Regina's Lambs, and Others

Regina had her lambs yesterday:  a moorit gray girl and a boy who is either moorit badger or moorit gray badger.

The girl's name is Xafari.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by Laurel McGilvery (no web link given).

 
The boy's name is Xadrian.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by Laurel McGilvery (no web link given).

Now here are a few pictures of the other lambs.  This one is Xcaliber.

Another of Xcaliber.

Xaria:

Xelia:

Mighty Xcotia tears down a tree with her fearsome lamb teeth:

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Are You Sick of Lamb Photos Yet?

Are you completely overdosed on woolly cuteness yet?  Look away!  I'm giving you fair warning that the blog is going to be flooded with lamb pictures for a while yet.  This time of year, lambing season pretty much takes over my life.

But stay tuned, I actually DO have a wide variety of other activities and creative projects that I'll be writing about after lambing season is over!

Meanwhile, resign yourself to basking in the cuteness.  :-)

Xabella:

Xabella and Xcaliber

Xanthus:

Xelene isn't really twice as cute as all the other lambs, she's just good at always striking a photogenic pose:

Xolo has grown a lot since his last photo was taken:

This Week's Lambs

We've had quite a few new lambs born this week, but I haven't been able to get photos of them all until today.

First up are Moriah's black badger twins.  They are 75% the same bloodlines as my best fleece sheep, with 25% of improved meat build added in.  So their fleeces should be super nice when they grow up.  The girl is Xena.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Chris Conrad of http://www.facebook.com/chris.conrad, Tika of theyellowjournalist.blogspot.com, Laurel McGilvery (no web link given), and Skye (no web link given).

The boy is Xergei.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Laurel McGilvery (no web link given).

Next are Pandora's white twins.  They are going to be very broad and "beefy" when they grow up.  The boy is Xanthus.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Laurel McGilvery (no web link given), Elizabeth Brockman (no web link given), and Beth from www.cotondogs.net.

The girl is Xanti (pronounced "Shanti").  Pandora has a history of occasionally producing a lamb that is not just white, but ultra super-dooper white.  Xanti is one of those.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Tika of theyellowjournalist.blogspot.com, and Laurel McGilvery (no web link given).

Titania had a black solid girl named Xalome.  This lamb is a cross between my most parasite resistant ram and the ewe who gave me the most parasite resistant lamb last year, so I have high hopes for this girl.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Laurel McGilvery (no web link given).

And finally, Paisley had twin girls.  This is a cross between two of my most parasite resistant sheep, so again, high hopes for these lambs.  The moorit solid is named Xaria.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Tika of theyellowjournalist.blogspot.com, Stephen Pappas (no web link given), Molly Bailey of Bailey Girl Five, and Laurel McGilvery (no web link given).

And the moorit badger is named Xelia.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by: Monica of Crazy House Quilts

Congratulations to all the naming winners!  We are approximately halfway through lambing now, so there are plenty more lambs and plenty more chances to win coming up.

Seven New Lambs

We had a lot of new lambs born in the past few days!

On April 2, Sapphire had two HUGE ewe lambs by Nicholai.  The moorit one weighed 12 lbs. at birth and the black one weighed 9 lbs. 7 oz.  That's more than 21 lbs. of lamb she was carrying, which is a lot for a 150 lb. sheep.  But she delivered them unassisted and they are very lively and vigorous.

This one is Xcarlett.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Laurel McGilvery (no web link given).

This one is Xcotia.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Laurel McGilvery (no web link given).

This one is Tsarina's moorit gray ram lamb by Scimitar, also born April 2.  His name is Xander.  This very popular name suggestion was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Carol of Loafkeeper Farm, Elizabeth Brockman (no web link given), Jeanne (no web link given), Molly Bailey of Bailey Girl Five, Stephen Pappas (no web link given), Tika of theyellowjournalist.blogspot.com, Channa of OhSewNice, Cindy of Mommy's Dream Creations,  Laurel McGilvery (no web link given), and Robin of MommyMommyLand.

Another picture of Xander.

Also born on April 2, are Urbana's twins by Nicholai.  Urbana lost her pregnancy last year, so this is her first time being a mom, and she is doing great keeping track of these very active lambs.

The first one is a white ram lamb named Xcaliber.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Laurel McGilvery (no web link given).

 Another photo of Xcaliber.

Urbana's second lamb is a moorit badger spotted ewe lamb named Xabella.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Laurel McGilvery (no web link given).

 Another photo of Xabella.

And a photo of Xabella with mom Urbana and twin Xcaliber.  The ground is sprinkled with petals from our pear tree.

