What’s not to smile about while holding a new lamb?
Category Archives: Animals
First Taste of Spring…
We’ve had our first taste of Spring this year! Finally, the four Suffolk ewes we had bred last fall lambed. They were all a week later than expected but it worked out wonderfully as the week they were due we had temperatures 20 to 30 below zero with lots of snow. The temperatures have shifted to the high 30’s and low 40’s, a bit better for lambing in. Smart mamas!
The first ewe to lamb was Garrett’s ewe, Velma. She had no problems and lambed in front of a large audience, giving birth to a large, single, ram lamb
The next ewe to lamb was Teigen’s ewe, Cookie, she is a yearling and it was her first time lambing. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning she gave birth. When I went to check the ewes in the morning, Teigen’s ewe was out standing with a little lamb beside it and then my eye caught a little lump in the snow. When I went closer I found another lamb, I thought she was dead and then she moved just a bit…wow…made me go into hyper-drive. She was sooo cold, cold mouth, body, etc. I couldn’t believe she was still alive. She had the full spa treatment…warm water soak while in a garbage sack to retain all of the mama’s smells, tubed with mama’s milk, then on to a warming box with a hairdryer, and eventually a warm rice sock on the belly and she gradually came to life. She started to nuzzle and looking for something to eat and drank most of her bottle…
And as things typically go in our house, the recycling had just been taken out and the only bottle we could find was a 2 liter bottle! But it did the trick…
The kids have affectionately named her Elsa from the movie Frozen. Elsa, eventually tried out her little legs and then did some more snuggling with the rice sock. When she woke up and she was hungry and her temperature was back to normal, so she was reunited with mom and brother. The mom ended up taking her back no problems, let her nurse and all is well!
The next one to lamb was Maddie’s ewe, Wild…
Again with a full audience hanging out in the feed bunk…
Two onlookers…
The second little ewe lamb was having a bit of trouble breathing so I was busy using a nasal syringe to help clear the mucous from her throat. 
A nice set of twins, one ram and one ewe!
Garrett and Emmy watching…
Then Sunday morning we were greeted with this…
A strong, healthy ewe lamb. Dried off and had a full belly!
Now we have a few weeks off until the Icelandics start their run. Which will mean long days and short nights. But I look forward to it all year! Hopefully the Icelandics have as good of a run as the Suffolks did.
Coming Soon…
Linking up with friends at:
Homestead Barn Hop,The Backyard Farming Connection,
Camera Critters, Farmgirl Friday,
True Love…
Sneaking Around the Snake…
On our trip to Grand Tetons last fall, we spent a good portion of a day driving down a dirt road along the Snake River….
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Nature Notes
Skywatch Friday
Frosty Kisses…
Last years bottle lamb, Frosty, decided to give Hayden a little smooch…
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Awww Mondays
Snow Blown…
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Keeping Critters Warm…
Brrrrrrrrr, we are still having some seriously cold weather. This was the weather report from this morning…
Our water was froze up and it was freezing in our house but outside the sheep didn’t seem to mind too much…
Good thing they are hardy Icelandic’s! This week they’ve been getting extra hay and always have access to the barn and sheds…
The chickens don’t seem to care for it at all though…
Good thing there are lots warm sheep taxi’s to keep them warm!
BTW, our water is going again and we should be starting to warm back up! Oh ya, we should start lambing any day now, hurry up warmer weather…
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Full Color Day…
Cold, cold, cold today! But gorgeous blue skies today… 
These little gals showed up in the back yard, all fluffed-up, sunning themselves.
I love how colorful these wild turkey hens look in full sun.
Complete with a beautiful sunset…
Linking up with friends at:
Wild Bird Wednesday, The BIRD D’pot
NatureFootstep
Dashing through the snow…
In a two horse open sleigh…
What a fun way to spend the afternoon! Thanks to Papa Ed for the wonderful adventure!
Linking up with friends at:
Skywatch Friday
Friday Fences
Spring Time Treasures in the Fall…
Thursday, we continued right along with winter-like weather pattern (and have actually all weekend!)….
It was just another typical day on the farm… even if Darla was hanging out on the top van! Actually, she was trying to get away from one of the dogs trying to herd her back to the chicken coop.
It continued to snow all day and around 4, I sent Hayden out to take the garbage out to the dumpster. He started out across the yard and then dropped the garbage sack and started to run way out in the yard. He came running back in to the house with something in his hands…
A nearly half-frozen baby chick! Well, that got the household into a frenzy of kids trying to find coats, gloves and hats and hustling out the door to see if they could find more…
After scouring the yard and pastures they found two more half-froze babies! We thought for sure one was going to pass on. Tori took some warm water and started to syringe feed a bit of that to the baby while holding it next to the wood stove. Amazingly, it came around and has been a happy camper all weekend! We never did find a hidden nest anywhere but the kids found a the naughty Red Star that decided to go broody in the middle of October with the other two chicks. Seriously?! Doesn’t she know we live in MT and it gets cold in November! For now everyone is locked up in the fruit room, cozy and warm.
Linking up with friends at:
Homestead Barn Hop,The Backyard Farming Connection,
Camera Critters, Farmgirl Friday,
