Jerry was on vacation last week

So, no blogging got done... )o:
But, we did have a good week. We started out on February 28th with a lambing clinic at Wellscroft Farm. http://www.wellscroft.com/ The first two pictures show an interesting (to me) hay and grain feeder, and a mineral/salt feeder. David had about 150 black and 10 white lambs at this point.


There were about 85 of us who went to the school first to get the slide show and lecture. This is the 2nd clinic I've gone to, and Jerry's 3rd, in the 15+ years we've been raising sheep.
Here David is showing how a lamb should present when being born, and one of many possible malpresentations.

In the following pictures, he is demonstrating tubing a lamb. Something we've only done once.

And then he is showing the different types of nipples.

Lambs love the Pritchard teat ( http://www.premier1supplies.com/detail.php?prod_id=32&cat_id=12 ) as they don't have to work so hard to nurse from it. They don't like the black stiff nipple ( http://www.jefferslivestock.com/ssc/product.asp?CID=2&mscssid=AAK9FGBGE50F9N9ARFCPJ21WBR177G76&pf_id=11652&area=sheep ) because they need to work for the milk.

We have a lamb that we are supplement feeding. He would not use the black nipple as he did not have the strenght to suck from it. So, we have him set up with the Pritchard teat. But, we are not feeding him. He feeds himself from the bottle held in place by an adjustable bottle holder that my husband built back when we had triplet bottle babies.

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And then Sunday, we went to a Sugar River Spinner's meeting. Since our group has grown enough to warrant a bigger meeting spot, we are using the local Methodist Church.

My husband and Tom Connary are spinning together here at the meeting. I thought it was interesting that one spins left handed and the other spins right handed. The men spin the way their wives do. (o; Guess who taught them.

I thought Pat's lacey fingerless gloves were interesting.

Now, I did not get my camera out in time to get photos of everyone present before people started to leave. It was watching Jerry and Tom spin that caused me to bring out my camera.

He was on vacation 9 days and not a lamb was born until Sunday the 8th at 12:30 AM. Susan, a Dorset/Romney X Shetland, had a ewe and a ram. Again she had a 10# and a 13#. This time she did in on her own. But the 13# is yellow/orange, so she must have had a tough time of it. I will take pictures later today, before we put on ear tags and band the tails. If I can get rid of some of my adults, I can keep the ewe. When you see her, you will understand why I want her.

TTFN. Off to enjoy the snow fall.