Another fabulous ewe lamb!

We were blessed with another healthy ewe lamb, delivered a little after midnight. "Textbook" delivery and she was up and nursing her mom Ruby only 10 minutes later. Now THAT's what I like to see.

Now I need a name for her that starts with "U"... I had hoped for a gemstone after her mom's name but there don't appear to be any that are easy to say.

And yet another FILLY!

Three in a row! Our pretty black mare, Satin had a black filly. She is sired by "the old man" Lone Star Rowdy, our senior stallion.

Not a lamb this time...

It's getting into foaling time now... our pretty Mary Jane had a filly! She usually has colts, so we were excited to see this little girl born yesterday. Isn't she a wildly marked little thing! Blue eyes and all. Her dad is our Rowdy Batman.

LambCam ... EweTube

I am really thrilled with our webcam. This is a screenshot of what I can see from any computer with a good internet connection.

That's Lilly facing the camera, she might be next, Ruby is lying next to the water barrel, and Mudpie is the third in the row. In the background is Raquel and her day old lamb, Ursula. I can also pan the camera to view the outside runs to the right.

If anyone is interested in having temporary guest privileges send me an email (texastunis@yahoo.com). Bob was a wee bit exhuberant about giving out passwords to friends, so NOW I have to be careful about what I wear and do in the barn. ;-)

Glory to God, another girl!

The webcam paid for itself again. About 10 a.m., it was easy to see that Raquel was labor. She is our smallest ewe and I definitely wanted to be there to make sure all was well.

Last year she had her little ewe lamb by herself and did fine, but this year there had been more difficult presentations it seemed.

By the time I made it home, a little nose and one hoof was appearing. Only one hoof.

I have had some ewes that didn't have trouble delivering even with a leg back, but I guess as small as Raquel is, she just couldn't get that shoulder through. So with my buddies at work watching on the webcam, I was down in the hay helping to reposition...wiggle...twist...pray... until she finally slid out.

What a pretty ewe lamb, and she's a good size girl. Just a single this time, but I'm not complaining.

Lambs, lambs, lambs

Wednesday Bob finally received the last piece of equipment needed to get the webcam going. He needed an antenna to mount in the barn so the signal could reach the house network. So Thursday morning I went off to work knowing that I could finally keep an eye on the ewes in the barn. It is wonderful! Wow, what a worthy investment and it cost less then the price of a nice Tunis sheep.

About 11 a.m. I noticed my sweet ewe, Quby was going into labor. So I asked my boss if I could take an early lunch and headed home. We live 30 minutes away, but I came into the barn right after her water broke. It took a bit of pushing but she delivered a ram lamb that unfortunately had a birth defect - a very under-developed lower jaw. He didn't live but a few minutes. Luckily she had another little boy a few minutes later and while she was cleaning him up I removed the poor dead guy. Here is a photo of her and the second born.

After I knew he was okay and up and nursing I went back in to work.

Bob gets off work earlier than I do so he was able to get home to check on them. Other than being an over enthusiastic mom, demanding that the poor guy get up to eat more often than he wanted to, Quby and son are doing fine.

Thursday afternoon I received a call from my sweet friend Ruthie, who sold me the first five Tunis ewes back in 2007. She had decided to sell out of sheep for a while and had two elderly ewes she thought she would just keep in retirement on her farm. But Tunis are long lived and great mothers so obviously Fleur didn't realize she was in retirement. She was once again pregnant. Now Fleur is Lily one of my favorite ewe's mother. So when Ruthie asked me if I would like to have her I quickly agreed. But Ruthie warned me she was due any day. I told her I would let her know when I could come.

Quby's daughter, Dot waited until 11 p.m. that night to go into labor. With a little help (it was her first lamb) she delivered a chunky little boy. Here she is cleaning him up. She learned quickly how to be a good mom.

Friday morning came early, but I called Ruthie and asked if I could come. Bob had hooked up the trailer for me so I took my first trip by myself pulling the trailer. It wasn't too bad, I just hoped I wouldn't have to back it. Luckily, Paul, Ruthie's husband was there when I arrived so he turned the truck and trailer around for me. When we loaded Fleur, Ruthie's other old girl, Dink bawled terribly so I offered to take her too. Poor old Dink is 15 years old and has arthritis, but I hope we can keep her comfortable for a few years more.

We put the girls together and bedded down the pen well since it appeared it wouldn't be a long wait for Fleur's lamb. At 1 a.m. this morning I checked the monitor and she appeared to be pushing. So about 1:45 she delivered a darling little ewe lamb! What a blessing, thank you God and Ruthie.

So that catches me up on the blog for the last three lambings. We have at least four maybe five more to go. Hmmm, I think I will go take a nap. ;-)

Need a video made?

Our son, Jeff, has been working on one of his hobbies ... videography and is starting to advertise as a wedding videographer. His new company name is Happy Bride Productions. He has done some now and is enjoying it, though I keep cautioning him that brides and their families are notoriously hard to please. ;-)

I told him I would make him up a business card from the components of his new website at http://www.happybrideproductions.com/. Here's my latest "draft"...

So if anyone has a need for a videographer, he's ready for some jobs.

Waiting for more lambs...

We haven't had any more lambs since the 1st, but next week should be busy. Quby and Dot are due next and were staying close to the house this afternoon while the flock was out to graze in the front pasture.

VERY close to the house as these photos show, they are at the front door wanting in. Tunis sheep are so friendly and curious. The cats were enjoying them through the glass door.

More lambs - praise the Lord!

Friday I spent several hours moving fence panels around in the barn. We found with the new cameras there were some considerations to be made to get better reception in the house. I moved the "mamas in waiting" pen to the front stall in the center row. That meant I had to also move our new stallion, Dragon to another location... and lamb proof the panels next to his run. I didn't want a lamb crawling through the panels to visit him... he might think that was a great toy.

When Bob came home Friday evening he moved the cameras around for me to get the best views. He moved Mimi into the waiting pen just in time. She started lambing about 9 that evening.

He was still in the barn when she started delivering so it was nice to watch an "uneventful" delivery. She had her little ewe lamb first, cleaned it up a bit and then laid down and had a little ram lamb. I helped her dry them off since the temperature was dropping.

She was a great mom, licking and talking to them and urging them to the right place for their first meal. It wasn't long before both had nursed. I hooked up a heat lamp so they could dry the rest of the way. It is amazing how much fluid is involved!

Saturday morning I could hardly get out of bed. Basically I just took some meds for my sore muscles and my now stuffed up nose and moved to the recliner. I hated to miss such a pretty sunny day, but I just couldn't get going. I finally went out at the evening feeding time with Bob and snapped a couple of photos.

Bob worked most of the day on trying to get the new router to connect the cameras to the web so we can watch online. He was able to at least get the laptop and desktop to share our internet service so that will be a great help. He's still working on the web camera, lots of new stuff to learn.

Next in line is one of my favorite ewes, we call her "Quby". She is such a sweet ewe, and quite beautiful. She comes from Louise Dunham's Darling Tunis bloodlines.