Another ewe lamb

Thankfully Jorja waited until Jerry got home and had his first cup of coffee. She is another first timer. Her mother is Olivia is a polled Dorset, who is also expecting, and her father is Cornelius. He is a Horned Dorset that moved north to take care of a commercial flock.

 Proper presentation of hooves.

 Push!

 One BIG girl. 

Below, after her mouth was wiped off with a towel.

 Took her a bit to recover from birthing such a big baby.

 But, she is going to be an excellent mom.

Wet & wild weather

Rain, rain go away! We have some sheep to shear this day....Not today, nor tomorrow. Maybe the ewes that are locked in the lambing jug with their babies will dry enough in the next day or two. They take up so much less room in the barn when they are naked!

This is what we are looking at for a forecast with severe wind and the possibility of flooding.




http://www.wmur.com/weather/stormwatch/Wild-storm-s-high-winds-cause-thousands-of-power-outages-in-NH/-/17328920/18351330/-/ax6nrmz/-/index.html 

 On today's menu, between rain showers and the wind shaking everything, 

is Iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes and bananas.

 Erin with (it's official!!) her twin girls.

The black ewe, 100% Horned Dorset, will be known as Midnight.

The 3 original lambs

 I don't have the heart to take it away from them.

They are the only ones with a light on....

 Midnight and her tiny sister.

 As we set up jugs everywhere we can make a little room,

it gets a little more crowded in the barn.

Some will be getting moved today to the garage overhang 

where chickens were last year.

 This little girl shall be known as Ebony.

She is 1/2 Horned Dorset, 1/4 Polled Dorset, 1/4 Romney

Her 1/2 sister that we'll keep is 1/2 Horned Dorset, 1/2 Romney.

Since she is white, she shall be known as Ivory.

The wind is roaring through the river valley we live in, and the electric has blinked out once already.

So, I think I go do some things that don't require electricity. Just in case. TTFN!

More lambs and strange weather

As I post this, it is the last day of January, it is 51 degrees and it is POURING here at the farm. I took Jerry to work at 4:30, and the fog is so thick in places, it is like trying to drive through a black veil.

Yesterday morning we had a ram lamb born to a Horned Dorset, in the afternoon our first black ewe in a number of years, and last night a set of twins to a Horned Dorset.

Yes. That is me. After 4-5 hours delivering mail and coming home to a ewe in labor.

I was so thankful it was my husband day off when I got called in.

Life is good!

Keira, a Dorset/Romney, in hard labor.

Jerry is checking presentation.

By this time, she'd been in labor a long time and was having 

some problems. Jerry pulled a leg and eased out a BLACK ewe.

A BIG black ewe.

The only color on Keira's side of the family goes back at least

3 generations to the Barrett farm in Newport, NH.

Katie wants to help.

Katie's twins. I was holding the smaller of the two.

And then last night (late dinner time), Erin, another 1st timer, gives birth to twins.

She is pure bred Horned Dorset. Christopher is pure bred Horned Dorset.

Dave Kennard at Wellscroft Farm and Fence Co in Chesham, NH has black Dorset sheep.

We thought he was adding another breed in there for color. We were wrong!! 

So, Dave. I am publicly apologizing to you!!

Sorry for the blurred picture.

As you can see, I hope, the white is considerable smaller than the black.

We will be keeping the black.

Another good mom. 

Have I said it enough how I love my Dorset sheep!!!

Picture heavy with new babies

 One of our Romney ewes in labor.

In the picture below, the head and feet are just appearing.

 I missed the actual birth because we forgot to bring out towels.

 The proud papa and the original mamas and babies.

 Your daily smile!

Lizzie sticks her head in the hay feeder looking for humans and goodies,

 Checking for milk.

Later, the silly lamb was under mom when the afterbirth was discharged.

She is a Romney/Horned Dorset cross.

She might be replacing Mouse...

 Candace was in obvious labor, but her cervix was not opening quickly,

so we put her in the hallway and went in to start dinner.

A few minutes later we heard the unmistakeable sounds of new lambs.

She gave us twin ewe lambs. Both are registrable.

 The smaller of the two was not finding the udder fast enough for Jerry.

So, he is try to aim her at the nipple.

 Here he is telling me 'She is almost there!'

 Mouse and Kate have been moved to the other end of the barn.

 It is slightly a tight fit with very pregnant ewes in full fleece.

 The bigger ewe lamb is off to explore. She finds that Jerry is fun to climb on.

 Checking out her half sister.

This 3 lambs were born last night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 7 am. Ruth presents us with a new registrable ram lamb.

 The first ram lambs exploring their new freedom.

And, the chickens presented us with 10 eggs.

Today is a good day!!