Well, we have 5 new babies for the contest.  Yesterday on March 29, DuClair had twin lambs, a boy and girl at 11:20 am.  As far as I know, there was no guess that was more correct than Michelles.  Donna, you can guess again.

This morning, Mandy had triplets!  Two girls and one boy from 9 - 9:45 am.  I don’t think anyone made a guess that was accurate on her either.  To say the least I was afraid she would kid all night, so I had to check her every few hours.  I don’t have a picture yet, I will put some up soon.  They all look like Mandy.  One girl will stay here with us, and one will go back to the Lady I bought them from.  That was part of the deal.  The buckling is free to a good home.  I have two people who would like to have him.

I don’t need any pet wethers, so I am just giving him away.  On names, (I forget if I explained this yet) I was going to choose Saint names again, but I was informed by the children that they wanted something more fun this year.  They decided to name the lambs after children’s rhymes, songs and stories.  So the first two lambs were renamed Star and Twinkle, and these two cute little black boogers are Peter and Piper.  The one baby girl we are keeping from Mandy will be named Mercy, as today was divine Mercy Sunday.    Yeah well so it’s outside of the theme, shoot me.

I have a lambing jug that I have made out of an old campershell.  The sheep and goats love these because they have windows, and they can see out.  I have been wearing a pair of overalls around for lambing and stuff, because skirts just don’t do well, and none of my pants will go over my huge, fat, lard- butt, cow body  Rubanesque, voluptuous pregnant figure.  Anyhow, I like to make sure the bedding is nice and fluffy-comfy, and I forgot to put some around the edges to block any drafts.  So I managed to crawl in there and Beau took this picture of me, beached testing the jug for comfort.

My children have taken to calling me “Farmer Preggo” since I have been wearing the “preg-alls” that are also Beau’s.  What he uses for height, I use for width.  well, it all works out, usually I wear some jeans or something when working with the sheep or something, but as I said, I don’t have any that fit any more.  The overalls are really more comfortable anyway.

The bedding was very deep and cushy.  I was quite comfortable in there and seriously considered taking a nap.   I was very comfie and besides I would never be able to hear the kids screaming and fighting  playing from all the way out here.  Then I discovered that the sheep needed it more than me, what with having just given birth.  Stupid sheep, sigh.

Of course when I had hauled and wiggled my rear in there, I didn’t really think about getting back out again.  Beau took this picture of me laying there thinking on it.  Well, there is another jug, I could just insist that Beau put her in the other jug, and stay in there until it was time to go to the hospital.  Well, ok maybe just until I have to pee so bad that I can’t wait any longer.

Well, we now have two new arrivals!  Monkey kidding this morning at about 9:30 am.

Look how proud Mom is!  These two little doelings are experimental.  That means they are mixed blood basically, but the American Dairy Goat Association lets you register them anyway.   They are half LaMancha and have little elf ears that are so cute! Mama is 3/4 Toggenburg and 1/4 Alpine.

The closest guess was Monkey on March 21, with two twin does.  So Catsmum, only got a 40% Correctness score.

So, Catsmum, Anna Stein, and Mary L,  you should all guess again.  Also, if you guessed Cecilia or Agnes, you should also guess again, keep the contest going!

Michelle is still in the lead with an 80% correct guess.  This roving is the prize, and it is merino, with lots of pretty angelina in it!  So, if you want to win this yummy roving that was drum carded then hand pulled (drafts like a dream I might add) then make a guess on the ewe or doe of your choice.  Here is what you need to guess on.

Mom, day, time, number of babies and sex of babies.  Each correct guess gets you 20% of a correct guess.

“HEY, where are you going?  Get back here brat!  That’s the wrong end!”

Kids are not the quickest at finding the teats….Being used to the shetlands who are born knowing their times tables (hee hee) the kids were quite a lot slower to pick up on how to nurse.  They are also a lot slower to be on their feet and trying.  The first Shetland baby will often be up and nursing or trying by the time number 2 arrives, which is usually in about 15 minutes.  Anyway, these two are now doing great.

