Thursday, April 17, 2008

Lamb-A-Rama

My sister Donna informed me that now Lamb-A-Palooza is over, I need to have Lamb-A-Rama, which is when I show off all the new lambs that arrived during Lamb-A-Palooza.

So, without further ado, here are some photos.

The lambs and moms are learning how to manage grazing in the field without losing each other. For some, this is an easy task. For others, it takes several days of trial and error.

Here's Phoebe with her twins, Ursus and Ursula.
Phoebe is a very caring mother, but she can't count. Sometimes she has one white lamb following her.
Sometimes she has as many as five! As long as she has at least one at her side, and as long as all the lambs following her are white, she figures that's close enough. After all, with this many white lambs running around, who can keep track?
Here's Peri, with her white twins, Ulric and Ulrica. I was worried that Peri would have a hard time being a mom this year, because one of her ankles was destroyed by a rattlesnake bite last summer, so she has to hop on 3 legs. But so far, she's doing fine.

Ulrica stays close to her mom.

But Ulric is apt to wander off and get lost. He usually ends up being the 3rd lamb following Phoebe instead.

Here's Moriah, very proud and protective of her surprise spotted ewe lamb, Ulani:

Pandora's white ewe lamb, Utopia, looks like she may end up being as large and well-built as her mom.
Halsa's black mouflon spotted ewe lamb, Udara, has so much white covering her mouflon markings that it was tricky deciphering her genetics to figure out what her real color was.

Poppy's babies are Ulyssia:

And Ulysses:
Una continues to be as cute and stout as can be.
Dainty little Unity frisks around:
One of our cats, Oliver Sudden, stops by for a drink:


Tonight is the first night I'm leaving the pasture gate open so the ewes and lambs can stay out there after dark if they want to. The temperature was in the mid-80s (F) today, so the hot sunny pasture wasn't as enjoyable to them during the daylight hours.

My rams are a bit thinner than I'd like them to be, since all the ewes have been getting the majority of the attention lately. So to give them a treat, I opened the ram pen gate and let them out onto the lawn to graze on the new grass. They are pretty happy about that!

The lilacs and cherry trees are in full bloom here, so the air is filled with sweet perfume. And at sunset, the sky put on one of its fiery displays that we are so privileged to enjoy:

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a lovely family you have there. I'm not sure how you are going to find enough 'U' names to go around but if anyone can do it, I'm sure you can. Beautiful sunset pics. Thank you for sharing all.

It was in the eighties already? Yikes.

Dancingfarmer said...

Nice lambies Nancy--good crop so far---and I can certainly understand why Mikey might be a welcome addition. Looks dangerous there---he'll have his work cut out for him.
Oh yes---Senter looks very nice already. Imagine when he's been training for a while.

Monica

Rhea said...

Adorable lambs! Your comments about Phoebe are cracking me up. lol

How's Mona doing?

Nancy Chase said...

Mona's doing better. She still looks at everyone else's lambs as if hoping to find her own, but being out on the pasture with green grass to eat is a great comfort to any sheep!