Day in the Life of a Sick Hobby Farmer

I had called in sick on Thursday to school and by noon on Thursday I was pretty much down for the count. Temperature, chills, shaking, glands so swollen I could barely swallow so I broke down and called the doctor. Six years ago my tonsils abcessed and I ended up in the hospital for 2 days, in April. The doctor reaffirmed that yes indeed my tonsils were ugly. No, kidding....why doesn't some doctor just say, "Take the damn things out". There's a thought. Well the strep test in-house came back negative as it always does for me (its a been there, done that) but they would culture it over night. She called in a prescription for Amoxi. Thursday night chores were so hard as I had NO ENERGY. I was exhausted, shaking, my ears hurt so bad because the glands were swollen, and I could barely swallow water at this point. 800mg of Ibuprofen every 4 hours was not even putting a dent into the pain. I called the sub-center for Friday cuz I knew I was not going to make it. Friday morning was another treat for doing chores. It took twice as long as I had to keep resting. My mom and Dad came over early afternoon to bring me some sherbet and noodle soup because why would I have that in my house. The doctor's office called to let me know that the culture came back positive for strep throat. How wonderful. So they called in Medrol to get the swelling down. Today is a much better day, not perfect, but I can swallow and move around, I sat on the lawn mower and cut grass knowing that my Mom would yell at me for doing so but the lawn was bad. But it was 85 degrees out:) Oh, I did forget to say my very sweet FWB went to TSC and got me some fencing and stakes and he put up a nice size area off the barn so I could put all the girls and the lambs in there and they still have excess into the barn without getting in the way of the large animals. All I had to do was stand and support the fence ( which was about all I could do on Friday evening) while he pounded in the stakes and secured them. It was so nice to see all the lambs running around outside in the sun today. His help was very appreciated yesterday.

My tulips started to blossom this week to add a touch a spring to the yard.

Oh, and on Thursday when I came home from the doctor's, I noticed this white head lying in the sun by one of the black ewe.....oh gosh. I was now a total wreck as soon as I realized who the Mom was. This black ewe was born last April and when she got sheared and I saw a very little udder I felt terrible. How could I have let that happen? I felt like the worst person in the world. And I worried that it was Jed., her sire. Well, obviously its not but I still feel terrible for letting this happen. But she had that little RAM LAMB (AGAIN) cleaned up and was doing very well. My panic is in that her udder is so small and I am worried if she will have enough milk. I didn't know if I should bottle feed him. He appears to be doing okay and does appear to be nursing though this is only day 3. He is so little, I am just unsure if I should do thing or just let nature take its course. This week has just been insane.

On a sunny note, I bought this globe stake that is "suppose" to glow at night when it is in the sun. Well, it was only $3.99 so even if it didn't, I thought it would still look pretty in the flower bed. Well, I pleased to tell you that as of 11:20 pm. it is glowing! Good buy!
So, this ends one hectic, stressful, sickly, too much too do, not enough time in the day, week.
Its gotta get better next week.................

Who's Your Daddy?

All the baby lambs are doing well this week; I however have swollen glands, head to toe body aches, and the need to sleep because I am so tired. I decided to stay home from school today because there was no way I could drive in an hour without falling asleep. Whatever Nancy & Kara had somehow made it across the blogging world to me LOL. Actually a flu strain has been going through school so I sure due to that and just stessing myself out this week brought my body resistances.

On a lighter, I was taking some pictures of the baby lambs and got to thinking.

This is one of Spirit's little ram lambs above....................
.......do you see any resemblances to the ram lamb pictured above? That little ram lamb is my Jammer who was born last year. Oh, no. I got the calendar out and got to counting days. On December 13th I noted that I put Jed., my black polled gul. ram in with the girls and took Jammer, who was not even a full 5 mos old, out and put with him in the other barn. Well, when I counted from Dec. 13th to April 19th that only gives me 127 days. Sheep gestation runs from 147-155 days. So there is a 20 day gap. I have 4 more ewes to go. 2 are just starting to get udders so they should be going in May. They will have been bred by Jed. The other 2 I bet will go by this weekend. And I will be thinking they are Jammer's. I am thinking maybe of doing a DNA test just to be sure. Has anyone ever done one?

And as Jammer has yuglet markings, there were 3 ram lambs born with those markings, though with Jed. last year I still had 3 born with those markings too. Okay, Jammer is a scurred boy so if he carriers the polled gene from Jed., it will be intersting to see how the 6 ram lambs turn out esp. with their horns......will there be full horns, scurs, no horns? That little ram pictured above is just too darn good-looking!

