Lambs who were born more than 24 hours previous get their ear tags. The decision is made at this time whether or not to castrate the ram lambs. This is done by applying a rubber ring. The same type of ring is then used on the lamb’s tail (docking). We weigh each of the lambs as follows: everyday from age 1 to 4 days, then at 8, 15, 30, 60 and 90 days. If we notice poor gains we may continue daily weighings for that individual. The day after the lambs are tagged and docked, if all is going well with mom, she receives a jacket and has her hooves trimmed. If the lambs adjust well to their mom in a coat and mom is also doing well, the family usually moves to a mixing pen the next day. It is now (hopefully) about 5 PM and time for feeding. The morning routine is repeated, except that the pregnant and open ewes, plus the rams get various rations of grain. Then, if we are lucky, we will get some dinner (usually a meal that Gretchen has frozen ahead of lambing). If things are quiet we may watch some ice hockey (we are just about into the Stanley Cup Tournament!). Between periods in the hockey game I will do barn checks. At the 10 PM check, the mixing pens will get more hay if they have finished everything. We may also top off the jug feeders, if they are nearing empty. Everyone’s water supply is topped up. We wish everyone a good night and promise to start the routine all over at 2 AM the next morning. In the gaps in between all of these events we may experience lambings or even manage to get something else (weaving, knitting, fleece processing, laundry and naps).

Thursday, March 22nd: Today literally began with a bang. At 6 AM I headed for the barn. Just after I got there it began to rain (hurrah!). I discovered that Whatsits had a white ram lamb and colored ewe lamb nicely cleaned up. As I assessed the situation the rain intensified outside. Just as I picked up the two lambs to move them into a jug a bolt of lightning hit close enough to the east that there was no time interval for the following thunder. Each and everyone of us, human and ovine, were scared out of our skins! Whatsits did follow me and the lambs into the jug. We got them settled in with feed and water and decided to give everyone a chance to relax a bit. By the time we headed to the house, the rain had stopped: a welcome .1″ of moisture (but much more is needed).

Yesterday set all sorts of temperature records here. I had to chuckle listening to the synthetic voices on my weather radio. Overnight we had a “significant” cold front move through dropping the temperature 15°, but the highs for today will still be at least 10° to 15° above seasonal normals, even though it is “much colder”.

Whatsits got us upset at morning chores. She seemed to be rejecting both her lambs; she barely let them nurse, even if we restrained her! We took deep breaths, utter unprintable phrases and headed for breakfast. By 10:30 AM Whatsits was happily letting both lambs nurse. Was it the fright of the earlier lightning strike?

This afternoon we expanded the second mixing pen. Vinca’s ram Bruno is so much better that Vinca and her boys moved into the mixing pen. Zoe and Brie also moved in with them. Zoe was initially upset, but has quickly settled into the communal environment.

When life is not too hectic in the barn it is also time to socialize with the “retired” girls. It is a time they also seem to enjoy, just standing close and getting some extra love and attention

Odessa and Gretchen having a quiet moment

Friday, March 23rd: This seems to be a year in which the vast majority of the lambs are born in the very early hours of the morning. I found Tilberta with a large ram lamb at 2 AM. They had their act together. Getting them settled into a jug was no problem. We are back to bed before 3 AM.

Whiskey and her lambs moved into the mixing pen this morning. The lambs seemed to have figured out that there is good milk on both sides of her udder. This evening Warp and the triplets joined the second mixing pen. We are always leery of placing such a large family group into the mixing pens. It is so easy for one or more of the triplets to get “lost” in the crowd and get an even smaller percentage of the milk. It was, however, definitely time for Warp to move. We could tell that the confining space of the jug was causing her to eat less than we would like.

Yoko and Brewster are still not giving us strong clues that their relationship has gotten closer. Today was Yoko’s 4th day in the stanchions. We decided to let her out. She is not overly aggressive toward Brewster, but she is not yet a loving mother. We have enough jug space that they will have to spend more time together by themselves.

Here we are today. Bippity, Boppity and Boo did well overnight. Warp obviously took good care of them. We re-weighed them first thing after morning chores. Each lamb gained well. Morning chores and our breakfast were also our last moment of respite.

Today the Labor and Delivery Department had an “OPEN” sign. For the first time this year it was “just like old times”. Over the next 12 hours we had five ewes deliver their lambs. Only two of the five deliveries were either normal and/or uneventful. The schedule began with Zoe, a first timer, who delivered a vigorous single ewe lamb while we were finishing our second cup of coffee. When we arrive the two had become totally separated. Prior to separation, Zoe had gotten the lamb pretty well cleaned up, so there had been some bonding going on. Unfortunately we had to chase Zoe down to get her into a jug with the lamb. That process disrupted whatever had existed of their initial relationship. We had to put up the higher panel to keep Zoe in the jug. She would only let the lamb nurse if we mildly restrained Zoe. The lamb did not help: she was full of energy and quite tall. She tend to search for nipples at a level at least 6 inches above their location. By 2 PM Zoe had passed her placenta and was a bit more settled. At least there were no signs of hostile aggression toward the lamb. We kept an eye on the two as the afternoon progressed.