“Give Mama a kiss….”

We were going to take the doe kids off their Moms and bottle raise them, but since I wasn’t dressed and out there in time, Monkey had already fallen in love with the white one who came first.  So we will just let Mom raise them, since Mandy will have kids too.  Many people take the kids off and heat treat the milk to prevent CAE which is a diesease in goats.  But I don’t have the heart to break them up after they are all in love with each other.  I have been told, that when you are there, and take the kids away before Mom sees them, that Mom will lick and bond to YOU and be happy without the kids, but Monkey was too fast for us!  So, since she tested negative this year, it is probably fine that she keeps her babies.

I’m not sure how much I want to worry about CAE anyway, from what I have read, many many of the positive animals are merely carriers, and do not get symptomatic, further, the disease is not super easy to spread.  The most common way, is from milk from Mom to babies.  Many farms do not test, and never have any sick animals either, so it is a debatable topic at best.

Anyhow, there are the new pictures of the latest arrivals, make your guesses if you guessed wrong!  Also Lucy almost must have not settled the first time around, so if you guessed on lucy, you might want to reschedule your guess for around the 31st.

Well, so Michelle is in the lead with the guess of

“Cecilia will have a ewe lamb between 1:00 and 5:00 a.m. on March 10, followed by twins from Agnes by midnight that night”

Michelle has the closest day, the correct sex, and she nailed the time.  BUT she has re - guessed.  So Michelle, you have only the day off, so you have a correctness score of 80%  You can keep your guess with Cecilia, or choose your guess with Mist.  Tammy, you may guess again if you like. Your current guess is 60% correct.  (I assume you meant that Cecilia would also lamb in the early morning.) Once you are out of the running, you can always guess again, that will make it even more fun.

This isn’t quite how I planned to choose the winner, so you can edit your guess as you like to reflect this change.  If you get the sex and time right, that’s pretty good, so I don’t want it to not count.  So you get 20% for each correct part, ewe, day, time, number, and sex.

But I guess you want pictures right?

This is Tatiana, named in honor of St Tatiana

We will call her Tawty for short.  This years theme is Martyrs.  This tells us the sire, and year they were born.  We choose a type of Saint each year and so we can sort of track our pedigrees off paper, just by names.

It was an easy birth, I worry about the new Moms, they can be so ditzy sometimes.  Cecilia did a great job though, excepting that she didn’t understand the lamb could nurse from BOTH sides, not just one.  So everyone is cared for, and temorarily housed, and when Beau gets home we will get things sorted out better.

Everything normal and doing fine!  Now, Agnes, Lucy and Monkey are next.

First of all, there is a really neat site I found today.  It shows you all the local knitting shops in your area, and you can add a shop if your’s isn’t there.

www.knitmap.com/map

For all the good it does me, there are none nearby…But maybe you guys will find some.

Now, to lambing, two of my sheep are seemingly SOOOO ready, but nothing. Yesterday was a day of the sheep torturing me, you can read about that on my other blog if you are interested in how funny the sheep can be, and how much of an idiot they made out of me yesterday.  I reserve this blog for posts that make me look smart, not uh the opposite…

So today I am trying really hard to NOT watch them, but I am not very good at it. I just want those cute little Sherino babies! I am also making up more batts for tutorials on various methods of getting interesting effects in your batts.

Don’t forget if you haven’t to guess that lamb from the last post. The roving is REALLY much prettier than the picture shows. You can’t see the tons of shiny angelina/tinsel stuff in it. It absolutely glows!

I will post pictures as soon as I have any!

Sooo, lambing will begin anytime now, and we are still getting ready. Being sick has us so far behind, I feel like we will never ever catch up.

So, for this months contest, I am having a guess when the lambs will be born contest. I got the idea from my pal Tammy . Some of you might like to take a peek at my other blog, as I posted birth pictures from last year, but beware they are graphic!

