Meet Mesa, this one is a keeper!

We have birthed 89 lambs this season and the farm is bursting with new life and joy! With only 3 ewes left to birth and the bottle lambs sleeping through the night I can finally sleep fully through the night too.

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Wow! It is so amazing to witness life come into the world again and again. 86 lambs have arrived to The Living Farm this season and 8 ewes are still pregnant. If you are interested in starting your own dairy flock contact me.

My flock is East Frisian crossed with Lacaune. Our sheep are friendly and handled a lot to create a flock that is easy to milk and fun to be around.

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Sheep shearing season is a special time of year on the farm. Usually we have a harsh spring storm roll in during our shearing. This year we had warm breezy spring days. Then the day after all of the sheep have been sheared we had a spring snowstorm! All of the ladies are fine and enjoying being free of their heavy coats. Now that our sheep shearing season is finished we can begin milking our flock. On the farm we look forward to the delights of our sheep milk cheese and ice cream. The shearing day we filmed we had help from local community members of all ages. Once the fleece was sheared from the sheep we pass it off to our crew of helpers to clean up and then bag for our future woolen products.

No Lambing Adventure is finished until you name lambs! For our Sheep Shearing Season post we have Rose, Harlequin and Clover’s lambs to name! The lambs have been named. Thank you for all of the submissions!

Rose’s Triplets: Bluebell, Abeline & Memphis

On the day that Rose birthed Lynn went on her 10am check of the flock. Rose was talking to her butt and pounding the ground. It was a warm spring day so Lynn left her to her business in the pasture. By 1030 a cool breeze picked up so Lynn went out and helped Rose and her new little girl inside the barn. It can be difficult to move a birthing sheep unless she has already had her first lamb. The best technique is to pick up the lamb and guide the ewe inside the barn. Once they were settled into the birthing corner lamb number 2 was being pushed out with the sac over her face. Generally if a lamb is born with the sac over it’s face and there is no assistance the lamb will suffocate. Lynn guided the second little girl out and uncovered her face so she could breathe. Once she had Rose settled she rushed back to picking lettuce greens and just missed the birth of Rose’s surprise little boy. The birth for these three couldn’t have gone better. Lynn was in exactly the right place at the right time to save Rose’s second lamb.

Harlequins Twins Natasha & Ariel

Harlequin’s twin girls like to stay close to their mom. The were born during our population explosion on the 4th of April. It was a smooth birth and the two are as healthy and spunky as can be! At the end of this blog post make sure you give them the sweet names they both are hoping for!

Clover’s Lamb, Zoe

Clover’s little girl is one of the fluffier of our lambs. She was born on the 3rd of April on the same day as Dixie’s triplets and Sicily’s twins, Graziano & Portia. Her birth went smoothly and was largely uneventful. This lamb is easygoing and sweet tempered and incredibly independent. We love these easy non dramatic births! These are the lambs that hold our farm together.

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Meet Our Bottle Fed Lamb Hazelnut

Hazelnut and her brother Hank have beautiful markings. Her mother, Spumoni, is taking care of Hank beautifully but rejected Hazelnut. This does occasionally occur in our flock  Hazel is very sociable and loves to follow Lynn about during farm chores. The past couple of days of sheep shearing were full and exhausting. This sweet bottle fed lamb enjoyed napping with some of the shearing help. It is such a privilege to connect people with the land and living simply. So we found it amusing how this little girl connected the two worlds by cuddling the lamb and posting an image of the farm at the same time! Because there is more opportunity for bonding with the bottle fed lambs Hazelnut received her name from Lynn so she could share with her family the days when Hazelnut was struggling. It can be difficult to refer to our babies by numbers instead of names!

Meet Tyler

 Dixie’s firstborn of her three triplets was the most difficult birth of the year. Not only was he backwards but the way his back legs were extended he was unable to progress through the birth canal on his own. As Lynn was assisting Dixie’s birth and realized the precarious situation she was in she gently guided him through the birth canal. The trickiest part of birthing a lamb backwards is that they will take a reflexive breath before their head has cleared the birth canal. This little boy is one of our miracle births and after a little while he was resuscitated. Dixie’s next two births went smoothly and she bonded with her little girl and boy but not her firstborn. Of all the bottle fed lambs he is the most likely to follow you to the ends of the world and back. This playful little boy is vivacious and loves to give kisses. You can learn more about his siblings at our blog post about Dixie and her triplets.

Meet Sandy

At 2am Lynn went out to do a routine check and paid special attention to Moon. Moon wasn’t in labor yet but had a readiness about her. By the 6am check Moon had birthed a beautiful black little boy and was bonding with him in the birthing corner of the barn. (The birthing corner is the spot that the sheep prefer to go to have their lambs). Everything seemed perfectly normal but Lynn had a strange feeling about the whole situation. After checking the barn thoroughly for another lamb she turned to leave and right by the gate was a small white little lamb. This little girl was completely silent and blended in with the straw. She was left with her mother for 3 days in hopes of creating a bond but one was never created. Instinctively sheep will hold their milk for their lambs and if they do not identify a lamb as their own they will block them off from feeding. After 3 days of ineffective nursing classes Moon’s little girl became one of our beloved bottle fed lambs.

Come along with us for an afternoon feeding of our bottle fed babies!

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Savanna

Toledo

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Sicily our Icelandic sheep comes from a sheep breed that was bred by the Vikings. Her unique fleece was dually purposed for both creating fabrics and ropes for those hardy people. Graziano & Portia are so very thankful for their names. If you would like to name a lamb check out our more recent blog posts to get started!

Thanks to Jenn Harley for these stunning pictures of Sicily and her lambs!

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