Barn Cats

We've been trying to get a barn cat or two. There was a promising cat on Craigslist over Christmas but the people wanting to get her a new home changed their mind at the last minute.  I was thinking of using the local barn cat rescue when a cat started showing up wandering our property. We think he/she may belong to a neighbor but aren't sure. Then another cat showed up. This cat likes to sit at our patio doors and look pitifully inside.

We haven't seen this cat in the last couple days. I hope nothing happened to it. We've been putting out food for the cats in hopes that they will stick around and catch mice. The cat we see the most is a gray tiger cat with a white belly and is missing 2/3's of its tail. We named it "Stumpy." Stumpy covers all the property from the house to the barn to beyond the goat pen. I hope he is taking care of a lot of mice.
Update 2/1/15: Finally was able to get a photo of Stumpy!

Another Weigh In

I didn't weigh the new lambs last night right after they were born. I didn't want to upset Chloe anymore than we already did with all of our fussing over her new lambs. They have been nursing like crazy so I may have to deduct a little from their weights this morning.
Ewe lamb, probably named "Cora", weighs 7.5 pounds!

And her older brother weighed in at 9 pounds. Ram 3 weighed 13 pounds at birth and 17 pounds a day and a half ago when he was five days old! I have so much to learn about raising sheep and from everything I have read gathering good data helps. Now I just have to figure out a good system for record keeping.

Twins!

I did my usual check on the sheep when I got home from work last night, around 10:45PM, and heard two baby lamb bleats. One sounded like ram 3 but the other was from a much smaller lamb. There was Chloe licking off a lamb who looked to be about 5 minutes old. The lamb was still very damp and trying to stand. The two ewes and ram 3 were milling about trying to check out the new arrival. Luckily Alan had followed me up to the barn and he ran back to the house for all the lambing supplies and a stack of clean towels while I set up the temporary pen for the new mom and her lamb. Soon after Alan arrived back up to the barn I saw another set of very slippery looking legs behind Chloe.  She spun around and I watched as her second lamb slid out. These lambs were half the size of ram 3 when he was born!
I dried them a well as I could (who knew their hair holds onto so much moisture!) Then treated their cords with iodine. They both were up and moving around relatively quickly and after a few false starts both got the hang of nursing.
A ram lamb was born first (ram 4) and then we finally had a ewe lamb born! Now to pick a name for her. Something that starts with a hard C as we want to have all the maternal lines begin with the same letter as the original ewe.
Here are a few pictures of all the cuteness.

Chloe is proving to be a very attentive mother.

There were a few "face plants" as we figured out how to walk.

Ram 3 is nursing on the left. He is only 6 days older than the new twins but looks a month older.

It is so cold out (teens last night) that the lambs were put into their jackets. I am glad they figured out it is warm under the heat lamp!

The Weigh In

I was reading an article about comparing the rate of growth of lambs and the different variables that must be accounted for. The age of the ewe affects milk supply and of course whether the lamb is a singleton, twin or triplet will also affect how much milk they get from mom. There is a nifty chart that simplifies the formulas.

So out to the barn with the new scale we went.  Unfortunately I don't have birth weights on the first two rams we got, but today, at 66 days old, they weighed 35 and 26 pounds. Considering I was nearly certain that the smaller ram would die soon after we got him I am fairly happy with these weights. When you factor in the frigid temps we have been having in December and January I guess they are doing really well. Using the table in the chart above the older rams need to have their weights adjusted by a factor of 1.16 since their mom will be two years old this spring and she birthed and is rearing twin rams. That puts their adjusted weights at 40.6 and 30.16 pounds.

But the star of the weigh in was ram 3. He weighed 13 pounds when he was born and now, at 5 days old, weighs 17 pounds.  It really helps to have mom's milk all to yourself! I can't wait to get a 60 day weight on him to compare to the other rams.

First Contact

The old sheep and goats met the new sheep last weekend but I realized I did not put up this post. We still haven't had them in the same pen; I am waiting for a couple weeks after lambing until letting that happen.
But the meeting went well.

 The ram lambs were more interested than the ewes.

It will be interesting to see how Mama (on the left) and Leda (the tallest on the right) get along since they are both leaders of their little flocks.

More Tractor Bay Work

Back to work on the garage tractor bay/shed.  The Tyvek went up.

Alan made a home manufactured main beam from three 2x6s glued and nailed together.

Putting up the main beam went well, except when Alan was banging on the main beam I could see a lot of the block wobbling. I still am not sure how the wall is still standing.

2x4 joists on joist hangers will support an 8 foot wide storage area above the bay.

The back half of the bay is longer than the front half and just a bit over 12 feet.  Alan needed to make a truss design for support so he used bracing which allowed him to span the length he needed.

The plywood rectangles are spaced to accept the knee wall studs to complete the truss.

The Tyvek gets a sheathing of 1/2 inch plywood to protect it from damage from things in the tractor bay and to stiffen the structure. Darkness was coming on so this was as much plywood as could be put up before clean up.

The weather is acting up again and we are supposed to get nearly a foot of snow between tonight (Sunday) and Tuesday afternoon. So Alan had to close up the bay as much as he could and clean up. The garage door is gone so hopefully we won't get too much snow blown into the bay.

Ram 3's Big Day Out

Moose and her lamb, Ram 3, have been doing so well that today I let them out of their separate pen, or lamb jug.  There was a little bit of butting and bleating but everyone did pretty well getting to know each other.

Yes Big Boy you were that little once.

Two month and 3 days old meets 3 days old!

Chloe has still not delivered her lambs yet (I hope she has more than one!)  Sometimes she stands around looking into a corner and I wonder if she is going into labor.

Soon, hopefully soon!