I am making some changes though, from what Tammy did, you can guess any lamb, not just the first one, and you also guess the number of lambs and boys/girls. After lambing, I will send out the prize to the person who guessed the closest time and day. Sound Fun?

First up, Cecilia, due March 9 (1/4 Dorset, 3/4 Merino) Wool is lovely, soft, crimpy and about 4 inches long.

March 10, Agnes, same breed as Cecilia.

Now comes Lucy Due March 17. She is a “Sherino” Half of the above mix, and half Shetland. Her fleece is soft, and wonderful! It felts SO easy, and also spins so well. It is my favorite fleece from my flock. I will have more of them after this season. It really is the best of both worlds.

Now comes Monkey, who is not a sheep at all. She’s a dairy goat. Hopefully we can get lots of yummy milk from her. She is due to kid on March 19.

After Monkey comes Mandy on the 25 of March. Mandy is an American LaMancha. They naturally have no ears, nobody cut them off! Actually they have small teddy bear type ears that are very cute. They are a bit odd looking but they are super sweet and nice.  She is very sensitive, and was developing a complex from SOMEONE WE WON’T NAME (cough BEAU)!  Calling her “no eared freak” poor thing.

Mist is a pure bred Shetland and she is due on March 30. She has a lovely intermediate fleece that spins so fast you can finish enough for a sweater in what seems like no time. It also spins up to lace weight very easily. It is very pale gray and she is a real sweetie.

DuClair is also a purebred Shetland. She is due on March 31, and she has a primitive double coat. It is very unique and fun to work with. The outer part makes a great addtion to sock yarn for the heels and toes, and the undercoat is as soft as the finest Merino. She is a horned ewe, which is allowed but more rare. I wish I had all horned ewes, I admit that it is much easier to handle her than the others.

Ashlin is lambing for the first time, and she is also due on March 31. She is a spooky little booger, and a purebred Shetland. (I can’t believe my spell checker didn’t recognize the word booger :P) I haven’t made friends with her yet. I hope that I can do so when she is confined with her lambs. I hope I can catch her to confine her with her lambs lol. It’s too bad, these pictures are all from last fall, and so they are not in full wool. I’ll go out and snap a few so you can see it, it’s magnificent!

Finally is Brietta, another purebred Shetland ewe. She is due on April 2, and this will be her first lambs. She is freindly, but a little reserved. I think she will tame up nicely while she is in with her lambs.

Its funny, because some bot grabbed this photo, and stuck it on a baby names site. It says something about, “This is what someone named Breitta looks like” ROFL. I looked it up, because I wanted to link to it, but they had changed it Oh well.

And that is everyone who will be having babies except me, and that won’t happen until June, lets hope. We can have a contest about that too, but not for a while hee hee.

So, here is how it works. Choose a sheep and make a guess on the day and time they will lamb, also guess how many lambs, and boy/girl. After everyone has lambed, we will look and see who guessed the closest.

Here is the prize…

These are from a batt I carded up. It is 100% Merino. I dyed the wool, then carded it, then hand pulled it into roving. It is red, pink, blackish purple and a very blue violet. The colors don’t do it justice. There is about 2.5 ounces here and it is in pencil roving. There is tons of glittery angelina sort of stuff also carded in, that is the stuff that looks like long white hairs lol. One final thing, if the winner lives outside of the US, then I will ask for them to split the shipping with me, as it gets very expensive!

Have fun and make a guess. Here is a little information to go by. The due dates are figured on day 145. I believe the average gestation period is 147 days, so it is fairly accurate. They are grained very lightly in the morning (to get them to go out!) and turned out to graze. Then hay and a ewe ration in the evening. (There are those who are of the opinion that this encourages daytime lambing) The sheep and goats will most often twin. Both the goats I have may triple, as their lines carry this trait strongly.

Last year DuClair had two boys, Mist one boy, and one girl, and Lucy one boy and one girl. The others are all first time Mamas.

So remember, day, time, number of lambs, and boys/girls!

I hope you will all have a go!