Lambs!

Lambing season has officially begun for 2013! The very first lamb was born Wednesday the 13th, which was about 10 days early. That one didn't make it. Yesterday the next ewe produced a set of twins, this time about a week ahead of "schedule." Many of the ewes have snotty noses and minor respiratory illnesses thanks to the weather continually bouncing around from 30 to 60 degrees, often within the same day. This ewe is one of the less healthy ladies, so that likely contributed to her lambing early. At any rate, when we returned from church and a lovely lunch with friends, we found twins in the drop pen. One was stretched out with an extremely stiff neck. At first I thought it was already gone, but upon closer inspection it was just very chilled...still breathing, but in very bad shape. The ewe and the other lamb did not appear to be so desperate, so I scooped the cold lamb up in a towel and headed for the house. Brian headed off to put out a round bale for the fall-lambing ewes in New Hope, to be sure they had plenty to eat in advance of the winter storm that was headed our way.

I held the cold lamb in warm water to try to bring up the body temperature as soon as possible. Then I toweled her off, fed her some colostrum via stomach tube, wrapped her in dry towels, and headed back to the barn to see to the ewe and the other lamb. I tried for an hour to get the lamb to nurse on his own, to no avail. So I ran back to the house for more colostrum and the stomach tube. Since I was up close and personal with the ewe and the ram lamb for quite a while, I had plenty of time to observe the ewe. She was not acting normal. Muscle tremors and grinding her teeth and not very interested in her remaining lamb. So I ran back to the house again. This time for a calcium drench. When I got back to the barn the ewe was eating some hay, which I took as a good sign. I treated the ewe, tucked the ram lamb back into the pen and left them alone for a little while.

Later last night the ewe and ram lamb both appeared more perky, but we put a sock over the lamb to help him stay warm through the night. After about four hours in the warmth of the house, the ewe lamb had also started to perk up. She nursed some colostrum but was not able to stand up on her own, even if I got all four feet under her she could not keep her balance or stay upright without help. By this morning she was doing better with standing once I got her upright, but still couldn't get up on her own. By mid-morning she was finally getting up by herself. This afternoon I took her back to the barn, encased in an old hunting sock. The ewe didn't put up much of a fuss about this new intruder in the jug, so we'll see if that holds. I haven't managed to get the lamb to nurse the ewe yet, but I'll give it at least one more try tonight. If she won't nurse, I'll keep feeding her milk replacer. I offered some to the ram lamb this evening and he gulped it down. It is looking like I'll be supplementing both of them if they'll let me. But I would much rather supplement them than feed them completely from a bottle. I'm just hoping the ewe can pull through and keep her end of the bargain. Bottle lambs are cute, but a lot of extra work.

Amid all of this drama, another set of twins was born this afternoon. So we are well underway!

The ewe lamb who spent 24 hours in our bathtub. Isn't she adorable? She is a tiny 5 lbs 9 oz. Long legged girl, but skinny. Let's hope we can get her over the hump and start her growing into those legs.

Signs of Spring

Sign #1 - The barn is clean. A mountain of manure now awaits spreading. It is composting nicely; although we got 18 inches of snow March 5-6, none accumulated on the top of the manure pile and steam can be seen rising from the pile in the mornings.

View from the front porch two days after the storm. Initially, the snow was really pretty and the trees and fences were outlined in white. But the melting started before the snow stopped falling and I didn't capture any of those pictures. The heavy snow broke off numerous limbs around our place, and we lost power for most of Wednesday.

Sign #2 - The sheep are shorn. March came in like a lamb before the shearers; 2 very full days, 76 sheep shorn, four wool bags packed. Only three or four ewes appeared to have no udder development, and a couple of those may start showing later as their due dates get closer. So it is confirmed; we will be busy with lambs very soon. Lamb-weather was soon followed by a lion of a snow storm, 18 inches over about 8 hours. Thanks to above freezing temperatures and a big rain, by yesterday (one week after the storm) there was very little evidence of snow...just a lot of mud. But we are thankful for the moisture; this was the first measurable snow of the winter.

 Sign #3 - The garden is awakening! Crocus had been blooming for a while now, but after the snow melted there are even more crocus out and the very first daffodils opened today. Now I really need to get out there and clean off the beds, trim the butterfly bushes, and start working on the vegetable garden. We also have some blackberry cuttings from Brian's mom that desperately need to get in the ground.