By 3 PM Yoko demanded we shift attention her way. She seemed to be playing out the same scenario that Zoe had just performed, with the exception that we were there for the entire time. It was easier to get Yoko into the jug with her ram lamb. Once there she too did not seem completely committed to motherhood. She too ended up with a higher panel on her jug. By 4:30 PM the two of them seemed to be doing pretty well. By then we had tagging and docking chores to preform along with hoof trimming and jackets for Yvonne and Willette. In the midst of that operation Winola decided it was her time. She rapidly delivered a ram and a ewe, both while she was still standing. We were able to get the lambs with their heads out from under their bodies and Winola managed most of the rest for us. It was a pleasant return to normality.

All of the extra activity meant that we were running about an hour behind normal evening feeding schedule. As might be expected almost the entire flock was upset with the perceived lack of service. We managed to get everyone fed and nearly everyone calmed down by 7 PM. Yoko however was not cooperating. She had taken to butting her lamb. Our patience was overstressed. The net result is that we dusted off our stanchions and introduced Yoko to them. She was not a happy camper, but at least her lamb had a chance to nurse. Zoe perhaps had noticed our displeasure with Yoko. By this time she and her lamb had become good chums!

Yoko and her boy

As we ended chores we noticed that both Ultima and Wanetta were not eating. We knew that they were the last two on the “overdue” list, so we managed to get in a dinner for ourselves, knowing that we were going to be returning to the barn later. By 8 PM Ultima had broken some water bags and was doing a lot of talking. We gave her some quiet and returned in a half an hour. Her progress had slowed by then. At 9 PM we decided that we needed to intervene. However, Wanetta stepped up in the middle of this to deliver a huge single ram lamb. As soon as we could we got those two into a jug hoping and knowing that Wanette could look after the lamb without us. We again turned our attention to Ultima. When we examined her we found a large lamb presented backward in the birth canal. Ultima was not having any contractions which made delivery more difficult. We eventually were able to extract a huge ewe lamb, which sadly, was dead. Based upon Ultima’s size (extra huge) we speculated that she had at least another lamb. This time we located two front feet for a very large lamb, but no head. Based upon size, malpresentation, no contractions from Ultima and the long amount of time that had already passed, we put in a call to our large animal vets. Joel got here quickly. After some difficulty he eventuall found the head, got it turned forward and then pulled the lamb. Our initial reaction was that it too was dead. We managed to eventually get some signs of life and eventually got the big guy breathing. By 10:30 PM we got the two of them into a jug. The lamb probably will not be able to place weight on his front legs for a time, due to the force of pulling on them. We opted to thaw some saved colostrum and tube fed him. We finally got to bed after 11 PM.

Tuesday, March 20th: It is officially the first day of spring. It is hard to recall ever having it this warm for such a long time this early. Last night we could hear spring peepers in the wetland around us. The grass is now growing seriously!

Ultima and her boy survived the night. We have started her on a course of antibiotics because we were messing around inside her so much. We could tell this morning that she was tired and sore so she got a shot of banamine this morning. That seemed to help. As expected the lamb cannot yet get his front legs under him. We have helped him with nursing. He at least is moving around well on his front knees.

With yesterday’s activity we got well past the halfway mark of lambing. Beginning our third week of lambing today, we have now had 21 ewes deliver 33 lambs. We have 11 more ewes to go. On paper they should be pretty evenly spread out over the next 10 days. The lamb crop remains heavily weighted on the ram side. We have had 21 ram lambs versus only 12 ewe lambs! We set up our second mixing pen last night knowing that we were going to need to free up lambing jugs. It is hard to believe that we will be starting to do our 15 day weights this afternoon with Buttons and Bunny.

Here is Warp and her gang. Boppity is getting a drink, while Bippity (top) and Boo are already sampling the hay!

It looks like everyone has opted for a good night’s sleep. It is nearly bedtime and the day has yet to produce any new lambs.

Wendolyn and her lambs, Bryn and Byron moved into the mixing group today. On the continuing good news side, Walnut seems to be doing well. Her udder feels soft and she is letting the lambs nurse on both sides. As such, we are hopeful that if her medical problem was related to mastitis, that we may have caught it soon enough for it not to be a permanent problem. If she continues this way, we should be able to move her and the lambs tomorrow.

No new lambs by the late night check. We are starting to look at a potential log jam: 5 ewes are currently due and an additional 6 for the weekend.

