More Babies, Yarns and 4th Ave

I accumulated quite a few skeins that I priced for the shop all at once. They looked really nice together, so I took a photo. Three of the skeins have already sold.

We have had an awful lot of rain recently. The two sky photos were taken on the same day.

My friend, Alan, wanted me to post a few photos of the chicks that I added to the flock. In the week since these photos were taken, the chicks have almost all of their real feathers.

Below are a bunch of animal pictures. I am getting some interesting color combinations, but from past experience know that the colors that I see today will change to white or tan by the first shearing.

Every and Ready.

Flowers and Content.

Columbian with Light and Dark.

Spots with her daughter, Polka Dot.

Night Club (99) with her daughter, All Dressed Up.

Night Club's son, Man About Town.

Pearl's Daughter with her daughter, Midget.

Eighty One with one of her daughters. Born this morning and still unnamed.

A Shetland Ram born on Thursday. He is spoken for, so I will let his owner name him.

Dark Chocolate (62) gave me a scare last night. She had stuff dripping at 5 p.m. when I went out to feed. She was not dilated, so I fed the rest of the animals and went back to check on her. She did not appear to be in labor and was still standing around, but not willing to eat - even grain. I raked the common area and finally decided to go in and check back in half hour. She was trying to push at this point, but she still had not dilated, so I could not help her. In hindsight, I have to laugh at how she rolled like a dog a few times. I guess she was trying to move her babies. She would not let me get close and I certainly did not want to chase her, so I went back inside. Since it was after 9 p.m. I figured that she was possibly miscarrying her babies. Everyone says that the babies are goners, if the mom's water breaks and the babies are not born within half hour or so. Since she was not even trying to push, I figured it was bad news.

Imagine my delight when I went out at 10 and discovered her cleaning a second baby that was already up on its feet. The first baby was dried off, but too cold. Since Dark Chocolate was pawing at the ground frantically, I knew there was one more baby to come, so I rubbed the first born and waited. After the third baby popped out, I grabbed Dark Chocolate and with Marc's help got her into the shed. Triplets - two bucks and a doe! I was excited, but not happy about the first baby, so I milked Dark Chocolate for some colostrum and sent the doe into the house with Marc to be dried, warmed, and fed. Half hour later, she was warm enough to get on her feet, go back, and drink from her mother. I went back out at 1 a.m. and then at 5:15 a.m. and each time one of them was drinking. The photo above was taken early this morning. All three are happy - which means I am also!