Sign #4 - No electric net fence in the fields. We took down all but three sections of fence in preparation for the snow storm and piled it in the barn to keep the snow from damaging it. The newly shorn ewes moved to the high-tensile field where we could keep a close eye on them and feed round bales of hay. The fall-lambing ewes and their lambs moved to the barn, and we finally got the lambs separated. A quick trip across the scales this weekend showed that the 10 lambs averaged 60 pounds. They are ready for the Easter market and will be sent to New Holland this weekend. Yesterday we started setting fence out again, preparing to move the fall-lambing ewes to New Hope, the rams to Brian's parents, and the spring-lambing ewes to the barn and the field surrounding it. The first group of ewes will go into the drop pen in the barn on Sunday.

In other news, we found Ramathorne (Thorny), our original ram, dead in his pen the day of the snow storm. He was nine years old and served us well. We have six of the 2012 ewe lambs bred to him, so they will be our final crop of his lambs.

On a happier note, we framed in the utility room at the barn this Saturday. It turned out nicely, just needs a little more work to move in our supplies. The electrician was scheduled to come last week, but had to help with power outages during the snow storm. So he is rescheduled to come tomorrow and we are a few steps closer to having lights and power at the barn and power in the basement kitchen. Saturday was a good day all around as we also got to spend time with Brian's family and meet our new niece Eden.

We have been working to get the barn ready for lambing, setting up jugs, hauling hay and straw home, and re-stocking all of our supplies. We ordered some panels to modify the layout of our working area a bit, and it looks like the order will arrive just before we start lambing. Ready or not, it's about to get crazy in Craigsville!

A new roof, and the return of fresh eggs

February is flying by, and yet there isn't that much happening. How is that possible? Just the day to day stuff that doesn't seem that interesting for blog fodder, but then again, that's why I started this thing in the first place.

So here are bigger items from the last three weeks that have created enough buzz that they stick out in my mind.

The week of February 4th we got a new roof! You may recall the roof was damaged back at the end of June during the derecho storm. It never leaked thankfully, but we lost a lot of shingles. The insurance adjuster agreed it needed a total replacement, and we had been wanting to put on a metal roof. Since we had the insurance money to help, we were able to kick in the extra and we now have a beautiful standing-seam metal roof. Brian's mom's cousin (Does that make him a cousin once-removed? I can never keep those genealogy terms straight.) did the project and did an outstanding job. A crew of 4 guys did the project in 5 days. I think it looks fantastic, and we shouldn't have to worry about leaks or other roof issues for many years to come. The color is baked in, so there is no need to paint it every few years either.

The roof project during construction.

The finished look.

After the roof project we spent a couple of days hauling the ewes home from New Hope in preparation for lambing. It has been really nice to have everyone at home. Much less running. The girls are starting to get that round belly, waddle-when-you-walk look that is a good indicator of how busy March and April will be. We are expecting lambs from 81 ewes this spring, beginning around March 21. Shearing is scheduled for next Friday, and we'll get a better look at everyone then. But right now, the marks from breeding season say we could have 22, 22, and 29 ewes due in the first three weeks of the lambing season. Including 19 due on a single day (March 23). Wow.

So what are the ewes doing in these last few weeks?

One of the Dorper ewes, basking in the sun.

A Dorset ewe ruminating.

Two of our home-grown replacements, who are about 75% North Country Cheviot, having a standoff.

Another Dorper, check out that belly!

This is 145. She's a friendly Suffolk who was raised as a bottle lamb by our neighbor. She is a famous live Nativity star. This will be her first lambing.

The boys get a few months off. This is our new Dorset and Suffolk rams, Duff and Heath, in the foreground and Bruce, a North Country Cheviot in the background.

Sleeping in the sun.

The Dorsets have cute faces with their short little ears and wooly necks.

The weather has been a see-saw of  warm and cold with temperature swings of 30 to 40 degrees nearly every day this month. We had a couple of days in the upper 60s, and the flowers are poking up all around. There are daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, and surprise lilies waking up, as well as new growth on some of the perennials. Sometime last week the first crocus opened up, but I didn't take a picture. They have been blooming since then, and yesterday I managed to get a photo.