Saturday, March 17th: It was a busy early morning. At 2 AM we watched as Yvonne delivered her first lamb, a ram. She had done her homework and mastered all the birthing and postpartum talents she needed. In honor of the date, the lamb must be named Blarney. We had the two of them settled into a jug before 3:30 AM.

We deemed an extra half hour of sleep as warranted. Upon our 6:30 AM return, Willette had already delivered a ram lamb, who was up and learning to nurse upon our arrival. Willette also is a very good mother. We figure that the lamb needs to be called Bill. He is the first of the Rhett sired lambs this year. We are hoping that all of his lambs will reflect all of his good qualities, as there will regrettably be no more Rhett lambs after this year.

Unabella has finally quieted down this morning, but she still takes her rest lying next to the mixing pen.

Two additional lambings occurred this afternoon and evening. Whiskey had been acting very uncomfortable all afternoon and had definitely dropped by evening chore time. She decided to go into labor in the midst of feeding everyone. This is her second lambing. We were concerned about her for two reasons. First, last year she had difficulty initially bonding to her first lamb. She spent a short time stanchioned in a jug before she realized what was called for mothering wise. She then proved a devote mother. We always wonder if that scenario will repeat itself. Secondly, she has developed a very swollen/distended belly, which we hope is only edema. Her first lamb, a white ram, arrived in the middle of the barn and seemed to hit the ground running. Whiskey was having a second lamb and the first one was already all over the place (thereby disturbing everyone else’s meal). The second lamb was a less vigorous colored ewe. We caught the wandering ram lamb and brought him back to be with the second lamb and Whiskey. Whiskey was confused and we started to think “here we go again”! Number one would not sit tight; mom was disoriented. Eventually we placed both lambs into a jug and then forcefully caught Whiskey to get her into the same jug. Once into the jug and out of the general distracting chaos, Whiskey settled down and took up the task of cleaning and caring for the lambs. The lambs were having difficulty finding the nipples because of the extra swelling in front of it. We eventually miked out a good supply and tube fed the lambs. It was what everyone (especially Bud Light and Brandy) needed.

At 8 PM Vinca was in labor Between 8:45 and 9 PM she delivered two ram lambs, on her own. She managed to do everything else required, save for opening and closing the gate to her private jug. It was a calming contrast for the two of us.

Vanilla was acting very uncomfortable before and during Vinca’s delivery. We figured that the normal 2 AM barn check would be too late. We decided upon 2 ½ hours of sleep and a 1 AM barn check.

Sunday, March 18th: Lambing appears to gearing up.Our timing was just right. At 1 AM Vanilla had just finished delivering a colored ram and was obviously working on a second delivery. By 1:20 AM a colored ewe had arrived. Both lambs were very vigorous and up almost immediately. We got them all settled into a jug without problems. This “well oiled machinery” allowed us to get back to bed just after 2 AM! No one else looked to be ready for delivery and thus we settled upon a 6 AM wake-up.

Just when it looked like the lambing stampede had begun in full force, it has quieted down. The repeated disruption in normal routines plays havoc with the sheep, perhaps even more so than with us. At noon today nearly everyone was napping in the barn.

The few that were up were because of my arrival for the noon check. Others just slept through my presence. Tempest used Rhoda as a convenient pillow.

Even the lambs are bushed, as are these two sacked out behind Viva. (I think Viva would just as soon that the shepherd got the heck out of the barn!)

We have been encouraged by Zita’s behavior. She seems to be settling down and shows a good bit of interest in her lamb, Benita. Benita continues to grow well, which is also a very positive sign for their relationship. This evening I found them snuggled together head to head. I think there is hope for their relationship!

We hit our first health crisis this evening. Walnut, (who lambed yesterday morning), was very depressed at chore time and was not eating. She is a sick mom; her temperature was 106.3° F, which is not good. We suspect a case of mastitis and the CMT (California Mastitis Test) seems to confirm it. We began her on a course of antibiotics along with medication to reduce the temperature and possible swelling.

Wednesday, March 14th: A beautiful, quiet morning today. The quiet in the barn at 6:00 AM was an indication that no lambs had arrived without us and that the flock is probably a bit tired from my earlier morning “bed checks”. In addition to waiting for Varissa’s lambs we are now watching for Willetta. However, the morning brought good news. Walnut was alert. She had eaten hay overnight and this morning was allowing both her lambs to nurse. At evening chore time she still had a good appetite. We are hoping that we caught her “bug” early enough that it will not be a problem for her.

