a little less tame...

Malia now stands about this far away from us (when we don't have a bottle in our hands). This will ultimately be a good thing, so she can get out on the pasture like a real sheep. It's been swell sweetheart...

worse than spoiled

The dreaded monster of Mocabee Creek, doing her part to make sure that Dandelions cover every inch of her pasture. Malia- still on the bottle, and still rotten (obviously).

lambs on the pasture.

here's Malia enjoying her bottle, just a few minutes before all the sheep are let out to graze on fresh green grass. You can also see in this photo that we have most of the jacobs sheared.

There's Malia again out on the pasture. I must admit it's easier to deal with her like this, than when she runs in the house-straight to the kitchen looking for a bottle.

and a couple more shots of the lambs on the pasture, playing while their mothers eat.

a couple of the boys.

Here's Maisie's son, nothing new to report.  I think he's got 4 horns coming in.

Here's the first teeswater ram lamb.  He's still almost 2 times bigger than all the other lambs this year.  You can see how much larger than Malia he is in this photo, they were born less than a week apart.  Both rams in this post will be for sale, either as breeders, wool animals, or for anyone's freezer.  Let us know if anyone might be interested.

total Monster!

Malia is still on the bottle.  Some of the other discussion forums refer to bottle lambs as "bummer lambs"  It is sort of a bummer to be locked down to the bottle schedule of a screaming baby lamb.  Just look at that face though!  She's finally starting to play with the other lambs a bit in the yard, and finally lives in the barn (like sheep are supposed to.)  Although when she's near the house and the door is open, she'll run inside to check out when her next bottle might be ready.

weekend update...

Friday night. The neighborly Mr. H.  had his plow on and came down to plow up the garden.  AWESOME!  Looks like maybe we forgot to dig up a row of potatoes from last year... ooops.

Then all day Sat. Mr. H came by all day to hang out, make fun of me,and basically build a pig pen for us for Darryl faye, as she is due to have piglets in a few weeks. 

This way through the barn, for all the babies...and everyother creature.

Down to one live hive.  We've gone into the last 2 winters with 3 hives each, and only made it out with one alive each time... maybe this year will be better.

Malia comes out of the house when she wants to to watch us do chores... otherwise she's still in the house, hopefully only for another day or two.  She's still smaller than a newborn jacob, which is about half the size she should be.  She seems alert, and active though.  Polly the chihuahua hates the fact that her territory has been invaded, and that she is no longer receiving 100% of the attention.

Nice sunny weather to lay around and watch you mom, aunts, and granmothers eat their hearts out. It was nice to be outside in a T-shirt.

Here's Kendall White.  I predict she'll have had her baby today while we were at work... We'll see.  She is one our top fav. ewes, and NFS No Matter What.

an obvious mess.

Malia is still alive, much to everone's surprise.  She's still in the house - for at least a  couple more days.  She's completely on milk replacer now, and completely capable of crying when she's hungry.  It's amazing how much smaller she is than all the other lambs, In some cases three times smaller.

Here you can see what she looks like curled up in a blanket on the couch, catching up on some youtube videos.

lamb update

Here are a few photos of the lambs (in order of their birth.) to date as of yesterday afternoon/last night.  There was another little ram lamb born to one of the lincolns this morning. I didn't have the camera with me, this morning before work, there is a good chance she will have had another one by the time we get home (last years those big girls has triplets)

Malia, Living in the house for at least a few days on a bottle.  It doesn't seem like she's going to make it.  She's so much smaller than the other lambs, and still pretty wobbly on her feet.

Laura, Looking pretty much the same. Her interests include, napping eating, and laying on top of her mom's back.

Leah-also looks the same, only with a greasy face.  These girls will prob get to go outside today or tomorrow, and really start to jump around in the sunshine (when the sun shines again)

meat 1,  Likes to sleep.  Seems like he can sleep standing up.

Eva.  The first of the jacobs.  here's a right and left view so you can get a good idea of what her markings look like.  I think she's going to be a 2 horn, but can't quite feel those horn bumps yet. 

first lamb 2010

Yesterday it finally happened.  Upon opening the barn door to begin chores....  The sound of the first Teeswater lamb of the season. We knew it could happen at any moment. A black ewe (Malia) born to a yearling ewe (Michelle).  It was our intentions to hold back the yearling ewes this year from breeding, to allow them to mature a little, but Davy the donkey ruined that plan.  Michelle seems completely uninterested in her offspring.  The lamb is getting stronger, learning to walk around, and definately has a good suckling instinct. We've decided to hold Michelle in place to allow the baby to nurse on it's own, and hope that a mother-daughter bond will eventually happen.  If it doesn't, the bottle and milk replacer are ready to go, but we'd rather not have to deal with all that.  This morning there were two more Teeswaters (both ewes) in the barn, but I didnt' have enough time to get photos of them before we had to leave for work.  The jacobs should start lambing anyday now too.  stay tuned...