Here are a few photos Monikas' ram lamb, isn't he a handsome fellow.

Here are a few more lamb photos while I wait for the next  round of lambs.

April 13th -4:00 am our livestock guard dog Augustus was barking madly.  I decided to get up and take a look out of the window at the ewes.  I keep a light on in the barn and can see all them through binoculars from the kitchen window.  Everyone was accounted for but Freyja.  I put on my coat and went out to check on her and found her outside next to the feed bunk with a little white ewe lamb all cleaned up and looking very satisfied so I assumed it has nursed.  I looked around thinking that Freyja was pretty big to just have one lamb, I was sure she was going to have twins for as large as she was but she still looked pretty big so probably just had a single.  I picked up her little lamb and carefully carried it as she followed me to a stall in the barn and I shut the gate.  I watched her nuzzle and nicker at her little lamb who ansewerd back with a high pitched baaaaaa.  It was then that I heard another high pitched baaaaa from across the paddock.  I took my flashlight and pointed it in the direction that I heard the lamb but saw nothing.  I walked toward the sound and heard the high pitched baaaaa again as well as the near by hooting of owls coming from the darkness of the forest and there, on the other side of the fence, on the edge of the woods, standing tangled in the brush was another little white lamb. How it got that far away from it's mother I have know idea. Another ewe lamb.  Still wet cold and crying I carried the little lamb to it's mother who wasted no time cleaning it off, nickering and encouraging it to nurse which it did with enthusiasm.

I always feel somewhat amazed and fortunate to be so connected with our animals.  The livestock guard dog whose  ansesters have guarded flocks for over with 2000 years and alerted me to the situation as well as the strength and vitality of the Icelandic sheep that 1100 years evolving to endure Iceland's harsh climate has prepared them for this morning and to thrive.  These are Freyjas first lambs and you'd swear she's done this before.

What a beautiful ram, he has co-expressed black mouflon patteren from his mother and black badgerface badgerface pattern from his father which overlap creating this colour effect. He didn't come without a little work on all our parts.  Austrid was in labor for hours and it became evident that we needed to step in.  An inspection revealed a very large lamb, far too big for this first time mom to have on her own.  I got a hold of his leggs and pulled with every contraction, it seemed to take forever.  It was among my most challenging deliveries.  It took some time before the exhausted new mother and lamb regained their strength but once they did they were up and active.  The large ram lambs left pastern was tuned under so he appeared to be walking on his knuckle.  I made a little splint for his leg and in a day he walking perfectly without it.

The size of the lamb was due to over feeding on my part. It is always difficult to determine how much to feed pregnant ewe lambs enough for their own continued growth as well as for their developing lambs.  For Feyja having very small twins it was perfect but for Austrid and her single ram lamb too much.  It's all just a guessing game for the most part but a good rule of thumb is 1/3 to 1/2 lb per growing ewe lamb.  I admit I was giving them a little more than that as I felt my hay quality this year wasn't what it should be but obviously it was fine.  This makes me nervous as to what lies ahead with the four yearlings yet to lamb.  

I had been watching Inga all day and by late afternoon I gave up.  I was going to be attending a UW Extention apple grafting and pruning workshop being held the following day at my parents farm and decided to drive up to our friends abandoned orchard full of heritage apple trees and cut some water shoots for the grafting workshop.  Inga took advantage of the privacy and there were two beautiful badgerface lambs when I got home.

Pretty uneventful delivery and that's what we like to see.  I came home from the apple grafting and pruning workshop to find Josephine standing there with her lovely moorit ewe lamb.

April 19th at 6:45 pm

Margret gave birth to two beautiful spotted lambs by Sven, a black spotted ram and a very dark moorit spotted ewe.  Gorgeous!