The lambs in the mixing pen have begun the annual “Lamb Races”. Every year, without fail, during feeding time for the ewes, the lambs in the mixing pends begin racing around the feeders and their moms. It seems to be a expression of pure joy and enthusiasm. Also, in the first mixing pen we currently have an extra feeder turned upside down. (We do this to keep the lambs from using the feeder as a combined bed and bathroom.) The inverted feeder is in a corner and it seems to be an ideal hide-out for the lambs. It is not uncommon to find it full of lambs. The photo below is of Bianca and a few of her buddies inside or next to the “Fort”, with Bunny guarding the entrance.

Thursday, March 15: We went another night without any lambs. At 6 AM Varissa seemed very smug when she presented us with two strapping ram lambs. They had been well cleaned off and had their first drinks. Everyone was just waiting for us to move them into a clean jug and provide mom with a big drink of water and fresh hay.

Walnut continues to look and behave healthy. The best part of the post-chore morning was moving Zita and Benita into the mixing pen. Zita seems to have gotten “religion”. She and Benita seem well bonded. They spent their first hour in the mixing pen with Benita exploring or calling for mom, and Zita eating or checking up on her girl.

Zita with Benita in the mixing pen

It is still a bit strange for the two of us, in terms of the reduced lambing schedule. Including Varissa’s twins this morning, we have had 10 ewes give birth to 15 lambs in 11 days. Last year was intentionally a slightly reduced lambing. But by comparison, in the first 11 days of lambing in 2011 we had already had 35 ewes deliver 60 lambs. The number of lambs will increase in the next few days; by next Sunday we should have another 11 ewes deliver. Nonetheless it is still a leisurely pace this year!

It proved to be another sunny, and unseasonably warm (and dry) day today. Migratory birds are arriving with frequency. We have heard Sandhill Cranes for a number of days. Today, as I was heading to the equipment barn, a single, bugling Crane flew very low, right over the barn. Turkey Vultures arrived yesterday. Today we saw our first Chipping Sparrow. Our life in and around the sheep prevents us from being able to appreciate the early spring, but it certainly is not slowing it down. Today we also managed to get the two tractors and the skidloader tuned up for the upcoming season. That is another event out of the way early. By bed time tonight (at an earlier than usual hour) there were still no more lambs in sight.

The day started nicely. No early morning lambings. A wonderfully warm, sunny morning arrived, complete with the first pair of Eastern Bluebirds singing for all of us, just outside the barn as we did morning chores. It was almost frighteningly warm for this early in the year. Bulbs are popping up in the garden and there is a green tinge to the grass in the pastures. It feels strange doing chores in shirt sleeves!

Zita brought us back to reality in mid morning. She had been restless during morning chores and stopped eating very early. By mid-morning she slowly began progressing through labor. It became evident that she was delivering a very large lamb. Zita is a first-timer and not the largest of ewes. She eventually managed to deliver a white ewe lamb, with lots of effort, but without help. Once the lamb was delivered, Zita appeared shell shocked. She occasionally “talked” to the lamb, but otherwise showed virtually no interest in it. We eventually decided to catch her and forcibly place her in a jug with the lamb. Zita’s only concern at that point was getting out of the jug. We raised the height of the fence to the point that it was more like a stockade. She would calm down if I got into the pen, talked quietly with her, and gave her a soft massage. Under those conditions she even allowed the lamb to nurse (without interacting with it!). Leaving the two by themselves was much more chaotic.

We came very close to setting up our set of stanchions to restrain Zita. Every time we talked about it she seemed to calm down. For fear of the lamb not getting sufficient colostrum we decided to raid our frozen supply. The lamb’s first good drink, via a tube was compliments of Zinnia and Yuliya. And so it went throughout the afternoon and evening. Zita not showing much interest in the lamb, but permitting it to nurse every so often while Zita was eating. By bedtime we felt that they might be making some headway and therefore decided to leave Zita stachionless overnight.

It is amazing how physically and emotionally draining these type of situations can be. The quick alternative is to give up on Zita and just raised the lamb ourselves. There is a long term price for us if we did that: the hours spent bottle-feeding a bummer lamb and therefore having it underfoot for months is not worth the cost if we can help it. That recourse also would mean that we will have given up on Zita. By the end of the day we were still hoping to salvage the mother-daughter relationship.

The good news today, besides the warmth and sunshine, was that no other ewe decided to go into labor while we were dealing with Zita. If they had, they would have gotten less than stellar care from us. And before Zita went into labor we managed to get our first mixing pen set up and occupied. Yuliya, Viva and their four lambs had a grand time in their new quarters. The lambs have a big world to explore and new friends to meet. What a joy it is to watch them.

Monday, March 12th: Our first day this year with more than a single ewe delivering. Wendolyn had a small white ram, Byron and small black ewe, Bryn around 2 AM. Walnut followed at 7 AM with two colored ram lambs of better size, Beechnut and Butternut. Everyone cooperated and did the jobs they should (for which we are always thankful!)

