Recent content by purplequeenvt

Ram delivery went well yesterday morning. The guy was already there when I arrived (only a couple minutes late after getting stuck in Lexington traffic). Then we went and played with sheep. Actually, it was a lot of sitting and watching and a little playing with sheep. I did discover that...

It’s not something that I’ve ever heard any concern about. There’s differing opinions about whether it’s a good idea to put the wash water in the septic tank. I do, but only because I’m washing 1 fleece at a time and they aren’t high grease. I wash in a utility sink. I’d like to set up a drain...

All is good with Jura and baby. I saw several nursing sessions via the camera last night and again this morning. I finally got my female ducks out of the pond. They are currently locked up and seem to be enjoying their time out from the boys. I am missing one. It’s my gimpy Runner. I don’t...

Well, Jura is still a ditz. She likes her baby, but is very jumpy. I had to go out and hold her to let the lamb nurse. I tied her first, baby got a good feed. We tried again with me just blocking Jura in a corner and baby got another good meal. Third try was with grain and no restraint m. There...

Finally done with lambing! Jura had a single black ewe lamb tonight. This is my only black Border Leicester ewe lamb this year. She’s not up yet, but she looks pretty nice already. Lambing stats: Average gestation was 147.2 days. 10 ewes went at 147 days, 1 at 146, 3 at 148, and 1 at 149...

Day off (from the paid job) today. I had a slow start, but managed to drag myself outside to be productive eventually. I got 4 rams sheared. They were due and Stanley is leaving this weekend so he needed a spa day. He looks really nice and his fleece is lovely. I was going to stop at the 4...

Freyja is back to acting normal, her baby is fine. He completely ignores me now. I did castrate him the other day. Jura is the last to lamb and she’s due on Wednesday. I looked at who’s related to who briefly this morning. There’s 16 Border Leicester ewes. That’s including a handful that may...

Sheep are surprisingly resilient. Assuming she can get through the shock and fights off any infection, she’s likely to recover nicely. I had a Shetland lamb years ago that had her shoulder (as in all of her shoulder muscle as well as the bone) eaten off of her. It was an extremely long...

I may have my yearling Shetland ram sold. I’m not going to believe it until he’s actually loaded on the buyers trailer though. Buyers have been notoriously flaky. I’m meeting this guy in Lexington which is a couple hours away. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of delivering, but he’s paying extra...

I think my stint as substitute sheep mom may be over already. Freyja’s baby has a full belly and refused the bottle last night and this morning.

Freyja seems to be doing ok. I’ve been keeping an eye on her via the cameras while at work. While she’s been staying mostly in the barn, she’s been eating. Her temp last night was still slightly high, it was much better than the 105 temp she had on Sunday. Her baby is definitely not getting...

Oftentimes, the problem with trying to leave lambs that need supplementation is that mom has *just* enough milk to make them stubborn about taking the bottle. I had that issue with Xena and her little triplet brother last year. He only wanted real boobie-juice and he’d rather starve than try...

Freyja got sick on Sunday. Mastitis. It seemed to be only on one side, but I’ve been keeping an eye on her baby and he was a little gaunt this morning. I warmed up some Jersey milk and he sucked down 6 or 7 ounces without hesitation. She’s doing better today, ran right out to the feeder when...

She’s 11. She still has her molars which helps. She will be with until the day she dies.

I got a fence up and put the ewes out on grass for a few hours today. I get yelled at a lot.