From earlier this spring…
Tag Archives: Spring
Blossom…
Crazy busy this spring, but we’ve been enjoying the longer, warmer days and flowers and tree blossoms…
Linking up with
Macro Monday
Today’s Flowers
Lambing!
To say it’s been a busy past week and half around the farm is a bit of an understatement!
Our first delivery was a horrible, terrible, no-good thing. Aubrey was absolutely huge, we figured she would have two large lambs or even triplets. I noticed she was starting to go into labor and was chasing other ewes and chickens out of one of the hoop houses we had built. She would lay down, push, get up, lay down, push, get up… but she wasn’t progressing. I could tell she was tiring and was having a hard time getting up so we jugged her and checked her. She was only dilated just a little bit, so we let her keep working. We checked her again in about a half hour and found she was pretty much fully dilated but her membranes where still intact. So my husband decided to the dead and break her waters and oh my… There was soooo much fluid, we could visibly watch her shrink and were afraid we would get washed away in the flood. I have never seen so much fluid out of a sheep.
We checked the ewe to see how the lambs were presented but could only feel the tip of a hoof way in deep, so we let her work a bit more. When we checked her again, things had not changed and had to really work at getting the lamb out. At times we thought we had parts to two different lambs… After working hard for two hours we were finally able to get the little guy out. Unfortunately he didn’t make it, and after checking her again we found that was the only one. 😦
After some research we found out the ewe developed Hydrops, which means there was most likely something wrong with the lamb that made the ewe produce so much amniotic fluid. And since the ewe’s uterus was so stretched out from the amniotic fluid her contractions were ineffective. Almost always the lamb dies and the majority of the time the ewe dies as well. It has been reported in cows to actually split the pelvic bone from so much pressure. Others report that mamas die from malnourishment, once again caused from so much pressure of the amniotic fluid squishing the stomachs and the ewe not able to eat enough. So we felt fortunate enough that ewe lived, generally this won’t happen again and she will hopefully go on to have normal sheepy pregnancy next time.
Oiy, after that ordeal, I was a bit hesitant for the next ewes to lamb but so far just about every delivery has been about perfect! We have had a couple of deliveries with only one hoof and a head and have had to fish out the other leg. Lambs have been vigorous and up within minutes of delivery looking for food. We’ve had a couple of first-timers that weren’t too sure about this whole mama thing, but with a little time and a little help have turned out to be great mothers.
This picture was of one of our first deliveries that a few of the kids had gathered to watch…
A very handsome black grey spotted ram lamb…
A little watcher…
A handsome moorit (brown) mouflon ram lamb…
A sweet little white patterned ewe…
A beautiful black mouflon ewe lamb…
Ella and her two ewe lambs… 
Lots more lamb pictures to come!
Springing Out…
Sure has been feeling like Spring around here, yesterday we had almost 80 degree weather! It’s ‘only’ 62 here today, and we can really feel the difference. 
Some of the trees are budding out…
Even the bushes are growing plump buds…
The Service Berry bushes and starting to leaf out, this one even has an old berry still attached that the birds missed.
Crocus are popping up too!
Oregon Grape is starting to get flower buds on it too!
Macro Monday
Today’s Flowers
Birds Abounding…
I just love going outside, even just for a minute! The sound of bird songs fill the air, lifting my mood…
Bluebirds…
King Fisher…
Wild Turkeys flying over the farm…
Bald Eagle flying over the farm….
A hawk of some sort…
Mating season for the wild turkeys and some pretty good displays by the toms…
A Meadowlark…
A colorful bunch of Crossbills on naked limbs and a dreary day…
Enjoy your spring day!
Sharing with:
Wild Bird Wednesday,
The BIRD D’pot
Little Girl…
We had a bit of a windy day yesterday and this little girl wanted to fly a kite and since we don’t have any kites she made the best of her situation and found a plastic sack and a string…
L
Hours of entertainment! 🙂
Linking up with friends at:
LITTLE THINGS THURSDAY
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
In Anticipation of Spring…
This week has been a bit overcast and with some rain, cold at night but warming up to sweatshirt weather by mid-morning.
The birds are starting to appear…
Some definite spring signs are the Robins…
Bluebirds, both female and male…
Lambs arriving…
We’ll soon have Icelandic lambs arriving too!
We are still waiting on green grass, flowers and bees though!
Lambing…
We had a surprise lambing while we were gone on our trip over the weekend…
She was even born on Valentine’s Day…and it’s the letter “H”‘s year for naming lambs…so we couldn’t resist naming this little girl Heart! 
The mama is one of our Suffolk ewes and daddy, we are thinking is one of our Icelandic rams! An unknown breeding must have happened before we separated our sheep last fall.
But she’s awfully sweet and like the looks of her. 🙂
We were glad that our older kids were at home. When they went out to feed in the afternoon she was dried off and had a full tummy. 🙂 Thank goodness she is half Icelandic to give her some vigor.
Does this mean that Spring is here officially?
Linking up with friends at:
LITTLE THINGS THURSDAY
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
Magical Montana Evening…
Around a Pond
While driving to Many Glaciers, my poor, tired husband needed a bit of a nap. He pulled over here and took quick nap while I got out to explore a bit…
The Aspens trees were just leafing out…
Some Mallards…
Bufflehead ducks..
Glacier Lilies…
Linking up with:
Dancing Aspens Farm Blog 