Thursday, July 6

Daily Farm Photo: 7/6/06


I Know, I Know, Two In A Row?
(But this one lets you see her face. It's already
changed so much. Click on photo for larger view. P.S. Cary is two months old today!)

A year of Daily Photos ago:
Misty Morning Sunrise

17 comments:

  1. She's so beautiful! I want a little sheep of my own!

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  2. She's already starting to look like a "grown up" sheep. I've been meaning to ask: Can you house-train a lamb? Or do you just follow her around with paper towels?

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  3. Is there a beauty pageant for sheep? Cary is beautiful and so well behaved. When you call her name, does she come to you?

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  4. It looks like her leg is pretty much back to normal. Is she going to be able to do all the usual sheeply things when she's an adult? And when are sheep adults?

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  5. She's grown into quite a beauty from being quite a cutie!

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  6. I was also wondering if a lamb can be house-trained. How cool to have a little lamb. Cute photos!

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  7. A regular little beauty, she is!

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  8. Hi Sandy,
    Thank you. Yes, having Cary is definitely a neat experience. She's a fair amount of work, and having her with me basically all day, every day requires a bit of schedule re-arranging/pre-planning, etc., but it's all very much worth it. Since I don't have any human children and have practically zero experience with other peoples' babies, this has been a real eye opener! : )

    Hi Tygher Knits,
    Just e-adopt Cary--all the cute and none of the, um, poop!

    Hi Bean,
    Okay, now that several people (including my mother) have asked me about the whole lamb housebreaking/potty training thing, I guess I need to give you all some (hopefully tactful) answers. So here goes.

    I'm sure that someone in history has housebroken a lamb, but I am not that person. We're talking about an animal that comes from a zillion generations of animals that literally do not even think about "going potty." As my fellow shepherd pal, Katherine, (who was one of the people who asked about this) mentioned, her "lambs and sheep poop and pee when they are happy, scared, sad, sleepy, eating, resting, drinking water, standing still...how do you keep Miss Cary from doing that in house? Or not
    Just curious."

    Anyway, it's not as bad as some people are probably now imagining. And, no, I haven't put diapers on Cary, though I know of somebody who did put them on one of their bottle lambs.

    First of all, we spend a lot of time outside.

    Secondly, a vegetarian baby is a lot different than a meat eating baby--let's just say there's a lot less odor involved.

    Third--I can often anticipate when she has to "go," for example after waking up from a nap, so we head outside.

    Fourth--Bean, sometimes I feel like that's just what I do: "follow her around with paper towels." : ) I have been extremely frugal with my use of paper towels for as long as I can remember (I try to make as little garbage as possible.) I am now using up my lifetime allotment of paper towels.

    Fifth--Thank goodness for Nature's Miracle--I buy it by the quart. (The stuff really is miraculous; I've been using it for years and years and highly recommend it.)

    Oh, I forgot to mention that we live in what we lovingly call "The Shack" (e.g. a very old, falling down farmhouse), and it has nice old hardwood floors that are easy to clean and don't mind a few hoof scuff marks. This house is used to being tromped through by people with mucky boots in dirty clothes lugging armfuls of firewood, etc. It's a farm! : )

    Okay, hope that answered your questions without grossing anybody out. Because the truth is--Manure happens! : )

    (Life around here is already kooky and crazy--so bringing a lamb into the living room just doesn't seem like the huge step it probably would to people in a saner--and tidier--environment. : )

    Hi Mary Lou,
    You asked if she comes to me when I call her name. Yes, of course! Every mother has a special name for their lamb, and when they call the lamb, the lamb must come over to her--or at least respond. So (unlike the potty training thing) that task was no trouble at all. Cary has practically known her name from Day One. Now that she's a little older and more opinionated, sometimes it's not a matter of getting her attention, but of convincing her that yes, she does indeed want to come outside with me right now! : )

    Hi B'Gina,
    I think Cary's leg is 100% better, so I don't think she'll have a problem doing any of the "usual sheeply things" (love that phrase, LOL) when she grows up. I was worried that if she couldn't put her full weight on the leg that she could never carry a baby, but I don't think that's going to be a problem. (Though of course I don't want to think about my baby having a baby just yet!)

    When are sheep adults? I would have to go look in a book for an official answer, but I think most sheep are fully grown at about two years of age. A female sheep can become pregnant at well under a year, and a ram can impregnate her at 6 months of age. We'll be picking up our new ram in a month of two for breeding this year, and he was just born at the end of March, 2006. We usually don't breed our ewe lambs until the second year, but we don't separate them out, either, so some of them do have babies when they are just a year old themselves (this is what most people do rather than "waste" a whole year). We have found that it is better for the ewes overall to wait until they are more physically mature, though.

    Hi Nerissa,
    I was thinking along those same lines when I put up this photo, but I didn't come up with the cute rhyme you did. : )

    Hi Flatlander,
    Glad you like the photos. See above for housetraining mini essay. Yep, having Cary is very cool, indeed!

    Hi Kenju,
    Why thank you!

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  9. My goodness she is really growing up. She looks like quite the young lady! Now how are her table manners? Does she do dishes. I know she does lawns and vegetable gardens but can she do other useful things? Cuteness is great but what kind of a wife will she make someday? LOL!

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  10. Gee I'm still on vacation and I can't hear my Cary photo posting alarm go off.

    It looks like she is enter her "teenage" period.

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  11. She's growing into her ears!

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  12. I think she is simply brilliant. Im so glad you went the extra mile with her. What type of lamb is she? Do you raise sheep for fiber or meat?

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  13. oh, thank you for all the answers to things I gotta admit I have wondered about...

    The beautiful Cary is a wonderful treat I look forward to every day.

    New ram? Since you are answering tricky questions (and yes, ma'am, quite tactfaully at that) then what becomes of the quite dashing and handsome Leopold? Does he get to stick around until the new rams ewes are old enough to interest him? I bet he does. Either that or, having read all of your blog, he'll live out his life in just about the best circumstances any sheep could ever hope for.

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  14. Aw I love all your entries about Cary.. You should start a fan club. *sigh* Oh how I wish I lived on a farm..

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  15. When I was growing up, the parents of a student of my Dad's, who lived in Shadyside, a posh Pittsburgh neighborhood, also had a little farm they went to on the weekends. They had their horses there, and a few sheep, which were taken care of by a neighbor farmer, in exchange for him growing his own crops on their land. They went there most every weekend, and invited us once, for a treat,
    The mother of the family, who was a verycountry club sort of lady, liked the sheep particularly. So when the farmer there was not interested in bottle feeding a rejected twin lamb, Mrs. M. took the lamb back to town with her during the week.
    She used to walk her on a leash in on the streets of her fancy neighborhood-where everyone assumed she was a Bedlington (I think that is the name for that kind of dog which is very sheep-ly looking.) Mrs, M. never corrected them, she just enjoyed watching their expressions when Daisy said "baaaaa."
    Daisy wore diapers, because of their fancy rugs.

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  16. She is beautiful!!! I want sheep now, after seeing your pictures and reading your blog!

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  17. Oh! She's a young lady! :-)

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