Eddie's Fertile!

Well, I've known that for a little while now, since the Shetlands have been bagging up and have big tummies! But we bought a new ram lamb last fall from Laura Matthews at Psalm 23 Farm, and in the end, decided to take a big chance and breed all our girls to him, an unproven ram. Our rams were all too closely related to many of them and we wanted some new blood. The gamble paid off, as three days ago Maia had twin ewes, the one in the back that you can't see I think is moorit, the one in the front might be one of those fancy katmoget sheep that everyone seems to be fascinated with (I have to look up the definition of katmoget - I might have it confused with some other marking, but I think that is what Eddie is). Anyway, both are in the "brown" color group - moorit, fawn, musket - it remains to be seen!

And this morning, Brie had a set of twins, one ram and one ewe. The ram might be another kat, in the brown family and the ewe appears more solid in the black family, like her mom. But when I left them, they were both still pretty wet and kind of dirty - mom decided to lamb in one of the "less clean" areas of the shelter. And with all the rain we have been having, there is not a dry spot on the farm, inside or outside.

So, that gives us four Shetland lambs and 61 "other" lambs, for a total, so far, of 65 lambs. So, I think I will finish my cup of coffee and then get on with the chores - check on the new lambs, move the three sets of twins and their moms out of the jugs and into the nursery, feed the rams, fill water tanks/buckets, put some new bedding in the Shetland shelters, wash up a fleece sample that I should have done yesterday, do the dishes (we can't eat until I do that - household chores, while never on the top of my list, get shoved WAAAY down that list during lambing!!), maybe some laundry - boy, I'm exhausted just reading that list, maybe I should have another cup of coffee and knit a little! The rainy weather is much more conducive to knitting then to being outside - but, I don't think the sheep would understand - I'll just have to dodge the raindrops and try to avoid the biggest mud puddles!