Sammy Six Toes

Sammy Six Toes showed up at our house last week.  She is a polydactyl cat (6 toes on each of her front feet).  She also has 5 toes on each of her back feet. 

It's been a long time

A lot has happened since I last posted.  This is what my downstairs looks like, minus some furniture.  We have been living and doing school like this since last July.

We also had a run-in with the neighbor this fall.  We told them that their dog seems to have an unhealthy interest in our sheep and they should make sure it does not roam here because we don't want our sheep hurt or our llama to kill their dog.  We thought it was all worked out, but one night I was home alone without a vehicle and their dog was chasing and biting my ewes.  All of my ewes were pregnant at the time.  Well, I could not catch their dog, nor did the neighbors respond to my screams that their dog was over here.  The dog split the flock, confused the llama, and had already seriously injured one of my colored merino ewes (Button, the one that gave the awesome banded fleece).  My only option at that point was to shoot their dog and call the police.  The neighbors never asked about the sheep, never paid the vet bills, and told me I should have just let their dog kill my sheep, they would have bought me more.  Where in the world he was planning on picking up an ultra fine merino ewe, let alone a dark brown one, I have no idea.  They started tearing down our fence and driving by our place slowly.  They even screamed at my 12 year old daughter when she waved at them (H did not know who they were when she waved).  Well, spring is coming.  Hopefully they settled down. 

We also had the roof of our sheep barn slide off from too much snow on one side and no snow on the other side.

So, we had to move all of the sheep outside while we worked on building pens and moved them to a new building.  We got them in just in time.

27 also rejected her lambs again.  This is the third year in a row.  She had 3 girls, but one did not make it, its spine was blocking the birth canal and she had to be delivered, but she was too weak.  These 2 Suffolk X Merinos are Pinky and Quiggles (standing).

We lost a few lambs early on because the barn the sheep were moved to did not have the bedding build up and it was too large of a space for them to keep warm (we had a very cold winter, colder than normal).  We were being very careful about checking on the sheep and getting them into pens a day ahead of their lambing date and putting in heat lamps.  We also coated every lamb with a polar fleece coat.  Still, if we did not catch the lambing within 1 hour, we lost a lamb.  Hopefully next year will not have those problems.

We also had a tragic death this winter, one of my husband's co-workers.  It was very sad and confusing for everyone.  He left a little boy without a father.

We changed churches so the kids could be a part of a larger pool of children; our old church only had a few kids in it.

Now?  We are working with a general contractor to get our house lifted, a new foundation poured, add some bathrooms (we only have 1), new electric, new plumbing, and square off our house.  We will have to pack everything up again, including the basement, finish tearing off all of the plaster upstairs and pull all of the plumbing and electrical, and move out.  They hope to begin by the end of June and be done by September.  We are excited to finally see progress in getting our house in order.  This project is very expensive and we hope we can swing it all because this old house really needs it.

I also did some knitting.

 This is 4' in diameter and 100% hand spun alpaca. 

This last project was changed from a sweater to a sun dress, so no sleeves, and more shaping.  I think I have ripped this apart about 5 times.  My middle girl will look great in it, though.  The yarn is Zauberball.

Walter and an Igor update

The little dear was out taking photos and he snapped a few of Walter for me.

Igor is doing well.  He has a little buddy to run around with named Tae (as in Taekwondo).  I tried to get a good picture of him, but he was not cooperating, maybe later.

Brand New Ones

I went out to the barn to give Tae his bottle (my oldest named him and his brother, Kwon, because she is in Taekwondo) and I found these two new ones. 

Kanga gave us a sturdy and huge boy (the brindle face white one) and a normal sized girl.  I am very pleased with this outcome because I wanted a suffolk X merino ram to breed my suffolks to.  We chose two suffolks to breed to Pee-Wee.  Kanga was chosen because I thought breeding to a merino would give her a smaller lamb since she had the problems with retracted tendons.  She had the largest lamb I have ever seen, though.  I felt bad for her and I hope the lambing was not too bad.  For her first time, she is doing fabulously.  She has a ton of milk.  We will have to check her regularly so she does not get mastitis.  So far, they will not let her get away, they are very agressive about getting food.

Igor (eye-gore, as in Young Frankenstein)

Igor was born a few days ago to Evie.  Evie was a first time mom and, although she loved her little guy, she did not know it was her responsability to feed him.  He also liked to play dead.  He did not lay like normal lambs, more like dead ones.  He was taken into our home and given the stomach tube with colostrum and electrolytes every four hours Sunday and he drank from a syringe on Monday.  He has an odd look to him, one side seems smooshed and his eyes are not even, but he is strong and curious.  He now drinks from a bottle, although, he did think the turkey might feed him milk.  The turkey just sat on his head and he was stuck.  He wiggled for a little bit, and then gave up, waiting to be rescued.  Igore likes to take naps at our feet and follow us around outside.  He is very docile.  Obviously he is not a breeder, but we still enjoy him.

