Feelin' a bit sheepish...

[thistlebloom]

That's great! Looking forward to some pictures. Shines a good mama!
We will be getting pretty frigid here too. It's been almost balmy for several weeks, I've been switching mental gears to gardening. It'll be rude switching back to winter mode

 

[Baymule]

Awww....... I can't wait to see a picture of the new arrival. Pinkie Pie is getting her education!

I keep Sentry in the sheep barn at night. He is respectful of the new moms and babies. Sheba, on the other hand, wants to love the babies so bad! Last night, Aria was giving birth right up against a cow panel and Sheba was on the other side trying to lick the baby! Silly dog!

How many ewes do you have now? Are they all bred and expecting?

 

[Beekissed]

Awww....... I can't wait to see a picture of the new arrival. Pinkie Pie is getting her education!

I keep Sentry in the sheep barn at night. He is respectful of the new moms and babies. Sheba, on the other hand, wants to love the babies so bad! Last night, Aria was giving birth right up against a cow panel and Sheba was on the other side trying to lick the baby! Silly dog!

How many ewes do you have now? Are they all bred and expecting?

I have 8 ewes, 6 of them are ewe lambs, and all are preggers, though Rose wasn't bred until much, much later than the group. That leaves Shine lambing too early, Rose lambing too late and all the rest somewhere in between....yeah, we did a crap job of controlling breeding opportunities this year. Most should be born at the end of April/first of May.

Pinky Pie is doing an excellent job of watching over but maintaining distance. Blue is tethered at the moment due to him ducking out of the fencing and chasing the neighbor's truck down the driveway, so I haven't gotten to see what he makes of the new lamb. I let him have the cleanings, though, so he feels like he participated in some way.

Pinky is now 5 mo. old and is growing like a weed. I'm starting to see the dog she will become and I think she'll be strong and thicker overall than Blue. She won't be as fast as him, that's for sure. I'll try to get some good pics of her.

 

[Beekissed]

Not the greatest of pictures, as my camera is old and crappy and she kept moving around due to Pinky Pie dancing around by my leg, wanting my attention.

Pinky Pie at 5 mo. with super strong legs.

Compared to PP at 8 wks, first full day on the farm.

 

[thistlebloom]

What a pretty little lamb he is! Pink is sure growing into herself. She's a good looking dog, nice big bone structure. I'm so glad she's working into such a great partner for you.

 

[Beekissed]

What a pretty little lamb he is! Pink is sure growing into herself. She's a good looking dog, nice big bone structure. I'm so glad she's working into such a great partner for you.

Me too! She's been doing some behavior lately that I'm not liking....but to be fair, she saw Blue doing it first. She's grabbing at the legs of a particular wether and trying to keep it from moving. So much so that she's wounded him in three legs...not severely, but enough to break the skin and cause him to limp. Hence the shock collar she's wearing, because I need to correct her at a distance...the only time I can catch her in the act. This is the same behavior she saw Blue perform and SHE corrected him on it...now she is doing the same thing. Not sure what either dog is trying to accomplish, as it's definitely not play behavior....it's like they are trying to prevent certain sheep from moving to a different area of the paddock. While Blue doesn't cause injury, Pinky's teeth are tiny and needle sharp, so they are penetrating the skin and underlying tissues. Not good and needs to stop...I can't imagine what she would do to a tender little lamb.

 

[Beekissed]

I know youins sheep people are likely used to lambs and all their cuteness, so I'll likely sound like a new grandma spewing all sorts of biased goo at the general public....but this new lamb is out of this world funny. He's on his second day of life and he's climbing partial round bales and jumping off! He's playing~or trying to~with any other animal he sees, though his mama then drives off any sheep or dog that tries to reciprocate. He's a trouble maker in a little black and white package, making him easy to spot from 100 yds away....the approx. distance from the house.

I've been watching him this morning and how much trouble his mama has been having keeping him from interacting with possibly dangerous things...it's hilarious! I don't know that we've had a lamb that young to be that precocious before. He's a hoot!

 

[Baymule]

Adorable lamb, love the markings on him! Gush all you want to, it's what we do! I have pages and pages of gushing over my lambs, so you just gush, brag and tell us all about your lambs!

Pinkie Pie is growing into such a strong, beautiful dog. Adding maturity, which will take a little time, and she will be magnificent.

 

[Beekissed]

We are almost finished fencing in that big field next door and I'm getting more excited by the day. We should, barring interruptions, get the fencing done tomorrow and possibly get the Sport Dog wire ran around the land tomorrow or the next day...more likely the next day.

Here's some pics of that field from different views that will give you an idea of the lay of the land.

This end borders our land and is as wide as the rest of the field but there's a section of woodland that juts into the field there on the left that makes the field look narrow....we like the woods being there as they have plenty of low growing brush for the sheep to eat. Our land lies to the right of their field, right past that smaller field in the foreground right.

This is the left side of the field as we face towards the main road out past that distant tree line. You can see the brush line where we had to clear the brush back from the edge of the field for the fencing...that was all hugely overgrown autumn olive and some multiflora rose. We coppiced it all so that it will grow back young and tender, more palatable for the sheep and put the fencing in behind that row of autumn olive tree stumps. Did all of that with hand tools and chainsaw, as we have no tractor or brush hog type machinery here.

Up at the top of that field and behind those large pines is the neighbor's house and they own the field.

This view is looking down from near their house towards our land....you can see our cabin just barely. Those dark brown things are tarp covered round bales on pallets...just waiting for the sheep. And Steve, our four wheeler....just named by my grandgirl.

This view is from the top of the field but looking towards the road...fencing not tensioned yet.

All in all it's a nicely rolling field without any really good graze in it, but more graze than we have on our land and we hope to develop it into a better pasture with the rotational grazing of the sheep. It stays pretty moist most of the year, though that's largely due to the clay based soil.

The fencing is low and very discreetly set back in the tree line, not marring the scenery much and should be low enough to allow deer to jump it easily...it's only 32 in. tall. The bottom strand is 10 in. high and should let smaller wildlife flow through easily as well. Eli does neat work on the fencing, the gates and bracing, so it's a nice looking job.

In the spring I'll stain the gate posts with an oak stain and paint the bracing barn red to match our other fencing and gates, as well as matching the gates we are using for their field. It should look pretty sharp in the end. It will look even better with sheep grazing the field....it's been more than 20 yrs since that place had any stock on it and that was just a few horses.

 

[farmerjan]

Quite a project..... looking real nice.