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).

For Sale: Teeswater ram (#1)

Percentage Teeswater Ram.  This ram was born this spring, but is not registerable, as his percentage isn't high enough.  He is a single, and has great teeswater markings, and wonderful wool.  This ram would make an excellent flock sire or wether for a spinner's flock, or a nice locker lamb.

the newest ram, all cleaned up.

This little guy-born on monday evening is doing well, all dried off and cleaned up. He followed his mother out to pasture last night, and seems to be healthy.

ram lamb...surprise!

Shortly after the sheep were let out to pasture last night, we went out into the field to get the cow-for her grain.  On the way we noticed this lincoln ewe in labor and ready to drop a lamb.  I ran nearly a mile to get the camera, to share more birth photos! 

The head and front feet

A healthy large single ram lamb. Born in the rain, this ewe took nibbles of grass between licks on her baby. I took a great shot of the placenta bubble exploding, but decided to spare everyone that detail.

One of the teeswater ram lambs (born a few weeks ago), came over to check out the lamb.  He's up on his feet now and nursing, in from the rain.

ewes-5 rams-8

lambs

Here's a group of the young ram lambs.  The two on the left are the most recently born.  The other two look almost ready to sheared.  They've got incredible wool.  Anyone looking for a flock sire, here's your chance.

Laura and Leah are getting big too.  Always eating... a mother's work is never finished.

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.

grazing.

Finally, we're ready to let the sheep out to graze for a couple of hours each evening.  They seem pleased with the arrangement.  Probably in a couple weeks they'll be out there all the time.  And eventually they'll go back across the road, after the grass has had a chance to bounce back from last year.

The brown patch in the middle of the photo is the garden plot.

milk thief

Sorry the photo is blurry, I grabbed my camera in a hurry to get a shot of this jacob lamb stealing milk from the Teeswater twins.  This is sort of sad, because this ewe only has one good teat, and her twin rams really need as much milk as they can.  Maybe when this ewe is sheared, she'll be able to monitor what's going on back there, and head butt any thieves out of the way.

We postponed shearing, as the trip to Lucasville trade days took up all of Sat. and working on patching fences seemed more important...

Also STILL no piglets. 

new lambs

A couple of days ago Cindy's mother, a Teeswater ewe, had twin rams.  It's wild to see how much smaller these little guys are than the other lambs that are a couple weeks old now.  Both boys seem to be doing fine.  This Ewe only has one good teat, but the milk seems to be flowing fine. 

that makes a count far of...

5 ewes... 7 rams.

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.

All about springerle

Oreo's Ewe Lamb Springerle has blue eyes!  It's too soon to tell about her horns, but I'm guessing there will only be two of them.  As far as desirable traits go for the Jacob breed, this girl should have a little more color on her legs, and on her nose... But we don't care, she's staying here anyway. Pardon me while I go on and on, with a few more photos of her.  btw look how big leah is in the background nursing on her mother, laura on the other hand is starting to nibble hay.

nice eyelashes huh?

a motion shot

And I just liked the way this one turned out.

the twins (update)

Both Leah and Laura have lost their tails.  Check out their mother's bag.  Isn't that just a perfect udder.?

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.

lambs yesterday...

There haven't been any new lambs.  But I was able to take a couple photos of the babies out in the drylot playing around. 

Here's Eva (echo's baby) and Laura.  laura was a twin, but in this photo you can see just how much bigger the longwools are than the Jacobs. The jacobs seem to have a lot more personality than the longwools.  At the end of the day, though, a lamb is a lamb, and there is going to a lot of bouncing and racing around the barnyard.

You can see Alice's son up there in the right corner, Looking like his front end hasn't quite told the back end where it's headed. Eva in the front, and the first ram out of the Teeswaters for this year.

Here's a group shot.  Laura and Leah, the Teeswater lambs in the front.  Michelle (freshly sheared) on the right.  The two back left are mule sheep born last year out of a lincoln longwool crossed to our BFL ram, Blarney.  These girls- Dave, and Ashley were born about the same time as Michelle.  It's up in the air whether or not these girls were bred. They don't look pregnant, but once we get them sheared, it may become a little more clear.

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.

nursing.

Here's a couple of photos that I enjoyed of Laura and Leah Nursing.  Up until this year, I hadn't seen a lamb kick it's leg up into it's mother's udder.  Seems kind of rough to me, but whatever it takes to get that milk out, so be it.

oh, and did you know we also raise headless sheep.?

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. 

new lamb

Sunday morning there was another lamb born.  Here's the photo of him. Born to the ewe that threw twin ewes last year (the ones that were killed by coyotes).  She's given birth to a beautiful ram lamb this year.  He's HUGE.  legs almost a foot long.  More than likely this little guy will be meat. I guess the important thing is that he's up and moving around, with all the right number of legs and eyeballs etc. 

twins on mocabee creek

These two teeswaters were waiting for us in the barn yesterday morning.  Both Ewes, strong and healthy. Each one of these babies is almost twice the size of Malia.  That girl in the front is what the teeswater breed is supposed to look like. As our percentage of Teeswater genetic info is infused into the flock, more and more of the Teeswater look will come out in the lambs.  A Teeswater basically has crazy long-long wool and blue/black faces and feet. I'll have to double check the numbers but I believe these twins are about 60% .  Anyway, here's a couple more photos of the newest babies (names to follow).

... if only noses were nipples, and snot was milk...