Purplequeenvt - New Journal

[purplequeenvt]

Freyja seems to be doing ok. I’ve been keeping an eye on her via the cameras while at work. While she’s been staying mostly in the barn, she’s been eating. Her temp last night was still slightly high, it was much better than the 105 temp she had on Sunday.

Her baby is definitely not getting enough milk from her. He looks good, but he was scurrying around the barn this morning testing all the other “taps”. When he saw me, he came running and grabbed the nipple. This was only his 3rd bottle feeding.

He’ll be wethered and probably end up in my collection of Border Leicester/Shetland cross wethers. I don’t have a white one yet. 🤣

 

[Baymule]

Oftentimes, the problem with trying to leave lambs that need supplementation is that mom has *just* enough milk to make them stubborn about taking the bottle. I had that issue with Xena and her little triplet brother last year. He only wanted real boobie-juice and he’d rather starve than try anything else. I think he would always have been small, but he didn’t grow well at all because he fought the bottle for so long.

You are right about that. I tried that last year and it didn’t work.

 

[purplequeenvt]

I think my stint as substitute sheep mom may be over already. Freyja’s baby has a full belly and refused the bottle last night and this morning.

 

[purplequeenvt]

I may have my yearling Shetland ram sold. I’m not going to believe it until he’s actually loaded on the buyers trailer though. Buyers have been notoriously flaky. I’m meeting this guy in Lexington which is a couple hours away. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of delivering, but he’s paying extra.

My sister also goes to someone around there with the dogs to work sheep and she keeps telling me I should come too. I’ll bring Twist and we can play with some sheep after dropping the ram off.

 

[Baymule]

Sounds like a fun day. Deliver ram, then go play sheep dogs!

Glad Freyja is feeding her lamb and you don’t have to!

 

[purplequeenvt]

Freyja is back to acting normal, her baby is fine. He completely ignores me now. I did castrate him the other day.

Jura is the last to lamb and she’s due on Wednesday.

I looked at who’s related to who briefly this morning. There’s 16 Border Leicester ewes. That’s including a handful that may get sold or just not be bred. Obviously all of them can be bred to my new ram, Bruno. 12 can be bred to my black ram, Banff. Burton is being replaced by Bruno and there’s actually a decent number that can be bred to either of the 2 ram lambs that I’m thinking of growing out.

I got a present this morning before heading to work. My BIL picked up some hay from a local guy. His wife gave BIL a fleece from one of her Angora goats to give to me. I guess she’s heard that I spin/knit. BIL told me she wants to connect because she doesn’t know anyone locally that does fibers arts, specifically from farm to finished product.

So shiny! I’ll probably blend it with some Shetland wool before spinning.

 

[Mini Horses]

Oooh..and pretty curls. Which, of course, is only seen growth to spin 🥴☺️ yeah, fiber arts aren't seen like years back...but you do SUCH awesome things with yours!!! 🥰

 

[Baymule]

Ooooooohhhhhj! Pretty! What will you make with it? A spinning friend could be a good thing!

 

[SageHill]

Ohhhh I just want to put my hands in that!

 

[purplequeenvt]

Day off (from the paid job) today. I had a slow start, but managed to drag myself outside to be productive eventually.

I got 4 rams sheared. They were due and Stanley is leaving this weekend so he needed a spa day. He looks really nice and his fleece is lovely.

I was going to stop at the 4 (it was 80+ today and I was hot, tired, and cranky), but then Freyja came into the barn sounding like she was about to die of heatstroke. I quickly gave her a terrible hair cut and then hosed her belly and udder off afterwards. She went right back to her normal rooting around for snacks.

I’ve got 4 more ewes that need to be sheared, but I didn’t have it in me today.

Monster melted in the heat.