The good news for the morning is that Zita’s lamb, Benita has gained significant weight (.6 lb) overnight. That means that she is getting to nurse. Zita seems a bit calmer this morning and perhaps a bit more indulgent in the lamb.

Lambs together for the first time

Waffle, Zinnia and their two lambs joined the mixing pen this morning. Zinnia’s Blossom drove her crazy because she would not stay close but insisted on joyfully running around the pen. Bagel was much more serious and stuck close to mom.

It rained most of the day. By early evening the sun broke through low in the west. The result was a spectacular rainbow which arched a full 180°. A nice way to end the day.

Last night, on our last barn check before retiring around 10:30 PM, everything seemed quiet. A little voice was telling me that I should not wait until 2 AM  to check on Zinnia. I ignored the voice. When I did get up at 2:00 AM we heard lots of baahing on the monitor. There were at least two different sheep having their say. Once I got to the barn I found Zinnia, quietly talking with a well cleaned, colored ewe lamb. Surprisingly she was getting all sorts of “help” from Nanoo Nanoo. Nanoo Nanoo has never tried to “granny” a lamb before this and she was making a royal pain of herself. Once I managed to get Zinnia and her lamb into a jug (without Nanoo Nanoo!) the barn started to become a more peaceful place. This is Zinnia’s first lamb. She initially seemed a bit confused by all the activity but gradually calmed down and devoted her attention to the lamb. The lamb had obviously been born much earlier (Zinnia had already passed her placenta). Since we had yet to see the lamb nurse we decided we should assure that it get some colostrum soon. Zinnia cooperated while I milked her (sometimes not always the case for a first timer). While I worked on the left side of the udder, Blossom took over the other side and decided to prove she was up to the nursing task herself. For this we said a quiet “Hurrah” and now have a small supply of excess colostrum in the freezer. Back to bed at 3:00 AM.

Buttons is growing well and hams it up for the camera

I forgot to mention that there are signs of spring around the farm. A warm spell hit us two days ago and melted nearly all of our lovely snow. Since then it has turned much colder. I suspect the colder weather did not set well with the influx of Robins that appeared yesterday. At the same time a Song Sparrow was hanging around the stone wall behind the barn. This morning a Cardinal was singing for the first time this year at the top of one of the big maples.

Saturday, March 10th: The barn was very quiet all night, which afforded us a bit more sleep. When I got to the barn at 6 AM Winifred was busy building nests and talking to her as yet unborn lamb. By 7:15 AM she completed her work , on her own. She delivered a 14.3 lb ram lamb. Beauregard learned to nurse on his own. We finished all of our chores in good time and had breakfast at nearly the normal time.

New moms and Saturday morning breakfast

Unabelle was now the only ewe behind on the lambing schedule. She was acting very uncomfortable all morning. By 10:30 AM she had produced a single ram lamb almost as big as Winifred’s. And like Winifred’s lamb, Bellisimo was up quickly, learning to nurse independently. It should also be mentioned that Nanoo Nanoo again was trying to over-act the role of midwife.

As of this evening we are completely caught up on scheduled lambings. Tomorrow two are possible, with three more scheduled for Monday. I do not want to jinx anything , but I can say that this has been the smoothest beginning to lambing in a long, long while. It has also be the least intense. Some of that is attributable to the few number of ewes bred, and some is the result of a breeding pattern that, so far has distributed the lambings evenly over time. In past years we have often had as many ewes deliver in one day as we have had this year over six days. We are a little bit disappointed at the recent run of single lambs, but that can easily change.

All day today the wind has been blowing at nearly a gale out of the south. This evening it abated a good bit. By 10 PM it was calm enough that one could hear the roar of the waves on the beach at Whitefish Bay a half a mile away. It is a warm wind. It will be interesting to see if it blows some spring migrants this way by tomorrow morning.

Bunny

Bunny finally consented to having her picture taken. She has already become too friendly, i.e. she insists on getting closer to the camera. So her she is, complete with blue flash reflection and moving out of focus.

Today is a significant date on the birth calendar. Today in 1996 Hope was born. She has witnessed an awful lot of lambings since then, including 14 of her own.

Quality control sampler. It is a tough job but Hope is up to it.

Happy sweet sixteen Hoper!

Our breeding records are very accurate, at least in terms of the earliest possible breeding dates for the ewes. As such, we knew that the earliest possible due date for any of our ewes, (assuming a full gestation of 148 days) was today, March 7th. There were only two problems with that projection: Yuliya and Viva. They both got a head start on the calendar! The result is two sets of active, healthy twins, yesterday and the day before.

