Thursday, February 23

Daily Farm Photo: 2/23/06


Martha & Her Baby Girl

12 comments:

  1. What a sweet baby! But then they are all sweet at that age.

    Little Valentine is doing great. She let me scratch her all over her body yesterday and you could tell she enjoyed it!

    Have a great day Farmgirl!

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  2. What a cutie.I love to watch lambs play, they look as though they have springs for legs.
    Many of my friends are now checking out your blog and enjoying it as much as I do.Thank you for all your work.

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  3. Her face is so dark! what a cutie pie

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  4. Susan,

    Did you see my post last Sunday?

    http://seriouslygood.kdweeks.com/2006/02/lamb-daube.html

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  5. They are so sweet. What ever possessed humans to encourage sheep to lamb in mid-Winter?

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  6. Wow! It's so excited when the farm has new babies of all kinds running around. Congrats on the new little one...

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  7. What an exciting time you are having with all these babies (lambs, that is. sorry.)! My kids would be in heaven...

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  8. mmm, sheep milk cheese... do you make cheeses???

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  9. My little baby Jeffolina! Too cute! How could you not name her after me??

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  10. Hi Heather,
    Great news about Little Valentine. I bet she's adorable. : )

    Hi Keewee,
    Ha ha, I like that--springs for legs. We have a "medical" term for it: bouncing sickness. And boy, do we get a bad case of it every year on the farm. It spreads like crazy and there's nothing you can do. A little lamb looks perfectly fine and then Boing! they bounce straight up in the air--and just keep bouncing. Very serious condition. Very hysterical, serious condition. : )

    Thanks so much for telling your friends about FF. I really appreciate it and am so glad you're all enjoying it.

    Hi Clare,
    Her face is black like her daddy's! I hope it stays that way, but it'll probably lighten up a bit. My favorite lambs are the ones born completely jet black. Gorgeous!

    Hi Kevin,
    I've seen it now! Looks delish! Thanks for letting me know about it. I'll have to try making that one of these days (not with anybody y'all know, of course : )

    Hi Kat,
    Some people have a field full of all-white newborn lambs. Yawn. We get all kinds of gorgeous shades of brown and grey and even silver--and of course the infamous chocolate chip spots. Sadly, they will all fade to white real soon. Some will keep their dark faces and legs (that's the Suffolk in them, which is what Leopold The Ram is). Believe it or not, my sweet Teddy boy was born completely black!

    Hi Bean,
    Welcome to the farm! Well, the lambing cycle is not completely in our hands. Most sheep (there are exceptions with special breeds) are 'in heat' from August through December. The gestation cycle for a sheep is 5 months.

    So you can choose to start breeding in the heat of August (nobody's really up for that around here) and have lambs in January (I'm not big on frozen babies), or you can wait and not put your ram in with the girls until later. It's a toss up. When do you want your girls to be eating hay as opposed to grass? When they are pregnant, or when they are nursing? (if you even have any grass that early--we don't) And are you trying to sell your lambs for the Easter market? (That's what makes a lot of people breed early.) We put Leopold in with the girls on Sept. 1st this year, which is a little early for us, but he seems (unfortunately) to like to take his time with his one and only job--spread out the fun, if you will. Once the first lamb was born on Feb 11th this year, all of the sheep were penned up in the barnyard where they are eating hay and some grain and basically lounging around being pregnant. They'll be stuck in there until the end of April (and boy will I hear about it!) which will give the grass a chance to start growing--or until we run out of hay. That was probably too much information! : )

    Hi G.O.C.,
    Thanks. It's definitely a fun time of the year. Stressful and exhausting, but that cuteness factor really wins out--at least with me. I cuddle, cuddle, cuddle them while I can! : )

    Hi I.G.O.,
    Well, you obviously need to get your kids some sheep! : )

    Hi Baking Soda,
    Yes, the ears are something else. It's like they are born with almost full size ears and have to grow into them. Too cute. That's how Amelia, the first "A" lamb to be born, got her name. It was so easy--those ears! (get it?)

    Hi Stacey,
    Ah! Another lurker has joined us in the crazy comments section. Welcome! Now that was pretty painless, wasn't it? : )

    Mmmmm. Sheep milk cheese. Absolutely love it. Definitely don't make it. You see, unlike goats and cows, there isn't much to hold onto when you're milking a sheep (and I speak from experience). Commerical sheep milk farms have specially designed equipment to do the job. It's pretty much impossible to milk a sheep by hand in a timely manner.

    And just as there are breeds that make the best meat (like the Suffolks and Hampshires that we raise) and the best wool, there are breeds that are best for milking--just like with cows. Nope, I have to buy my beloved Pecorino Romano just like everybody else. : )

    Hi Jeff,
    Um, Jeffolina? Jeffolina? No offense, but, well--Jeffolina?! And besides, how could you forget that the girls this year will all get "C" names (except, of course, Clare's "Menu For Hope" lamb--but more about that soon).

    Don't you remember that if Liselotte has a little girl it's going to be named (drumroll please) Little Cashew!? You didn't think I was kidding about that, did you? The boys don't get names, but if Liselotte's lamb is a boy, he'll be called Cash. : )

    Sorry, even in 2013 when we get to the "J" names, I don't think anybody is going to get, um, stuck with Jeffolina. But you never know. . . : )

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  11. This picture is really sweet and Martha's baby is beautiful!

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December 2015 update: Hi! For some reason I can't figure out, Blogger hasn't been letting me leave comments on my own blog (!) for the last several months, so I've been unable to respond to your comments and questions. My apologies for any inconvenience! You're always welcome to email me: farmgirlfare AT gmail DOT com.

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