Confused Maternity

It turns out that Coco and Patches may have fallen too hard for the sweet little lambers. When I went down to the farm yesterday morning Coco was guarding them from Lulu! The lambs were as content as could be, sleeping in the sun. Lulu was not so happy. I put Patches in her pen for milking and tied Coco up. Then I moved the sheep and lambs in with the chickens. Our main concern was that if cows weren't letting Lulu nurse the little ones, her milk supply would dry up. The lambs seemed to be getting enough food from Patches! She gave about a quart less when I milked her. This could have been a sign of heat, but her teats were sticky as if they had been sucked on.

The sheep seemed happy enough in their new home with the chickens. The chickens didn't even seem to notice. Coco was heart broken and bellowed all day about it. However the move was a bit of a short term solution. The sheep have shelter in the greenhouse, but eventually it will be too hot in there. Also it means managing seperate pastures for the sheep and cows, something we were going to try to avoid if possible. After several years raising sheep we had decided we were going to stop and then these little ones came along. If anyone is looking for a few nice pet sheep please let us know. Lulu is a sweetheart. We've had her for about 7 years. Blackie is her companion and actually has good wool, not that we have been using it. If you'd like the pair and the lambs, let's talk.

Tomorrow is Pig Day! Things are really starting to happen on the farm. It must be March!

Fertility?

We've been watching for signs of heat in Patches so we can have her bred again. We haven't seen anything really obvious except for her tail sticking up a little bit and maybe some wetness from her vulva. Other signs can include mounting other animals (even people), giving less milk and other friskiness. Since we don't have a bull, we've asked Debra Tyler to come do the deed (AI) when we're all in agreement that Patches is ready. The window for cows to concieve is pretty short - from about 10 to 18 hours. So you want to try to get the timing right. If we don't see a really strong heat, it looks like we might wait a few months to breed her so that she can calve in the spring instead of the dead of winter.

The lambs are doing really well. We've let them out of their pen and as we expected from Coco's gentle moos, the cows have taken a real shine to these babes. Both Coco and Patches follow them around, licking them. Boy, what a strong maternal instinct in cows! Dan has seen the lambs try to latch on to Patches. I guess we'll judge by the amount of milk we get tomorrow morning how successful they were. Hopefully they won't have an identity crisis and grow up thinking they are cows. So far Lulu doesn't seem to be too jealous.

News from Cyberspace. If you live in our area check out the new website, Rural Intelligence. It is loaded with just about everything you need to know if you live around here.

New Years, Take Two

Good news to come home to... Lulu had her lambs sometime early Monday morning. They were already there and thriving by the time Dan got there to milk. Lulu is such a good mama. We love those soft gentle bleats of a mama ewe. Even Coco would call out with her gentle moo when she would hear the lambers bleat. Here they are. Bea is smitten.

Well, coming back home from my little trip I feel like it is New Years all over again - ready to start fresh. Definitely ready for spring. We'll be starting up the greenhouse in about a week or so and I can't wait to start getting my hands dirty. As for my trip I should mention my two favorite places in Santa Fe - Ten Thousand Waves and Cloud Cliff Bakery & Cafe. For folks who've been to Japan and have serious onsen withdrawl, this is the place to go. Sitting outside in a hot soaking tub while snow is falling is amazingly peaceful. As for Cloud Cliff - amazing food and bakery using organic & local wheat.