On April 3, Whimsy---a one-winter ewe---had her first lamb:  a white ewe lamb named Xelene.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Laurel McGilvery (no web link given).

Isn't this the cutest face?

One more photo of Xelene, with mom Whimsy.

Last, but not least, on April 4, Tansy had a HUGE (11 lb. 8 oz.) black badger ewe lamb by William.  Seriously, this lamb looks like she's two weeks old already!  When she was romping in the barn, she actually shook the floorboards.

Her name is Xtasy.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Stephen Pappas (no web link given).

 One more of Xtasy.

Here's a look back at our firstborn lamb of the year, Xaq.  He's enormous, and growing so fast!  He's also a real showoff for the camera.  All his pictures end up being closeups, because he has to come investigate everything.

A picture of Xanadu, because I can't resist her adorable spots.

Bush Hogs

Several weeks ago, we asked our neighbor to come "bush hog" our pastures.  We didn't hear from him about it again for a long time, and I was beginning to think he'd forgotten about it.  But this morning---surprise!---he just showed up and started mowing.

I'm pretty excited about it, actually.  We haven't had the money to hire him to do this for a couple of years, and the fields were being taken over by baby cedar trees.  It'll be pretty tight, financially, to pay him to do it now, but if we don't get them mowed soon, they'll eventually get too big to be mowed, and will have to be removed by much more expensive and time-consuming means.

You can see here the one clean swath along the treeline where the tractor has mowed one pass around the field.  Looking better already!

Now look at the beautiful difference, once the job is done:

Unfortunately, mowing the trees doesn't kill them.  They keep growing back.  But I hope that once our neighbor mows the trees down this time, I'll be able to make a bit of progress with other methods of pasture improvements before we need him to mow again.

The plan is to use our own "bush hogs."  I'll put the pigs into small areas of the pasture at a time, to encourage them to root up everything, including the plague of cedar trees.  After they're done, we'll move them to another small area, and will reseed with good grass in the area they just worked over.  If the pigs actually dig up the cedars, that will kill them so they won't come back, and we'll have a much, much more productive pasture.

 Allowing the pigs to dig up certain areas will also (I hope!) disrupt the life cycle of the sheep parasites, allowing the sheep to be healthier and more productive with less dependence on chemical wormers.

Currently, the two sows, Cerridwen and Circe, are doing a fantastic job completely plowing up my main sheep paddock, digging through all the old composted hay and sheep manure.  I don't think many parasites are going to withstand this kind of treatment for long.

The boar, Magick, is in the little front pasture, which was desperately compacted and overrun with weeds after we sold all our horses.  He's making some nice progress, but it's a big job for just one pig.  Soon, when the sows are old enough to breed, they'll go in there and help him.  Before long, there should be litters of piglets to join in the task as well.

Napping Lambs

Playing is hard work.  We need a nap now!

I'll finish jumping over this stick AFTER my nap!

Paris's and Utopia's Lambs

Last night around midnight, Paris had a lamb, then Utopia had a lamb, then Paris had another lamb.  Because of the timing of the births, this gave Paris the distinction of having her twins born in two separate months!

Utopia was already in labor when Paris had her first lamb.  Hearing Paris's lamb cry, Utopia jumped up, thinking that she had already given birth.  It took some convincing to make her understand that it was NOT her lamb and she still had to lie back down and finish what she'd started.  Even after her own lamb was born, she was not entirely sure that Paris's lamb was not hers.

Paris's first lamb was a moorit gray ram.  Except for the very faint silvery shade around his mouth, the gray pattern doesn't show up now, but when his undercoat starts growing in, it will be obvious.

 His name is Xenophon.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by: Laurel McGilvery (no web link given) and Beth from www.cotondogs.net.

His twin sister is a spotted black gray lamb.  Once she gets her gray adult fleece, her spots won't show up very much any more, but she sure looks flashy now.  I love that her ears are both black on the outside and white on the inside!

Her name is Xanadu.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Pat of http://www.patelliottpaintings.co.uk/,  Chris Conrad of http://www.facebook.com/chris.conrad, Carol of Loafkeeper Farm, and Laurel McGilvery (no web link given).

And last but not least, here is Utopia's moorit solid ram lamb.  He may look tiny now, but he is quite stout for his size.  I think he's going to be massive when he grows up.

 His name is Xerxes.  This name was submitted to our Name That Lamb contest by:  Chris Conrad of http://www.facebook.com/chris.conrad, Carol of Loafkeeper Farm, Tika of theyellowjournalist.blogspot.com, and Skye (no web link given).

Congratulations to all the lamb naming winners.  We're expecting more lambs at any moment, so stay tuned for more photos and name announcements soon!