I worried the first night that I may have been wrong to let Tehya take care of the lambs completely by herself. From my observations, experience and raw intuition I felt that my intervening by bottle-feeding might undermine her abilities to recover and do the mothering, so I made a decision to leave them alone together through the night. And walked up to the silent lambing shed Saturday morning with trepidation... What a joyous relief to open the door and see this! Today, day 3, they are sproinging about and curious about their limited world.
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Tehya looked like this for days. She (and I) spent a lot of time in the sheep shed, waiting. Note the outstretched leg, which ewes do when they are close to and in labor. I kept waiting for the telltale signs of her pushing. A few lip curls, but mostly she just was exhausted from carrying around the lambs and her huge udder. Friday morning, just at dawn, I went out to the sheep shed and heard lamb cries. HOORAY! It was a little confusing at first because Nara, who isn't due for at least 3 weeks, had claimed one of the lambs for her own, and was distraught when I wouldn't let her keep him. Shooing the others out to pasture, I got Tehya moved up to the lambing shed with her adorable ram lambs. Both lilac, the 4-horned little guy on the right is Tucker, and the 2-horned one on the left is Twain. Look at the horn buds on Tucker! We had a scary, frenzied day of Tehya not able to let her milk down. Lamb milk replacer, goat colostrum, and frozen sheep milk got us through the hours, and after massaging Tehya's udder with warm water and peppermint oil (on advice from my dear friend, Rosanna), the milk was finally in and both lambs' tails were waggling as they nursed. Whew! It's always something... But always worth it! Our farm is not just for sheep, it seems. The woods contain excellent tipi poles for harvesting! Two years ago, our son, Tyler, cut and finished Cedar poles for a tipi, shown here: On his most recent visit this past week, Tyler and friend Madison, trekked up the hill to find Douglas firs for a new, larger tipi. Hatchets in hand, they cut down 20 trees and brought them down the hill. This tipi will seat 24 people around the inside, and be comfortable for 4 or 5 people to sleep in. Five days of skinning and smoothing! They made it look easy, but I know it was hard work. Cross-training for rigging, they said, as they both work for Rocky Mountain Rigging, whose season starts up soon. Tyler and Madison also chopped oak for our next winter's woodstove, raked an incredible amount of leaves for fire safety, and helped us fix our sheep shed. They earned their keep! And the beer ;-) With the last storm done, I wanted to hike back up our property to see if there were more wildflowers than last time. There were lots of shooting stars, which I had seen a few of last hike. And the manzanita has bloomed. Only a few more flowers had celebrated the rain. I came around a tree and was startled by this lounge lizard. He was neither disturbed nor impressed by my presence, just wanted to revel in the sun. The best surprise was found beside rotting logs... I believe they are Cortinarius cinnamomeus, commonly called the Orange-gilled Cort, which I learned from a great mushroom dye website: mycopigments.com. They are simmering in the crock pot, waiting for my next skein of yarn... I get that we will likely not come close to normal for water this year in California, that we are officially in a drought. Can't we have a glass-half-full attitude, though? The media is all gloom and doom--"too little too late"--yet we have had a delightful series of storms lately, and it must have helped some. Winter finally arrived in spring! The rams didn't really appreciate the weather, but the ewes are sure enjoying the fresh, green grass the rains brought! So is Freya. The sheep are happy for the grazing that the storm brought; they get tired of hay. Happy sheep grow beautiful fleeces. Doesn't Lindyhop's fleece look gorgeous? And the views are magnificent. I say, "A little just in time." Sunday was one of those days I needed to be in Nature. I went for a hike in our backwoods. Not having had rain for quite awhile, I wanted to see if any wildflowers had bloomed yet. Natural sculpture. Wonderful, inspirational shapes. At first, I had to look hard among the leaves and pine needles for hints of green. Gradually, I began to see buds and then bloomed flowers. Spring is emerging! Further up the trail, I hiked a little cross-county, and came upon a different find. Decided not to stay too long here... Even the decaying plants are beautiful. And the lichen. On the way back down, I visited the "gnome tree." Imagination creates all kinds of stories about this tree. Nature always puts life in perspective for me. How fortunate I am to be able to hike like this in my own backyard! I came back with renewed energy and smiling spirit. The special smell of spring is in the air. And rain is coming, which means mushrooms for dyeing, and more wildflowers. I'll be back up soon... While perhaps not an obsession, weaving has certainly taken hold of my life and time. I partially blame Craigslist, though I suppose I could resist checking it online every weekend... It so happens that my son, Josh, lives in a treasure-trove-of-fiber- tools region, and was willing to pick up yet another loom for me. We went hiking in our back woods to celebrate. Had to make it up to the manzanita grove, sit and listen to the wind and birds. As for weaving, I had to just admire the new loom for awhile, let it settle into it's place in my studio, and also finish a scarf on my table loom. Two weeks later and I've finally got the new (to me) Schacht Baby Wolf loom dressed for making a scarf. I'll be able to do much larger projects, but I wanted to start with something simple. So much fun! And I really do think I'm done buying fiber tools for awhile... Josh will be grateful. This is Zeke, a ram we've been trying to find a home for, exhibiting his ego. Aren't his horns marvelous? That is, until yesterday... I had thought that bad ram behavior was done for the year, but I guess I'm learning that testosterone never quits. I didn't see the head butt, but I imagine it was with Sherpa, as he had a bit of blood on his horns, too. Most people think the horns are either solid or hollow, but they are keratin covering live bone, which is fed by blood. Zeke is recovering quite well; the wound is healing fine, but he'll never have that beautiful, symmetrical, bighorn sheep look again :( This is a wildlife critter we hadn't yet seen here. Look closely, through my dirty window. Amazing how all cats look and behave alike. This bobcat is watching squirrels intently. I'd love to have her be a permanent resident near my dye garden! Moved quietly outside and tried to get a picture of her, but she decided I wasn't worthy, and moved on to better hunting grounds. It may not officially be Spring yet, but the bears have been out of hibernation for awhile now. We had heavy rains, and this one slipped in the mud on the way to our garbage cans... |
sheep thrills
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