4/24/2019 1 Comment Signs of SpringIt's been rather dreary the past few days as spring makes it's slow arrival. But caring for these young ones certainly brightens up the place! We are seeing more green, hearing more birds and the days are growing in daylight, beautiful signs of spring All these doelings will go to their new homes over the next few months so we are soaking up all the time with them that we can. We are planning to keep one of our ewe lambs to add to our breeding stock. This little lady is my choice, Tulip. She is out of Iris, our best ewe. The kids like this ewe lamb, Normandy. Both ewes are growing really well, are wide set, have nice hair and fantastic temperments. We shall see! Still waiting on sweet Ruthie to close out the kidding season. Her ligaments are quite hard still, udder is growing but not tight, so I am guessing Friday or Saturday will be the day!
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4/18/2019 0 Comments Happiness on the HomesteadAll the critters are pretty psyched the snow has mostly melted and the sun is warm. The doelings have mastered the art of sunning. The sheep spend their days ruffling through the leaves for those first bits of spring. We will need to divide their large paddock into smaller paddocks to allow for forage growth and then rotate the ewes and their lambs through them. We seeded their pasture in the fall and also frost seeded a few weeks ago, so I am hopeful for some variety to grow in there this year. Eve and Dawn are growing well and weighed in at 11 and 10 lbs at a week old, about a 3lb gain for each. We have been in a little birthing lull since Deb kidded almost 2 weeks ago. Now we are waiting on Ruthie to finish up our lambing and kidding season. Having a 2 month kidding span is my plan for having milk for most of the year and our first year planning it out this way. We'll be looking for Ruth to kid between April 25th and 27th...if she follows the pattern of her herd-mates! She's growing lovely, eating lots, napping often, developing a great udder and her baby is super active.....I may or may not check a few times a day. Patience, patience.
4/6/2019 0 Comments Debutante & 2 more Doelings!7am chore time greeted me with tiny maa-ing and a knicker from Deb as she pushed out her second kid! As I helped Deb dry them off a bit around the nose and mouth and dipped their umbilical chords, I had to check and re-check....yes, TWO MORE DOELINGS! I was so excited, I forgot to take pictures of them right away, so these are of the doelings at a few hours old. They both weighed in at a hardy 7.5 lbs. It is so interesting to me that of all our does, Deb is the darkest and has had the lightest colored babies so far! Dawn is a light gold, and Eve is cream with light gold socks. Once her doelings were settled, Deb wanted some long drinks of molasses water, dine on some grain and chaffhaye and then she proceeded to eat hay continuously for 12 hours. Well, not quite 12 hours, but wow, was she hungry! I remember after birthing my babies, it was nice to acutally have room in your body for the amount of food you're hungry for! Debutante is making plenty of milk for these 2 sweeties. She gave 1/2 gallon of colostrum the second day and you could hardly tell I had milked her out a bit! I milk my does a bit the first few days and set aside their colostrum in case we need it for the babies. If not, it goes into the freezer for future use. Since we brought Deb to the homestead this past summer, this is the first time I have seen her care for her kids. She is a very diligent mama. Her doelings are some of the cleanest kids around! She is quite protective of them so we have them in their own space for now, next to the rest of the herd so they can sniff through the boards. During nice days I close the other does outside so Debutante and her girls can stretch their legs and walk around the main stall. I won't need to separate them for long since Deb is #2 in the herd order. This year I have introduced Delta to the doelings of the other mamas while they are on the milk stand. Delta gets to check them out as she pleases and all tends to go well when everyone is brought back together into the herd.
4/5/2019 0 Comments Violet's DayIt's a RAM! On my way back from checking on Debutante, our very pregnant doe, I heard a labored baaing that was not responded to by another sheep (sheep are always talking to each other) and quickly made my way to the sheep tent. All the sheep were laying around sunning themselves as if nothing were going on. And there was Violet, laying next to a lamb still in it's sac, sneezing and shaking it's head! First male born this spring and he's a handsome one! This spunky guy weighed in at 10lbs and got right to work figuring out his long legs and where to find the milk! Violet, a first timer, was very diligent caring for him and talking to him, but leery of feeding him. Thankfully, instincts kick in and they are both figuring it out just fine.
4/3/2019 0 Comments Sun Shiny DaysToday started with snow but thankfully the sun had something to say about that and here we are finding the dry spots amidst the mud and enjoying the sun's warmth. The doelings are always climbing on the logs that have been revealed from the snow melt. After climbing, snacking and sunning times are in order. The lambs and ewes are enjoying these days, too as they search for treats as the snow recedes. Violet is closing in on her lambing date. Perhaps by this Saturday. She has dropped and I think she's ready. Deb finds herself warm, dry spots and enjoys her last days before her bouncing babies arrive. It's getting harder and harder to get comfortable, though. Any day now....
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We are the Lowers....a homesteading, homeschooling, family of seven living in central Maine. We aim to be purposeful in what we do each day as we strive to be good stewards of God's gifts. Archives
February 2021
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