March 5th: We have learned from experience that we will almost always have a few ewes that deliver their lambs before the due dates. Last year was a prime example, with Whosits delivering a very premature lamb long before we started watching for lambs. Our usual routine is to begin periodically checking the barn about four days ahead of the first expected due date. Those initial checks are not as frequent as they later become. E.g. they do not entail the “standard” 2 AM barn check. Up to March 5th those checks produced only eating, ruminating or sleeping ewes. My lunch time visit on the 5th  revealed that Yuliya had just broken a bag of water. Labor had thus begun. This was to be her first lambing, so we wished to keep a more attentive eye on her. Over the next 1 hour and 40 minutes she relocated many times from one end of the barn to the other (thereby disturbing everyone’s mid-day naps). Finally, at 1:55 PM she delivered a white ewe lamb, followed within 15 minutes by a black ewe lamb. Buttons and Bunny had arrived. Yuliya did a wonderful job without needing any assistance from us. She willing followed me as I carried the lambs into a jug (a small private pen). The first lamb, Buttons, was a bit slow getting started learning to nurse. I milked Yuliya (without objection on her part) for a few ounces. We then tube fed Buttons and were about to do the same for Bunny when she beat us to the task and learned to nurse on her own. Since then the three of them have not looked back.Yuliya delivered 2 days early.

Buttons gets a drink; Bunny is too shy for a photo.

Thus, lambing for 2012 has officially begun, two days early. Of significance is Buttons assigned flock number: WBF2000. This is our 21st year of lambing. It is difficult to believe that there have been that many births since we started.

March 6th: Knowing that we were still “ahead of schedule” we opted to sleep through one final night. It probably would not have made any difference had I been in the barn this morning at 2 AM. When I showed up at 6 AM I was greeted by Viva and two lambs curled up together in the middle of the barn. The lambs had been nicely licked clean and I could tell, based upon Viva’s udder, that at least one of the two had already nursed. Since Viva had yet to pass her placenta, we could be pretty sure that the lambs were born closer to 6 AM than 2 AM. Viva had a black male, Bixby, and a smaller white ewe, Bianca. This is Viva’s third lambing, and her first set of twins. She was 1 day early. Again all three are doing well.

Viva with Bianca and Bixby

March 7th: This morning the alarm awoke me at 2 AM. My trip to the barn produced a very quiet, sleepy flock and no new lambs. At least the early morning trip to the barn was pleasant. It was over 40° (F) and beautifully lit by a near full moon. We are still waiting on three ewes who could be due today. From now on, until the last ewe has delivered, the visits to the barn are  going to be more frequent.

What do we do in between trips to the barn, when no one is in labor? Currently, Gretchen is sorting out fleeces, doing a final skirting on each one, and then making a preliminary evaluation before we price the fleece for sale. She has about 40 fleeces to go out of a total of 129. It is a slow and often tedious process. At least it can be stopped and started easily. I have gotten the big, double weave blanket project off the loom. For the first time a few days ago it was unfolded. It seems so much larger than I imagined. My current stage is to tie the fringe knots (all 244 of them) along both edges. It is also a good “start and stop” project. Pussa has decided that the blanket meets her approval. She and I promise a full, unfolded image, once it is finished.

Time for a barn check….

The first bit of news is that we all got sheared, just over two weeks ago. We suspected that it was coming, ’cause the  shepherd guy got busy cleaning out the area where we always get sheared. Then these other people we recognized from previous shearings, all of a sudden showed up together. I guess it all went well. At least a lot of us can see better, and the pregnant girls are happy to not be trucking around quite as much weight. It wasn’t too cold and the shepherds have kept the barn warm for us and upped our rations. The nice lady has apparently been busy sorting, skirting and processing our wool. She seems to mumble a lot about the work every time we see her. Of course, both of them do a lot of mumbling about how tired they were when shearing was over and how they don’t have all the energy they once had. They should try being in our hooves sometime!

A few days after shearing and all the equipment was gone again. We all had to gather together one day so that we could get our annual booster shots. (Some of us are better about that than others, but I won’t name names!) Believe it or not the shepherds were well enough organized that day that all of us who are not pregnant got fitted for new, clean jackets. That was kind of cool. Usually it takes them until lambing is nearly done before we are all dressed again. So here’s a picture I took of us during breakfast a few days ago. As you can see there are lots of us in our coats.

As I said, the pregnant girls get to go around without coats until a couple of days after they have their lambs. There aren’t as many of those ladies this year…only 34 by my count. I am told that this is another one of those “take pity of the aging shepherds programs”. In other words, they don’t want to work as hard as they used to do. I am pretty sure that the shepherds think that the lambs will be arriving soon. This morning they hooked up the “baby monitor” in the barn, something they always do before lambing. So we now have to be a bit more careful about what we say down here in our barn. The computer junky in me makes me want to juice up the power on that unit. If I could achieve that, I bet all the neighbors could listen to us on their radios whenever they wanted. (But I am digressing into techy stuff…sorry about that!) So, just to confirm that the shepherds are correct about lambing being near, here is the scene around the breakfast table this morning. If you can’t tell that these gals are due soon then you better go back to school.

