Blackberry Lambs

Proud & Pleased (and Tired) Blackberry

Blackberry had a very bad, stressful day and a half, but she was finally vindicated late in the afternoon of shearing day. Poor gal. I knew she was close to lambing, but we sheared anyway and she hung in there like a trooper. By early morning on shearing day I had wrestled her into a halter and practically dragged her to garage because she was not going to leave 'her' precious babies alone with their 'fake' mom. Once at the garage she continued to beller for 'her' babies.

Once she was sheared and turned out into the pasture with the other sheep, she came down to the paddock gate and continued to stare at the barn and beller every so often. Somewhere in there I lost track of her in the afternoon. We finished shearing, we tore down, we ate, I helped Tom and Nedra load up some sheep gold (manure). I went in the house, I put away some things. Then I decided, I better count lambs before I collapsed. So back out to the paddock and counting the lambs out in pasture....one, two, three, four, five...that should be it..wait..six? seven?? Old Blackberry had been busy way up by the pond! I grabbed a towel and headed out there to bring them into the barn.

When I got there, both were up and nursing and mostly dry. Good girl. I gathered them in the towel and thankfully she is one of my calmer mothers, so she knew the drill and followed along. Although she did sound pretty pathetic and tried to body block me a few times. Please, no, no, don't take these babies too! When I got her to the paddock, I closed the gate to the Shetland barn area and just put her in there so the babies could enjoy the sunshine. Later I would 'jug' them for the night. This picture and the next two were taken right after I brought them to the Shetland pen. The little ram is was full and exhausted and the little ewe was still getting the hang of nursing

Blackberry produced a lovely little white headed (not sure the proper marking term!) musket ram and a (hopefully) fawn, but maybe a musket ewe lamb with a krunet and star. She is very, very proud of her little 'uns, and please keep those filthy Duckie babies away from her precious babes! ;-)

Blackberry was one of three ewes that got bred during the two ram breakouts by JJ (aka Just Jack, aka Sprat). Her ewe lamb will likely be one of my keepers.

The Musket ram lamb the next day. What a cutie.

Blackberry was exhausted from her ordeal and she did allot of resting that next day!

Musket Ram Lamb Again--friendly from the start

Here is the ewe lamb the next day. She is really nice....

Taking a break the next day

Here she is again...Uh No...I just lied. ;-) This is actually Selena, Blackberry's ewe lamb from 2006---they sure resemble though, don't they?

Finally shearing day was done..well almost. Why were there lambs screaming? Drag myself up from a prone position, plod out to the sheep pasture. Tabitha! Where are your lambs? There they were out with Blue and Lanny! Argh. After much manovering I managed to get them back to their frantic moms and cover a minisucle place they could have slid through. By then it was time for chores; sheep and chickens up, and at last! time to relax.....