Lambs

Last Tuesday the kids had to go to the "big" town to take some tests for school.  I got up early to take Dear to work, fed the sheep, and made breakfast for the kids.  Before we left I checked on the sheep and noticed there was a new lamb.  I saw she was standing and looking strong and everything was fine.  I did not have time to investigate further.  The kids' test is a requirement for the school and unless they are hospitalized they are to be there.  They could be kicked out of the school if they fail to show for these tests.  So, we left.  I got back home 6 hours ater to find a very weak ewe lamb, so weak she would not get up.  I felt terrible and responsible.  I tried to get some milk in her and finally got her to stand.  She was very weak and I did not have any colostrum at home or electrolytes.  We left so the kids could finish their last day of swim class and test.  While they were testing in swimming, I went to the vet to pick up a few things for the ewe lamb and any others that may come along.  We were home about 90 minutes later.  Dear and I put a tube down her throat and got some colostrum in her and we monitored her.  After about 30 minutes of near death, she stretched and stood up.  She was baaing forcefully so I brought her to her mother.  I gave it about 15 minutes and she did not try and nurse.  We took her back inside and made sure she got the required amount of fluids, but after 12 more hours she would no longer open her eyes.  I waited until Dear got home to take care of her and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. 
Meanwhile, another ewe, Na-Na, lambed and had twin ram lambs.  I had been watching the barn and checking ever 1-2 hours for signs of lambing, still feeling terribly guilty.  When I saw the one lamb I quick got her into a pen with the help of all of the kids who were on a vacation from school because of the testing.  She looked like she was taking good care of her little guy and she had another lamb.  The lamb still had its hindquarters in her and she looked tired and as though she was done pushing.  I tore the sack open and cleared the lambs throat, grabbed the lamb and carefull pulled him out when I could tell she was having a contraction.  The umbilical cord of a lamb gets severed when it exits the birth canal so it is important to get to them quickly and get their mouth cleaned off so they can breath.  After I got it out of her I laid it next to her other lamb and noticed he too was a boy.  It is also important to get the lamb where the ewe is focused so she accepts it right after she gives birth.  If you do not, she may not reckognize it as her own and can even try and kill it.  Our merinos have never been rough with a foreign lamb, but the Suffolks are brutes and can be quite mean.  I then iodined their navels because bacteria enters there easily, stripped the waxy plug that protects bacteria and infections from entering the ewe's teats, and attempted to show the new guys were to go.  The ewe needed some quiet, so we left her in the barn for a little while.  When we returned, we noticed that the first ram lamb (easily identified from the iodine that spilled on his leg) was not nursing.  We turned him around so he could find the food and he turned back around to her front legs.  He was quickly given colostrum through a stomach tube and we hoped he would figure it out.  Nope, he is stupid.  Even after a few days, he still goes to the front legs.  Obviously we have been feeding him, every 4 hours.   
The little girl was put to rest that evning.  It took me a while ot get over the feeling of guilt, but I decided to focus on the lives saved.  I know we will have more lambs and some will die, I have to learn to deal with that.
We also had another ram lamb two days ago, but that is another story.

More lambs

#27, AKA Amanda, had two girls tonight while we were at Taekwondo and Pilates. Dear returned home, went to water the sheep and found the lambs. Last year 27 rejected one of her lambs, Buddy, and this year she did the same. Dear found Fiona by the waterer, unlicked, and alive. She is a strong little thing. The other girl is hanging close by her mom and 27 is taking great care of her. Dear held 27 while I held a foot and let Fiona nurse. The first few days of milk are very important for lambs, just as they are for humans. They need the first milk, colostrum from their mom. Fiona got a good feeding in and is now asleep in a laundry basket in our house. Dear has to build a pen for 27 and Fiona can not be left to roam the barn alone with no other bottle lambs to snuggle, not the first few nights. Our kind neighbor, Dan is stopping by to lend us some milk, lamb milk, since the stores are closed. We also have 2 Norwegian soldiers comming to stay with us this weekend. We are not sure what they will be thinking about all of this.



This is the best photo I could take of her. It is difficult to take a decent photo of an all black lamb.

On the farm

My camera did something weird to this photo, but I kind of like it.

I watched a documentary on Messner and I think Rosebud is practicing for Everest.
Here is our new mama for the year, 64. She is a great suffolk (with a little bit of hampshire) mom. She delivered 3 full breach lambs at about midnight on Friday. We stayed with her from 10-3. It was a long night but we wanted to make sure it all went the way it was supposed to. She had one ram lamb and two ewe lambs and they are all hopping around.
The heat lamp is nice and warm, so sometimes the chickens steal the lambs' spot for themselves. This time the lamb was able to sneak under it.

Here one is, hiding under mom.

A few weeks before 64 lambed we vaccinated her for entertoxemia and tetanus. We do that close to lambing so the lambs get the benefits of the vaccine through the ewe's milk. Later we will give them their own dose to strengthen their immunity. We will band their tails tomorrow. We already cut their umbilical cords shorter and iodined them. It is important to disinfect the navel because illness and disease is easily passed through the navel. Many people iodine the navel twice.

We will try a partial castration on the ram at 4 weeks. We usually just band the scrotum and it falls off, but this time we are going to push the testicles up into the lamb's body and band below that, right at the body line. The body heat kills the sperm and sterilizes the ram, but because he still has his testicles, his body still produces male hormones that help with the growth of lean muscle tissue. This kind of banding needs to be done at about 1 month of age.

Waiting

This week 64 is due to lamb then 27 (Amanda) a few days later. We have some barn work to do. I will post pictures as soon as I get them.

Just some of the boys

This is Pee-Wee
My 7 year old boy neamed these two. The one on the left got a bottle for a little bit and is friendly so Friendly is his name. The one on the right (not the brother of the left) is Cutie-Pie. After hearing the names, my husband turned to the boy and said, "Are you a boy?" He giggled and said, "Yah!" Dear appreciates the gentleness of the boy, he was just teasing him.

Sheeps!

Osip was calmly watching me as I sat in the barn awaiting our new arrivals.

Hungrietta kept poking her head out of her pen trying to get a better look at what was going on.

64 had 3 ewe lambs. The last lamb did not make it, but the other two are going strong. 64's ewe lamb from last year (27) will have her lambs today too.

It was such a beautiful day and the December lambs (Osip and Bambie) were enjoying sunning themselves.

Baby Pests

These little mice were in a nest under a shed floor. The nest was made of feathers and thistel seeds. They were squeeking for their mom who went scurrying away.