What I can tell you is that we, in the flock, know pretty much exactly when the lambs will be arriving. We just don’t share that privileged information with the shepherds. But I do have permission to relate that lambing will begin on March 7th and should be over by March 26th. This of course assumes that some of the gals don’t become over-eager to get started or that some of them manage to keep their legs crossed.

On a sadder note, we lost one of our senior members yesterday. Rhett, who was our oldest ram passed away. He was such a handsome guy right to the very end. He spent the winter schooling the three ram lambs, a bit more peaceful environment that having to rumble with the  three other big guys. He got to spend the fall with a breeding group as he always has. I do know that he managed to successfully breed every ewe that was with him. That has pretty much been his history all along. In the last few years he mellowed down considerably. He was a favorite with the shepherds, and even though he was a ram we will all miss him a lot.

I can also tell you that we have had two major snow storms since shearing. It is the first time all winter that we have seen so much snow. I am glad that we don’t have to be out in it right now. It is sort of strange looking out the barn windows and seeing lots of snow. We get kind of used to it in January, but it gets a bit “old” when it happens in March. As you can see I am writing about the weather. That is probably a sign that I have just about expended the last of my literary potential. I better get this approved by NN, the editor in chief, and see if she feels it is suitable for publishing. Thanks for sticking with me on this!

—Queso

Winter is a time when we get to observe some of the details and idiosyncrasies of flock behavior. Mostly this is due to the fact that we are closer to the flock for the entire day, since they are not spending time in some distant pasture. Especially while they are eating at their feeders in the barn, they are in a much more confined space. Just like us, most members of the flock have preferred places to eat dinner, or to stretch out during the day to relax. If we know that we have to catch up with a particular sheep to, for example change a jacket, we can easily guess where certain individuals will be found while eating. Lucy and Lady Harriet will always end up in at the feeder in the far northeast corner of the barn. Suzy is always at the feeder next to the “bay window” on the east. Kassia helps Hope sample the hay as Gretchen passes it over the fence to me for distribution. Before I get to the last three feeders, Kassia will abandon her sampling station and head for the third to last feeder. Hope, on the other hand, will wait until the last of the hay is served, just in case there might be an extra tasty handful still to come. Then she will cruise to which ever feeder offers extra head space without crowding.

Once the first bit of hay is consumed, the “drinkers” appear at the automatically filled waterer (which at that point has just been cleaned out). Winona is almost always there first, perhaps followed closely by Rice Krispy. Tessa and twin sister Tess are both slurpers. It could be pitch dark and we would know if they are drinking.

And so it goes with favorite lounging/sleeping spots. Some spaces are geographically preferred, other locations are dependent upon who is nearby. In some situations, if you look carefully one will notice extended generational groups. Even though Mindy is nearly 11 years old and her daughter, Nanno Nanoo, is 10, they will often be found within a general vicinity of each other with perhaps a granddaughter or two nearby. Other mothers and offspring could seemingly care little about each other. Here is a bunch, Wizzbang, Winona, Zahra, Windy and Nannoo Nanoo, just waiting for shearing to begin. Since pictures were being taken they would not reveal their lounging preferences.

Each year a couple of months before shearing, we place the previous spring’s lambs in a separate pen in the barn addition. This allows the pregnant ewes a little more space, peace and quiet toward the end of their pregnancies. It also permits us to change the lambs’ diet to aid their winter growth. It means that for a time mother and lamb will communicate with each other. After a while it does not seem so bad being just around the corner from each other. A few, like Winifred and her lamb, Alfred, still maintain communication.

This year there are 14 lambs in this group in the “new” barn. Each year they develop a unique group personality. This year’s group will always be associated with their water buckets.

This year we needed to replace the two heated buckets that we use in this portion of the barn. We purchased two identical buckets which now sit side by side. At nearly every feeding the right hand bucket has significantly more water left. My initial thought was that perhaps I failed to wash that one as well as the left hand bucket before first using them. Re-washing changed nothing. Out of curiosity I switched the two buckets. The next meal the right hand bucket was half-full and the left hand one nearly empty. And so it goes. This bunch of lambs have leftist drinking preference. You be the judge: Are these three lambs, Artemesia, Ainsley and Adelaide, and their buddies up to something? Is it a plot to confuse and confound the shepherds?

On a personal side, there has been no snow for us to cross country ski or snowshoe. Outside fun and chores have been limited. It has meant that both Gretchen and I have had time for fiber projects. Hopefully, we will have lots of items finished before the gallery opens again in May. I currently have two projects going on two separate looms. My smaller Louët loom has been home for numerous scarves, most of which have, in someway, used some of our naturally dyed yarn.

