An "I" name?

Mint had her baby today - a tiny little doe. Her head seemed enormous as it was emerging from her mother - and then she was the smallest baby that I have ever had. She has No Size's Father's hair, so she is going to be adorable. In keeping with my scheme for names - Arizona cities or towns, I need an "I" name. I could not find one anywhere on the map. I did find an Imperial Natural Wildlife Conservancy, but I don't know, if that counts as a town. If I can't come up with one, I will skip I and J (the only name that comes up there is Jerome and not at all suitable and jump to K.

This is Espresso, the herdsire for the older Shetland sheep. He was sheared yesterday, so here are the before and after photos.

These are the ewes from the far out pasture (no grass, by the way) after they were sheared. They have udders, but none looks close. I have three in the arena that could deliver any minute. Pearl, the older Border Leicester/Shetland cross, was bred to a Jacob's ram and should have black lambs, if what they say on the Jacob website is true.

Here Danny is shearing one of the ewes in the far out pasture.

Trivia - 361 pounds of fiber and I have more to shear in a month. Their hair/wool was to short to shear them this past weekend.

Shearing Day

Danny makes shearing look easy. I got tired just watching. We actually got a head start on Thursday, because I was selling a batch of the wethers. Above an angora goat is getting sheared. Danny positions the goat exactly as he would a sheep. I have to use a stand, because I cannot control the goat and shear at the same time.

I managed to lure all of the goats into a pen by hauling the feed bucket in. I could not believe that I got ALL of them in with the first try. Usually there are a few that just won't go.Guess they were all starving - or they thought they were. All of the kids were able to walk through the panels, so they could come and go as they please. Three of them got playing on the tires. At one week old, they are already nibbling at hay. The kid in the wagon is hopping into it routinely to snack. He was asleep in it the other day.

Marc had placed some hay into Joshua's feed barrel.The kids are not afraid of anything yet. I caught a picture with my phone of the closest doe inside the pen and actually standing in the feed container. Joshua was not too happy about that, but he did not spit on her!

Fillip go this haircut on Friday afternoon because we knew that he would be nasty. We should have done Geoffrey also, because he was really mad when we did him this morning. Not a view fit for public consumption!

Update on babies - it has been quiet this week. Poppy, a Shetland ewe, had a ewe lamb on Tuesday night. Photos of her lamb are not really clear, so I will have to take others.

The best thing about shearing (besides a lot of gorgeous fleeces, is being able to see the udders on the dies and ewes. Some that I thought were imminent are a lot further out and some are very close. I just bet they are waiting until next weekend when I am at the 4th Avenue Street Fair.

Shearing will continue tomorrow until done. Two sheep will be reserved for shearing at 9 on Monday morning - for a school group. You are welcome to come and visit and watch the shearing.

Also, look for an article in the northwest section of the Daily Star on Thursday, March 19, 2009.We had a photographer come out and record the event for us. Now is that not cool?

Faith

For those who came out on Friday and Saturday, I forgot to mention that I lost Faith on Sunday. My son does not get my grieving over a baby, that does not make it, when there are so many healthy ones running around. I think all of the babies are special and they will be remembered - even if it is only for how hard they struggled to survive.

Updates

The animals are now hanging out under the Palo Verde and Ironwood Trees. The Ironwood sheds its leaves in April, so it is a good thing that they will be sheared before then. Last year, the shearer I used could not make the scheduled dates, so I had fleeces with ironwood leaves in them. I also will not have a problem with rooing, since the sheep are being sheared early enough.

Jalapeno with her two daughters - Eden(white) and Elgin. It is funny how animals are as prejudiced about color are some people. They hang out together by color. The only reason a doe will accept a different colored kid is because it smells like her and they bond within moments of birth. You can't clean the kid off, or the mother will reject it. These two were born last Thursday night and are now very self-possessed. They hang together a lot more than the other sets of twins do. I think they are born sometimes with the desire to get as far as they can from the sibling that shared space with them in the womb.

This is Darling, Creme de Menthe's kid. She is hanging with Swiss' twins, until it is time to take a nap.

The duck in the front has been sitting on a nest for three weeks now and her first duckling, born on Sunday, has come out of the nest and follows her around. That baby is fast. It keeps up with the adults. It is funny to watch it run.

Colombian and Hazenut (shown above) have had their lambs. Hazelnut had twin ewes born yesterday morning. Columbian's were born early last Friday.

Shetland sheep are a lot easier to raise than the angora goats. Their lambs are up and drinking with minutes and running with their mothers very shortly thereafter. It is nice to not have to worry about them freezing or having to be helped. They are skittish and would be harder to handle than the goats.

This is Swiss with one of her twins. The twins are very independent and only come running up to her when they want to be fed. I am going to try to catch a photo of one of the babies jumping on the backs of the mother. They want the mother to get up, so they can drink. This is Grande and she was giving her mother a goat kiss - which I just missed capturing.

Jalapeno's babies

This is mostly a note for myself. She had two large does this evening. A black and a white. The first is nice and strong. The second was chilled and needed to be blown dry and colostrum rubbed on the roof of her mouth. She was standing, when I left a few minutes ago. Mom needs time to bond, before I mess any more. I got the black doe on Jalapeno, while Marc held mom. I need to go back out in half hour to be sure that things are going well. I would have lost the white one, if I had not noticed at 8:30 that Jalapeno was in labor. It took her a while to deliver, but I was sure that she would at 9:15, since a bag had already emerged. We think it is really warm, but a baby can die very quickly with the smallest breeze since they are covered in amniotic fluid.

If they both make it, one will be Elgin and the other Eden, unless someone else has good "e" names and lets me know first thing in the morning!

Barbara's kids

She finally delivered her babies and without any problems. She went into labor while a Red Hat Group was here taking a tour. They wanted to watch, but animals are very funny about strangers. I started to worry about her, but went out half hour after the group left and she had Valley (above) and Avra (below) already on their feet. I moved them into the shed to give her a sense of security. I knew she was going to deliver this morning, because she kept going in and out of the shed. She normally does not go in there at all.

Avra's coloring is the paler shade of her father and Valley takes after his mother. I will use him next year for breeding, because he will be a deep chocolate color.

Swiss' kid, Casa, is going to drive her mother nuts. She has already figured out how to get out of her pen. I caught her before she left the shed. I will let them out tomorrow after the kids get tagged.

Darliing

Ajo got his ear tagged and his tail docked. I called to consult with Tor and decided not to castrate until he is older. All of this was, so I could let him and his mother out, and let Creme De Menthe and her baby, Darling, could go in.

My sister, Paula, is among the helpers coming up with memorable names for the babies. Who would have thought that Arizona has so many cool names. This town is in Cococino. Never heard of it, or been there, but it exists! Just wait till you see the "e's" that she found.

This is Darling. The babies seem to be a lot stronger this year, I think it is because it is not so cold out and they are not getting chilled. They are up and on their moms a lot faster than last year.

Darling did seem to have the same problem that all babies do. Which end has the milk?

This is Swiss with Casa and Grande. She got very upset when Creme De Menthe came into the shed. She was worried about the new cries and kept checking to make sure that her kids were still there. They are growing rapidly. They will get tagged tomorrow and allowed to roam, after the tour group leaves. I figured that they might want a chance to hold the babies.

I do expect more babies tomorrow. The does were really putting a show on when I went out this evening. I need to do one more check before hitting the sack. No middle of the night babies yet, but I could always get surprised.