Not the first bloom of the season, but the first one captured.

And the last bit of news is that the chickens have also started to take note of the increasing day length and have started laying eggs more regularly. We got about 2 a day for most of the last two weeks, then Wednesday I got four, and yesterday there were 6. Including the first egg from the new pullets!

You recall we had a bunch of roosters in this last batch of chicks? Here's one of the Rhode Island Reds. They are quite striking, and I am amazed how much shinier the roosters are than the hens.

Eggs! The pullet egg on the right is about half the size of a regular egg.

I just love the color of Barred Rocks!

Barred Rock rooster in the foreground, another Rhode Island Red in the back.

These roosters are really big compared to the hens.

Well, that's about it. The fall lambs are still not separated from their mamas, but they aren't really nursing that much anymore. The skid loader has arrived and we've been working on cleaning out the barn, but it is a slow go. We have a mountain of manure stacked up waiting for drier conditions so it can be spread on the pasture, and we still have half of the barn to finish cleaning. We need to place an order for a few more panels and make some modifications to the barn layout, and we're hoping to (finally) get the electric run and build the storage room before we start lambing. Actually, it would be great to have the electric in place before we shear, but that is not looking too promising.

Home again

All of my scheduled travel is over for a while now, and it is good to be home again.

I have had some wonderful visits with family in the past four months, but it seems I've done nothing but drive to Pennsylvania recently. Five trips between October and January. It is no wonder the blog has been neglected. Well, that and the cold weather makes it too easy to crash in front of the tv for a couple of hours every night instead of doing something productive. Ah Netflix, I love you and I hate you.

So, what's been happening on the farm over the last month and a half? As of January 12, all of our 2012 spring-born lambs have been marketed. We sold 42 and kept 6 of the best females for replacements. This is the first time since our first year (when we only had 6 lambs!) that all of them have been ready to go this early. Have I mentioned we like the barn? We did not lose any lambs after weaning this year, and I think that is in large part due to them not being on pasture and not being constantly plagued by worms. The fall-born lambs need to be weaned and separated from their mamas, hopefully we will get that done this weekend. At least at this time of year they aren't suffering from parasites on pasture, and we have been feeding them grain and hay, so they seem to be doing well. I am curious to get them on the scales and see what they look like. As the ewes have dropped off in milk production, there are some obvious differences in the lambs, so I'm curious how big of a difference it really is in weight. Part of the delay in weaning them is that we've been waiting for our skid loader to arrive so we can get the barn cleaned out before we put the lambs in it. That was a year-end purchase, which I am told will be so useful we won't know how we got along without it. I don't know about that, but if it helps get the driveway fixed that would be great. The chickens are completely on strike this winter. Most of them are pullets who haven't started laying, but the older hens have shut down. I have two eggs in the refrigerator and 43 chickens to feed every day. Something is not right with that equation! I did find a fresh warm egg in the nest boxes this morning, so maybe we'll be back in business soon. We have discovered that there are four or five roosters in the group of 30 pullets. We had noticed there were a couple that were larger and slightly different colored, and any questions were quickly answered a couple of weeks ago when the boys started learning to crow. This is not likely to work out for them. The Rhode Island males are a bit too aggressive for my tastes, and we already have one rooster. Some of them are probably going to end up as stew. I would like to be able to hatch out some chicks on our own and this could give us that opportunity, so maybe they will get a reprieve. Good behavior will go a long way with me. Randy roosters, take note: first one that attacks me is in trouble!

We enjoyed spending time with our families over Christmas, and both sides of the family expanded in January. Our new nephew, Jonah, was born January 5, and our new niece, Eden, was born January 31. We live too far away from all of the nieces and nephews, but at least these two are pretty close together. Who knows, they may end up being in the same class at school. What a small world, that my sister and Brian's sister would end up living 15 minutes apart, and both of them are nearly 5 hours from their hometown.

I leave you with a spot of cheer that helps the long winter days seem brighter. I received an amaryllis bulb and a potted orchid for Christmas, and both have bloomed recently. The amaryllis is finished now, but it was beautiful with four full flowers. Just as it had faded, the first orchid bloom opened. Definitely a bright spot in the corner of my office!