Scarf and hat - all natural dyes

Weaving relatively narrow projects on the Louët also gives me a nice change of pace from the work on the larger Glimåkra loom. This winter I also tackled my largest ever weaving project. The project will end up as a blanket over 90″ wide. I do not have a loom that wide and if I did, my reach would not be great enough. To achieve that width I am weaving the blanket in “double weave”. For those not familiar with weaving, this process involves simultaneously weaving two layers, one above the other. On the right edge the upper weaving curls around and is connected to the lower level. The left edge is open. Once the blanket is off the loom it will unfold into one single piece. It is a weaving process that seems to go slowly (since two layers are being woven at a time). It is also a process that uses a prodigious amount of yarn. The picture below can only give an idea of half of the project. To see the other side one currently needs to crawl under the loom (which also makes it difficult to know if there are mistakes on that side).

The blanket will not be for sale, nor is it intended for our own use. It has a much more interesting history. It is a commission project for one of our long term wool customers. Commissions are something that I do not normally do. However, I was too intrigued to pass up the opportunity. The yarn is all handspun. The vast majority of the yarn is the product from many years of Quiche (one of our white sheep) and Uhlayla (one of our colored sheep). The wool is well traveled. Once the fleeces were shorn, they either went to the customer or directly to one of two fiber mills either in Wisconsin or California. There the wool was washed and carded into roving. It then went all the way to the east coast and the buyer. Over a number of years she has spun and blended the yarn. The next stage was to dye the yarn. Then it returned here, “home” again. Once here I measured the yarn, set it up on the loom, and have been weaving off and on this winter. I had to pause for a couple of weeks to wait for more yarn to be spun and dyed. With any luck I should have the blanket off the loom before we begin lambing next month.

Gretchen’s projects have been much more diverse than mine. She has been knitting, weaving on a rigid heddle loom and felting. The resulting output has included a large number of mittens and hats (some of which will go with my scarves), handwoven pillows…

Pillows from our natural colored wool

more pillows…

Pillows with hand-dyed yarns

and BEARS!

(Still waiting additional clothing before they dare venturing outside)

Shortly all of these projects will have to either be put on hold or fit into a different schedule. Weather permitting, the flock should be shorn before the month is out. Shortly thereafter, lambing begins again. The first expected due date is March 7th (five ewes). Even if the weather turns bad, lambing will not stop. That will be a good sign that spring is coming…sometime for sure.

Since it is winter here, we have spent much of our time in the barn. A few weeks ago that was sort of spooky at times, what with all the construction noise just to the north of the barn. In addition we had frazzled electricians running downstairs into our quarters without warning us they were coming. Thankfully, that is now past history. We have been able to eat our breakfast hay in peace. The shepherds shook things up a bit a couple of weeks ago. It seems they figured that things were getting a little tight in our part of the barn. They were probably correct. We all have a lot of wool now and it does make us a bit bulkier. To remedy that situation the shepherd folks took all of this year’s lambs and made room for them in the “new” wing of the barn. The rams were of mixed emotions in that regard. They lost half of their cushy quarters, but they also got some company: 14 lambs. The boys are always excited about female company, even if it is across the fence! Come to think of it, I guess this rearranging happens at this time every year. We do not get to mingle with the young folks until after we are sheared, the next lambs are born and the pastures turn green. This is probably a sign that we should be getting ready to getting rid of all of our wool.

For quite a time now it has been hard to believe that shearing is getting close. Usually when that happens, it has been cold for a long time and there is a lot of snow on the ground outside. But aside from a couple of frigid days, life here has been pretty balmy. Because of the mild weather the grumpy old bearded guy has been willing to let us spend more time outside on the pastures. For a time we were starting to think that we were on holiday: lots of time in the sun and fresh air and no portable electric fences restricting us to small sections of pasture. It is difficult to believe that this is a picture of us way out on the first pasture, in mid-January.

The old guy neglected to tell us that the grass had not been growing. There was very little good to eat out there. You would think that the old guy could have done a better job of raising pasture for us! Nonetheless it was nice to be out there for all that time.

What the old guy does not know is that we had managed to figure out how to open the barn door and go out ourselves. (He thinks that he was just forgetful and did not get the door properly hooked. Little does he know….) Our only problem was that we have yet to figure out how to latch the door once we came back inside. We are still working on that issue. We may have to delay working out that problem since Mother Nature decided to take away our vacation weather. Yesterday it turned into winter. It has been blowing and snowing off and on. The temperature has dropped and it is nice to have the comforts of a clean barn into which to settle. (It seems the old guy and the nice lady did some real work for a change. They did quite a tidying up of our quarters while we were out.) So we are hunkered down and happy. Here is what our once warm pasture now looks like. It may disappear soon in the snow.

Repectfully submitted by Nanoo Nanoo