Spring lambs, of course!

We'll back up to Mother's Day;  a cold day when we took our roving and fleeces to Shepherd's Harvest in Lake Elmo and offered roving at prices to sell-- and it surely did.  15 or so pounds of it, gone from my house. Yay!  Dear Daughter (DD) and Dear Husband (DH) knew exactly how to celebrate Mother's Day:  they volunteered to come with me to set up and sell wool.  For the first time, I had a Shetland/Finn blend that was especially popular, although all colors sold well.

It rained so much that week that Mari the Finn Ewe's lambie was soaked through and very dirty:

Later, Mari cried and cried to find her babies, and suddenly stopped when she peeked inside the portable calf hut.  I figured there was a special sight inside, and I was right.  Look at that little brown ewe's pink triangle of a nose!  Poor wet babies.

Little brown shetland ram lamb, still tiny:

It's 2 weeks later and things have warmed up considerably.  The lambs are loving the compost pile of last years' bedding. It's made for playing King of the Mountain!  Here, Em has the formerly stiff-necked lamb sucking a finger.  She's all better-- BoSe did the trick within hours.  Selenium deficiency !  Amazing.

Also pestering Emily are a very, very friendly Shetland ewe lamb, lower right, and a naughty little brown Finn ram;  behind her is a black Finn ewe lamb who's also fond of suckling fingers.  Further up, a little brown and white Shetland who will be musket (oatmeal colored). I am so behind on naming and learning the lambs this year that I don't recall if it's a ram or ewe lamb! 

Finally a good shot of DD visiting with Kimi, her solid black lamb under Em's arm, and in front, the little formerly sickly lamb belonging to Kora.  We just had to show you that she made such a nice recovery.  Pack of racing lambs seen behind-- 

Enjoy this nice, new, warm weather.  We're finally getting the garden in.

Little lambs, Finn and Shetland

Stiff necked lamb-- help!

The little stiff necked girl is in front;  her brother, behind.  He's not as bad, and is likely just grazing.  She could/did lift her head level, often, but this posture was easiest:

Any ideas?  A finn twin (the other is smaller but seemed fine) cried, hunched, didn't lift her head, within the first 24 hours.  I started supplementing with milk replacer, reading "hypothermia due to malnutrition".  I figured she or Mom didn't "get" nursing well,  yet.  She got much stronger and started nursing.  She's 5 days old, but still runs around rather stiffly, with her head straight out, doesn't lift it often.  But can.

White muscle disease?  Any ideas?  I do believe she may do just fine, after a bad start, but if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear 'em.

We went to Shepherd's Harvest Sheep and Wool festival in Lake Elmo, MN today.  Lovely event with all the usual wooly fun--
we were lucky and sold about 15 lbs of roving-- the best part of that is, do you know how much space 15 pounds of roving takes up in my basement?  Plus, we sent almost all fleeces off to Carol Wagner's Hidden Valley Woolen Mill for processing.  Nice to get the room back downstairs.

End of Lambing, Photos follow

In another rush to the finish, lambing season has, I think, wrapped up for 2010.  30 lambs out of 18 ewes, 21 ewe lambs, 9 ram lambs.  We like odds like that.  Many ewes were yearling, first time moms this year, and as many of you know, first-timers frequently have single babies.  But they knew just what to do!

Nine Finn lambs (2 boys), 21 Shetland lambs (you do the math)!  We lost one Finn lamb--darn, a brown spotted girl--but we have lambs aplenty. 
I have not had time to enjoy them as they came, though I see that the lamb races have begun-- and this year, we have a new lamb playground attraction--the enormous compost heap of bedding dug out of their barn last fall.  So many paths and peaks, so much fun!

Photos later, and I will start to decide who will stay, and who will be sold.
I think next year I would like to have only 10 ewes over winter, which means I have to sell about 30 ewes and lambs!

Some MORE lamb photos. ..

For economy of time and writing-- I am adding more of yesterday's photos here. 
The first babies born are now 11 days old.  Bluebell's white ewe and musket ram. . . might he be polled?  Drumroll...

Pal, my old friend, with the first ewe lamb she's had at Little Red Oak Farm!

Pal had a little ram, too.  Both sweet babies, easygoing, like their mom.

This little ram is Little Red Oak Belle's.  She's mioget, I think.  He looks fawn-- his little nose surely isn't the standard moorit...

And again, this funny picture of Lassi the Finn ewe checking me out-- while her little one-day-old boy lays next to her.  Her solid brown daughter is a blur behind her.