03/22/2006
We are off to late start by most standards, but it we are not worried! The first day of lambing has been very successful and rewarding! DiAnn had been convinced that our six year old ewe was going to give birth for over a week now. She has had mostly sleepless nights over the last eight or nine nights checking the old girl every couple of hours. On Monday (3/21) she made one of her trips to the barn around 10:00 AM to check on her. To DiAnn's surprise, one of our ewe lambs was in early labor! Epiphany was born on our farm last year. She birthed our first lamb of the year around 2:00 in the afternoon.
Much to our relief she did a great job during labor and birthed a beautiful ewe lamb. Loretta is doing great and Epiphany is acting like an old pro. She had fits when I took Loretta out of the jug to weight her, which is great! Loretta is 1/2 Corridale and 1/2 Columiba.
While the whole family was watching the new little life in our barn, Martina (our six year old) went into labor! She went from looking like it could be days yet to delivering to three very heathly babies at 4:00PM. The first was a ram that was breach, the second was a ram in normal presentation and the third was a ewe feet first. We were a bit worried at first with the presentations, but all the babies are doing very, very well! In fact, when we weighed them tonight, the first ram weight in at 8lbs 4oz, the ewe (Deana) was 10lbs 14ozs and the biggest ram (second born) was 11lbs 10ozs. It was no wonder DiAnn thought she was going to go a week eariler! These little ones are pure Corridale.
03/23/2006
DiAnn was contacted last fall by Sheep! Magazine about doing an article on her and the Babe Spinning Wheels she sells. Today DiAnn was contacted by the editor of Sheep! Magazine about getting some photo's of her with some sheep or with some of the wheels. Here are the ones we took with the triplets.
03/24/2006
It was a bitter sweet day here at Country Dream Acres. We had our third ewe go into early labor late last evening. When I check on her at about 11:30 PM she was busy eating and while in early labor, was not acting like she was going anytime soon. At about 2:30 this morning, DiAnn when to check on her. Much to our surprise, she had given birth to a very nice ram lamb. (Just what we wanted was another ram lamb! Not!) DiAnn helped her and the lamb settle into a jug for the evening. Before she came back to the house, she checked the other lambs and found Deana dead. Losing any lamb is costly, but losing one of only two ewes so far from this years crop was particularly hard on us. We are not exactly sure what happened, but it probably would have been better if we had moved one of the triplets to Epiphany. We will never know for sure, but it is another lesson learned. Here are pictures of the newest addition. He is pure Columiba.
04/08/2006
It was a nice day here at Country Dream Acres and the lambs are starting to play in the pasture! The lambs will be fun to watch over the next six to eight weeks. The last ewe as yet to give up her lambs. We (DiAnn especially!) hopes it is soon. |
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| Loretta | This is Alison's little ram. He has become Pigglet for so many reasons .... | Martina's rams have become the 'twins' |