The baby lamb is doing well. We were a little worried the first couple of days. She was sick with diarrhea and wouldn’t eat. Heather found some good lamb nipples for her bottle and sat with her for a while so she got the hang of it. Now we worry that she’s getting too much milk! We decided to call her Ivy. She gets a name because we probably won’t be eating her. We hope she’ll make it as a breeder.
She’s still a little messy from the diarrhea but Lisa wants to give her a bath when she starts poop’n pellets.
The little jacket is because she’s pretty much hairless. It’s made of wool and we have no idea how it comes off. It isn’t stretchy like a sweater.
We put one of the wire dog crates in the x-pen so we could lock her in at night. She’s so little and defenseless anything could kill her. We had her in the garage in the box our printer came in. It’s not as cold now so she should be okay out in the barn. I can’t believe how loud she is.
We put the stall back together in the barn. We had moved the corral panels down to the sheep pasture to contain Larry and Louie. We put the arch gate that was in the barn at the end of the aisle behind the chain link. The new stall is about 12’x12’ with a 4’ gate. It is low now because we aren’t planning to put any giant horses in it. We actually put it up for the bum lamb Edith called us about. It’s third of a set of triplets. The ewe will only nurse two so it pushed this one away. Kind of like Little Larry’s plight. Edith evidently knows we are suckers for cute little baby farm animals so she said we could have this one. She gave her to us for the price of the ten pounds of dry milk formula she sent with her. So, knowing this little lamb was coming we decided to put the stall up. We put wire in the board gaps to keep coyotes and stray dogs out. We had no idea. Completely clueless we were. You’ll see. She’s in the garage now.
Larry likes to follow Larry around the pasture. Larry kind of likes having Larry there too.
The big horses were enjoying the nice weather and the newly green grass. It was in the 30’s this morning but got up into the 60’s by afternoon.
Heidi came up to get a drink and see what all the noise was about.
I got the tiller out and opened up the garden. We’ll put a bunch of compost on it and till that in next.
New stall. It’s good for minis and lambing ewes. We’ll leave the posts long in case we want to add another board. We plan to finish the kick wall and make another stall next to this one.
See what I mean. There is no way this little thing was going to stay out in the stall. Lisa had gloves on to wash her off. She isn’t afraid to touch her. We didn’t need to hook up the trailer to get this one.
She came with a little sweater to keep her warm She is pretty much hairless.
On Friday afternoon Lisa and I went over to Edith’s to pick up Clarrisa’s replacement and drop off some ewes to breed. Clarrisa, as you may remember, was the only other survivor of the dog attacks. She was wild and we couldn’t keep her in the garage with Daffodil so we took her to Edith’s to be with the big herd. She did okay over the winter and she currently lives upstate in a giant pasture of tulips and dandelions where she can frolic and play from sunrise to sunset without a care in the world. Edith had two ewes culled out, one to replace Clarrisa and one to use as attrition stock. The one we liked was the little round one with face markings similar to Daffodil. This one’s name is Serta.
Serta. She got that name because we think she looks like one of those sheep in the Serta Mattress commercials.
I was working on the floor for the metal shed. It’s the one we put up over behind the garage. Now we want to put a carport over there so we are moving it. Heather moved her bunnies into it for the winter but now it is going to be a hay shed. No more hay in the garage! Notice I am wearing shorts. It was up in the 70s today.
It has a nice view of the compost pile. I cut those posts off. The one looks crooked because I had to shove it over a couple of inches to get the deck squared. I did it before the concrete went in the holes. Besides it isn’t a post, just a foundation pier.
This is Larry. We call him Little Larry for obvious reasons. When we were over at Edith’s picking up Serta we noticed a little calf in the ram pasture. Cory, Edith’s longtime friend and farm hand, told us the calf was his bottle baby. We liked the looks of him and asked if there were any more. Cory took me to the farm this morning and we picked up Larry. He’s a Hereford-Angus cross. He was born a twin and his mother wouldn’t nurse him because she picked the other twin. He’s ten days old and will be on the bottle for about 8 more weeks.
Heather taking her turn with the bottle. Larry didn’t care who held it.
The geese are heading back north. They are stopping at the pond to rest as they travel. Everything is turning green and the mud is drying up.
Everyone was out enjoying the nice weather. It was above 60 a couple of times this week.
That’s Nelson’s barn roof you can see up on the hill in the middle of the picture. His equipment shed is to the right of the barn and his house is down in the hollow behind it.
We’ve had a few warm days. It’s up in the 40s today. I fixed the roof on the sheep shed. Andy and Heather put up a new shed for the bunnies. We’ll start the new floor for the metal shed soon. It is going over by the barn to be a hay shed. That gets it out of the way for the carport we are going to build next to the garage. We have a plan.