This is Spirit's whole family, its like the "spot family". That is her daughter from last year standing by the heat lamp. I put her in with Spirit as she was limping for a few days. I gave her a banamine & nuflor shot and today she is doing much better:)

These are Savannah's twins. The one on the left is the ewe and the one on the right is the ram. Do you think he could possibly be mioget as he is lighter in color? Savannah is a mioget ewe.

Oh, and if in fact all of these 8 lambs born are Jammer's, which I am very sure they are, well I had him wethered over springbreak because I was worried about the way his scurs were growing. Guess he got the last laugh in however:) I just pray that all of these guys have no horn or scur issues. This polled/ horn genetics drives me crazy!!

4 Sets of Twin Lambs in under 20 hours!!

So at the end of yesterday's post, I went out to the barn to do evening checks on the new lambs and there was Sheltering Pines Spirit standing there with the very first signs of labor.......yep long night coming up because that was at around 10 o'clock ish pm. I had found her around 6 that evening behind the barn scratching at the ground so I ushered her in a stall "just in case".

So around 10:30 pm she had these 2 little rams ..............

Okay, I don't want to sound like a crazy woman but

ARE YOU FLIPPIN' KIDDING ME!!!!???

How much more awesome can you get if you are going to have twin ram lambs!!!??

Do you know how long I use to stalk Shetland Sheep breeders praying that one day I too would have spotted lambs like this????

I am in love with these boys and their spots.............

good grief they are too darn cute!!!! Now, of course there are little horn buds though the white/moorit spotted ram on the right does not have as prounced buds as this brother. Perhaps they will have small scurs........please!!! No, I know I can not keep them both. Let me know if your reading and your interested.

Now, of course I can not ignore Miss Polly who I had put in the stall on Sunday morning because she was looking ready to go. Well, she was still looking like that at midnight but I was really needing some sleep. So, I went to bed and set my alarm for 4:00 am. I rolled out of bed and back to the barn I went. And she had just had her 2 little ram lambs as they were still very wet. A nice size black ram with smirslet marking and a spotted kat. ram lamb, little smaller but very nice. I am not 100% sure but there are no noticeable horn buds but I know time will tell.

Melanie, this picture is for you because I heard this little black ram say your name:)

Of course, I could not leave without a pic of Betsy and her babies all snug under the heat lamp.

So, in less than 20 hours I had 4 sets of twin lambs born......I am a tad stressed and tired....worrying that everyone is nursing fine and that they are warm (its been raining all day and suppose to rain tomorrow too). I do have faith that my other 2 kat ewes will be lambing also this week...........I just hope the girls give me a little more notice. I was feeling kinda crazy yesterday......maybe more like consumed by everything.........me and my big farming ideas but those lambs are pretty darn cute:)

I promise to have better pictures once I get some much needed sleep:)

Please see yesterdays post for the other lambs born!!!

And so Lambing 2009 has begun.......

Well, today was my last day of springbreak vacation and I was going to spend the day grading papers and cleaning up in the house. HOWEVER, that soon fell apart after I finished morning chores. Betsy yesterday was very mellow and laid in the stall most of the day. So I was thinking time was getting close. After I was done with chores, I went inside to eat breakfast and start laundry. About 30 minutes later I heard Sassy having a screaming fit at her babies so I went out to investigate.

And there was Miss Betsy, standing in corner by a stall with 2 new born lambs. No time for shock, I scooped them up and put them in the baby LaManchas stall which already had fresh straw down. Betsy was still cleaning them up so I ran to the house to get some towels to help. She had a moorit/almost dark chocolate in color girl w/smirslet markings and then that awesome white little guy with yuglet eye markings.

Oh, how I have wanted a white lamb!!!!!! He is too cute, though he does have horn buds BUT maybe be will be scurred??!!!

Betsy is being a good mom as always. She is Ag so it will be interesting to see the little guys grow up but I am very excited about both of them:)

So, while I am working with Betsy, I notice Savannah, my mioget ewe, trying to find a comfortable place in the corner of one of the stalls. Yep, she is going to go also I think. So I get her settled in and within 2 hours she gave birth to twin moorit lambs, one ewe and one ram.

The little ram has no noticeable horn buds so I am keeping my fingers crossed....definitely has some really long legs!!

Okay I am really tired right now. I know Polly my kat ewe is going to lamb tonight or tomorrow. She has totally dropped. I put her and 2 other ewes who are very close also in the one large stall tonight. Both of the miniature horses got booted out of their stalls. I am so cramped for space right now and of course it is raining now and will rain all day tomorrow most likely. I can't believe I have to go to work tomorrow and all this is going on right now. My anxiety and stress level are a tad high right now. The girls consumed all of my energy today. I just want all the animals safe and comfortable tonight. I worry that everyone is okay. Okay off to check on everyone and then bed.