It's blue

Strawberry had her cria this afternoon, just after 1 pm, and it's wearing a blue coat. From that clue, you can surmise it's a boy. While I was really hoping that we might get lucky enough to have two girls in a row, I was not at all surprised by the boy. Out of the 6 crias we have had born here, Pippi is the only female. Do you suppose there's something in the water? Anyway, he's cute as can be (his markings and color are pretty much like his mom) and we think we may as well let him stay! I was here and able to take the blow dryer to him immediately and get his little quilted coat on, so he didn't get chilled or unduly stressed. He got up and nursed right away, so we're off to a good start. I don't have a name for him yet. If it had been a girl she would have been named after Strawberry's mother, Hollyberry. So, now what? It's hard to think of a boy name that includes "berry" in it. The last boy Strawberry had, we named Jazzberry.

Sorry about the dark, blurry pictures-barn light is not great for portraits!

Honestly, there's nothing like a new baby (of just about any species) to liven things up. I suppose that's why I keep breeding my ewes. I love having those babies around. Usually, by the time lambing is finished, I'm so tired I'm planning on skipping a year or two, but when fall comes around I have forgotten what hard work it is and am already thinking about having new lambs to play with in the spring.

These are the little girls, looking in and wondering what all the fuss was about. That's Buddy in the middle there. I guess you could say he's kind of one of the girls, too (but, don't let him hear you!)

"Ain't no sunshine..."

That Bill Withers song has been stuck in my head since I went out to do the morning barn chores. There's certainly not been much in the way of sunshine around here lately. The above picture was taken around 10 am and that's all the sun we've had for the day. There's plenty of brightness from the snow(s) we've had since last Thursday morning. (I keep waking up in the middle of the night and thinking it's time to get up!) All the animals here don't seem to mind the cold. They all come equipped with warm, woolen coats. Even Jenny and Fannie are fuzzed up for the season.

We're playing that waiting game again. I finally found a calendar where I had written down what I think was the last time I saw Strawberry being bred, and if it's correct, her due date is this coming Thursday. I checked her this morning and she does have milk already, so I know we're getting close. My dilemma is that I'm afraid to be gone from the farm during the day because it is so darn cold right now. Llamas nearly always have their crias in the afternoon, which makes it easier to check on her periodically, but it definitely limits my time off the farm. (Of course, at the moment, our farm lane is icy enough that I don't want to even try driving on it.) I need to be able to put Strawberry and the cria inside in a clean, dry, freshly bedded pen, dry the cria off and get a coat on it ASAP. The good part about being farm-bound is that I'm taking advantage of it and knitting a lot. Show and tell coming soon!

Options-inside or outside

Today the preferred option would be to not go outside. Even the sheep are hanging around inside the barn today. There's a cold wind blowing and snow swirling about, and as that saying (sorta) goes, it's not a fit day out for man nor beast. The local weatherman is predicting lows in the single digits tonight. But, it is beautiful....so beautiful, looking out the windows toward that big oak tree in front of our farmhouse. Unfortunately, there's no automated livestock feeding facility here at Tanglewood Farm, someone will have to go out into the cold to feed all the animals. I feel a little guilty admitting that, for a change, it won't be me. I have been feeling a little under the weather (no pun intended--I promise) and Mike has taken over my barn chores for the day.

This is the best option of all. I've been spending my afternoon knitting in front of the fireplace and I'd be perfectly happy to stay right here until bedtime. There are a few small projects coming off the needles and I hope to be up and at it tomorrow and will take pictures when there is better light.

No way to begin

The new year has not begun well here at sheep dreams. This morning one of the Romeldale ram lambs (the one on the left--the moorit) I purchased back in the summer died. We don't know the cause yet, but will be waiting anxiously for the necropsy report to come back. He seemed fine on Saturday evening when I moved the boys into their night-time lot, but Sunday morning was standing listlessly by the fence. We brought him inside the barn, and since he had no obvious symptoms, treated him with several all purpose medicines and hoped for the best. Since I first brought him home, my husband (the veterinarian) has consistently observed that he thought there was something just not right about this ram. We did have some real problems with him in the beginning. He had several episodes of scouring and seemed not as energetic as the other ram lambs. Lately though, he had been full of energy---even to the point of chasing the alpaca boys and romping with the other rams. So, hopefully we'll get some answers when the final report comes from the diagnostic laboratory.

And this...........this is what it looks like when a mouse decides to die inside the wall of our house. Part of our house is quite old, nearly 100 years old actually. The parts of the house that we added when we moved here have secure foundations and no easy way for mice to get into the walls, but the old part is apparently not quite so mouse proof. It took my husband that many attempts to find the little stinker (and I mean that quite literally!). Yuck, yuck and more yuck. So now, to start the new year off, the entrance hall will get a fresh coat of paint.

I hesitated to write this post because it is nothing but bad news, but in the interest of presenting an honest portrait of our life on the farm, I decided to tell it like it is. Lots of good things happen here every day, week in and week out. Sometimes sad things happen. To live our lives here, connected with nature and interacting with our animals, we need to have the good outweigh the bad...............and mostly it does.