Tag: spring

Lambing Time

Sheeps & Peeps3 Comments

Lambing has begun in earnest, with the first little group let out into the pasture yesterday afternoon. Temporary fence building to divide the pasture, moving troughs, setting up mineral stations, mucking out the lambing jugs, rebuilding jugs to get ready for this bigger group of mamas who are ready to pop… it was a full day.  In the midst of everything two sets of twins were born.  It’s busy but we’re happy things are underway. It’s worth every exhausting minute to have the opportunity to see moments like this… when Little Miss 1402 discovers the big, beautiful world.
More lamb photos here.

Lambing Season Summary

Sheeps & Peeps1 Comment


Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

We hope that you will enjoy this slide show of lambing season.  The last ewe had twins about a week ago… at 3 a.m. … at the bottom of the hill… of course.  Here is a little summary of the season that will be known as either The Year of the Big Lamb or The Year of the Ram (we haven’t quite decided which).

Lambing Ratio  1.5172
Average Weight Per Lamb  11 lbs  8 ozs
14 singles, 14 sets of twins, 1 set of triplets
16 ewe lambs, 28 ram lambs
29 white lambs, 15 black lambs

We only had two lambs that weighed under 8 lbs.  We had four lambs that weighed over 15 lbs.  The smallest lamb weighed 6 lbs 14 ozs and the largest 16 lbs 13 ozs.  We were a little disappointed in our lambing ratio this year, but hopefully we’ll have a summer filled with big, healthy lambs growing beautiful, curly wool.

Open House

Sheeps & Peeps5 Comments
Please join us for an afternoon of music, visiting with old friends and making new ones.
Learn about wool!  Meet the triplets ~ Merry, Pippen and Samwise!
OPEN HOUSE
Sunday, June 2nd from 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Music by Aurora Celtic
Pony rides (weather permitting)
Wool, Spinning Batts, Roving for Hand-spinners
Naturally-dyed Yarn and Hand-Dyed Yarn
Photographs, Note cards, Mugs
Spinning Demonstrations
Bake Sale benefits historic Mt. Olivet Church

Keeping Watch

Sheeps & Peeps6 Comments

It was another quiet day on the lambing front.  Hebe had a wonderful set of twins, a ram weighing 9 lbs 14 ozs and a ewe weighing 10 lbs.  The old pro that she is, Hebe had the little ewe standing up while her first born was beginning to nurse.  She is a great mama.
A large storm front moved through late afternoon with fierce winds, thunder, lightning and a lot of rain.  By that time Hebe and the twins were settled quite nicely in the barn, snug in their lambing jug.

Just as we waited on the storm yesterday, we feel we’re waiting on another… a lamb storm.  As we keep watch over the bulging bellies and swelling udders, the number of ewes that could go anytime keeps mounting.  Here’s hoping all those lambs don’t decide to come at once.

Surprise

Sheeps & Peeps9 Comments
You may remember the big October snow.  All the interior fencing was down for weeks, as we waited for enough snow-melt to dig out.  It was inevitable that the rams would find the only two ewes that were not to be bred this year.  Really, who could resist the romance in this snowy October sunrise.
And so… while lambing will not begin in earnest for another couple of weeks, Hannah surprised us with beautiful twin rams yesterday afternoon.  When we went to feed yesterday morning, she was the only ewe at the top of the hill, so we suspected that it might be the big day.  Last evening she had her boys tucked snugly in the barn when we checked on her.  Hannah’s twins were large – 1301 weighed 11 lbs 7 ozs and 1302 weighed 10 lbs 6 ozs.  Mama and twins are doing well and snugly tucked into the first lambing jug… an early nudge into lambing season.

Sheeps and Peeps Calendars!

Sheeps & Peeps17 Comments

Well, they’re here… our first farm calendar!  It’s 8 1/2 X 11 inches, spiral bound and printed on high quality paper.  The good news is they are now available in our Etsy Shop, but wait… there’s even better news.  We are giving one away to a lucky blog reader. To enter the give-away simply comment on today’s post.. Comments will be closed on Sunday at 8 p.m. and the winner chosen by Random Number Generator. Good Luck!
Connents have been closed… a winner will be announced tomorrow.
Comment #10 was chosen by the random number generator – congratulations Wendz!